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This study explores the short-run spillover effects of popular research papers. We consider the publicity of ‘Male Organ and Economic Growth: Does Size Matter?’ as an exogenous shock to economics discussion paper demand, a natural experiment of a sort. In particular, we analyze how the very substantial visibility influenced the downloads of Helsinki Center of Economic Research discussion papers. Difference in differences and regression discontinuity analysis are conducted to elicit the spillover patterns. This study finds that the spillover effect to average economics paper demand is positive and statistically significant. It seems that hit papers increase the exposure of previously less downloaded papers. We find that part of the spillover effect could be attributable to Internet search engines’ influence on browsing behavior. Conforming to expected patterns, papers residing on the same web page as the hit paper evidence very significant increases in downloads which also supports the spillover thesis. JEL Classification A11, C21 MSC Classification 97K80 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-168) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The central goal of this study was to analyze scientific trends in the research on probiotics, including the number of papers, funding, country collaborations, and most cited publications. The study makes use of bibliometric and social network analysis of papers included in the Science Citation Index Expanded from the Web of Science database. A total of 7221 papers were retrieved, from which 64% were funded papers. Papers were published in journals covering several areas, such as Food Science & Technology, Microbiology, Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology, Nutrition & Dietetics and Agriculture, and Dairy & Animal Science. Coword analysis shows the relationships between microorganisms, diseases, physiological phenomena, and other key words related to food, population, or type of study. The USA appeared as the world leader in the number of articles produced (n = 919), followed by China (n = 689), India (n = 633), and Brazil (n = 506). The most cited papers related to the consensus on the scope and appropriate use of the term probiotic, its effects on the prevention and treatment of some intestinal diseases, its effects on the suppression of immune disorders, the role of probiotics and prebiotics in obesity, the assessment of psychotropic-like properties, and the application for type 2 diabetes.

There is tremendous disparity in scientific productivity among nations, particularly in Latin America. At first sight, this could be linked to the relative economic health of the different countries of the region, but even large and relatively rich Latin American countries do not produce a good level of science. Although Latin America has increased the number of its scientists and research institutions in recent years, the gap between developed countries and Latin American countries is startling. The prime importance of science and technology to the development of a nation remains unacknowledged. The major factors contributing to low scientific productivity are the limited access to grant opportunities, inadequate budgets, substandard levels of laboratory infrastructure and equipment, the high cost and limited supply of reagents, and inadequate salaries and personal insecurity of scientists. The political and economic instability in several Latin America countries results in a lack of long-term goals that are essential to the development of science. In Latin America, science is not an engine of the economy. Most equipment and supplies are imported, and national industries are not given the incentives to produce these goods at home. It is a pity that Latin American society has become accustomed to expect new science and technological developments to come from developed countries rather than from their own scientists. In this article, we present a critical view of the Latin American investigator’s daily life, particularly in the area of biomedicine. Too many bright young minds continue to leave Latin America for developed countries, where they are very successful. However, we still have many enthusiastic young graduates who want to make a career in science and contribute to society. Governments need to improve the status of science for the sake of these young graduates who represent the intellectual and economic future of their countries. Fil: Ciocca, Daniel Ramon. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Medicina y Biología Experimental de Cuyo; Argentina Fil: Delgado, Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de Colombia; Colombia

The 10th International Conference on «Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability-2019» was held in honor of Tingyun Kuang (China), Anthony Larkum (Australia), Cesare Marchetti (Italy), and Kimiyuki Satoh (Japan), in St. Petersburg (Russia) during June 23-28, 2019. The official conference organizers from the Russian side were from the Institute of Basic Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBBP RAS), Russian Society for Photobiology (RSP), and the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences ([K]BIN RAS). This conference was organized with the help of Monomax Company, a member of the International Congress Convention Association (ICCA), and was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Here, we provide a brief description of the conference, its scientific program, as well as a brief introduction and key contributions of the four honored scientists. Further, we emphasize the recognition given, at this conference, to several outstanding young researchers, from around the World, for their research in the area of our conference. A special feature of this paper is the inclusion of photographs provided by one of us (Tatsuya Tomo). Lastly, we urge the readers to watch for information on the next 11th conference on "Photosynthesis and Hydrogen Energy Research for Sustainability-2021," to be held in Bulgaria in 2021.

Background Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) is the only potentially curative treatment option for many patients with hematological disorders but it includes a significant risk of mortality and long-term morbidity. Many patients and their support persons feel overwhelmed when being informed about alloHSCT and may benefit from improvements in consultation style and timing. Aims To explore, qualitatively, in a sample of hematological cancer patients and their support persons, their preferences for receiving one longer consultation or two shorter consultations when being informed about alloHSCT. Participants’ perceptions of when and how different consultation styles should be offered were also examined. Methods Semi-structured face-to-face and phone interviews were conducted. A purposeful sampling frame was used. Data were analysed using framework analysis. Results Twenty patients and 13 support persons were recruited (consent rate: 96%, response rate: 91%). Most patients (60%) and support persons (62%) preferred two shorter consultations over one longer consultation. This helped them digest and recall the information provided, remember questions they had, involve significant others and search for additional information. Patients would have liked to be offered paper and pen to take notes, take a break after 30 min and have their understanding checked at the end of the first consultation, e.g. using question prompt lists. Some patients and support persons preferred both consultations to happen on the same day to reduce waiting times as well as travel times and costs. Others preferred having a few days in-between both consultations to better help them prepare the second consultation. Participants reported varying preferences for different consultation styles depending on personal and disease-related characteristics, such as age, health literacy level and previous treatment. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study to explore patients’ and their support persons’ preferences for having one longer consultation or two shorter consultations when being informed about alloHSCT. Receiving two shorter consultations may help patients process and recall the information provided and more actively involve their support persons. Clinicians should consider offering patients and their support persons to take a break after 30 min, provide paper and pen as well as question prompt lists.

The book is based on nine selected, peer-reviewed papers presented at the 10th biennial Networked Learning Conference (NLC) 2016 held in Lancaster. Informed by suggestions from delegates, the nine papers have been chosen by the editors (who were the Chairs of the Conference) as exemplars of cutting edge research on networked learning. Further reviews of all papers were conducted once they were revised as chapters for the book. The chapters are organized into two sections: 1) Situating Networked Learning: Looking Back - Moving Forward, 2) New Challenges: Designs for Networked Learning in the Public Arena. Further, we include an introduction which looks at the evolution of trends in Networked Learning through a semantic analysis of conference papers from the 10 conferences. A final chapter draws out perspectives from the chapters and discusses emerging issues. The book is the fifth in the Networked Learning Conference Series.

The biennial Networked Learning Conference is an established locus for work on practice, research and epistemology in the field of networked learning. That work continues between the conferences through the researchers’ own networks, ‘hot seat’ debates, and through publications, especially the books that include a selection of reworked and peer-reviewed papers from the conference. The 2014 Networked Learning Conference which was held in Edinburgh was characterised by animated dialogue on emergent influences affecting networked teaching and learning building on work established in earlier conferences, such as the inclusion of sociomaterial perspectives and recognition of informal networked learning. The chapters here each bring a particular perspective to the themes of Policy, Boundaries and Research in Networked Learning which we have chosen as the focus of the book. The selection of the papers has been a combined editorial and collaborative process based on our own initial review of the conference papers and notes from the conference, as well as an informal survey where we asked conference participants to recommend three papers they found particularly interesting. The papers for the Networked Learning Conference are all peer-reviewed, and as they have turned into chapters for this book, each has been re-reviewed by the editors and other authors. The result is a genuinely collegial distillation of themes from a stimulating conference; a snapshot of a time when national and international policies and boundaries have been changing.

As problem-based learning (PBL) is becoming more and more popular, there is also a growing interest in developing and using technologies in the implementation of PBL. However, teachers may have difficulties to design and deliver a pedagogically well-designed and technically smoothly executable online or blended PBL process on their own because they lack appropriate expertise in learning theories and design methods as well as a deeper understanding of the potential affordances of the available technologies. From this premise, we are committed to developing and testing methods and tools to support the design and delivery of online or hybrid PBL processes with high flexibility and a low threshold of usage requirements. This paper presents a technical approach to develop a web-based PBL application that supports both authoring and run-time usage. In comparison with other tools and technical approaches, it is concluded that a combined use of a model-driven approach and semi-structured data management appears to be a promising approach to effectively and efficiently support the authoring, delivering, and execution of design-time and run-time PBL processes. This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # NPRP 5-051-1-015 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). Scopus

Several taxa of Cactaceae are endangered by overcollection for commercial purposes, and most of the family is included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES). Micropropagation may play a key role to keep the pressure off wild populations and contribute to ex situ conservation of endangered taxa. One of the limits of micropropagation is the species-specific requirement of plant regulators for each taxon and sometimes even for different genotypes. With the micrografting technique the rootstock directly provides the scion with the necessary hormonal requirements. In this paper we present data on in vitro grafting of Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenberg, an Appendix I CITES listed species critically endangered and sought after by the horticultural trade, on micropropagated Opuntia ficus-indica Miller. Apical and sub-apical scions of P. aselliformis were used to perform micrografting with a successful rate of 97 and 81 % respectively. Survival rate after ex vivo transfer was 85 %. We hypothesize that this method could be applied to other endangered, slow growing taxa of Cactaceae thus contributing to the conservation of this endangered family. Several taxa of Cactaceae are endangered by overcollection for commercial purposes, and most of the family is included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES). Micropropagation may play a key role to keep the pressure off wild populations and contribute to ex situ conservation of endangered taxa. One of the limits of micropropagation is the species-specific requirement of plant regulators for each taxon and sometimes even for different genotypes. With the micrografting technique the rootstock directly provides the scion with the necessary hormonal requirements. In this paper we present data on in vitro grafting of Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenberg, an Appendix I CITES listed species critically endangered and sought after by the horticultural trade, on micropropagated Opuntia ficus-indica Miller. Apical and sub-apical scions of P. aselliformis were used to perform micrografting with a successful rate of 97 and 81 % respectively. Survival rate after ex vivo transfer was 85 %. We hypothesize that this method could be applied to other endangered, slow growing taxa of Cactaceae thus contributing to the conservation of this endangered family.

The spread of COVID-19 has prompted Governments around the world to impose draconian restrictions on business activity, public transport, and public freedom of movement. The effect of these restrictions appears to vary from country to country and, in some cases, from one area to another within a country. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in New South Wales (NSW) by the State Government. We examine week-to-week changes in 13 categories of crime (and four aggregated categories) from 2 January 2017 to 28 June 2020. Rather than using the pre-intervention data to make a forecast and then comparing that with what is actually observed, we use a Box-Jenkins (ARIMA) approach to model the entire time series. Our results are broadly in accord with those of other studies, but we find no effect of the lockdown (upward or downward) on domestic assault. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40163-021-00160-x.

Background: American cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected tropical disease typically associated with men working in remote, sylvatic environments. We sought to identify CL risk factors in a highly deforested region where anecdotal reports suggested an atypical proportion of women and children were infected with CL raising concern among authorities that transmission was shifting towards domestic spaces and population centers. Methods: We describe the characteristics of CL patients from four participating clinics after digitizing up to 10 years of patient data from each clinic’s CL registries. We assessed risk factors of CL associated with intradomestic, peridomestic, or non-domestic transmission through a matched case-control study with 63 patients who had visited these same clinics for CL (cases) or other medical reasons (controls) between January 2014 and August 2016. The study consisted of an in-home interview of participants by a trained field worker using a standard questionnaire. Risk factors were identified using bivariable and multivariable conditional logistic regression. Results: Between 2007 and 2016, a total of 529 confirmed CL positives were recorded in the available CL registries. Children and working aged women made up 58.6% of the cases. Our final model suggests that the odds of sleeping in or very near an agricultural field were five times greater in cases than controls (p = 0.025). Survey data indicate that women, children, and men have similar propensities to both visit and sleep in or near agricultural fields. Conclusions: Women and children may be underappreciated as CL risk groups in agriculturally dependent regions. Despite the age-sex breakdown of clinical CL patients and high rates of deforestation occurring in the study area, transmission is mostly occurring outside of the largest population centers. Curbing transmission in non-domestic spaces may be limited to decreasing exposure to sandflies during the evening, nighttime, and early morning hours. Our paper serves as a cautionary tale for those relying solely on the demographic information obtained from clinic-based data to understand basic epidemiological trends of vector-borne infections. Antecedentes: la leishmaniasis cutánea americana (LC) es una enfermedad tropical desatendida que se asocia típicamente con hombres que trabajan en entornos selváticos remotos. Buscamos identificar los factores de riesgo de CL en una región altamente deforestada donde los informes anecdóticos sugirieron que una proporción atípica de mujeres y niños estaban infectados con CL, lo que generó preocupación entre las autoridades de que la transmisión se estaba desplazando hacia los espacios domésticos y los centros de población. Métodos: Describimos las características de los pacientes con CL de cuatro clínicas participantes después de digitalizar hasta 10 años de datos de pacientes de los registros de CL de cada clínica. Evaluamos los factores de riesgo de CL asociados con intradoméstico, peridoméstico, o transmisión no doméstica a través de un estudio de casos y controles emparejados con 63 pacientes que habían visitado estas mismas clínicas por CL (casos) u otras razones médicas (controles) entre enero de 2014 y agosto de 2016. El estudio consistió en una entrevista en el hogar de participantes por un trabajador de campo capacitado utilizando un cuestionario estándar. Los factores de riesgo se identificaron mediante regresión logística condicional bivariable y multivariable. Resultados: Entre 2007 y 2016 se registraron un total de 529 CL positivos confirmados en los registros de CL disponibles. Los niños y las mujeres en edad laboral constituían el 58,6% de los casos. Nuestro modelo final sugiere que las probabilidades de dormir en o muy cerca de un campo agrícola eran cinco veces mayores en los casos que en los controles (p = 0,025). Los datos de las encuestas indican que las mujeres, los niños, y los hombres tienen propensiones similares tanto a visitar como a dormir en o cerca de campos agrícolas. Conclusiones: Las mujeres y los niños pueden ser subestimados como grupos de riesgo de CL en las regiones dependientes de la agricultura. A pesar del desglose por edad y sexo de los pacientes clínicos con LC y las altas tasas de deforestación que ocurren en el área de estudio, la transmisión ocurre principalmente fuera de los centros de población más grandes. Frenar la transmisión en espacios no domésticos puede limitarse a disminuir la exposición a los flebótomos durante la tarde, la noche y las primeras horas de la mañana. Nuestro artículo sirve como una advertencia para quienes confían únicamente en la información demográfica obtenida de los datos clínicos para comprender las tendencias epidemiológicas básicas de las infecciones transmitidas por vectores.

If music is the language of the universe, musical note onsets may be the syllables for this language. Not only do note onsets define the temporal pattern of a musical piece, but their time-frequency characteristics also contain rich information about the identity of the musical instrument producing the notes. Note onset detection (NOD) is the basic component for many music information retrieval tasks and has attracted significant interest in audio signal processing research. In this paper, we propose an NOD method based on a novel feature coined as Normalized Identification of Note Onset based on Spectral Sparsity (NINOS2). The NINOS2 feature can be thought of as a spectral sparsity measure, aiming to exploit the difference in spectral sparsity between the different parts of a musical note. This spectral structure is revealed when focusing on low-magnitude spectral components that are traditionally filtered out when computing note onset features. We present an extensive set of NOD simulation results covering a wide range of instruments, playing styles, and mixing options. The proposed algorithm consistently outperforms the baseline Logarithmic Spectral Flux (LSF) feature for the most difficult group of instruments which are the sustained-strings instruments. It also shows better performance for challenging scenarios including polyphonic music and vibrato performances. ispartof: Eurasip Journal On Audio Speech And Music Processing vol:2021 issue:1 ispartof: location:Germany status: published

[EN]The interaction among phytoplankton and zooplankton is one of the most important processes in ecology. Discrete-time mathematical models are commonly used for describing the dynamical properties of phytoplankton and zooplankton interaction with nonoverlapping generations. In such type of generations a new age group swaps the older group after regular intervals of time. Keeping in observation the dynamical reliability for continuous-time mathematical models, we convert a continuous-time phytoplankton–zooplankton model into its discrete-time counterpart by applying a dynamically consistent nonstandard difference scheme. Moreover, we discuss boundedness conditions for every solution and prove the existence of a unique positive equilibrium point. We discuss the local stability of obtained system about all its equilibrium points and show the existence of Neimark–Sacker bifurcation about unique positive equilibrium under some mathematical conditions. To control the Neimark–Sacker bifurcation, we apply a generalized hybrid control technique. For explanation of our theoretical results and to compare the dynamics of obtained discrete-time model with its continuous counterpart, we provide some motivating numerical examples. Moreover, from numerical study we can see that the obtained system and its continuous-time counterpart are stable for the same values of parameters, and they are unstable for the same parametric values. Hence the dynamical consistency of our obtained system can be seen from numerical study. Finally, we compare the modified hybrid method with old hybrid method at the end of the paper.

In this paper, a novel approach that is based on two-stepped majority voting is proposed for efficient EEG-based emotion classification. Emotion recognition is important for human–machine interactions. Facial features- and body gestures-based approaches have been generally proposed for emotion recognition. Recently, EEG-based approaches become more popular in emotion recognition. In the proposed approach, the raw EEG signals are initially low-pass filtered for noise removal and band-pass filters are used for rhythms extraction. For each rhythm, the best performed EEG channels are determined based on wavelet-based entropy features and fractal dimension-based features. The k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier is used in classification. The best five EEG channels are used in majority voting for getting the final predictions for each EEG rhythm. In the second majority voting step, the predictions from all rhythms are used to get a final prediction. The DEAP dataset is used in experiments and classification accuracy, sensitivity and specificity are used for performance evaluation metrics. The experiments are carried out to classify the emotions into two binary classes such as high valence (HV) vs low valence (LV) and high arousal (HA) vs low arousal (LA). The experiments show that 86.3% HV vs LV discrimination accuracy and 85.0% HA vs LA discrimination accuracy is obtained. The obtained results are also compared with some of the existing methods. The comparisons show that the proposed method has potential in the use of EEG-based emotion classification.

Personalized knowledge recommendation is an effective measure to provide individual information services in the field of brain science. It is essential that a complete understanding of authors’ interests and accurate recommendation are carried out to achieve this goal. In this paper, a collaborative recommendation method based on co-authorship is proposed to make. In our approach, analysis of collaborators’ interests and the calculation of collaborative value are used for recommendations. Finally, the experiments using real documents associated with brain science are given and provide supports for collaborative document recommendation in the field of brain science.

Background: The world population is aging and the number of older adults with bipolar disorder is increasing. Digital technologies are viewed as a framework to improve care of older adults with bipolar disorder. This analysis quantifies Internet use by older adults with bipolar disorder as part of a larger survey project about information seeking. Methods: A paper-based survey about information seeking by patients with bipolar disorder was developed and translated into 12 languages. The survey was anonymous and completed between March 2014 and January 2016 by 1222 patients in 17 countries. All patients were diagnosed by a psychiatrist. General estimating equations were used to account for correlated data. Results: Overall, 47% of older adults (age 60 years or older) used the Internet versus 87% of younger adults (less than 60 years). More education and having symptoms that interfered with regular activities increased the odds of using the Internet, while being age 60 years or older decreased the odds. Data from 187 older adults and 1021 younger adults were included in the analysis excluding missing values. Conclusions: Older adults with bipolar disorder use the Internet much less frequently than younger adults. Many older adults do not use the Internet, and technology tools are suitable for some but not all older adults. As more health services are only available online, and more digital tools are developed, there is concern about growing health disparities based on age. Mental health experts should participate in determining the appropriate role for digital tools for older adults with bipolar disorder. We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of the SLUB/TU Dresden (Grant No. IN-1502335).

When studying patent data as a way to understand innovation and technological change, the conventional indicators might fall short, and categorizing technologies based on the existing classification systems used by patent authorities could cause inaccuracy and misclassification, as shown in literature. Gao et al. (International Workshop on Complex Networks and their Applications, 2017) have established a method to analyze patent classes of similar technologies as network communities. In this paper, we adopt the stabilized Louvain method for network community detection to improve consistency and stability. Incorporating the overlapping community mapping algorithm, we also develop a new method to identify the central nodes based on the temporal evolution of the network structure and track the changes of communities over time. A case study of Germany’s patent data is used to demonstrate and verify the application of the method and the results. Compared to the non-network metrics and conventional network measures, we offer a heuristic approach with a dynamic view and more stable results. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s41109-018-0090-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The system dynamics technique has been demonstrated to be a proper method by which to model and simulate the development of spatial data infrastructures (SDI). An SDI is a collaborative effort to manage and share spatial data at different political and administrative levels. It is comprised of various dynamically interacting quantitative and qualitative (linguistic) variables. To incorporate linguistic variables and their joint effects in an SDI-development model more effectively, we suggest employing fuzzy logic. Not all fuzzy models are able to model the dynamic behavior of SDIs properly. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate different fuzzy models and their suitability for modeling SDIs. To that end, two inference and two defuzzification methods were used for the fuzzification of the joint effect of two variables in an existing SDI model. The results show that the Average–Average inference and Center of Area defuzzification can better model the dynamics of SDI development.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Purpose Despite the quantity of research on child and adolescent mental health being done in schools, little out- put has focused on the practical aspects of recruiting schools and students into a study. Furthermore, there is limited knowledge on how to develop and sustain pro- ductive and mutually beneficial partnerships with schools after the project finishes. Methods A large study examining prevalence of mental health problems in young people involving nine schools is used as an example for the procedure of recruitment and carrying out a research project, while developing and sustaining partnerships with schools. Results While recruiting the schools, a three-stage model was developed that corresponded closely to the school’s needs and existing demands. The suggested procedure for the study, thus, closely reflected the varying existing cul- tures of participating schools. Partnerships, developed as a result of the project, were used in developing further pro- jects and interventions for promoting good mental health in schools. Conclusions Rather than a blanket research recruitment and procedural approach with an end to school involve- ment at the end of the project, the paper advocates for a deeper understanding of the schools’ internal culture for improved recruitment and study outcomes. Developed partnerships, when sustained past the completion of research, prove to be a useful tool in applying the findings in promoting good mental health in schools and continuing research further.

Background The present study investigated how much Swiss general internal medicine practitioners (GPs) know about new direct oral anticoagulants (NOACs), particularly the relevant guidelines, follow-up tests, dosing adjustments, indications and complications. We conducted a paper-based survey of GPs, performed in Bern, Switzerland. Our questionnaire assessed the physicians’ preference for NOACs rather than vitamin K antagonists (VKA), prevalence and choice of NOAC, clinical follow-up including follow-up blood testing, and bleeding complications. Results 53 GPs participated in our pilot investigation. They treated 32.7% ± 19 of their patients requiring oral anticoagulation with NOACs. New patients who had started oral anticoagulation received NOACs from 49 GPs (92.5%) but most GPs would not switch patients from existing VKA therapy to NOACs. Clinical controls are scheduled by a majority of GPs (67.9%) at least every 3 months; creatinine and haemoglobin are monitored by most GPs (51 (96.2%) and 39 (73.6%), respectively). In the preceding 2 years, GPs had seen 1.9 ± 2.87 bleeding complications in patients with NOACs. 0.5 ± 0.95 (range 0–5) of these required hospital treatment. Conclusion NOACs are broadly accepted by investigated Swiss GPs as the first choice for patients newly requiring oral anticoagulation. This was in preference to VKAs and especially if recommended by a haematologist or cardiologist. As, in our population, only about two-thirds of GPs adhere to recommendations on clinical and blood test follow-ups, further efforts to implement follow-up guidelines seem necessary. Further research in a large representative GP population is recommended; this should compare NOACs and VKAs. Bleeding complications were rare in our population and could mostly be handled without hospital admission.

Limb volume measurements are used for evaluating growth of muscle mass and effectivity of strength training. Beside sport sciences, it is used e.g. for detection of oedemas, lymphedemas or carcinomas or for examinations of muscle atrophy. There are several commonly used methods, but there is a lack of clear comparison, which shows their advantages and limits. The accuracy of each method is uncertainly estimated only. The aim of this paper is to determine and experimentally verify their accuracy and compare them among each other. Water Displacement Method (WD), three methods based on circumferential measures—Frustum Sign Model (FSM), Disc Model (DM), Partial Frustum Model (PFM) and two 3D scan based methods Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) were compared. Precise reference cylinders and limbs of two human subjects were measured 10 times by each method. Personal dependency of methods was also tested by measuring 10 times the same object by 3 different people. Accuracies: WD 0.3 %, FSM 2–8 % according person, DM, PFM 1–8 %, MRI 2 % (hand) or 8 % (finger), CT 0.5 % (hand) or 2 % (finger);times: FSM 1 min, CT 7 min, WD, DM, PFM 15 min, MRI 19 min; and more. WD was found as the best method for most of uses with best accuracy. The CT disposes with almost the same accuracy and allows measurements of specific regions (e.g. particular muscles), as same as MRI, which accuracy is worse though, but it is not harmful. Frustum Sign Model is usable for very fast estimation of limb volume, but with lower accuracy, Disc Model and Partial Frustum Model is useful in cases when Water Displacement cannot be used.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It was originally published in the journal Triple Helix. This paper assesses the extent to which the organization of the innovation effort in firms, as well as the geographical scale at which this effort is pursued, affects the capacity to benefit from product innovations. Three alternative modes of organization are studied: hierarchy, market and triple-helix-type networks. Furthermore, we consider triple-helix networks at three geographical scales: local, national and international. These relationships are tested on a random sample of 763 firms located in five urban regions of Norway which reported having introduced new products or services during the preceding 3 years. The analysis shows that firms exploiting internal hierarchy or triple-helix networks with a wide range of partners managed to derive a significantly higher share of their income from new products, compared to those that mainly relied on outsourcing within the market. In addition, the analysis shows that the geographical scale of cooperation in networks, as well as the type of partner used, matters for the capacity of firms to benefit from product innovation. In particular, firms that collaborate in international triple-helix-type networks involving suppliers, customers and R&D institutions extract a higher share of their income from product innovations, regardless of whether they organize the processes internally or through the network.

Bien Hoa airbase is a known dioxin-contaminated hotspot in Vietnam. The contamination occurred during the Vietnam War at the site where dioxins were transported, stored, sprayed, and spilled in the area. Dioxins, which are cancer inducing substances, may transfer from the soil to food crops and finally to human beings living around the area. Many surveys of dioxins in soil, water, organisms, and human have been carried out in this study area since 2002. In this paper vertical distribution of dioxins in undisturbed soil cores were examined. Twelve soil samples from three drilled cores were collected to analyze dioxin levels according to the standard Japanese analytical method. The results showed that the toxicity equivalency quantity (TEQ) in one soil sample at a depth of 2.6 m reached 3,300 pg-TEQ/g-dw. High TEQs were also observed in the clay layer. This anomaly of dioxin concentrations could be attributed to the affinity of dioxins for the clay layer. The isomer patterns in the soils were different from those in the soil of Hokkaido in that 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) was the most dominant in the soil sample. This indicates that the dioxins originate from a defoliant Agent Orange disposed at the site after the Vietnam War.