Abstract Several hybrid neuron models, which combine continuous spike-generation mechanisms and discontinuous resetting process after spiking, have been proposed as a simple transition scheme for membrane potential between spike and hyperpolarization. As one of the hybrid spiking neuron models, Izhikevich neuron model can reproduce major spike patterns observed in the cerebral cortex only by tuning a few parameters and also exhibit chaotic states in specific conditions. However, there are a few studies concerning the chaotic states over a large range of parameters due to the difficulty of dealing with the state dependent jump on the resetting process in this model. In this study, we examine the dependence of the system behavior on the resetting parameters by using Lyapunov exponent with saltation matrix and Poincaré section methods, and classify the routes to chaos.


A methodology is described for detecting and classifying burned forests in Amazonia. Linear mixture models using three image endmembers (vegetation, soil, shade) were used to separate forest from non-forest. Forested areas were unmixed using vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and shade endmembers and reclassified as unburned, recently burned and older burned forests. The NPV fraction provided the greatest separability of the forest classes and has potential for subclassification of burned areas into damage classes. For 184 km2 of burned forest, a conservative estimate of 9% (22 metric tons ha-1) of living biomass was lost due to forest fires between 1991-1993.


In the present paper a sample of patients using psychiatric in‐patient care only is characterized and analysed with regard to characteristics of the psychiatric services. This paper forms part of the Nordic Comparative Study on Sectorized Psychiatry, designed to investigate contact rates and use of psychiatric care by new patients in 7 catchment areas in 4 Nordic countries during a 1‐year follow‐up. One‐year treated incidence cohorts were used. The logistic regression analysis revealed that the variable 'psychiatric service' was one of the statistically significant determinants of using only in‐patient care during the follow‐up. The diagnostic groups with the highest probability of using only in‐patient care were dependencies and functional psychoses. The following factors were associated with a high risk of using only in‐patient care: older age, being referred by another psychiatrist, having received previous psychiatric in‐patient care, male sex, being retired, and not living with one's parents or a partner. Patients who used only inpatient care had fewer admissions and days in in‐patient care than others during the 1‐year follow‐up period. Lack of 24‐hour emergency services in out‐patient care correlated positively with the use of only in‐patient care.


Noise exposure is the second leading cause of acquired sensorineural hearing loss and is one of the most common occupational and environmental hazards. Examining changes in behavioral thresholds has long been the standard for detection and monitoring of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It has been suggested that electrocochleography (ECochG) could be an additional tool for assessing NIHL. Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) provide objective information on the integrity of outer hair cell (OHC) function and have also been suggested for evaluating damage due to noise overexposure. The broad experimental question was: What is the effect of short-term narrowband noise exposure, as a function of ear and gender, on cochlear function as measured with behavioral, ECochG, and OAE indices? In Experiment 1, it was of interest to first examine the reliability of ECochG electrode type (i.e., Lilly-TM Wick vs. TIPtrode[TM]) at two stimulus rates (i.e., 7.7/s vs. 77.7/s). Electrode and rate were statistically significant (p [less than] .001) predictors of SP and AP responses (i.e., responses were more apt to be present when recorded with the wick electrode at the slow rate). Test-retest reliability was examined with correlation coefficients, linear mixed model analyses of variance, test-retest differences, and Bland-Altman plots. There were statistically significant correlations (p [less than] .05) between initial test and retest for all ECochG indices (i.e., summating potential [SP] amplitude, action potential [AP] latency, AP amplitude, SP/AP amplitude ratio, and SP/AP area ratio) when using a Lilly TM-Wick electrode and for all ECochG indices except SP amplitude when testing with a TIPtrode[TM]. Amplitude measures were significantly (p [less than] .01) larger when recording with the wick electrode. SP amplitudes were significantly (p [less than] .05) larger for the faster rate. AP latency was significantly (p [less than] .001) longer for the fast rate. AP amplitudes were significantly (p [less than] .05) larger for the slower rate. Both SP/AP amplitude ratio and SP/AP area ratio were significantly (p [less than] .001) larger for the fast rate. There was no statistically significant effect of test on any ECochG indices (p [less than] .05). In Experiment 2, auditory threshold differences were examined as a function of ear, gender, and frequency. Significantly (p [less than] .0001) larger auditory threshold differences were observed for left ears and for 3000 Hz than 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz or 6000 Hz. Additionally, statistically significant correlations between right ear auditory threshold differences at 3000 Hz and right 2000 Hz pure tone acoustic reflex thresholds (p = .04) as well as between left ear auditory threshold differences at 3000 Hz and left 2000 Hz pure tone acoustic reflex thresholds (p = .03) and 2000 Hz narrowband noise acoustic reflex thresholds (p = .01) were found. Statistically significant main effects of level (p [less than] .0001) and frequency (p [less than] .0001) were observed for DPOAE I/O functions in Experiment 3. DPOAE absolute amplitude differences were largest for the L1, L2 level of 55, 40 dB SPL and smallest for the L1, L2 level of 65, 65 dB SPL. DPOAE absolute amplitude differences were also smallest for the f2 frequency of 2051 Hz. A statistically significant gender by frequency interaction (p [less than] .05) was also identified. Females generally had larger DPOAE absolute amplitude differences than males except at the f2 frequency of 4980 Hz. Finally, Experiment 4 revealed a statistically significant interaction of ear and gender (p [less than] .05) for SP amplitude. SP amplitudes were significantly increased for female left ears following noise exposure while female right ears showed essentially no change. Additionally, left ear SP/AP amplitude ratios and SP/AP area ratios were significantly (p [less than] .05) increased following noise exposure. In summary, due to the excellent test-retest reliability and easier identification of ECochG wave components, Lilly-TM Wick electrodes were deemed superior for recording ECochG. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 revealed that behavioral thresholds, DPOAE I/O functions, and ECochG showed measureable changes following a 2000 Hz narrowband noise exposure.


The present study examined the contribution of energy expenditure to the recovery of body weight after a period of overfeeding. Three groups of 2-mo-old female rats (n = 24) were fed, respectively, a 10% (wt/wt)-fat diet (control), a 35% (wt/wt)-fat diet (high fat) or were force fed 130% of the control diet (tube fed). After 30 days, all groups received the control diet for 18 days of recovery. Both overfeeding protocols significantly increased weight above control levels. This difference disappeared after 7 days of recovery. Increases in resting oxygen consumption, serum 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) levels, and the thermogenic response to norepinephrine were observed at the end of overfeeding. Serum T3 and resting oxygen consumption returned to control levels by day 3 of recovery from overfeeding, whereas the thermogenic response to norepinephrine required 9 days to recover. Whereas total energy expenditure was not significantly elevated during overfeeding, significant increases of 9.6 and 13.9% were observed in the formerly high-fat and tube-fed animals, respectively, during recovery. These data indicate that changes in energy expenditure play an important role in maintaining the stability of body weight.


A 3D computation technology in the form of Virtual Reality enables user to access ancient artifacts and facilitates the feel of presence. Virtual Reality consumes a lot of computing resources. Grid computing can be used to manage the distributed computation resources to perform computational processes Croquet application is used in this work to provide a virtual museum which will store an ancient Java manuscript. Croquet is a virtual machine which can be programmed for a collaborative 3 dimension application. The collaboration in virtual world can be conducted for multi users. In this work, we have created a virtual museum using a 3 dimension processing application support using 3D Studio Max. The Croquet application has been connected to a grid computing based on Globus and JOGL based manuscript system through Virtual Network Computing. A user acceptance test was conducted and the result indicated that the users where satisfied with the application performance, although Croquet is still rarely used despite its usefulness for Virtual Reality. The connection between the VR world and Globus based Grid Computing System for a 3D manuscript has successfully been implemented, despite of the slow processing in the system.


While RNA viruses thrive with massive structural and functional diversity, their genomes size variation is particularly low, ranging only from ~2-to-33 kb. Here, I present the characterization of RNA sequences corresponding to the first virus associated with Aplysia californica. Genome structure and domain architecture suggest that the identified virus is a novel member of Nidovirales. The proposed aplysia californica nido-like virus (AcNV), with a genome sequence of ca.35,906 nt, represents the longest ever recorded RNA virus yet. Phylogenetic insights indicate that AcNV clusters in a major phylloclade of unclassified invertebrate nidoviruses, Roniviridae, and Mesoniviridae. Basal branching in this emerging cluster could indicate that AcNV is a member of a novel divergent clade within Nidovirales. Further, virus RNA detection in multiple independent studies suggests that AcNV is neurotropic with a broad cell/tissue/organ tropism, supported by AcNV occurrence in diverse organs, including the first detection of a Nidovirales in single specific neurons. Highlights -RNA virus genomes reported in the literature are limited at ca. 33.4 kb -A novel nidovirus was identified in the gastropod mollusk Aplysia californica -The aplysia californica nido-like virus (AcNV) presents a 35.9 kb RNA genome -AcNV has a broad tropism, is enriched in the CNS, and accumulates in neurons -The unique features of A. californica enables single-neuron virus dynamics of AcNV


Adult hippocampus is one of the brain structures selectively vulnerable to stress factors. In the hippocampus, stress-induced neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, epileptic activity and disturbances of neurogenesis take place. Stress of different modality specifically affects hippocampal structural and functional plasticity, the primary target of the stress hormones are corticosteroid receptors (glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors). Different parts of the hippocampus along the septo-temporal axis are functionally different. The dorsal hippocampus is in charge for definite forms of learning and memory, primarily spatial, while the ventral part is involved in stress response and anxiety behavior. Differences in basal and stress-induced molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal plasticity underlie this functional differentiation.


Lisa K. Bates: A Housing Submarket Approach to Neighborhood Revitalization Planning: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Justifications (Under the direction of Roberto G. Quercia) Many urban revitalization programs focus policy resources on spatially defined target neighborhoods. The impacts of these programs can include direct effects in the neighborhood chosen for intervention and spillover effects in other neighborhoods. These unintended and sometimes unpredicted effects may be positive or negative. This dissertation argues that without analyzing the urban spatial structure as a set of inter-related housing submarkets, planners will not be able to adequately predict and evaluate the effects of revitalization policy. In doing so, the research investigates the theorized nature of neighborhoods, discussing this socio-cultural geography in light of the theorized nature of the housing market in space. The empirical investigation, a case study of Philadelphia, defines spatial housing submarkets as distinct market segments based on housing quality. These submarkets are compared with first the housing market implied by the theories of Alonso-Mills-Muth and Tiebout, and second with the defined policy neighborhoods. The city and metropolitan area of Philadelphia are found to be highly heterogeneous in housing types, with no uniform pattern predicted by theory. Additionally, policy target neighborhoods are often comprised of different submarkets, leading to confusion in policy targeting. This research suggests that urban planners should consider the geography of housing submarkets in developing revitalization policies in order to choose appropriate geographic targets and to predict the spatial extent of market responses.


We first consider a question raised by Alexander Eremenko and show that if $\Omega $ is an arbitrary connected open cone in ${\mathbb R}^d$, then any two positive harmonic functions in $\Omega $ that vanish on $\partial \Omega $ must be proportional -an already known fact when $\Omega $ has a Lipschitz basis or more generally a John basis. It is also shown however that when $d \geq 4$, there can be more than one Martin point at infinity for the cone though non-tangential convergence to the canonical Martin point at infinity always holds. In contrast, when $d \leq 3$, the Martin point at infinity is unique for every cone. These properties connected with the dimension are related to well-known results of M. Cranston and T. R. McConnell about the lifetime of conditioned Brownian motions in planar domains and also to subsequent results by R. Ba\~nuelos and B. Davis. We also investigate the nature of the Martin points arising at infinity as well as the effects on the Martin boundary resulting from the existence of John cuts in the basis of the cone or from other regularity assumptions. The main results together with their proofs extend to cylinders ${\mathcal C}_Y(\Sigma)= {\mathbb R} \times \Sigma$ -where $\Sigma $ is a relatively compact region of a manifold $M$-, equipped with a suitable second order elliptic operator.


Summary A significant number of people in the UK experience chronic pain, resulting in high levels of suffering and reduced quality of life. Management of chronic pain is complex, time consuming and not always successful. Good communication between patients and healthcare professionals is essential to ensure realistic treatment plans and outcomes can be negotiated. Accurate assessment is also key, and nurses play a fundamental role in ensuring patients with chronic pain receive the most appropriate care. Authors


References http://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/2/8/a001776.full.html#ref-list-1 This article cites 126 articles, 26 of which can be accessed free service Email alerting click here box at the top right corner of the article or Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the Subject collections (17 articles) Neuronal Guidance  • Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections


Author(s): Raghavan, Sridharan | Advisor(s): Cox, Jeffery S | Abstract: Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of tuberculosis, a primarily pulmonary disease that is responsible for approximately one million deaths annually. M. tuberculosis is exquisitely adapted to survival within the eukaryotic host and is capable of persisting in a latent state for decades after infection. The ability of M. tuberculosis to evade and manipulate the host immune response is believed to contribute to its survival for such long periods of time after initial infection. My thesis work has focused on the bacterial mechanisms, particularly an alternate protein secretion system, underlying the modulation of macrophage cytokine production by M. tuberculosis.In this work, I first describe the results of a genetic screen to identify bacterial genes required for the suppression of macrophage cytokine production. This work revealed that two major virulence determinants in M. tuberculosis, the ESX-1 secretion system and the pathogenic lipid phthiocerol dimycocerosate, are critical to modulation of macrophage innate immune responses. I further characterize the macrophage signaling pathways that are targeted for manipulation by the ESX-1 system and identify a small subset of macrophage genes regulated by bacterial infection that are specifically modulated by the ESX-1 pathway. Many of the genes identified in this work do not have previously described functions in the immune system, suggesting novel avenues for study of bacterial pathogenesis and the resistance to M. tuberculosis infection.In the second part of this work, I describe the characterization of a novel member of the ESX-1 protein secretion pathway, Rv3849. Through a number of complementary approaches, I demonstrate that Rv3849 is a transcriptional activator of an operon required for function of the ESX-1 pathway. Furthermore, I show that Rv3849 is itself a secreted substrate of the ESX-1 system. I propose and provide data supporting a model in which Rv3849 transcriptionally activates ESX-1 secretion in response to intracellular cues and then is exported through the ESX-1 pathway as a form of negative feedback. The identification of a regulator of ESX-1 secretion and characterization of its activity is an important step forward in understanding a critical element in the interaction between M. tuberculosis and the host.


Methyl Cellulose (MC) is a kind of water-solubility and non-ionic cellulose ethers, which has been used widely. Currently, the small bulk density and the slowly dissolving velocity are the main deficiencies of Methyl Cellulose. These two deficiencies of Methyl Cellulose can not meet the need of efficient working. The way of improving the fluidity and dissolution deficiency may be to increase bulk density and granulation. Current granulation method of Methyl Cellulose is logical but with low efficiency and high cost .So, it is necessary to develop a new technology to produce Methyl Cellulose grain with high bulk density and good dissolution. Based on the theoretical analysis, we develop a new manufacturing technique using co-rotating twin-screw extrude as a main device,together with other auxiliary equipments according to reasonable technical process. Through measuring the bulk specific weight of Methyl Cellulose, its solubility and luminousness in water, the optimum of the experiment is estimated .The preferable optimum condition parameters of increasing bulk density and granulation are that moisture content is 40-60 percent, temperature is 30-50°C, with intense mixing and extruding. Through increasing granulation, the bulk density is as twice as that of before, at the same time, the dissolution improves remarkably.


Robots exhibit life-like behavior by performing intelligent actions. To enhance human-robot interaction it is necessary to investigate and understand how end-users perceive such animate behavior. In this paper, we report an experiment to investigate how people perceived different robot embodiments in terms of animacy and intelligence. iCat and Robovie II were used as the two embodiments in this experiment. We conducted a between-subject experiment where robot type was the independent variable, and perceived animacy and intelligence of the robot were the dependent variables. Our findings suggest that a robots perceived intelligence is significantly correlated with animacy. The correlation between the intelligence and the animacy of a robot was observed to be stronger in the case of the iCat embodiment. Our results also indicate that the more animated the face of the robot, the more likely it is to attract the attention of a user. We also discuss the possible and probable explanations of the results obtained.


AIM
To analyse data of the preoperative examination of patients and histomorphological examination of prostatectomy samples to determine parameters allowing staging prostatic cancer (PC).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
27 patients with staged clinically diagnosed PC have undergone radical prostatectomy with histomorphological examination of the intraoperative samples of the prostate.

RESULTS
The preoperative evaluation of PC has revealed no cases with Glisson's scale (GS) score under 5. Only 8.7% of the tumors were well differentiated, of them 28.3% had the score 7 and higher. 85% of the cases were moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas with the score 5 to 7. 33.3% patients had cancer diagnosed by prostatic biopsy (T1c). Nearly 48% had the tumor T2b, T2c. Histomorphologically, 50.7% of tumors were advanced. A high PSA level, a high score by Glisson and a clinical stage of the tumor at least T2b indicated high probability of extracapsular spread and of metastases to the lymph nodes each. The Glisson's score was higher at analysis of prostatectomy samples than prostatic biopsy in 10 (37%) cases while it was lower only in 2 (7.4%) cases. In 5 (18.5%) patients the difference made up 2 and more scores by Glisson.

CONCLUSION
Thin needle biopsy examinations underestimate PC stage. To stage and predict the disease course precisely it is necessary to make a multifactor analysis.


indicating that the rod was not actually present. Serum levels in the third case confirmed presence of the device, but we were unable to locate it. In our series ultrasound provided a 97% positive predictive value and a 66.6% negative predictive value in the detection of an impalpable, but truly present, Implanon rod. Conclusion: Ultrasound is an important modality in the localization and removal of impalpable, but present, Implanon rods. A serum etonorgestrel should be performed in the circumstance of an impalpable rod and a negative ultrasound, as the device may not actually be present.


In this paper we prove the existence of a simultaneous local normalization for couples $(X,\mathcal{G})$, where $X$ is a vector field which vanishes at a point and $\mathcal{G}$ is a singular underlying geometric structure which is invariant with respect to $X$, in many different cases: singular volume forms, singular symplectic and Poisson structures, and singular contact structures. Similarly to Birkhoff normalization for Hamiltonian vector fields, our normalization is also only formal, in general. However, when $\mathcal{G}$ and $X$ are (real or complex) analytic and $X$ is analytically integrable or Darboux-integrable then our simultaneous normalization is also analytic. Our proofs are based on the toric approach to normalization of dynamical systems, the toric conservation law, and the equivariant path method. We also consider the case when $\mathcal{G}$ is singular but $X$ does not vanish at the origin.


Abstract The Nonhuman Primate Models of Menopause Workshop was held on the National Institutes of Health campus in January 2001. The purpose of this workshop, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, was to review what is known about the female reproductive aging process in various species of monkeys (particularly rhesus, baboons, cynomolgus, and chimpanzees), including hormone profiles during the menopausal transition, occurrence of hot flashes, extent of age-related and menopause-associated changes in hormone levels on metabolism, bone loss, and impaired cardiovascular and cognitive function. Many aspects of the female reproductive aging process appear to be concordant between humans and these monkey species, but several important features may be species-specific. Those features that appear to parallel human menopause and aging include general similarity of hormone profiles across the menopausal transition, progression to cycle termination through irregular cycles, declining fertility with age, age-related gains in weight and percentage body fat content (with tendencies toward insulin resistance and glucose intolerance), increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, declines in serum dehydroepiandrosterone, similarities in temperature-regulation systems, protective responses to estrogen replacement following ovariectomy in terms of bone metabolism, lipid profiles, and cognitive changes. Important differences include relatively short postmenopausal life span, timing in menopause-related changes in hormone secretion, and seasonal menstrual cycles. In addition, the question of whether ovariectomy in young adults is an appropriate model for the consequences of natural or surgical menopause in middle-aged and older adults is unresolved, and the numbers of older female animals available for research on menopause are very limited. The use of animal models is seen by workshop participants to be crucial for a mechanistic understanding of the human menopausal process and its connections to postmenopausal health problems; however, extensive in-depth and broad-based research is required to determine if nonhuman primates are appropriate models of human menopause.


Novel strategies for overcoming multidrug resistance are urgently needed to improve chemotherapy success and reduce side effects. Ginsenosides, the main active components of Panax ginseng, display anti-cancer properties and reverse drug resistance; however, the biological pathways mediating this phenomenon remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-cancer effects of ginsenoside Rp1, actinomycin D (ActD), and their co-administration in drug-resistant cells and murine xenograft model of colon cancer, and explore the underlying mechanisms. ActD increased expression and activity of SIRT1 in drug-resistant LS513 colon cancer, OVCAR8-DXR ovarian cancer, and A549-DXR lung cancer cells, but not in ActD-sensitive SW620 colon cancer cells. Inhibition of SIRT1, either pharmacologically, with EX527 or through siRNA, stimulated p53 acetylation and apoptosis in LS513 cells when treated with ActD. ActD also increased AKT activation in drug-resistant cells. Inhibition of AKT abrogated ActD-induced upregulation of SIRT1, suggesting that the AKT-SIRT1 pathway is important in ActD resistance. Rp1 inhibited both ActD-induced AKT activation and SIRT1 upregulation and re-sensitized the cells to ActD. Synergistic antitumor effects of Rp1 with ActD were also observed in vivo. Our results suggest that combining Rp1 with chemotherapeutic agents could circumvent drug resistance and improve treatment efficacy.


The inflammatory arthropathies that affect the eye most commonly are RA, JRA, and the seronegative spondyloarthropathies. These conditions not only cause devastating systemic findings but can be the source of damaging ocular disease. The inflammatory nature of these entities, with the accompanying liberation of mediators of inflammation, can result in a cycle of tissue destruction that culminates in blindness. The diseases reviewed can present first with systemic or ocular findings; thus, all physicians must be equipped with the appropriate knowledge to make accurate and timely diagnoses so that appropriate management strategies can be employed. The successful recognition and treatment of these conditions can prevent their associated systemic and ocular morbidity.


Previous research has shown that Canadian municipalities have lower visible minority proportionality rates among elected officials than other levels of government. To understand why, six visible minority city councillors and candidates from Toronto and Vancouver were interviewed. Respondents contributed their personal experiences and perspectives on issues of mirror, symbolic, and substantive representation of visible minorities. They discussed their initial involvement or interest in elite politics, their role models, and their understanding of the term "visible minority." A broad narrative describes the complexities of political representation in practice and revealed that there were fewer entry points into elite municipal politics for individuals from marginalized groups. These entry points are further obscured by systemic barriers. Barriers were common for both cities despite differences in electoral systems and council structure. This paper recommends reimagining the "visible minority" categorization, and a policy framework that promotes the democratic ideal through institutional evaluations and acclaim for advancements.


During the past ten years several variants of an analysis technique called program slicing have been developed. Program slicing has applications in maintenance tasks such as debugging, testing, program integration, program verification, etc. and can be characterized as a type of dependence analysis. A program slice can loosely be defined as the subset of a program needed to compute a certain variable value at a certain program position. A novel method for interprocedural dynamic slicing which is more precise than interprocedural static slicing methods and is useful for dependence analysis at the procedural abstraction level was given by M. Kamkar et al. (1992, 1993). It is demonstrated here how interprocedural dynamic slicing can be used to increase the reliability and precision of interprocedural data flow testing. The work on data flow testing reported by E. Duesterwald et al. (1992), which is a novel method for data flow testing through output influences, is generalized.<<ETX>>


Using Dual-Frequency Identification Sonar (DIDSON), fishery acoustic observation data was collected from the Ocqueoc River, a tributary of Lake Huron in northern Michigan, USA. Data were collected March through July 2013 and 2016 and included the identification, via technology or expert analysis, of eight fish species as they passed through the DIDSON's field of view. A set of short DIDSON clips containing identified fish was curated. Additionally, two other datasets were created that include visualizations of the acoustic data and longer DIDSON clips. These datasets could complement future research characterizing the abundance and behavior of valued fishes such as walleye (Sander vitreus) or white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) or invasive fishes such as sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) or European carp (Cyprinus carpio). Given the abundance of DIDSON data and the fact that a portion of it is labeled, these data could aid in the creation of machine learning tools from DIDSON data, particularly for invasive sea lamprey which are amply represented and a destructive invader of the Laurentian Great Lakes.


A course in the study of interpersonal behavior in small groups, including
laboratory experience, with particular emphasis on the social and psychological
aspects of verbal and nonverbal communication.


Objective: To test the hypothesis, that the unenhanced 3D 'thick slice' rendering (TSR) of the uterus in cases of suspected uterine anomalies is sufficient to make a clinical diagnosis without the need for saline infusion sonohysterography (SIS). Methods: We performed 3D ultrasound (3DUS) of 28 patients who consecutively presented to our lab with the indication of suspected uterine anomalies or which at time of a 2 dimensional ultrasound (2DUS) performed for a different indication appeared to have a uterine malformation. The Voluson 730 Expert system (GE-Kretztechnik) was used to scan all patients. If needed or if the referring MD asked specifically for a SIS, that was performed as a second step after the unenhanced volume was obtained. The 3D volumes were first analyzed using the 3D TSR mode at the time of the acquisition and/or offline using the 4D-View laptop software of the same company. The 3D volumes containing the information provided by the SIS were examined afterwards. The coronal plane of the uterus (fundus, cavity and cervix) was sought. Results: Four of the 28 patients had no uterine anomaly. The rest of the 24 patients had a range of uterine anomalies. In all cases the unenhanced volume, using the TSR was able to yield the shape of the fundus, the cavity and the cervical needed to establish the diagnosis. The TSR showed a better image on the coronal plane when the patient was in the late secretory phase, enhancing the 'natural contrast' of the hyperechoic endometrium. Conclusion: 3D TSR as a first line modality is simple and is sufficient to enable the analysis of uteri suspected of malformations without the need of saline infusion sonohysterography, especially if the patient is in the secretory phase of the cycle.


Our paper empirically evaluates the magnitude of the disparities across European countries and regions in the demand for redistribution in the 2000's. We identify which are the individual characteristics and the contextual variables, at country and also at regional level, that contribute the most in predicting the observed different support for redistribution. Demand for redistribution is modelled in a multilevel framework that provides a natural and suitable model for accounting different levels of variation, at individual level, at regional level and at country level, simultaneously.


Gregory P. Marchildon and Renee Torgerson. Nunavut: A Health System Profile. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013. [ISBN: 9780773541481]

Based on extensive research, including visits to most health centres and facilities in Nunavut, Gregory P. Marchildon and Renee Torgerson have produced a comprehensive review of healthcare in Canada's newest territory. Nunavut: A Health System Profile provides an in-depth examination of population health and healthcare in the territory. Little more than a decade old, Nunavut has a population that consists of 30,000 residents living in 25 widely dispersed communities. No roads connect the territory's isolated populations and nearly all supplies and equipment are transported by air. Consequently, health service delivery in Nunavut is the costliest in Canada and its operation encounters challenges more extreme than those faced elsewhere. Marchildon and Torgerson consider the historical and demographic context of healthcare in Nunavut, as well as the finances, governance, infrastructure, workforce and programme provisions that define the system. Due to a high incidence of suicide and the psychological upheaval associated with rapid societal change, the authors call particular attention to the treatment of mental health and addictions. Filling a gap in our understanding of one of Canada's most important and expensive social policies, Nunavut: A Health System Profile provides the first comprehensive review of the health system in Nunavut and the distinct health issues the territory faces.

Order at: http://www.mqup.ca/nunavut-products-9780773541474.php?page_id=73&#!prettyPhoto


This book presents a unique view of the key issues for adopting BIM in construction projects from a pragmatic perspective. It provides an overview of the core ideas and issues distilled from various guidance documents and by dealing with the more mundane practical issues, facilitates an understanding of the more complex and important issues of processes, standards and protocols that need to be in place for the successful adoption of BIM in construction projects. In so doing, it provides reader-friendly guidance to enable the engineer or student to fully understand the implications of the process and to facilitate the application of the principles and techniques in real scenarios.

 The author presents a balanced approach combining sufficient background theory and practical ideas to ensure the book is applicable and relevant to practising engineers, architects, contractors and client organisations. It will serve as a key introduction for students. The appendices provide practical advice and material for BIM projects, dealing with issues such as compliance, project implementation plans and learning outcomes. Although much of the topic emanates from the UK, it is equally applicable in any country where best practice is desired.


The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness with user acceptance of the implementation of iP timetrack in the organization. Furthermore, it is also important to the researcher to examine if there is any difference in terms of user acceptance of the system between executive and non executive. Dependent variable in this research is user acceptance of iP timetrack at Petronas CariGali Sdn Bhd while independent variables are perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Actually, both independent variables are arising from Technology Acceptance Model. Davis is a person who is responsible to create Technology Acceptance Model in 1989. A survey questionnaire was used for data collection. Besides, an informal interview with selected respondents was conducted to get additional information regarding iP timetrack system. Total of respondents involved in the research were 50 and the respondents came from non technical department which mean not involved directly with the production of oil and gas such as administration, supply chain management, human resource management and finance and accounting department. The results from the survey were recorded by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 14.0 software. The researcher was used frequency distribution, reliability analysis, t-test, and Spearman correlation to test all data from the questionnaire.
All results and analysis with an interpretation was been explain in chapter finding and analysis.


Although Marcus Junius Brutus is one of the most famous, or infamous, conspirators of Rome and the ancient world, if not of all time, knowledge of this historical figure has principally been passed to the modern world through the literary medium of Shakespeare's tragedy, Julius Caesar. Furthermore, any interest in Brutus has tended to focus only on events surrounding his most legendary act, Caesar's murder. This biography instead considers Brutus in his historical context, gathering details from ancient evidence and piecing together, as far as possible, his whole life.
While his actions played a pivotal role in Roman history, ultimately, although completely unintentionally, bringing about the downfall of the Roman republic, Brutus has often been neglected. Indeed, he has rarely been considered on his own merits, instead featuring as part of the biographies and studies of other leading political figures of the time, especially those of Julius Caesar, Cicero and Octavian.
As the first dedicated biography in over 30 years, this full and balanced reconsideration of this significant Roman republican is long overdue.


Many benefits will accrue from the advances being made in mass storage technology, particularly in the optical arena. The high capacity and low cost per unit of data stored make optical media an effective storage solution. Accountants need to be aware of the implications of this technolog on the accounting profession as well as on the delivery of services. Ever-increasing volumes of data must be stored and retrieved. Once measured by the number of punched cards in a file, today's data are sometimes measured in trillions of bytes. Rapid storage, retrieval and access to large volumes of information have become central concerns to management, users and information systems managers in all sizes of firms. OPTICAL STORAGE MEDIA Data storage media have evolved from punched cards, punched paper tapes, magnetic drums, magnetic tapes and disks to today's technology--optical storage. Adoption of this technology is expected to increase dramatically as standards are resolved, new applications are developed and the price/performance ratio of the media continues to improve. An optical disk provides greater storage capacities than do magnetic tapes or disks. Optical disks are available in 5 1/4-, 12-, and 14-inch formats. Storage capacities range from 115 million bytes or megabytes (megs) to over 700 megs of digital data per side. Optical disks such as write once, read many (WORM) drives and erasable optical disks are portable and could somebday displace magnetic tape due to their greater storage capacities, smaller space requirements, removability, transportability and longer guaranteed media life. Examples of some of the more commonly used optical technologies follow. * CD-ROM (compact disk--read only memory). CD-ROM is the medium of the publishing industry for the recording of reference data on disks. Data once written to disk by the publisher cannot be erased or overwritten but can be read many times. CD-ROMs currently have a storage capacity of up to 650 megs. Their read-only characteristic provides security for publishers of distributed information. CD-ROMs often are used in the distribution of reference data that changes infrequently. Growing numbers of catalogs, specialized databases, digitized data and software programs are being delivered on CD-ROM as personal computer users realize the advantages of having megs of data that can be accessed randomly and loaded into the computer within seconds. According to Dataquest Inc. (San Jose, California), more than 1,300,000 CD-ROMs will be delivered during 1991. * WORM disks. WORM drives offer more flexibility than the CD-ROM devices because users are capable of writing data while online to the computer. In addition to keyboard input, information from video scanners, optical character recognition equipment and other devices also can be recorded on disk. Data on WORM disks cannot be erased, making them ideal for a variety of applications requiring audit trails, such as in CAD/CAM (computer-aided design--computer-aided manufacturing), program development and financial and business applications. WORM disks have the potential for replacing other methods of mass storage such as microfiche, microfilm and tape. WORM technology takes an image of documents and allows for random access retrieval of data. WORM drives are gaining popularity among data-intensive applications such as graphics and imaging systems. For these applications storage capacity, permanence of data and media removability are important considerations. * Erasable optical disks. Some view this relative newcomer in optical storage as the ultimate in mass storage technology since erasable optical disks combine the storage capacities of optical technology with the reusability of magnetic storage. High-volume data users increasingly will find erasable optical disks an acceptable alternative to large magnetic storage devices. …


Background— Recent work has revealed an essential involvement of soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) in inflammation and atherosclerosis. We investigated whether sCD40L functionally affects peripheral blood–derived angiogenic early outgrowth cells (EOCs) and neointimal remodeling after arterial injury. Methods and Results— Besides myeloid and endothelial markers, cultured human EOCs strongly expressed CD40 mRNA and protein. EOC adhesion to fibronectin, fibrinogen, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 under flow conditions, as well as their transmigration toward stromal cell–derived factor-1&agr;, was dose-dependently reduced after preincubation with recombinant human sCD40L for 24 hours. Integrin expression was unaffected by sCD40L, implying that integrin adhesiveness was attenuated. Surface-immobilized CD40L supported much lower adhesion of EOCs than fibronectin. Treatment of EOCs with sCD40L increased superoxide anion production and decreased viability and proliferation. Notably, CD40−/− mice displayed reduced neointima and improved re-endothelialization after carotid wire injury compared with wild-type mice, and therapeutic infusion of control EOCs but not EOCs pretreated with sCD40L attenuated neointimal growth after wire injury in nude mice. Furthermore, neointimal growth was more markedly diminished by infusion of spleen-derived CD40−/− mouse EOCs than by that of wild-type EOCs. Preincubation of wild-type EOCs but not CD40−/− EOCs with sCD40L before their infusion markedly aggravated neointimal formation. Treatment with sCD40L attenuated luminal incorporation of EOCs and accelerated neointimal progression. Conclusions— Endothelial dysfunction due to persistently elevated plasma levels of sCD40L may be attributable to an impairment of EOC function. Hence, in the context of arterial injury, therapeutic blockade of sCD40L may provide a novel strategy for accelerating endothelial regeneration and attenuating neointimal remodeling.


Although there have been few direct observations, the etiology of spontaneous hyphema in patients with retinal or ocular hypoxia is assumed to be hemorrhage from a neovascular iris vessel. This paper reports observed hemorrhage from such a rubeotic iris in a patient with central retinal vein occlusion, diabetes, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease and chronic open-angle glaucoma. Bleeding was spontaneous with dilation, but stopped within 24 hours without treatment, leaving only traces of inferior angle blood staining. The two types of central retinal vein occlusion, and suggestions for their management, are also discussed.


Motivation: De novo motif discovery algorithms find statistically over-represented sequence motifs that may function as transcription factor binding sites. Current methods often report large numbers of motifs, making it difficult to perform further analyses and experimental validation. The motif selection problem seeks to identify a minimal set of putative regulatory motifs that characterize sequences of interest (e.g. ChIP-Seq binding regions). Results: In this study, the motif selection problem is mapped to variants of the set cover problem that are solved via tabu search and by relaxed integer linear programing (RILP). The algorithms are employed to analyze 349 ChIP-Seq experiments from the ENCODE project, yielding a small number of high-quality motifs that represent putative binding sites of primary factors and cofactors. Specifically, when compared with the motifs reported by Kheradpour and Kellis, the set cover-based algorithms produced motif sets covering 35% more peaks for 11 TFs and identified 4 more putative cofactors for 6 TFs. Moreover, a systematic evaluation using nested cross-validation revealed that the RILP algorithm selected fewer motifs and was able to cover 6% more peaks and 3% fewer background regions, which reduced the error rate by 7%. Availability and implementation: The source code of the algorithms and all the datasets are available at https:// github.com/YichaoOU/Set_cover_tools. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


: Agitated patients may come to the emergency department because of flares of a psychiatric illness, drug withdrawal, or reaction to a medical condition or trauma. Pharmacologic agents such as lorazepam may offer benefits to these patients, regardless of the cause of their symptoms. It is important to be familiar with the dosage, administration, and onset of effects of the commonly used agents. The emergency nurse should be aware that akathisia in a patient receiving an antipsychotic medication is not agitation and should not be treated with a higher dose of an antipsychotic drug. The nurse needs to be able to recognize other adverse effects (e.g., acute dystonic reactions), reassure the patient, and administer the treatment to relieve the adverse effect. If the patient's chart from a previous ED visit is readily available, it is a good idea to identify the drug treatment that was successful in the past. The same drug at the same dosage is likely to be effective again. For patients discharged home, it is important to ensure that these patients will be able to obtain the necessary maintenance medication and that they have a follow-up visit planned before they leave the emergency department.


In most general terms, this study aimed to determine the impacts of the capacity building assistance and interventions of SEARCA in the region. Since it was founded in 1967, SEARCA has graduated close to 1,2001 students and participants who have pursued graduate studies; and more than 13,000 who have completed short term training programs and research grants. In spite of its well-meaning and purposeful initiatives, SEARCA needs to ascertain its contribution to capacity development for agricultural and rural development in the region. For instance, where have the graduate scholars of SEARCA gone? What have been their contributions to development, in general – and to agricultural and rural development, in particular? Said contributions can be seen at three levels: at the policy, organizational, and individual levels. The study has shown that many of the SEARCA graduates have indeed contributed to the development and improvement of agricultural and rural development. These can come in the form of having been appointed to influential (though not necessarily visible) positions in the agriculture sector, in the government, in the academe, or in the private sector. These can be in the form of carrying out original research that continues to push the frontier of knowledge for agricultural development and/or in the form of crafting policies on agriculture that have influenced the agriculture and related sectors at the micro- or macrolevels. Said contributions may have merited the SEARCA graduates awards and recognition by local and international bodies or organizations. All told, these accomplishments and achievements would not have been attained without the moral, financial, and professional support received by the graduates. The study also identifies potential future directions of research specifically towards developing leaders in agricultural and rural development. This includes the design and development of a module that would highlight the unique ethos and culture of a SEARCA alumnus. After all, the capacity building interventions of SEARCA have resulted in the emergence of leaders in agricultural and rural development in the region. It is within this context that the impact of SEARCA was examined by this study.


Under the STORMTOOLS initiative, maps of the impact of sea level rise (SLR) (0 to 12 ft), nuisance flooding (1–10 yr), 25, 50, and 100 yr storms, and hindcasts of the four top ranked tropical storms have been developed for the coastal waters of Rhode Island (RI). Estimates of the design elevations, expressed in terms of the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) and thus incorporating surge and associated wave conditions, have also been developed, including the effects of SLR to facilitate structural design. Finally, Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI) maps have been developed to estimate the risk to individual structures and infrastructure. CERI employs the BFE maps in concert with damage curves for residential and commercial structures to make estimates of damage to individual structures. All maps are available via an ArcGIS Hub. The objective of this senior design capstone project was to develop STORMTOOLS Design Load maps (SDL) with a goal of estimating the hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, wave, and debris loading, based on ASCE/SEI 7–16 Minimum Design Standards methods, on residential structures in the RI coastal floodplain. The resulting maps display the unitized loads and thus can be scaled for any structure of interest. The goal of the maps is to provide environmental loads that support the design of structures, and reduce the time and cost required in performing the design and the permitting process, while also improving the accuracy and consistency of the designs. SDL maps were generated for all loads, including the effects of SLR for a test case: the Watch Hill/Misquamicut Beach, Westerly, along the southern RI coast. The Autodesk Professional Robot Structural Analysis software, along with SDL loading, was used to evaluate the designs for selected on-grade and pile-elevated residential structures. Damage curves were generated for each and shown to be consistent with the US Army Corps of Engineers empirical damage curves currently used in CERI.


The rise of "fake news" has become a major concern for social media platforms. In response, Facebook has proposed and tested the idea of users flagging and rating news articles and sources, much akin to how consumers rate products and services on the Internet. One obvious challenge with this crowdsourced rating approach is whether the users really know enough to rate news articles and sources. Perhaps, a side benefit of asking users to evaluate an article—and asking about their personal experience with the event described in the article—is making them realize that they do not know enough about the event to make an accurate judgment, thus pushing them to become more skeptical. We asked 68 social media users to assess the believability of 42 social media headlines. We found that, while users were generally more likely to believe articles that agreed with their point of view, asking users to rate pushed them to think more critically about the truthfulness of the articles. Moreover, once users had been asked to rate some articles, they remained critical of other articles as well, even without the rating prompt. Overall, our findings suggest that asking users to evaluate the truthfulness of articles may not only produce rating information that can be a useful reference at a later point in time but also have an immediate benefit of alerting users to think more critically about all articles they see.


The goal of this paper is to carefully assess the international standards of labour and the effects of the rise in labour market inequality specifically in Canada while also looking at what is going on in China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as case studies. By analyzing empirical and qualitative data, this paper ultimately concludes that the dominant explanation and interpretation of related literature in this subject depicts a broad sense of injustice to migrant workers who are only increasing internationally. These migrant workers face countless hardships while only pursuing jobs in foreign countries in the attempts of going beyond the conditions offered in their home countries. However, instead of their situations getting better, it seemingly is only getting worse when they arrive in these new countries to begin work because of the temperament, the lack of and the violation of fundamental employment rights. The academic research covered in this paper also highlights the skill paradox in the Canadian labour market. To better explain, this paper also attempts to unpack the systemic patterns of differential social structure such as citizenship status, gender, and much more that exist to exhibit how migrant workers face more hardships in the labour market when compared to their Canadian-born citizen counterparts. The central argument in the paper recognizes that as a matter of fact, Canada is not meeting international standards on employment rights for migrant workers and outlines how the government has been severely negligent of migrants' economic, human and social rights. This paper will also make some recommendations on what governments around the world can do to support migrants better and attempt a critical appraisal of the different approaches of scholars within the field.


The cerebellum is involved in the control of motor functions with Purkinje cells serving as the only output from the cerebellum. Purkinje cells are important targets for toxic substances and are vulnerable to prenatal insults. Intrauterine infection (IUI) has been shown to selectively target the developing cerebral white matter through lesioning, necrosis and inflammatory cytokine activation. Developmental and cognitive delays have been associated with animal models of IUI. The aim of this study was to determine if IUI leads to damage to Purkinje cells in the developing cerebellum and if any damage is associated with decreases in calbindin and motor behaviors in surviving pups. Pregnant rats were injected with Escherichia coli (1 × 105 colony-forming units) or sterile saline at gestational day 17. Beginning at postnatal day (PND) 2, the pups were subjected to a series of developmental tests to examine developmental milestones. At PND 16, some pups were sacrificed and their brains extracted and processed for histology or protein studies. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was done to examine the general morphology of the Purkinje cells and to examine Purkinje cell density, area and volume. Calbindin expression was examined in the cerebellum via immunohistochemistry and Western blot techniques. The remaining rat pups were used to examine motor coordination and balance on a rotating rotarod at the prepubertal and adult ages. Prenatal E. coli injection did not significantly change birth weight or delivery time, but did delay surface righting and negative geotaxis in pups. Pups in the E. coli group also had a decrease in the number of Purkinje cells, as well as a decrease in Purkinje cell density and volume. HE staining demonstrated a change in Purkinje cell morphology. Calbindin expression was decreased in rats from the E. coli group as well. Locomotor tests indicated that while there were no significant changes in gross motor activity, motor coordination and balance was impaired in both prepubertal and adult rats from the E. coli group. In this model of IUI, we observed changes in Purkinje cell development which were associated with alterations in cerebellum-dependent motor behaviors. The decreases in calbindin and Purkinje cells were associated with developmental delays. These data further support the importance of IUI in brain development.


Changing economic production processes have opened up new locational demands for firms and have led to an increasingly diverse firm population displaying fragmented location patterns. This research focuses on those spatial configurations that fit the current economic fragmentation and changing location decisions. It does so by studying the factors that influence the location behaviour of firms in urban residential neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. The thesis connects the neighbourhood economy with the increasingly flexible and mobile ways entrepreneurs go about their business. The thesis is the first to thoroughly address the role of real estate characteristics in the (re)location choices of these neighbourhood firms. First, the research demonstrates that the type of economic zoning in the local land-use plan can be linked to the location pattern of local firms. Our analyses showed that a more lenient regulatory framework was related to a higher amount of and potential for local economic activities. Second, the research demonstrates that the structure of the neighbourhood housing stock can be linked to the location pattern of local firms. We showed that real estate factors such as property ownership, size and age play an important role in explaining the relocation likelihood of firms. These real estate factors are not generally accounted for in research on the revealed relocation decisions of firms, but deserve a place of their own alongside the more often controlled for factors such as firm sector and size. Overall, the results show that real estate and neighbourhood characteristics are related to the general (re)location behaviour of firms. However, such general tendencies are only a minor part of the story. Along with the fact that there is heterogeneity among urban residential neighbourhoods, these areas also house a very heterogeneous firm population displaying different locational behaviours. When studying the location behaviour of firms in urban residential neighbourhood, this research indicates that it is necessary to differentiate between firms housed in residential properties (Home Based Bussinesses (HBBs)) opposed to Firms located in Commercial Properties (FCPs). First, with an average yearly relocation probability of 7.1%, HBBs are more mobile than FCPs, of which 3.7% relocated on an annual basis. Second, when differentiating between HBBs and FCPs, we noted that these two groups of firms occasionally valued location factors in opposing ways. Not differentiating between firms in commercial and residential properties would nullify these interaction effects. Third, while firms in commercial properties largely confined to the more classical economic location factors, HBB relocations are motivated by different types of factors. For home based-based businesses, the incorporation of work-lifestyle characteristics, rather than the explanatory variables more commonly used in locational analysis, seems to provide an explanation. Ultimately, we advocate that these increasingly fragmented locational behaviours of firms deserve greater attention in locational analyses and firm location theory. With regard local economic policies aimed at creating a desirable local business climate the results suggest that place-based policies can be considered an effective tool in attracting firms that want to relocate to commercial properties. Real estate-based policies and flexibility in land-use zoning can be attractive policy initiatives for facilitating both the commercial and residential property based firms. Overall, these policy initiatives should reiterate the current economic profile of the neighbourhood and fit the local economic context.


BACKGROUND
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been found to be important in energy homeostasis in animal models, but little is known about its role in energy balance in humans. Heterozygous, variably sized, contiguous gene deletions causing haploinsufficiency of the WT1 and PAX6 genes on chromosome 11p13, approximately 4 Mb centromeric to BDNF (11p14.1), result in the Wilms' tumor, aniridia, genitourinary anomalies, and mental retardation (WAGR) syndrome. Hyperphagia and obesity were observed in a subgroup of patients with the WAGR syndrome. We hypothesized that the subphenotype of obesity in the WAGR syndrome is attributable to deletions that induce haploinsufficiency of BDNF.

METHODS
We studied the relationship between genotype and body-mass index (BMI) in 33 patients with the WAGR syndrome who were recruited through the International WAGR Syndrome Association. The extent of each deletion was determined with the use of oligonucleotide comparative genomic hybridization.

RESULTS
Deletions of chromosome 11p in the patients studied ranged from 1.0 to 26.5 Mb; 58% of the patients had heterozygous BDNF deletions. These patients had significantly higher BMI z scores throughout childhood than did patients with intact BDNF (mean [+/-SD] z score at 8 to 10 years of age, 2.08+/-0.45 in patients with heterozygous BDNF deletions vs. 0.88+/-1.28 in patients without BDNF deletions; P=0.03). By 10 years of age, 100% of the patients with heterozygous BDNF deletions (95% confidence interval [CI], 77 to 100) were obese (BMI > or = 95th percentile for age and sex) as compared with 20% of persons without BDNF deletions (95% CI, 3 to 56; P<0.001). The critical region for childhood-onset obesity in the WAGR syndrome was located within 80 kb of exon 1 of BDNF. Serum BDNF concentrations were approximately 50% lower among the patients with heterozygous BDNF deletions (P=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Among persons with the WAGR syndrome, BDNF haploinsufficiency is associated with lower levels of serum BDNF and with childhood-onset obesity; thus, BDNF may be important for energy homeostasis in humans.


Abstract form only given. The checked structure invariant echo-compensator of the second order with defensive temporary interval. The checked elements of management like echo-compensator. The checked calculation of the main technical features.


All-electric ship power systems have limited generation capacity and finite rotating inertia compared with large power systems. Moreover, all-electric ship power systems include large portions of nonlinear loads and dynamic loads relative to the total power capacity, which may significantly reduce the stability margin. Pulse loads and other high-energy weapon loads in the system draw a large amount of power intermittently, which may cause significant frequency and voltage oscillations in the system. Thus, an effective real-time load management technique is needed to dynamically balance the load and generation to operate the system normally.
Multi-agent systems, inspired by biological phenomena, aim to cooperatively achieve system objectives that are difficult to reach by a single agent or centralized controller. Since power systems include various electrical components with different dynamical systems, conventional homogeneous multi-agent system cooperative controllers have difficulties solving the real-time load management problem with heterogeneous agents. In this dissertation, a novel heterogeneous multi-agent system cooperative control methodology is presented based on artificial potential functions and reduced-order agent models to cooperatively achieve real-time load management for all-electric ship power systems. The technique integrates high-order system dynamics and various kinds of operational constraints into the multi-agent system, which improves the accuracy of the cooperative controller. The multi-agent system includes a MVAC multi-agent system and a DC zone multi-agent, which are coordinated by an AC-DC communication agent.
The developed multi-agent system framework and the notional all-electric ship power system model were simulated in PSCAD software. Case studies and performance analysis of the MVAC multi-agent system and the DC zone multi-agent system were performed. The simulation results indicated that propulsion loads and pulse loads can be successfully coordinated to reduce the impact of pulse loads on the power quality of all-electric ship power systems. Further, the switch status or power set-point of loads in DC zones can be optimally determined to dynamically balance the generation and load while satisfying the operational constraints of the system and considering load priorities.
The method has great potential to be extended to other isolated power systems, such as microgrids.


The simulated annealing algorithm coupled with the tabu search method for continuum optimization problems is presented. Basically, the new algorithm is obtained by assembling certain characteristics of the tabu search method into the standard simulated annealing. The numerical performance of the new algorithm is discussed based on the optimization of some classical test functions. Finally, an electrostatic insulator geometry is optimized using this algorithm coupled with the boundary element method in order to test it in electromagnetics.


: Thyroid nodules are quite common and present approximately in 10% of the population. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy has become the mainstay of thyroid nodule evaluation and the overall accuracy is excellent; however, some aspirates demonstrating indeterminate cytology results do not permit definitive diagnosis of malignancy, and in addition, there are no clear guidelines for the management of these lesions because the incidence of malignancy in indeterminate aspirates varies in the different studies published. In order to find molecular markers in an attempt to predict malignancy based on cytology, at least 70 molecular or cellular and genetic markers have been studied in thyroid nodules. This review focuses on some potential markers such as thyroid peroxidase, thyroglobulin, telomerase, galectin-3, RET/PTC and protein p53; some of them, such as thyroid peroxidases, thyroglobulin and galectin-3, can be studied in a routine pathology laboratory and are promising, but do not yet fulfil criteria required for their use in clinical practice. The American guidelines and the European consensus for the management of thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer do not recommend their systematic use because the evidence that they have provided is insufficient. On the other hand, information obtained through cytological smears permits the study of complex metabolic or genetic pathways, providing researchers with a high throughput tool to elucidate changes in the global expression patterns seen in tumour cells. This ability to take tumour biology into account would allow the selection of different drugs, considering the predominant altered pathways observed in these samples. Finally, all these data may provide the molecular groundwork for permitting future preoperative discrimination of follicular adenomas from hyperplastic nodules, and may ultimately guide therapeutic strategies.


Mannose-terminated glucocerebrosidase (alglucerase; Ceredase) was designed for enzyme replacement therapy in Gaucher disease to take advantage of mannose receptor-mediated endocytosis by macrophages. To provide a rational basis for designing enzyme replacement therapy protocols, we examined the in vitro binding, uptake, and degradation of alglucerase by murine and human macrophages. Both were found to have approximately 500,000 mannose-dependent receptors for alglucerase per cell with a Kd of 10(-7) M at 0 degrees C. In contrast, the number of binding sites for mannose-bovine serum albumin (mannose-BSA), the classical ligand for the mannose receptor, was only approximately 20,000 with a Kd of 10(-8) M. Alglucerase was also bound in a mannose-dependent manner by cells that lack the capacity to bind mannose-BSA, such as Cos-1 cells, endothelial cells, and peripheral blood monocytes. The fact that the binding of alglucerase by macrophages was mediated principally by a receptor distinct from the classical mannose receptor that binds mannose-BSA was confirmed by differential inhibitors, viz., alpha-methyl-glucoside, fucose, and mannose-BSA, and by its independence on Ca2+. Uptake of alglucerase by macrophages at 37 degrees C was concentration dependent and half maximal at 10(-6) M. However, at a concentration of 10(-7) M, only 0.5% of the added alglucerase was incorporated into macrophages and approximately 50% of the alglucerase taken up was quickly released into the medium. Endothelial cells also manifest mannose-dependent binding and uptake of alglucerase and may therefore account for a large proportion of the infused alglucerase. Our data suggest that only a small amount of the alglucerase administered is effectively delivered to macrophages and that a more efficiently targeted enzyme might have a marked therapeutic advantage over mannose-terminated glucocerebrosidase.


In this paper we present an approach to increase the interest of pupils and high school students in modern science and technology. To achieve this, we developed a versatile experimentation platform for the use in schools and school projects, called VenDASys (Versatile Control and Data Acquisition System). VenDASys allows the interfacing of individual (micro-)sensors or complete experimental set ups while minimizing the required electronics, which are often frustrating for students and teachers alike due to limited experience in this field. Thus, students (and teachers) can directly concentrate on and successfully deal with different sensors and experiments based on these sensors. We present the concept with an example project on blood pressure monitoring. Getting involved in comprehensible MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems)-applications and solvable problems at a relatively early stage of their education will definitely increase the chances that high school students decide to choose a technical education later on.


Infectious diseases are of utmost concern and threat to the entire world currently. They are caused primarily by bacterial, fungal, parasitic and viral infections. According to world health organization (WHO) millions of deaths may occur due to infectious diseases by 2050 which shows a growing need to develop appropriate drugs or drug delivery systems. With a view overcoming manifold infectious diseases, they are treated with an array of drugs which act on a few specific targets and accomplish some amelioration in disease symptoms. However, a few drugs show adverse effects such as gastrointestinal inflammation, non-targeted delivery and short systemic circulation etc. Nanotechnology based drug delivery systems are currently in use to overcome these challenges. The current study focuses on multifarious drug delivery systems such as polymeric nanomaterials, hydrogels, dendrimers etc which considerably enhance the efficacy of encapsulated therapeutics such as drugs or bioactive molecules. Drug resistance has been a major biological riddle in the treatment of infectious diseases. Dendrimers play a pivotal role in overcoming this issue. Control release mechanisms, reducing toxicity and averting reticuloendothelial systems are the vital characteristics offered by delivery systems against fungal, bacterial and viral infectious diseases. Systemic antibiotics such as tetracycline, beta-lactam antibiotics, nitroimidazoles are extensively used in the treatment of periodontal diseases and peri-implantitis. However, systemic antibiotic use results in a few problems such as drug resistance, dysbacteriosis and toxic effects. The antibacterial effect is also significantly low due to the low amount of the drug reaches the oral lesion after systemic circulation. Moreover, low bioavailability and infiltration in the infection site and increase of drug-resistant bacteria impede the success of conventional drugs. Oral stimuli-responsive DDS have been designed which are smart DDS that accurately release the therapeutic in oral cavity. DDS improved therapeutic efficacy and curtailed toxic effects remarkably. Numerous molecular polymers have been synthesized and used as drug carriers. Antibiotics or antibacterial compounds such as chlorhexidine were entrapped and local biofilm attenuation was achieved. In addition, remineralizing compounds such as fluoride were also loaded in varnish or gels to circumvent caries and have been currently used in clinics. Introduction of nanotechnology lead to the discovery of micro/nano-scaled carriers to treat several oral diseases. Manifold hitherto designed nanocarriers can successfully load anti-bacterial agents, anti-inflammatory drugs and biomolecules such as proteins, genes and growth factors and can also be used to treat oral diseases. Surprisingly, nano-scaled DDS linked to dental materials like dental restoration systems and dental implants offered anti-bacterial effect without controlling the basic properties. Plethora of copolymers used in DDS are poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), poly(D, L-lactide) (PDLLA), poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG) and other biopolymers such as lipid, chitosan, pectin, and alginate which are biodegradable, biocompatible and can undergo modification easily. Moreover, liposomes, micelles and other copolymer NPs were used for targeting the antibacterial agents such as peptides, triclosan and chlorhexidine. Fluoride loaded NPs based on the biopolymers like chitosan, pectin and alginate and with a 4-hour steady fluoride release was observed. Silica nanoparticles, microspheres, polymeric carriers, fullerenes, dendrimers and nanoplexes have been extensively used to load number of antibiotics. Antimicrobial hybrid designed by chemo-photothermal therapy which is dependent on polydopamine (PDA)-coated gold nanorods (GNRs) exhibited increased silver ion encapsulation efficiency and protective efficacy against drug-resistant Gram-positive methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Gram-negative Escherichia coli. Hydrogels with high water withholding capacity, high biocompatibility, high drug loading rate play a vital role in the treatment of oral diseases. Currently, hydrogels were used on tooth surface and oral mucosa as bio-adhesive materials for controlled drug release. Injectable hydrogel based DDS have been widely used in the treatment of periodontitis and peri-implantitis. The liquid form of hydrogel is introduced into the periodontal tissue and after introduction into tissue, gel is formed due to sol-gel transition and controlled drug release has been achieved. The stimuli sensitive systems were developed for the first time in 1970 in the form of thermosensitive liposomes for the controlled release of drugs. Smart materials are sensitive to pH, temperature and enzymes of oral cavity and release therapeutics correctly. Photothermally sensitive DDS was developed using polyelectrolyte shell made by layer by layer positioning of negatively charged poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) and positively charged poly(allylamine hydrochloride) into which lysozyme crystal and Au NPs were incorporated. Irradiation of these capsules with a 10 ns pulsed laser (λ = 1064 nm) at 50 mJ cm-2 for 5 min at a frequency of 10 Hz before mixing with a suspension of Micrococcus lysodeikticus stimulated lysozyme release followed by bacterial digestion. Wealth of studies has shown the substantial therapeutic efficacy of smart materials in the treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, Surface functionalization with target moieties on nanoparticle surface enhances the localization of therapeutics in the target tissues and ameliorates.  Numerous ligands have been discovered and which can span biological barriers such as blood brain barrier etc and deliver the therapeutic appropriately. The ligands tethered on the surface of the DDS not only carry the therapeutic loaded nanoparticles to the target tissue but also ensure their localization into the cell and eventually accomplish the enhanced therapeutic efficacy. The drug delivery systems currently in use provide enhanced therapeutic efficacy and lower side effects. However, a few shortcomings still exist which needs to be addressed by amalgamating the expertise from various scientific fields such as medicine, biochemistry, material science and chemistry. Eventually, it can be concluded that expertise from various subjects such as becomes a holy grail in the treatment of infectious diseases.


Background Smoking, probably due to nicotine, has a bivalent effect on inflammatory bowel disease, ameliorating disease activity in ulcerative colitis and with a deleterious effect on Crohn's disease. The effect of nicotine patches in ulcerative colitis is controversial. Aim To investigate the effect of chronic nicotine use in a rat model of colitis. Methods Colitis was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by rectal administration of 30 mg trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid (TNBS) in 50% ethanol. Nicotine was dissolved in drinking water (2.5,12.5, 25 and 250 μg/ml), with rats drinking ad libitum. Nicotine administration started 10 days prior to damage induction and had no effect on weight gain or daily food intake of rats. Rats were sacrificed 1 and 5 days after TNBS administration, their colons resected, rinsed, weighed, damage assessed macroscopically (mm2) and microscopically and tissue processed for myeloperoxidase (MPO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activities, leukotriene B4 (LTB4), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) generation and interleukin-1 (IL-1) serum levels. Results Nicotine, by itself, caused no damage to the colon. Nicotine had a dose-dependent bivalent effect on colitis, significantly reducing macroscopic damage from 983 ± 10 mm2 on TNBS alone to 429 ± 118 mm2 on TNBS plus 12.5 μg/ml of nicotine, and escalating to 1086 ± 262 mm2 on 250 μg/ml of nicotine. Segmental weight declined significantly (from 2.4 ± 0.2 to 1.65 ± 0.20 g/10 cm), on 12.5 μg/ml nicotine, as did MPO activity (from 3.2 ± 0.4 to 0.7 ± 0.1 units/g). All these parameters returned to the levels of TNBS alone when the dose of nicotine was increased to 250 μg/ml. Nicotine had no effect on NOS activity, PGE2 generation and serum IL-1 levels, but increased LTB4 generation. Conclusions Nicotine has a dose-dependent bivalent effect on TNBS-induced colitis which is not due to reduction in IL-1 serum levels or PGE2 generation, and is not NOS-mediated.


Pediatric Anesthesia: Current Practice. Vol 1; Edit: M. Ramez Salem; Academic Press Inc., II1 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003, U.S.A.; $U.S.27.50; pp. 158; 235 x 155. Direct transcripts of even the very best lectures do not necessarily make good reading. Unfortunately, this is true of many of the offerings in "Pediatric Anesthesia: Current Practice". The colloquialisms, grammatical errors and "non sequiturs" that abound in these papers tend to destroy one's interest in searching out the valuable material in this collection of "presentations given at recent pediatric anesthesia meetings in Chicago". Discovering on the first page that, "If we study all the infants who had meningomyelocele repair during their birth and were shunted, the outcome mostly depends on how well they were managed", almost made this reviewer abandon his task. Fortunately the standard improves with a number of interesting contributions, obviously edited for inclusion in the text. It is impractical to include a complete list of contents in this review. Worth special mention are several papers by Dr. G. A. Gregory, dealing with aspects of neonatal intensive care. Other sections, which discuss respiratory failure in children and congenital cardiac diseases and their anaesthetic implications, are also of value and easy to read. The contributions of Dr. E. J. Bennett on fluid and electrolyte therapy, especially in relation to congenital pyloric stenosis, and his review of the "Liverpool Technique" are interesting, but require more effort to follow. Nevertheless, much of the material in this book can be found in other texts or the recent literature, where, in many instances, it is better presented. Considering the current plethora of works on paediatric anaesthesia, I cannot recommend this book for purchase by individual anaesthetists. Its place is in the libraries of paediatric hospitals.


Semantic ontology in Web of Object (WoO) creates and provides services in terms of Virtual Objects (VO) and Composite Virtual Object (CVO). Virtualizing the physical devices and resources as well as conceptual entities would form VOs, where CVOs are formed with the interrelated VOs to provide detailed information and services. Interaction between the physical devices and the smartphone on the physical web standard extends IoT services on WoO platform. Procedural approach for the interaction among the physical device, smartphone and WoO application server has been presented. A conceptual semantic ontology model for information reusability and interoperability among the VOs, the functional model of WoO platform and an implementation architecture have been presented.


Background: There are diverging opinions about scientific evidence for Homoeopathy, but evidence for conventional medicine is not perfect either. In fact, proof for Homoeopathy is not inferior to conventional. However, the evidence for Homoeopathy has been downplayed by selection of trials (cherry-picking). The effect of Homoeopathy in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), however, is small due to many ineffective prescriptions. This is caused by shortcomings of our Materia Medica and Repertories. Discussion: The hegemony of the RCT is increasingly questioned; it does not provide all answers, especially not for the individual patient. The individual patient wants to know his individual prognosis: Will this medicine work for him? This is even more important than his individual diagnosis. It is possible to assess prognosis scientifically the same way as diagnosis. Prognostic research is based on daily practice; practitioners should have knowledge about statistics to fulfill their role in this process. Conclusion: The discussion in this paper elucidates that RCT has its limitations, especially for the patient whose main concern is recovery/prognosis. Drug validation is a key to improve the outcome of clinical practice in Homoeopathy.


Vaccines harness the inherent properties of the immune system to prevent diseases or treat existing ones. Continuous efforts have been devoted to both gaining a mechanistic understanding of how the immune system operates and designing vaccines with high efficacies and effectiveness. Advancements in nanotechnology in recent years have generated unique opportunities to meet the daunting challenges associated with immunology and vaccine development. Firstly, nanoparticle formulated systems provide ideal model systems for studying the operation of the immune system, making it possible to systematically identify key factors and understand their roles in specific immune responses. Also, the versatile compositions/architectures of nanoparticle systems enable new strategies/novel platforms for developing vaccines with high efficacies and effectiveness. In this review, we discuss the advantages of nanoparticles and the challenges faced during vaccine development, through the framework of the immunological mechanisms of vaccination, with the aim of bridging the gap between immunology and materials science, which are both involved in vaccine design. The knowledge obtained provides general guidelines for future vaccine development.


This work was supported by the "Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia", Spain (projects FIS2005-05881-C02-01 and FIS2005-05881-C02-02) and by "Generalitat Valenciana", Spain (project GV06/007).


Stroke occurs suddenly and has major impact on both the survivor and their caregiver. A third of stroke victims usually die from its direct effects or complications. The survivors usually have functional deficits resulting in the need for caregiver support. The caregivers may have inadequate knowledge of how to care for their affected relatives. The result is high caregiver burden and complications among the survivors. Once a person has stroke, it becomes important that their caregivers and their needs are determined so that they get the necessary support from the health professionals. Education of both the stroke survivors and the caregivers, and follow-up to determine if their needs are being met may be the support required. This is important in low resource settings where the survivors and caregivers may not always afford to go to stroke clinics for support visits and follow-up. Furthermore, stroke will result in reduced quality of life, poor functional outcomes, and poor community reintegration, which are important areas in life. Caregivers who look after the survivor for long periods may suffer burnout and have poor quality of life. Educating both the stroke survivor and their caregiver may result in better quality of life and survival rate.


It is argued that a combination of the Griffiths theory and the double-exchange mechanism predicts the random distribution of ferromagnetic metallic clusters above the Curie temperature TC in colossal magnetoresistive manganites. Along this line, we propose a model for the temperature dependence of resistivity that yields a quantitative agreement with experimental data obtained in a typical manganite La2/3Ca1/3MnO3. Our result indicates that the formation and growth of ferromagnetic metallic clusters are responsible for the observation of unusual transport properties near the insulator-metal transition.


The aim of this study was to validate a 24-item TEPID (Teachers of EFL Preparedness to Include Dyslexics) scale measuring the beliefs of 546 pre-service and in-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) across three countries (Cyprus, Greece, and Poland) on their preparedness to include learners with dyslexia in mainstream foreign language (FL) classes. Principal component analysis of the scale led to a two-factor structure, that is, knowledge and self-efficacy in implementing inclusive instructional practices with dyslexic EFL learners, and stance towards inclusion. The analysis of measurement invariance confirmed the generalizability of the TEPID across all subgroups and allowed valid comparisons between factor variances and covariances. The scale is a useful tool for investigating perceived teacher preparedness to include dyslexic learners and variables that influence TEPID, comparing the results across countries, and designing tailored pre-service and in-service training schemes on inclusion.


The broad objective of this dissertation is to advance our understanding of how grammatical operations are formulated in the postsyntactic module of the grammar. To that end, the dissertation examines the distribution of agreement morphemes, and especially the distribution of exceptionally inflectionless elements, whose lack of agreement morphology can affect other operations such as postsyntactic movement, in some cases interfering with these operations, yielding ungrammaticality. The dissertation pursues a serial rule-based approach within the Distributed Morphology (DM) framework (Halle and Marantz 1993; Embick and Noyer 2001, 2007; Arregi and Nevins 2012; Harley 2014; a.o.), focusing chiefly on postsyntactic operations that produce and refer to agreement morphology ('nodesprouting') and postsyntactic operations that displace heads onto neighboring elements. The key innovation of the current model is that postsyntactic operations distinguish between their triggering environments and the actual execution of a change. A theoretical consequence of making this distinction is that a derivation can crash when the conditions for application of an operation are satisfied but the change itself cannot be executed, yielding ungrammaticality. This state of affairs is referred to as derivational trapping. The evidence that bears on the theory of how postsyntactic rules are formulated comes from exceptionally inflectionless (EI) elements in various languages, including Bulgarian, Bosnian/Croatian/ Serbian (BCS), German, Greek, Latin, Icelandic, Italian, and Russian. These EI elements belong to some syntactic category – such as adjective – whose members are specified to bear agreement morphology, while EI elements lack this morphology. The distributional properties of these elements is important for our understanding not only of the representation of inflectionlessness, but also of postsyntactic movement, the separation between the narrow syntax and the postsyntactic module, and the ways in which crashes in the postsyntactic module arise. Beyond the evidence from inflectionlessness for derivational trapping, the dissertation also examines other phenomena that motivate this approach, including lexical gaps, coordination, and other forms of postsyntactic movement. Chapter 1 defines derivational trapping and articulates a model of the postsyntax, with special attention paid to two types of postsyntactic operations: i) node-sprouting, the operation which produces dissociated morphology such as agreement morphemes, and ii) postsyntactic movement. This chapter motivates an account of node-sprouting in which the operation may target a terminal node, a morphological word (MWd) (in the sense of Embick and Noyer 2001), or a phrase, and argues that nodesprouting at the MWd occurs prior to linearly defined movement operations. It also synthesizes various case studies from the literature to motivate an account of postsyntactic movement, whose locality is argued to be restricted by adjacency, in a way defined by the stage of linearization at which the operation is specified. In Chapter 2, I claim that exceptional inflectionlessness is (often) a morphological fact that is encoded postsyntactically. Consequently, given the modularity of narrow syntax and the postsyntactic module, it is predicted that inflectionlessness can affect postsyntactic processes but not the narrow syntax. I evaluate this hypothesis by examining how the absence of agreement morphology affects postsyntactic movement and other operations in Latin, Icelandic, Bulgarian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), Italian, and Russian. For Bulgarian and BCS, I offer a derivational trapping account to capture patterns of ungrammaticality. Chapter 3 investigates German adjectival inflection, and demonstrates that its distribution is best stated in linear terms, thereby supporting its postsyntactic status, and it also demonstrates that the distribution of inflection supports the hypothesis that node-sprouting can happen at the phrasal level. I also demonstrate how exceptional inflectionlessness among adjectives is sensitive to linear order, and offer a derivational trapping account of the inability for such adjectives to be stranded by noun phrase ellipsis. Chapter 4, extends the account of derivational trapping to three other phenomena beyond agreement morphology: lexical gaps, postsyntactic movement into coordinate structures, and the (postsyntactic) formation of English possessive pronouns. I connect the stride gap (Yang 2016) to the feature structure and morphophonology of participles and preterites, showing how lexical gaps can give rise to derivational trapping due to the structure of morphophonological rules. I also argue on the basis of coordination data from various Romance languages for a derivational trapping account of postsyntactic ATB violations, with a refinement of the ATB constraint that permits certain types of attested putative violations. Lastly, I argue that derivational trapping can occur in the production of English possessive pronouns; the account captures surprising patterns of ungrammaticality that arise when an internally complex possessor contains a pronoun. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of the dissertation, pointing to limitations of the current study as well as to directions for future work. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Linguistics First Advisor Rolf . Noyer


Objective
The development of the Transition Readiness Inventory (TRI) item pool for adolescent and young adult childhood cancer survivors is described, aiming to both advance transition research and provide an example of the application of NIH Patient Reported Outcomes Information System methods.

Methods
Using rigorous measurement development methods including mixed methods, patient and parent versions of the TRI item pool were created based on the Social-ecological Model of Adolescent and young adult Readiness for Transition (SMART).

Results
Each stage informed development and refinement of the item pool. Content validity ratings and cognitive interviews resulted in 81 content valid items for the patient version and 85 items for the parent version.

Conclusions
TRI represents the first multi-informant, rigorously developed transition readiness item pool that comprehensively measures the social-ecological components of transition readiness. Discussion includes clinical implications, the application of TRI and the methods to develop the item pool to other populations, and next steps for further validation and refinement.


Nitrogen uptake by leaves and roots of the surfgrass Phyllospadix iwatensis Makino, growing on the subtidal rocky shore of Akkeshi Bay, Japan, was assessed by experimental measure- ments for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) uptake and field measurements for plant biomass and DIN concentrations in both the water column and sediments. Mainly, leaves of P. iwatensis con- tributed to total nitrogen uptake in fall and winter when DIN concentration in the water column was high. Otherwise, contributions of roots were higher than those of leaves in spring and summer when DIN in the water column was low. Both leaves and roots contributed to the nitrogen acquisition. How- ever, the nitrogen uptake from external media would not be enough for nitrogen incorporation in the highly productive season. Internally recycled nitrogen may play an important role in this season.