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To evaluate the impact of changes in import tariffs on sweetened beverages.
Design
Interrupted time series analysis examined sweetened beverage tariff increases of 40% to 60% in 2008 and to 75% in 2012; and an approximately 11% decrease in 2014 when an excise tax replaced the tariff. Post-tax trends were compared with a counterfactual modelled on the pre-tax trend for: quarterly price of an indicator beverage, monthly beverage import volumes (both 2001 to 2017), and quarterly sales volumes (2012 to 2017). In a controlled analysis taxed beverage imports were compared to a sugary snacks control.
Setting
Cook Islands
Participants
NA
Results
In the first year, the 2008 tariff increased the price of the selected indicator soft drink by 7.3% (CI: 6.3% to 8.3%) but after the 2012 tariff increase it decreased by 13.9% (CI: -14.9% to -12.8%). At the same time the import volumes of taxed beverages decreased by 13.2% (CI: -38.1% to 17.8%) and 2.9% (CI: -41.6% to 72.5%) respectively; and decreased by 24.8% (CI: -36.9 to -9.8) and 10.2% (CI: -37.1 to 37.5) in the controlled analysis. After the 2014 tax decrease, the price of the indicator soft drink decreased by 23.6% (CI: -26.0% to -21.1%), sweetened beverage imports increased by 4.5% (CI: -39.5% to 156.0%), and sales of full-sugar soft drinks increased by 31% (CI: -21% to 243%).
Conclusions
The increased import tariffs on sweetened beverages appeared to be effective for reducing import volumes, but this was partly reversed by the reduced tax/tariff in 2014.
In this paper, a new empirical path loss model based on frequency, distance, and volumetric occupancy rate is generated at the 3.5 and 4.2 GHz in the scope of 5G frequency bands. This study aims to determine the effect of the volumetric occupancy rate on path loss depending on the foliage density of the trees in the pine forest area. Using 4.2 GHz and the effect of the volumetric occupancy rate contributes to the literature in terms of novelty. Both the reference measurements to generate a model and verification measurements to verify the proposed models are conducted in three different regions of the forest area with double ridged horn antennas. These regions of the artificial forest area consist of regularly sorted and identical pine trees. Root mean square error (RMSE) and R-squared values are calculated to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. For 3.5 and 4.2 GHz, while the RMSEs are 3.983 and 3.883, the values of R-squared are 0.967 and 0.963, respectively. Additionally, the results are compared with four path loss models which are commonly used in the forest area. The proposed one has the best performance among the other models with values 3.98 and 3.88 dB for 3.5 and 4.2 GHz.
Paolo Emilio Botta, who was sent to Mosul as the French Consul in 1842, explored at Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus and then began investigating ancient stone foundations at Nebi Yunus. Muhammed/Mehmed Pasha and local religious leaders, who were worried that the tomb of prophet Yunus (Jonah) and a local mosque would be destroyed by the excavations, opposed these investigations and the work stopped as a result. After Nebi Yunus, Botta started to work at Kuyunjik in December 1842. While his workers were busy at Kuyunjik, someone from the village of Khorsabad talked about stones with inscriptions and reliefs on them on top of a hill. After three months of exhaustive work at Kuyunjik, on March 20th, 1843 Botta sent a group of workers to Khorsabad for excavation. However, problems arose about Botta's work in Mosul. The Pasha of the province in particular created obstructions. We have done research in the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry of Turkey on Botta's excavation permits and documents, the obstructions created by the Pasha of Mosul, the details of the story of Botta's experiences at Khorsabad and the relevant correspondence. In these archives we have found documents about the problems Botta experienced at Khorsabad, the conditions for excavation permits and the construction of an excavation house, the plan of the excavation house mentioned by Botta, which was drafted like a fortress next to the village houses and sent to Istanbul, as well as petitions of the villagers opposing Botta's work and his excavation house. Here, we attempt to re-read Botta's excavation seasons, permits and the problems he encountered through the documents in the Ottoman Archives in order to understand how this period is to be understood. Through these documents and correspondence, we were able to study the problems that arose between the Ottoman State and France as a result of Botta's excavations at Khorsabad.
The food composition of whiting, Merlangius merlangus, caught around the sea-cage fish farms off the coast of Perşembe, was analysed and compared with the diet of whiting from a control site off the coast of Fatsa (Ordu Province, south-eastern Black Sea). A total of 815 stomach samples were collected during the study, and of these, 195 (23.9%) were empty. According to the percentage of relative importance index (IRI%), pellet food (47.8%) and Annelida (25%) were the main prey groups of whiting in the sea-cage fish farms area, while unidentified teleost (85.3%) and Engraulis encrasicolus (8.2%) were dominant in the control site. The other prey groups in both areas were Crustaceans (Mysidae, Amphipoda, Upogebia sp.), Sprattus sprattus and Gobius spp. Seasonally, pellet food was the most consumed food in all seasons, but Mysidae was the first preference of whiting around the sea-cage fish farms in spring. In the control site, unidentified teleost was the first preference in all seasons, except winter, where E. encrasicolus was the first choice, followed by crustaceans and S. sprattus in winter. Bray–Curtis analysis shows that seasonally, there is no significant difference in the sea-cage fish farms, while there is significant difference in the control site, and two-dimensional nMDS of IRI% revealed a clear separation between both sites. SIMPER analysis revealed that the most contributing factors to the differences between seasons were pellet food in the sea-cage fish farms, and E. encrasicolus in the control site.
We investigate the role of extreme positive payoffs in the distribution of monthly fund returns in investors’ mutual fund preferences. We document a positive and significant relationship between the maximum style-adjusted monthly return (MAX) and future fund flows. The relationship is robust to controlling for average performance, volatility, skewness, and various other fund characteristics. Our findings are consistent with the notion that fund investors overweight the probability of high payoff states in the past return distribution. We further show that MAX is not a useful predictor of future performance and that an increase in a fund’s visibility does not explain our findings.
Toprakkale is the site that constitutes the starting point for the archaeology of Urartu, but the history of the largely destructive early excavations of the site is shrouded in darkness. The presence of items on the antiquities market said to come from the Van region attracted the interest of Austen Henry Layard, which led to brief excavations at the site of Toprakkale by the British Museum under Hormuzd Rassam in 1877, followed by further also brief investigations by K. Kamsarakan as well as continued illegal excavations. It is commonly held that Carl Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt and Waldemar Belck excavated here between 1898–1899, but research performed in the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister's Office reveals their claim to have excavated there to be fraudulent and empty. This article uses primary source material from Ottoman archives to investigate the excavation history of one of the most iconic sites for the beginnings of Urartian Studies, and compels us to re-evaluate what we think we know about Toprakkale and the provenance of the objects associated with it.
Premature ventricular contractions are accepted as benign in structurally normal hearts. However, reversible cardiomyopathy can sometimes develop. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have anti-arrhythmic properties in animals and humans.
Aim
We evaluated left ventricular function in children with premature ventricular contractions with normal cardiac anatomy and assessed the impact of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on left ventricular function in a prospective trial.
Methods
A total of 25 patients with premature ventricular contraction, with more than 2% premature ventricular contractions on 24-hour Holter electrocardiography, and 30 healthy patients were included into study. All patients underwent electrocardiography, left ventricular M-mode echocardiography, and myocardial performance index testing. Patients with premature ventricular contraction were given omega-3 fatty acids at a dose of 1 g/day for 3 months, and control echocardiography and 24-hour Holter electrocardiography were performed. Neither placebo nor omega-3 fatty acids were given to the control group.
Results
Compared with the values of the control group, the patients with premature ventricular contraction had significantly lower fractional shortening. The myocardial performance index decreased markedly in the patient groups. The mean heart rate and mean premature ventricular contraction percentage of Group 2 significantly decreased in comparison with their baseline values after the omega-3 supplementation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, premature ventricular contractions can lead to systolic cardiac dysfunction in children. Omega-3 supplementation may improve cardiac function in children with premature ventricular contractions. This is the first study conducted in children to investigate the possible role of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on treatment of premature ventricular contractions.
Deficits in social cognition may be among the most profound and disabling sequelae of paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, the neuroanatomical correlates of longitudinal outcomes in this domain remain unexplored. This study aimed to characterize social cognitive outcomes longitudinally after paediatric TBI, and to evaluate the use of sub-acute diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to predict these outcomes.
Methods
The sample included 52 children with mild complex-severe TBI who were assessed on cognitive theory of mind (ToM), pragmatic language and affective ToM at 6- and 24-months post-injury. For comparison, 43 typically developing controls (TDCs) of similar age and sex were recruited. DTI data were acquired sub-acutely (mean = 5.5 weeks post-injury) in a subset of 65 children (TBI = 35; TDC = 30) to evaluate longitudinal prospective relationships between white matter microstructure assessed using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics and social cognitive outcomes.
Results
Whole brain voxel-wise analysis revealed significantly higher mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD) in the sub-acute TBI group compared with TDC, with differences observed predominantly in the splenium of the corpus callosum (sCC), sagittal stratum (SS), dorsal cingulum (DC), uncinate fasciculus (UF) and middle and superior cerebellar peduncles (MCP & SCP, respectively). Relative to TDCs, children with TBI showed poorer cognitive ToM, affective ToM and pragmatic language at 6-months post-insult, and those deficits were related to abnormal diffusivity of the sCC, SS, DC, UF, MCP and SCP. Moreover, children with TBI showed poorer affective ToM and pragmatic language at 24-months post-injury, and those outcomes were predicted by sub-acute alterations in diffusivity of the DC and MCP.
Conclusions
Abnormal microstructure within frontal-temporal, limbic and cerebro-cerebellar white matter may be a risk factor for long-term social difficulties observed in children with TBI. DTI may have potential to unlock early prognostic markers of long-term social outcomes.
This paper reports on the substantial improvement of specimen quality by use of a low voltage (0.05 to ~1 keV), small diameter (~1 μm), argon ion beam following initial preparation using conventional broad-beam ion milling or focused ion beam. The specimens show significant reductions in the amorphous layer thickness and implanted artifacts. The targeted ion milling controls the specimen thickness according to the needs of advanced aberration-corrected and/or analytical transmission electron microscopy applications.
This study aimed to compare the efficacies of intratympanic dexamethasone and methylprednisolone in preventing in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in rats.
Methods:
Experimental groups of rats (n = 8 each) received intratympanic isotonic saline, intraperitoneal cisplatin and intratympanic isotonic saline, intraperitoneal cisplatin and intratympanic dexamethasone, or intraperitoneal cisplatin and intratympanic methylprednisolone. Distortion product otoacoustic emission thresholds were compared on days 0 and 10 in all rats, and correlations between drug effects and changes in cochlear histology were evaluated.
Results:
Distortion product otoacoustic emission thresholds were comparable in groups III and IV (p > 0.05). Significant protection against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity was seen in groups III and IV compared with group II (p < 0.05). Dexamethasone and, to a lesser extent, methylprednisolone protected against cellular apoptosis in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.
Conclusion:
Dexamethasone (and possibly methylprednisolone) may be clinically useful as an intratympanic chemopreventive agent to treat cisplatin ototoxicity. Future clinical studies should investigate the use of dexamethasone for this purpose in adult patients.
To demonstrate the inhibitory effects of clarithromycin on in vitro tympanosclerosis.
Method:
Twenty-eight rats were divided into three groups: a clarithromycin group, a non-clarithromycin group and a negative control group. Those in the first two groups were injected with Streptococcus pneumoniae following a myringotomy, and tympanosclerosis was experimentally induced. Oral clarithromycin therapy was administered in the clarithromycin group. The other groups received no medical treatment.
Results:
All eardrums in the clarithromycin and non-clarithromycin groups developed myringosclerosis, but there was only one eardrum, in the clarithromycin group, with very severe myringosclerosis. In the clarithromycin group, 11 ears showed no inflammation and there were no ears with severe inflammation. In the non-clarithromycin group, there were 11 ears with severe inflammation. The mean eardrum thickness in the clarithromycin group was 20.93 µm and in the non-clarithromycin group it was 42.71 µm.
Conclusion:
Acute otitis media and myringotomies induced tympanosclerosis, but clarithromycin reduced the severity of tympanosclerosis.
In this study, we conducted the in-situ observations of the magnetic domain structure change in Nd2Fe14B magnets at elevated temperature by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) / Lorentz microscopy. The in-situ observations in Nd2Fe14B magnets revealed that the magnetization reversal easily occurred at the elevated temperature. At more than 180°C, the magnetic domain wall motion could be observed by applying the magnetic field of less than 20 mT. The motion of the magnetic domain wall was discontinuous and the domain wall jumped to one grain boundary to the neighboring grain boundary at 180°C. On the other hand, the continuous domain wall motion within grain interior as well as discontinuous domain wall motion was observed at 225°C, and some grain boundaries showed still strong pinning effect even at 225°C. The temperature dependence of the pinning effect of grain boundaries would not uniform.
This paper will discuss the structure-property model developed that correlates the tensile modulus to the elastic properties and angular distribution of constituent graphitic layers for carbon fiber derived from a polyethylene precursor. In addition, a high-temperature fiber tensile device was built to enable heating of carbon fiber bundles at a variable rate from 25 °C to greater than ∼2300 °C, while simultaneously applying a tensile stress. This capability combined with synchrotron wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD), enabled observation in situ and in real time of the microstructural transformation from different carbon fiber precursors to high-modulus carbon fiber. Experiments conducted using PAN- and PE-derived fiber precursors reveal stark differences in their carbonization and high-temperature graphitization behavior.