Parameters for encoding an image portion of a video sequence are determined, the portion being encoded by motion compensation with respect to at least one reference image portion. The parameters include a coding mode and a motion information predictor, the former is selected from first (607) and second (611) modes and the predictor is selected from a set of predictors (601) which is the same for the first and second modes. The mode and predictor selection involves comparing costs of portion encoding using the predictors in both modes, the determining comprising omitting computation of cost for at least one predictor for at least one of the modes. Alternatively, first and second cost parameters are calculated representing an encoding cost using the first and second coding modes respectively, the first being calculated for each of a number of predictors of the set, the second being calculated for part of that number. Also disclosed is the use of a termination condition (e.g. a predictor being a zero vector (603)), the meeting of which allows the remainder of the predictors in the set not to be used for cost calculation for one of the modes.


Validation and the computational efficiency of an analytical alternative to Monte Carlo simulation for quantifying risks in project performance measures such as time, cost, net present value and internal rate of return are explored in this paper. The analytical approach is based on the use of the Pearson family of distributions, a four moment characterization of uncertainty for input and output variables and a modified version of the PNET algorithm for modelling time uncertainty. The approach is applied to a generalized hierarchical description of a project's economic structure. Results show that the analytical approach can duplicate results of a full-scale Monte Carlo simulation with approximately 0.033 of the computational effort.


For those considering a career in public health, this book offers a comprehensive overview of public health organisations in England.


We discuss methodologies for non-demolition measurement of quantum states. Four quantum non-demolition measurement strategies are described namely phase-coupled, polarization-coupled, gain-coupled, and Raman-effect coupled measurement schemes. Qualitative as well as quantitative assessments are presented for each of the measurement schemes in terms of back-action evading, quantum-state preperation, and degration of signal field. Simulation results indicate that quantum non-demolition measurements are realized for low coupling coefficients for each of the four schemes.


Controlling lipid levels, in particular low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), is a proven therapeutic approach to reducing cardiovascular (CV) risk. Greater use of combination lipid-lowering therapies (LLTs) may be required to achieve the LDL-C goals recommended by the guidelines. A better understanding of the characteristics of patients receiving PCSK9is in Europe could offer the medical community an opportunity to redefine existing care pathways to better implement European guidelines, thus potentially reducing modifiable residual CV risk further.

 Using data from the HEYMANS registry (NCT02770131), the objective of this analysis is to describe the Italian cohort of evolocumab patients and the long-term effectiveness and safety of the treatment.

 HEYMANS was a prospective registry including adults initiating evolocumab treatment in 12 European countries as part of their routine clinical management, based on local reimbursement criteria, between August 2015 and June 2020. Patient data were collected for ≤6 months before evolocumab initiation (baseline) and ≤30 months post initiation. LDL-C measurements were collected per clinical practice. At each 3-month time point in the study, we analysed median (and 95% CI) reductions in LDL-C, and the proportion of patients achieving ≥50% reductions in LDL-C from baseline.

 Data from 311 patients from Italy were included in this final analysis (67% male, median baseline LDL-C 146 [Q1-Q3 120-177] mg/dL). Most patients (84%) were receiving evolocumab for secondary prevention, with 24% not on oral LLT, of whom the majority reported a history of statin intolerance. Within 3 months of initiating evolocumab treatment, LDL-C levels had reduced by a median of 61% and this reduction was maintained over 30 months (Figure 1). Among patients with an LDL-C value, between 66 and 76% achieved a ≥50% reduction at each visit (Figure 2). Moreover, 65% of patients receiving LLT at baseline reached an LDL-C level <55 mg/dL at any time post baseline, whilst among patients not receiving a background therapy this percentage was 48%.
 At the 12-month follow up, more than 97% of patients were still receiving evolocumab, with just 8 patients discontinuing the treatment (and 2 more patients leaving the study but keeping on with the treatment). That was confirmed at the 30-month follow up: almost 98% of patients still in the study beyond month 12 were receiving the drug at month 30.
 Moreover, at each timeframe, more than 99% had no missed dose.
 There were very few adverse drug reactions reported and no evolocumab-related adverse events were serious.

 In Italian clinical practice, evolocumab treatment was associated with early and sustained reductions in LDL-C, maintained over 30 months. Within 3 months of treatment, patients demonstrated a reduction in LDL-C levels greater than 60% and maintained throughout the study. These data demonstrate that meaningful, consistent additional reductions in LDL-C can be achieved with use of evolocumab.
 Moreover, the therapy was well tolerated by patients, with a very low discontinuation and very few missed doses.


Introduction: Measurement of proton transverse relaxation time (T2) can be used to detect pathological changes in tissue for a variety of clinical applications, including identification of edema and iron overload. The most widely used T2 mapping pulse sequence is the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence [1,2]. For body MRI, however, a CPMG pulse sequence is typically performed with navigator gating due to its low data acquisition efficiency. A new T2 mapping pulse sequence [3] based on multi-echo fast spin-echo (ME-FSE) readout with a net acceleration rate (R) of 3.2 (parallel imaging [PI] with R = 1.6 + turbo factor = 2) has been proposed to perform breath-hold (BH) body MRI acquisition. This new T2 mapping pulse sequence uses a reverse centric k-space reordering to sample the central half with more accurate even echoes and the outer half of k-space with less accurate odd echoes, and thereby provides even-echo CPMG accuracy. The new T2 mapping pulse sequence has been reported to yield spatial resolution of 2.7 mm x 3.8 mm within a breath-hold duration on the order of 20s. While this spatial resolution may be adequate for liver imaging, it may be marginally acceptable for cardiac imaging where myocardial wall thickness is typically on the order of 10 mm. We propose to further accelerate this pulse sequence using a recently developed joint reconstruction algorithm that combines compressed sensing (CS)[4] and PI to exploit joint sparsity of randomly undersampled data acquired from different receiver coils, as previously described [5]. Cardiac ME-FSE imaging is a good candidate for this joint CS-PI approach, since spatial and temporal correlations in the image series result in sparse representations. The purposes of this study were to highly accelerate the T2 mapping pulse sequence using the joint CS-PI technology and evaluate accuracy of the resulting T2 measurements.


OBJECTIVE
To identify physicians' perceptions of breast cancer prevention in order to generate strategies to increase women's participation in the Quebec breast cancer screening program (QBCSP).

DESIGN
Qualitative study using archival data and in-depth interviews.

SETTING
Laval, Que, a suburban city north of Montreal.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty family physicians and 1 gynecologist practising in Laval who had received at least 1 screening mammography report in 2004 or 2005.

METHODS
Archival data were obtained in order to refine our understanding of the QBCSP. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with participating physicians until data saturation was reached in order to determine physicians' knowledge of, beliefs and attitudes about, and behaviour toward preventive breast cancer practices, as well as their suggestions for enhancing patient compliance. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded, and the content was analyzed.

MAIN FINDINGS
Respondents indicated that the screening age groups, the age for beginning clinical breast examination, and the instructions to patients about breast self-examination should be harmonized. Letters to patients should be shortened, simplified, and endorsed by physicians. Screening mammography reports should include more details and be clearer about patient follow-up. The need for patients to sign authorization forms for transmission of information related to their participation in the QBCSP should be reinforced by their physicians. Following abnormal mammogram results, services and procedures should be simplified and delays in appointments decreased. Referral for "orphan patients" (ie, patients without family physicians) should be supervised by nurse practitioners, with physician consultations when needed.

CONCLUSION
This study provides a qualitative understanding of improvements or modifications needed in order to reach a screening mammography participation rate sufficient to reduce breast cancer mortality in women.


In this thesis we study the use of Piecewise Deterministic Markov Processes (PDMPs), such as the Zig-Zag process [6] and the Bouncy Particle Sampler [8], in rare event probability estimation. We introduce both processes and illustrate how the methods work. To estimate the rare event probabilities we use the splitting method [14]. We also analyze this method and show how the method can be applied by working out a simple example. To make the connection between PDMPs and the splitting method we introduce a setting which suites both well. We consider an example of rare event probabilities outside a d-dimensional sphere for a Gaussian random variable. We compare the results in time complexity, probability estimation, Effective Sample Size and distribution of thresholds between the use of a standard Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and the Bouncy Particle sampler. Furthermore results are obtained to express the eigenvalues of the stochastic process as a function of the boundary on a restricted domain, in particular for the case of the one-dimensional Zig-Zag process with a zero refreshment intensity.


A data processing method for the sound power of the medical ultrasonic diagnostic equipment is introduced in this paper. The sound power for the transducer of a medical ultrasonic diagnostic equipment is measured for many times, and then the mathematical model based on the measurement data above is processed with Kalman filter.The output fluctuations for sound power of the equipment and its transducer as well as the measurement errors of sound power meter are eliminated to achieve the true value of sound power. Compared with other mean methods, the method above can improve the dicreteness of the measurements, and thus is worth being applied to processing other measured data.


Abstract Background: The association of anti-C1q antibodies (anti-C1q) with the renal activity of lupus nephritis (LN) and the methods for their determination is still a matter of debate. Methods: In 116 serum samples of 66 patients with biopsy proven LN, we aimed: 1) to compare the results of the determination of anti-C1q obtained by a commercial kit with a clinically validated in-house ELISA; 2) to evaluate the correlation of anti-C1q with the most important immunological and clinical parameters employed in LN, i.e., antibodies to dsDNA (anti-dsDNA), C3 and C4 complement component, haemoglobin and haematuria. Results: Good correlation and agreement between the two methods (r=0.81, p<0.0001; contingency coefficient=0.70, p<0.0001, respectively) were demonstrated. No differences were observed between the two assays by ROC curves comparison. Anti-C1q levels were significantly higher in patients with active LN [44 arbitrary units (AUs)] in comparison to those with inactive LN (23 AUs, p=0.047) and significantly correlated with anti-dsDNA (r=0.44, p<0.0001), complement fractions (C3: r=−0.33, p=0.001; C4: r=−0.29, p=0.003), haemoglobin levels (r=−0.34, p=0.0004) and the number of urinary red blood cells (r=0.26, p=0.01). Conclusions: Our results suggest the validity of this commercial assay in detecting anti-C1q and confirm the association of anti-C1q with renal involvement of LN and the importance of introducing this parameter in the analytical panel for the evaluation of LN activity.


The utility model relates to a permeable detachable LED street lamp which belongs to the technical field of lighting electronics and solves the technical problems of poor heat-radiating effect, high expenditure cost and inconvenient assembly and disassembly in the prior art. The lamp comprises a base, and a lamp cover, a powder supply and a light source board installed on the base, and is characterized in that the light source board is an integral hollowed structure and can be detachably installed on the base, LED light sources are installed on one end surface of the light source board, a groove with the shape consistent with that of the light source board is formed on the other end surface of the light source board, a circuit board used for electrically communicating all the LED light sources is installed in the groove and sealed by adhesive pouring, the lamp cover is covered on the light source board and the base, and a plurality of through holes are formed on the lamp cover and form a permeable heat-radiating channel with the hollowed part of the light source board. The provided lamp has the advantages of high heat-radiating efficiency and easy disassembly of the light sources.


The Asian Regional Conference on Gender and Communication, held in the Philippines, developed a plan of action to improve the portrayal of women in the mass media. Even in developing countries with traditional attitudes toward women, pornographic-type images are used to boost product sales. The conference's recommendations address the challenges posed by globalization of the media, commercialization of local media, and the increased violation of women's human rights in the media and the question of who has control over the media. After the conference, ISIS Maila assembled a report, "Status of Women and Media: Focus on Violence Against Women," which will be presented at a forum held during the 1998 meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Gender justice for women in the media requires collaboration among media specialists, women's groups, researchers, nongovernmental organizations, and local and regional networks.


We are, as stated earlier, a scientific and technical journal, committed to publishing high-quality papers on research and development, new and emerging technologies, and state-of-the art reports on topics covered by this journal. Through this journal, first published in 1997, we have strongly contributed to technology transfer by supporting the annually held International Symposium on Mine Planning and Equipment Selection (MPES). MPES 2004 was held in Poland. The next MPES will be held on 1–3 November 2005 in Banff, Alberta, Canada. A ''Call for Papers'' has recently been issued. This time MPES will cover several new topics widening its scope and highlighting emerging technologies. Some of the topics to be covered are:


If a matrix, which represents the capacities between vertices for every vertex pair, is given, then the necessary and sufficient conditions are known for the existence of networks satisfying given conditions. However, it is rare that the capacities between all vertex pairs are given. Therefore we give a matrix which is not always the terminal capacity matrix, and we discuss the realization of the matrix. In this case, we consider minimizing the differences between capacities in the network and elements of the matrix. In this paper, we generalize the concept of difference and propose an algorithm to construct the network.


Mobile channel estimation is very challenging as usually it requires more pilots and channel observations to obtain the channel state information (CSI) and the resultant estimation accuracy may decrease with the number of antennas and sub-carriers. Through exploring the long-and-short-term intrinsic spatial and temporal correlation among a set of historic channel instances randomly obtained within a certain communication environment, channel prediction can help increase the CSI accuracy w.r.t. to that obtained from only the pilots, and thus save signaling overhead and computational cost. In this paper, we propose a novel generative Periodic-Activator-enabled Auto Encoder-LSTM network (GPAE-LSTMnet) for accurate channel prediction of mobile MIMO channels, which first compresses the high dimensional channel matrix with high-frequency features to a low dimensional space with relatively low-frequency feature space that has high data smoothness and is suitable for time-series sequence prediction. After that, a LSTM network is used to predict the channel in the low dimensional space, which ensures high accuracy and low computational cost. Experimental results show that our proposed learning structure outperforms existing methods especially when the dimension of CSI to be predicted is relatively high, the time interval of the CSI sequence is relatively long and the number of network parameters is highly limited.


Implantation of devices that can terminate cardiac arrhythmias has increased rapidly over recent years. This article looks at the evidence base for using such devices in the primary and secondary prevention of sudden arrhythmic death, discusses who should have a device and examines the issues surrounding implantation. Recent advances in technology and the future direction of therapy are also reviewed.


This paper presents the implementation of peer group management services in a pure P2P groupware framework called TOMSCOP (technology of multiuser synchronous collaboration platform). To support a variety of computer-based collaborative activities and styles, a user in a group can be assigned a role or identity such as a discusser peer, a chair peer, a presenter peer, a player peer, or an observer peer-Based on the above identities and their control service, we developed three collaboration modes, i.e., discussion mode, presentation mode and rotation mode, for smoothly manipulating shared applications in their different usages. Moreover we designed and implemented the public and private room services for users to create suitable collaboration rooms that match theirs privacy requirements. These modes and services not only provide more functions to TOMSCOP users, but also support software developers for easily and flexibly making P2P shared applications with different purposes


This paper discusses the role of oridonin in the proliferation and apoptosis of breast cancer cell Bcap-37 and the mechanism causing apoptosis;treats Bcap-37 cell with Ori of different concentrations;detects cell growth inhibition rate with MTT method;detects apoptosis by using flow cytometry and the mechanism of apoptosis with Western blot.The result is that 48~96 μmol/L Ori can significantly inhibit the proliferation of Bcap-37 cell(P0.05).After 24 h of operation of 48 μmol/L Ori,the proliferation inhibition rate reaches 40%,while 96 μmol/L Ori only needs 12 h treatment and the proliferation inhibition rate reaches 50%.After 24-hour treatment of 96 μmol/L Ori,the apoptosis rate of Bcap-37 cell is 21.6%.Western blot detects up-regulation of Fas,release of cytochrome c,activation of Caspase 9 and shear of its downstream signaling protein Caspase3 and its substrates PARP and ICAD.It further detects the down-regulation of Survivin and up-regulation of GADD34.Based on these experimental results,it is inferred that the induction of apoptosis of breast cancer cell Bcap37 by oridonin as a potential anti-breast cancer preparation might be related to Survivin and GADD34.


In the preparation of fuel elements with random grain sizes in a carrier metal melt, the wettability of the fuel element particles with respect to the carrier metal melt presents great difficulties. These were overcome when molecular hydrogen was led through an especially high frequency electric arc for the purpose of transforming the molecular hydrogen largely into atomic hydrogen. Then the atomic hydrogen was led to the carrier metal melt, at the surface of which are found the fuel particles introduced into the melt for deoxidizing and protecting the system against further oxidation. Finally the fuel particles were wet and surrounded by the carrier metal melt. (J.S.R.)


We analyze the quantum statistics of photon pair generation through spontaneous four-wave mixing in nonlinear waveguide arrays and predict pump power-controlled transition between bunching and anti-bunching correlations due to self-focusing of the pump beam.


Abstract The effect of rare-earth ions Er3+, which has a large orbital contribution to the magnetic moment, on the phase transitions and states of the phase separation nanoregions has been studied in multiferroic ErMn2O5. These nanoregions are semiconductor heterostructures formed due to self-organization processes in the ErMn2O5 matrix. A significant effect of Er3+ ions, the moments of which are rigidly oriented along the c axis of the crystal, on the magnetic dynamics, heat capacity, and multiferroic properties of superlattices layers in a wide temperature range of 5 ÷ 300 K has been revealed.


OF THE PROJECT Gazing at the Spectacle of Rhetorical Play: Madonna's Music Videos Reveal Possibilities for Fostering Agency by Lindsey Elizabeth Banister Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing Studies San Diego State University, 2012 Valerie R. Renegar and Stacey K. Sowards suggest that contradiction, as a rhetorical tool of strategic choice, provides women with the opportunity to cultivate agency in "Contradiction as Agency: Self-Determination, Transcendence, and Counter-Imagination in Third Wave Feminism". By examining various third wave feminist texts, Renegar and Sowards illuminate how contradictions function as useful rhetorical tools for negotiating the complicated world we live in and for developing agency in new ways. To posit contradictions as a strategic choice suggests that there are possibly new ways to evaluate how we rhetorically read and understand texts, and in the case of this study, a new way to examine the work Madonna is doing in her music videos. Madonna—as an image—continually presents contradictory aspects in her music videos. The visual elements of male gaze and female spectacle are dominant characteristics of her videos and provide typical evidence of contradictions working to enhance Madonna's agency. Contradiction allows for possibilities of self-determination, transcendence, and counter-imaginations that embody and foster a sense of agency through its various usages. Therefore, contradiction, in this sense, is conceptualized as performative and participatory and creates opportunities for a self-determination that enhances agency. Through her performances in videos such as "Material Girl," "Express Yourself," and "Justify My Love," Madonna presents images that challenge male-female relationships through visual forms of sexual expression, and she invites her audience to participate in a new discourse that preaches female empowerment. However, behind this professed rhetoric of female empowerment lies the underlying motivation of female desirability, which links female sexual expression—as spectacle—to the appeal of the male gaze. And in appealing to the male gaze, the female spectacle turns into female exploitation. Therefore, by extending Renegar and Sowards's theory of contradiction in third wave feminist texts to Madonna's music videos, I contended that Madonna's music videos simultaneously empower and undercut female liberation and in doing so demonstrate the functionality of contradiction. Madonna's use of contradiction—specifically in terms of how she plays with the rhetorical forms of gaze and spectacle to form her rhetoric of female empowerment and exploitation—magnifies a possible innovative process that allows women to claim agency in a manner that is unmarred by patriarchal dilution. This analysis, thus, not only augments research on Madonna, but it also suggests that we should reevaluate preconceived notions of rhetorical terms—such as contradiction. Most important, this analysis of contradiction in Madonna's music videos indicates a need for further analysis of the functionality of


The familiar Brewster stereoscope consists of a rigid tubular type of viewing head that covers the eyes and much of the face. This viewing head contains a pair of lenses that are usually decentered outward so as to permit inspection of a pair of large stereoscope pictures, each 3 by 3 inches (7.6 by 7.6 cm.), which are pasted on a single card. The viewing distance can be changed, but to a rather limited extent. In the early part of this century the entertainment value of the stereoscope in providing illusions of a third dimension gradually faded. The subsequent adaptation of the stereoscope to clinical requirements consisted in replacement of the pictures by targets that could convey some meaning as to the fusion status of the eyes. Because of the rigid nature of this simple instrument, the information that such targets could offer was suggestive rather than conclusive, qualitative rather


Type 1 diabetes is the main type of diabetes mellitus among children and adolescents and the incidence has steadily increased worldwide in the past 20 years,so more and more people pay attention to the pediatric type 1 diabetes.This article reviews the worldwide research progresses of epidemiology,treatment and management of type 1 diabetes.By comparing the research progresses home and abroad,we can know the gaps home and abroad better,so as to indicate potential paths for future research in China.

Key words:
Type 1 diabetes;  Children and adolescents;  Epidemiology;  Treatment;  Management


A process of three-stage SBR process in two reactors with mid-oxidation by ozone is used for the treatment of landfill leachate.When COD of landfill leachate is 3 013 mg/L,BOD,1 298 mg/L,NH+4-NR,195 mg/L,TN,272 mg/L,the removal rates of COD,BOD,NH+4-N and TN are 97.3%,97.8%,91.3%,92.1% without the mid-oxidation,when the hydraulic retention times of anaerobic stage,anoxic stage and oxic stage are 24h,3h and 1h,respectively.With 30 mg/L of ozone dosed in the outlet of anaerobic SBR,the total removal of COD,BOD,NH+4-N and TN are 96.7%、97.1%、87.7%、92.8%.20 mg/L of powder activated carbon(PAC)dosed can increase the removal of COD,BOD,NH+4-N and TN to 98.5%、99.3%、94.6%、94.7%,respectively.PAC can remove some organisms in water and decrease the effect of ozone on the following oxic process.


Objective: It is desirable for patients to have realistic expectations before surgery with preoperative use of a BAHA test-band. We aimed to investigate how much gain patients can obtain with preoperative use of a BAHA test-band with full-on gain and compared the results with those of BAHA users with the volume control at the comfortable level. Method: Nineteen patients with single-sided deafness were included. Sound-field threshold and speech understanding were measured with naked ears under sound field (condition 1), with an ear-plug on the intact ear (condition 2), and with an ear-plug on the intact ear and a BAHA testband on the lesioned ear (condition 3). Results: The speech reception thresholds (SRTs) at condition 2 were higher than those at condition 1 by 26 dB, which means that the sound attenuation by an ear-plug was 26 dB. Although SRTs (17 ± 7 dB HL) at condition 3 were similar to those (19 ± 9 dB HL) at condition 1, tonal thresholds at condition 3 were better at 1 and 2 kHz and poorer at 250 Hz compared to those at condition 1. Those hearing gains with a BAHA testband with full-on gain are similar to those of BAHA users with the volume level at the comfortable level. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the hearing gain by a BAHA testband with full-on gain is similar to the postoperative gains of BAHA users with the volume control at the comfortable level. BAHA candidates can experience a postoperative audiologic gain by preoperative use of a BAHA test-band with full-on gain.


Ab initio molecular orbital and density functional calculations on isodesmic disproportionation reactions of nitrated cubanes indicate that the repulsion between nitro groups on adjacent carbons in octanitrocubane (ONC) is surprisingly small and that the energy required for successive substitutions of nitro groups on the cubane frame diminishes progressively with increasing substitution. Mulliken population analyses show that, as a consequence of the inductive effects of the nitro groups on one another, the negative charges on the oxygens also decrease with increasing substitution reducing the magnitudes of the Coulomb repulsion between nearest-neighbor nitro groups. The computed D4 symmetric equilibrium conformation of ONC, which is essentially the same as the conformation found in the crystalline state, effectively interdigitates the nitro substituents, thereby avoiding close O···O contacts. The O···O interactions remain very small throughout 180° rotations about the C−NO2 bonds, a process that is compu...


Molybdenum (Mo) thin films were deposited on soda lime glass (SLG) using direct-current (DC) magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures to study the diffusion process of Sodium (Na) and Potassium (K). To quantify the concentration of both species, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was used. In this paper, a grain diffusion model was developed that incorporates the effect of grain and grain boundary geometrical shape and size in the overall species concentration that SIMS data report. It was concluded that the ratio of grain boundary size and grain size is not constant along the Mo thin film and should be considered a key component when analyzing diffusion processes in thin films.


Cuscuta spp. are parasitic plants of Mediterranean origin. They are worldwide in distribution. In marathi, Cuscuta spp. are also known as Akashwel or Amarwel, is a parasitic angiosperm belonging to the family Convolvulaceae in older references and Cuscutaceae in the more recent publications. Weber (1986) divided the family Cuscutaceae into two genera i.e. Cuscuta and Grammica, based on the shape of the stigma. The genus Cuscuta is comprised of about 175 species worldwide. The wide geographical distribution of dodder species, their wide host range and the difficulties associated with their control, place them among the most damaging parasites worldwide (Dawson et al., 1994 and International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 04 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


Acknowledging the exponential growth and global dimension of climate litigation, this introductory piece to this Special Section starts by situating this phenomenon in the context of the scholarly debate on polycentric and multi-level climate governance. It highlights both the strategic use of climate litigation as a tool to establish responsibilities and push for a more ambitious mitigation and adaptation agenda, but also as an opportunity to better understand the role of courts in public policy governance. The second part of the article then proceeds to discuss the main findings arising from the various contributions grouped in this section, and concludes by arguing that further research is needed in order to properly understand the role and contribution of climate change litigation to transnational climate governance.


Edited by the people who were forerunners in creating the field, together with contributions from 34 leading international experts, this handbook provides the definitive reference on Blind Source Separation, giving a broad and comprehensive description of all the core principles and methods, numerical algorithms and major applications in the fields of telecommunications, biomedical engineering and audio, acoustic and speech processing. Going beyond a machine learning perspective, the book reflects recent results in signal processing and numerical analysis, and includes topics such as optimization criteria, mathematical tools, the design of numerical algorithms, convolutive mixtures, and time frequency approaches. This Handbook is an ideal reference for university researchers, RD algebraic identification of under-determined mixtures, time-frequency methods, Bayesian approaches, blind identification under non negativity approaches, semi-blind methods for communicationsShows the applications of the methods to key application areas such as telecommunications, biomedical engineering, speech, acoustic, audio and music processing, while also giving a general method for developing applications


Aside from the field of dementia, nowhere is the interface between neurology and psychiatry greater than in the subspecialty of movement disorders. Dementia is now claimed by both neurologists and psychiatrists, so that at some academic centers the dementia unit is in the psychiatry department, in others it is in neurology, and in some it is shared. Although movement disorders are not "shared" in this manner, most movement disorders have a behavioral component.


In this paper, a novel algorithm for the separation of gray and white matter from single sequence magnetic resonance images is proposed. In our approach, the Polya urn model is used to model the smoothness and contiguous nature of the tissue regions. The order of the neighborhood system used in the Polya urn model is adaptive with the contents of the image. Moreover, an adaptive window is used to resist the intensity inhomogeneity of the magnetic resonance images, when estimating the parameters of each cluster using the expectation-maximization (EM) method. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach can extract gray and white matter from magnetic resonance images quickly and exactly.


Design of new thin film materials with improved properties and functionality is an important research field in materials science. In this thesis, I have used magnetron sputtering to deposit new thi ...


A nitrobenzene-degrading strain isolated from a nitrobenzene-irrigating artificial wetland was identified, and its optimal degradation condition was studied. The strain was identified by its morphological characteristics and 16 S rDNA fragment. Central composite design(CCD) was employed to optimize the nitrobenzene degrading condition. The strain yc11-1 was identified as the specie of Bacillus cereus, and its optimal degradation condition was 84.84 mg / L initial nitrobenzene, 12.97%inoculation size, incubation in 29.4 ℃ and pH 7.1. Under this condition, the predicated maximum removal efficiency of nitrobenzene was 91.14%, and the realistic efficiency was 90.58%.


Taking Bijie experimental area as the study object,indicators of information resource,application,industry and talent which can mostly reflect rural informationization level in remote mountainous areas were selected,the evaluating index system was constructed,and rural informationization level of eight counties(cities) in Bijie experimental area was evaluated with the entropy and gray correlation method.The results showed that the order from good to bad is Bijie City Jinsha CountyQianxi CountyNayong CountyDafang CountyHezhang CountyWeining CountyZhijin County,which will provide scientific basis for carrying out rural informationization construction.


Abstract This study explores horse races in and around the Ottoman capital city, their occasions, locations or participants before the nineteenth century. The competitions we know to have been organized during the sixteenth and seventeenth century imperial festivals were long-distance endurance races run outside the city walls. Courses corresponding to approximately two, three, four or six hours of racing were set out for specially trained horses, and prizes of cash or fine textiles were awarded to winners. In the course of the early 1700 s, cross-country horse racing evolved into more of a private partying ritual for the sultan and his immediate entourage, coming to be routinely observed at the end of the religious festivities, though the layout then excluded attendance by large crowds. The spatial organization of horse racing evolved from temporary installations to a permanent architecture. All the machinery and pageantry of horse racing, from paddocks through parade rings to the theatrics of the race day, a new stage came to be constructed at the Kağıdhane valley, at the far end of the Golden Horn.


Heat transfer enhancement on the endwall around an obstacle embedded with a pair of vortex generators is investigated. Obstacles with cylindrical and square cross sections are experimentally examined and compared with and without vortex generators. The vortex generators employed is a pair of longitudinal winglet vortex generator. Local Nusselt numbers are calculated for both types of obstacles in presence of vortex generator experimentally whereas, flow features are captured numerically using ANSYS-FLUENT 17.0. A high heat transfer region upstream of the obstacle has increased its width with the installation of vortex generators for both shapes of the obstacle. However, only a small increase in magnitude occurs. Comparison of local Nusselt numbers shows that for the case of the cylindrical obstacle, there is more heat transfer at the center of the obstacle whereas, for the obstacle with square cross section, more heat transfer is observed at the upstream corners of the obstacle both with and without vortex generators. It is also evident from the findings of the results that installation of vortex generators upstream of an obstacle enhances the endwall heat transfer more in the spanwise direction than the streamwise direction. In addition, flow characteristics obtained from the numerical simulations show that presence of a vortex generator pair reinforces the strength of the horseshoe vortex and as a result additional heat transfer enhancement. Thermal performance for both types of obstacles in presence of vortex generators are calculated and compared at various Reynolds number. (Less)


Background

Many pieces of evidence presented the body mass index (BMI) was inversely associated with tuberculosis (TB). BMI was radically changed during the past decades in China. The aim of the study was to evaluate the contemporary relationship between BMI and tuberculosis incident.
Methods

A population-based prospective cohort included 26 022 community participants was conducted. Three rounds of tuberculosis screening were implemented between June 2013 and December 2015. The main exposure was defined as baseline BMI, and was categorized into 3 levels: underweight (< 18.5 kg/m2), normal (18.5 to 24.0 kg/m2), overweight or obese (≥ 24.0 kg/m2). The active tuberculosis incident in the second or third round screening was the study outcome. The dose-response relationship between BMI and tuberculosis incidence as well as tuberculosis risk were analyzed.
Results

During the followed up of 2.25 years, 43 cases developed tuberculosis in 44 574.4 person-years. The log-linear dose-response relationship between BMI and tuberculosis incidence was fitted (adjusted R2 = 0.95). In multivariable Cox proportional regression, overweight and obese was associated with a lower risk of incident tuberculosis compared with normal weight (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.34; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.14–0.82, p < 0.01), the inverse dose-response association between BMI and tuberculosis risk was characterized by restricted cubic spline. In subgroups analysis, the risk of tuberculosis reduced 78% in overweight or obese (aHR, 0.22; 95% CI 0.05–0.97, p = 0.05) and 64% (aHR, 0.36; 95% CI 0.12-1.00, p = 0.05) compared with normal weight among female and elderly.
Conclusion

Our study revealed that high BMI was a protective factor in tuberculosis development. Precise dose-response relationship between BMI and the incident tuberculosis, as well as the risk of tuberculosis progression in contemporary Chinese adulthood, will benefit to disease control policy.


The paper presents a new method for performing online stability analysis of power electronic systems. The method is based on impedance analysis, where the only information required are measurements taken at a single point. The proposed method injects current composed by several frequencies. The impedance is estimated at these frequencies, and the Vector Fitting method is used to estimate a continuous impedance model. The Nyquist Criterion is then applied to the fitted models of source and load subsystem impedance. The stability analysis is performed continuously with an update rate up to 10 Hz. The proposed method has been compared with the conventional frequency sweep method in an experimental setup.


Abstract Infrared spectroscopy was used to measure the level of whey protein concentrate in an adulterated sample of NDM. Three samples of NDM (including high and low heat processed samples) and three whey protein concentrate powders with protein and lactose concentrations similar to those in NDM (34% protein and 50% lactose) were obtained from various sources. One hundred thirty-five blends of NDM containing various concentrations of whey protein concentrate (1.26 to 33.00%) were analyzed at wavelengths between 1400 and 1200cm –1 . There was a strong correlation (r>.99) between predicted and measured concentrations of whey protein in adulterated samples. The detection limit was 5.6% whey protein concentrate. Accuracy was not affected by processing conditions, source of NDM, or origin of whey protein concentrate powder.


Background: Although psychotropic medications have had a remarkable impact on psychiatric practice that legitimately can be called revolutionary, their utilization and consequences on real life effectiveness and safety in actual clinical practice need continuous study. Methods: The current retrospective study of six months' duration was designed to assess the utilization of antipsychotics and its prescribing pattern in a tertiary care hospital of south India, which included prescriptions of patients suffering from a psychiatric illness with at least one psychotropic drug of all ages and both sexes. Results: Out of 150 cases reviewed, 46% were of schizophrenia, where male (60.67%) at higher incidence of psychiatric illness, and maximum patients were under the age group of 29-39 years (54.67%). In present study of 355 prescribed drugs 72.67% were psychotropic medications. As per World Health Organization/International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) drug use indicators average number of drugs per prescription (2.37%), average number of psychotropic drugs per prescription (1.72%), psychotropic drugs prescribed as Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) was 26.36%, and percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name (91.08%). In our study, 48.09% of psychotropic drugs were utilized in the treatment of schizophrenia, diazepam (17.06%) was the only psychotropic medication distributed in the management of all three observed psychiatric disorders and the study showed a higher utilization of psychotropic drugs as FDCs (25.98%) in the management of schizophrenia. Conclusions: The study advocated an overall rational utilization of psychotropic drugs with a fewer deviations due to socio-economic status of patients and prescription practices of healthcare providers.


This story of the vital contribution of Canadian scientists to the wartime development of atomic energy is told by one of the men who played a leading role at Montreal and Chalk River. Dr. Laurence has been associated with the National Research Council of Canada since 1930, and is currently in charge of one of the divisions of experimentation at Chalk River.


Human cystathionine β‐synthase (hCBS) is a vital enzyme found within the human transulfuration pathway and is responsible for the biotransformation of serine and homocysteine into cystathionine. hCBS at high cysteine concentrations has been shown to release hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct via an alternate reaction, suggesting hCBS to be closely involved with regulating metabolic sulfur. Catalysis in both the primary and alternate reactions proceeds via a PLP dependent β‐replacement ping‐pong mechanism, with the last step before product dissociation from the internal aldimine (Schiff base) intermediate being the condensation of H2O or H2S, respectively. Consequently, mis‐regulation of substrate levels or loss of CBS activity has been causally linked to hyperhomocysteinemia, a biological condition signifying abnormally high levels of homocysteine within the circulatory system; this condition being one of many causes leading to cardiovascular disease. A highly conserved PLP catalytic and SAM regulatory domain can be seen when comparing yeast analogue (yCBS) to mammalian variants. However, the mammalian variants, specifically the human analog hCBS, differs by containing a unique heme binding domain not found in yCBS. Given that the heme prosthetic group is not required for catalytic activity, the role that this additional domain plays in regulating cystathionine production in hCBS is not yet clearly understood. Current methods for measuring CBS catalytic activity involve using radioactively labeled substrates and typically have focused only on yeast and truncated hCBS variants. We have adapted a previously established colorimetric coupled enzyme assay to measure hCBS kinetics, coupling CBS with cystathionine β‐lyase (CBL), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH); where the stoichiometric oxidation of NADH, monitored spectrophotometrically at 340 nm, is correlated directly to the formation of cystathionine. Preliminary results suggest this coupled assay is a viable method for measuring product formation kinetics of full length wild type hCBS. Current and future work aims to 1) asses catalytic rate activity for wild type hCBS and 2) asses the activity of single point mutant variants with mutations localized within the heme binding domain. Through these experiments, we hope to elucidate a deeper understanding of how the heme binding domain affects cystathionine product formation.


The embodiments of the invention disclose a method and device for authenticating a set-top box, relating to the field of digital television communication. The method and the device are used for realizing the processes of authentication and authorization between a set-top box host and a set-top box slave and simultaneously solving the problem of low reliability of the processes of authentication and authorization between the set-top box host and the set-top box slave. The method comprises the following steps that: firstly a first set-top box receives second set-top box identify information sent by a second set-top box through a wireless communication network; then the first set-top box searches whether a target set-top box, of which the identify information is consistent with that of the second set-top box, exists or not from all set-top box identify information pre-stored in the first set-top box; and finally, when the target set-top box exists, the first set-top box determines the authentication of the second set-top box to be successful. The method and the device are applicable to the field of digital television communication.


The article presents an analysis of the peculiarities of the development of professional skills of teachers of the Ukrainian language and literature in the intercourse period in distance learning, in particular in the training "Modeling of the Ukrainian language lessons on the basis of activity approach in the digital educational environment". Due to the clear construction of the distance course, administration is provided, knowledge is gained by studying theoretical material, information literacy of teachers and opportunities for their use of digital technologies for self-education, self-development, research and united learning tasks, self-control, arranged activities of participants in small groups, synchronous and asynchronous communication, etc. It was found that the training focuses not only on digital technologies that we use as tools for modeling electronic content, but also on pedagogical aspects, which are expressed in the methodology of modeling the Ukrainian language lesson on the basis of activity approach, organization of space for functioning in conditions of distance learning, etc. The distance training course consists of five modules, which are filled with teaching materials and digital tools. This format helps to create conditions for learning, communication and partnership. The subjects of classes are modelled taking into account the current needs of the teacher and provide the performance of creative projects and credit tasks by him. Positive experience in the use of training as an educational trajectory of professional self-realization and development of pedagogical skills of a teacher in the system of postgraduate pedagogical education by distance learning is presented.Keywords: training, distance learning, competence, professional skill, activity approach, postgraduate pedagogical education, educational process, intercourse period.


...............................................................................................................ii Declaration............................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements.................................................................................................iv CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION...........................................................................1 1.1. Research aim..........................................................................................2 1.2 Research question.....................................................................................2 1.3 Rationale................................................................................................2 1.4 Clarification of key concepts........................................................................4 1.5. Overview of the chapters............................................................................6 CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................8 2.1 The pathology paradigm: Mothers as causative agents...........................................9 2.2 An alternative perspective: Mothers' experiences of their children's struggles with substance abuse.......................................................................................15 2.3 The Salutogenic Paradigm..........................................................................17 2.3.1 A comparison of the pathogenic and Salutogenic paradigms......................18 2.3.2 Measuring health on a continuum......................................................19 2.3.3 Stressors, tension and stress............................................................20 2.3.4 Tension management and generalised resistance resources (GRRs)..............22 2.4 Sense of Coherence...................................................................................24 2.4.1 Comprehensibility........................................................................25 2.4.2 Manageability............................................................................26 2.4.3 Meaningfulness...........................................................................29 2.4.4 Relations between the three components of Sense of Coherence..................31 2.5 Relevant Salutogenic literature ....................................................................33 2.6 Resilience, thriving and hardiness .................................................................35 2.7 A critique of salutogenesis..........................................................................37 2.8 Conclusion............................................................................................39


This paper proposes an interactive dialog system, called AidIR, to aid information retrieval. AidIR allows users to retrieve information on diseases resulting from coronaviruses and diseases transmitted by vector mosquitoes with natural language interaction and Line chat media. In a subjective evaluation, we asked 20 users to rate the intuitiveness, usability, and user experience of AidIR with a range between −2 and 2. Moreover, we also asked these users to answer yes–no questions to evaluate AidIR and provide feedback. The average scores of intuitiveness, usability, and user experience are 0.8, 0.8, and 1.05, respectively. The yes–no questions demonstrated that AidIR is better than systems using the graphical user interface in mobile phones and single-turn dialog systems. According to user feedback, AidIR is more convenient for information retrieval. Moreover, we designed a new loss function to jointly train a BERT model for domain classification and sequence label tasks. The accuracy of both tasks is 92%. Finally, we trained the dialog policy network with supervised learning tasks and deployed the reinforcement learning algorithm to allow AidIR to continue learning the dialog policy.


Influence of Al2O3 Particles Weight Fraction on Fracture Mechanism of AZ61 Mg-Al2O3 System Studied by In Situ Tensile Test in SEM M. Besterci, Š. Nagy, S.-J. Huang, O. Velgosováe,∗, K. Sülleiová and P.-C. Lin Institute of Materials Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Račianska 75, 831 02 Bratislava, Slovakia Institute of Materials Science, Faculty of Material Sciences and Technology in Trnava, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 43, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., 106 Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Metallurgy, Technical University in Košice, Park Komenského 11, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia


News is the mirror of culture. Disaster news is an excellent material for studying social and cultural values, because it involves individuals, institutions, the government and the whole society. Taking Phuket boat capsizing in July 2018 as an example, this paper uses the textual contrast method and Geert Hofstede's six cultural dimensions to analyze how the characteristics of Chinese and American cultures in each dimension affect their news reports. We believe that disaster reports in the United States reflect the overall characteristics of objectivity, focusing on individuals, highlighting problems and criticism, and supervising the government; while disaster reports in China show love and caring, concern for the collective, emphasizing harmony and inspiration, and affirming and trusting the government. In short, a cross-cultural perspective allows us to have a deeper understanding of news reports under multicultural


The aim of this study is of evaluating Morris' PDRM indicator system in the Italian Health Care System, especially in the context of home‐based health care assistance, so as to assess the reliability of such a system to detect preventable events of drug‐related morbidity (DRM).


A study of elastic lateral distortional buckling of cantilever monosymmetrical I-beams is presented. The method assumes that the flange cross-sections remain straight (undistorted) during buckling, but that the web is free to distort. Three different load patterns are considered: an end moment load, a uniformly distributed lateral pressure and an end point load. The study applied a Rayleigh–Ritz method that the authors previously developed for simply supported beams to cantilevers. The accuracy of the method is verified by comparing the results with a general finite element linear buckling analysis, using NX/Nastran. The method offers advantages over commonly used finite element analysis because it is mesh-free and requires only 6 × n degrees of freedom; therefore, the solution process is rapid and suitable for design space exploration. For doubly symmetric I-beams, a cubic transverse normal stress distribution, derived from the equation of equilibrium, was used in the total potential energy. The results were compared to the previous method which used a linear stress distribution.


The forging process of the control arm,which is served as the guide and force element of vehicle suspension system,is complex.In the practical forging production,penetrated crack may appear in the big corner of the part easily.Numerical simulation was adopted to predict the metal forming process in this paper.The 3D model of the control arm was built,and the forging process was designed based on the geometry of the control arm.Then bending and open die forging processes were analyzed.The result shows that the part can be forged successfully by this forming technology,which provides theoretical basis for its production.


Buildup and decay transients were observed when polar or nonpolar liquid cells were placed within the resonator of a helium—neon laser operating in the red at 6328 A. Similar but smaller effects were also observed with two solids. Time constants were the order of a few seconds for all materials, which suggests a thermal phenomenon, but general heating effects were ruled out by the strong localization of the phenomenon. Transverse motion of the cell by about one beam width caused new transients similar to the initial ones.It is believed that the effects are caused by absorption of the red light in the material, producing a local heating in the vicinity of the beam and a lens effect arising from the transverse gradient of refractive index. Absorptions of 10−3 to 10−4 parts per centimeter are sufficient to produce the effects, and are believed to be reasonable values for the materials studied. One of the most important applications may in fact be for the measurement of small absorbancies.The experiments are ...


Treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) with all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) is now well established [1]. ATRA has several inherent advantages over conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, but it can produce a number of side effects, including the retinoic acid syndrome [2] and pseudotumour cerebri [3–7]. This case report is the Ž rst in which a young female patient with APL presented with severe bilateral papilloedema and elevated cerebrospinal  uid (CSF) pressure prior to the institution of treatment with ATRA.


This study about the Cuban artist Leonel Matheu focuses on the topics of his paintings: people, nature, the modern city. These themes are revised within the context of his technique and very personal style. His relation with avant-garde movements and with contemporary artistic trends is underscored


Based on the structural difference between photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and conventional optical fiber, this paper briefly analyse the photo-conduction principle and the single-mode property of PCF. In succession, stability of fiber grating based on PCF, tunable property of temperature of long-period fiber grating based on polymer filled holey fiber and the theory of structural long-period gratings in photonic crystal fiber with nonphotosensitive core are discussed. The potential application of PCF are demonstrated on one aspect.


Objective:To study the effects of nursing intervention on strengthening curative effects and improving the social function. Methods:A total of 77 patients met the criteria of CCMD-3 for schizophrenia all the patients were recovered or significantly improved after leaving hospital.They were divided into two groups which were the study group with intervention and control grup without intrvention.Thes tatus of the curative effects and the social function were assessed and analysed using Self-designed Questionaire.Results: There were significant differences on the status of second visit,using drug,recurrence and social function between the study group and the control group(P0.01).Conclusions: Nursing intervetion helps patients in second visit on time,ensuring enough curative duration and enough drug dose and prevention of recurrence.It plays significant role in improving the social function.


scrape and culture have failed metronidazole, 400 mg twice daily for two to three days, should be tried. Men treated for gonorrhoea should be carefully observed for two to three weeks afterwards in case non-gonococcal urethritis develops. Should it do so appropriate treatment should be given to both patient and consort. A drug that could be given in one or two doses, effective against both gonorrhoea and non-gonococcal urethritis, would be invaluable -provided that it was reasonably cheap. The precise extent of the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease for female contacts is not yet clear, but C trachomatis was thought responsible for two-thirds of a series of 143 laparoscopically confirmed cases of pelvic inflammatory disease in Sweden.8 A more obvious risk is that these women may infect other sexual partners, or their babies. If all female contacts could be given appropriate treatment, the reservoir of infection would be much reduced.


This paper presented a solution to replace eye check and manual disposal by computer check and disposal system dur- ing the process of leather dyeing.In the system,the computer checks the dyed leather by using image processing technology and disposes the blemishes automatically.By applying this system,the extent of automation and the production efficiency were both improved greatly.


Three new fully dehydrogenated naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids, the 7,1'-coupled ent-dioncophylleine A (3a), the likewise 7,1'-coupled 5'-O-demethyl-ent-dioncophylleine A (4), and the 7,8'-linked dioncophylleine D (5), have been isolated from the leaves of the recently described Malaysian highland liana Ancistrocladusbenomensis. All of them lack an oxygen function at C-6; this so-called Dioncophyllaceae-type structural subclass had previously been found only in naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids from West and Central African plants. Moreover, compounds 3a and 4 are the first fully dehydrogenated, i.e., only axially chiral, naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids of this type that are optically active; compound 5, by contrast, is fully racemic, due to its configurationally unstable biaryl axis. The structural elucidation was achieved by spectroscopic and chiroptical methods. Biological activities of these alkaloids against different protozoan parasites are described.


The Sydney Health Partners Emergency Department (SHaPED) trial used a stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trial design to evaluate an implementation strategy of the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) model of care for acute low back pain in emergency departments (ED). This preprint outlines the statistical analysis plan of this study.


The objective of this research was to evaluate if eggs can be enriched with trace minerals from either inorganic or organic sources of trace minerals. Different levels of trace minerals were provided in the premix, constituting the 7 different treatments. Levels of added Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu were at maximum of 650, 80, 80 and 20 ppm respectively, in order not to surpass the max EU levels of 750, 150, 150 and 25 ppm taking into account the background levels of these trace minerals in the raw materials. In treatment A, no trace minerals were added. In treatments B and C, trace minerals were added either under inorganic forms (FeSO4, ZnO, MnO, CuSO4) or organic form (Bioplex Fe, Bioplex Zn, Bioplex Mn and Bioplex Cu) at the maximum level. In treatments D to G, all trace minerals were fed in inorganic form at maximum level, except one mineral which was replaced by its organic form at the same mineral level. During the last week of the 4 week-trial, eggs from each replicate (n=5) were pooled as yolk or albumen were freeze dried and analysed for their trace mineral content by ICP-AES. The egg yolk did not reveal any enrichment of trace minerals; in fact, Cu and Mn remained very low and nearly undetectable (< 2 mg/kg DM) while levels of Fe varied on average between 90 and 118 mg/kg DM and those of Zn between 74 and 80 mg/kg DM. None of the differences were significant, mainly due to the variability on trace mineral contents of the samples within each treatment (Coefficient of variation was between 15 and 20 %). With regard to egg albumen, only Fe could be detected with a quite high variability (between 3 and 34 mg/kg DM) being not correlated with its dietary level. It could be concluded that the deposition of these 4 trace minerals in eggs and, as a result, their concentration in eggs were very slightly affected (due to a specific metabolism at ovarium/uterus) by both dietary levels and chemical "inorganic/organic" form. The observations for the present trace minerals are in contrast with the dose-response to dietary selenium (e.g. in the organic form Sel-Plex).


The crystal structure of the rubidium "cryptate"[RbC18H36N2O6]SCN·H2O is reported and the Rb+ cation is shown to be located in the cavity of the macrobicyclic system.


Career goals provide one with a destination for the career. When pursuing a known destination in our career, we can make decisions that will get us there quickly and efficiently. Without knowing our destination, the decision-making process can be very difficult. Before we dive into the process of setting goals, there is one underlying goal that all professionals share and that is to be successful. However, they all define ?>success ?> differently. An important first step in setting goals is taking a good look at our values. These are variously defined as principles, standards, or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable. Many professionals adopt a belief, partially due to the society we live in, that they do not deserve to be successful and achieve their dreams. Therefore, they settle for less than they deserve in their career and lives in general.


There is a need to develop and test interventions for patients near end of life that are comforting, easy to learn and administer, and require little effort on the part of recipients. This experimental study tested the efficacy of bilateral hand massage for enhancing hospice patients' holistic comfort as measured with the Hospice Comfort Questionnaire (HCQ). We hypothesized that, over 3 time points, patients who received hand massage would have higher comfort and less symptom distress than a comparison group. Participants were randomized into treatment (received the intervention twice weekly for 3 weeks) or comparison groups (received the intervention once at the study's end). Findings indicated that patients receiving hand massage had increased comfort over time, while symptom distress remained flat in both groups. However, findings were insignificant. Ethical and practical issues experienced in this study are discussed.


Background—The objective of this study is to examine practice-level variation in rates of guideline-recommended treatment for outpatients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, and to examine the association between treatment variation and practice site, independent of patient factors. Methods and Results—Cardiology practices participating in the National Cardiovascular Disease Registry Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence registry from July 2008 to December 2010 were evaluated. Practice rates of treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers and &bgr;-blockers and an optimal combined treatment measure were determined for patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction and no documented contraindications. Multivariable hierarchical regression models were adjusted for demographics, insurance status, and comorbidities. A median rate ratio was calculated for each therapy, which describes the likelihood that the treatment of a patient with given comorbidities would differ at 2 randomly selected practices. We identified 12 556 patients from 45 practices. The unadjusted practice-level prescription rates ranged from 44% to 100% for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (median, 85%; interquartile range, 75%–89%), from 49% to 100% for &bgr;-blockers (median, 92%; interquartile range, 83%–95%), and from 37% to 100% for optimal combined treatment (median, 79%; interquartile range, 66%–85%). The adjusted median rate ratio was 1.11 (95% confidence interval, 1.08–1.18) for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers therapy, 1.08 (95% confidence interval, 1.05–1.15) for &bgr;-blockers therapy, and 1.17 (1.13–1.26) for optimal combined treatment. Conclusions—Variation in the use of guideline-recommended medications for patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction exists in the outpatient setting. Addressing practice-level differences may be an important component of improving quality of care for patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.


The viscous shock-layer equations have been extended to treat blunt three-dimensional bodies at angle of attack. Numerical solutions have been obtained on sphere-cones at angles of attack up to 38 deg. Comparisons are made with available experimental data, inviscid solutions, and solutions of the parabolized Navier-Stokes equations. The experimental data consisted of heat-transfer distributions, pressure distributions, and drag coefficients in a Mach number range from 10-18, Reynolds numbers of the order 1.3 x 10 4/ft, and a from 0-40 deg. Two cases were compared with the parabolized Navier-Stokes solutions at Mach numbers of 22.77 and 25.81 and altitudes of 180 and 240 kft at angles of attack of 23 and 38 deg, respectively. In general, the shocklayer predictions were in good agreement with the available experimental and numerical data, but the parabolic treatment of the crossflow viscous shock-layer equations prevented solutions on the leeward side of long bodies at large angles of attack. cp C'


ABSTRACT This article explores how competing discursive and political formations about climate change structure and circulate in social media by mapping a year of climate-related Facebook posts and links by Canadian civil society actors. Drawing upon the concept of connective action, it traces the efficacy and impact of the social media strategies of actors favoring stronger climate action against those aiming to delay or block such action. Distinguishing between self-referential vs network-building connective action and active vs passive types of user engagement, it finds the most significant use of Facebook by Canadian civil society actors was the sharing of mainstream and alternative news sources. Such activity plays a key role in building networked publics around shared perspectives on climate change as well as generating audience subsidies through which users are mobilized to amplify particular news stories, columnists and media outlets. In Canada, conservative actors tend to be more focused upon network building and more effective in producing these subsidies, especially for right-leaning commercial news organizations and alt-right digital outlets.


Recent discussions of "cultural China" (wenhua Zhongguo) raise a number of questions of definition. In particular I want to probe the ambiguous-the unfixed, unstable, and to some degree relative-quality that seems to me to inhere in two polarities that frequently inform these discussions: the polarity between center and periphery and that between internal and external. Doubtless it is my own multiple marginality that causes me to be particularly drawn to this aspect of the issue. As a white male I am anything but marginal. My marginality begins with my selfidentification as a Jew in a predominantly Christian society. It takes on additional layers of meaning with my professional involvement as an explainer of China in America and, especially over the past five to ten years, as an introducer/interpreter of American approaches to Chinese history in China.'


Context: In Brazil, access to public government data and information is a citizen's right and at the same time a means of overseeing and auditing the government actions. Thus emerges the challenge for municipal, state and federal governments to provide effective means that allow public government data and information to be, in fact, accessible (open) to Brazilian citizens in an understandable and usable way for the most different purposes. In this context, Information Technology is a key area to building management and governance Information Systems for the immense amount of data and information generated by the Public Administration. Problem: Identify and analyze the critical success factors for the planning, implementation and application of effective Information Systems aimed at the management of Open Government Data, transparency and access to information in a Public Body in the State of São Paulo (SP). Solution: Through a case study, we have analysed how a public body in SP has been acting for the planning, implementation and continuous improvement of its processes and Information Systems in order to evolve in terms of transparency and Open Government Data management. IS Theory: Theory of Critical Success Factors. Methods: In general, a theoretical-empirical research was carried out which, from the point of view of technical procedures, can be considered as a case study that used the techniques of document analysis and participatory observation. Summary of Results: A list of practices that can be adopted by public bodies in SP in order to increase the effectiveness of their actions aimed at building Information Systems that facilitate access to information and promote transparency. Contributions and Impact in the IS area: The results are able to guide initiatives of automation and improvements in organizational processes of public bodies in SP aimed at the described purpose.


The thermal decomposition characteristics of the magnesium-based hydroreactive metal fuel were investigated by means of various thermal analysis methods, such as TG-DTA, DSC and PTG. The results showed that the thermal decomposition of AP and HTPB in the fuel occurs sequentially as temperature increases, and there is no oxidation of Mg in Ar atmosphere. Adding catalyst, decreasing particle sizes of AP, increasing the ratio of oxidant to binder or decreasing the average particle sizes of Mg could decrease the decomposition temperature T and activation energy Ea and increase decomposition rate constant k of AP. Decreasing particle sizes of AP or increasing the ratio of oxidant to binder could decrease the decomposition T, Ea and increase decomposition k of HTPB. With pressure increasing, both the mass loss rate of AP and HTPB and mass loss of AP increase while the weight of condensed products decrease. The decomposition of AP was influenced more greatly than decomposition of HTPB by pressure.


Ethylene release rate was determined in flourishing phase after treating Napus SW 0742 oil rapeseed with different concentrations of Huashaling.The changes of ethylene release rate and its relation with male sterility were studied.The result showed that the ethylene release rate of the oil rapeseed treated with Huashaling was higher than that of the CK.The result also showed that 1.4 g/L was the optimal concentration of Huashaling.The correlation between the male sterility and the ethylene release rate was found.


This case discusses a 62-year-old woman with de novo metastatic lung adenocarcinoma (PD-L1 >50% with a KRAS G12C mutation, ALK and EGFR negative) who was on pembrolizumab for 1 year without any significant toxicity, only low-grade dermatitis and hypothyroidism. She was transitioned to pembrolizumab every 6 weeks at 4 mg/kg and began to develop oral sores shortly thereafter. The sores proved refractory to nystatin and mouth rinses containing corticosteroids, and the patient was ultimately diagnosed with autoimmune-triggered lichen planus. Unfortunately, her symptoms also proved refractory to typical treatments for lichen planus and worsened to the point where she began to develop cutaneous lesions and difficulty swallowing. Unfortunately, she also developed a keratoacanthoma that required excision. The pembrolizumab was stopped, and the patient's symptoms improved with 5 days of systemic prednisone, metronidazole, and triamcinolone oral paste. Her NSCLC remains stable off active treatment for 6 months. This case study is on rare auto-immune toxicity as well as a keratoacanthoma from anti-PD-(L) 1 blockade, accompanied by sustained treatment response after cessation of the offending drug.


In this article, the effort has been made to trace the tradition of oriental economic thoughts- spread in the four Vedas and Upanishad, which are the earliest documents of human civilization. For the analysis the first Upanishad- Isha has been selected. This analysis is based on the first mantra of Isha-Upanishad. It is concluded that the first serious econic thinking was inisitated by the composer of Upanishad. Economic Literature, Vol. XI (35-39), June 2013


Research on The Data of Fuzhou house surveying,Using GIS-OCX and Database technique,Design and Realize The house data storing and work fellowing,and simple to operate,is worth popularizing and utilizing in production units.


This article reviews the record of Scottish women's representation in the UK Parliament since 1918, and in the Scottish Parliament since 1999. Women candidates have stood for election to Westminster at every General Election since 1918, with the first Scottish woman MP being elected in 1923. Subsequently, there have always been women MPs representing Scottish constituencies, with the number increasing in 1997, as elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, created in 1999, has consistently seen a higher level of representation of women than that achieved for Scottish MPs at Westminster. The article examines political parties' track records in promoting women candidates, and comments on the careers of women politicians. The article argues that the increase in women's representation in recent decades is attributable to the efforts of women activists, and to the specific strategies adopted by parties to achieve this. It also argues that the Scottish Parliament has significantly extended opportunities for women to participate in political decision-making and in policy-making.


Educational research shows that close student-faculty interaction is a key factor in college student learning and success. Most literature on undergraduate mentoring, however, focuses on planned programs of mentoring for targeted groups of students by non-faculty professionals or student peers. Based on the research literature and student and faculty testimony from a residential liberal arts college, this article shows that unplanned "natural" mentoring can be crucial to student learning and development and illustrates some best practices. It advances understanding of faculty mentoring by differentiating it from teaching, characterizing several functional types of mentoring, and identifying the phases through which a mentoring relationship develops. Arguing that benefits to students, faculty, and institutions outweigh the risks and costs of mentoring, it is written for faculty who want to be better mentors and provides evidence that administrators should value and reward mentoring.


Graph sampling and random walk algorithms are playing increasingly important roles today because they can significantly reduce graph size while preserving structural information, thus enabling computationally intensive tasks on large-scale graphs. Current frameworks designed for graph sampling and random walk tasks are generally not efficient in terms of memory requirement and throughput. Not to mention that some of them result in biased results. To solve the above problems, we introduce Skywalker+, a high-performance graph sampling and random walk framework on multiple GPUs supporting multiple algorithms. Skywalker+ makes four key contributions: First, it realizes highly paralleled alias method on GPUs. Second, it applies finely adjusted workload-balancing techniques and locality-aware execution modes to present a highly efficient execution engine. Third, it optimizes the GPU memory usage with efficient buffering and data compression schemes. Last, it scales to multi-GPU to further enhance the system throughput. Abundant experiments show that Skywalker+ exhibits significant advantage over the baselines both in performance and utility.


It has been recommended that obese women should limit weight gain during and after pregnancy. However weight management intervention studies in obese women have in general been unsuccessful. The aim of this paper is to investigate diet, physical activity and socioeconomic factors associated with BMI changes from early pregnancy to nine months postpartum, and with postpartum weight status. Women were recruited at their convenience at the first antenatal visit. Weight was measured in early pregnancy and repeated at four and nine months postpartum. Detailed data were collected on diet and exercise habits, infant feeding practices and socioeconomic status; in addition to routine clinical and sociodemographic parameters. On univariate analysis, smoking, consistent poverty and >30 years of age appeared to be associated with postpartum weight and BMI losses. On multivariate analysis, women who were obese in early pregnancy were more likely to have experienced weight gain at nine months postpartum [OR 2·185, P= 0·04]. The relationship with smoking and postpartum weight change reversed on multivariate analysis, with smokers now more likely to have gained weight by nine months postpartum [OR 2·388, P = 0·03] (Table 1).


Over the years Brazil has become one of the largest agricultural producers and exporters in the world. At the same time, there was a significant increase in the use of pesticides to increase productivity at harvest. In this context, there is great concern about human health, fauna, and flora, since the inputs can go through different chemical processes and migrate through various environmental compartments. In this context, this paper addresses a review of studies that have reported the presence of pesticides in various environmental compartments such as water (surface and irrigation), soil, and food. The detected concentrations, Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), current legislation, and the values of Estimated Daily Intake (ADI) or Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) are presented. In general, it was observed that DDTs and their metabolites were reported at concentrations beyond the MRL, followed by atrazine. Regarding intake estimates, there is a greater concern with children as they are more vulnerable, due to their low body weight when compared to adults. Finally, studies that consider the cumulative effect are needed to better assess the different chemical components in the human diet and the potential adverse effects on the health of the population.


Five-, six-, and seven-membered cyclic ketones and acetone as aldol donors are accepted to react with aromatic and heteroaromatic aldehydes.


The present invention provides an assay apparatus, is exposed to a corrosive environment during the reaction due to hydrogen corrosion invading hydrogen from entering surface and the other surface side of the detection surface as a hydrogen, the hydrogen in the sample is detected by the metal material surface side of the electrochemical cell consisting of a plurality of cell groups, each battery cell within the cell stack is filled with an aqueous electrolyte solution pH of 9 to 13, provided separate reference electrode and the counter electrode, at least 1 battery cells as a reference cell for correcting the residual current, in the region of the reference cell and the detection region corresponding to the hydrogen side of the cell invasion of the hydrogen is provided for protecting the barrier film in contact with the corrosive environment, by using the reference cell consists of unit residual current value detected by the anode current correction value detected by the battery cells other than the reference cell, calculates the amount of intrusion of hydrogen from corrosion of the surface side of the anode current based on the correction value.


In CANDU reactors, feeder bends close to the connection at the fuel channel may be subjected to the highest Flow Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) and stresses. Feeder pipe stress analysis is crucial in the life extension of aging CANDU plants. Typical feeder pipes are interconnected by upper link plates and spacers. It is well known that the stresses at the bends are sensitive to the local bend thicknesses. It is also known from the authors' study (Li and et al, 2005) that feeder inter linkage effect is significant and cannot be ignored. The field measurement of feeder bend thickness is difficult and may be subjected to uncertainty in accuracy. Hence, it is desirable to know how the stress on a subject feeder could be affected by the bend thickness variation of the neighboring feeders. This effect cannot be evaluated by the traditional "single" feeder model approach. In this paper, the "row" and "combined" models developed in the previous study (Li and et al, 2005), which include the feeder interactions, are used to investigate the sensitivity of bend thickness. A series of random thickness bounded by maximum and minimum measured values were applied to feeders in the model. The results show that an individual feeder is not sensitive to the bend thickness variation of the remaining feeders in the model, but depends primarily on its own bend thickness. The highest stress at a feeder always occurs when the feeder has the smallest possible bend thickness. A minimum acceptable bend thickness for individual feeders can be computed by an iterative computing process. The dependency of field thickness measurement and the amount of required analysis work can be greatly reduced.


Background: Tissue factor (TF) and its specific inhibitor, tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), are important contributors to the initiation of the coagulation process. Objectives: To compare plasma levels of soluble TF (sTF) and free‐TFPI (f‐TFPI) between patients with stable angina pectoris (SAP) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to assess the impact of the two variables on long‐term prognosis. Patients/methods: Patients with SAPs (n = 1146) and acute coronary syndrome (n = 523) from the AtheroGene study were included and followed for 2.3 years. Because of the strong impact of unfractionated heparin (UFH) on f‐TFPI levels, but not on sTF levels, patients having received UFH before blood drawing were excluded from the analyses on f‐TFPI (n = 226). Results: On admission, no significant differences in sTF levels were observed between SAP and ACS patients. By comparison to patients with stable angina, f‐TFPI levels significantly increased in patients with acute unstable angina and further increased in patients presenting with non‐ST‐elevation myocardial infarction and ST‐elevation myocardial infarction (P < 10−4). Among the 1669 individuals with a coronary artery disease, 56 died from a cardiovascular cause. In prospective analyses, high sTF levels were independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death in individuals with ACS (fully adjusted hazard ratio associated with one quartile increase = 2.06; 95% confidence interval 1.24–3.45; P = 0.006) but not in those with SAP (hazard ratio = 1.07; 95% confidence interval 0.78–1.46; P = 0.67). In SAP and ACS patients, high f‐TFPI levels were not independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death. Conclusions: Plasma sTF levels were predictive of cardiovascular mortality in individuals with ACS, whereas f‐TFPI levels were associated with the severity of myocardial damage on admission but were not independently related to outcome.


It was shown that all 7 of the layers of Moltech`s Li polymer battery are compatible with simultaneous, in-line, vacuum deposition onto a flexible plastic substrate via PNNL`s PML and LML technology. All the materials, including Li, could be deposited in a single pass without melting the substrate. Two problems were encountered and are discussed.


The lower saving due to smaller size of holding has resulted in lower investment on farm assets causing the lower capital formation on sample farms in Haryana. The farm investment through borrowed fund was found to be highest on medium farms followed by large and small farms. The higher cost of living, expenditure on education of the children and other family social obligations has also adversely affected the long term investment on the farms. The investment on productive farm assets was having positive relationship with income earnings and size of operational holdings. This calls for higher public investment on agricultural infrastructure development in Haryana.


The embodiment of the invention provides an SR (Scheduling Request)/BSR (Buffer Status Report) triggering method and device. The method comprises the steps of: if one bearing and/or logic channel of aterminal has an uplink data transmission demand and the terminal has no available uplink resource on a physical resource corresponding to available numerology and/or TTI (Transmission Time Interval)length on the bearing and/or logic channel, triggering an SR and/or BSR process. According to the embodiment of the invention, the SR/BSR triggering method and device can ensure that the terminal cannormally perform uplink data transmission in a condition of coexistence of multiple numerologies and/or TTI lengths.


It is with great pleasure that we introduce this special issue of Industry and Higher Education. The papers that follow have been selected, reviewed and developed for publication following their original presentation in the 'Enterprise Education and Entrepreneurial Learning' tracks of the 36th Annual Conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) held in Cardiff in November 2013.


Sweetgum seedlings were grown in fumigated and nonfumigated nursery plots where equal portions were treated with a preemergence application of 1.1 kg/ha of trifluralin and a postemergence application of 1.7 kg/ha of napropamide. Methyl bromide at 478 kg/ha significantly decreased average root dry weight. Endomycorrhizal formation on one, two, and three month-old seedlings was not significantly decreased by fumigation or herbicide application. Weeding times for herbicide plots were less than half that for fumigated plots. These results show that herbicides can provide better control of annual weeds and produce better sweetgum seedlings than fumigating with methyl bromide.


People who are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS face an increased risk of becoming infected compared to the general population. Factors influencing the degree of individual vulnerability which is a persons increased risk of HIV infection include age social and economic position sexual behavior and means of livelihood. These population groups include children and young people men who have sex with men sex workers injecting drug users the military and mobile populations (refugees and migrant workers). These population groups are generally considered vulnerable because of the absence of intervention programs tailored to their needs or of other mitigating factors. In this perspective the field staff of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and its cosponsors should ensure that policy makers understand the importance of vulnerable populations. These populations should also be fully covered in the national AIDS program and proper resources for effective interventions be made available. Several steps for developing effective interventions for vulnerable populations are discussed in the article.


The 23rd Annual Conference on Aging, held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, August 12–14, 1970, is reviewed. A general theme was developed for the role of the elderly in the 1970 decade. Plans were presented for the White House Conference in 1971. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—past, present and future—were expounded. Historical tributes were paid to social legislation and its architects. The subject of Health and Security for the Aged pervaded all sessions and workshops. Nationally recognized leaders provided the inspired faculty.


The resistance of 9 wild samples(inculding 5 wild species) and 4 cultivars of rice to rice root nematodes in the field in Fuzhou,China was investigated at tillering stage and milky stage.The result was that the population of Hirschmanniella spp.in the roots of cultivated rice was more than that in the roots of wild rice,and the population in the roots of common wild rice(Oryza rufipogon Giff) was more than that in the roots of other wild rice.The result of identification of Hirschmanniella spp.in the rice roots was that the cultivated rice and the wild rice were infected by more rice root nematode species than O.officinalis,O.meridiomalis,O.nivara,which were only infected by H.oryzae.It indicated that selective resistance to rice root nematodes existed among the wild rices.


Although all pinnipeds communicate acoustically in air, most previous research on sound localization has been done under water. We have recently shown that several pinniped species localize aerial broadband signals as well as some terrestrial carnivores [Holt et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113 (2003)]. However, it is unclear which frequencies are particularly important for localization in these animals. In this study, we tested a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) and a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) in a hemianechoic chamber at frequencies ranging between 0.8 and 20 kHz. A left/right procedure was used to measure minimum audible angles (MAAs) corresponding to 75%‐correct discrimination. MAAs ranged from approximately 4 to 13 deg in both subjects, with the largest MAAs or poorest acuity measured at the intermediate frequencies tested. These results are consistent with the duplex theory of sound localization in that low‐frequency sounds appear to be localized on the basis of interaural time difference...


Abstract. As spacecraft missions return ever more data from Mars, additional tools will be required to explore and analyse these datasets efficiently. To streamline research into the atmosphere of Mars, a user-orientated modelling capability is developed that enables automatic initialisation and running of a column model. As a demonstration we utilise the modelling framework to provide additional verification for the University of Helsinki and Finnish Meteorological Institute Mars column model temperature profiles above the height of typical lander meteorological measurements, i.e. above 2 m. We utilise the framework at landing site locations that are well characterised to understand the model's applicability and to identify future opportunities for modifications to the framework. We do this by using the framework to compare the column model to temperature soundings made by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. We find that the column model, without any modification, is able to reproduce the observed lapse rates and average temperatures closely in most cases except for a 20–60 K increase over the northern hemisphere mid-winter. We can reproduce this discrepancy by incorporating an adiabatic heating term into the column model. Fitting of the modified column model to the observations results in estimated maximum downward vertical wind velocities of ∼ 10 cm s−1 at altitudes of 15–20 km over the winter solstice at the VL-1 and VL-2 sites. The approach developed here may possibly provide a way to independently estimate or observe the vertical motion in the Martian atmosphere. However, even though the magnitude of the vertical wind speed appears reasonable, it is not clear at this point how much the atmospheric heating is due to other mechanisms such as advection. We have introduced new application software that can quickly find and display the requested data and can be immediately analysed using the included tools. We have demonstrated the potential of this type of software application with a glimpse into the upper atmosphere of Mars.


The purposes of this article are to identify resident and facility risk factors for the use of psychotropic drugs since the implementation of the Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA) and to compare these results with resident and facility risk factors prior to the implementation of the NHRA. The results update our knowledge of resident risk factors for psychotropic drug use and identify important but previously unexplored facility risk factors for their use. No evidence was found that particular types of nursing homes, such as for-profits, were systematically more likely to use psychotropic drugs. There was some evidence to suggest that operating characteristics of nursing homes, such as Medicaid census, are more influential in changing psychotropic drug use. In addition, both resident and facility risk factors for psychotropic drug use differed pre and post-implementation of the NHRA. Antipsychotic drug use increased slightly during this study period.


We give a precise description of splicing formulas from a previous paper in terms of knot Floer complex associated with a knot in homology sphere.