The studies presented in this article explored the relevance of death fears to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In Study 1, the relationships between death anxiety and a variety of markers of psychopathology were examined in 171 treatment-seeking participants with OCD. Moderate to large correlations between Collett-Lester Fear of Death scale scores, taken at initial assessment, and clinical ratings of OCD severity, number of hospitalizations, number of medications, and total number of lifetime anxiety-related diagnoses identified in structured diagnostic interviews were obtained. Study 2 used the mortality salience (MS) paradigm to examine whether experimentally manipulated death cognitions exacerbate compulsive cleaning behaviors among OCD washers. Treatment-seeking participants with OCD (66 washers and 66 nonwashers) were randomly allocated to either a MS or dental pain priming condition. Following priming, participants completed a series of distraction tasks involving skin conductance recording, before being offered an opportunity to wash conductive gel off their hands. As hypothesized, washers went to greater efforts in cleaning (as measured by washing duration and soap and paper towel use) than nonwashers. Similarly, participants in the MS condition showed greater cleaning than those in the dental pain salience condition. However, these main effects were qualified by significant interactions for both washing duration and soap use. As expected, simple effect contrasts revealed that the effect of MS on cleaning behaviors was significant for washers but not for nonwashers. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.


The current study had three goals that were designed to extend our understanding of childhood somatization (SOM). The first goal was to use a group-based trajectory analysis to plot developmental pathways of SOM. The second goal was to use a developmental psychopathology framework to identify risk factors from multiple domains that discriminated SOM trajectories. The third and final goal was to examine the relationship between child maladjustment, including functional impairment, and SOM trajectory group status. These goals were conducted with a sample of 310 ethnically diverse, low-income boys followed longitudinally from ages 2 to 12, using multiple methods and informants. Similar to research using broadly-defined internalizing behaviors, three developmental trajectories were identified: No, Low Increasing, and Moderate Increasing. The majority of the boys (i.e., 82%) were reported as displaying at least low to moderate levels of SOM across childhood. In addition to these three trajectories, a small group of boys (n = 5) demonstrated a distinct pattern of SOM, called the Moderate to High (MTH) group. Follow-up analyses indicated that the Moderate Increasing group was differentiated from the No group by higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms and parent-child conflict, whereas the MTH group demonstrated lower levels of social skills than the other three groups. Higher levels of both child negative affectivity and parent-child conflict discriminated the Low Increasing group from the No group. Differences in child outcomes at ages 11 and 12 were not found. The implications of the results for clinical intervention and future research are discussed.


Rainfall ingress into sulfidic rocks or tailings from metalliferous mining operations can result in acid mine drainage. Waste rock cover systems in semiarid areas are commonly designed to retain all precipitated water within benign material, from where it is removed by evapotranspiration. The long‐term effectiveness of covers is often predicted from models that are based on data obtained from single trial plots assuming that the trials are homogeneous and representative of large areas. Two cover designs were tested in semiarid monsoonal northwest Queensland: (i) 1.5 m of unconsolidated waste rock overlying 0.5 m of consolidated waste rock; and (ii) 2.0 m of unconsolidated benign waste rock. Three identical plots comprised each treatment in which water balance equation parameters were estimated from meteorological measurements and vertical arrays of soil suction and moisture sensors and seepage collection using a 3‐m‐deep lysimeter inserted in the waste rock. In a wet season with 900 mm of precipitation, water movement through the covers was followed through changes in moisture content, suction, and seepage. Greater differences in these parameters occurred within than between cover treatments. Water retention and water movement varied substantially and seepage ranged from 2 to 80% of total rainfall. The internal heterogeneity of hydraulic properties had more effect on cover performance than did the initial cover design. Therefore, it is important to include internal heterogeneity in mine waste cover water balance models to improve their applicability.


Full-scale fire experiments were conducted at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to investigate tire fire interactions with the passenger compartment of a motorcoach. A burner was designed to imitate the frictional heating of hub and wheel metal caused by failed axle bearings, locked brakes, or dragged blown tires. Two experiments were conducted to determine the mode of penetration of a tire fire into the passenger compartment. For the first experiment, heating to obtain tire ignition was initiated on the exterior of the right side tag axle wheel and for the second, on the exterior of the right side drive axle wheel. Three experiments were conducted to examine firehardening of the motorcoach against tire fire penetration. The methods explored were: (1) replacing combustible external components with metal, (2) covering combustible external components with an intumescent coating, and (3) placing a metal fire-deflector shield above the fender. A final experiment with a partially furnished interior investigated tire fire growth within the passenger compartment and the onset of untenable conditions. Measurements of interior and exterior temperatures, interior heat flux, heat release rate, toxic gases, and visibility were performed. Also, standard and infrared videos and still photographs were recorded. The experiments showed that the tire fires ignited the plastic fender and glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) exterior side panel (below the windows) upon which the fires spread quickly and penetrated the passenger compartment by breaking the windows. Measurements showed that other potential fire penetration routes (flooring and lavatory) lagged far behind the windows in heating and degradation. Fire-hardening using steel components had the greatest effect, followed by using an intumescent coating. Tenability limits were reached within 11 min after fire penetration throughout the passenger compartment and by 7 min near the fire. In addition to the full-scale motorcoach experiments, the flammability performance of four interior combustible motorcoach components was tested beyond the current requirements by applying flammability tests from FAA and FRA standards for comparable aircraft and train passenger car components, respectively.


OBJECTIVE: To analyze the shock wave effects on double-J stent. METHODS: Retention strength modifications induced by shock waves were analyzed: a) 60 double-J stents obtained from patients were compared (20 had not been treated by ESWL; 20 had been treated by piezoelectric-ESWL and 20 by electrohydraulic-ESWL; b) the effects of piezoelectric-ESWL were determined in vitro using 36 stress-tested double-J stent segments (Urosoft, C-Flex and silicone) vs. a control group. RESULTS: The retention strength of the stents from ESWL-treated patients, especially those that had been submitted to piezoelectric-ESWL, was lower than in stents from patients that had not undergone ESWL (p < 0.05). The foregoing has been corroborated by the in vitro findings. The impact frequency causing maximum damage is specific for each material. Microphotographic studies revealed fracture lines on the surfaces of the ESWL-treated stents (Urosoft and C-Flex). CONCLUSIONS: The foregoing findings may explain the high incidence of double-J stent migration observed in ESWL-treated patients.


It is of most concern by the operators who run multiple networks that how much traffic should each network carry to obtain the minimum cost for the operator. But it is left unanswered by current researches. A multi-dimensional traffic distributing algorithm for network cost optimization is proposed to obtain the optimal traffic distribution. In the proposed algorithm, multiple factors effecting traffic distribution are concerned, such as service types, network capacity, network coverage, network cost, user habit, and terminals. Evaluations prove that the proposed algorithm provides less network cost than load balancing scheme.


It is shown that in colossal magnetoresistance materials an inhomogeneous alternating magnetic field generates a strong electric field of non-inductive nature. This magnetoelectric effect is an analog of acoustoelectric effect in conventional semiconductors. Due to the above electric field spin waves in the former materials, like acoustic waves in the latter ones, acquire an additional attenuation at equilibrium. This attenuation may be converted to amplification by applying strong enough dc electric field drifting the carriers (solid-state Cherenkov's effect). The experiments, which probed this phenomenon in HgCr2Se4 using spin wave pumping, are discussed.


Quality of life (QoL) assessment is an important aspect of nursing care. With increased older adult longevity, nurses are attending to lifestyles issues that accompany the QoL of both healthy and sick adults. Though the concept of QoL has been used for a long period of time, a consensus regarding a universal definition of QoL and a conceptual model is absent. There is also a lack of QoL measurements developed for and within the population of older adults. This has resulted in a new recently developed module for the assessment of QoL among older adults, which was part of an international study entitled "The Measurement of the Quality of Life in Older Adults and its Relationship to Healthy Ageing (WHOQoL-Old)". The Norwegian WHOQoL-Old module (six facets, each with four items) has been developed as a part of this large cross-cultural project according to three phases; focus groups, a pilot study and a field study. A concrete definition of QoL has guided the WHOQoL-Group's operationalization of the WHOQoL measurements; thus, the work has not been grounded in a theoretical or conceptual model. However, Wilson and Cleary have developed a conceptual model in which different types of variables, including QoL, interrelate. In this thesis, the definition and conceptual model support the validation of the WHOQoL-Old module. The specific aims of this thesis were as follows: 1. To explore whether there exists a consensus on the conceptualization and measurement of QoL among older adults (Paper I). 2. To explore content, convergence, known group and concurrent validity, as well as the psychometric properties of the final version of the WHOQoL-Old module (Paper II). 3. To investigate the fitness of the theoretical model in investigating the construct, known group and concurrent validity of the WHOQoL-Old module among healthy older adults (Paper III). 4. To investigate the fitness of the theoretical model in investigating the construct, known group and concurrent validity of the WHOQoL-Old module among sick older adults (Paper IV). Studies were performed using a literature review (N = 47; Paper I) and a crosssectional study (healthy N = 401, Sick N = 89; Paper II, III, IV). The questionnaires covered sociodemographic and self-reported health information, QoL, health and functional status scale, as well as depression. Results showed that a great majority of the reviewed studies lacked a conceptual model, one third of them lacked any formal definition of QoL, 34 different measurements were used and minimal empirical evidence was given for other psychometric properties (Paper I). In critically examining the basic structure of the measurement, the conceptual structure of the WHOQoL-Old module was supported, as correlation and multivariate analyses partly confirmed the relevance of individual items and factors in both the healthy and sick groups (Paper II). The results partially confirm the three aspects of construct validity: convergent validity, known-group validities and discriminate validity. Construct validity was supported by the confirmation of the theoretical-based hypothesis and research questions in Papers III and IV. Convergent validity (Paper II) was strengthened by showing that the most conceptually clear facets were Death and Dying for both groups, and Sensory Abilities in the sick group. The validation of known-groups was shown by different significant contributions in multiple regressions analysis for the two groups (healthy and sick; Paper II). This was evidenced by differences between healthy and sick older adults when testing conceptual models based on the WCM (Papers III and IV). Concurrent validity showed the WHOQoL-Old module total and facets to be significantly negatively correlated with the GDS–15 total score in both groups (Paper II). Overall, this thesis confirms the need for systematic validation of a measurement assessing QoL among older adults. It shows the strengths and weaknesses in the validity of the recently developed Norwegian WHOQoL-Old module measurement. The module needs further investigation, testing and refinement in various sociodemographic subgroups of Norwegians and older international adults. Moreover, this thesis contributes to knowledge concerning the QoL among older adults with or without community health care in Norway. This information can be used by nurses in the community to provide nursing care with important means to outline and apply interventions towards a good life, especially for vulnerable people.


The oil and gas industry in Louisiana and Arkansas has played as great a role in the shaping of the destinies of those two states as any other factor. Here, in 325 contemporary photographs, many of them never before published, is an eyewitness record of the early years of that industry. The rich oil legacy of the region had been noticed centuries ago when the area's Indians used natural oil seeps as sources of medicinal oil for themselves and their animals. Non-Indians became aware of the presence of crude in the early 1800's, and by 1860 several petroleum-rich sites had been located in Louisiana. In 1901, W. Scott Heywood's discovery of the huge Jennings Oil Field thrust Louisiana to the forefront in American oil production. Other discoveries in Louisiana followed rapidly; Caddo Lake, Homor, Cotton Valley, the tremendous Monroe gas field, and many smaller pools contributed their share to the great flood of oil and gas from the state. Eventually the search for crude crossed the state boundary into southern Arkansas, and a new boom began there in the 1920's. Though a small portion of that state was involved with the industry, the volume of oil from El Dorado, Smackover, and other fields in the surrounding southwestern counties brought Arkansas, too, into the upper ranks of oil producers. The giant tri-state Rodessa Field, shared by Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, continued the initial boom, but just as production began to slow, technological innovations opened entirely new horizons among the coastal salt domes and offshore, and the rush for black gold began anew. Finding and drilling for oil in Louisiana and Arkansas was no easy matter, as these photographs show. The pineywoods thickets of southern Arkansas, the overgrown likeshores and river bottoms of northern Louisiana, the swamps and marshes of the coastal region, and later the deep waters out of sight of land presented constant new challenges, contributing immeasurably to the development of their region and to the advancement of oil technology and the industry.


Curative cancer therapies are uncommon and nearly always involve multi-drug combinations developed by experimentation in humans; unfortunately, the mechanistic basis for the success of such combinations has rarely been investigated in detail, obscuring lessons learned. Here, we use isobologram analysis to score pharmacological interaction, and clone tracing and CRISPR screening to measure cross-resistance among the five drugs comprising R-CHOP, a combination therapy that frequently cures Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphomas. We find that drugs in R-CHOP exhibit very low cross-resistance but not synergistic interaction: together they achieve a greater fractional kill according to the null hypothesis for both the Loewe dose-additivity model and the Bliss effect-independence model. These data provide direct evidence for the 50 year old hypothesis that a curative cancer therapy can be constructed on the basis of independently effective drugs having non-overlapping mechanisms of resistance, without synergistic interaction, which has immediate significance for the design of new drug combinations.


Non-pharmacological therapies, especially the physical maneuvers, are viewed as important and promising strategies for reducing syncope recurrences in vasovagal syncope (VVS) patients. We observed the efficacy of a modified Valsalva maneuver (MVM) in VVS patients. 72 VVS patients with syncope history and positive head-up tilt table testing (HUTT) results were randomly divided into conventional treatment group (NVM group, n = 36) and conventional treatment plus standard MVM for 30 days group (MVM group, n = 36). Incidence of recurrent syncope after 12 months (6.5% vs. 41.2%, P<0.01) and rate of positive HUTT after 30 days (9.7% vs.79.4%, P<0.01) were significantly lower in MVM group than in NVM group. HRV results showed that low frequency (LF), LF/ high frequency (HF), standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN) and standard deviation of all 5-min average NN intervals (SDANN) values were significantly lower in the NVM and MVM groups than in the control group at baseline. After 30 days treatment, LF, LF/HF, SDNN, SDANN values were significantly higher compared to baseline in MVM group. Results of Cox proportional hazard model showed that higher SDNN and SDANN values at 30 days after intervention were protective factors, while positive HUTT at 30 days after intervention was risk factor for recurrent syncope. Our results indicate that 30 days MVM intervention could effectively reduce the incidence of recurrent syncope up to 12 months in VVS patients, possibly through improving sympathetic function of VVS patients.


Proper reconstruction of the velocity field implies the recovery of a continuous range of wavenumbers from the low to the high end of the spatial spectrum. While the very low-wavenumber components of the model can be recovered by reflection tomography, waveform inversion has the potential to recover both intermediate and high wavenumber components of the model by using the full range of offsets and frequencies in the seismic data. However, this process is inherently difficult due to the non-linearity of the inverse problem. To mitigate this non-linearity, it is important to provide an appropriate starting velocity model, and seismic data with sufficient low frequencies and wide-angle wave propagation.


11 Abstract: Land surface temperature (LST) is a key variable in surface-atmosphere energy and water 12 exchanges. The main goals of this study are to (i) evaluate the LST of the European Centre for 13 Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim and ERA5 reanalyses over Iberian 14 Peninsula using the Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (LSA-SAF) product and 15 to (ii) understand the main drivers of the LST errors in the reanalysis. Simulations with the ECMWF 16 land-surface model in offline mode (uncoupled) were carried out over the Iberian Peninsula and 17 compared with the reanalysis data. Several sensitivity simulations were performed in a confined 18 domain centered in Southern Portugal to investigate potential sources of the LST errors. The 19 Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) fraction of green vegetation cover (FCover) and the 20 European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI) Land Cover dataset were explored. 21 We found a general underestimation of daytime LST and slightly overestimation at night-time. The 22 results indicate that there is still room for improvement in the simulation of LST in ECMWF 23 products. Still, ERA5 presents an overall higher quality product in relation to ERA-Interim. Our 24 analysis suggested a relation between the large daytime cold bias and vegetation cover differences 25 between (ERA5 and CGLS FCocver) with a correlation of -0.45. The replacement of the low and high 26 vegetation cover by those of ESA-CCI provided an overall reduction of the large Tmax biases during 27 summer. The increased vertical resolution of the soil at the surface, has a positive impact, but much 28 smaller when compared with the vegetation changes. The sensitivity of the vegetation density 29 parameter, that currently depends on the vegetation type, provided further proof for a needed 30 revision of the vegetation in the model, as there is a reasonable correlation between this parameter 31 and the Tmax mean errors when using the ESA-CCI vegetation cover (while the same correlation 32 cannot be reproduced with the original model vegetation). Our results support the hypothesis that 33 vegetation cover is one of the main drivers of the LST summertime cold bias in ERA5 over Iberian 34 Peninsula. 35


Immunization of rabbits against visceral toxocariasis using T. canis larval glycoproteins showed a marked reduction in the larvae burden and a significant rise of serum IgE in immunized rabbits infected with Toxocara canis as compared with non-immunized infected control group. More reduction of larval burden was observed after larger doses of T. canis larvated eggs inoculation.


The Escuelas Centrales Agricolas (Central Agriculture Schools) and the Escuelas Regionales Campesinas (Regional Peasant Schools) (1926–1934) assumed the ideal of post-Revolutionary governments to train teachers and agriculturalists in order to transform the countryside. These schools were founded in ex haciendas with mostly pre-revolutionary infrastructures. This article focuses on a little-studied aspect: the relations between authorities and teachers, on the one hand, and the peasants who lived in the perimeters of the haciendas, on the other. It analyzes the problems that emerged because the schools didn't follow their original goals and became dual institutions with conflicting goals: agricultural development and education. The article also demonstrates that, because of their ambiguous functions, the responsibilities and authority of the teachers went much further than their role as teachers. Because of official guidelines that emphasized productivity over teaching and because of the inefficiency, bad faith, and corruption of its main administrators, the Central and Regional Schools, in many cases, aggravated the unjust situation of the people.


Background— Associations of pathophysiological calf muscle characteristics with functional decline in people with lower extremity peripheral arterial disease are unknown. Methods and Results— Three hundred seventy participants with peripheral arterial disease underwent baseline measurement of calf muscle area, density, and percent fat with the use of computed tomography. Participants were followed up annually for 2 years. The outcome of mobility loss was defined as becoming unable to walk 1/4 mile or walk up and down 1 flight of stairs without assistance among those without baseline mobility limitations. Additional outcomes were ≥20% decline in 6-minute walk distance and becoming unable to walk for 6 minutes continuously among participants who walked continuously for 6 minutes at baseline. With adjustment for age, sex, race, body mass index, the ankle-brachial index, smoking, physical activity, relevant medications, and comorbidities, lower calf muscle density (P for trend <0.001) and lower calf muscle area (P for trend=0.039) were each associated with increased mobility loss rates. Compared with participants in the highest baseline tertiles, participants in the lowest tertile of calf muscle percent fat had a hazard ratio of 0.18 for incident mobility loss (95% confidence interval, 0.06 to 0.55; P=0.003), and participants in the lowest tertile of muscle density had a 3.50 hazard ratio for incident mobility loss (95% confidence interval, 1.28 to 9.57; P=0.015). No significant associations of calf muscle characteristics with 6-minute walk outcomes were observed. Conclusions— Our findings suggest that interventions to prevent mobility loss in peripheral arterial disease should focus on reversing pathophysiological findings in calf muscle.


This contemporary age has been described as one characterized by a wave of revolts. Every part of the world, every segment of society is dotted with one form of revolt or another. The resultant turbulence and anomie have caused thinkers to raise fundamental questions concerning the meaning of life. What sense does it make for man to exist in a world as turbulent as this? If this seeming irrational life of revolt is what human existence is all about, wouldn't it have been better not to be born at all? Though, philosophically, these questions form part of the perennial inquiry about existence, today's global social order makes those questions most pertinent. It is in response to these fundamental questions of the meaning of human life that this paper proposes to examine Albert Camus's philosophy of revolt. Life for Camus is absurd without meaning. In order to restore meaning, dignity and value to human life, three optionspresent themselves to Camus for consideration. The first is suicide; the  second is to take the leap of faith in God and the third is revolt. Camus rejects the first two options as not constituting the appropriate solutions. The first option he calls literal suicide and the second option he calls philosophical suicide. The third option which he calls revolt implies a rebellion against the monstrous absurdity and meaninglessness that have characterized human existence. This for Camus is the most authentic response to the absurdity of human life. Keywords : Revolt; Human Life; Absurd; Suicide; Rebellion.


A new supramolecular host-bonded stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was prepared by coupling a 26-membered aromatic-aliphatic-mixed azamacrocycle to 3-chloropropyltrimethoxylsilane-modified silica, which was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. To understand the role of functional groups and the nano-sized cavity on the azamacrocycle for its chromatographic performance, the chromatographic behavior of the new stationary phase was investigated by using alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), aromatic amines, and aromatic positional isomers as probes. This stationary phase exhibited a unique chromatographic retention, which was characterized by multiple interactions between the stationary phase and analytes, including hydrophobic, π–π, hydrogen-bonding, and inclusion interactions. At the same time, the embedded azamacrocycle showed remarkable superiority over the C18 phase in terms of shape, planarity, and isomeric recognition in discriminating specific PAHs and isomers and overcoming the negative effect of residual silanol groups. Such a hybrid stationary phase is more versatile and shows great potential in the analysis of complex samples.


Cultural studies aims to critique and challenge existing boundaries. Particularly relevant to a discussion of cultural studies in the context of composition pedagogy are the boundaries that exist between minority and dominant cultures, between disciplines, between academic and street cultures, between ethnicities, races, genders and classes, between student texts, literary texts, And other texts, and between representation and the represented. In an upper-level composition course, a writing project shows several cases where students consciously construct representations of their cultural experiences. Most recognize the destabilization of their identities for the first time and consequently do not feel comfortable. One American student of Puerto Rican descent finds herself troubled over her ethnicity. Working from a government-type definition of "Puerto Rican," she realizes that she cannot define herself as such, but then after reading an assigned author, she nevertheless concludes the opposite, that she may well be "Puerto Rican." Another student feels a lack of empowerment because she has no definitive ethnic identity. African American students often find it difficult to identify with immigrants and with assimilation models since their ancestors were involuntary immigrants. To help students become more aware of how concepts and paradigms, such as those describing race and ethnicity, come into being, they should become familiar with the thinking, interrogating, and writing of concepts and of representation. Using the framework of postructuralism, students could consider the representation of various cultures rather than that they are autonomous entities with origins. (TB) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************* * *


A multiple linear correlation is done between atmospheric transmissivity for four biologically active radiation daily doses (UVB, erythemal, DNA and plant damage) T, and three parameters (daily sunshine fraction σ, cosine of the daily minimum solar zenith angle μmin and daily total ozone column Ω). T is defined as the ratio of a daily dose to its extra‐atmospheric value. The data used are spectral UV measurements (390–400 nm at 0.5 nm step) recorded along year 2000 and over 8 months of year 2001 at Briançon Station (Alps, 1300 m above sea level) that forms part of the French UV network. The coefficients obtained from year 2000 correlation permit to retrieve daily doses for year 2001 with an average error running from 3 to 9% for monthly mean values and from 2 to 4.5% for 3‐monthly mean values, depending on daily dose type. The retrieval of yearly mean value gives an error between 4 and 7.5%. Retrieving the daily dose of a given day, where σ≥ 0.2, introduces error running from 16 to 32% depending on daily dose. An attempt to retrieve the yearly mean UVB daily dose for a northern France site, from the previous coefficients, gives encouraging results.


The use of renewable energy sources is increasing and will play an important role in the future power systems. The unpredictable and fluctuating nature of solar power leads to a need for energy storage as the prevalence increases. A five parameter model of PV modules has been implemented in Simulink/Matlab. The parameters of the model are determined by an approximation method using data sheet values. Inputs to the model include light intensity and ambient temperature. The outputs are any measurements of interests as well as power, cell temperature and voltage. Effects of varying the model parameters are demonstrated. A maximum power point tracking algorithm is used to keep the voltage at the maximum power point at all times. A battery model based on discharge curve fitting is implemented. The model is based on a fundamental battery cell which can be modified to construct many different module configurations. Power smoothing algorithms which average the input over a set time, are used to provide a power reference to the battery system. The PV model power output is compared to in-situ measurements by giving the model inputs of measured irradiance profile and ambient temperature. Measurements of two different days, one with little variation in irradiance and one with a lot of variation, are used to shed light on different effects. The difference between the output of the simulation and the measured values is very small, in the range of a few percent, especially when there is little variation in irradiance. Large peaks in difference are probably caused by the maximum power point tracking not being able to follow rapidly changing conditions. The approximation used in the modelling of cell temperature deviates significantly from the measured cell temperature. This is confirmed as one of the largest causes of deviance by running simulations with actual measured cell temperature. Power smoothing efficiency is demonstrated with different battery module sizes. Changing the power smoothing algorithm parameters to suit the battery capacity is shown to be effective in providing as good smoothing as possible within battery constraints.


In advanced pulmonary carcinoma, determination of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status, histology, and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutation status can be highly instructive for guiding the course of treatment. EGFR mutation status is a strong predictor of response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy; non-squamous cell carcinoma predicts response to pemetrexed; and targeted therapy now exists for non–smallcell lung cancer that is positive for the ALK gene mutation. A patient case of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer is presented to provide a practical context for discussing management. The patient is a 55-year-old female never-smoker who presented with a dry, persistent cough, right scapular and persistent upper/ mid-thoracic back pain, and significant, gradual weight loss. She required urgent surgery to relieve spinal cord compression. The diagnosis of primary adenocarcinoma of the lung, positive for CK7 and TTF-1, and negative for CK20, was made following physical examination, imaging, and pathological investigations. The patient was initially treated with standard platinum-based chemotherapy, to which bevacizumab was added following disease progression — a strategy that met with good response and tolerability. Upon disease progression and determination of ALKpositive non–small-cell lung cancer, targeted therapy with crizotinib was initiated, which showed good partial response until the last follow-up in July 2013. The evidence-based rationale for the treatment approach adopted for this patient is described.


Effective design of shared mediated spaces, information and connectedness requires theory and practice from a range of disciplines such as found in European projects like Together Anywhere, Together Anytime (TA2) and the EIT ICT Labs Mediating Presence activity. Building on this work we continue to investigate the changes in the European digital media industry such as changed traditional distribution of media content and the progressive integration of (social) communication means in information distribution and shared mediated spaces. Our past research has given valuable insights in how to design and evaluate systems and services that provide a high quality of experience, in how trust is established in mediated environments, and how the formation of tacit communication between participants in new distributed and connected media is negotiated. In the new Seventh Framework Program project COnnected Media and Presence from European Institute of Technology (COMPEIT) we aim to enhance the quality of experience in face-to-face and broadcast communication further in three domains: 1) Spatial connectedness, 2) Social connectedness and 3) Information connectedness, by developing three key services: Shared Experience with Tangible Interaction (SETI); Broadcast Presence Studio (BPS) and Mixed-Reality Interaction (MRI). The quality of experience of these services will be enhanced in terms of for example: spatial connectedness, by providing shared spaces and supporting spatial features such as eye contact; social connectedness, by using natural means for interaction suiting different settings and activities; and information connectedness, by providing better means to share, manipulate and use information suiting different task or activities. In this paper we will discuss the background of this work and give an overview of our planned future work in COMPEIT.


Mercury is a toxic pollutant that can negatively impact the population's health and the environment. The research on atmospheric mercury is of critical concern because of the diverse process that this pollutant suffers in the atmosphere as well as its deposition capacity, which can provoke diverse health issues. The Minamata Convention encourages the protection of the adverse effects of mercury, where research is a part of the strategies and atmospheric modelling plays a critical role in achieving the proposed aim. This paper reviews the study of modelling atmospheric mercury based on the southern hemisphere (SH). The article discusses diverse aspects focused on the SH such as the spatial distribution of mercury, its emissions projections, interhemispheric transport, and deposition. There has been a discrepancy between the observed and the simulated values, especially concerning the seasonality of gaseous elemental mercury and total gaseous mercury. Further, there is a lack of research about the emissions projections in the SH and mercury deposition, which generates uncertainty regarding future global scenarios. More studies on atmospheric mercury behaviour are imperative to better understand the SH's mercury cycle.


This paper revisits the semantic variability of sentences with simple plural (in)definites in English and German, which permit distributive, cumulative and paired-cover construals. I argue that this variability reflects context-dependency rather than LF ambiguity (Schwarzschild 1996) and that the selection of a particular construal in context is driven by the QUD in the same way as the choice between maximal and non-maximal construals of plural definites (Malamud 2012; Križ 2015; Križ & Spector 2020). I then develop a new semantics for plural predication on which non-distributive and non-maximal construals form a natural class. The system extends the idea that non-maximality involves truth-value gaps (e.g. Križ 2015) to non-distributive construals by making use of Schmitt's (2019) 'plural projection' framework, in which plural sentences involve special composition rules.


Introduction HIV-positive individuals are generally considered higher risk for early and more serious neurologic complications related to syphilis. In 2014–2015, clusters of ocular syphilis cases were reported in the US. Simultaneously, the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) saw a dramatic rise in infectious syphilis cases by 40%. Here, we describe ocular syphilis cases diagnosed in BC. Methods All neurosyphilis cases diagnosed in BC since 2013 were reviewed to identify ocular cases. Ocular syphilis was defined as having signs/symptoms of ocular disease (e.g. uveitis, blurred vision) and syphilis of any stage, as defined by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Results Between January 1st, 2013 and October 31st, 2016, 35 cases of ocular syphilis were recorded in BC. Most were male (32/35; 91.4%) and identified as white (20/35; 57.1%). The mean age was 49.7 years. A majority (18/35; 51.4%) were living with HIV. The most frequent ophthalmologic diagnoses were uveitis (41.9%), optic neuritis (12.9%), and retinitis (9.7%). Twenty-three cases had lumbar puncture data available: 13 (56.5%) had elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein, 15 (65.2%) had elevated CSF cell count, and 6 (26.1%) had positive CSF VDRL. As a proportion of all syphilis cases, ocular syphilis accounted for 0.80% of all cases during the 2013–2015 period, versus 1.54% for 2016 (p=0.05). Stratified by HIV serostatus, there was a significant increase in the proportion of ocular syphilis cases in those living with HIV between the 2013–2015 and 2016 time periods (1.17% vs. 3.21%, p=0.03). Conclusion Paralleling trends observed in some US jurisdictions, BC is experiencing an increase in ocular syphilis cases, and an increasing proportion of syphilis cases in those living with HIV are being diagnosed with ocular findings. These results further highlight the importance of continuing efforts to respond to the syphilis epidemic, and focused screening for ocular symptoms, particularly in those at highest risk.


The isotopic composition of osmium (Os) in continental surface waters and shallow ground waters has been determined by analyzing fresh-water Fe-Mn nodules and bog ores. The isotopic composition of the continental runoff from the Precambrian Baltic shield is much more radiogenic ( 187 Os/ 186 Os = 31.2–65.4) than the runoff from the Phanerozoic sedimentary platform to the south of the Baltic Sea ( 187 Os/ 186 Os = 8.6–11.0). Fe-Mn nodules from the Baltic Sea have intermediate values ( 187 Os/ 186 Os = 12.4–21.2), indicating mixture of North Sea water and continental fresh water. Isotope mass-balance calculations indicate that the concentration of Os in the continental runoff is similar to the Os concentration in seawater. Extrapolating these data to infer the global runoff yields ∼48 kg/yr, comparable with previous estimates. The residence time of Os in seawater relative to continental runoff is calculated at ∼32 ka. The oceanic residence time of Os relative to the bulk input to seawater is ∼16 ka, if the mean 187 Os/ 186 Os of the continental runoff is 16. The Os isotopic composition of the continental runoff is much more variable than previously suggested, 187 Os/ 186 Os values >30 being characteristic of Precambrian shields. Glaciation of old cratonic shields might therefore modulate riverine supply of this very radiogenic cratonic Os, linking accelerated increase in the marine Os isotope record to glaciations of Precambrian shields.


Prominent jurists and legal scholars have long been critical of the doctrine of the assumption of risk, arguing that it is logically flawed and has sown confusion in the courts. This article takes a fresh look at the assumption of risk by focusing on legal conflicts over ski accidents in three ski-intensive states - Vermont, Colorado, and California. It argues that the tort doctrine of the assumption of risk remains vital, and highlights the way in which powerful political and economic actors with links to the ski industry have lobbied aggressively for state laws that codify the assumption of risk. The result has been state legislation that protects ski resort owners and operators from tort liability. By pointing to politics and economics as critical factors in the persistence of the doctrine of assumed risks, and exploring the social values implicated in the assumption of risk debate, the article deepens what has been an overly technical debate among tort law scholars and offers a way forward for future tort law scholarship on the idea of assumed risks.


This paper introduces a novel approach to assist the author during the production process of new audiovisual documents from audiovisual archives. Our research relies on rhetorical tradition to relate author's intentions to forms and contents of target audiovisual discourse. We present the different levels of structure which are involved in the authoring process, together with their associated components (topic structure, intentional discourse structure, concrete discourse structure, discursive and narrative components). The paper specially focuses on reuse of audiovisual resources and shows how the context of their indexation can be articulated with the new publication context, so emphasizing the interest of multiple discursive structures interaction. We illustrate our approach with an example of TV news publication based on political TV archives.


Invar 36 alloy is widely used in manufacturing instruments because of its minimal thermal expansion coefficient. As an important material for the components of precision or super-precision instruments, the process methods for Invar and the structure stability after its machining is necessary. In this paper, the residual stresses of the Invar samples after plane grinding were measured. The experimental results indicate that clear tension stress exists in the surface of Invar alloy along the grinding direction, while, on the cross direction, the states of surface residual stresses are complicated and affected by the parameters of grinding. A typical disk model has been calculated and analyzed by Finite Element Method (FEM), and the deformation caused by surface residual stress was presented. Finally, the effect of grinding as final working procedure on the stability of Invar structure was estimated.


Narratives are the process and product of self-understanding. Following from both sociocultural and feminist theories, the ways in which we construct narratives of our past experiences is a critical site for the construction of a coherent sense of self and well-being. Substantial research has established individual differences in how families reminisce about the shared and intergenerational past, and relations between family reminiscing and children's developing autobiographical narratives, self-concept and emotional well-being are well demonstrated. A review of the empirical research from preschool through adolescence indicates individual, gender and cultural differences in family reminiscing. Mothers are more elaborative and expressive than are fathers, both mothers and fathers are more elaborative and expressive with daughters than with sons, and independent cultures, such as European cultures, are more elaborative and expressive that interdependent cultures, such as Asian cultures.  Empirical relations and implications of these differences in family reminiscing for child self and well-being are discussed.


A substantial body of recent research has uncovered the impact of constituency campaigns on British general election outcomes, using the published returns of candidates' spending as a proxy measure for their campaigns' intensity—the more spent, the greater the intensity of the local campaign, and the greater the intensity of campaigning, the better their performance in the constituency, and the poorer their opponents' performance. These data refer only to the last few weeks before the election, however, and cannot identify how spending affects behaviour. For the latter, it is argued that spending is a proxy measure for the amount of contact between candidates and voters; the greater the amount spent the greater the probability that an elector contacted will vote for the relevant party. It has been difficult to evaluate this argument until the 2010 general election, however, for which the availability of a large panel survey that includes information on those contacts allows a full assessment of the hypothesis. The results show that the more spent in a constituency the greater the volume and range of contacts there, which in turn increases the probability of individuals voting for the party concerned.


AIMS
The voltage-gated potassium channel Kv 11.1 is important for repolarising the membrane potential in excitable cells such as myocytes, pancreatic α- and β-cells. Moxifloxacin blocks the Kv 11.1 channel and increases the risk of hypoglycaemia in patients with diabetes. We investigated glucose regulation and secretion of glucoregulatory hormones in young people with and without moxifloxacin a drug known to block the Kv 11.1 channel.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The effect of moxifloxacin (800 mg/day for four days) or placebo on glucose regulation was assessed in a randomised, double-blind, crossover study of young men and women (age 20-40 years and BMI 18.5-27.5 kg/m2 ) without chronic disease, using 6-hour oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).

RESULTS
Thirty-eight participants completed the study. Moxifloxacin prolonged the QTcF-interval and increased heart rate. Hypoglycaemia was more frequently observed with moxifloxacin, both during the eight days of CGM and during the OGTT. Hypoglycaemia questionnaire scores were higher after intake of moxifloxacin. Moxifloxacin reduced early plasma-glucose response (AUC0-30min ) by 7% (95%CI: -9% to -4%, p<0.01), and overall insulin response (AUC0-360min ) decreased by 18% (95%CI: -24% to -11%, p<0.01) and plasma glucagon increased by 17% (95%CI: 4% to 33%, p=0.03). Insulin sensitivity calculated as Matsuda index increased by 11%, and MISI, an index of muscle insulin sensitivity, increased by 34%.

CONCLUSIONS
In young men and women, moxifloxacin a drug known to block the Kv 11.1 channel increased QT interval, decreased glucose levels, and was associated with increased muscle insulin sensitivity and more frequent episodes of hypoglycaemia. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence and severity of oral pain in pregnant women.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of pregnant women who were receiving dental care at a Dental School. A structured questionnaire about self-perception of oral conditions and the presence and severity of orofacial pain in the mouth or teeth in the last 6 months was applied.RESULTS: 80 pregnant women participated in the study and, of these, 58.8% reported having a problem with their teeth, 31.3% periodontal problems, 61.3% bad taste in mouth and 62.5% bad breath. Only 22.5% of pregnant women did not exhibit any form of oral pain. The most frequently reported pains were: pain with hot/cold liquids or sweets (56.2%) and spontaneous toothache (38.8%). With regard to severity, mild and moderate pain were the most frequently reported, but there was a group of 23.8% of pregnant women with severe or very severe pain caused by hot or cold liquids and 18.8% in the same condition in relation to spontaneous pain.CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that, despite the high prevalence of pain detected in the pregnant women, severity was low and referred to specific situations.


Prediction of glass quality is a main objective of glass furnace modeling. Minimum residence time (MRT) counts among the crucial parameters for representing glass quality. Numerical simulation is an efficient tool for estimating this parameter. For a Round Robin a simple case had been chosen with a parallepiped-shaped glass tank to test the performance of numerical codes and their application in glass melting simulation. It was shown that the numerical discretization fixed by the participants is sufficient to represent the temperature and velocity fields. However, significant differences in the calculation of the MRT (6.2 to 7.8 h) between the different participants of the Round Robin were noticed. In this work it is shown that the grid resolution and the number of tracer particles have to be increased at certain locations to capture correctly the shortest path-time trajectory. The final value of 5.5 h for the MRT does not significantly change with further refinement of the grid and of trajectory calculation. The two principal methods known for the calculation of massless virtual particle trajectories are numerical tracing and flow-field stream lines. One established method to check the reliability of stream line calculations is the successive refinement of the numerical resolution. However, for large glass tanks, this method can be quite tedious or even unfeasible. Simplified methods are proposed to check the reliability of MRT calculation.


Dynamic behavior analysis of electric motors are required in order to accurately evaluate the performance, energy consumption and pollution level of hybrid electric vehicles. Due to high torque to inertia ratio, high reliability, high efficiency and power density, five phase interior permanent magnet machines (IPMs) are good candidate for hybrid electric vehicles. In this paper dynamic performance of a five phase IPM machine for series hybrid electric vehicles application is discussed. For this purpose a high torque density five phase IPM machine with low torque pulsation is designed. The mathematical model of the proposed IPM motor is given. A vector control strategy based on the space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique is provided to control the machine over a wide speed range. Finally the system is simulated for different operating modes of a typical drive cycle. Extensive simulation results show the accurate performance of the proposed machine


Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease considered as a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1993. In Sudan, MDR-TB represents a growing threat and one of the most important challenges that faced national tuberculosis program to establish a comprehensive multidrug-resistant tuberculosis management system. Objective To characterize the diversity and frequency of mutations in Sudanese MDR-TB strains isolated from Wad Madani, Al-Gadarif and Khartoum using 16S rRNA and phylogeny approach. Material and Methods A total of 60 MDR-TB isolates from Wad-Madani, Al-Gadarif and Khartoum were tested with molecular LPA (Genotype MTBDR plus) and GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay and Spoligotyping to confirm their resistance to RIF and INH. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was carried out using in silico tools. Result This study revealed the circulation of different Sudanese MDR-TB strains isolated from Wad Madani and Al-Gadarif belonging to two distinct common ancestors. Two isolates from Wad Madani (isolate3 and isolate11) found in one main group which characterized by a novel mutation G511T in the 530 loop. Conclusion The recurrence of C217A mutation in Wad Madani (isolate11) indicates the spread of this mutation in Sudanese MDR-TB strains and the diversity of this inheritance leading to generate new G511T novel mutation. So, understanding the molecular characterization of resistance mechanisms in MD-TB can facilitate the early detection of resistance, the choice of appropriate treatment and ultimately the management of MD-TB transmission. Bioinformatics approaches provide helpful tools for analyzing molecular mechanisms of resistance in pathogens.


The first objective of this study is to investigate how much knowledge public library workers have of the role of libraries in upholding intellectual freedom. Secondly, to establish whether, and for what reasons library workers would opt to self-censor in the face of controversial library materials. Lastly, to determine whether library workers require further information and training in order to achieve the professional anti-censorship standards as promoted by LIANZA.  I used a qualitative methodology to collect data and conducted nine interviews with library workers from public libraries situated in the central North Island. They were asked to share their views on twelve books - selected for their controversial content - to determine which, if any, self-censorship actions they would take in respect of each individual title. They were asked to give reasons for self-censorship actions. They were also asked to share their knowledge of intellectual freedom in libraries.  The key findings for the first objective were that all the participants were familiar with the concept of intellectual freedom in libraries, but none of them were aware of the content of the LIANZA statement or their own library's policy. Almost all the participants relied heavily on their management for information in this regard, even if the information is conveyed informally.  Secondly, the participants often selected self-censorship actions, with the main reasons being a personal distaste of the item or fear of offending library users.  Lastly almost all the participants said that they felt sufficiently informed on intellectual freedom in libraries and required no further training.


This article evaluates the Takeover Bids Directive's board neutrality rule, in light of the European Commission's option to propose the revision of the Directive and a recent suggestion put forward by some commentators to make the rule, which is optional, harder to opt-out. It does so by reassessing the two rationales behind the Commission's original intentions for the rule to be mandatory: (i) disciplining the management of listed companies with dispersed ownership, and (ii) wealth creation. It finds that the first rationale continues to lack relevance to European 'coordinated market economies', whilst empirical evidence is not conclusive that hostile takeovers are more wealth creating than friendly ones, but could be particularly damaging for European coordinated market economies. Arguments that have been put against a more permissive approach to board defences are also contested.


Background/Aims The placement of self expandable metal stent (SEMS) is one of the palliative therapeutic options for patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a covered SEMS versus the conventional plastic stent. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 44 patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction who were treated with a covered SEMS (21 patients) or a plastic stent (10 Fr, 23 patients). We analyzed the technical success rate, functional success rate, early complications, late complications, stent patency and survival rate. Results There was one case in the covered SEMS group that had failed technically, but was corrected successfully using lasso. Functional success rates were 90.5% in the covered SEMS group and 91.3% in the plastic stent group. There was no difference in early complications between the two groups. Median patency of the stent was significantly prolonged in patients who had a covered SEMS (233.6 days) compared with those who had a plastic stent (94.6 days) (p=0.006). During the follow-up period, stent occlusion occurred in 11 patients of the covered SEMS group. Mean survival showed no significant difference between the two groups (covered SEMS group, 236.9 days; plastic stent group, 222.3 days; p=0.182). Conclusions The patency of the covered SEMS was longer than that of the plastic stent and the lasso of the covered SEMS was available for repositioning of the stent.


Memristive devices can reversibly change their resistance by applying an electrical voltage or current. These thin-film devices have the potential to serve as central components in novel neuromorphic circuits, similar to synapses in the human brain.
Unlike traditional neuromorphic systems, they enable a state-based and non-volatile weight between two neurons. This comes very close to the natural model of the human brain, where information is stored and processed together.

The aim of this thesis was the development of novel memristive devices and the integration into crossbar arrays. An essential requirement was an analogous resistance change, which allows continuous changes in resistance. It was found, that devices with a combination of tunnel and Schottky barriers are best suited for this purpose. These double barrier devices show an analogous and homogeneous resistance change. As a reference system, filament-based memristive devices have been developed that alter their resistance due the migration of silver. Since the formation of filaments is almost random, they have a significantly higher device variability and very few states between the off- and on-state.
Only the high quality of the double barrier component allowed the circuit integration without the need to individually adjust circuit parameters for each memristive device. Due to the non-linear switching characteristics and the advantageous I-V characteristics, the devices were integrated into a space-saving crossbar architecture, which increased the packing density tenfold. Due to the simultaneously simplified electrical connection, it was possible to realize a circuit for pattern classification with 180 memristive devices.

The construction of an automated measuring system enabled the characterization of a large number of devices. The development of database-supported measurement and evaluation programs facilitated the analysis of the device and switching properties.


Helicons are transverse electromagnetic waves propagating in three-dimensional (3D) electron systems subject to a static magnetic field. We present a theory of helicons propagating through a 3D Weyl semimetal. Our approach relies on the evaluation of the optical conductivity tensor from semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, with the inclusion of certain Berry curvature corrections that have been neglected in the earlier literature (such as the one due to the orbital magnetic moment). We demonstrate that the axion term characterizing the electromagnetic response of Weyl semimetals dramatically alters the helicon dispersion with respect to that in nontopological metals. We also discuss axion-related anomalies that appear in the plasmon dispersion relation.


High Nb containing TiAl based alloys exhibit excellent corrosion resistance to molten zinc. They are expected to serve as the potential coating materials of corrosion resistance to molten zinc. Four TiAl-Nb alloys of good oxidation resistance and their powders were prepared by arc-melting and ball milling, respectively. The Microstructure, Hardness, Coefficient of thermal expansion, and grain size distribution of four as-cast TiAl-Nb alloys and their powders were investigated. In addition, EPMA analysis was employed to further examine the existential state of element Y in as-cast TiAl-Nb alloys. It was found that element Y existed in the form of YAl2 phase in the grain boundaries and triple junctions. Higher content of Al in TiAl-Nb alloy results in bigger Coefficient of thermal expansion. Lamellar microstructures and fine grains exert a positive influence on hardness. Powders prepared by ball milling displayed angular and irregular morphology.


The Eurasian ice sheet extended across the Barents and Kara Seas during the late Quaternary, yet evidence on past ice dynamics and thermal structure across its huge eastern periphery remains largely unknown. Here we use three-dimensional seismic data sets covering ∼4500 km2 of the Kara Sea west of Yamal Peninsula, Siberia (71°–73°N), to identify, for the first time in the Russian Arctic seas, several buried generations of vast subglacial tunnel valley networks. Individual valleys are up to 50 km long and are incised as much as 400 m deep; among the largest tunnel valleys ever reported. This discovery represents the first documentation of an extensively warm-based eastern margin of the Eurasian ice sheet during the Quaternary glaciations. The presence of major subglacial channel networks on the shallow shelf, with no evidence of ice streaming, suggests that significant meltwater discharge and subsequent freshwater forcing of ocean circulation may be long-lived rather than catastrophic, occurring during the latest stages of deglaciation in areas where the ice sheet flows slowly and is grounded largely above sea level. Furthermore, the first account of an extensive hydrological network across large areas of the Kara Sea provides important empirical evidence for active subglacial hydrological processes that should be considered in future numerical modeling of the eastern margin of the Quaternary Eurasian ice sheet.


The problems of both single and multiple delays for neutral-type uncertain systems are considered. First, for single neutral time delay systems, based on a Razumikhin-type theorem, some delay-dependent stability criteria are derived in terms of the Lyapunov equation for various classes of model transformation and decomposition techniques. Second, robust control for neutral systems with multiple time delays is considered. Finally, we demonstrate numerical examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. Compared with results existing in the literature, our methods are shown to be superior to them.


Effective communication is central to showing empathy at the end of someone's life, yet it is also perhaps the most difficult skill to get right. As a result, communication is one of the aspects of care that patients most often complain about (Healthcare Commission, 2007). It is widely accepted that effective communication is resource and time-intensive, although the benefits tend to outweigh these perceived drawbacks. More importantly, poor communication can have an impact on patients' decision-making in preparation for death.


Abstract: Plasma cell granuloma (PCG) is an uncommon benign tumor of unknown etiology, primarily located in the lungs. We report a case of PCG on the gingiva mimicking benign and malignant tumors in a 56-year-old woman. Histopathological examination revealed a relatively sharp circumscribed inflammatory cell infiltration under the mucosa-containing plasma cells, predominantly those including Russell bodies. Plasma cells are stained by CD138 immunohistochemistry. Polyclonal status of the lesion was confirmed by kappa and lambda light chaining. The typical histopathological and immunohistochemical findings in combination with the clinical features were consistent with PCG, about which the literature reports very few cases.


Essential overwintering habitats for anadromous Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma on Alaska's North Slope appear to be limited to a small number of perennial springs, primarily in eastern Brooks Range drainages. Because future petrochemical development in the region continues to be a possibility, and development would require large quantities of freshwater, we sought to identify and document the overwintering areas used by Dolly Varden in the Hulahula River, eastern Brooks Range. In August 2007, we implanted 52 Dolly Varden with multi-year radio transmitters at a known overwintering area in the lower Hulahula River. Other wintering areas were located during 11 aerial surveys conducted over the next 2.5 years. A stationary receiver located in the lower Hulahula River provided migration timing information. Radio-tagged Dolly Varden used four discrete areas with perennial springs for overwintering in the Hulahula River drainage. The springs, totaling approximately 12 km in stream length, were located between river km 40 and 105. Radio-tagged Dolly Varden migrated downstream on their way to the Beaufort Sea in early June. Most tagged fish known to have survived the summer at sea returned to the Hulahula River during late July and August, but seven fish overwintered in other North Slope drainages. Within the Hulahula River drainage, 15 fish overwintered in more than one area during the three winters of the project, but only the four identified perennial spring areas were used. These data clearly indicate that the perennial springs in the Hulahula River are essential overwintering habitats for Dolly Varden.


Considerable research is being carried out in the area of wide band gap semiconductor materials for light emission applications in the UV/Blue (300-400 nm) spectral range. This project explores the novel use of the Copper Halides (CuHa), specifically γ-CuCl and γ-CuBr, I–VII wide band gap mixed ionic–electronic semiconducting materials with light emitting properties suitable for novel UV/blue light applications. This project details novel research carried out towards achieving single crystal growth of γ-CuCl
from solution via Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE) based techniques. LPE growth runs are undertaken using an alkali halide flux compound (KCl) to depress the liquidus temperature of CuCl below its solid phase wurtzite-zincblende (β → γ) transition temperature for solution based epitaxy on lattice matched Si substrates (lattice constant of γ-CuCl (0.541 nm) is closely matched to that of Si (0.543 nm). Results show that the resulting KCl flux-driven deposition of CuCl onto the Si substrate has
yielded superior photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) behaviour relative to comparatively observed spectra for GaN or polycrystalline CuCl. The resulting deposited material is a textured CuCl/K2CuCl3 polycrystalline intermix, with strong broad
luminescence and novel luminescent characteristics not previously observed in CuCl. Difficulties inherent to LPE with CuCl/KCl melts, particularly with the CuCl/KCl eutectic system and the CuCl/Si surface reaction, are detailed.
The use of γ-CuBr for thin film based blue light emitting devices is investigated. Its structural and physical properties allow for vacuum deposition on a variety of substrates and herein we report on the deposition of γ-CuBr on Si, glass and indium tin oxide coated glass substrates via vacuum evaporation with controllable film thickness from 100 to 500 nm. Temperature dependent photoluminescence characteristics of these γ-CuBr films on Si substrates reveal familiar Zf and I1 excitonic features. Work towards the development of a thin filmelectroluminescent device using a γ-CuBr active layer is outlined.
Recently, dramatic improvements in the luminescent intensity of CuBr generated by the chemical interaction between CuCl films and KBr substrates have been demonstrated. The potential improvements in excitonic PL that can be gained from novel approaches to film preparation involving KBr and existing CuBr deposition techniques is promising. We report on the one such
novel approach, the vacuum deposition of KBr spots (~30 µm radius) onto similarly deposited γ-CuBr epitaxial layer on a Si substrate. Post-deposition annealing of the samples at 220 °C in conjunction with a small CuBr flux from a target source leads to the formation of intermixed CuBr/
KBr microdots. PL characterisation reveals enhanced UV-Blue excitonic emission centered on the Zf free exciton peak at ~418 nm, far superior to Zf emission from γ-CuBr films deposited previously.
An overview of the deposition process involving shadow masks to lay down an ordered array of KBr spots onto a γ-CuBr vacuum evaporated layer is presented, and the samples are characterised using XRD, EDX and spatially resolved room temperature PL.


A design of a reliable broadcast communication system for unreliable broadcast networks like Ethernet and radio networks is presented. The authors try to provide a partially ordering broadcast (PO) service in which every entity receives all messages from one entity in the same order. The PO protocol does not require the total ordering of received protocol data units (PDUs). In order to provide a reliable broadcast communication among multiple entities on an unreliable broadcast service, a data transmission procedure, the execution of which is controlled by all entities in a distributed scheme, is proposed. The correctness of the protocol is shown. The protocol can be very useful in designing and implementing distributed systems, such as distributed database systems and distributed operating systems.<<ETX>>


Objectives Healthcare professionals need to take into account their knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop a focused clinical question, perform an effective search of the literature, critically appraise the evidence, and apply to the clinical context and evaluate the effectiveness of the process. To date, there is a lack of consensus on evidence-based medicine (EBM) curriculum for undergraduate healthcare students in Brazil. The aim of this study was to develop a consensus on EBM curriculum contents for healthcare schools in Brazil considering expert opinion. Design Modified three-round Delphi methodology. Setting Online survey. Participants The expert panel was composed of 40 healthcare professionals from different specialties. Most of the participants (n=24; 60%) were female with the age between 30 and 44 years. Participants were also experts in the field of epidemiology, biostatistics or public health. The mean experience of experts in teaching EBM was 9.5 years. Main outcome measures An online questionnaire consisting of 89 items related to EBM was sent to the experts. The experts ranked each item of EBM curriculum considering the importance of each item as omitted, mentioned, explained or practised. The last section of the questionnaire was composed of 'additional content' where the experts evaluated only if an item should be included or not, the form of offering the EBM contents and the total workload (in hours/semester). Open-ended questions were present in each section to give the opportunity to experts to insert suggestions. Items that reached values greater than or equal to 70% of agreement among experts was considered definitive for the curriculum. Items between 51% and 69% of agreement were included for the next round and those items with less than or equal to 50% of agreement were considered unnecessary and were excluded. In the third round, the EBM contents were classified according to the degree of consensus as follow: strong (≥70% of agreement), moderate (51%–69% of agreement) and weak (50% of agreement) based on the maximum consensus reached. Results Of the 89 initial contents, 32 (35.9%) reached a strong degree of consensus, 23 (25.8%) moderate degree of consensus, two (2.2%) weak degree of consensus and 35 items were not recommended (≤50% of agreement). The workload suggested by experts should be between 61 and 90 hour/semester and an EBM curriculum should be offered with epidemiology and biostatistics as prerequisites. Regarding the importance of each item, 29 (72.5%) should be explained and 25 (27.5%) should be practised with exercises. Conclusions The consensus on an EBM curriculum for Brazilian healthcare schools consists of 54 items. This EBM curriculum also presents the degree of consensus (strong, moderate and weak), the importance of each item (mentioned, explained and practised with exercises). A total workload of between 60 and 90 hours per semester was suggested and the EBM curriculum should be offered with epidemiology and biostatistics as prerequisites, but also EBM contents should be included within other disciplines throughout the entire undergraduate course.


With the rapid increase in population coupled with the seemingly irreversible flow of people from rural to urban areas, cities in the developing world are acquiring unplanned and uncontrolled squatter settlements at their peripheries. The provision of urban services and infrastructure in these cities is hampered by the failure of formal bureaucratic government institutions to collect appropriate information for planning, especially in areas that fall outside the remit of the formal networks. A growing number of grass-roots nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to rectify the situation by acting as intermediaries between urban slum dwellers and the government. In this article, we review the literature on forms of intermediation by NGOs and other organizations working for citizen groups. We then present a case study of Jana Sahayog, an NGO operating in the slums of Bangalore, which employs an information-based model of NGO-mediated intervention. The article describes the various information-based initiatives that Jana Sahayog has undertaken to open up channels of communication between citizens and the government. Jana Sahayog's experience offers valuable lessons for NGOs operating in other parts of the world.


Burns are the most devastating form of trauma that has afflicted mankind since ancient times, its short- and longterm consequences leave severe squeal in the patients affected by them, the costs they generate to health systems are very high and it is counted At present with few hospital centers specialized in the treatment of these affections. The initial approach of the burned patient is fundamental in the survival of the patients, but also in the morbidity that they cause so it is essential to have a multidisciplinary team for its proper management. The main pillars in the treatment of burns are adequate water therapy, airway management and comprehensive surgical treatment of the patient as a final resolution, the following pages addresses the definition and general epidemiology of burns, pathophysiology and the initial approach.


Reorganizing implicit feedback of users as a user-item interaction graph facilitates the applications of graph convolutional networks (GCNs) in recommendation tasks. In the interaction graph, edges between user and item nodes function as the main element of GCNs to perform information propagation and generate informative representations. Nevertheless, an underlying challenge lies in the quality of interaction graph, since observed interactions with less-interested items occur in implicit feedback (say, a user views micro-videos accidentally). This means that the neighborhoods involved with such false-positive edges will be influenced negatively and the signal on user preference can be severely contaminated. However, existing GCN-based recommender models leave such challenge under-explored, resulting in suboptimal representations and performance. In this work, we focus on adaptively refining the structure of interaction graph to discover and prune potential false-positive edges. Towards this end, we devise a new GCN-based recommender model, Graph-Refined Convolutional Network (GRCN), which adjusts the structure of interaction graph adaptively based on status of model training, instead of remaining the fixed structure. In particular, a graph refining layer is designed to identify the noisy edges with the high confidence of being false-positive interactions, and consequently prune them in a soft manner. We then apply a graph convolutional layer on the refined graph to distill informative signals on user preference. Through extensive experiments on three datasets for micro-video recommendation, we validate the rationality and effectiveness of our GRCN. Further in-depth analysis presents how the refined graph benefits the GCN-based recommender model.


5D Space-Time-Energy World-Universe Model is a unified model of the World built around the concept of Medium, composed of massive particles (protons, electrons, photons, neutrinos, and dark matter particles). The Model provides a mathematical framework that enables precise calculation of medium-bound physical parameters: Hubble's parameter, intergalactic plasma parameters, temperature of microwave background radiation and the rest mass of photons. This paper aligns the World-Universe Model (WUM) with the theoretical framework developed by Prof. P. S. Wesson, albeit assigning a new physical meaning to the fifth coordinate. In the World-Universe Model, the fifth dimension is associated with the total energy of the Medium of the World, and the gravitomagnetic parameter of the Medium serves as the dimension-transposing parameter.


Motivation The selection of species exhibiting metabolic behaviors of interest is a challenging step when switching from the investigation of a large microbiota to the study of functions effectiveness. Approaches based on a compartmentalized framework are not scalable. The output of scalable approaches based on a non‐compartmentalized modeling may be so large that it has neither been explored nor handled so far. Results We present the Miscoto tool to facilitate the selection of a community optimizing a desired function in a microbiome by reporting several possibilities which can be then sorted according to biological criteria. Communities are exhaustively identified using logical programming and by combining the non‐compartmentalized and the compartmentalized frameworks. The benchmarking of 4.9 million metabolic functions associated with the Human Microbiome Project, shows that Miscoto is suited to screen and classify metabolic producibility in terms of feasibility, functional redundancy and cooperation processes involved. As an illustration of a host‐microbial system, screening the Recon 2.2 human metabolism highlights the role of different consortia within a family of 773 intestinal bacteria. Availability and implementation Miscoto source code, instructions for use and examples are available at: https://github.com/cfrioux/miscoto.


The homeotropically aligned nematic liquid-crystal layer with a free circular edge is studied. Domain patterns induced by high-frequency ultrasound pulses are observed for the first time to our knowledge. The pattern changes for different incident angles of the ultrasound and can be enhanced by a quasi-static electric field.


One possibility to run a zero CO2-emission power plant is the oxyfuel combustion process. An efficient technology to separate oxygen from air are processes with oxygen transport membranes. It is important that these membranes have a high permeability additional to high chemical stability under power plant conditions. La0.58Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3- (LSCF) is a mixed ionic electronic conducting material (MIEC) which is considered to have good permeation properties and a high stability. In this work LSCF based membranes are investigated. Data from a TGA (Thermo-Gravimetric Analyser) have been used to determine the diffusion coefficient of oxygen vacancies in LSCF perovskite type oxides for different temperatures.


This paper proposes a new cough detection system based on audio signals acquired from conventional smartphones. The system relies on local Hu moments to characterize cough events and a k-NN classifier to distinguish cough events from non-cough ones (speech, laugh, sneeze, etc.) and noisy sounds. To deal with the unbalance between classes, we employ Distinct-Borderline2 Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique and a bespoke cost matrix. The system additionally features a post-processing module to avoid isolated false negatives and, this way, increases sensitivity. Evaluation has been carried out using a database comprising a variety of cough and non-cough events and different types of background noise. In this study, we specifically focused on noise likely to appear when the user is carrying the smartphone in daily activities. Different Signal to Noise Ratio values were tested ranging between -15 and 0 dB. Our experiments confirm that local Hu moments are suitable not only for characterizing cough events but also for coping with noisy environments. Results show a sensitivity of 94.17% and a specificity of 92.16% at -15 dB. Thus, our system shows potential as a reliable and place-ubiquitous monitoring device that helps patients selfmanage their own respiratory diseases and avoids unreported or fabricated symptoms.


Unsupervised domain adaptation aims at learning a shared model for two related, but not identical, domains by leveraging supervision from a source domain to an unsupervised target domain. A number of effective domain adaptation approaches rely on the ability to extract discriminative, yet domain-invariant, latent factors which are common to both domains. Extracting latent commonality is also useful for disentanglement analysis, enabling separation between the common and the domain-specific features of both domains. In this paper, we present a method for boosting domain adaptation performance by leveraging disentanglement analysis. The key idea is that by learning to separately extract both the common and the domain-specific features, one can synthesize more target domain data with supervision, thereby boosting the domain adaptation performance. Better common feature extraction, in turn, helps further improve the disentanglement analysis and disentangled synthesis. We show that iterating between domain adaptation and disentanglement analysis can consistently improve each other on several unsupervised domain adaptation tasks, for various domain adaptation backbone models.


This paper discussed the polishing characteristic of single crystal sapphire (0001) when using 100°C vapor as polishing liquid and cedar wood as polishing pad. Surface roughness and scratch were compared before and after hydration polishing process. For 20 hours hydration polishing, both XRD and surface texture show that sapphire surface was changed in micro-structure and texture, even with minor scratch on the hydration polished surface, surface roughness could be decreased to Rt6.74 in X direction and Rt7.64nm in Y direction, it is about 2 nm surface layer was removed during hydration polishing.


The European Somnologist certification programme was developed by the European Sleep Research Society to improve patient care in sleep medicine by providing an independent evaluation of theoretical and practical knowledge. The examination of eligible experts plays a key role in this procedure. A process was started more than 15 years ago to create the European sleep medicine curriculum, eligibility criteria for certification, and sleep centre accreditation criteria. The process was characterised by interdisciplinary collaboration, consensus, and achieving new solutions. During the past 10 years, experience has been gained by the examination and certification of more than 1000 sleep medicine experts from more than 50 countries. The process has continuously been improved. However, as the programme was designed and administered mainly by medical experts in the field, systematic influence from teaching and pedagogic experts was partially underrepresented. The current critical appraisal pinpoints several missing links in the process – mainly as a missing constructive alignment between learning objectives, learning and teaching activities, and the final assessment. A series of suggestions has been made to further improve the ESRS certification programme.


This paper provides an analysis of agro-food industry growth in Belarus, which is one of the key industries in the economy. Such an analysis allowed us to understand the main forces of relatively successful development. We pointed out that state owned companies in the Belarusian agro-food industry operate as de facto strongly integrated corporate groups which ensures reliable supply of raw materials. In addition, we looked at the government directed lending programs which, through allocation of credit, push funds toward priority subsectors.


We experimentally investigate the ability of an all-optical 2R regenerator to suppress impairments caused by intrachannel four-wave mixing (IFWM) and intrachannel cross-phase modulation (IXPM), which are the two dominant nonlinear effects in 40-Gb/s pseudolinear transmission systems. The 2R regenerator suppresses amplitude fluctuations and shadow pulses induced by IFWM in 80-km transmission over standard single-mode fiber, allowing an increase of signal power by /spl sim/3 dB. However, the 2R regenerator shows little improvement for an 80-km TrueWave RS fiber, where timing jitter originating from IXPM dominates.


Abstract This paper examines the influence of tangible trip outcomes and subjective evaluations on overall trip satisfaction in marine recreational fishing. The paper proposes a model of fishing satisfaction that integrates subjective and situational factors as well as consumptive and nonconsumptive elements of the experience. A replicated analysis of separate samples of Delaware and Maryland fishermen was used. Findings demonstrate that a significant portion of the variance in satisfaction could be explained by a set of identifiable components of the total experience. Overall satisfaction was influenced most strongly and most directly by subjective evaluations of specific aspects of the experience. Situational outcomes influenced overall satisfaction in a more indirect manner as they were filtered through various subjective evaluations. The proposed fishing model suggests that consumptive outcomes are more important than they appear from the typically weak correlations found between satisfaction and obje...


This paper presents a novel method of reducing the spurious signal content in a digitally synthesized sine wave at the output of a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO). The proposed method uses a linear approximation subsystem with a reduced size look-up table (LUT). Two NCO architectures are considered. Architecture 0 - which is the standard - in which the accumulator word length is longer than the LUT address word, is compared with Architecture 1, where the accumulator bits beyond the LUT address space are used for the linear approximation of the value in between the entries of the LUT. Analysis of both architectures demonstrates that the spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) in Architecture 1 equates to 12 dBc per bit of the address space of the LUT as opposed to 6 dBc for Architecture 0. The system was implemented and tested using the Xilinx Spartan 3 platform.


Digital assets - such as social media accounts, emails, crypto-assets and photographs - are an increasingly important part of people's lives. But what happens to these assets when someone dies or is incapacitated? Are families able to access them? The Cloud Legal Project worked with the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners to survey 500+ estate practitioners. The survey asked practitioners about their experiences with clients' digital assets. We found that there are difficulties involved in obtaining access to digital assets on death or incapacity. These difficulties include a lack of clarity around property rights and a lack of cooperation from cloud service providers. Given the sentimental and monetary value such assets can hold, we believe families deserve better. To resolve these problems, we call for improved legislation, more awareness for both estate practitioners and clients, and better cooperation with cloud service providers.


Pregnancy and lactation are physiological states mediated by metabolic and endocrine factors capable of affecting erythrocyte osmotic stability. Alteration in erythrocyte osmotic fragility (EOF) during late pregnancy and lactation was investigated in 46 apparently healthy adult Sahel goats weighing 18- 30 kg consisting of 16 non-pregnant dry (NPD), 15 pregnant (PRE) and 15 lactating (LAC) animals. The PRE and LAC were in third trimester and nursing periods, respectively. Packed cell volume, erythrocyte count, mean coruscular volume and EOF were determined with heparinised venous blood using standard methods . Erythrocyte parameters of NPD, PRE and LAC did not vary significantly (p >0.05). The mean fragilities of NPD, PRE and LAC varied significantly (p < 0.05) at saline concentration of 8 g/L, with left and right shifts of PRE and LAC fragility curves from NPD curve at saline concentrations of 7-8 g/L, respectively. At 10-70% haemolysis, mean saline concentrations increased (p < 0.05) by 0.31 ± 0.07 (0.2-0.4) g/L for LAC and decreased (p < 0.05) by 0.19 ± 0.09 (0.1-0.3) for PRE from mean values for NPD, so that the  aggregate shift of mean saline concentrations between PRE and LAC was 0.50 ± 0.10 (0.40-0.70) g/L. EOF decreased in late pregnancy and increased during lactation, perhaps, due to changes in the composition of erythrocyte membranes associated with the physiologic states. Keywords: Erythrocyteosmotic stability, osmotic fragility, late pregnancy, lactation, Sahel goat


Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of early rehabilitation compared with delayed/standard rehabilitation after rotator cuff repair for pain, function, range of movement, strength, and repair integrity. Design: Systematic review and meta-analyses. Methods: We searched databases and included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing early with delayed/standard rehabilitation for patients undergoing rotator cuff repair surgery. We assessed risk of bias of the RCTs using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool. Results: Twenty RCTs, with 1841 patients, were included. The majority of the RCTs were of high or unclear risk of overall bias. We found substantial variations in the rehabilitation programmes, time in the sling and timing of exercise progression. We found no statistically significant differences for pain and function at any follow-up except for the outcome measure Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation at six months (MD: 6.54; 95%CI: 2.24-10.84) in favour of early rehabilitation. We found statistically significant differences in favour of early rehabilitation for shoulder flexion at six weeks (MD: 7.36; 95%CI: 2.66-12.06), three (MD: 8.45; 95%CI: 3.43-13.47) and six months (MD: 3.57; 95%CI: 0.81-6.32) and one year (MD: 1.42; 95%CI: 0.21-2.64) and similar differences for other planes of movement. In terms of repair integrity at one year, regarding early mobilisation, the number needed to harm was 651. Discussion: Current approaches to early mobilisation, based largely on early introduction of passive movement, did not demonstrate significant differences in most clinical outcomes, although we found statistically significant differences in favour of early rehabilitation for range of movement. Importantly, there were no differences in repair integrity between early and delayed/standard rehabilitation. Most rehabilitation programmes did not consider early active movement as soon as the patient feels able. With ongoing variation in rehabilitation protocols there remains a need for large high quality RCT to inform the optimal approach to rehabilitation after rotator cuff repair surgery.


This is a descriptive study, aiming at comparing the nursing workload in a post-operatory heart surgery unit (UPOCC) using NAS, TISS-28 and NEMS, and verifying both the observed and recommended nursing staff-to-patient ratio according to the workload indexes used. Data collection happened in a University Hospital, from October to November, 2004. The sample included 55 patients, resulting in 283 nursing workload measurements. The nursing workload measured by NAS (73.7%) were statistically higher than TISS-28 (66.2%) and NEMS (59.7%). The average of nursing staff-to-patient ratio estimated by NAS (1:1), TISS-28 (0.8:1) and NEMS (0.8:1) were lower than the observed ratio in the unit (1.2:1). We concluded that NAS measured a higher nursing workload and showed a nursing staff-to-patient ratio similar to the results found in the unit studied.


ABSTRACT A horizontal, fluorophore-enhanced, repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (rep-PCR) DNA fingerprinting technique (HFERP) was developed and evaluated as a means to differentiate human from animal sources of Escherichia coli. Box A1R primers and PCR were used to generate 2,466 rep-PCR and 1,531 HFERP DNA fingerprints from E. coli strains isolated from fecal material from known human and 12 animal sources: dogs, cats, horses, deer, geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, goats, and sheep. HFERP DNA fingerprinting reduced within-gel grouping of DNA fingerprints and improved alignment of DNA fingerprints between gels, relative to that achieved using rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting. Jackknife analysis of the complete rep-PCR DNA fingerprint library, done using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, indicated that animal and human isolates were assigned to the correct source groups with an 82.2% average rate of correct classification. However, when only unique isolates were examined, isolates from a single animal having a unique DNA fingerprint, Jackknife analysis showed that isolates were assigned to the correct source groups with a 60.5% average rate of correct classification. The percentages of correctly classified isolates were about 15 and 17% greater for rep-PCR and HFERP, respectively, when analyses were done using the curve-based Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient, rather than the band-based Jaccard algorithm. Rarefaction analysis indicated that, despite the relatively large size of the known-source database, genetic diversity in E. coli was very great and is most likely accounting for our inability to correctly classify many environmental E. coli isolates. Our data indicate that removal of duplicate genotypes within DNA fingerprint libraries, increased database size, proper methods of statistical analysis, and correct alignment of band data within and between gels improve the accuracy of microbial source tracking methods.


Conservative religious, activist and political groups fuel gender backlash in many spaces. This paper explores this phenomenon and its effects on educational programs designed to prevent gender-based violence in Brasilian schools. It argues that this gender backlash in educative spaces violates fundamental rights, like the right to equality and protection against discrimination and violence, and ultimately contributes to the continuity and escalation of gender-based violence in Brasil. This context shapes advocacy work and the facilitators and participants of its programs. Primary prevention research is mainly conducted in the Global North. This article, guided by a southern feminist framework and informed by 14 interviews with Brasilian advocates engaged in youth gender-based violence prevention programs, addresses a significant knowledge deficit and offers new insights in working in challenging contexts. It suggests that the backlash is mostly directed at LGBTIQA+ cohorts due to the ongoing political attacks on these groups, but it has also undermined the capacity of educational prevention strategies for gender-based violence more widely.


Single cell imaging studies suggest that transcription is not continuous and occurs as discrete pulses of gene activity. To study mechanisms by which retroviral transgenes can transcribe to high levels, we used the MS2 system to visualize transcriptional dynamics of high expressing proviral integration sites in embryonic stem (ES) cells. We established two ES cell lines each bearing a single copy, self-inactivating retroviral vector with a strong ubiquitous human EF1α gene promoter directing expression of mRFP fused to an MS2-stem-loop array. Transfection of MS2-EGFP generated EGFP focal dots bound to the mRFP-MS2 stem loop mRNA. These transcription foci colocalized with the transgene integration site detected by immunoFISH. Live tracking of single cells for 20 minutes detected EGFP focal dots that displayed frequent and rapid fluctuations in transcription over periods as short as 25 seconds. Similarly rapid fluctuations were detected from focal doublet signals that colocalized with replicated proviral integration sites by immunoFISH, consistent with transcriptional pulses from sister chromatids. We concluded that retroviral transgenes experience rapid transcriptional pulses in clonal ES cell lines that exhibit high level expression. These events are directed by a constitutive housekeeping gene promoter and may provide precedence for rapid transcriptional pulsing at endogenous genes in mammalian stem cells.