Enquête bij reders en scheepsjongens in de Belgische zeevisserij: het ‘Fonds voor Scheepsjongens’; de visserij, nu en in de nabije toekomst

In 1976 the Fund for Apprentice Fishermen, created in 1971 on a voluntary owners' contribution base, has been converted by legal provision into a new Fund, to which all ship owners must contribute for at least 50 % of all salary expenditure; administrative costs are for the account of the State. Apart from the financial aids granted, the Government is now directly engaged in the management of the Fund.The aim of this inquiry was to obtain some relevant information about the opinions of both ship owners and apprentice fishermen concerning aforesaid Fund. Subsequently it was also the intention to know their opinion about the fisherman's training, his job, his career, his prospects, in view of the considerable changes in the structure of the fishing fleet, and of the technological, vocational and socio-economic changes within the industry. Data were collectedin 1977 by questionnaire and interview. Furthermore use has been made of some existing information. Another major objective was to know the reasons which underlie the differences in earnings among apprentices (Fund salary, percent of gross returns, "poundage", etc.).This paper discusses the latent uneasiness in the fisherman's mind, that sometimes is roused to vigorous opinions, views and attitudes. The interviews were based on two questionnaires, one for the ship owners and an other one for the trainees. However, it was eventually the intention to hold a rather non-structured conversation on a broad and deep level. This, of course, provided more spontaneity in the utterances and replies.It may be concluded that the study provides adequate data for drawing up some guidelines for further improvements in the crew problem policy. An outstanding feature is undoubtedly the fact that the trainees are still recruited from the traditional fishing community, despite the many attempts of attracting youngsters from outside of that community. It is believed, both by the owners and by the trainees, that the Fund has a positive effect on the crew problem. However, it is felt that additional measures are needed to reach a decisive solution of this complex problem

Polarimetric properties of indoor MIMO channels for different floor levels in a residential house

This paper analyzes polarimetric characteristics of power delay profiles (PDPs), cross polarization discrimination (XPD), and received power of specular and diffuse multipath components of indoor MIMO radio channels at 2.45 GHz. Measurements were done in a residential house at two floors levels: "same floor" and "cross floor". Variations of 5 to 15 dB in PDPs between co-and cross-polar links were found in the same floor level; however these changes decrease as radio links move from line-of-sight to non-line-of-sight propagations. XPDs of radio waves were found to be higher for cross floor configuration, about 5 dB in horizontally and 7 dB in vertically polarized waves. Also, diffuse components of channels were less affected compared to that of specular components in same floor setups for cross-polar links. Our results demonstrate that the contribution of diffuse components to total channel power is higher than previously presented studies for large industrial indoor environments

QTL analysis of high thermotolerance with superior and downgraded parental yeast strains reveals new minor QTLs and converges on novel causative alleles involved in RNA processing

Revealing QTLs with a minor effect in complex traits remains difficult. Initial strategies had limited success because of interference by major QTLs and epistasis. New strategies focused on eliminating major QTLs in subsequent mapping experiments. Since genetic analysis of superior segregants from natural diploid strains usually also reveals QTLs linked to the inferior parent, we have extended this strategy for minor QTL identification by eliminating QTLs in both parent strains and repeating the QTL mapping with pooled-segregant whole-genome sequence analysis. We first mapped multiple QTLs responsible for high thermotolerance in a natural yeast strain, MUCL28177, compared to the laboratory strain, BY4742. Using single and bulk reciprocal hemizygosity analysis we identified MKT1 and PRP42 as causative genes in QTLs linked to the superior and inferior parent, respectively. We subsequently downgraded both parents by replacing their superior allele with the inferior allele of the other parent. QTL mapping using pooled-segregant whole-genome sequence analysis with the segregants from the cross of the downgraded parents, revealed several new QTLs. We validated the two most-strongly linked new QTLs by identifying NCS2 and SMD2 as causative genes linked to the superior downgraded parent and we found an allele-specific epistatic interaction between PRP42 and SMD2. Interestingly, the related function of PRP42 and SMD2 suggests an important role for RNA processing in high thermotolerance and underscores the relevance of analyzing minor QTLs. Our results show that identification of minor QTLs involved in complex traits can be successfully accomplished by crossing parent strains that have both been downgraded for a single QTL. This novel approach has the advantage of maintaining all relevant genetic diversity as well as enough phenotypic difference between the parent strains for the trait-of-interest and thus maximizes the chances of successfully identifying additional minor QTLs that are relevant for the phenotypic difference between the original parents

Robustness of high-resolution channel parameter estimators in presence of dense multipath components

The estimation accuracy of specular multipath components in radio channels that include dense multipath is investigated. Classical multipath estimation algorithms such as ESPRIT and SAGE do not include dense multipath in their signal model whereas recent ones, such as RiMAX, do. These estimation algorithms are applied to a priori known synthetic channels which include both specular components (SCs) and dense multipath components (DMCs). The estimation errors of the SCs are computed as a function of the DMC power to evaluate the estimator's robustness. The results of this work clearly indicate large estimation errors for the SC parameters when the estimator does not include DMCs in its data model

Statistics of multipath component clustering in an office environment

In this paper, directional MIMO measurements in an indoor office environment are presented. A 5-D ESPRIT estimation algorithm is used to extract parameters associated with discrete propagation paths, such as their azimuth of arrival, azimuth of departure, delay, and power. The estimated path parameters are grouped into clusters using the statistical K-power-means algorithm. Statistical distributions are determined for the path parameters within individual clusters and for their change between clusters. To validate the distributional choices, the goodness-of-fit to the proposed distributions is verified using statistical hypothesis tests with sufficient power

Accuracy of specular path estimates with ESPRIT and RiMAX in the presence of measurement-based diffuse multipath components

This paper presents performance results of three high-resolution parameters estimation algorithms: ESPRIT, SAGE and RiMAX. MIMO indoor radio channels which include measurement-based time-delay diffuse multipath scattering (DMC) were emulated to evaluate the estimation performance of both algorithms. The impact of the DMC on the parameter estimation accuracy is studied by adjusting its power with respect to the specular component. For all discussed scenarios, it is clearly demonstrated that RiMAX outperforms ESPRIT and SAGE which do not include DMC estimation into their data model. The preliminary results clearly highlight the importance of DMC and the necessity to account for its presence in data models to accurately estimate the channel parameters. Otherwise, very poor estimates of the coherent component parameters are expected which would in turn result in wronged propagation prediction models

Prevalence and management of antibiotic associated diarrhea in general hospitals

Background: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is a common adverse effect of antibiotic (AB) treatment. This study aimed to measure the overall prevalence of AAD (including mild to moderate diarrhea) in hospitalized AB treated patients, to investigate associated risk factors and to document AAD associated diagnostic investigations, contamination control and treatment. Methods: During 8 observation days (with time delay of 10-14 days between each observation day), all adult patients hospitalized at an internal medicine ward of 4 Belgian participating hospitals were screened for AB use. Patients receiving AB on the observation day were included in the study and screened for signs and symptoms of AAD using a period prevalence methodology. Clinical data were collected for all AB users and AAD related investigations and treatment were collected for the entire duration of AAD. Additionally, nurses noted daily the frequency of all extra care associated to the treatment of the diarrhea. Results: A total of 2543 hospitalized patients were screened of which 743 were treated with AB (29.2%). Included AB users had a mean age of 68 yr (range 16-99) and 52% were male. Penicillins were mostly used (63%) and 19% received more than one AB. AAD was observed in 9.6% of AB users including 4 with confirmed Clostridium difficile infection. AAD started between 1 and 16 days after AB start (median 5) and had a duration of 2 to 41 days (median 4). AAD was significantly associated with higher age and the use of double AB and proton pump inhibitors. AAD patients had extra laboratory investigations (79%), received extra pharmacological treatment (42%) and 10 of them were isolated (14%). AAD related extra nursing time amounted to 51 minutes per day for the treatment of diarrhea. Conclusions: In this observational study, with one third of hospitalized patients receiving AB, an AAD period prevalence of 9.6% in AB users was found. AAD caused extra investigations and treatment and an estimated extra nursing care of almost one hour per day. Preventive action are highly recommended to reduce the prevalence of AAD and associated health care costs

Resistant starch reduces large intestinal pH and promotes fecal lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in pigs

Research Areas: Agriculture. Veterinary SciencesABSTRACT - Dietary resistant starch (RS) may have prebiotic properties but its effects on fermentation and the microbial population are inconsistent. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the relationship between RS type 2 (RS2) and intestinal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and pH as well as certain key bacterial taxa for intestinal health in pigs. From the 24 included articles with sufficient information about the animal, and dietary and physiological measurements published between 2000 and 2017, individual sub-data sets for fermentation metabolites, pH, bacterial abundances and apparent total tract digestibility were built and used to parameterize prediction models on the effect of RS2, accounting for inter- and intra-study variability. In addition, the effect of pig's BW at the start of the experiment and duration of the experimental period on response variables were also evaluated using backward elimination analysis. Dietary RS levels ranged from 0% to 78.0% RS, with median and mean RS levels of 28.8% and 210%, respectively. Negative relationships could be established between dietary RS and pH in the large intestine (P < 0.05), with a stronger effect in the mid and distal colon, and feces (R = 0.64 to 0.81; P < 0.001). A dietary level of 15% RS would lower the pH in the proximal, mid-, distal colon and feces by 0.2, 0.6, 0.4 and 0.6 units, respectively. Increasing RS levels, however, did not affect SCFA concentrations in the hindgut, but enhanced the molar proportion of propionate in mid-colon and reduced those of acetate in mid-colon and of butyrate in mid- and distal colon (R-2 = 0.46 to 0.52; P < 0.05). Backward elimination indicated an age-related decrease in mid-colonic propionate proportion and increase in mid- and distal colonic butyrate proportion (P < 0.05), thereby modulating RS2 effects. In feces, increasing RS levels promoted fecal lactobacilli (R-2 = 0.46; P < 0.01) and bifidobacteria (R-2 = 0.57; P < 0.01), whereby the slope showed the need for a minimal RS level of 10% for a 0.5 log unit-increase in their abundance. Best-fit equations further supported that a longer experimental period increased fecal lactobacilli but decreased fecal bifidobacteria (P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary RS2 seems to effectively decrease digesta pH throughout the large intestine and increase lactic acid-producing bacteria in feces of pigs which may limit the growth of opportunistic pathogens in the hindgut. To achieve these physiologically relevant changes, dietary RS should surpass 10% to 15%.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ultrafast phase modulation in CdSe colloidal quantum wells

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Assessment of feasibility of endovascular treatment of ruptured intracranial aneurysms with 16-detector row CT angiography

Background: It is unclear whether 16-detector row CT angiography (CTA) can replace digital subtraction angiography (DSA) to assess the feasibility of endovascular treatment (EVT) in the acute phase after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Methods: We studied 80 consecutive patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, who underwent both CTA and DSA. Two interventional neuroradiologists independently scored CTA and, immediately thereafter, DSA with respect to feasibility of EVT. We determined whether CTA without DSA was sufficient for a definite judgment. We also assessed interobserver agreement. Results: The 2 readers judged EVT to be feasible in 24 and 37 patients with CTA alone and not feasible in 34 and 20 patients. In these patients, DSA yielded additional information in 6 (reader 1) and 5 patients (reader 2), which did not affect treatment decision. In 19 and 7 patients, DSA was considered inferior to CTA. In the remaining patients (n = 22 and 23, respectively), feasibility of EVT could not be judged with CTA alone, and DSA results were required in addition for a treatment decision. Interobserver agreement on feasibility of EVT was just fair (κ <0.40). Conclusions: In our series of patients, 16-detector row CTA was a reliable investigation to assess feasibility of EVT of ruptured intracranial aneurysms in most patients. Further, we found that interobserver disagreement on feasibility of EVT was considerable