Disease Morbidity and Cost Analysis Associated with Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza Among Children <15 Years in South Korea, 2004–2007

Background: The available opinions regarding participation do not appear to be applicableto adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities (VSPID). Because a cleardefinition and operationalization are lacking, it is difficult for support professionals to givemeaning to participation for adults with VSPID. Aims: The purpose of the present study was to develop a definition and operationalizationof the concept of participation of adults with VSPID. Methods: Parents or family members, professionals, and experts participated in an onlineconcept mapping procedure. This procedure includes generating statements, clusteringthem, and rating their importance. The data were analyzed quantitatively using multidi-mensional scaling and qualitatively with triangulation. Results: A total of 53 participants generated 319 statements of which 125 were clusteredand rated. The final cluster map of the statements contained seven clusters: (1) Experienceand discover; (2) Inclusion; (3) Involvement; (4) Leisure and recreation; (5) Communica-tion and being understood; (6) Social relations; and (7) Self-management and autonomy.The average importance rating of the statements varied from 6.49 to 8.95. A definition ofparticipation of this population was developed which included these seven clusters. Conclusions: The combination of the developed definition, the clusters, and the statementsin these clusters, derived from the perceptions of parents or family members, professionals,and experts, can be employed to operationalize the construct of participation of adults withVSPID. This operationalization supports professionals in their ability to give meaning toparticipation in these adults. Future research will focus on using the operationalization asa checklist of participation for adults with VSPID

Interaction studies between high-density oil and sand particles in oil flotation technology

In the event of a sand contamination, the first course of action would be to ensure that a successful flotation is through the detachment of oil from sand for the ease of flotation. It is widely recognized that the initial oil-sand contact is crucial for oil removal and recovery. Due to its high viscosity and adhesive nature, high density bunker oil could pick up any silica particles (sand) of any size at a short contact time as low as several milliseconds. Nevertheless, the resulting detachment of sand particles from oil would vary under different conditions. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the interactions between oil and sand to further understand the detachment process between oil and sand in a flotation process under various conditions including pH, temperature, sand particle size and wettability. An increase in the water content in the sand sample from 0 wt to 12 wt aids the liberation of oil from contaminated sand from 0.7 to 65, due to the presence of thin film of water which weakens the attachment forces between the oil and sand particles. On the other hand, the coarse sand particles of 1.0 mm easily detach themselves from the oil layer compared to finer sand particles of 0.125 mm which implicate that the attachment forces between oil and said particles increase with the decrease in sand particle size. An increase in the solution pH from pH 6 to pH 14 and temperature from 20 degrees C to 60 degrees C also showed an increase in the sand detachment efficiencies from 25.1 to 60.9, and from 15.2 to 85.1 respectively for 1 mm sand particle size. Further verification experiments including the differential zeta potential results and the DLVO theory supported the results of these former detachment studies, whereby differential zeta potential results showed that increase in pH increased the repulsive forces between particles, while the increase in temperature did not significantly affect the interparticle forces. Hence, the enhanced detachment efficiency due to increase in temperature is mainly attributed to the decrease in oil viscosity which reduces the adhesiveness of bunker oil which also facilitates oil liberation. Finally, the results are in good agreement with the oil flotation efficiencies. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

In Vitro Propagation of Globba brachyanthera K. Schum

An in vitro propagation system was developed for Globba brachyanthera K.Schum., a potential ornamental plant by surface sterilized adventitious bulbils in 20% Clorox for 20 minutes and cultured on Gamborg B5 medium supplemented with a biocide Plant Preservative Mixture (PPM) and antibiotic tetracycline. Shoot tips (2-5mm) obtained from in vitro cultured plantlets were induced to form shoots on Gamborg B5 medium containing 20% sucrose and 2.8 g/L Gelrite supplemented with various concentrations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) ranging from 1.0 to 3.0mg/L, either individually or in combination with alpha-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 0.1 mg/L or 0.5 mg/L. All treatments induced formation of multiple shoots as well as rooting after 8 weeks of culture. The highest multiplication rate of 6.6 shoots per explants was obtained in Gamborg B5 medium supplemented with 3.0 mg/L BAP. The generated shoots elongated on Gamborg B5 medium and the multiplication rate did not change further in all of the successive subcultures

Advancing the taxonomy of economically important red seaweeds (Rhodophyta)

© 2017 British Phycological Society. The cultivation of red seaweeds for food (nori), agar and carrageenans is the basis of a valuable industry. However, taxonomic knowledge of these cultivated seaweeds and their wild relatives has not kept pace with advances in molecular systematics despite the fundamental importance of being able to identify commercially important species and strains, discover cryptic and endemic taxa and recognize non-native species with potentially damaging diseases and epiphytes. This review focuses on molecular taxonomic advances in the cultivated red algae with the highest commercial value globally: Eucheuma and Kappaphycus, Porphyra sensu lato and Gracilaria. All three groups are similarly taxonomically challenging: speciose, morphologically plastic, with poorly resolved species boundaries. Eucheuma and Kappaphycus are frequently misidentified and the molecular markers cox2-3 spacer, cox1 and RuBisCO spacer have helped in understanding phylogenetic relationships and identifying new species and haplotypes. In Porphyra sensu lato (Bangiales) species identification and phylogenetic relationships were highly problematic until a taxonomic revision based on a two-gene phylogeny (18S and rbcL) resulted in nine genera of bladed species. Pyropia, with at least 89 species, three in nori cultivation, has potential for new commercial evaluation. In Gracilaria sensu lato, earlier efforts to resolve species-level taxonomy and generic descriptions were superseded by application of molecular tools, including DNA sequences of the RuBisCO spacer, rbcL gene, 18S and the ITS region. Studies of these cultivated red algal genera highlight the need for a robust taxonomy, a more standardized approach to the molecular markers used and a comprehensive dataset for each representative species. Current work on DNA-based species delimitation, the emergence of high throughput sequencing, multi-gene phylogenies, publication of whole genomes (e.g. Porphyra umbilicalis) and genomes in the pipeline (e.g. Gracilaria) are increasingly improving our understanding of phylogenomic relationships and species relationships. This knowledge, in turn, can then be applied to improving red seaweed aquaculture

THE EFFICIENCY OF CHARCOAL AS A FILTER MEDIA IN NON-VEGETATION CONSTRUCTED WETLAND SUBSURFACE-FLOW SYSTEM (SF) FOR AMMONIA, CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND, AND IRON TREATMENT OF LANDFILL LEACHATES

The thermal Charcoal for domestic used was crushed into powder and mixed with gravel. Four reactors of different proportion and size of charcoal and gravel were set up without vegetation. Sample of landfill leachates obtained from site of Pulau Burung Landfill, Penang, was introduced into the reactors. Ammonia, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and iron of inlet and outlet from four reactors were analyzed by standard methods. Result shows that overall performance of removing ammonia and iron were much better than COD.   Keywords: charcoal, leachate, filter medi

Productivity, biochemical composition and biofiltering performance of agarophytic seaweed, Gelidium elegans (red algae) grown in shrimp hatchery effluents in Malaysia

Aquaculture systems may release large amounts of nutrients into the marine ecosystem that can lead to eutrophication. Many seaweed species are efficient in reducing the nutrient concentration in aquaculture waste. In this study, the agarophyte Gelidium elegans originating from Korea was investigated for bioremediation of tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) broodstock effluent (SBE) in a shrimp hatchery in Malaysia. The G. elegans was cultivated in SBE using a semi-continuous culture system to evaluate the effects of elevated nutrients on the biomass, growth rate, quality and quantity of agar, pigment content and biochemical composition of seaweed. In the treatment containing G. elegans, pollutant nutrient concentration was reduced by 100%, and by 78.7%, 47.9%, and 19.6% for ammoniacal-nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, and orthophosphate, respectively. The seaweed grew well (1.4 ±0.3% d^-1) in SBE and produced appreciable amounts of protein (3.8% DW), carbohydrate (41.4 % DW) and agar (25.9% DW), that were significantly enhanced when cultured in the SBE compared to control. The photosynthetic performance of G. elegans assessment using a Diving-PAM showed the healthy condition of the grown seaweed without any indication of stress in shrimp hatchery effluent. Results showed that G. elegans has biofiltering and bioremediation potential for the shrimp hatchery effluent

Fabry-Perot interference, Kondo effect and Coulomb blockade in carbon nanotubes

High quality single wall carbon nanotube quantum dots have been made showing both metallic and semiconducting behavior. Some of the devices are identified as small band gap semiconducting nanotubes with relatively high broad conductance oscillations for hole transport through the valence band and low conductance Coulomb blockade oscillations for electron transport through the conduction band. The transition between these regimes illustrates that transport evolves from being wave-like transmission known as Fabry-Perot interference to single particle-like tunneling of electrons or holes. In the intermediate regime four Coulomb blockade peaks appear in each Fabry-Perot resonance, which is interpreted as entering the SU(4) Kondo regime. A bias shift of opposite polarity for the Kondo resonances for one electron and one hole in a shell is in some cases observed.Comment: Proceeding for the International workshop on Quantum Coherence, Noise and decoherence in nanostructures (DECON'06). See published version for improved figure qualit

The ^4He trimer as an Efimov system

We review the results obtained in the last four decades which demonstrate the Efimov nature of the $^4$He three-atomic system.Comment: Review article for a special issue of the Few-Body Systems journal devoted to Efimov physic