Calcium-based stabilizers such as lime and cement control swell and shrinkage behavior and enhance strength properties for expansive soils through the formation of pozzolanic components. However, sulfate-bearing subgrade soils stabilized with calcium-based stabilizers might cause excessive swelling and shrinkage due to the formation of highly expansive minerals like ettringite and thaumasite. In this paper, one liquid ionic soil stabilizer (LISS) was evaluated as an alternative stabilizer used to control swelling and shrinkage behavior of expansive soils. A comprehensive laboratory experiment program including a linear shrinkage test, a one-dimensional swell test, and an unconfined compressive strength test, was designed and carried out on soils from Dallas, Texas before and after treatment. Three dosage levels of stabilizer and four different curing periods were investigated. Test results indicate that LISS is an effective stabilizing agent, which not only reduces swelling and soil plasticity but also increases soil strength. Furthermore, a similar type of LISS is utilized to treat the soil in Dallas via deep injection using a hydraulic pump. Field emission scanning electron microscopy results on the test soil showed that the stabilizing program is likely to work through clay flocculation and morphological variations in the clay particles.


The research aims to describe; (1) the process of teaching speaking by using audio visuals, (2) the problems that appeared and its solution in implementing linguistic intelligence for teaching speaking through audio-visuals, and (3) the improvement of students speaking skills. The method used was Classroom Action Research, which involved students in the third semester of the Foreign Language Academy of Dian Cipta Cendikia Bandar Lampung. This action research consisted of 2 cycles. In the first cycle, students did activities such as listening to the songs in audio, reading the song's text and understanding the song's lyrics, and practicing speaking individually. In the second cycle, students did activities such as listening to the song in audio and visual, reading and understanding the song lyrics using word functions (noun, verb, adj., and adv.), and practicing speaking in pairs. The data were from students, teachers, and test observations. The findings indicated that; (1).
There was an improvement in active students in learning activities; first cycle, 2D3-BIa class had 50% active students in the first meeting and 65% active students in the second. There was an improvement for active students in the second cycle. 2D3-BIa class had 70% active students in the first meeting and 85% active students in the second. It means that the data had reached a minimum indicator of 70%, and (2) problems that appeared during the implementation of the teaching-learning process happened in pronouncing words, understanding words function, and expressing the idea of the content of the song's text. The solution was that the teacher should help all the students' problems to develop speaking skills repeatedly, and 3) the improvement of students' speaking skills was significant. In the first cycle, students who passed the test were 60%. There was an improvement in the second cycle. Students who passed the test were 85%. It means that the data had reached the minimum indicator.


Serpentine micromixers are simple in design, have a high mixing performance, and thus are preferable among passive micromixers. Conventional geometries such as square-wave, circular, and zigzag have widely been investigated by researchers. High pressure loss is the main challenge which diminishes its cost effectiveness. To mitigate the pressure loss and maintain high mixing efficiency, a novel 3D square-wave serpentine micromixer with misaligned inflow is introduced. The design integrates the concept of non-aligned inlets and highly effective square-wave cross-section inside a serpentine micromixer. Flow analysis was done for Reynolds number 5 to 50 and a mixing efficiency above 90% was achieved. The design amalgamates two square-waves cross sections with lateral misalignments thereby producing a vortex flow at each mixing junction (chamber). The results suggest strong vortex mixing along with crossflow phenomenon (vortex propagation and intensification) inside the mixing chamber. The core vortex region was also analyzed. For Reynolds number 30, mixing index of 0.92 is observed with pressure loss around 5 kPa and mixing length 3.7 mm. A detailed comparative study is also established, which successfully demonstrates the edge of proposed design.


Background Antibiotics are frequently used in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. However, international guidelines suggest their use should be restricted to specific sub-groups based on the Anthonisen Criteria. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of antibiotic therapy on outcome in COPD. Methods We conducted a multi-centre prospective observational study assessing patients hospitalized with COPD exacerbation. Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare outcomes in patients treated with and without antibiotic therapy, including adjustment using a propensity score and adjustment for recognised predictors of 30-day mortality. The outcomes of interest were 30-day mortality and length of hospital stay. Results 1031 patients were included in the study. Median age was 74 years (interquartile range 63-75) and 48.7% were female. Mean FEV1 was 46% (standard deviation 19%). 30-day mortality was 5.4%. 818 patients (79.3%) received antibiotic therapy on admission (23.5% combination therapy, 76.5 % monotherapy). Antibiotic prescribing according to Anthonisen criteria was: Type 1 - 84% patients received antibiotics, Type 2 - 78.6% and Type 3 - 70.3%. After adjustment for propensity to receive antibiotic therapy and recognized predictors of mortality, there was no association between antibiotic use and 30 day mortality (OR 0.96 (0.37-2.48), p=0.9) or length of hospital stay (p=0.8). Conclusion Antibiotic treatment is frequently used in hospitalised acute exacerbations of COPD. This study did not find any evidence of benefit in terms of mortality or length of hospital stay.


Introduction: Asthma can lead to fatigue, frequent hospital visits, psychological problems, and learning problems in children. One of the complications of asthma is its life-threatening acute exacerbation. It is important to identify precipitating factors responsible for frequent acute exacerbations of asthma. Methods: This case-control study was conducted in the pulmonology ward of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, from May 2019 to February 2020. Sampling was done by convenient probability technique. The case group was identified as patients with two or more episodes of acute exacerbation of asthma and the control group was identified as asthmatic patients without acute exacerbation in the last year. Results: Factors leading to acute exacerbation of asthma include number of asthma attacks in the past seven days (4.9 ± 3.4 vs. 2.2 ± 2.0; p < 0.0001) and number of nights with troublesome cough in the past 28 days (12.2 ± 8.1 vs. 4.3 ± 3.1; p < 0.0001). Participants with recent upper respiratory tract infection (38.4% vs. 10%; odds ratio [OR] 5.62), smoking history (30.7% vs. 12%; OR 3.25), gastroesophageal reflux disease (26.9% vs. 8.0%; OR 4.2) and non-adherence to medication (26.9% vs. 8.0%; OR 4.2) were more likely to experience from exacerbation of asthma. Conclusion: It is important to identify risk factors that may cause acute exacerbation of asthma in the patients. Patients should be educated of the risk factors and complications of the exacerbation episode of asthma.


Five dental amalgams were studied in an in vitro corrosion test. Cylindrical test specimens were stored in weak lactic acid solutions at different pH for 1 month. The solutions were analyzed for zinc, the specimens were inspected and examined in SEM. The results showed that zinc was dissolved rather quickly from the amalgams and the amount was highest for the conventional one. Some amalgams had a low tendency for corrosion products to adhere to the surfaces. The presence of zinc did not seem to reduce their corrosion resistance.


We investigate the relative performance of simple groundwater policies in a spatially detailed aquifer and reveal the distribution of net benefits from those policies. Groundwater policy is plagued with a high level of complexity in achieving the first best outcome, which may be costly and politically infeasible to adopt. We parameterize a 8,457-cell spatially detailed model of the northwest Kansas section of the Ogallala Aquifer and find that simple pricing, quantity, and water market policies perform poorly but can be improved upon by localized policies that are more efficient and garner more popular support. (JEL Q15, Q25)


The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the counselling program implemented at APS-COD, Karachi, Pakistan in 2008, which was an integrated and on-going process. The research sample comprised of 330 students of classes VIII, IX, X, parents who were involved in the implementation of counselling strategies and all the teachers from four sections i.e. Pre-school, Junior school, Middle school and Senior school. Survey method was used to gather data by using self-constructed questionnaire forms. Results indicate that school counseling program is effective for the teachers, students and parents. Both teachers and students are highly satisfied with the availability of the student counselor. Teachers found counseling services highly beneficial for the enhancement of class room management skills and improvement in communication skills whereas students find themselves more competent and confident in dealing with academic issues.


Sparse approximation is key to many signal processing, image processing, and machine learning applications. If multiple signals maintain some degree of dependency, for example, the support sets are statistically related, then it will generally be advantageous to jointly estimate the sparse representation vectors from the measurement vectors as opposed to solving for each signal individually. In this paper, we propose simultaneous sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) for joint sparse approximation with two structured sparse models (SSMs), where one is row-sparse with embedded element-sparse and the other one is row-sparse plus element-sparse. While SBL has attracted much attention as a means to deal with a single sparse approximation problem, it is not obvious how to extend SBL to SSMs. By capitalizing on a dual-space view of existing convex methods for SMs, we showcase the precision component model and covariance component model for SSMs, where both models involve a common hyperparameter and an innovation hyperparameter that together control the prior variance for each coefficient. The statistical perspective of precision component versus covariance component models unfolds the intrinsic mechanism in SSMs, and also leads to our development of SBL-inspired cost functions for SSMs. Centralized algorithms that include 11 and 12 reweighting algorithms and consensus-based decentralized algorithms are developed for simultaneous sparse approximation with SSMs. In addition, theoretical analysis is conducted to provide valuable insights into the proposed approach, which includes global minima analysis of the SBL-inspired nonconvex cost functions and convergence analysis of the proposed 11 reweighting algorithms for SSMs. Superior performance of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated by numerical experiments.


Orientation: Worldwide transformation and change in education has placed increased demands on teachers, which has resulted in teachers experiencing a potentially negative work attitude. Research purpose: The aim of this article was to expand the understanding of the relationship between a sense of calling, work attitude and meaningful work. Motivation for the study: The international community has rated the quality of education in South Africa as being substandard. Therefore, work attitudes and the impact of meaningful work in the current educational system was investigated. Research approach, design and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was used with a representative sample of teachers in South Africa ( N = 270). Data were gathered by means of questionnaires and analysed through structural equation modelling. Main findings: A significant positive relationship was found between a sense of calling and work attitude. Meaningful work was found to mediate the relationship between a sense of calling and positive work attitude. Practical/managerial implications: Retention of teachers displaying a positive work attitude as well as those finding meaning in their work is paramount. Communication pertaining to the broader mission and common goals of the Department of Education should transpire. Support and training should be provided and teachers should be allowed autonomy in a school atmosphere that is pleasant and disciplined. Contribution/value-add: Sufficient support to enhance meaningful work may contribute to the delivery of quality education.


Background: Dementia is associated with progressive cognitive impairment and behavioral and psychological symptoms. Sleep–wake cycle disturbances are common in patients with dementia. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of risperidone in the treatment of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and associated sleep–wake cycle disturbances. Methods: In this open-label, 12-week, observational, prospective study, the effects of risperidone were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) total and subscale scores. Sleep–wake cycle disturbances were rated by patients/caregivers using a newly developed sleep behavior questionnaire that included assessment of sleep duration, quality, awakenings, and effects on daily activities. Tolerability assessments included the Udvalg for Kliniske Undersogelser (UKU) subscale for extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) and the recording of adverse events. Results:A total of 338 patients entered the study, with 321 patients completing. Following 12 weeks of risperidone treatment (mean dose 1.49 mg/day at end-point), the mean NPI score was reduced to 10.6 from a baseline score of 28.7. Compared with baseline, patients/caregivers reported significant improvements following 12 weeks of risperidone in total sleep hours at night (5.5 vs. 7.1 hours), hours awake in bed at night (2.3 vs. 1.2 hours), insomnia (40.1% vs. 8.4%), and other sleep-related variables. Six patients reported a total of 10 adverse events, including somnolence (n = 3) and sialorrhea (n = 2). Scores on the UKU subscale of EPS improved significantly (mean 4.0 at baseline vs. 1.7 at week 12). Conclusions: Risperidone is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of BPSD and associated sleep disturbances.


Abstract Detailed sedimentological and geochemical studies of phosphorites and sediments from the East Australian continental margin have shown that both apatite and glauconite are forming at a transition zone between relict, iron oxyhydroxide-rich, organic-poor (TOC<0.3%) outer shelf (200–350 m) sediments and relatively rapidly accumulating, iron oxyhydroxide-deficient, organic-rich (TOC>0.8%) deep water (460–650 m) sediments. The interaction between sediment mixing and Fe-P cycling processes (between the pore waters and the solid phase) appear critical to the formation of modern phosphorites in this area. The phosphate nodules form within the anoxic zone in the sediments at depths of approximately 10–18 cm below the sediment-seawater interface. Nodules which remain in the sediment mixed layer after they form continue to accumulate both P and Fe for up to 60 ka; during this time their apatite and iron oxyhydroxide contents more than double and the nodules become denser and more lithified. Apatite and glauconite formation are favoured by periods of high sea-level and low current velocities, as these conditions allow a relatively high organic carbon input to the sediments and thereby the maintenance of anoxia at shallow depths within the sediments. During periods of low sea-level and high current velocities, the carbon flux into the sediments decreases and the sediments become oxic. Consequently the Fe-cycling processes cease and apatite and glauconite formation stops: the glauconite is progressively transformed to goethite, and phosphorite nodules are concentrated into lag deposits and ferruginized. Alternations of high and low sea-level cycles eventually result in the formation of the massive ferruginous Neogene phosphorites that mantle much of the outer shelf. The iron enrichment processes observed in the modern to Neogene phosphorites on the East Australian continental margin provide explanations for many of the features seen in ferruginous Neogene deposits in the world's oceans.


A robust probabilistic constraint handling approach in the framework of joint evolutionary-classical optimization has been presented earlier. In this work, the theoretical foundations of the method are presented in detail. The method is known as bi-objective method, where the conventional penalty function approach is implemented. The present work highlights the dynamic variation of the commensurate penalty parameter for each objective treated as constraint. It is shown that the constraint parameters collectively define the right slope of the tangent as to the optimal front during the search. The robust and sustained convergence throughout the search up to micro level in the range of 10-10 or beyond is explained. The work here is presented as a further note in connection with the previous publication, where the subtle theoretical considerations and their details had been omitted for the sake of detailed results of the experiments demonstrating the effective working of the approach. In contrast to the implementation-centered reporting of the previous work, this work can be considered as a description of the detailed probabilistic basis underlying the previous work. Therefore, this study is of great importance to let the researchers conveniently gain the insight into the work and its implications reported earlier.


ABSTRACT Yan, S.; Jia, Z.; Liu, W., and Zhang, X., 2015. Case history: Large diameter and supper long pile-running under self-weight in Liwan Oil Field. The pile-running frequently occurs because of the great weights of both the pile and the hammer. Thepile-running mechanism is super long and large-diameter piles are commonly used for constructing ocean platform foundations. Pile-running discussed in the current study through case analyses. A predicting procedure is developed based on the limit equilibrium of pile weight and soil resistance. Reduction factors for soil strength used to calculate the skin friction are also suggested in the current study. The Berezantsev approach is recommended for calculating the end bearing resistance to the running pile, which can improve the precision of the estimation compared with that of commonly used methods. The suggested method is used to predict the pile-running case in a practical project, and the calculated results are consistent with the driving records.


The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of climate change on soil hydrology and carbon (C) fluxes in boreal peatland ecosystems, with implications for the feasibility of cultivating reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea, L; RCG) as a way to restore the C sink in cutaway peatlands under Finnish conditions. First, hydrological models were developed for pristine peatland ecosystems and the cutaway peatlands under RCG cultivation. Concurrently, the hydrological responses to varying climatic forcing and mire types were investigated for these ecosystems. Thereafter, process-based models for estimating the seasonal and annual C exchanges were developed for the pristine mires and cutaway peatlands. The C models incorporated the hydrological models for corresponding ecosystems. Model simulations based on the climate scenarios (ACCLIM, developed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI) were further carried out to study the impacts of climate change on the C exchanges in the peatland ecosystems during the 21st century. The simulation showed that the water table (WT) in the pristine Finnish mires would draw down slightly during the 21st century. Such a change in WT would be related to a decrease in the CO2 sink but an increase in the CH4 source at the country scale, as driven mainly by the rising temperature (Ta) and increasing precipitation (P). These changes in CO2 / CH4 fluxes would decrease the total C-greenhouse gas (GHG) sink (CO2 equilibrium) by 68% at the country scale, and the changes would be more pronounced toward the end of the century. The majority of pristine fens in southern and western Finland and the pristine bogs near the coastal areas would become centurial CO2 sources under the changing climate. On the other hand, the major distribution of fens in northern Finland would act to increase the CH4 source at the country scale, whereas the CH4 emission would tend to decrease with WT in the southern and western areas of Finland. Peat extraction and RCG cultivation tends to limit the influence of WT on the root-zone moisture content in a peatland ecosystem, resulting in a high sensitivity of soil moisture content to the regularity of summer rainfall. However, the phenological cycle of RCG may represent an adaptive feature of photosynthesis to the stochasticity of summer precipitation. By the end of the 21st century, climate change will decrease the CO2 sequestration by 63% 87% in a cutaway RCG peatland during a main rotation period of 12 years. Nevertheless, the site could sustain a net CO2 sink, which is comparable to the pristine peatlands in the same region.


We identified a key oncogenic pathway underlying neuroblastoma progression: specifically, MYCN, expressed at elevated level, transactivates the miRNA 17-5p-92 cluster, which inhibits p21 and BIM translation by interaction with their mRNA 3′ UTRs. Overexpression of miRNA 17-5p-92 cluster in MYCN-not-amplified neuroblastoma cells strongly augments their in vitro and in vivo tumorigenesis. In vitro or in vivo treatment with antagomir-17-5p abolishes the growth of MYCN-amplified and therapy-resistant neuroblastoma through p21 and BIM upmodulation, leading to cell cycling blockade and activation of apoptosis, respectively. In primary neuroblastoma, the majority of cases show a rise of miR-17-5p level leading to p21 downmodulation, which is particularly severe in patients with MYCN amplification and poor prognosis. Altogether, our studies demonstrate for the first time that antagomir treatment can abolish tumor growth in vivo, specifically in therapy-resistant neuroblastoma.


The native habitat of the brown bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus is located in the eastern part of North America. This species was introduced in Europe, Southwestern Asia and New Zealand. It was supposed that it entered Russia from the southwest and now inhabits some water bodies at the border with Ukraine and Belarus. Information about bullheads in Russia was searched for in scientific editions and angler's blogs. Anglers' reports have been verified by survey and fishing. It turned out that brown bullheads did in fact appear in Russia, but not where they were expected: they were found by the city of Saint Petersburg on the Karelian Isthmus, i.e., on the territory between Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. They inhabit at least three lakes. This invasion resulted from release by unauthorized individuals. The revealed habitats are linked by brooks with the river systems of the Baltic Sea Basin. The following spread of the brown bullhead is possible due to intentional releases and natural processes.


One of the most notable recent developments in survey research is the increased usage of online convenience samples drawn from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). While scholars have noted various social and political differences (e.g., age, partisanship) between MTurk and population-based samples, the breadth and depth of these variations remain unclear. We investigate the extent to which MTurk samples differ from population samples, and the underlying nature of these differences. We do so by replicating items from the population-based American National Election Studies (ANES) 2012 Time Series Study in a survey administered to a sample of MTurk respondents. With few exceptions, we not only find that MTurk respondents differ significantly from respondents completing the 2012 ANES via the Web but also that most differences are reduced considerably when controlling for easily measurable sample features. Thus, MTurk respondents do not appear to differ fundamentally from population-based respondents in unmeasurable ways. This suggests that MTurk data can be used to advance research programs, particularly if researchers measure and account for a range of political and demographic variables as needed.


Zones of low-temperature metasomatism are widespread in igneous and sedimentary or metasedimentary terranes. Such zones are commonly associated with base metal and precious metal mineralization, and are readily identified by having relatively simple mineral assemblages, such as quartz-chlorite-sericite-ankerite associated with gold. However, if such zones are subjected to further metamorphism, the resulting assemblages may become more complex. This abstract discusses zones of alteration in the Forrestania greenstone belt in Western Australia, that have been further metamorphosed to amphibolite facies, with the development of complex amphibole assemblages, staurolitebearing assemblages and calc-silicate assemblages.


Abstract Limitations on the accuracy of CCN counts obtained with thermal gradient diffusion cloud chambers (TGDCC) are discussed. Evidence presented here regarding 1) the absence of a well-defined plateau when the number of CCN in the TGDCC are plotted as a function of time, 2) the discrepancy between CCN counts obtained by instantaneous photography and the time-exposure method, and 3) the difficulty in reaching a sufficiently small minimum detectable size throughout the range of supersaturations, points to the possibility of considerable error in instantaneous CCN counts. The time-exposure method is demonstrated as a means of eliminating the problems associated with the instantaneous method and of extending the measurements to lower supersaturations.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Coronary access (CA) after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with supra-annular transcatheter heart valves (THV) can be challenging. Specific Evolut R/Pro and Acurate Neo THVs orientations are associated with reduced neo-commissure overlap with coronary ostia, while SAPIEN 3 THV cannot be oriented. With the ALIGN-ACCESS study (TAVR With Commissural Alignment Followed by Coronary Access), we investigated the impact of commissural alignment on the feasibility of CA after TAVR. Methods: We performed coronary angiography after TAVR with intra-annular SAPIEN 3, supra-annular Evolut R/Pro, and Acurate Neo THVs in 206 patients. Evolut THVs were implanted aiming for commissure alignment. Alignment of Acurate Neo was retrospectively assessed in 36, intentionally attempted in 26 cases. The primary end point was the rate of unfeasible and nonselective CA after TAVR. Results: Thirty-eight percent of patients received SAPIEN 3, 31.1% Evolut Pro/R, 30.1% Acurate Neo THV. Final valve orientation was favorable to commissural alignment in 85.9% of Evolut and 69.4% of Acurate Neo cases (with intentional alignment successful in 88.5%). Selective CA was higher for SAPIEN 3 than for aligned and misaligned supra-annular THVs (95% versus 71% versus 46%, P<0.001). Cannulation of at least one coronary was unfeasible with 11% misaligned supra-annular, 3% aligned supra-annular, and 0% SAPIEN 3 THVs. Independent predictors of unfeasible/nonselective CA were implantation of a misaligned supra-annular THV (odds ratio, 4.59 [95% CI, 1.81–11.61]; P<0.01), sinus of Valsalva height (odds ratio, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.7–0.98]; P=0.03), and THV–sinus of Valsalva relation (odds ratio, 1.06 [95% CI, 1.02–1.1]; P<0.01). Conclusions: Commissural alignment improves the rate of selective CA after TAVR with supra-annular THVs. Nevertheless, aligned supra-annular THVs carry higher risk of unfeasible/nonselective CA than SAPIEN 3. Patients with a misaligned supra-annular THV, low sinus of Valsalva, and higher THV–sinus of Valsalva relation are at highest risk of impaired CA after TAVR.


The influence of π-conjugation structural changes on photoinduced electron transfer (PET) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) processes in π-conjugated donor (D)-acceptor (A) dyads (D-π-A) was investigated. Three types of D-π-A dyads were prepared through the modification of the structure of their π-conjugated linker, including D-π-A (1) and D-πtw-A (2) having a twisted π-conjugation, and D-π-Si-π-A (3) with a π-conjugation severed by a Si-atom. In these dyads, carbazole (Cz) and oxadiazole (Oz) moieties act as an electron donor and acceptor, respectively. The emission maxima of dyads 1 and 3 red-shifted with the increase in polarity, which could be attributed to the ICT process. The fluorescence lifetimes of dyads 1 and 3 were 2.64 and 4.29 ns in CH2Cl2, respectively. In contrast, dyad 2 showed dual emission at 350 and 470 nm in CH2Cl2. The emission of dyad 2 at 380 nm corresponded to the monomer fluorescence in the locally excited state. Moreover, the emission at 470 nm increased simultaneously with the diminishing of the fluorescence at 380 nm. This emission band can be assigned as the intramolecular exciplex emission, and showed a strong solvatochromic shift. The low emission quantum yield (<3%) of dyad 2 is due to the PET process. In dyad 2, the cationic and anionic radical species generated by the PET process were confirmed by femtosecond transient absorption (fs-TA) spectroscopy. Upon photoexcitation at 290 or 340 nm, the A or D moieties can be selectively excited. Upon excitation at 290 nm, the acceptor moiety can be excited to the 1A* state, thus the photoinduced hole transfer (PHT) takes place from 1A* to D through the HOMO levels within a few picoseconds. On the other hand, when the donor moiety is excited at 340 nm, the PET process occurs from 1D* to A. Based on the fs-TA studies, it was found that the dynamics and mechanisms for the electron (or charge) transfer were strongly affected by the variation of the π-conjugation of the linker. Herein, we can conclude that the PET and ICT processes are strongly influenced by the π-conjugation properties and their mechanisms are also affected by whether selective excitation of the donor or acceptor moiety occurs. Moreover, unit electron transfers (PET or PHT) were observed dominantly in the dyads having severed/twisted linkers in π-conjugation. However, dyad 1 possessing a well-conjugated linker showed a partial charge transfer character.


In June 2004 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank for International Settlements issued its revised framework for the international convergence of capital measurement and capital standards. In developing the framework the Committee has sought to determine risk-sensitive capital requirements that are conceptually sound and which incorporate greater use of assessments of risks provided by bank's internal systems as inputs into capital calculations. The revised framework also provides a range of options for determining the capital requirements for credit risk and operational risk to allow banks and supervisors to select approaches that are most appropriate for their operations and their financial market infrastructure. In this paper we identify a research agenda for banks arising out of the revised capital framework, and set this agenda under the perception that governing boards and senior bank executives intend to move beyond simple issues of regulatory compliance to strategic goals related to maximising return on risk measurement and management activities.


We investigate the coherent optical propagation in a photonic molecule spinning optomechanical system consisting of two whispering gallery microcavities in which one of the optical cavities is a spinning optomechanical cavity and the other one is an ordinary auxiliary optical cavity. As the optomechanical cavity is spinning along the clockwise or counterclockwise direction, the cavity field can undergo different Sagnac effects, which accompanies the auxiliary optical cavity, together influencing the process of the evolution of optomechanically induced transparency and its related propagation properties, such as fast and slow light effects. The numerical results indicate that the enhanced slow and fast light and the conversion from fast to slow light (or slow to fast light) are determined by the spinning direction of the optomechanical cavity and the coupling of the two optical cavities. The study affords further insight into the photonic molecule spinning optomechanical systems and also indicates promising applications in quantum information processing.


Introduction The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing in the last few decades, representing a growing danger to their health. It is recognised that obesity has an effect on lung function, with a lower tidal volume in obese people. Obesity, as well as malnutrition, may cause decrease in the volume of the lungs and increased incidence of respiratory symptoms Objective Show if obesity and poorer nutritional status in healthy school children affect on their lung function. Methods We performed the spirometric tests of lung function with Jeger's spirometer "Vyntus spiro', previously calibrated with 1 litre pump, at 165 healthy boys and 135 healthy girls aged from 7 to 18 years in 4 elementary and 4 high schools in Pancevo. Flow-volume curve was made: We observed the VC, FVC, FEV-1, PEF, MEF 75, 50 and 25. Body mass index (BMI) was used to determine the level of nutritional status. According to BMI children were classified into four groups: obese, overweight, normal weight, poorly nourished. Spirometric values between groups were compared by Student's T-test. Relations of BMI and spirometric test results were compared with Pearson correlation coefficient. Statistical significance was defined as a p value<0.05. Results The results showed that the lung functions are in the reference values for all groups. Analysis of the results with Student T-test [N1] showed that over-nourished boys have statistically significant (p<0.05) better values of VC, FVC, MEF 50, and MEF-25 compared to obese children, and better values of VC, FVC, FEV-1 and MEF-50, compared to the less nourished children. Pearson correlation coefficientshowed a slight negative correlation of BMI and VC values in obese male children (r: 0.28), and slight positive correlation in the poorly nourished male children (r: 0.33). In obese, overweight and normal weight girls pulmonary function values were equal, but decreased in VC and MEF-50 in poorly nourished, but not statistically significant. Conclusion Obesity, as well as malnutrition have an influence on lung function in schoolchildren in Pancevo with a greater influence in male compared to female children.


Background: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are more likely to require surgical procedures, and to have post-operative complications compared to the general population. The TAPS trial demonstrated that pre-operative transfusion is associated with a 3.8-fold reduction in peri-operative complications in patients with SCD. Pre-operative exchange transfusion has not been shown to have benefit over simple top-up transfusion.
 Patients with SCD may have baseline hemoglobin levels higher than the usual 60-80 g/L for a variety of reasons including; non-hemoglobin SS genotype SCD, co-inheritance of deletion(s) in alpha globin genes, hereditary persistence fetal hemoglobin, and hydroxyurea (HU) use. It is less clear whether patients with pre-operative hemoglobin levels > 90 g/L would also benefit from pre-operative transfusions. Previous studies of pre-operative transfusions in SCD have largely not captured these patients, in part due to low HU uptake at the time of the study and exclusion of non-hemoglobin SS SCD.
 We conducted a retrospective cohort study to assess the role of pre-operative transfusion in patients with SCD and a high baseline hemoglobin.
 Methods: 1304 patients seen at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto between 2007 and 2017 were assessed for eligibility. Patients were included if they: had a baseline hemoglobin ≥ 90 g/L, were 1-18 years of age at the time of surgery, had a diagnosis of hemoglobin SS, SC, Sβ+-thalassemia or Sβ0-thalassemia SCD subtypes, and had a low or medium risk elective surgery under a general anesthetic. Surgeries were classified according to the Co-operative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. Post-operative complications were defined as one or more of the following within 30 days of surgery: fever, vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC), infection, bleeding requiring transfusion, acute chest syndrome (ACS), stroke, intensive care admission (ICU), emergency room visit after discharge, readmission to hospital after discharge, or death. The incidence of postoperative complications for those with a baseline hemoglobin ≥90 g/L was compared between those who received a transfusion and those who did not. To estimate the adjusted effect of pre-operative transfusion on the risk of developing post-operative complications, a multi-variable logistic regression model was fitted using the change-in-estimate procedure, where variables with the strongest influence on the crude (unadjusted) estimate were included as model covariates (i.e. key confounders).
 Results: 117 patients with a hemoglobin ≥90 g/L underwent a total of 137 procedures. The most frequent procedures included were: tonsillectomies/adenoidectomies (26), cholecystectomies (25), splenectomies (20), and umbilical hernia repairs (11).
 There were 22 procedures (16%) where a pre-operative transfusion was administered. All patients received simple top-up transfusions. Of these, 11 (50%) encountered at least one post-operative complication. In contrast, 22/115 (19.1%) procedures without a pre-operative transfusion experienced a post-operative complication. There was an increased risk of post-operative complications in the group that was transfused (p=0.003, OR=4.2, 95% CI 1.6-11). Adjusting for two key confounders identified during the modeling process (splenectomy and prior ACS), pre-operative transfusion was again found to be associated with an increased risk of post-operative complications (p=0.017, OR=3.6, 95% CI 1.2-9.2). The characteristics of these patients and the incidence and distribution of post-operative complications are shown in Table 1.
 Conclusion: Patients with SCD and a baseline hemoglobin ≥90 g/L who receive a pre-operative top-up transfusion have an increased risk of post-operative complications compared to those who are not transfused. In low and medium risk surgeries, a policy of withholding transfusions for such patients may be considered. Prospective studies validating these findings are needed.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


To assess the effect of training on glucose disposal, we performed a longitudinal study of 11 elite cyclists before and after 4 months of intensive training compared to 11 sedentary subjects. Insulin sensitivity (SI) and glucose effectiveness (Sg) were measured using Bergman's minimal model. Sg includes basal insulin effectiveness (BIE) and a parameter termed glucose effectiveness at zero insulin (GEZI). After overnight fasting glucose was administered intravenously (0.5 g x kg(-1), 30% solution given over 3 min), and insulin (0.02 U x kg(-1), 1 -2U) was injected immediately after 19 min. Sg, SI and BIE, were significantly higher in elite cyclists both before and after training than in sedentary subjects (P < 0.01). However, the non-insulin-dependent component of Sg (GEZI) was higher only after the intensive training in the cyclists (3.31 +/- 0.67% x min(-1)) than in sedentary subjects (1.7 +/- 0.2% x min(-1), P < 0.02). We conclude that insulin sensitivity (SI) and glucose effectiveness (Sg) are higher in elite cyclists than in sedentary subjects and that these high and almost optimal values are not further improved by additional training. However, the improvement in GEZI, as reflected by the difference between post-training GEZI and sedentary control values, raises the possibility of an increase of the non-insulin-mediated mobilization of glucose transporters.


Abstract
Background: Satisfaction is one of the meaningful indicators of patient experience of health care services. Asking patients what they think about the care and treatment they have received is an important step towards improving the quality of care, and to ensuring that local health services are meeting patients' needs. Various studies have reported that satisfied patients are more likely to utilize health services, comply with medical treatment, and continue with the health care provider.
Objective: to assess and estimate the perceived levels of satisfaction with health services rendered at government health facilities in selected regions of Ethiopia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study that involved an exit interview was conducted in purposively selected government health centers and general hospitals in six regions of Ethiopia. Data were collected using structured questionnaire between June and September 2004. Variables used in the study were grouped and summarized into three components, namely providers' characteristics, services characteristics and cleanliness of the health facilities. Each variable was scored on a 5 point Likert-like scale, ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). The mean score 2.5 is considered as a cut-off point and scores equal and above 2.5 are taken as an indicator of users' perceived satisfaction. Both bivariate and multivariate methods of data analyses were used as deemed necessary.
Results: All the three components of investigated variables have reliability coefficients ranging from 0.57 to 0.82. Results of bivariate analyses depicted that the percentage for high mean score satisfaction with health providers' characteristics ranged from 77.25% to 93.23%; with service characteristics 68.64% to 86.48%; and satisfaction with cleanliness ranged from 76.50% to 90.57%.
Results of multivariate analysis showed that relatively more explanatory variables were found to be significant in influencing cleanliness (cleanliness of waiting place, examination room and medical equipment). Most of the explanatory variables in service characteristics were not statistically significant as compared to other components.
Conclusion: The investigators believe that improved service delivery in health facilities could be achieved by the proper and sustainable implementation of the newly initiated civil service reform program in civil service institutions in the country. Furthermore, periodic assessment of health services and further study, especially from the user's satisfaction perspective is recommended as a fundamental initiative in the improvement of the performance of health facilities. [Ethiop.J.Health Dev. 2008;22(1):42-48]


Introduction Vancomycin protocols for newborns are not uniform. There is limited pharmacokinetic data and drug clearance varies widely in this population. We reviewed our vancomycin policy after audit data suggested we were not achieving the new target range (trough of 10–15 mg/l). Only 50% achieved therapeutic levels, despite using higher doses in infants <29/40 than the BNF recommends. In addition to gestational age and weight, chronological age (CA) had a marked effect with subtherapeutic levels seen in 72% infants over 10 days of age. Our protocol was amended to include CA. Objectives Does accounting for CA in a Vancomycin dosing schedule reduce subtherapeutic levels? Methods Patients commenced on vancomycin were identified (July–December 2010). Demographics, vancomycin schedule, plasma creatinine and trough levels (pre 3rd dose) were compared with the previous protocol. Results 56 prescriptions (53 patients) were analysed. Mean trough level increased from 11.6 mg/l to 12.9 mg/l (95% CI 11.2 to 14.6). Subtherapeutic levels dropped from 50% to 36%. The frequency of levels >20 mg/l did not change (12% vs 11%). In infants >10 days old, mean levels rose significantly from 8.3 mg/l (95% CI 6.6–10 mg/l) to 14.3 mg/l (95% CI 11.9 to 16.8 mg/l). Infants <36 weeks had fewer subtherapeutic levels (25% vs 57%, p=0.056). There was no difference in high levels in those with normal renal function. Conclusion By including CA in the protocol more infants can achieve therapeutic levels. The frequent occurrence of subtherapeutic levels highlights the need to review current national Vancomycin dosing schedules.


I find it quite meaningful that heartwarming reflections about Douglas Kahn come very naturally to me. Perhaps that, in and of itself, says something about this incredible man. For context, my time in physical proximity to Professor Kahn came during my years as a student-athlete at the University of Michigan, where I graduated from the Ross School of Business, and the Law School. I was also a member of The Michigan Wolverines Basketball Team, where I participated in three NCAA Final Fours, and earned an NCAA Championship Title. I mention these things, not to tout my own accomplishments, but rather because I firmly believe that none of these blessings would have occurred but for my relationship with Professor Kahn. He was a true lighthouse for me in the seas of youth and academic discovery. What I think is most remarkable about all of this is that at the core of Professor Kahn is a life that has, not himself, but others at the center. Doug Kahn's passion, lived out, was simply this – how can I make the lives of those around me better?


M the following, high-speed measm'ements on a swept-back wing are reported. The curves of lift, marient, and drag have been determined up to Mach numbers of M = 0.87, and they are compared to a rectangular wing. Through measurements of'the total-head loss behind the wing and through schlieren pictures, an insight into the formation of the compression shock at high Mach numbers has been obtained.


The riboflavin requirement of young women during periods of sedentary living and exercise was determined during a 12-wk metabolic study. The study was divided into a 6-wk no exercise period followed by a 6-wk exercise period in which subjects jogged around a track for 20 to 50 min/day. Twelve subjects, aged 19 to 27 yr, were fed a basic diet containing 0.6 mg riboflavin/1000 kcal of intake. Riboflavin intake was increased by 0.2 mg/1000 kcal increments by provision of riboflavin in a glucose polymer mixture. Linear regression analysis was used to estimate the riboflavin intake required for an erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity coefficient of 1.25 during both the no exercise and exercise periods. Individual riboflavin requirements ranged from 0.62 to 1.21 mg/1000 kcal before exercise and 0.63 to 1.4 mg/1000 kcal during the exercise periods. Riboflavin requirement could not be related to the kilocalorie intake or lean body mass of the subjects. It is concluded that healthy young women require more riboflavin to achieve biochemical normality than the 1980 Recommended Dietary Allowances and that exercise increases riboflavin requirements.


The number of automobile users is increasing day by day. At the same time, the number of people prone to accidents continues to rise. This is because drivers are exposed to a number of distractions. In order to reduce this, automation came into existence. Over the past two decades, the automotive industry has aggressively researched ways to exploit modern computing and electronic advances in body control modules to provide safety, reliability, comfort and entertainment technologies for users. In this paper, the automation system deals with the development of a Body Control Module (BCM) including features providing automatic control of windshield wipers, headlamps, sunroof, power window regulators with an anti-pinch feature. Developments of these features were accomplished using a PIC micro-controller 16F877A along with components like sensors, actuators, current drivers & signal conditioning circuits. The developed automation system is tested on a general purpose PCB with DC motors and LED.


DNA based microelectronics technology have been developed in the last couple of years, but researchers found that its stability can be volatile to the change in its environment. In this research, electron transport in DNA poly(dA)-(dT) have been analysed by observing its density of states (DOS) and localization length. Retarded green function is used to calculate DOS, whereas transfer-matrix method is employed in calculating localization length in order to determine the electronic structure of the DNA. Along the z-axis of DNA electric field is applied, it will alter hopping constant between sites in DNA. Tight binding model is incorporated with Miller-Abraham expression to yield electric field and also temperature influence in DOS. Effect of medium is considered within the calculation. The results tell us that as the electric field increases, the value of DOS decreases, so that the localization length. The increment of temperature also shows similar trend.


The aim of this study is to collect and process data concerning the origin and development of Games in ancient Macedonia through the end of Imperial times. Literary evidence, coins and inscriptions were used as primarysources. During pre-Christian times, Games were held in honour of gods,mostly Zeus (Olympia of Dion, Basilia), Artemis (Amphipolis) and deities,such as Hercules (Heraclia of Thassos). During Imperial times, Games wereheld in honour of gods and deities. God of honour was Zeus, in whose honour  Olympia  were still held, in Beroia, and Apollo, in whose honour thePythia  were held in Thessalonica. Macedonian cities, during the Imperialera, mainly organised Games to honor Roman emperors; emperors honoredby means of Games were Heliogabalus, Philippus the Arab and mainlyGordianus III. In most cases they added to already existent Games the nameof the honored emperor, or changed the names of Games to satisfy the emperors themselves. Of course, these Games were either occasional or of alimited lifetime. The establishment of these Games was the result of both theRoman emperors' policy and the local authorities' aspirations


The provision of population identity for all Indonesians nationally is an effort that the government makes in order to provide the fulfillment of constitutional rights and protection as citizens, but children do not yet have an official identity such as ID cards owned by adults. The government through the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia then issued the Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 2/2016 concerning Child Identity Cards (KIA) in order to increases population data collection, provide protection and fulfilment of constitutional rights, and increases public services for children under the age of 17 years old which is integrated with the Population Administration Information System (SIAK). It is purposes for the child in getting the services independently and in terms of administrative completeness. This study uses qualitative descriptive methods with documentation techniques, literature, and key informant interviews with snowball sampling and representatives communities with accidental sampling. The use of theory to answer research problems is Duncan's theory with the criteria of effectiveness of achieving goals, integration, and adaptation with the aim of analyzing the effectiveness of the KIA program in the Department of Civil Service and Civil Registration of Semarang City as well as inhibition factors of the implementation of the KIA program. The results showed that the effectiveness of KIA program in achieving goals and integration has not fully run optimally, while adaptation has been able to run well. This is influenced by the inhibiting factors, namely environmental conditions due to the view that children are still dependent on their parents, it is still difficult to reach underprivileged families, the lack of information about the uses and benefits of KIA, and complicated bureaucracy. Recommendations that can be given are to improve all forms of understanding of KIA through socialization, increases promotion and cooperation with the partners in a sustainable manner, as well as adding ease of service with mobile cars to increase KIA's ownership in Semarang City.


In this paper, we present the design of a steerable needle with proximal notch patterns for compliance and an embedded rotational tip joint for articulation. The device is fabricated by laser machining NiTi tube so that an inner working channel exists (to enable delivery of fluids, drugs or microtools) and no assembly is required for the joints. We formulate its model based on the classical Cosserat Rod theory. This is extended with incremental state prediction and a simple spring model for tissue reaction to integrate into a planning algorithm based on Dynamic Region RRT which efficiently explores the needle's state space. The planner was initialized with a target zone and arbitrary anatomical obstacles before running simulations which propagated incremental state changes at every step while adhering to constraints based on the physical system. Finally, we demonstrate the steering capability of the needle through insertion tests into a phantom.


Two-pion correlations in square root[s(NN)] = 130 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC have been measured over a broad range of pair transverse momentum k(T) by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The k(T) dependent transverse radii are similar to results from heavy-ion collisions at square root[s(NN)] = 4.1, 4.9, and 17.3 GeV, whereas the longitudinal radius increases monotonically with beam energy. The ratio of the outwards to sidewards transverse radii (R(out)/R(side)) is consistent with unity and independent of k(T).


Reconstructions of the atmospheric sulfate aerosol burdens resulting from past volcanic eruptions are based on ice core‐derived estimates of volcanic sulfate deposition and the assumption that the two quantities are directly proportional. We test this assumption within simulations of tropical volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections with the MAECHAM5‐HAM aerosol‐climate model. An ensemble of 70 simulations is analyzed, with SO2 injections ranging from 8.5 to 700 Tg, with eruptions in January and July. Modeled sulfate deposition flux to Antarctica shows excellent spatial correlation with ice core‐derived estimates for Pinatubo and Tambora, although the comparison suggests the modeled flux to the ice sheets is 4–5 times too large. We find that Greenland and Antarctic deposition efficiencies (the ratio of sulfate flux to each ice sheet to the maximum hemispheric stratospheric sulfate aerosol burden) vary as a function of the magnitude and season of stratospheric sulfur injection. Changes in simulated sulfate deposition for large SO2 injections are connected to increases in aerosol particle size, which impact aerosol sedimentation velocity and radiative properties, the latter leading to strong dynamical changes including strengthening of the winter polar vortices, which inhibits the transport of stratospheric aerosols to high latitudes. The resulting relationship between Antarctic and Greenland volcanic sulfate deposition is nonlinear for very large eruptions, with significantly less sulfate deposition to Antarctica than to Greenland. These model results suggest that variability of deposition efficiency may be an important consideration in the interpretation of ice core sulfate signals for eruptions of Tambora‐magnitude and larger.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (GRM1), first recognized as an important factor in the central nervous system, has more recently been implicated in melanomagenesis and breast cancer pathogenesis. Oncogenic mediators of GRM1-associated effects include both MAPK and AKT signaling cascades. Modulation of GRM1 activity in melanoma and estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast cancer cells inhibits anchorage independent growth, migration, proliferation, and/or downstream activation of Akt and ERK. Data from our laboratory show that a significantly higher fraction of breast tumors express GRM1 compared to normal breast tissue, and GRM1 expression is more highly correlated with ER positivity. Moreover, higher GRM1 expression in human ER+ breast cancers treated with the anti-estrogen tamoxifen associates with a shorter distant metastasis free survival as compared to low expressors further supporting a critical role in ER+ breast cancer.

We hypothesize that ER has both genomic and non-genomic effects on GRM1. We evaluated the effect of hormonal treatment on GRM1 protein expression in ER+ MCF7 and ER- MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Estradiol increases GRM1 expression, and this effect is abrogated by the anti-estrogen tamoxifen in MCF7 but not in MDA-MB-231 cells. These genomic effects may be exerted through three putative ER binding sites within the GRM1 promoter. We have confirmed that ER binds to one of these sites by chromatin immunoprecipitation, further supported by ChiPSeq data. GRM1 promoter activity is increased by estradiol treatment using a luciferase reporter assay validating transcriptional activation by ER. To support a non-genomic role for ER with GRM1, we have shown that ER physically interacts with GRM1 in breast cancer cells by in vitro proximity ligation assay and by co-immunoprecipitation in immortalized mouse mammary epithelial cells (iMMECs) stably expressing GRM1. Stable introduction of GRM1 into iMMECs, which lack endogenous GRM1, reduces sensitivity to tamoxifen as compared to control iMMECs. In MCF7 cells, the combination of tamoxifen with GRM1 modulators riluzole or BAY 36-7620 produces synergistic effects.

As estradiol activates MAPK signaling in breast cancer cells, we hypothesize that this may be mediated by both the physical interaction of GRM1 and ER and the indirect effects on GRM1 transcription. Results of these studies suggest that GRM1 may be a valuable therapeutic target in ER+ breast tumors.

Citation Format: Sonia C. Dolfi, Madhura S. Mehta, David Kornblum, Andrew Boughton, Hussein Rahim, Daniel Medina, Kim M. Hirshfield. Regulation of GRM1 by estrogen receptor in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4457. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4457


Disclosed is an ultrapure 4-methylpyrazole containing less than 0.1% pyrazole and containing less than 10 ppm each of hydrazine and nitrobenzaldehyde. The ultrapure 4-methylpyrazole is prepared by a novel process so that less than 0.01% of ethylvinyl ether is present.


Summary

1
River rehabilitation schemes are now widespread in the UK and elsewhere, but there have been few systematic assessments of their ecological effect, particularly on target organisms such as fish. Fish populations were therefore assessed in 13 lowland rivers using point abundance measures and depletion electrofishing. Each river was sampled in two reaches, respectively containing a small-scale rehabilitation scheme (artificial riffles or flow deflectors) and an unrehabilitated control reach. Detailed geomorphological surveys were undertaken for the two study reaches in each river to assess the physical and hydraulic effect of rehabilitation.

2
There were large qualitative and quantitative differences among rivers and some had relatively impoverished fish faunas. Overall, total fish abundance, species richness, diversity and equitability were not significantly different between rehabilitated and control reaches. This was true for both the sampling methods used. Bullhead Cottus gobio and stone loach Barbatula barbatula tended to be more abundant in rehabilitated reaches, but this was significant only for artificial riffles. There was a significant between-year difference in fish abundance.

3
In general, rehabilitation schemes increased depth and flow heterogeneity, and fish species richness and diversity appeared to respond positively to increased flow velocity in restored reaches. However, there were few significant relationships between the fish fauna and physical variables, indicating that increasing physical (habitat) heterogeneity does not necessarily lead to higher biological diversity. We therefore caution against the use of physical responses to rehabilitation as a surrogate or reliable predictor of ecological response.

4
The weak response of fishes to rehabilitation may have been because the schemes were inappropriate in design and scale for low-gradient rivers. Furthermore, fish assemblages may have lacked the potential for recovery because of poor water quality and/or because the schemes were isolated within longer sections of degraded river. More extensive and directed biological monitoring is essential to improve understanding and enable future improvements in the design of schemes and the selection of sites with greater potential for successful rehabilitation.

5
Synthesis and applications. From this substantial sample of lowland rivers, there is little evidence of any general benefit to fish of small-scale instream structures in river rehabilitation. From present ecological knowledge it may be that resources would be better devoted to promoting the development of lateral and off-channel habitats within the river corridor. Physical restoration will be most effective when used alongside other strategies to augment fish populations such as water quality management.


Drift control agents are often used in pesticide drift management. Their effect is usually intended to be through increasing the droplet size produced in an application by reducing the evaporation rate of droplets and/ or other mechanisms, such as active ingredient encapsulation, or electrostatic charging. Such effects can be measured; however, standard techniques and guidelines are not currently available for many of these assessments specifically for drift control agents. The need for standard guidelines has given rise to the formation of a new task group within the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). This task group falls under the jurisdiction of ASTM Subcommittee E35.22, Pesticide Application and Formulation Systems. The present paper presents a review of the main mechanisms by which drift control agents may operate, and lists the standards and test guidelines that are currently available for assessing some of these mechanisms. This review is intended to serve as a starting point for the task group to define its mission statement, purpose and scope; and to identify current resources that are available for describing drift control agents, while showing the needs for additional resources.


Physics Education Research has been very active since the late 70's trying to reduce the gap between what the instructor teaches and what the students learn. One of the most important results of that research is the design of educational strategies and materials that help instructors with their teaching. It has been proved that using research-based instructional strategies in which students participate in an active way; students learn better than that of those taught in a traditional setting. Based on the Teaching Practices Inventory, we designed a survey for physics engineering students in an active learning environment to gauge what, in their perspective, is important for their comprehension. The results indicate that what instructors know is essential for students' learning is not always the same as what students believe is important for their learning.


Planning of radiotherapy is often difficult due to restrictions on morphological images. New imaging techniques enable the integration of biological information into treatment planning and help to improve the detection of vital and aggressive tumour areas. This might improve clinical outcome. However, nowadays morphological data sets are still the gold standard in the planning of radiotherapy. In this paper, we introduce an in-house software platform enabling us to combine images from different imaging modalities yielding biological and morphological information in a workflow driven approach. This is demonstrated for the combination of morphological CT, MRI, functional DCE-MRI and PET data. Data of patients with a tumour of the prostate and with a meningioma were examined with DCE-MRI by applying pharmacokinetic two-compartment models for post-processing. The results were compared with the clinical plans for radiation therapy. Generated parameter maps give additional information about tumour spread, which can be incorporated in the definition of safety margins.


Background The traditional use of plant as medicine for the management of man and animal health has been from time immemorial to alleviate sicknesses in both local and urban communities. Animal has been a medium of provision of proteins and for the normal growth of organisms, however there are a lot of diseases that are detritions' to the normal health of animals, hence reduced the effectiveness of such an animal. There is therefore a need for ethnobotanical documentation of the medicinal plants as well as associated knowledge and practices. Method Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in Ekiti South senatorial district between 2017 and 2018 to document plants used in treating animal diseases in the study area. Semi structured questionnaire and the guided field-walk methods was used to interview the respondents who supplied information on plants used in treating the identified animal diseases. Different ethnobotanical indices were used to evaluate the relevance of the documented plants to the management of animal diseased prevailing in the study area. Results A total of 63 plant species from 38 families were documented for the management of ruminant and birds animals. The plants were reported using to treat six categories of ailments. The part of the plants mostly used are the leaves (50.7%) followed by the bark (40.8%), the seed (35.2%) and root (18.3%). The plants are prepared and applied either singly or in combination with other plants and are used either in the wet or dried forms. Rationales for the choice of these plants were also identified. The decoctions and infusions are the most frequent methods of preparation. The traditional healers in the study area possess rich ethno-pharmacological knowledge and depend largely on naturally growing plant species. The documented medicinal plants can serve as a basis for further and future phytochemical and pharmacological studies. Conclusion The study areas are rich in biodiversity because of the favorable climatic conditions. However, the indiscriminate exploitation of the farming land is detrimental to the availability of some of the naturally occurred and indigenous plants, thus extinction of the plants cannot be underestimated. Therefore the documentation of the information will significantly contribute to the evaluation and preservation of the traditional knowledge before it is finally eroded. Key words: Semi-structured, livestock, diseases, management, indigenous knowledge


Algorithms for training residual networks (ResNets) typically require forward pass of data, followed by backpropagating of loss gradient to perform parameter updates, which can take many hours or even days for networks with hundreds of layers. Inspired by the penalty and augmented Lagrangian methods, a layer-parallel training algorithm is proposed in this work to overcome the scalability barrier caused by the serial nature of forward-backward propagation in deep residual learning. Moreover, by viewing the supervised classification task as a numerical discretization of the terminal control problem, we bridge the concept of synthetic gradient for decoupling backpropagation with the parareal method for solving differential equations, which not only offers a novel perspective on the design of synthetic loss function but also performs parameter updates with reduced storage overhead. Experiments on a preliminary example demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves comparable or even better testing accuracy to the full serial backpropagation approach, while enabling layer-parallelism can provide speedup over the traditional layer-serial training methods.


In this work, we study the problem of extended source emission high resolution map-making, which is tackled as an inverse problem. Therefore, an unsupervised Bayesian framework is proposed for estimating sky maps and all the related hyperparameters. For the forward problem, a detailed physical model is introduced to describe different instrument effects like: optical transfer function, pointing process and temperature drifts. Several models for pointing and optical transfer functions are implemented and a Gaussian distribution is attributed to noise model. Since we are interested in extended emission, a Markovian field accounting for four closest neighbors is used as a sky prior. In our unsupervised approach, we write the joint posterior of the sky and all the hyperparameters (prior correlation and noise parameters) as a function of the likelihood and the different priors. Nevertheless, its expression is complicated and neither the joint maximum a posteriori (JMAP) nor the posterior mean (PM) have an explicit form. Therefore, we propose a new gradient like variational Bayesian approach to tackle the problem of posterior approximation. In order to accelerate the convergence, shaping parameters are updated simultaneously like in a gradient method. We applied our approach for unsupervised map-making of simulated data and real SPIRE/Herschel data. The results show good performance for our method in term of reconstruction quality and hyperparameters estimation and a gain in spatial resolution up to 3 times compared to conventional methods.


Background/Context In Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (2009), the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence citizens' decisions about candidates and issues that will appear on election ballots. More important, however, for democratic educators, the ruling was grounded in an assumption that citizens can easily recognize "political speech" when it appears in media such as Hillary: The Movie, the film at issue in the case. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article examines implications of this ruling for democratic education. In particular, this article focuses on the nature of the documentary form in society, including how it is used toward political purposes and how teachers, students, and the public view it as an objective source of information in and out of the classroom. Research Design This study is designed as an analytic essay that addresses a critical issue within democratic and media education and draws from a broad base of empirical, theoretical, and conceptual work to examine issues exacerbated by the Citizens United ruling. Conclusions/Recommendations This article concludes that critical media education should be a core tenet of democratic education, especially as we move into the 21st century, and outlines areas to address in curriculum, pedagogy, and policy.


The van der Waals equation is well known for the description of two-dimensional monolayers. The formation of a monolayer is the result of a compromise between the process of self-organization on the surface and the probabilities of spatial configurations of adsorbate molecules near the surface. The main reasons for the geometric heterogeneity of the monolayer are the geometric disorder and the energy inhomogeneity of the surface profile. A monolayer is a statistically related system and its symmetry causes correlations of processes at different spatial scales. The classical van der Waals equation is written for the two-dimensional, completely symmetric Euclidean space. In the general case, the geometry of the monolayer must be defined for the Euclidean space of fractional dimension (fractal space) with symmetry breaking. In this case, the application of the classical van der Waals equation is limited. Considering the fractal nature of the monolayer–solid interface, a quasi-two-dimensional van der Waals equation is developed. The application of the equation to experimental data of an activated carbon is shown.


Purpose: Currently, radiologic response of brain tumors is assessed according to the Macdonald criteria 10 weeks from the start of therapy. There exists a critical need to identify nonresponding patients early in the course of their therapy for consideration of alternative treatment strategies. Our study assessed the effectiveness of the parametric response map (PRM) imaging biomarker to provide for an earlier measure of patient survival prediction. Experimental Design: Forty-five high-grade glioma patients received concurrent chemoradiation. Quantitative MRI including apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) maps were acquired pretreatment and 3 weeks midtreatment on a prospective institutional-approved study. PRM, a voxel-by-voxel image analysis method, was evaluated as an early prognostic biomarker of overall survival. Clinical and conventional MR parameters were also evaluated. Results: Multivariate analysis showed that PRMADC+ in combination with PRMrCBV− obtained at week 3 had a stronger correlation to 1-year and overall survival rates than any baseline clinical or treatment response imaging metric. The composite biomarker identified three distinct patient groups, nonresponders [median survival (MS) of 5.5 months, 95% CI: 4.4–6.6 months], partial responders (MS of 16 months, 95% CI: 8.6–23.4 months), and responders (MS has not yet been reached). Conclusions: Inclusion of PRMADC+ and PRMrCBV− into a single imaging biomarker metric provided early identification of patients resistant to standard chemoradiation. In comparison to the current standard of assessment of response at 10 weeks (Macdonald criteria), the composite PRM biomarker potentially provides a useful opportunity for clinicians to identify patients who may benefit from alternative treatment strategies. Clin Cancer Res; 17(14); 4751–60. ©2011 AACR.


This presentation will explore the project plan for an upcoming citation analysis of University of North Texas Libraries' Electronic Thesis & Dissertation (ETD) Collection.  The goal of this project is to create and implement a method for conducting citation analysis on ETDs for collection development purposes. The first stage of our project will be an analysis of ETDs for citations using items from the digital library. As the Portal to Texas History was launched in 2002, this will define our corpus sample from 2002 to present, providing over 6,000 ETDs for analysis.  This pilot will allows us to test our method on a specific URL string target before expanding to collect broader citation data for analysis.  In this presentation, I will briefly outline our goals, pilot study, and preliminary methodology.


The spectrum of Xe IX in the 400-1200 ? wavelength region has been obtained by observing the radiation emitted following electron capture by Xe9+ and Xe8+ ion beams incident on a He gas target. The xenon ions were produced by the Uppsala University ECR ion source. Many of the stronger lines were found to originate from 4d95s-4d95p transitions. All levels of the 4d95s and 4d95p configurations have been established. The analysis was assisted by MCDF calculations and isoelectronic comparison.


Purpose – In this paper, the challenging and thorny issue of assessing graduate attributes (GAs) is addressed. An interdisciplinary team at The University of Alberta ——developed a formative model of assessment centered on students and instructor interaction with course content. Design/methodology/approach – The paper starts by laying the theoretical groundwork on which this novel GA assessment tool is based, that is, competency-based education, assessment theory and GA assessment. It followswith a description of the online assessment tool for GAs that was developed in the course of this project. Findings – The online assessment tool for GAs targets three types of stakeholders: (1) students, who selfassess in terms of GAs, (2) instructors, who use the tool to define the extent to which each GA should be inculcated in their course and (3) administrators, who receive aggregate reports based on the data gathered by the system for high-level analysis and decision-making. Collected data by students and professors advance formative assessment of these transversal skills and assist administration in ensuring the GAs are addressed in academic programs. Graduate attributes assessment program (GAAP) is also a space for students to build a personal portfolio that would be beneficial to highlight their skills for potential employers. Research limitations/implications –This research has strong implications for the universities, since it can help institutions, academics and students achieve better results in their practices. This is done by demonstrating strong links between theory and practice. Although this tool has only been used within the university setting by students, instructors and administrators (for self-, course and teaching and program improvement), it could increase its social and practical impact by involving potential employers and increase our understanding of student employability. Moreover, because the tool collects data on a continuous basis, it lends itself to many possible applications in educational data mining, Practical implications – The GAAP can be used and adapted to various educational contexts. The plugin can be added to any Learning Management System (LMS), and students can have access to their data and results throughout their education. Social implications – The GAAP allows institutions to provide a longitudinal formative assessment of students' graduate attributes acquisition. It provides solid and valid evidence of students' progress in a way that would advance society and citizenship. Originality/value – To date, the GAAP is the first online interactive platform that has been developed to longitudinally assess the acquisition of GAs during a complete academic cycle/cohort. It provides a unique space where students and instructors interact with assessment scales and with concrete data for a complete university experience profile.


Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by parasites transmitted through the bite of an infected female mosquito. About 3.2 million (about half of the world's population) are at risk of malaria; it affects all age group from young to old. Between 2002 – 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa was home to 88% of malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths most of which were under-five years old. Plasmodium falciparum – transmitted by female Anopleles mosquito (one of the five parasites that cause malaria in humans) is the most prevalent malaria parasite in the African continent and is responsible for most malaria-related deaths globally [1]. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) resistance is rare in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies monitoring and surveillance using day – 3 parasitaemia post treatment as the standard test for identifying suspected artemisinin resistance [2]. Early treatment failure due to possible ACT resistant Plasmodium falciparum has been identified in 5 cases across different age group, race, sex and gender. All cases managed showed significant clinical and parasitological responses to further treatment with combined Artesunate (intravenous) and Arthemeter (intramuscular), Arthemeter only (IM) or Artesunate tablets. Case Report Wundermann and Osiki; IJTDH, 21(2): 1-5, 2017; Article no.IJTDH.30914 2 This study seeks to emphasize the need for a re-evaluation of the malaria treatment protocol and to throw more light on the increasing resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to the commonly used Artemisinin – based combination therapy agents in Nigeria.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes intimate partner violence (IPV) as a serious, preventable problem. The ALOHA (Assessing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender [LGBT] Violence in Hawai'i) Study examines IPV in Hawai'i's LGBT community. The study's primary outcome is to determine the prevalence of IPV in Hawai'i's LGBT community, and secondary outcomes are to determine the prevalence of help-seeking behavior, associations between IPV and demographics, and associations between help-seeking behavior and demographics. This cross-sectional study included 477 subjects who self-identified as Hawai'i residents and LGBT. The percentages of overall IPV, physical IPV, and sexual IPV were 68.8%, 54.1%, and 49.3%, respectively. Blacks were most likely to report a history of physical IPV (OR=4.93, 95%CI: 1.95-12.47). Blacks (OR=2.49, 95%CI: 1.13-5.74), Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (OR=2.14, 95%CI: 1.30-3.52), and cisgender females (OR=2.27, 95%CI: 1.29-3.45) were more likely to report a history of sexual IPV than other groups. Among victims of physical and sexual IPV, 9.9% and 9.6% sought help, respectively, and transgender and gender non-conforming individuals were the most likely to seek help (physical IPV: 30.8%, sexual IPV: 28.6%). Hawai'i's LGBT community has an extremely high prevalence of IPV and a very low prevalence of help-seeking behavior. This translates into a large number of victims who are left without support. Additional research is needed to fully understand the details of IPV within Hawai'i's LGBT community and the barriers to help-seeking so that potential solutions may be identified.


Introduction: Pulmonary veins isolation (PVI) is useful method in patients (pts) with mitral valve disease (MVD) and chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) during prosthetic valve implantation.The aim of the study: To evaluate e.ectiveness of PVI in the treatment of AF in pt with MVD during valve implantation.Material and methods: 45 pts (mean age 55 yrs) with AF were operated on for MVD.RF ablation around the pulmonary veins, a lesion between them and to the mitral annulus were performed. There were 44 prostheses implanted, 1 case of mitral valve annuloplasty, associated with tricuspid valve repair (5 pts), aorto-coronary bypass procedure (2 pts), ASD II closure (1 pt).Results: SR was achieved in 2 (44,5%) pts, 21 (46,5%)pts were in AF, 4 (9%) pts needed pacing. No correlation between SR restoration and preoperative echocardiographic parameters, age, gender, NYHA functional class were found. In long-term follow-up 1 pt have reversed AF to SR spontaneously. There were 6 cases of paroxysmal AF,1 pt needed pacemaker implantation. 20 (44,5%) pts are in SR, 20 (44,5%) in AF, 5 (11%) in permanent pacing.Conclusion: PVI with RF use is effective in restoring sinus rhythm in patients with chronic AF secondary to mitral valve disease.


This report describes the use of risperidone in the treatment of two very young children with autistic disorder, a 29-month-old boy and a 23-month-old boy, respectively. These children presented with severe and persistent symptoms of aggression and irritability that had not responded to previous treatment. In both cases, risperidone significantly reduced aggression and improved social relatedness. One patient's treatment with risperidone was complicated by persistent tachycardia and QTc interval prolongation that was dose-related. Consideration should be given to the appropriate use of medication in the treatment of very young children with autism when other interventions do not prove helpful.


The author introduces the concept of the primary eigen gas which is an abstract gas where the microstates are occupied successively in time unlike in the case of a real gas where the microstates are occupied simultaneously. He shows that the energy-momentum eigen state of a particle represented by a plane wave can be treated as a primary eigen gas which makes it possible to understand the dynamics of a particle in terms of the thermodynamics of such a gas. In this approach, time and space turn out to be the intrinsic properties of the primary eigen gas representing a particle and the quantum nature of time and space emerges from it in a natural manner. It is shown that the action (with a negative sign) of a particle can be identified with the entropy of the primary eigen gas and the principle of least action is nothing but the second law of thermodynamics. Besides, it is shown that the uncertainty relations of quantum mechanics can be derived directly from the equation for the fluctuations. PACs numbers: 03.30, 03.65-w, 14.60-z, 41.20jb


The appropriate management of distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) problems has no consensus. Although the Sauve-Kapandji procedure is not new, little has been written on the indications for its use. Our experience shows that this operation is an effective treatment for patients with some combination of posttraumatic DRUJ problems that involve arthritis, instability of the distal ulna, and ulna-plus variance.


I examine briefly the theme of "deliving" (desviver) as well as end of life medical decisions. I put forward for consideration features of the moribund's status and aporias as seen from the humanist viewpoint as well as from the perception of falseness and the current requisites for a possible law of euthanasia, its dead ends and contradictions. I leave out the institutional conditions.


Goals of the study were (1) to determine the 1-year sustained full remission rate from substance use disorder (SUD) in a community sample and (2) to describe the current and lifetime characteristics associated with SUD remission. Sample consisted of 558 American Indian veterans in the North Central areas of the United States. They were representative of American Indian veterans in the area, structured for rural-urban residence (50:50), and over sampled for women. Data collection instruments included demographic data, military history, current social network, self-rated scales for psychiatric symptoms and alcohol-drug use, a computer-based Diagnostic Interview Schedule, and a computer-based algorithmic treatment history. Results revealed a lifetime prevalence rate consistent with other American Indian groups along with a 1-year remission rate of 41%. Among those with lifetime SUD, demographic and lifetime clinical characteristics did not distinguish between those who did and those who did not remit. Remitted veterans showed higher social function and lower anxiety-phobic symptoms than those with active SUD. Remitted veterans did not manifest mental health or social function as optimal as those who never had SUD. In conclusion, these data revealed a higher rate of SUD remission than previously reported among American Indian people. Remitted veterans fared somewhat better than veterans with active SUD, but their level of psychosocial health was much less than those who never had SUD. Notable mental health improvement failed to accompany SUD remission.


Objectives: To compare outcomes and costs between titanium elastic nails (TENs), stainless steel elastic nails (SENs), and Kirschner wires (K-wires) in the treatment of pediatric diaphyseal forearm fractures with intramedullary fixation. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center. Patients/Participants: A total of 100 patients (65 male and 35 female) younger than 18 years with diaphyseal forearm fractures treated with intramedullary fixation were included in the study. Intervention: Patients received single or both bone intramedullary fixation with either TENs, SENs, or K-wires. Main Outcome Measurements: Time to radiographic union, complication rate, surgical time, and average cost per implant. Results: One hundred patients were included in the study. Thirty-one patients were treated with TENs, 30 with SENs, and 39 with K-wires. No significant difference in time to radiographic union, complication rate, or surgical time was found between the 3 types of fixation. Average time to union was 9.4 ± 5.4 weeks, and complication rate was 12.9% for TENs, 10.0% for SENs, and 12.8% for K-wires. There was a significant difference in cost per implant, with an average cost of $639, $172, and $24 for TENs, SENs, and K-wires, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study demonstrates no difference between TENs, SENs, and K-wires in the treatment of pediatric diaphyseal forearm fractures with regards to outcome, time to union, surgical time, or complication rates. Given the significant cost difference between these implants, we recommend that surgeons consider modifying their implant selection to help mitigate cost. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


There are significant disagreements related to the understanding of the etiopathogenesis of the syndrome of pain dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint. This review article examines the role of patient's psychological status as a significant factor influencing the occurrence and complications of this pathology, as evidenced by an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression in patients with the dysfunction. The need for a multidisciplinary and individual approach to the diagnosis and treatment is also discussed, which can significantly alleviate the severity of the disease, reduce complications, and shorten the rehabilitation time.


Background: Literature has well established COVID-19 associated coagulopathy with resulting thrombotic complications including microthrombi as an underlying mechanism leading to severe respiratory disease. Therapeutic anticoagulation (TAC) for COVID-19 patients has therefore been widely trialed to combat COVID-19's coagulopathic effects. However, literature has yet to define which population of patients TAC benefits; the most current randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reveal TAC to be possibly beneficial to moderately-ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients, whereas benefits did not outweigh risks in critically-ill ICU patients. Importantly, these studies excluded patients who received prehospital TAC. We examined outcomes in critically ill COVID-19 ICU patients who received TAC vs prophylactic anticoagulation (PAC) and specifically whether prehospital TAC effected outcomes. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 132 COVID-19 ICU patients admitted March-June, 2020. Initial clinical practice provided PAC, as literature demonstrating COVID-19 associated coagulopathy and increased thromboembolic complications emerged, a TAC protocol was initiated. Results: 130 patients were included in the study, 95 of whom received TAC and 35 PAC. There was 50.8% overall mortality, with lower mortality in the TAC vs PAC group (46.3% vs 62.9%, p=0.094). There were few thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications, with no significant difference between TAC and PAC patients. Of 24 patients anticoagulated prior to and during hospitalization, only 1 (4.2%) died, whereas the mortality was 60.6% among patients therapeutically anticoagulated during hospitalization only (p<0.001). Multivariable analysis revealed patients who received prehospital and in hospital TAC had a 92% lower risk of death (p=0.008) compared to in hospital only TAC and PAC patients. Conclusions: Overall, therapeutic anticoagulation did not result in mortality benefit to COVID-19 ICU patients compared to prophylactic anticoagulation. However, a sub-population of patients who received TAC both prior to and during hospitalization had a 12-fold lower risk of death. This suggests a protective effect of TAC when it is continued before and during hospitalization. RCTs are needed to specifically examine this subset of COVID-19 patients.


abstract:Recent scenes of Syrian refugees arriving in Europe and the nationalist reflections they have engendered recall the discourses of foreign and native in antiquity, a theme addressed frequently in Attic tragedy. Euripides' Phoenician Maidens is a meditation on the theme of autochthony, a key ideological and mythological nexus of ideas about identity and community. The ideal of a homogeneous community symbolized by Athenians' autochthonous heritage fits uncomfortably with another Athenian ideal: hospitality and openness to strangers. The Phoenician Maidens of Euripides reflects on the theme of sameness and otherness, foreign and native, using the resources of theater to articulate a utopian resolution of these conflicting desires.


Soil warming experiments were conducted in tundra heath and polar semi-desert soils at the High Arctic location of Ny-Alesund, West Spitsbergen, Svalbard, The warming treatment resulted in an 8-10% increase in the annual thermal budget for soil-dwelling oribatid mites (Crytptostigmata). Samples of the oribatid mite populations were taken during three summers using high gradient extractors, from warmed and control plots. Changes in population density were analysed for six species of oribatid mite. The oribatid mite fauna of these soils is well adapted to a wide temperature range and responds to short-term changes in the soil microclimate. there was little evidence from this three-year experiment that persistent above normal temperatures affected population growth rates.


Enterprise Project Management Using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 is a concise guide that takes users step-by-step through each stage of an EPM solution implementation. It provides experienced guidance and all the principles, processes, best practices, and detailed instruction needed to define, implement, and deploy an EPM solution successfully in your organization using Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 and other EPM supporting tools. KEY FEATURES --Illustrates how to implement an EPM solution based on PMI s proven project management methods using Project Server 2007, Project Professional, SharePoint Services and other Microsoft products --Describes the stages of an EPM implementation methodology and explains how to carry out the tasks needed to be performed to achieve the objectives of each stage --Establishes a technological foundation for development, testing, training, and deployment of an EPM solution, and sets the requirements and goals for the EPM implementation --Helps align project management processes with your organizations and stakeholders goals and the procedures and tools required to support these processes --Includes numerous examples that demonstrate how to configure the EPM system to support your implementation and a pilot testing stage where your solution can be examined for several months before organization-wide deployment --WAV offers free downloadable tools, including a project plan template, project closure checklist, and matrixes for stakeholders, requirements, supplier evaluations, and communication -- available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at jrosspub.com


Blood pressure changes in gonadectomized and gonadotrophin-treated chicks were utilized to determine the role of the gonads in establishing and maintaining the sex difference in pressure of the adult chicken. By the 23rd week, 4–5 weeks after the normal rise in male pressure, both capon and poulard pressures had climbed to near the male level and significantly above the female. This confirms that androgen is not essential to the rise in pressure, and indicates that other than ovarian activity, nothing inherent in the female prevents the rise. Furthermore, elevated poulard pressures could be depressed to near female levels with estrogen or 2-amino,5-nitrothiazole, presumably through suppression of pituitary gonadotrophin secretion. Exogenous gonadotrophin failed to change the pressure of the chick prematurely, despite marked sexual stimulation, suggesting that chronological maturation, possibly independent of the pituitary-gonad interrelationship, is a prerequisite.


Background: Antithrombin (AT) is one of the most important regulator of hemostasis. AT Budapest 3 (ATBp3) is a prevalent type II heparin-binding site (IIHBS) deficiency due to founder effect. Thrombosis is a complex disease including arterial (ATE) and venous thrombotic events (VTE) and the Roma population, the largest ethnic minority in Europe has increased susceptibility to these diseases partly due to their unfavorable genetic load. We aimed to calculate the age and origin of ATBp3 and to explore whether the frequency of it is higher in the Roma population as compared with the general population from the corresponding geographical area. We investigated the association of ATBp3 with thrombotic events in well-defined patients' populations in order to refine the recommendation when testing for ATBp3 is useful. Methods and Results: Prevalence of ATBp3, investigated in large samples (n = 1,000 and 1,185 for general Hungarian and Roma populations, respectively) was considerably high, almost 3%, among Roma and the founder effect was confirmed in their samples, while it was absent in the Hungarian general population. Age of ATBp3—as calculated by analysis of 8 short tandem repeat sequences surrounding SERPINC1—was dated back to XVII Century, when Roma migration in Central and Eastern Europe occurred. In our IIHBS cohort (n = 230), VTE was registered in almost all ATBp3 homozygotes (93%) and in 44% of heterozygotes. ATE occurred with lower frequency in ATBp3 (around 6%); it was rather associated with AT Basel (44%). All patients with ATE were young at the time of diagnosis. Upon investigating consecutive young (<40 years) patients with ATE (n = 92) and VTE (n = 110), the presence of ATBp3 was remarkable. Conclusions: ATBp3, a 400-year-old founder mutation is prevalent in Roma population and its Roma origin can reasonably be assumed. By the demonstration of the presence of ATBp3 in ATE patients, we draw the attention to consider type IIHBS AT deficiency in the background of not only VTE but also ATE, especially in selected populations as young patients without advanced atherosclerosis. We recommend including the investigation of ATBp3 as part of thrombosis risk assessment and stratification in Roma individuals.