Landmark-based morphometric and meristic analysis of pond, haor and estuary populations of Glossogobius giuris (Hamilton,1822) (Perciformes:Gobiidae) were done to find out variations among the three stocks. Samples were collected from three different regions such as pond of Mymensingh, haor of Kishoreganj and estuary of Barisal. Significant differences (*P<0.01) were observed in 13 general morphometric and 23 size adjusted landmark-based morphometric measurements among three stocks. Among the 11 meristic counts the first dorsal fin rays (D1FR), transverse scale above lateral line (TSALL), branchiostegal rays and number of vertebrae were same among fishes of these stocks. In case of pectoral fin rays (PcFR) and transverse scale on lateral line (TSOLL) the haor stock was significantly different from other two stocks. In discriminant space, pond stock was isolated from other two stocks. On the other hand, haor and estuary stocks showed very close relationship. A dendrogram based on the hierarchical cluster analysis using size adjusted general morphometric and landmark measurements formed two main clusterspond stock in one cluster and other two stocks (haor and estuary) remained in another cluster. It indicates that pond stock was separated. The second cluster explained that haor and estuary stocks had very close relationship.


Purpose - This paper aims to examine both the cointegrating and causal relationships among inward FDI and the host country's employment in manufacturing and services sectors. Design/methodology/approach - This paper applies autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework to test the cointegration and causality patterns using Singapore as a case. Findings - Apart from the presence of a unique long-run relationship, the findings also show evidence of long-run causality, running from employment in manufacturing and services to FDI inflows, and from FDI inflows and services employment to manufacturing employment. Furthermore, there is evidence of short-run causality showing strong FDI-employment and employment linkages, predominantly from the manufacturing to services. Research limitations/implications - One likely area of future research is to extend this paper by using disaggregated data, e.g. FDI inflows by sector (manufacturing and services), and employment by the respective sectors. Practical implications - Manufacturing and services have been regarded as the "twin engines" of growth for the Singapore economy. As the economy is moving up the value chain from downstream to upstream activities, a significant proportion of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been attracted to the manufacturing and services sectors. The present study provides useful policy implications towards promoting foreign investment in emerging areas of and manpower development in both sectors of the economy. Originality/value - This paper explores the possible interactions between FDI inflows and employment in manufacturing and services sectors as well as the employment linkages between manufacturing and services in Singapore.


We study the problem of computing general static-arbitrage bounds for European basket options; that is, computing bounds on the price of a basket option, given the only assumption of absence of arbitrage, and information about prices of other European basket options on the same underlying assets and with the same maturity. In particular, we provide a simple efficient way to compute this type of bounds by solving a large finite non-linear programming formulation of the problem. This is done via a suitable Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition that takes advantage of an integer programming formulation of the corresponding subproblems. Our computation method equally applies to both upper and lower arbitrage bounds, and provides a solution method for general instances of the problem. This constitutes a substantial contribution to the related literature, in which upper and lower bound problems need to be treated differently, and which provides efficient ways to solve particular static-arbitrage bounds for European basket options; namely, when the option prices information used to compute the bounds is limited to vanilla and/or forward options, or when the number of underlying assets is limited to two assets. Also, our computation method allows the inclusion of real-world characteristics of option prices into the arbitrage bounds problem, such as the presence of bid-ask spreads. We illustrate our results by computing upper and lower arbitrage bounds on gasoline/heating oil crack spread options.


Abstract. Bias adjustment is often a necessity in estimating climate impacts because impact models usually rely on unbiased climate information, a requirement that climate model output rarely fulfills. Most currently used statistical bias adjustment methods adjust each climate variable separately, even though impacts usually depend on multiple, potentially dependent variables. Human heat stress, for instance, depends on temperature and relative humidity, two variables that are often strongly correlated. Whether univariate bias adjustment methods effectively improve estimates of impacts that depend on multiple drivers is largely unknown, and the lack of long-term impact data prevents a direct comparison between model output and observations for many climate related impacts. Here we use two hazard indicators, heat stress and a simple fire risk indicator, as proxies for more sophisticated impact models. We show that univariate bias adjustment methods such as univariate quantile mapping often cannot effectively reduce biases in multivariate hazard estimates. In some cases, it even increases biases. These cases typically occur (i) when hazards depend equally strongly on more than one climatic driver, (ii) when models exhibit biases in the dependence structure of drivers, and (iii) when univariate biases are relatively small. Using a perfect model approach, we further quantify the uncertainty of bias-adjusted hazard indicators due to internal variability and show how inadequate bias adjustment can amplify this uncertainty. Both issues can be addressed successfully with a statistical bias adjustment that corrects the multivariate dependence structure in addition to the marginal distributions of the climate drivers. Our results suggest that currently many modelled climate impacts are associated with substantial uncertainties associated with the choice of bias adjustment. We conclude that, as long as bias adjustment is unavoidable for climate impact assessments, the use of statistical bias adjustment approaches that correct the multivariate dependence structure of drivers is preferable.


Objective: To analyse the smaller Australian state/territory service impact of the introduction of new COVID-19 psychiatrist video and telephone telehealth Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items. Method: MBS item service data were extracted for COVID-19 psychiatrist video and telephone telehealth item numbers corresponding to the pre-existing in-person consultations for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Northern Territory (NT), South Australia (SA) and Tasmania. Results: The overall rate of consultations (face-to-face and telehealth) increased during March and April 2020, compared to the monthly face-to-face consultation average, excepting Tasmania. Compared to an annual monthly average of in-person consultations for July 2018–June 2019, total telepsychiatry consultations were higher for April than May. For total video and telephone telehealth consultations combined, video consultations were lower in April and higher in May. As a percentage of combined telehealth and in-person consultations, telehealth was greater for April and lower for May compared to the monthly face-to-face consultation average. Conclusions: In the smaller states/territories, the private practice workforce rapidly adopted COVID-19 MBS telehealth items, with the majority of psychiatric consultation shifting to telehealth initially, and then returning to face-to-face. With a second wave of COVID-19 in Australia, telehealth is likely to remain a vital part of the national mental health strategy.


A new synthetic strategy for the novel diphosphine-phosphine oxide ligand (1) (Ph2P-(C6H4))2P(O)H was designed. A series of [PPP]-pincer Fe, Ni, and Co complexes were prepared. All of them were formed by chelate-assisted P–H activation. Two metal hydrides [(Ph2P-(C6H4))2P(O)]Fe(H)(PMe3)2 (2) and [(Ph2P-(C6H4))2P(O)]Ni(H)(PMe3) (3) were obtained at room temperature. The combination of ligand 1 with Co(PMe3)4Me or Co(PMe3)4 afforded the same Co(I) complex [(Ph2P-(C6H4))2P(O)]Co(PMe3)2 (4) via P–H bond activation. The catalytic performance of the Fe, Ni, and Co complexes for the hydrosilylation of aldehydes and ketones was explored. At a catalyst loading of 2 mol%, complex 2 displayed the best catalytic activity for the hydrosilylation by using (EtO)3SiH as the hydrogen source under mild conditions. Complexes 2, 3, and 4 were characterized by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction analysis.


Gliotoxin (GT) is a redox-active natural product produced by some fungal species that contributes to the virulence of the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. It contains a characteristic disulphide bridge responsible for the deleterious effects of this molecule. GT also displays antifungal properties, however the mechanisms of cytotoxicity behind it has not been fully characterised. The work presented here investigates A. niger as a model organism to understand GT cytotoxicity and reveal new metabolic systems, as it does not produce GT.
Comparative proteomics revealed that exposure of A. niger to exogenous GT resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) dysregulation of hundreds of proteins involved in several cellular processes, especially metabolism. Two putative S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases showed de novo abundance under GT conditions. In addition an increase in abundance of proteins involved in the methionine cycle was also observed. Analysis of methionine-related metabolites revealed significant increases in the levels of methionine and adenosine, in correlation with proteomic data. Moreover, proteomic data revealed a significant increase in the abundance of hydrolytic enzymes, including glycoside hydrolases (n = 22) and peptidases (n = 16) which have important applications in the biotechnology industry. A significant dysregulation of proteins involved in amino acid metabolism coupled to an increase in the levels of selected amino acids appeared to occur in A. niger under GT conditions. Furthermore this thesis reveals a novel protection mechanism in A. niger against GT which is mediated by one the methyltransferases (MTases) identified on the proteomic data. This MTase (referred as MT-II) is responsible for bisthiobis(methylthio)gliotoxin (BmGT) formation and deletion of MT-II led to increased GT sensitivity in A. niger.
The applications of other fungal natural products like siderophores (Fusarinine C), are also evaluated herein. The development and validation of a Fusarinine C based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out. Results showed the potential applications of this ELISA in the diagnosis of aspergillus related diseases. Overall, this work highlights the different roles and applications fungal natural products have.


BACKGROUND
Angiogenesis involves the process of sprouting of microvessels from preexisting microvasculature and is held responsible for the growth, malignancy and metastasis of cancer. Heat shock protein Hsp90 has been proven responsible for indirectly inducing multiple pathways leading to angiogenesis and metastasis in cancer. Recent researches shift towards proposing novel phytochemicals as possible antiangiogenic agents.

OBJECTIVE
The study aims towards Virtual screening of compounds from Cucurbitaceae family and their Druglikeliness and PreADMET filtering in search of potent lead as Vitexin, targeting Hsp90 and hence restraining angiogenesis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Structures of phytochemicals from Cucurbitaceae family were retrieved from PubChem database and were converted into suitable 3-D structures. The target protein, Hsp90 was retrieved from RCSB Protein Data Bank. Phytochemicals of Cucurbitaceae family were filtered through enumerated Lipinski's rule of five and ADMET toxicity profiling and the filtered compounds were further taken forward for molecular docking analysis and interaction studies using AutoDock Tools 4.0.

RESULTS
The docking results revealed Vitexin, a prominent glycosylated natural flavonoid, showing promising inhibitory potential against Hsp90 with binding energy of -8.80 kcal/mole and Ki 353.24 nM as compared to its known inhibitor Ganetespib having binding energy of -7.33 kcal/mole and Ki 4260 nM. Vitexin also exhibits better drug having properties with satisfactory ADMET profiling in relation to Ganetespib.

CONCLUSION
The result proposes Vitexin to hold prominent antiangiogenic potential surpassing different in silico parameters and thus expected to be a multi-targeted novel antiangiogenic lead.


Zeolites are known as scaffolds for the assembly of
molecules via non-covalent interactions, yielding organized supramolecular
materials. Yet their potential in driving the growth of low-dimensional systems
requiring covalent bond formation is still uncharted. We incorporated 1,5-hexadiene
in the channels of a high‑silica mordenite and analyzed the material by
infrared spectroscopy, X-Ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric and modeling
techniques. Thanks to the few zeolite acid sites, 1,5‑hexadiene experiences a
slow conversion to a polymer, mainly formed by cyclopentane units and featuring
short side chains able to fit the channels. The shape-directing abilities of
zeolite framework play a two-fold role, involving first the organization of the
monomers inside the void-space and then the linear growth of the chain,
dictated by the channel geometry. These findings highlight the molding action
of zeolites in directing transformations of covalent bonds under ambient conditions
and may provide insights for obtaining confined polymers with intriguing
perspective applications.


High temperature components with notches, defects, and flaws can introduce crack initiation and crack propagation under service conditions. Fracture mechanics procedures are needed to study crack problems and to support an advanced remnant life evaluation. Since a more flexible service mode of steam power plants causes a higher number of start-up and shut-down events, creep-fatigue crack behavior is decisive for life assessment and integrity of components. Usually, fracture mechanics experiments are carried out under air conditions, although in cases of internal cracks they are not in contact with air. Therefore, it is of interest to realize the degree to which environmental conditions, e.g., crack-tip oxidation, can influence crack initiation and crack growth behavior. In order to reveal problems related to high temperature components, the crack initiation time and crack growth rate were determined in air environment and in a gas with controlled atmosphere on 1CrMo(Ni)V- and 10CrMoWVNbN-steels. Crack initiation and propagation under creep-fatigue conditions have been described with the fracture mechanics parameters C*, KI, and ΔKI and C*. A modified "Two-Criteria-Diagram" was used to describe creep-fatigue crack initiation.


Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been intensively used in several technological applications. ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies are typically produced using the solid-vapor phase, hydrothermal methods, electrochemical deposition, molecular beam epitaxy and soft chemical solution methods. We have synthesized ZnO in diethyleneglycol using zinc acetate or zinc nitrate as a precursor compound. The morphology and the size of the resulting oxide particles were adjusted by using an acidic medium. The nanomaterials annealed at different temperatures (500-1000 °C) were structurally characterized and the morphology was observed. The synthesized ZnO nanocrystals have a hexagonal wurtzite structure and the maximum of UV-Vis spectrum was between 368-370 nm.


Abstract. We investigated a number of substorm events during major conjunctions of the THEMIS spacecraft for the tail seasons of the mission. We present simultaneous observations from various instruments onboard the THEMIS spacecraft during the events. We focus particularly on events when at least one of the THEMIS spacecraft is adjacent to the neutral sheet where convectional plasma flows are observed. The events demonstrate clear dipolarization signatures accompanied by high-speed earthward plasma flows and intense wave activity. We present evidence that flux ropes are embedded within the high-speed earthward convective plasma sheet flows. This fact has important implications since the leading edge of the flux rope having south polarity can impulsively merge with the north polarity field of the stretched magnetotail leading to mutual erosion of both magnetic structures. The merging of the vertically oriented oppositely-directed field lines can lead to local cross-tail current reduction and flux rope dissipation. These observations are very important in explaining the mechanism triggering near-Earth dipolarization and particle acceleration to supra-thermal energies, since they can be associated with non-adiabatic conditions and breakdown of the frozen-in condition in the near-Earth magnetotail similar to that taking place during magnetic reconnection in the mid-tail.


Depression: Distress or Disease? D@.it Sat, Professor Brown and his colleagues (Journal, December 1985, 147, 612—622) are right to suggest that many ofthe affective disorders seen by psychia trists are clearly related to psychosocial adversity. The other part of their argument, that †̃¿ cases' in the community do not differ greatly in severity from those seen by psychiatrists, is questionable. Symptoms are widely distributed in members of the general population; many people have a few symptoms but few have many. This distribution is curvilinear, without points of discontinuity. Wherever we decide to place the threshold for defin ing cases, provided an appreciable proportion of the population is so recognised, the severity distribution of cases is likely to reflect the underlying distribution of symptoms. In other words, most cases will be mild, a few severe. This has been noted in every community survey using the PSE-ID-CATEGO system that has provided such details, and is independent of the actual prevalence quoted. Brown and his colleagues argue for similarity in severity between cases in the community and among patients. They do so on the basis of their findings in the Islington community and those reported by Sashidharan (1985) from his series of patients in Edinburgh. This would be justifiable only if the thresholds used in the two studies were the same. Both report results using the PSE-ID-CATEGO system, so the symptom ratings are combined in the same way to construct thresholds for case recognition. How ever, the criteria for recogrnsing symptoms might well have been stricter in the Edinburgh study than in the Islington survey. Certainly the reported population prevalences in the Edinburgh survey are far lower (3.9% using the Bedford College case definition; Dean et al, 1983) than those reported in Islington (17%) or by the same team in Camberwell (15%—Brown & Harris, 1978). Moreover, the criteria for symptom recognition among the patients who form the basis of Sashidharan's paper (1985) could well be even stricter, as these were based on interviews by psychiatrists, whereas the Edinburgh community survey was carried out by lay inter viewers. It is known that psychiatrists tend to have stricter criteria (Wing eta!, 1977; Sturt et al, 1981). An appropriate test of the hypothesis can be made if data are collected by the same interviewing team from a sample of the general population and from a comparison group of local psychiatric patients. There is such a study, although it is not mentioned by Brown and his colleagues (Wing et a!, 1981). Unlike that of Sashidharan (1985) this comparison was based on the full 140-item PSE, and demon strated marked differences in severity between patients and cases in the Camberwell community, defined as 1D5 and above (Wing et al, 1978). It is possible that we were rating symptoms more strictly than the Bedford College group, as our case prevalence based on Bedford College criteria was around 8.0%. Lowering our threshold for identifying symptoms would have increased the prevalence, but itwould alsohave made thedisorders inpatients seem more severe.


A synthesis of methods from cybernetics an AI yields a concept of intelligence for autonomous mobile systems that integrates closed-loop visual perception and goal-oriented action cycles using spatiotemporal models. In a layered architecture, systems dynamics methods with differential models prevail on the lower, data-intensive levels, but on higher levels, AI-type methods are used. Knowledge about the world is geared to classes of objects and subjects. Subjects are defined as objects with additional capabilities of sensing, data processing, decision making, and control application. Specialist processes for visual detection and efficient tracking of class members have been developed. On the upper levels, individual instantiations of these class members are analyzed jointly in the task context, yielding the situation for decision making. As an application, vertebrate-type vision for tasks in vehicle guidance in naturally perturbed environments was investigated with a distributed PC system. Experimental results with the test vehicle VAMoRs are discussed.


Outbreaks of the European Bluetongue virus (BTV) serotype 8 (BTV-8), which are characterized by activity cycles separated by years of inactivity, may be influenced by genetic changes of the virus or by herd immunity. BTV activity in Israel is characterized by similar dynamics, but differs from European countries in its vector population, environmental conditions, and lack of cattle vaccination against this serotype. Comparison of these two geographical systems and characterization of their epidemiological connection is therefore of high interest in-order to better understand the factors influencing BTV-8 evolution. BTV-8, closely related to the European strain, was introduced to Israel in 2008. It was at the center of BT outbreaks in 2010 and 2015–2016 and thereafter was lastly isolated in Israel in 2019. We performed genetic analyses of twelve BTV-8 Israeli strains isolated between 2008 and 2019 and compared them with published sequences of BTV-8 isolated in other countries. The analysis revealed a single introduction of BTV-8 into Israel and thereafter extensive occurrence of genomic drifts and multiple reassortments with local BTV strains. Comparison of the Israeli and Cypriot BTV-8 from 2015 to 2016 suggests transmission of the virus between the two countries and a separate and parallel development from European or other Israeli BTV-8 strains. The parallel development of other BTV-8 strains was demonstrated by the identification of the Israeli BTV-8 ISR-1194/1/19 strain, which exhibited common origin with reassorted Israeli BTV-8 strains from 2010 and additional reassortment of seven segments. In order to reveal the source of BTV-8 introduction into Israel we performed BEAST analysis which showed that a probable common ancestor for both European and Israeli BTV-8 presumably existed in 2003–2004. In 2019, a possible new introduction occurred in Israel, where a novel BTV-8 strain was detected, sharing ~95% identity by segments 2 and 6 with Nigerian BTV-8NIG1982/07 and European–Middle Eastern strains. The results of the study indicate that Israel and neighboring countries consist a separate environmental and evolutionary system, distinct from European ones.


Notwithstanding the importance of analyzing the variations of population dynamic traits along environmental gradients for assessing coral resilience to global climate change, temperate areas are more understudied than tropical regions. In the Mediterranean Sea, some studies are available for its western basin, while there is a lack of information for its eastern basin. This study starts to fill this gap, by determining the demographic characteristics of the solitary zooxanthellate scleractinian Balanophyllia europaea in the Dardanelles (Turkey) along a 1–21 m depth transect. The population dynamics of B. europaea from this site in the eastern Mediterranean Sea was compared with the populations in the NW Mediterranean Sea. In particular, the sites of Calafuria and Palinuro (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) were chosen for the comparison since their temperature and latitude, respectively, were similar to that of the Dardanelles population. The population density in the Dardanelles increased exponentially with depth, possibly due to lower current and wave action, and higher salinity at depth. Age structure in the Dardanelles was relatively overrepresented in younger age classes with increasing depth. Nevertheless, this difference in age structure was not strong enough to cause trends with depth for all derived demographic parameters. In comparison with Italian populations, age structure presented a higher frequency of young individuals and were more stable in the Dardanelles, likely due to the less intense wave action. Hosting different clades of symbiotic algae may also contribute to these differences, but molecular studies are necessary to verify this hypothesis.


Introduction
During the 2000s the number of adolescents who became new smokers in the United States declined while the number of young adults who did so increased. However, we do not know among which demographic groups these changes occurred.

Methods
We analyzed data from the 2006 to 2013 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (n = 180 079). Multivariate linear regression models were used to assess annual trends in smoking onset and log-binomial regression models to assess changes over time in the risk of smoking onset among young adults (18- to 25-years-old) relative adolescents (12- to 17-years-old).

Results
From 2006 to 2013, the rate of onset among young adults (6.3%) was greater than among adolescents (1.9%). Time trends demonstrated that annual declines in smoking onset occurred among white young adult males and females. Rates of smoking onset increased among black and Hispanic young adult males with a lower rate of decline among black and Hispanic young adult females. There was a greater risk of smoking onset among young adults relative to adolescents that did not change over time.

Conclusions
Smoking onset is becoming more concentrated in the young adult than adolescent years. Despite this trend, there were annual declines in young adult smoking onset but not uniformly across racial/ethnic groups. More effective strategies to prevent young adult smoking onset may contribute to a further decline in adult smoking and a reduction in tobacco-related health disparities.

Implications
Smoking onset is becoming more concentrated in the young adult years across sex and racial/ethnic groups. The United States may be experiencing a period of increasing age of smoking onset and must develop tobacco control policies and practices informed by these changes.


Human platelet specific antigens (HPA) were serologically typed among 48 to 567 samples of blood from Chinese in Taiwan by using the mixed passive hemag-glutination method (MPHA). The prevalence found was: HPA-la (P1A1), > 99.9% (48/48); HPA-2b (Koa or Siba), 9.0% (51/567); HPA-3a (Baka), 84.8% (481/567); HPA-4a (Yukb), > 99.9% (567/567); HPA-4b (Yuka), 0.5% (3/567); HPA-5b (Br(a)), 32.6% (185/567); and Nak(a), 98.4% (558/567). The gene frequencies for these antigens were: HPA-la (P1A1), > 0.999; HPA-2b (Koa or Siba), 0.046; HPA-3a (Bak(a)), 0.611; HPA-4a (Yukb), 0.997; HPA-4b (Yuka), 0.003; HPA-5b (Br(a)), 0.179; and Nak(a), 0.874. The distribution of HPA's for Chinese differ from those for Caucasians and for Japanese. When compared to Caucasians, Chinese show a higher prevalence of HPA-la (P1A1), higher prevalence of HPA-5b (Br(a)), lower prevalence of HPA-2b (Koa or Siba) and lower prevalence of HPA-3a (Baka). Both Chinese and Japanese have a very high prevalence rate of HPA-la (P1A1), ie. close to 100%. However, the prevalence of HPA 2-2b (Koa or Siba) and HPA-4b (Yuka) is slightly lower in Chinese than in Japanese; and, the prevalence rate for HPA-3a (Baka) is slightly higher in Chinese than in Japanese.


Natural language generation lies at the core of generative dialogue systems and conversational agents. We describe an ensemble neural language generator, and present several novel methods for data representation and augmentation that yield improved results in our model. We test the model on three datasets in the restaurant, TV and laptop domains, and report both objective and subjective evaluations of our best model. Using a range of automatic metrics, as well as human evaluators, we show that our approach achieves better results than state-of-the-art models on the same datasets.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nurse-led early initiation of breastfeeding on sleeping pattern of newborns.
Materials and Method: An evaluative quasi-experimental study was conducted after ethical approval. The setting of the study was the Labor Theatre (LT) of a tertiary referral hospital of Udupi district in south India. A total of 24 mother-newborn dyads were recruited to the experimental group and 22 mother-newborn dyads were recruited to the control group.
Results: Majority of the mothers in the experimental group 22 (91.7%) and control group 20 (90.9%) were in the age group of 20-30 years. Majority of the newborns in the experimental group 14 (58.3%) were males; whereas majority of the newborns in the control group 12 (54.4%) were females. The independent sample 't' test computed to find the effectiveness of nurse-led early initiation of breastfeeding showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control group (t = 4.038; p=0.001).
Conclusions: This study provides evidence for a link between early initiation of breastfeeding and improved sleeping pattern of newborns. The time to initiate breastfeeding is very crucial for continuation of exclusive breastfeeding. The efforts done to establish early initiation of breastfeeding as best practice would help mothers to breastfeed successfully and for much longer.


This paper presents an aggregation method to build a coherency-based dynamic equivalent of detailed generating units models and their control systems. The proposed method is based on the preservation of the coefficients matrices structure in the time domain representation. According to the principle of structure preservation, the parameters of the equivalent generator and its control systems are calculated directly. This procedure requires much less computation effort and is suitable for online studies compared to other methods, which use mainly the iterative process in frequency domain to derive equivalent parameters. For validation purposes, this aggregation method is applied to group an area of eight generators inside a test system of 16 generators and 68 buses. Results show that the reduced system retains the dynamic performance of the original system with good accuracy, and all inter-area modes of the original system are preserved in the reduced system


The controlled transport of chemical species in fluids is essential to the function of living systems. This, together with the ability to selectively transport chemical species in a controlled way, against chemical or electrochemical gradients, has been at the core of complex natural systems development. While transport over short distances (e.g. intracellular) is typically achieved by cargo-carrying vesicles or motor proteins acting like a conveyor belt, many single cell and multicellular organisms move in response to chemical stimuli present in their environment[1], through chemotaxis. Emulating such structures and processes in the synthetic world herein we present micro-vehicle droplets, based on ionic liquids (ILs), that show chemotactic behaviour. The movement is generated through asymmetric release of an IL surfactant, which results in an imbalance in the local surface tension causing the droplet to move spontaneously towards regions of lower surface tension. This interesting behaviour is of great interest, as it provides a simple mechanism for programmed movement to a specific location, without the need to pump the bulk fluid or externally stimulate the system. This points the way towards futuristic fluidic systems that can, to an extent, monitor their own condition using the chemistry of the local environment to provide a driving force and propel the droplet. The mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 1A.
These trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride ([P6,6,6,14]Cl) IL droplets can be moved spontaneously and guided to specific destinations in fluidic channels in the presence of ionic strength gradients [2]. In addition, signalling and seeking IL droplets, which chemotactically find each other in open fluidic networks, were also developed. In this study the signal droplet, which is stationary, releases a chemical signal that creates a chemical gradient inside the fluidic channel. In response to this signal, the seeker droplet is enabled to chemotactically find the signaller droplet and merge with it at its location, in a manner similar to the triggered cell migration seen in chemokine proteins. The chemotactic IL droplets were also demonstrated for a range of additional functionalities including cargo transport to specific destinations, chemical reactions (Fig 1B-D), dynamic sensing and reporting, damage detection (i.e. a leak in the fluidic channel) and repair, among others.
Such autonomous, self-directed movement of micro "vehicles" offers many intriguing and beneficial opportunities in the microfluidics field and could perhaps revolutionize the area of open droplet microfluidic devices, where the driving force for movement is dictated by the chemistry of the fluidic system itself rather than externally controlled by the user. This could enable the realization of multifunctional biomimetic fluidic systems with advanced functionality, such as autonomic detection and repair of damage, self-management and healing.
1. Van Haastert et al., Chemotaxis: signalling the way forward. Nature reviews, 2004. 5(8): p. 626-634.
2. Florea L., et al., Electrotactic ionic liquid droplets. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2017. 239: p. 1069-1075.


Calibration weighting improves inference by adjusting for observed differences between the realized sample and the population. Unfortunately, a commonly-used linearization-based variance estimator often does not account for the increased efficiency provided by the calibration process. As a result, precision estimates based on calibrated weights can be artificially high. Using a corrected linearization-based variance estimator that was recently made easier to compute allows analysts to utilize calibration-weighting techniques while producing more accurate precision estimates. We use calibration weighting to produce more reliable subnational estimates and assess the differences in point estimates resulting from these weight adjustments in the National Crime Victimization Survey, a nationally representative survey designed to calculate victimization rates solely at the national level. We then assess the estimated precision of these point estimates using a conventionally implemented linearization-based variance estimator and the corrected variance estimator. We find that the calibration adjustments mostly reduced the standard errors in subnational estimates but to successfully measure the reduction required using the corrected variance estimator.


abstract This paper presents the stratigraphic distribution and taxonomy of 62 dinoflagellate cyst species found in 85 samples from early Turonian strata exposed at Votorantim Quarry in northeastern Brazil. The early Turonian age assignment is based on calcareous nannofossils together with the organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts Cribroperidinium muderongense, Canningia reticulata, Florentinia resex, Impletosphaeridium williamsii, Kallosphaeridium? ringnesiorum, Trichodinium boltenhagenii and Xenascus plotei, which are commonly found in early Turonian strata. The genera Subtilisphaera and Palaeohystrichophora are emended, Palaeohystrichophora cheit is reassigned to Subtilisphaera cheit, and is considered a senior synonym of Palaeohystrichophora palaeoinfusa. Canningia reticulata is regarded as a senior synonym of Canningia senonica, and Subtilisphaera pirnaensis is regarded as a separate species from Subtilisphaera perlucida, because morphological characteristics can be used to distinguish them. In this study many cosmopolitan species were found, but we could also observe species with tethyan affinities, such as S. cheit and X. plotei. These species have restricted geographic distribution around the equator and are common in the Cenomanian to Turonian in both hemispheres.


Pain and fear associated with needle procedures have been found to be more common among children and adolescents treated for type 1 diabetes (T1D) than among others in their age group. Furthermore, high glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) values are associated with needle-related fear.

AIM
To describe negative experiences of needle procedures in childhood diabetes treatment from children's and adolescents' own perspectives.

METHODS
Short written narratives (n = 83) and drawings (n = 2) from children and adolescents treated for T1D, aged 7-18 years, were subjected to inductive qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS
Negative experiences with needle procedures had many facets, such as pain and fear, changing over time and affecting everyday life. All kinds of needle procedures caused difficulties, but venipunctures were described as the worst.

CONCLUSION
All needle procedures involved in diabetes treatment are potentially experienced as creating pain and fear, but the negative experiences are multifaceted and vary between individuals. These experiences create suffering for children and adolescents, and influence their daily lives. Besides finding techniques to decrease the number of needle procedures in the treatment, research should focus on implementing methods to decrease pain, fear, and other negative experiences as well as to promote self-coping. This is urgent, since needle-related fear has an impact on glycaemic control and therefore increases the risk of long-term complications.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
When caring for children and adolescents with diabetes, their previous experiences with needle procedures need to be considered.


We developed a simplified workflow of gDNA extraction from ejaculated bovine sperm using a low total number of sperm and a short time frame that yields high-quality DNA suitable for downstream methylation and genome analyses. These techniques have broad implications in human biomedical sciences and agriculture, including clinical diagnoses of infertility, the identification of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and aberrant methylation patterns that can impact fertility, lower embryo development and contribute to heritable disease. The methods described here provide a reliable, simplistic approach for analyzing both the genomic and epigenomic status of whole sperm ejaculates that can be adapted for laboratory diagnostics, clinical reproductive practice and basic research.


Brain-computer interface (BCI)-based robotic telepresence provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to control robots remotely without any actual physical movement. However, traditional BCI systems usually require the user to select the navigation direction from visual stimuli in a fixed background, which makes it difficult to control the robot in a dynamic environment during the locomotion. In this paper, a novel SSVEP-based BCI stimuli system is proposed for robotic telepresence. The novel system utilized the live video streamed from the robot onboard camera as the input. By altering and flickering the detected objects in the scene with different frequencies predefined based on their relative positions on the screen, the robot can be navigated based on the user's attention in a dynamic manner. In order to better differentiate multiple objects (more than the number of frequencies predefined), the task-related component analysis (TRCA) model was trained with a priori offline experimental data to select the front objects with priority. Experiments were conducted to validate the proposed system. Using the system, four human subjects are able to control a humanoid robot to navigate through multiple objects to reach the desired goal. The success rate reaches 87.5% in average.


We examine the possibility of using the flow dimension identified from constant pressure injection tests as a tool for characterizing the hydraulic conditions of fractured media. The data comes from a low‐conductivity crystalline rock site, from depths of up to 450 m, and is obtained with 2 m and 10 m measurement scales. In the analysis, the general solution for n‐dimensional flow by Barker (1988) is applied. The results show that the most prominent characteristics of the medium can be identified; that is, linear and sublinear flow dimensions as distinguished from dimensions higher than two. In many cases, however, there is significant difficulty in distinguishing the dimensions n = 2, 2.5, and 3 from each other. This is usually because of the experimental difficulties in achieving the ideal conditions required by the theory during the early part of the experiment. In such cases, a full flow curve is not available for the type‐curve fitting. In the nonunique cases the higher dimensions typically correspond to higher, sometimes unrealis‐tically high, values of specific storage and to the less reliable and less representative early part of the experiment. Therefore, most of the dimensions in categories n= 3 can be excluded, thus leaving the majority observations in the categories of n= 2 and n = 2–2.5. The dominance of dimension n = 2 is more pronounced for data related to fracture zones in comparison to that related to "average" rock, in particular in the 2 m scale data. The proportion of low (n < 1.5) flow dimensions is small, but for the 10 m scale data it is relatively higher at greater depths and corresponds to lower conductivities. For the smaller 2 m scale data, the low dimensions are not linked to greater depths or systematically smaller conductivities, giving preliminary indication of different flow dimension behavior for the two different scales.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the application of the pictorial riddle learning method on the mastery of physics concepts for class VIII students of SMP Negeri 2 Buay Madang in the 2020/2021 academic year. This research was an experimental research with a quasi-experimental design. The population in this study were all students of class VIII SMP Negeri 2 Buay Madang, totaling 49 students. The samples of this research were students in class VIII A, which amounted to 25 students as the experimental class, and class VIII B, which consisted of 24 students as the control class. The data collection method in this research was the test method. The data analysis used was a statistical test using the t polled variant t test statistical formula. Based on data analysis using the t polled variant test, it was concluded that the results of the posttest physics of students learning with the pictorial riddle method were high. Of the 25 students, there were 15 students (60%) who scored in the high category, and the average score of the class posttest results was 78.58. The results of the posttest physics of students who learned using conventional methods were in the low category, from a total of 24 students, 12 students (50%) obtained low category scores, and the average score of posttest results was 67.75. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is an effect of the application of the pictorial riddle method on mastery of physics concepts in class VIII of SMP Negeri 2 Buay Madang for the 2020/2021 academic year with a tcount of 7.37 while ttable is 1.98. Because tcount score is not located between - ttable ≤ tcount <+ ttable, which is -1.98 and +1.98, so H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted.


This paper proposes a simple and straightforward path mismatch detection method with a closed-form expression for linear amplification with nonlinear components (LINC) system implementation. In this work, a test vector signal set with three phase differences and one amplitude difference is employed to detect the amplitude and phase mismatches at the same time. The proposed method can predict the exact mismatch value without any iterations, because the mismatch value has a unique solution with a closed-form expression with the proposed test signal set. Moreover, the sensitivity of the proposed method to the measurement noise is also analyzed for practical implementation of LINC system. The LINC system is realized with the proposed mismatch detection method and the performance is evaluated with a IEEE 802.16 WiMAX signal, which has 7 MHz channel bandwidth and 16-QAM. The error vector magnitude (EVM) of -37.4 dB is obtained through performance testing, which meets the performance requirement of -24 dB EVM. The proposed mismatch detection method is validated to improve the LINC system performance.


Isotope data from bulk carbonates, micrite, marine calcite cements, nonskeletal grains and brachiopods indicate deposition of a wide spectrum of warm to cold water carbonates during the Ordovician and the Jurassic. This isotopic interpretation is supported by warm to cold climatic models proposed for the Ordovician and the Jurassic. These carbonates formed during the Greenhouse mode (conditions similar to present day) and Icehouse mode. Isotopic equilibrium trends of carbonate minerals indicate an originally aragonite-calcite mixture during the late Ordovician of Tasmania and Late Jurassic of Iran (Kopet-Dagh Basin-Sarakhs area) corresponding to warm temperatures; whereas originally calcitic mineralogy deposited during the Mid Jurassic in England and Scotland, and the Late Jurassic at Mallorca Island, Spain, correspond to cool to cold water temperatures. Sedimentological features of these ancient limestones are similar to modern warm to cold water carbonates.


In this paper, nano-hybrid composites of water-soluble, conducting polymer poly (diphenylamine sulfonic acid) (PSDA) with nano-Al2O3 and (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) have been prepared to construct the interdigitated impedimetric type of humidity sensors. Humidity sensing characteristics of the sensors including the sensitivity, hysteresis, response/recovery time, repeatability and long-term stability were investigated. The performances of the studied sensors have been discussed by taking into consideration the film composition and applied alternating current frequency. The best results were obtained for the composite with a weight percentage of 50%Al2O3, which exhibits good linearity (R 2 =0.9949), high sensitivity (three orders of impedance change), rapid response (55 s and 65 s at 1 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively) and recovery (155 s and 55 s at 1kHz and 100 kHz, respectively) times, low hysteresis (<4%RH), good repeatability (RSD<1%) and long-term stability (RSD<5%) in the whole relative humidity range of 10-95%. These results show that PSDAMPTMS-Al2O3 nanocomposites are promising materials for impedimetric humidity sensors.


Patients with cystic fibrosis (C.F.) showed raised serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). A moderate but significant increase in serum AFP was present in their parents and some siblings. There was no correlation between the clinical severity of the disease and serum AFP concentration. Samples from control groups with gluten-induced malabsorption and bronchiectasis had normal levels. Persistent synthesis of AFP may be an associated marker of C.F. genes, and estimation of serum AFP might help in detecting heterozygote carriers in families at risk.


Over the past decades, statistical models have been established as an important tool for understanding the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. Inference in such models can be challenging due to the strong dependencies in the actual epidemic process, as well as the fact that observations often rely in diagnostic tests that have imperfect sensitivities. Moreover, samples are often taken with very low temporal resolution, which leads to the actual dynamics being only partially observed. Data augmentation techniques implemented within the framework of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods can tackle these problems by taking into account the unobserved dynamics of transmission and thus have been widely employed in practice. Despite the methodological advances in the context of partially observed epidemic models, there are still several open challenges that remain to be addressed. One of the key challenges is the establishment of model comparison techniques that can be efficiently applied in problems involving a large amount of missing information. In this thesis, we describe a framework based on importance sampling which provides estimates of the marginal likelihood and is well suited for applications in this complex setting. Until recently, the study of infectious diseases in large scale populations has been challenging due to the computationally intensive methods needed to these models. One further contribution of this thesis is the development of a data augmentation MCMC algorithm that can be used in both Markovian and non-Markovian epidemic models. Our algorithm achieves good computational efficiency and therefore can be viewed as an alternative to existing approaches, particularly for applications on big datasets. The last part of the thesis is concerned with epidemic data containing additional information regarding the strain of a pathogen with which individuals are infected. Quantifying the interactions between the different strains of pathogens is crucial in order to obtain a complete understanding of the disease but statistical methods for this type of problem are still in the early stages of development. Motivated by this demand, we construct a model that incorporates this additional information and propose a statistical algorithm for inference. The model improves upon existing methods in the sense that it allows for both imperfect diagnostic test sensitivities and strain misclassification. Finally, extensive simulation studies are conducted in order to assess the performance of our methods, while the utility of the developed methodologies is demonstrated on data obtained from two longitudinal studies of Escherichia coli in cattle.


Introduction: Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) is one of the major diseases of public health importance especially in prisons where case finding rate has been low. The WHO established five facts of prisons PTB spread which include: Prisons receive TB, Prisons concentrate TB, Prisons disseminate TB, Prisons make TB worse, and Prisons export TB. Poor TB case finding result in annual TB transmission risks of 90%. This study determined the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis among inmates and staff of Nigerian Prisons, AbakalikiMethods: A prison-based cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken among 307 inmates and staff selected using a systematic sampling technique. Informed consent was obtained from the staff and inmates. The respondents were interviewed using a pre-tested interviewer administered structured questionnaire. GeneXpert test was done for respondents with cough of two weeks or more. Data analysis was done using SPSS statistical software version 22. Chi squared test was used for bivariate analysis and level of significance was set at a p-value of less than 0.05. Results were treated with strict confidentiality.Results: The mean age of inmates was 34.96±5.7 years while staff was 38.43±3.5 years. Majority had secondary education. GeneXpert test result revealed 2.0% prevalence of PTB among suspected inmates, 1.1% among all inmates and 2.8% among staff. Prevalence of TB was associated with age group of both inmates and staff and duration of stay of inmates only.Conclusion: This study found moderate prevalence of tuberculosis among inmates and prison staff in Abakaliki prison. Although this prevalenceis moderate, it is imperative that periodic screening of old inmates and newly introduced ones be practiced so as to minimize the burden of tuberculosis among prisoners. Implementation of current national or international cell occupancy recommendations would reduce TB transmission by 50% and 94% respectively especially now that there is increase in the incidence of MDR-TB.Keywords: prevalence, PTB, prison, inmates and staff


The Great Lakes are an iconic natural feature of the boundary between Canada and the United States. In addition to their striking size and ecological importance, they also have great economic and cultural importance for the Great Lakes Region. Historically, the Lakes provided a means for regional trade, giving rise to outposts that now constitute the Region's largest cities, Chicago and Toronto. An abundance of fresh water was also crucial for industrialization, and led to the construction of the many factories and power plants that line the shores of Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario. Additionally, the Lakes serve as the backdrop of innumerable family photos of the vacationers who flock to them in the summer to splash in the waves or cast a fishing line. Despite their importance and iconic status, the Great Lakes have seen their fair share of challenges. Prime among these are environmental concerns, from localized pollution in the 19th century, to the fishery collapses of the 1950s, to current concerns over algal blooms and the potential introduction of Asian carp. While these concerns are not unique to the Great Lakes system, the scale of the Great Lakes Basin does make the Great Lakes a special case. Not only do the Lakes collectively hold 20% of the world's fresh water, but the Basin includes two sovereign nations, eight US states and one Canadian province, thousands of local governments, more than 40 tribes and First Nations, and is home to more than 33 million residents. As a result, setting policies to regulate and protect these shared waters is a highly complex endeavor.This report reviews historical and current environmental problems in the Great Lakes and discusses attempts to address them through both joint (Canada-US) and unilateral policy. It then presents the results of a telephone survey of 1,247 residents in the Great Lakes Basin conducted in November and December 2013. The survey aimed to gauge public opinion on the value, current health and success of efforts to manage this shared resource, as well as measure residents' support for a number of policy options to address issues ranging from invasive species and pharmaceutical contamination to climate change and energy. While more than 65 public opinion studies related to the Great Lakes have been conducted over the past three decades, few have included significant numbers of both American and Canadian respondents to allow for cross-border comparison. Moreover, few have covered such a wide range of topics as are included in this report. The findings in this paper allow us not only to provide a representative sample of opinion throughout the Basin, but to also note where national differences exist. Two companion reports, also utilizing data from this survey, delve more deeply into the issues of wind energy and hydraulic fracturing in the Great Lakes Region.


This paper brings out the pressing issue of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its multifold impact on the vulnerable communities such as women, children, elderly people, persons with disabilities, and marginalized groups in Nepal. The study identifies the groups corresponding with the kinds of problems and effects in relation to caste/ethnicity, gender, and age. It also categorizes groups in terms of socio-economic conditions such as employment, income, livelihood, access to basic food, shelter, health and education. The analyses based on these issues contribute to highlighting the protection measures for reducing the level of vulnerability. Both the primary and secondary data were collected through desk review and telephonic interviews among the selected women and underprivileged people of the study area. Findings of this study suggest that the pandemic has serious effects that have been seen on vulnerable communities in the area. Curtailment, reduction and/or stop of regular salary or income of the employees from enterprising sectors can have lasting impact on the overall livelihoods of the vulnerable groups unless they are offered special packages to promote their conditions. The research indicates the pandemic as a humanitarian crisis. In such a crisis, only legal treatment and actions may have adverse effects on the poor and helpless people who have lost their resources due to unavoidable situations like lockdown, prohibition order, and insecurity of their jobs.


In one sense, the European elections of June 2009 delivered an unexpected result. In a situation where there were simultaneous elections in all EU member states, and national campaigns were run by national actors, the message sent out by the peoples of Europe is that they trust the conservative politicians to lead the way out of the crisis, regardless of whether they already hold offices nationally. In this new Commentary, CEPS Researcher Piotr Kaczynski considers the constellation in the new European Parliament and its implications for the balance of power within the political groupings. The author also suggests that on the 7th June we may have witnessed the emergence of a European 'political public' – when people in their national contexts, asked by national politicians, give a pan-European answer.


We had younger and older adults complete two tasks that tested the attentional- and memory-based inhibition models of negative priming. One task violated May, Kane, & Hasher (1995, Psychological Bulletin, 118, 35-54) criteria for measuring just attentional inhibition, by including a repeated-target condition. The other task complied with these criteria and included a depth of processing manipulation, where participants selected prime targets based either on their letter-length (nonsemantic processing) or weight (semantic processing). On balance, results supported the memory model, because depth of processing clearly moderated younger adult negative priming, and older adults displayed negative priming only in the task satisfying the attentional-inhibition criteria (i.e., the depth of processing task). We conclude that memory factors moderate negative priming, and that May et al.'s criteria fail to predict when older adults will show the effect.


Ti-Al based composite coating was fabricated on LY12 aluminum alloy surface by electrospark deposition (ESD) process, with γ-TiAl as electrode. The microstructural characteristics, element distribution, microhardness and wear resistance of the coating were investigated. The results show that the coating forms metallurgical bonding to the substrate, which consists of strengthened layer, transition layer and heat affected zone. Besides the Al phase, the coating is also composed of Ti-Al intermetallic compounds and a small mount of Ti/Al oxides and nitrides. The microhardness of composite coating decreases gradually along the depth direction. The sliding wear test results suggest that the worn volume loss of the coating is less than one third of that of the substrate. The abradability of LY12 aluminum alloy is significantly improved. The phases with higher hardness dispersed in the coating increase not only composite coating hardness but also the resistance to micro-cutting and plowing during the sliding wear test. In addition, the excellent sliding wear resistance of composite coating is also related to the metallurgical bonding between the coating and the substrate.


: Because of its general effects on connective tissue metabolism diabetes mellitus is becoming more and more important in the orthopaedic field. For investigation of morphologic changes in the cartilage a model of streptozotocin-induced diabetes was used in 80 rats. Studies were performed by light-, scanning- and transmission-electron microscopy and by biochemical analysis of proteoglycan and collagen metabolism. Three months after onset of diabetes the chondrocytes show increased metabolic activity and at the same time first stage regressive changes. The morphologic changes correlate with a significant decrease of hexosamine content in the cartilage. There is no evidence for any disturbance of collagen metabolism at that time. After seven months the cartilage is widely necrotic, the collagen fibers are swollen and show almost total loss of their microstructure. There is no sign for reparation of the necrotic zones at this time. It is most remarkable that in many specimen crystal deposits are found just below the cartilage surface which from the TEM-findings look very much like calciumpyrophosphate crystals. The morphologic and biochemical results show that in the rat diabetes leads to a special type of cartilage changes with crystallic arthropathy which seems to be a valuable model for the study of metabolic osteoarthrosis.


This paper examines the volatility of the tourism sector in Borsa Ýstanbul in Turkey, paying special attention to the role of exchange rate exposure in the process. The GARCH, BJR (TARCH) and EGARCH models are employed to estimate the volatility in the stock returns of Turkish tourism firms using daily data from 02 January 2002 to 13 April 2020. The results suggest that: (i) compared to the GARCH and GJR model results, the EGARCH model provides valuable information on the volatility of returns in tourism sector and on the impact of exchange rate on stock returns; (ii) the impact of exchange rate risk on stock returns is significant and positive for 3 tourism firms and negative for 2 firms; (iii) the findings on volatility of stock returns indicate that the time-dependent components of volatility is clearly more important than the time-independent component of volatility in predicting current volatility; (iv) the volatility of stock returns are highly persistent and the volatility at time t is more sensitive to past period volatility than past surprises in the market; (v) surprisingly, while there is no leverage effect, shocks have asymmetric effect on volatility implying that the impact of negative news do not outweigh positive news (or the impact of positive news on volatility is higher than the impact of negative news in the market).


Human platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is composed of two polypeptide chains, PDGF-1 and PDGF-2, the human homolog of the v-sis oncogene. Deregulation of PDGF-2 expression can confer a growth advantage to cells possessing the cognate receptor and, thus, may contribute to the malignant phenotype. We investigated the regulation of PDGF-2 mRNA expression during megakaryocytic differentiation of K562 cells. Induction by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) led to a greater than 200-fold increase in PDGF-2 transcript levels in these cells. Induction was dependent on protein synthesis and was not enhanced by cycloheximide exposure. In our initial investigation of the PDGF-2 promoter, a minimal promoter region, which included sequences extending only 42 base pairs upstream of the TATA signal, was found to be as efficient as 4 kilobase pairs upstream of the TATA signal in driving expression of a reporter gene in uninduced K562 cells. We also functionally identified different regulatory sequence elements of the PDGF-2 promoter in TPA-induced K562 cells. One region acted as a transcriptional silencer, while another region was necessary for maximal activity of the promoter in megakaryoblasts. This region was shown to bind nuclear factors and was the target for trans-activation in normal and tumor cells. In one tumor cell line, which expressed high PDGF-2 mRNA levels, the presence of the positive regulatory region resulted in a 30-fold increase in promoter activity. However, the ability of the minimal PDGF-2 promoter to drive reporter gene expression in uninduced K562 cells and normal fibroblasts, which contained no detectable PDGF-2 transcripts, implies the existence of other negative control mechanisms beyond the regulation of promoter activity.


Tillage practices, cover crops, and planting dates can influence soil moisture and temperature conditions at planting and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) stand establishment and yield. A study was conducted in North Carolina at two locations from 2014 through 2016. Treatments included six tillage systems of fall and spring conventional raised beds and flat strip tillage planted in early and late May, with and without a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cover crop. Tillage treatments include conventional spring raised beds, fall strip till, stale seedbed, at-plant strip till, pre-plant strip till, and stale seedbed with at-plant strip till. Except for fall strip tillage, no tillage systems reduced plant populations compared to conventionally tilled cotton in any environment. Crop growth rates were similar in conventional and spring strip-till systems and were lower in four planting date environments with stale seedbeds. In 2016, in-row soil resistance was measured from 0- to 30-cm depth using a conical penetrometer both at planting and post-harvest. Plots without any spring tillage had the greatest soil resistance for all measurements and depths. All plots with spring tillage had similar soil resistance to at least the 15-cm depth from which point the conventional spring beds had the least soil resistance through the 30-cm profile. Late planted cotton in 2014 showed inconsistent yield differences among tillage systems between locations. When pooled over location and year for 2015 and 2016, however, tillage system did not influence cotton yield. These data indicate that cotton yields in reduced-till systems are comparable to cotton grown in conventional systems in North Carolina soils.


The fatigue crack growth rate behavior of ARALL (aramid-reinforced aluminum laminate) was investigated as a function of stress ratio and temperature. The particular material was ARALL-3, a 7475-T76 aluminum alloy laminate. Tests were conducted for stress ratios of 0.1 and 0.5 at temperatures of 21, 82, and 93 C (70, 180, and 200 F) using a center-cracked panel geometry (measurements were made in English units and converted to SI units). The objective was to examine the contributions of the effects of crack closure and fiber bridging of the crack on the material behavior. Crack closure was monitored throughout the tests using compliance measurements. Fractography was used to investigate the influence of temperature on the integrity of the aluminum to epoxy/fiber bond to try to identify the effects of fiber bridging. Some crack closure, in the traditional metallic material sense, was evident through compliance measurements. However, the crack tip bridging by the fibers appears to be the dominant mechanism influencing the fatigue crack growth rate behavior in this material under these test conditions. Fractography indicates a considerable difference in fiber-bridging behavior between the room temperature and the elevated temperature tests. 19 refs.


The aim of this project is to produce antibiotic-loaded poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) polymer films by airbrush onto orthopaedic implants to address prosthetic joint infections (PJIs). It covered the development of an airbrush spray-coating technique, the selection and assessment of polymers and antibiotics, sample characterisation and antibacterial studies. The initial results are encouraging as the PLGA coatings exhibited a sustained drug release pattern and antibacterial ability against causative pathogens. Moreover, these PLGA coatings also possessed rapid degradation within 4 weeks which could provide favourable conditions for osseointegration. Furthermore, cytotoxicity assessment of final coatings will need to be conducted to ensure biocompatibility, as well as to determine the effect of each coating on osseointegration. Finally, the development of alternative coating techniques which are more cost-effective and suitable for large scale production might be the direction of future research.


Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) constitute a large family of enzymes that degrade extracellular matrix proteins (ECM). MMPs are implicated in different pathological conditions such as cancer. Bcl-2 and P53 are key controllers of programmed cell death (PCD) or apoptosis. The aim of the present study was to determine the MMP-9, P53 and Bcl-2 levels in Egyptian patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (Group I) compared with healthy control individuals (Group II). The concentrations of serum MMP-9 were determined quantitatively using enzyme immunoassay (EIA). P53 and Bcl-2 levels were assayed by flow cytometric analysis using specific monoclones. MMP-9 level was significantly higher in MTB patients compared with healthy control. Similarly, P53 and Bcl-2 levels were increased in MTB patients compared with healthy ones. These data reflect the alteration of MMP-9 level during the course of MTB infection, accompanied with apparent dysregulation of cellular apoptosis as indicated by P53 and Bcl-2 over-expression.


or had become depressed as a result of the demecolcine or the radiotherapy, or a combination of both. Further patients with this condition on treatment here by radiotherapy are having platelet counts undertaken, though formerly this was not routine practice during palliative radiotherapy at low daily doses. We would be interested in any comments on these findings, but would suggest that if demecolcine plus radiotherapy is undertaken for superior mediastinal obstruction careful check should be kept on platelets as well as white blood count. I am grateful to Dr. Wade for permission to publish this information about her patients.-I am, etc., MYRA G. ROBERTSON. Radiotherapy Department, Royal Free Hospital.


The World Wide Web is one of the fastest growing areas of intelligence gathering. Currently many websites are built with HTML tags, one problem associated with retrieval of data from web documents of HTML is that they are not structured in traditional databases because the Web pages created using HTML are semi structured thus making querying more difficult than with well-formed database containing schemas and attributes with defined domains. The concepts of XML have brought convenience for it. Based on the research of web mining, XML is used to convert semi-structured data to well structured data, and a model of web mining system which has basic data mining task and faces multi data on the Web is constructed. This paper"Web Data Mining using XML and Agent Framework" bring forward a kind of XML-based distributed data mining architecture. At the end of the discussion problems in data mining is analyzed. An example is put forward to prove the result.


Crosslinked-sago-starch-phosphate (SgP) has been successfully synthesized from native sago starch (Sg) and Na2HPO4-NaH2PO4 in an acidic condition. The compound was designed as bioadsorbent for removing Hg(II) inside human digestion tract as shown by in vitro test. The bioadsorption followed pseudo-second order of reaction kinetic and Freundlich equation as chemisorption. As a result, 21% of Hg(II) was removed at pH of 6.80 and reached the isothermal equilibrium of the bioadsorption at pH of 5.80 and 8.60 for 29.95% and 31.39%, respectively. The result showed that SgP is more feasible than activated carbon to be used as bioadsorbent in removing Hg(II) in human digestion tract as proved by in vitro system.


An acoustic echo cancellation structure with a single loudspeaker and multiple microphones is, from a system identification perspective, generally modelled as a single-input multiple-output system. Such a system thus implies specific echo-path models (adaptive filter) for every loudspeaker to microphone path. Due to the often large dimensionality of the filters, which is required to model rooms with standard reverberation time, the adaptation process can be computationally demanding. This paper presents a selective updating normalized least mean square (NLMS)-based method which reduces complexity to nearly half in practical situations, while showing superior convergence speed performance as compared to conventional complexity reduction schemes. Moreover, the method concentrates the filter adaptation to the filter which is most misadjusted, which is a typically desired feature.


Splats are the building blocks of thermal sprayed coatings, and thus the mechanical properties of such coatings are directly related to splat behavior. Elastic and elastoplastic properties of coatings have been measured on the macro-scale, but are not yet quantitatively predictable using process parameters as inputs. Coating mechanical properties represent contributions from intrinsic splat properties, splat-splat interfaces, and other microscopic defects. In this study, we investigated the intrinsic properties of Ni and Ni based alloy splats on substrates, for a variety of process methods and input parameters. Residual stresses were measured via X-ray microdiffraction and elastic and elastoplastic properties were studied via nano-indentation. From a purely scientific standpoint, splat studies provide insight into rapidly cooled small-volume structures that often exhibit extra ultrafine- or nano-crystalline structure. Thus, accordingly, nano-indentation response was also compared to the prediction for bulk counterparts of the splat materials.


BACKGROUND
Gastric cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death worldwide. Individuals infected with Helicobacter pylori have a higher likelihood of developing gastric cancer than individuals who are not infected. Eradication of H. pylori in healthy asymptomatic individuals in the general population may reduce the incidence of gastric cancer, but the magnitude of this effect is unclear.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness of eradication of H. pylori in healthy asymptomatic individuals in the general population in reducing the incidence of gastric cancer.

SEARCH METHODS
We identified trials by searching the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2020, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1946 to February 2020), and EMBASE (1974 to February 2020). We handsearched reference lists from trials selected by electronic searching to identify further relevant trials. We handsearched published abstracts from conference proceedings from the United European Gastroenterology Week (published in Gut) and Digestive Disease Week (published in Gastroenterology) between 2001 and 2019. We contacted members of the Cochrane Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases Review Group and experts in the field and asked them to provide details of outstanding clinical trials and any relevant unpublished materials.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We analysed randomised controlled trials comparing at least one week of H. pylori therapy with placebo or no treatment in preventing subsequent development of gastric cancer in otherwise healthy and asymptomatic H. pylori-positive adults. Trials had to follow up participants for at least two years and needed to have at least two participants with gastric cancer as an outcome. We defined gastric cancer as any gastric adenocarcinoma, including intestinal (differentiated) or diffuse (undifferentiated) type, with or without specified histology.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We collected data on incidence of gastric cancer, incidence of oesophageal cancer, deaths from gastric cancer, deaths from any cause, and adverse effects arising due to therapy.

MAIN RESULTS
Six trials met all our eligibility criteria and provided extractable data in the previous version. Following our updated search, one new RCT was identified, meaning that seven trials were included in this updated review. In addition, one previously included trial provided fully published data out to 10 years, and another previously included trial provided fully published data out to 22 years of follow-up. Four trials were at low risk of bias, one trial was at unclear risk, and two trials were at high risk of bias. Six trials were conducted in Asian populations. In preventing development of subsequent gastric cancer, H. pylori eradication therapy was superior to placebo or no treatment (RR 0.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40 to 0.72, 7 trials, 8323 participants, moderate certainty evidence). Only two trials reported the effect of eradication of H. pylori on the development of subsequent oesophageal cancer. Sixteen (0.8%) of 1947 participants assigned to eradication therapy subsequently developed oesophageal cancer compared with 13 (0.7%) of 1941 participants allocated to placebo (RR 1.22, 95% CI 0.59 to 2.54, moderate certainty evidence). H. pylori eradication reduced mortality from gastric cancer compared with placebo or no treatment (RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.92, 4 trials, 6301 participants, moderate certainty evidence). There was little or no evidence in all-cause mortality (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.12, 5 trials, 7079 participants, moderate certainty evidence). Adverse events data were poorly reported.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
We found moderate certainty evidence that searching for and eradicating H. pylori reduces the incidence of gastric cancer and death from gastric cancer in healthy asymptomatic infected Asian individuals, but we cannot necessarily extrapolate this data to other populations.


Hydrogen breath tests (HBT) are widely used for the diagnosis of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). However, the conclusions drawn from these studies are highly controversial, and several discrepancies exist in the results. The aim of our study is to develop an alternative 13C-glucose breath test (13C-GBT) methodology by measuring high-precision 13CO2/12CO2 isotope ratios in exhaled breath to accurately diagnose SIBO using an optical cavity-enhanced CO2 isotope analyzer. In all, 118 diarrhea-predominant (IBS-D) patients diagnosed according to ROME III criteria underwent 13C-GBT and HBT following the ingestion of a test meal containing 50 mg 13C-enriched glucose with 50 g glucose. The excretion of 13CO2 enrichments and a cumulative percentage dose of 13C-recovered (c-PDR) significantly depleted (p < 0.001) for the positive SIBO patients (n = 25) compared to the patients with negative SIBO (n = 53) as diagnosed by HBT. A cut-off value of 5.47‰ at 45 min was indicative of a positive SIBO syndrome. Subsequently, a portion of IBS-D individuals (n = 20) whose HBTs were negative but 13C-GBTs were positive, suggesting HBT often fails to diagnose SIBO when the patients may have "non-hydrogen-producing" bacteria. 13C-GBT also correctly diagnosed SIBO in patients (n = 20) within the "grey-zone" and during the preclinical phase of SIBO as opposed to HBT. The prevalence of SIBO with IBS-D in Indian population was estimated to be 45.7%. Our study demonstrates 13C-GBT, for the first time, as a clinically valid and sufficiently robust alternative diagnostic methodology for an accurate evaluation of SIBO in IBS-D patients and superior to HBT.


Advances in communication technology have significantly changed how individuals communicate (Crystal, 2008). Individuals not only have auditory communication at the their disposal, but also text based communication available through cell phones or computers. Emergency response agencies have begun to utilize text messaging to warn people of impending natural disasters (Samarajiva & Waidvanatha, 2009). These early warning systems can likely save lives by allowing people to prepare accordingly.
Text messaging may also be useful in actual emergency management operations, such as disaster response. In these settings, text based communication could be more beneficial than auditory communication in that it allows an individual to reread a message a later time; text messages serve as an augmentation to human memory which is fallible. For example, civil defense personnel could receive a text message in which details are critical (e.g., survivors on third floor of bank near stairway). Once the message is received, one can reread the message and extract key information that could potentially save lives. One potential problem with text messaging is the limited amount of space available and time it takes to write. To overcome limited amount of space the time limits, individuals incorporate shortening techniques (i.e., text-speak) that allows an individual to convey a word or phrase in a shorter amount of time and decreased amount of space (e.g., srvvrs on 3rd flor of bnk near th strwy, survivors on the third floor of the bank near the stairway). Although text-speak allows one to create a message faster and in a shorter amount of space, processing text-speak could exact a cognitive cost to the reader (Head, et al., 2012). It is likely that civil defense workers responding to natural disasters could be subject to processing text-speak while text messaging. For example, it is common for civil defense to use shortening techniques such as acronyms (e.g., EQC-earthquake commission, GEOC-Group Emergency Operations Centre and MoH-Ministry of Health).


This study presents an innovative hierarchical Bayesian model for mapping of county level truck traffic in New Jersey. First, the model is estimated using truck counts. Then, using overweight truck counts from weigh-in-motion data as the response variable, the model is re-estimated. The goal in using the overweight trucks in the spatial model is to demonstrate the importance of representing their spatial variation due to their impact on the life of the roadway network elements. Finally, truck count maps are developed based on modelling results to visualise the effects of spatial covariates. The results of the study indicate that the most influential covariate for the truck traffic is the length of interstate roadways, followed by employment and population. The developed truck count maps can help transportation professionals on identifying and ranking the locations at an aggregate level, which requires closer attention.


This paper explains the analysis of human security to Indonesia's forest fires and haze pollution. Traditionally, security is related to national security, but nowadays, the security of human is also a challenging issue. State is no longer a lone threatened actor, as lives of individuals are also significantly impacted by threats. Forest fires and haze pollution are long time threats for environmental security in Indonesia and even in neighbouring states. First, this research explains the background of forest fires and haze pollution in Indonesia and their impacts on neighbouring states. This will be followed by reviews of literatures relating to human security, especially environmental security. Finally, this research analyses the phenomenon of forest fires and haze pollution by using human security concept, especially environmental security. The findings of this research include a result that forest fires and haze pollution affect seven dimensions of human security, such as the economy, food, health, environment, person, community and politics. In addition, human dignity, health and wellbeing, livelihood, safety and survival are not fully achieved by the people because of the severity in threats (causing domestic regional impacts of haze), sensitivity in vulnerability (occurring as an almost annual disaster), and deprivationexclusion (worsened by relative deprivation and exclusion).


Scott's Waverley novels often turn on an opposition between romance—the realm of the unexpected, marvellous and heroic—and real life—the often disappointing realm of the mundane and factual.  However, Rob Roy, offers readers no alternative to romance. Instead it is made up of different kinds of romance—namely the gothic and the adventure story or imperial romance.  Scott maps the genre of the gothic onto Northumberland, where the remnants of feudalism still prevail, and wealth consists in landed property transmitted across generations. The adventure story, by contrast, links the Scottish Highlands with southern metropolitan Britain through a system of speculation and credit. Rob Roy reflects on Scott's imbrication in these two systems at the time of the novel's writing—a period of economic depression and rural depopulation—as he sold metropolitan readers another romanticized image of the Highlands in order to shore up his own landed property.


type="main"> The literature on indiscriminate violence has emphasized how information shapes state capacity and determines whether and where the government employs collective targeting. This article investigates the conditions that influence the government's ability to obtain intelligence in counterinsurgencies. Specifically, it suggests that the government is more likely to use indiscriminate violence in areas characterized by indigenous ethnic homogeneity and forested terrain. These features increase the cost of acquiring information about the insurgents, and reduce state capacity, thereby increasing the likelihood of indiscriminate violence. We examine district-level data on the Russian government's use of indiscriminate violence and disaggregated data on ethnicity and terrain across the North Caucasus from 2000 to 2011. The results indicate that ethnically homogeneous and forested areas are significantly more likely targets of indiscriminate violence, and that the effect of ethnicity is markedly stronger when the district is densely forested. This finding expands on previous studies by testing the observable implications of theories linking information to indiscriminate violence, and by providing new micro-level evidence for important human and physical constraints on counterinsurgencies.


Planning photovoltaic (PV) power systems integration into the grid necessitates accurate modelling of renewable power generation. Global solar irradiance, weather temperature and PV power losses due to overheating specifically in hot regimes are major factors contributing to PV power generation uncertainty. This study targets demonstrating the effectiveness of deploying advanced five parameter probabilistic distribution `Wakeby' for modelling PV uncertain power generation, measured as a function of such factors, in power system planning applications. The impact of different approaches for incorporating weather temperature on PV energy estimation is studied. Wakeby-Monte Carlo Simulation for PV power data training with an emphasis on MCS stopping criteria for such advanced distribution is presented. The model is tested and verified in 31-bus distribution system to demonstrate its effectiveness over other literature uncertainty modelling approaches when planning integration of PV systems' integration into the grid to minimise the grid losses cost. Real PV power measurements are utilised as benchmark verifying the accuracy and suitability of the presented uncertainty modelling approach. Simulation results demonstrate a small error of $4.7 in the expected annual cost of grid losses when deploying Wakeby model compared to the benchmark case and that error can vary significantly when deploying other PV models.


Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in the development of consumer and industrial products composed of wood fillers combined with thermoplastic resins. The use of wood flour as a reinforcing filler for thermoplastics has several benefits. Wood fillers have the advantage of being renewable, inexpensive, lightweight, and nonabrasive to processing equipment. Both materials can be obtained from post-consumer or post-industrial recycling sources. Little information is available concerning the engineering characteristics of woodplastic composite panels. Recently. there has been an increasing interest in using this type of material for a variety of structural applications. To quantify the material performance, several different wood-flour thermoplastic formulations ranging from 0% to 60% wood filler content by weight were produced and tested according to the ASTM D 1037 standard for wood-based panels. A matched set of specimens underwent the accelerated aging process outlined in the standard. It was found that by increasing the ratio of wood filler, the material performance properties were altered. The modulus of elasticity and water absorption increased, while the coefficient of thermal expansion and ultimate stress values decreased. The aging process had very little effect on the 0% wood filler content samples and decreased the material performance in some properties for the higher wood percentage panels. The results were compared with conventional wood-based panel products. Included were particleboard, hardboard, plywood, medium density fiberboard, and oriented . strandboard. Though the stiffness of wood-plastic composite panels were generally less than conventional wood-based products, many other material properties were similar.


Ultra-thin (20 nm) nickel catalyst films were deposited by sputtering on SiO2/Si substrates. At the pretreatments, ammonia (NH3) was conducted for different time in a thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. Pretreated samples were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM). After the pretreatment, acetylene was introduced into the chamber for 10 min, samples were characterized using scanning electron micrograph (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was concluded that NH3 pretreatment was very crucial to control the surface morphology of catalytic metals and thus to achieve the vertical alignment of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). With higher density of the Ni particles, better alignment of the CNTs can be obtained due to steric hindrance effect between neighboring CNTs.


The article aims to reflect about the linkage between migration and torture in recent Argentinian history. It assumes as work's hypothesis that this link is inseparable from the characteristics that racism acquires as a system within the framework of the configuration of the neoliberal economy and from the political history of Argentina. The analysis is organized around three historical periods: the first begins with the 1976 coup, the second with the December 2001 crisis and the third with the 2015 presidential


The characteristics of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Angstrom exponent as well as the relationship between the AOD and particulate matter (PM10), were measured and analyzed at the Chengdu station over the Sichuan Basin in China from February 2007 to December 2009. High monthly AODs were observed in March, August and December, while a low value was observed in October. Monthly variations in Angstrom exponent were opposite to the AODs in March and August. The averaged PM10 showed a significantly seasonal variation with a peak in winter. There is a complicated (not linear) positive correlation between total AOD and PM10 near the surface. Three typical cases under the conditions of dust and haze were studied, and the results showed that the AODs on the dust days were largest while minimum AODs occurred on haze days. On the contrast, the Angstrom exponent distributions among three weather conditions were opposite to the AODs. The 3day back-trajectory analysis indicated that the origin of the air masses largely affected the aerosol optical properties over the Sichuan Basin.


Verse inscriptions in stone appeared in abundance on the fa|ades of Romanesque churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Marking the place where medieval worshippers were transported from secular to sacred space, portal verse inscriptions provide important, and often overlooked, insights into the dynamic function of the portals and their art. The Allegory of the Church is the first full-length study of Romanesque verse inscriptions in the context of church portals and portal sculpture, and is the product of a twenty-year study. Calvin B. Kendall demonstrates how these inscriptions served to express the role of the church building as a concrete allegory of Christ and the Church. Describing them in detail, he traces the history and nature of the changes in allegorical interpretation of the inscriptions until, as medieval assumptions about language and rhetoric changed, they were finally abandoned by Gothic artists. An exemplary work of interdisciplinary scholarship, The Allegory of the Church includes a detailed catalogue of Romanesque verse inscriptions.


Broadly speaking, Gata3 is a transcription factor involved in neurosensory specification and hair cell differentiation. Previous studies have shown that Gata3 null mutants do not develop neurons, so Gata3 appears to be necessary for neuronal survival. To better understand the role of Gata3 in spiral ganglion neurons of the inner ear, a Neurod1-cre model was used to conditionally knock out Gata3 at E9-E9.5, the timepoint when neuroblasts first begin to delaminate from the otic placode. The mutants used in this study were Nd1-cre: Gata3 f/f mutants. In situ was performed to determine gene expression within the cochlea, and immunohistochemistry was performed to label neurons as well as cell death within the cochlea. When Gata3 was conditionally knocked out and reduced in its expression, fewer neurons appear to have formed compared to the mutant and the neurons that do form lack normal projection patterns. Increased Activated Caspase3 labelling was found in the mutant compared to the control, meaning that there was increased cell death in the mutant. The Activated Caspase3 labelling follows the general pathway of the neurons, leading to the belief that neurons were the cells that were dying when Gata3 was conditionally knocked out. Based on this, Gata3 does appear to be necessary for SGN survival within the inner ear.


Background: The aim of this study is to explore the challenges faced by healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Malaysia in supporting patients with early prostate cancer in making treatment decisions.Methods: Four in-depth individual interviews and three focus group discussions were conducted with urologists (n=11), urology trainees (n=5), oncologists (n=3) and policy makers (n=1) in Malaysia in 2012-2013. A semi-structured interview guide was used to facilitate the interviews, which were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and checked. Thematic approach was used to analyze the data.Results: Challenges reported by HCPs in supporting patients in making decisions about prostate cancer treatment consisted of patient, social, healthcare professionals and health system factors. Patient-related challenges were: distrust of HCPs, difficulty in communicating information, preconceptions, attitudes to treatment, preparedness for decision making, viewing prostate cancer as taboo and fear of treatment complications, or side-effects. Social factors, such as influence of family or others, also posed a problem for HCPs seeking to support patients' decision-making. HCP-related challenges included: differences of opinion among HCPs, uncertainty about the best treatment option and lack of interdisciplinary cooperation. Healthcare system factors challenges included: lack of support staff, time constraints, treatment availability and treatment costs. HCPs suggested that delivery of care by multi-disciplinary teams, and more use of audio-visual media, would help patients to make decisions.Conclusions: HCPs faced various challenges in supporting patients with prostate cancer in making decisions about treatment. Delivery of care by a supportive team in a specialist centre may improve the support patients receive in making decisions.


Since slavery has been made illegal in nearly all countries in the world, and as modern advances allow more attention to be focused on other social improvements to make the lives of people better, there is a dark and hidden underbelly around the world that most people do not want to hear about. The fact is, that while the battle over the legal status of slavery has been won, as have many of the cultural battles regarding the wrongfulness of enslaving another human being, more slaves exist in the world at this moment than were trafficked in over 350 years of transAtlantic slavery combined—by almost a 2-to-1 margin. The author seeks to refocus the 21st century reader on what Wilberforce called the ―wickedness‖ that is the slave trade by examining the historical challenges and successes in abolition and then discussing the modern manifestation of slavery and the forms in which it emerges. The author then discusses modern legal attempts to attack the underground markets on both the supply and demand side, both of which extend throughout the globe, complicating this issue immensely. The author tells several true stories of trafficking victims' experiences to give a human face to the injustices that are perpetrated and to give the reader a sense of the diversity of victim types, methods of enslavement, and motivations of slaveholders. The author concludes that given the modern complexities and the already illegal nature of slavery and trafficking in persons a multi-faceted response is needed at the international, national, NGO, and personal levels to detect slavery, rescue the weak from injustice and oppression, prosecute offenders, and rehabilitate and provide stability for victims.


Tactical mobile robots used in military and law-enforcement operations normally require a robust, longrange, and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communications link to the remote control station. This is especially true for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operators using robots to defeat Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). High-frequency digital radio communications, currently the preferred technology, are subject to line-of-sight (LOS) limitations, and thus are often impossible to maintain in urban environments. We have developed a system that will allow the mobile robot to carry multiple relay radios that are automatically deployed when and where needed in order to maintain robust communications. This process is completely transparent to the operator and is entirely handled by the ad-hoc network formed by the relay radios. The system is plug-and-playable, and can be attached to many manned and unmanned vehicles requiring long-range and non-LOS operational capability. Experimental data compares the effective range achieved with and without the use of our relay deployment system.