Due to the decline in oil prices in 2014 and the years after, Iraqi government encouraged governmental institutions to
engage private sector in financing infrastructure projects that have been suspended due the financial crisis through
public- private sector partnership (PPP) as alternative source of funding. However, the participation of the private
sector in filling that gap was unpromising. Therefore, this research is conducted to identify the reasons behind that in
regard the projects of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Municipalities (MoCHPW). 17 interviews
were conducted as preliminary step of data collection where 13 major impediments have been identified and
organized within a questionnaire that conducted with a participation of 98 respondents from public, private
institutions and academics. Means comparison was used to rank impediments also nonparametric tests were used to
assess the agreement level of survey sample groups' respondents towards. Findings indicated that the poor ability to
conduct PPP projects feasibility studies by government organizations came the first on the top five impediments as
ranked by overall respondents, followed by inability of government to set timetables for payments due to the lack of
future vision of Iraqi cash status as it is influenced by the fluctuation in oil prices. The Lack of political commitment
came at the third place and the lack of clear selection criteria for private partner at the fourth place and lack of
private funding came at the fifth place. The overall findings indicated that government must more decisive in dealing
with and resolving these impediments to ensure the success of PPP in Iraq.


Abstract : The purpose of the algorithm developed in this thesis was to create a post processing method that could resolve objects at low signal levels using polarization diversity and no knowledge of the atmospheric seeing conditions. The process uses a two-channel system, one unpolarized image and one polarized image, in a GEM algorithm to reconstruct the object. Long exposure images were simulated and a single Kolmogorov model used. This allowed for the atmosphere to be characterized by single parameter, the Fried Parameter. Introducing a novel polarization prior that restricts the polarization parameter, it was possible to determine the Fried Parameter to within half a centimeter without any addition knowledge or processes. It was also found that when a high polarization diversity was present in the image could be reconstructed with significantly better resolution and signal level did not affect this resolving capability. At very low signal levels, imagery with low to no diversity could not be resolved at all whereas high diversity resolved equally as well as if there was a high signal level.


I was delighted to be asked by Xymena Kurowska and Patryk Pawlak to write the foreword to this particularly timely Special Issue. The European Union has recently refined its external security strategy, both from a foreign policy and an internal policy angle and the Treaty of Lisbon will most likely enter into force in the coming weeks. The Lisbon Treaty will have a significant impact on the way the European Union supports member states' efforts to provide security to their citizens. Not only does the Treaty substitute the Community method for the intergovernmental one, which will speed up decision-making procedures and boost the ambition of legislations and policies; it also does away with the separate 'pillars' and will allow the EU at last to develop more integrated policies. We know how much the current division between the Union and the Community in the field of Justice and Home Affairs leads to schizophrenic results. For instance, Frontex (which was created within the remit of the EC Treaty) is prevented from looking at the police dimension of borders control (which falls within the TEU). The Council has less time to address issues of substance because it is constantly wrestling with tricky issues of legal basis when it wants to negotiate agreements with third states on issues like the sharing of information for security purposes (e.g. Passenger Name Records (PNR) or financial messages like the one processed by the US in their Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme). The EU defined its security strategy at a conceptual level in December 2003, when the European Council adopted the proposal made by the Secretary-General/High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana, aimed at 'A secure Europe in a better world'. In this document the EU acknowledged the significant changes that had occurred in the field of security since the fall of the Berlin wall: 'large-scale aggression against any Member States is now improbable. Instead, Europe faces new threats which are more diverse, less visible and less predictable', and the strategy mentions the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, regional conflicts, failed states, terrorism and organized crime. In December 2008 the European Council endorsed the implementation report drafted by Javier Solana which expanded the concept of security by adding cyber security, energy security and climate change. In this short foreword, I will dwell upon two aspects: first, the need to develop quickly the external aspects of Justice and Home Affairs and, secondly, the Perspectives on European Politics and Society Vol. 10, No. 4, 470–473, December 2009


Prediction of Heating-line Positions for Line Heating Process by Using a Neural Network Kwang-Jae Son*, Young-Soo Yang** and Kang-Yul Bae*** *Isotope Application Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, 305-600, Korea **Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, Korea ***Department of Industrial Automation Engineering, Chinju National University, Chinju 660-758, Korea


Using GIS technology as a platform,an assessment method of groundwater resources was approached in this paper,which was based on hydrologic equation.The main contents including: The principle,methods and procedures of this method,the achievements of assessment factors and the extraction of the results.And this process was completed on the SuperMap platform in Xingping irrigated area.The results show that this method can easily realize the spatial separation of groundwater resources assessment can also clearly reflect the spatial distribution situation of groundwater resources and provides more basis for the region groundwater resources mining macroeconomic control and the ground water resources scientific management.


We study the exact average output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and symbol error rate (SER) of M-ary phaseshift-keying (PSK) signals with coherent equal gain combining reception. The analysis assumes independent Nakagami-m (1960) fading paths, which are not necessarily identically distributed. On one hand, we use geometric summations to obtain closed-form expressions for the average output SNR over diversity paths with an exponentially decaying power delay profile. On the other hand, capitalizing on an alternative integral representation of the conditional SER along with Gauss-Hermite quadrature integration, we derive an average SER expression in the form of a single finite-range integral and an integrand composed of tabulated functions. We also present a simpler but approximate approach for the closed-form evaluation of the SER of these signals over independent identically distributed Nakagami-m fading paths.


The study intended to evaluate the atherosclerotic plaque burden and composition among symptomatic patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus.Total 262 symptomatic patients, including 79 with type 2 diabetes and 183 without, underwent multislice computed tomography coronary angiography.The extent of coronary atherosclerosis and 3 plaque types were studied.Patients with diabetes showed more diseased coronary segments ( P < 0.01 ) and more nonobstructive segments ( P < 0.05 ) than non diabetic patients.Compared to non diabetic patients,diabetic patients had a higher number of coronary segments with non-calcified ( P = 0.005 ) and calcified ( P = 0.016 ) plaques, but not for mixed plaques.The results indicate that type 2 diabetic patients have higher coronary plaque burden.

Key words:
Diabetes mellitus, type 2;  Coronary atherosclerosis


In higher educational institutes, early grade prediction is an important area of interest as it allows instructors to improve students' performance in their courses by providing special attention at the early stages. Machine learning techniques can be utilized for students' grades prediction in different courses. However, the performance of these techniques is highly dependent on the quality of data that made the selection of model a challenging task. Therefore, in this paper, we evaluate different state-of-the-art machine learning techniques for university students grade prediction. Ultimately we find that Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM) can more accurately predict students' grades. The predicted grades by these techniques visualize uncertainty on student learning and can be used for confidence gains, student degree planning, personalized advising, and to enable instructors to identify potential students who might need assistance in relevant courses.


To the Editor, Dubowitz syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by short stature, microcephaly, low platelet counts, dysmorphic features, eczema, and mild to severe mental retardation. Less than 150 cases have been reported so far in the literature, and diagnosis is mainly based on key clinical findings (1–5). Clinical presentation is rather variable and the only core clinical feature seems to be a characteristic face (3). While the neurologic/behavioral features have been deeply investigated, the immunologic characterization of this syndrome remains rather incomplete, apart from anecdotal reports of selective IgA deficiency, hypogammaglobulinemia and hyper-IgE-like syndrome in index cases (6–9). We report on the first extensive immunologic evaluation of a male patient with Dubowitz syndrome revealing profound T-cell defects resembling combined immunodeficiency. The patient was born to consanguineous parents of Pakistani origin. He came to our attention at the age of 8 for immunologic evaluation due to partial IgA deficiency. His clinical history included short stature (height: 120 cm <3°; weight: 18.5 kg <3°, cranial circumference: 49 cm <3°), delay in mental development and speech, recurrent episodes of thrombocytopenia (with normal bone marrow aspirate). Key clinical features included high and receding forehead, sparse lateral eyebrows, blepharoptosis, abnormal ear conformation, broad and flat nose bridge, clinodactyly of the fifth finger of the hand and cutaneous syndactyly between the fourth and fifth fingers of the feet (Fig. 1a). Skin inspection revealed eczema in folds, keratosis pilaris on the back of arms and legs, and numerous molluscum contagiosum lesions (Fig. S1). Based on these clinical findings, diagnosis of Dubowitz syndrome was made. The patient's infectious history was particularly severe: sepsis at 6 yr of age, osteomyelitis at 8 yr of age and recurrent molluscum contagiosum skin infections from the age of 6. Asymptomatic low platelet counts were confirmed (ranging from 42.000 to 66.000/mm), while the rest of the differential blood count was normal. Immunoglobulin serum levels were normal, with the exception of IgA serum levels at the lower range for age: IgG: 1370 mg/dl (normal range for age: 633– 1916), IgA: 31 mg/dl (normal range for age: 41–315), IgM: 64 mg/dl (normal range for age: 56–261). Biochemical features such as cholesterol, LDL, HDL levels were within the normal range (cholesterol 160 mg/dl, LDL: 98 mg/dl, HDL 44 mg/dl). The patient carried a normal karyogram. No chromosomal instability, both spontaneous and bleomycin induced, was observed. Recently, the NSUN2 gene was reported to be


The invention belongs to the technical field of the molecular biology and the biomedicine, and particularly relates to application of a gRNA sequence based on a CRISPR/Cas9 system to cause tumor cell apoptosis. According to the design principle of CRISPR/Cas9, two target points are designed on a human genome, and corresponding oligos is synthesized and established on a px458 carrier. The CRISPR/Cas9 system guided by the gRNA is established in a human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) according to the design of the two target points, a human TCAB1 gene can be effectively knocked out, the system is easy to operate, and the knockout efficiency of the human TCAB1 gene is high. The CRISPR/Cas9 system guided by the gRNA can be expected to be applied in novel tumor treating medicine.


Employment arrangements in Australia have undergone a marked transformation over the last few decades. At the end of the 1960s, most employees had jobs that involved regular weekly hours, typically averaging about 40. Moreover, these jobs typically provided an expectation of ongoing employment. This article explains the difference between non-standard jobs and standard jobs.


: The present paper presents results from hydraulic model testing of the outer part of the new western breakwater for the Port of Hanstholm, Denmark . The design waves in Hanstholm are depth limited and breaking on a relatively steep, complex and dynamic foreshore. This causes the waves to shoal and focus on certain sections of the breakwater. The chosen armour layer design was high density Cubipods ® in a single layer as both front and rear side armour. On the front side an underlayer of quite large rocks was used in order to secure stability during construction. Thus, the conditions deviate in several ways from previous projects where Cubipods ® have been applied, i.e. high density concrete, coarser underlayer, breaking and depth limited waves on a complex bathymetry. For these reasons the design was tested and optimized in three-dimensional hydraulic model tests as presented in the present paper.


Cells undergoing apoptosis exhibit striking changes in membrane organization, including plasma membrane blebbing and invagination, vacuolation and fragmentation of organelles, and alterations in the surface expression of receptors. The underlying mechanisms for these changes are unknown, though alterations in vesicular fusion are likely to play a role. Using a cell‐free system based on Xenopus laevis egg extracts we have found that endosome fusion is blocked during apoptosis. Inhibition of fusion is prevented by Bcl‐2 or Bcl‐xL, two negative regulators of apoptosis, or by specific inhibitors of members of the caspase family of apoptotic proteases. Selective cleavage of Rabaptin‐5, an essential and rate‐limiting component of endosome fusion, is responsible for the loss of fusion activity. Cleavage of Rabaptin‐5 also occurs in cellular models for apoptosis. These results suggest that inactivation of Rabaptin‐5 and inhibition of vesicle transport lead to fragmentation of endosomes and inhibition of the endocytic pathway during the execution phase of apoptosis. We propose that parallel changes to other membrane transport pathways would give rise to general membrane fragmentation in apoptotic cells. These changes are likely to play an important role in the generation of apoptotic bodies and their recognition by phagocytosing cells.


On April 2, 2007, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, holding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had improperly denied a rulemaking petition requesting that the agency place limits on air emissions that contribute to global warming. The petitioners had asked EPA to regulate the emissions of certain greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. In ruling on the EPA's denial of the petition, the Supreme Court addressed three issues. First, the Court held that the lead petitioner, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, had standing to sue for redress of injuries caused by global warming. The Court also ruled that a state acting to protect its quasi-sovereign interests was entitled to "special solicitude" in standing analysis. Second, the Court held that the EPA had the statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Finally, the Court held that the EPA had not adequately justified its denial of the petition in accordance with the statute. The decision sets significant precedent for pending and future litigation on global warming issues. "A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientists believe the two trends are related."' So states U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the Court in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, decided on April 2, 2007. In what is likely to be a very important decision on the control of greenhouse gas emissions, the Court held by a 5-to-4 vote that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act and that the EPA's justification for not doing so was inadequate as a matter of law. * Charles de Saillan is Assistant General Counsel in the New Mexico Environment Department, where he handles matters involving air quality, surface water and groundwater quality, hazardous wastes, and site remediation. The views expressed in this article are his own. 1. Massachusetts v. EPA, 127 S. Ct. 1438, 1446 (2007). NATURAL RESOURCES JOURNAL


Rotary piston pump is a volume-type vacuum pump widely applied in industry.There is bigger eccentricity of rotary piston pump's rotary quality,which can produce bigger vibration when it running if no finer quality balance.Because the movement trace of rotary piston pump's rotary centroid is a close curve with complicated shape,it is difficult to balance rotary piston pump's inertial force completely.In this paper,the movement trace,speed and acceleration of rotary piston's barycenter are simulated by Simulink model.The parameters which influence the vibration of the pump are studied by changing the curve of acceleration.


The social ethics is an ancient topic.More than 100 years ago,the modern thinker Liang Qi-chao warned people seriously that China lacked social ethics.Since then,how to promote social ethics has still been a problem we face.In the project of social ethics practice,it is an essential topic for us to draw the ancient moral resources.Among the attitudes towards the issue,Confucian ethics is especially important,because it is one of the ideologies which has been playing dominant roles in China.In addition,the backbone of the Confucian moral virtues—Authority——is also apt to make people naturally link it with social ethics,which is a misunderstanding.Although Confucian lays emphasis on the norms of relationships between people,it is not an ordinary human relations but mainly a pursuit in blood relations,which reflects its self-centered values.Attaching importance to personal improvement is the natural blossom in that given value system.Even if there are some potential factors of social ethics such as"widely loving people",Confucian ethics is inclined to come to a premature end because of lack of driving factors itself.


The paper deals with thermal-moisture performance of a wooden window in standard external and indoor climate conditions in a gap between casement and window frame. Condensation or ice coating in the gap is the main problem of wooden windows. Thus, destructive processes on the wood surface finish causing the moisture penetration into the wood occur. The surface condensation is sufficiently covered by the requirements in currently valid standards. The condensate generation in the gap is not described neither limited by the standards nor regulations. The frequent problem occurrence in practice is to be dealt with and solved. The experimental and computing investigation was carried out using four types of MIRADOR 682, 682T, 783, 923 euro-profiles. For computing investigation the ANSYS programme was applied. The problem of moisture transmission in gaps (leakages) in building envelopes is not a newly discovered issue. The moisture penetration through leakages in building envelopes has been investigated mainly in relation to slab blocks development. The leakages due to imperfect structural design and materials applied in roof envelopes formed another area for investigation. In our country, Mrlik (1986) has dealt with research and moisture transmission in gaps of building envelopes Hauser (2005) dealt with the similar problem area: moisture transmission through gaps, mainly for wooden houses in Germany (Hauser and Kempkes 2005). While solving these problems the window structures were at a relatively low development level and had high leakage in terms of air infiltration and exfiltration. Due to these window characteristics as well as low requirements in energy efficiency field the relative humidity in buildings used to be approximately 30% (Chmurny 2003)). By improving the thermal characteristics of building structures in relation to energy the relative air humidity has increased up to 50%, which is also given in STN 73 0540:2002. Taking into consideration the change of boundary conditions and characteristics of window structures the problem of water vapour condensation in functional gap between casement and window frame has occurred. Nowadays, Huber (2009) from IFT Rosenheim has been dealing with the problem. He analyzed the effect of the type of seal in the case of condensation in the functional joint (Huber 2009). Thermal-moisture performance of a window in external and indoor climate conditions is a subject of our investigation. Water vapour condensation on surface of window structure is not desirable phenomena. The condensate generation in functional gap is not described neither limited by the standards nor regulations. Seriousness of the problem varies depending on the material base. Considering the wooden window structures the degradation of surface finish occur and its thermal characteristics change. Generally, there are five condensation types occurring in different intensities: - indoor glazing condensation, - glazing joint condensation, - functional gap condensation, - external glazing condensation,


Risk conduction refers to a certain risk can lead to the spread of risk accidents, causing other risks through many ways. Conductivity is a basic characteristic of risk, especially when the research object is regional risk. Aiming at the conductive characteristics of regional risk in scenic spots, based on Bayesian rule and total probability formula, this paper explored a regional risk conduction pattern. Firstly, risk management system consists of risk carrier, risk incentive and risk performance. The consequences of one risk may also be the risk environment of another risk, so the correlation between risks can be established. Secondly, construct regional risk transmission network with three layers of variables. Starting with the specific risks, analyzing the possible risk consequences, judging whether these risk consequences will lead to secondary risks and calculating the conditional probability of secondary risks based on conditional probability and full probability formula. Last, according to the conduction probability between risks, the comprehensive severity of the consequences is calculated after considering risk transmission. The conduction probability between risks and seriousness of risk after considering conduction can be obtained through this model. It provides a quantitative analysis tool for regional risk management and is helpful in two aspects: providing monitoring focus before risk occurs, and cutting off conduction path to prevent further risk expansion when risk occurs.


The present paper constitutes an approach to nanotechnology from a legal perspective. Different recognized nanomaterial definitions – especially by the European Union and the International Organization for Standardization – are presented and analyzed, with the aim of studying the suitability of the definition given by the Consejo Nacional Asesor de la Red Colombiana deNanociencia y Nanotecnologia (National Advisory Council of the Colombian Network of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology).


The present study provides bottom-up insight into police relations with young African and Caribbean males. In doing so, the study adopts a critical realist approach by employing a discourse analysis, challenging traditional social psychology. The research focused on six young males of African and Caribbean descent from the city of Manchester in the UK. Using semi-structured interviews to capture participant's accounts, three significant discourses emerged from their constructions of the police and their relationship with young African and Caribbean males. This included, the Jekll and Hyde duality, where participants characterise the police as having a 'supposed' (good) and 'real' (bad) identity. 'Black boys' and accountability, where participants held their own community as responsible for their stigmatisation, and the individualising discourse where participants argued that the police were individuals and blamed the generalisation of the police as prejudice on the 'rotten apples' (Scarman, 1981:6-74)-in the force.


Abstract Mamic, G., and Bennamoun, M., Representation and Recognition of 3D Free-Form Objects, Digital Signal Processing12 (2002) 47–76 The problem of 3D object recognition has been one that has perplexed the computer vision community for the past two decades. This paper describes and analyzes techniques which have been developed for object representation and recognition. A set of specifications, which all object recognition systems should strive to meet, forms the basis upon which this critical review has been formulated. The literature indicates that there is a powerful requirement for a precise and accurate representation, which is simultaneously concise in nature. Such a representation must be relatively inexpensive and provide a means for determining the error in the surface fit such that the effects of error propagation may be analyzed in the system and appropriate confidence bounds determined in the subsequent pose estimation.


[Objective] To investigate the expression of fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene in nasoparyngeal carcinoma and study its clinical significance. [Methods] The expression of FHIT were detected by immunohistochemistry SP method in 37 cases of nasoparyngeal carcinoma and 12 cases of adjacent nasoparyngeal tissue. [Results] 43.2% (16 of 37) cases had expression of FHIT in the tumor cells, and 100% (12 of 12) cases in the adjacent nasoparyngeal tissue. There was a significant positive correlation between nasoparyngeal carcinoma specimens and adjacent nasoparyngeal tissue specimens (P 0.01). The positive rates of FHIT in high and middle degrees of differentiation were significantly higher than that in low degree of differentiation(50.0% vs 36.4%). Tumors with lymph node metastases (38.5%) had loss FHIT protein expression than those without metastasis (54.5%) (P 0.05). The FHIT expression between (Ⅰ+Ⅱ) and (Ⅲ+Ⅳ) stage was significant (58.3% vs 36.0%) (P 0.05). FHIT protein expression had no relation to the patients′ age, sex, tissue type (P 0.05). [Conclusions] FHIT gene may play an important role in the occurrence and development of nasoparyngeal carcinoma. It is suggested that FHIT can be a useful marker for predicting invasion and metastasis ability of nasoparyngeal carcinoma.


ABSTRACT This project aims to improve the machinability of wood-plastic composites by understanding chip and built-up edge formation, so as to help manufacturers optimize cutting performance and product quality. Chip formation and built-up edge were studied during orthogonal cutting of wood polyethylene composite with cemented carbide cutters under different conditions. During the orthogonal cutting process, segmental, ribbon, and element chips were generated. The cutting depth was found to have a great impact on the types of chips that formed. Additionally, a built-up edge was found during wood-plastic composite machining, with debris only attaching to the tool's rake face due to thermo-mechanical coupling. Such built-up edges hinder cutting stability and surface quality. Furthermore, variations in the accumulation of debris on the built-up edge corresponded to changes in cutting force and temperature. In fact, both cutting force and temperature proved to be inversely related to the rake angle and positively correlated to the cutting speed and depth. Therefore, to achieve better cutting stability and surface quality for wood-plastic composites, a larger rake angle and a reduced cutting depth are recommended because they reduce the accumulation of debris and the formation of built-up edge.


Extraction tests are usually used to ponder the portability of metals in soils and silt by copying distinctive ecological conditions or sensational changes on them. The outcomes acquired by deciding the extractable components are reliant on the extraction methodology connected. The paper condenses cutting edge extraction systems utilized for substantial metal assurance in sullied soil and residue. Two sorts of extraction are viewed as: single and consecutive. Extraordinary consideration is paid to the Standard, Measurement and Testing ventures from the European Commission which concentrated on the harmonization of the extraction methods and on planning soil and silt guaranteed reference materials for extractable substantial metal substance.


The study aims to measure the enhancing of character of Indonesian golden generation on the implementation of education for sustainable development. The data were collected by using the character self-assessment that given to senior high school students in nine provinces spread in the western, central and eastern regions of Indonesia. The instrument was adapted from character education indicators by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and the combination of sustainable development learning indicators. The result shows that mostly the character aspects of Indonesian golden generation can be concluded is enhance. ESD character model can enhance several character of students but still need more time to enhance student's critical attitude and creativity. Besides, according to the result, it can inferred that implementation of education for sustainable development in science education, biology, physics, and chemistry subject can be recommended by using several learning models and one of them is ESD Character Model.


Electron-rich 6-vinyl- and 6-(azavinyl)pyrimidinediones, such as 6-{[(dimethylamino)methylene]amino}- (1) and 6-[2-(dimethyl-amino)vinyl]-1,3-dimethyl-2,4(1H,3H)-pyrimidinediones (8), undergo cycloaddition reactions with electron deficient olefins to give pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines (3a–e) and quinazolines (9a–c), respectively, after elimination of dimethylamine from the 1:1 cycloadducts and oxidative aromatization. With dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate, pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridines 5, 11 and 15 were obtained due to an initial Michael addition an subsequent ring transformation reaction. Stable Michael adducts were also obtained from reactions of 1 with azodicarboxylates. The stable adducts 6a–c were thermally converted into 8-(dimethylamino)theophylline (7).

Reaktionen von Uracilen, 16. — Substituierte 6-Vinyl-2,4(1H,3H)-pyrimidindione in Cycloadditions- und Michael-Additions-Reaktionen: Pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine, Pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridine und Chinazoline

Elektronenreiche 6-Vinyl- und 6-(Azavinyl)pyrimidindione, wie z.B. 6-{[(Dimethylamino)methylen]amino}- (1) und 6-[2-(Dimethylamino)vinyl]-1,3-dimethyl-2,4(1H,3H)-pyrimidindion (8), reagieren mit elektronenarmen Olefinen unter Cycloaddition. Nach Eliminierung von Dimethylamin und oxidativer Aromatisierung ergeben die 1:1-Cycloaddukte (2a–e) die Pyrido[2,3-d]-pyrimidine (3a–e) bzw. die Chinazoline (9a–c). Mit Acetylendicarbonsaure-dimethylester entstehen durch Michael-Addition und anschliesende Umlagerung die Pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyridine 5, 11 und 15. Die stabilen Michael-Addukte 6a–c werden durch Einwirkung von Azodicarbonsaureester auf 1 erhalten; sie lassen sich thermisch in 8-(Dimethylamino)theophyllin (7) umwandeln.


In this paper we define reverse order triangular f uzzy number and reverse order pentagonal fuzzy number with the help of triangular fuzzy number. We also define reverse order trapezoidal fuzzy number with the he lp of trapezoidal fuzzy number. we include basic arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction for reverse order triangular fuzzy number and reverse order trapezoidal fuzzy n umber. We have also verified with examples for the above mentioned operations.


We have monitored 20 Sun-like stars in the Kepler field-of-view for excess flux with the FIES spectrograph on the Nordic Optical Telescope since the launch of Kepler spacecraft in 2009. These 20 stars were selected based on their asteroseismic properties to sample the parameter space (effective temperature, surface gravity, activity level etc.) around the Sun. Though the ultimate goal is to improve stellar dynamo models, we focus the present paper on the combination of space-based and ground-based observations can be used to test the age-rotation-activity relations.
In this paper we describe the considerations behind the selection of these 20 Sun-like stars and present an initial asteroseismic analysis, which includes stellar age estimates. We also describe the observations from the Nordic Optical Telescope and present mean values of measured excess fluxes. These measurements are combined with estimates of the rotation periods obtained from a simple analysis of the modulation in photometric observations from Kepler caused by starspots, and asteroseismic determinations of stellar ages, to test relations between between age, rotation and activity.


Several kinds of periodicities have been observed at Jupiter since the first probes fly-by. However, previous investigations mainly focused on the longer timescales, such as the 40 minutes (QP40) or the 23 days quasi-periodicity. Here we describe the recent finding of the 2-3 minutes quasi-periodic occurrence of UV flares in the active region of the polar aurora. These observations are then compared to other measurements of such quasi-periodic behaviors in electron and magnetic field data and their probably common origin is discussed. 1. Quasi-periodic auroral polar flares Flares are short but dramatic enhancements of brightness of the Jovian aurora localized in the so-called active region. The Hubble Space Telescope/STIS campaign from summer 2009 used for the first time the high time-resolution time-tag mode continuously for ∼45 minutes[1]. This strategy allows us to find that the flares were appearing regularly, with a recurrence time between 2 and 3 minutes. Based on a recent magnetic mapping model [3], we show that their magnetospheric counterpart lie close to the front or duskside magnetopause. 2. Mapping the relativistic electron bursts We find that the short-timescale (144 seconds) relativistic electron bursts observed by Ulysses/HET are much more frequent than previously reported [2]. Moreover, we map these bursts along magnetic field lines and we show that their footprint's locations are Figure 1: (left panel) Southern hemisphere FUV aurora as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope STIS instrument on 11 September 2009. The flare is the brightness enhancement located inside of the main emission. In this sequences, it re-appears every 2-3 minutes. Note that the spot located equatorward of the main emission is the Io footprint. (right panel) Polar projection of the same image. compatible with the auroral flares, suggesting that they might have a common origin. 3. Flux Transfer Events and Mirror Modes Walker and Russell [4] identified some flux transfer event signatures in the Pioneers and Voyagers magnetic field data and showed that their recurence period was also between 1 and 4 minutes. We show here that such a period is also common in the mirror mode structures in the magnetosheath. 4. Summary and Conclusions The similar recurrence time and location of the various observations reported here suggest that these quasiperiodic signatures originate from the same process. One possibility is that these relatively short periods could be related to pulsed reconnection at the dayside magnetopause, by analogy with similar phenomena observed at Earth. EPSC Abstracts Vol. 6, EPSC-DPS2011-551-1, 2011 EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011 c © Author(s) 2011


Abstract : This report on the 19th Colloque de Metalluigie, held by the Institut Naturial des Sciences et Techniques Nucleaires in June 1976, briefly summarizes the review lectures and focuses attention on the main results reported in the poster sessions. A picture is thus given of the rather extensive interests and developments in France in the general area of diffusion in solids. Topics studied include the following: diffusion in solids, self-diffusion, hetero-diffusion, irradiation effects on diffusion, diffusion theory, techniques for measurement of diffusion, superionic conductors, amorphous materials, surface diffusion and grain boundary diffusion.


The fault structure is the Ore-controlling structure in the Zhaishang Gold Deposit,but the formation and the morphology are controlled by fold structure,and it also internally controls the migration and enrichment of oreforming materials.The ore-controlling tectonic system is divided into four levels based on the regional tectonic framework and the vein distribution of the mining area.Through the analysis of the control function of ore body structure(Nana ranch anticline),we obtain the occurrence of vein controlled by the Fold obviously.As the different parts of the Fold have the different lithologic association,and also have the different structural types,the Fold controls the degree of mineralization in mining area.For this understanding,north ore belt in the Fold north have greater potential for exploration,south ore belt in the Fold nuclear have a certain value in the superficial,and the southern fold is not a metallogenic conditions area.


In the production process of fiber optic cables due to the physical characteristics of the fiber itself the production equipment is required to offer the cable core with constant tension.So the control scheme for the rotation speeds of gantry take-up and pay-off stand is presented,the automatic control of the dancer is implemented by utilizing the special control functions of Siemens MM440 inverter to ensure the reliability of the tension.


The Al Dobson Quartet features some of Australia's leading Improvisers – Eugene Ball, Nick Haywood, Tony Floyd and Alistair Dobson. This is the first performance of the group and forms part of Alistair's Phd research project which looks at the development of musical individuality. The performance uses four of Alistair's original compositions as the framework for the improvised music performance, which were either written or reworked specifically for this project.


With an integrated ship stabilization system composed of fin stabilizer and anti-rolling tank as a research object,the authors analysed the characteristics of the equations established after the introduction of the fin stabilizer and the anti-rolling tank.According to the analysis of the integrated stabilization equations based on the simulated rolling motion on a sway platform,we decide to use the sway platform to simulate the integrated stabilization system.In view of the characteristics of the physical model of the platform and the mathematical model of the integrated stabilization system,the fin stabilization moment was introduced,the damping moment coefficient for the rolling of the platform-tank model and the transfer function of platform-tank physical model were confirmed,hence the integrated stabilization mathematical model can be realized on the sway platform.After analysis of the simulation curves and the statistical data from the mathematical model of the integrated stabilization system and the experimental model,it was found that the integrated stabilization model proposed herein is feasible,providing a theoretical foundation for experimental research on integrated stabilization system.


This paper used the theories and methods of ecology, economics and systems science to analyze the mechanisms of regional recycling economy development and proposed three principles of building regional recycling economy further: 1) Material-energy principle. In course of constructing the industrial chains of regional recycling economy, the law of material- energy flows in socio-economic system should be adhered to and its amount and structural characteristics in regional system; 2) Cost-effectiveness principle. That's to say, it's necessary to analyze the economic feasibility of its sustained, healthy and fast development in regional recycling economy system; 3) Interests-distribution principle. Under the market economy conditions, it's a precondition for its sustainable, healthy development to harmonize their benefits of all stakeholders in regional recycling economy. This paper also putted forward to suggestions for prompting regional recycling economy development.


The community is the target population of 30000 persons surrounding the clinic run by the Institute of Child Health (ICH) in Somolu a low-income area approximately 9 miles from the center of Lagos. The service is of the integrated maternal-child health (MCH) type provided 6 days a week at token cost and run by nurse-practitioners. A 20% random sample was selected consisting of 1047 dwelling units usually consisting of 1 room. 1151 children 0-5 years of age were present in the sample. Data concerning clinic registration as well as characteristics of the mother were collected on 950 children. Registration of the ICH clinic is used as the indicator of service coverage. The proportion of children who had received immunization in relation to whether they are registered or not is shown. Factors affecting registration coverage include age child-care arrangements sex duration of community residence and organization of service. In 1977 72.3% of preschool children in the sample were registered at the clinic. Slightly more than 1/4 of eligible children were not registered. Nearly 1/2 the infants were not registered. A possible reason for this is that ICH does not provide a maternity clinic. In Nigeria caring for children by relatives usually a grandmother or even nonrelatives is very common. The sex of the child does not appear from primary analysis to be a factor influencing registration coverage. When the sex of the child is considered in interaction with maternal occupation and place of employment interesting findings appear which suggest both a sex discrimination factor and a kind of calculation in allocating source resources of time which working women must make regarding clinic use. For boys there are insignificant differences between registration status and mothers work situation. However for girls there are significant differences in registration coverage.


Mary Lee must have been in her early eighties when I first met her, and we—W. W Norton & Company—had just bought the rights to what would turn out to be her luminous final novel, I, Roger Williams. I don't remember much about the meeting itself, except that I felt a bit faint afterward because—as I would learn—Mary Lee had a tendency to suck all the oxygen out of whatever room she happened to be in. Someone, a colleague, asked me what she was like. Wasn't she really old? "Old maybe," I replied, "but if she ever had any more marbles than she has right now, I don't want to know about it." She and I went on to have a wonderful, rewarding friendship for the rest of her life, a friendship based on so many things: books and writing; food, wine, and garlic; her literary projects and mine (about which she was unfailingly generous and encouraging.) Her enthusiasm for life and the things and people she loved would have been remarkable in a person half her age. Well, great spirits—and she was certainly one of those—are not always easy to live with or work with on a day-to-day basis, and once Mary Lee had got herself established in Kinsale, Virginia, and later in Charlottesville, we were in touch by e-mail several times a week. She was not shy about giving advice, literary or otherwise, and although the advice was always motivated by love and good will, it was not necessarily useful. The reason, I think, was that she told you what she would do in your situation, with the result that the wisdom was hard to apply, unless you happened to be Mary Lee. She once wrote me about the book I was writing at the time: "I hesitate to ask about your fine book, because every time you seem to get going again the world bangs at your door. I won't give advice; I don't know where you are. Like Bernard Shaw said to the USA, I have no advice. I told you what to do last time and you haven't done it yet!" If she had one over-riding regret about our friendship—or about me—it would be my determined, reiterated, ungrateful refusal to be cured of sciatica and an arthritic back by the Alexander Method, as administered by Mary Lee Settle. "Dammit," she said once, "I've had terrible arthritis, but here I am, eighty-six years old, and I can still put


Backfilling of underground stopes has become a common practice in mines across Canada. Many mining operations are using their solid wastes (i.e. tailings and waste rocks) as backfilling material. The advantages of doing so are obvious. This allows a significant reduction of the amount of wastes disposed in surface facilities, while improving ground conditions around large openings. However, such practice requires the installation of barricades to hold the fill material in the stope. The barricade must be stable during and after backfilling operations. Most barricades are made of bricks, concrete blocks, or shotcrete reinforced mesh. These types of barricade are usually expensive and time consuming to construct. An alternative method is to build the barricades with waste rock. There are yet very few solutions available to define the size of such barricades. This paper presents a new analytical solution for defining the dimension of barricades made of waste rock. This solution applies to the case of drained backfill (without pore pressure) and to some cases of undrained backfill (with water pressure). RESUME Le remblayage des chantiers souterrains est une pratique courante dans les mines au Canada. Plusieurs operations minieres utilisent alors leurs rejets miniers solides (i.e. roches steriles et rejets de concentrateur) comme materiau de remblai. Les avantages qui en decoulent sont clairs. Cette pratique permet de reduire la quantite de rejets entreposes en surface, tout en ameliorant les conditions de stabilte sous terre. Cependant, une telle pratique requiert la mise en place de barricades qui doivent etre stables durant et apres le remblayage du chantier. Les barricades sont usuellement construites avec des briques, des blocs de beton ou du treillis recouvert de beton projete. Le temps de mise en place et le cout relies a ces types de barricade sont toutefois eleves. Une methode alternative consiste a construire les barricades a partir de roches steriles. Il n'y a toutefois que tres peu de solutions disponibles pour definir la taille de telles barricades. Dans cet article, une nouvelle solution analytique est proposee afin de dimensionner les barricades formees de roches steriles. Cette solution s'applique au cas de remblais draines (sans pression interstitielle) et a certains cas de remblais non-draines (avec pressions d'eau).


The formulation of a new bridge-vehicle system using shell with eccentric beam elements has been introduced in a companion paper (Part I). The new system takes into account of the contribution of the twisting and pitching modes of vehicles to the bridge responses. It can also be used to study the dynamic transverse load distribution of a bridge. This paper presents a parametric study on the impact induced by one vehicle or multi-vehicle running across a bridge using the proposed model. Several parameters were considered as variables including the mass ratio, the speed parameter, the frequency ratio and the axle spacing parameter to investigate their effects on the impact factor. A total number of 189 cases were carried out in this parametric study. Within the realistic range of vehicle considered, the maximum impact factors could be 2.24, 1.78 and 1.49 for bridges with spans 10 m, 20 m and 30 m respectively.


As boards and c-suite executives navigate the ever-changing risk landscape, they require information on those risks mostly likely to emerge that may affect the organization's success. Little is known about how perspectives on top risks differ across time, industries, and sizes of organizations. As well, we do not know whether the nature of risks on the minds of senior executives and boards of directors spans all types of organizations similarly or whether there are risks uniquely associated with different business contexts. This study contributes to the literature on enterprise risk management (ERM) by providing insights about outputs of the risk assessment process that are on the minds of these executives. For the past three years starting in 2012, we have surveyed boards of directors and executives, including risk officers, about specific macroeconomic, strategic and operational risks facing their businesses for the next calendar year. Over this time period, executives consistently identified the risk of regulatory oversight and scrutiny as a top strategic risk concern, closely followed by concerns about the economic conditions of the markets they serve and concerns about organizational succession challenges and the ability to attract and retain talent. We also find that as the global economy has begun to improve, operational risk concerns have become more pronounced.  We observe a number of notable differences across different industries and sizes of organizations and across the three years examined. In addition, we find that executives increasingly believe their organizations will continue to devote more time and resources towards ERM activities, but those plans differ across organizations depending on industry and size. Collectively, our findings emphasize the importance of understanding the context of an organization's environment, that risk identification needs to be an ongoing process, and that there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to risk management.


The present invention provides a transflective liquid crystal display panel and a liquid crystal display device, the transflective liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate disposed opposite the first substrate, and disposed on the first substrate and the second substrate a liquid crystal layer interposed between the; first and second substrates comprising a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprises a reflective region and a transmissive region; on the second substrate corresponding to the whole reflective region and the transmissive region is provided with a common electrode; near the common electrode side of the first substrate, the reflective region corresponding to a portion provided with a reflective layer, the reflective layer comprises a reflective layer can be simultaneously used as the pixel electrode and the first reflective layer used, and only the light from the second reflective layer of the reflection; wherein, a reflective area in the reflective region adjacent two first reflection layer is provided, the other reflective area in the reflective region adjacent two second reflective layer is provided. The above-described embodiment, since the reflective layer is partially reflective region may be used as a pixel electrode while simplifying the manufacturing process.


Part 1 The microfinance market: do financial institutions have a role in assisting the poor? Claudio Gonzalez-Vega critical issues in microbusiness finance and the role of donors, Reinhard H Schmidt and CP Zeitinger. Part 2 Microfinance program design strategies: microfinance - the paradigm shift from credit delivery to sustainable financial intermediation, Marguerite S Robinson Altruistic or production finance? a donor's dilemma, Dale W Adams combining social and financial intermediation to reach the poor - the necessity and dangers, Lynn Bennett balancing perspectives on informal finance, Otto Hospes developing alternatives to informal finance and finding market riches, Carlos E Cuevas basing access on performance to create sustainable financial services for the poor in Nepal, Lynn Bennett, Mike Golberg and JD Von Pischke. Part 3 Sustainability and accountability in microfinance: credit scoring to predict loan repayment performance - an application to rural customers in Burkina Faso, Laura Vigand keys to financial sustainability, Robert Peck Christen other people's money - regulatory issues facing microenterprise finance, Robert C Vogel measuring the performance of small enterprise lenders, JD Von Pischke a road map for financial stabilization of credit unions - the Guatemalan experience, David C Richardson, Barry L Lennon and Brian A Branch.


As a result of the direct use of sewage water for more than 100 years to irrigate crops, heavy metals have accumulated in soils in the Mezquital Valley, Hidalgo State, Mexico. From January to November 1996 the present study was conducted to make a diagnosis of the accumulation and variability of the concentration of cadmium, nickel, and lead in water, soil as well as in maize ( Zea mays L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and lucerne (Medicago sativa). These crops are of major economical importance in this valley. Data obtained were used to show the need to regulate the accumulation of heavy metals in soils. Samples of water, soil, foliar tissue, and grains of maize and wheat were taken from seven sites with a variation in the time of use of the waste water. Total lead concentration in water of the Gran Canal del Desague was 0.13 mg L -1 , while in water of the dam was 0.054 mg L -1 . The coefficient obtained from the division of the concentration of cadmium in the foliar tissue and in grain of wheat, decreased in four of the seven sites. In site Tlahualilpan1 the variation was 1.5 (March) to 0.9 (April); this shows that Cd was transferred to the grain and from there to the food chain. In five of the seven sites, lead stayed in the wheat leaves; the calculated coefficient increased from 0.8 (March) to 2.4 (April) in the Tlahualilpan1 site. Nickel coefficient in wheat, decreased in the seven sites, and this shows that nickel was transferred to the grain.


Case presentation A female patient(a retired worker),68 years old,who complained mainly of "repeated episodes of dizziness,fatigue,vomiting in 6 years,chest tightness,chest pain for 1 year",was admitted to Heart Center,Chaoyang Hospital,Capital Medical University on February 24,2010.The patient suffered from dizziness and fatigue with unknown cause 6 years ago.She ever experienced sudden syncope and loss of conscioueness during visiting Xuanwu Hospital,when she presented with blood pressure of 62/? mmHg and slower heart rate,then her consciousness recoverd spontaneously 1-2 minutes later with no treatment.The head CT and electrocardiogram(ECG)showed no significant abnormality,and she was discharged after symptomatic treatment.Since then,the patient presented with intermittent anorexia,dizziness,nausea,vomiting,non-visual rotation,which were not affected by different body positions.All these symptoms appeared more frequently in winter,lasted for several days,relieved without any treatment.One year ago,the patient began to suffer from chest tightness and chest pain at physical activities.Each attack lasted for 3-5minutes and relieved by rest.In Xuanwu Hospital,the diagnosis of "coronary heart disease,angina pectoris " was established.After oral administration of "Wan Shuang Li" and other meidcations,chest tightness and chest pain appeared accidentally.Ten days ago,the patient experienced dizziness and vomiting(stomach contents,4-5 times a day on average).No visual rotation or tinnitus was accompanied.Twenty-nine hours before admission,the patient suffered from chest distress and chest pain again after 100 meters walking,accompanied with shoulder dispersion and sweating;the symptoms relieved after resting for 3-5 minutes.For further treatment,the patient visited Heart Center,Chaoyang Hospital.ECG showed "sinus bradycardia",and she was admittied for "arrhythmia".Since the onset,the patient displayed low blood pressure,slow heart rate,Susceptibility to coldness,frailty,poor appetite and sleep,normal stool.The body mass decreased by about 5kg over the past decade.


Orf79 of Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus is the homologous gene of peros infectivity factor of Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus.To reveal the interaction between orf79 and host in the virus infection life cycle,orf79 was amplified from virus and was inserted into procaryotic expression vector,and the expression condition was optimized.SDS-PAGE gel indicated that orf79 was achieved the highest expression when E.coli was induced with 0.2 mmol.L-1 IPTG for 2 h.The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography.The result provided the basis for the mechanism analysis of orf79 in the virus life cycle.


Imaging is widely used to detect and diagnose Melanoma skin cancer early. The ISIC facilitates public reposit to collect, label, and categorize malignant and benign images. It also provides relevant metadata for these images from dermatologists, radiologists, or researchers. The ever-growing uses of dermoscopy and the complexity of the imaging process make it difficult to find the correct pattern in images of Melanoma skin cancer. Thus, while evaluation of performance metrics of classification methods continues to be inappropriate or not as per our expectations, many artifacts and noise such as hair, veins, and water residue make images very complex.Consequently, inspired and motivated by our previous study outcome when applying classification methods (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) on Melanomas' images dataset, we found that the border detection and feature extraction for classification methods was challenging. Therefore, we applied Generative Facial Prior (GFP) Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) method to preprocess the Melanoma images. We also changed a few architectures and optimization methods for these classification algorithms. Finally, an extensive evaluation of the validation dataset is conducted. After that, it is compared with the values of performance metrics with previous results. This outcome impacts the dermatologist, scientific, and medical community. As a result, it is an excellent service to humanity to cure the deadliest form of skin cancer - Melanoma.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is caused by neuronal cell death. Although a precursor of dopamine and inhibitors of dopamine degradation have been used for PD therapy, cell death progresses during treatment. DJ‐1, a causative gene product of a familial form of PD, PARK7, plays roles in transcriptional regulation and anti‐oxidative stress, and loss of its function is thought to result in the onset of PD. Superfluous oxidation of cysteine at amino acid 106 (C106) of DJ‐1 renders DJ‐1 inactive, and such oxidized DJ‐1 has been observed in patients with the sporadic form of PD. In this study, we isolated compounds that bind to the region at C106 by a virtual screening. These compounds prevented oxidative stress‐induced death of SH‐SY5Y cells, embryonic stem cell‐derived dopaminergic cells and primary neuronal cells of the ventral mesencephalon, but not that of DJ‐1‐knockdown cells of SH‐SY5Y and NIH3T3 cells, indicating that the effect of the compounds is specific to DJ‐1. These compounds inhibited production of reactive oxygen species and restored activities of mitochondrial complex I and tyrosine hydroxylase that had been compromised by oxidative stress. These compounds prevented dopaminergic cell death in the substantia nigra and restored movement abnormality in 6‐hydroxyldopamine‐injected PD model rats. One mechanism of action of these compounds is prevention of superfluous oxidation of DJ‐1, and the compounds passed through the blood–brain barrier in vitro. Taken together, the results indicate that these compounds should become fundamental drugs for PD therapy.


Poor‐quality patient drug information has been identified as a major cause of preventable medication errors in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to require marketing authorization holders of medicinal products to implement risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS) to ensure that the benefits of a drug or biological product outweigh its risks. Aside from medication guides, no research has been conducted to assess the quality of patient‐targeted REMS materials, including whether, and to what extent, patients find these materials understandable and actionable.


Field trial to estimate losses due to sorghum shoot bug, Peregrinus maidis (Ashmead), revealed that, all unprotected plots recorded significantly higher sorghum stripe virus disease incidence (51.26% increase), higher shoot bug population (92.02 percent population increase) and leaf sugary exudation (63.86% increase) over protected plots. Overall 11.16 and 21.11 percent losses in grain and fodder yields, respectively were recorded.


This session considers various approaches to the formalization of requirements specifications. Natural language properties can be automatically translated into formal language properties in certain circumstances. The relationships between requirements can be formalized in graphical notation. The success of temporal property languages in the hardware domain inspires the application of similar ideas to the embedded software domain.


The research progress on remediation techniques for polluted sediment including dredging, covering, chemical treatment and biological treatment was reviewed, and technical problems that need be solved were also analyzed.


Current commonly accepted strategies to eradicate Helicobacter pylori in children are a 10‐day sequential treatment or a triple therapy for 7‐14 days. To avoid further expensive and possibly risky investigations as well as induction of secondary antimicrobial resistance, a success rate of elimination strategies over 90% in a per‐protocol analysis is the target goal but rates observed in clinical trials are lower. Antimicrobial resistance is a well‐recognized risk factor for treatment failure; therefore, only a treatment tailored to susceptibility testing should be recommended. Adherence to therapy is also a risk factor for treatment failure but that has been poorly studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of adherence to therapy on the elimination rates obtained with different treatment regimens.


This research, studied the effects of compacting pressure (150-450) MPa and Copper additions (2.5, 5, 7.5 and10) wt% on the mechanical properties of NiTi based shape memory alloys prepared by powder metallurgy. Several mechanical tests such as Rockwall macro hardness measurements, compression test and shape memory properties of the prepared alloys were achieved. The results showed that the addition of Copper with (2.5-10) wt. % to NiTi prepared alloy resulted decreasing the hardness relatively with comparison to master alloy without copper also, there is a distinguished increase in SME properties obtained from hardness test for the NiTi alloys with addition of copper. The result showed that the increasing in compacting pressure and Cu additives have an essential effect by improvement the mechanical properties of the prepared alloys.


The article focuses on the work of George E. Bolling, Brockton Massachusetts City Chemist of in 1898 and Bacteriologist in 1902. Bolling set up an early public health laboratory as a laboratory assistant in the Brockton Sewerage Department. His work in bacteriology is noted. His public education campaign to reduce infant mortality is mentioned.


Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between the saturation magnetostriction constant and Si content for the FeCuNbSiB alloy system. The saturation magnetostriction (λ ) has the highest value and is virtually independent of Si composition for the amorphous structure, different from the nanocrystalline state where magnetostriction is significantly dependent on the Si concentration and its maximum value is as nearly half that of the amorphous structure. Amorphous alloys for soft magnetic applications are often fabricated by rapid solidification of the melt. They are generally prepared with the nearly 20% addition of metalloids (Si, B, Al, C and P) for Febased and Co-based alloys. Si and B are important metalloids for glass formation and the amorphous structure stabilisation. Typical chemical compositions are such that the combined compositions of Fe, Co, Ni elements are 70–85 atomic (at.)% and those of Si and B are 15–30 at.% in total. However, magnetic glassy alloys have a wide variety of compositions. This allows for a large range of soft magnetic properties to be achieved, which depend upon the demands of the application.


The formalized study of leadership dates back to the early 20 th century and has continued to evolve since that time. Contemporary leadership theories emphasize morals and values with an interest in how followers are treated; in opposition to the early and more traditional approaches to leadership, contemporary leadership theories view leadership not as an assigned position of authority or responsibility but rather a collaborative process where followers are recognized as essential co-contributors. Guided by this approach, the current study examined authentic leadership as a predictor of interpersonal trust within the context of higher education. The current study operationalized authentic leadership as faculty perceptions of their chairs' self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and internalized moral perspective. Self-awareness comes from continual self-reflection and results in an understanding of one's strengths and weaknesses as well the effects those strengths and weaknesses have on others. Relational transparency refers to presenting one's true or real self, through the open sharing of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Balanced processing occurs when one solicits multiple perspectives, including those that contradict each other as well one's initial point of view; not only is that input solicited, but also it is given objective consideration before decisions and/or recommendations are made. Internalized moral perspective references the existence and use of one's moral compass; actions are consistent with this compass and not influenced by organizational or societal pressures. Communication satisfaction was tested as a mediating variable, and organizational trust was tested as a moderating variable. Faculty perceptions of their department and division chairs exhibiting authentic leadership as well as self-reports of interpersonal trust, communication satisfaction, and organizational trust were used. Ninety-eight surveys were collected and provided the data used for the analyses. iv Significant positive correlations between authentic leadership and interpersonal trust, authentic leadership and communication satisfaction, and communication satisfaction and interpersonal trust were found. Additionally, the data supported authentic leadership as a strong predictor of interpersonal trust. Communication satisfaction was found to mediate this relationship, with communication with supervisors (one of the communication satisfaction subscales) serving as the main contributor driving the effect. While the indirect effect was significant, the direct effect was much stronger. Organizational trust was found to moderate the direct effect; the relationship between authentic leadership and interpersonal trust was strongest when organizational trust was low. Support for organizational trust as a moderator of the indirect effect was not found. This study highlighted the value of how …


In the present experiment, the 9 genotypes of rice (3 highly tolerant, 3 moderately tolerant and 3 susceptible for drought tolerance) were crossed in 9x9 diallel cross to produce 36 F1's (excluding reciprocals) under drought stress conditions during Kharif-2014 to study the nature and magnitude of heterosis and inbreeding depression. The optimum standard heterosis to the extent of 20-40% was noted in many crosses for all the 19 traits studied except days to 50% flowering and days to maturity, while relatively more heterosis was noted for days to maturity, leaf angle, grain yield per plant, harvest index, test weight, stomatal conductance and proline content under water stress environment, respectively. Inbreeding depression varied with the crosses and traits and found to be relatively more under drought stress conditions. The crosses Nagina-22 × SARJOO-52, Nagina-22 × Vandana, BPT-5204 × MTU-7029, RASI × Nagina-22, BPT-5204 × SARJOO-52, Vandana × RAU-4, RASI × Vandana, APO × SARJOO-52, Rajendra Bhagwati × BPT-5204 and MTU-7029 × SARJOO-52 with optimum standard heterosis over the seasons along with lower inbreeding depression for yield and its component traits were noted as promising crosses under drought stress condition. The crosses involving parents APO, Nagina-22, RAU-4, Sarjoo-52 and Vandana may be considered in the future breeding program, aiming to improve yield under drought stress conditions.


As the current urban public security video surveillance system planning lacks of indicator system and relies too much on the subjective experience, in order to solve the problem, this paper constructs evaluation indicators of estimating the number and the deployment of front-end cameras, and proposes planning methods of video surveillance system transmission networks, data storage and platform functions from macro and micro levels by studying the urban characteristic factors affecting the frontend point location planning and the deployment requirements of various surveillant scenarios. This paper provides theoretical and methodological support for the planning of urban public security video surveillance system.


Achromatopsia (ACHM) is a rare autosomal recessive disease. Its mutation spectrum is well described in other populations, but the data on ACHM prevalence and features in Russia are insufficient. Purpose . To describe clinically and genetically the Russian cohort of AHCM for the potential use of targeted treatment approaches, including gene therapy. Material and methods . Out of 18 patients with clinical manifestations of ACHM, 10 patients were chosen (6 with no kinship relatedness and 4 with kinship relatedness) aged 12.3 ± 5.8 years. These patients underwent standard ophthalmologic examination: visometry, perimetry, biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy, as well as optical coherence tomography, electroretinography, and color test on distinguishing color shades, in order to determine the clinical characteristics of ACHM. Molecular genetic confirmation of the clinical diagnosis was performed by high-performance parallel DNA sequencing. An in silico analysis of pathogenetic pathways of the clinical picture in 10 patients with confirmed ACHM was performed. Results . In the examined Russian patients, previously determined mutations in the CNGA3 and CNGB3 genes were confirmed. The most common mutation was a single nucleotide deletion with a reading frame shift in the 10th exon of the CNGB3 gene; a missense mutation in the 8th exon of the CNGA3 gene was second frequent. One patient had mutations in the CNGA3 and CNGB3 genes. Segregation analysis confirms the autosomal recessive nature of disease inheritance. Mutations in the CNGB3 gene have been observed to lead to more serious clinical manifestations than mutations in CNGA3. Conclusions . The analysis of the Russian ACHM cohort shows that mutations in the CNGA3 and CNGB3 genes are the main cause of the development of the disease. A complete molecular genetic confirmation of the clinical diagnosis has been obtained, which is necessary for prescribing targeted treatment to patients, including gene therapy.


The paper presents the results of a survey of agricultural enterprises of the central part of Yakutia, identifies and qualifies the problems of investment development of agricultural enterprises. The problems and divided into two groups controlled and uncontrolled with internal resources of the enterprise. To solve the problems the authors propose a method of integration of enterprises as a way to ensure sustainable and balanced development of agriculture.


Despite their best efforts, many women of color find themselves in a revolving door, going from one institution to another seeking information, opportunities and mentors to succeed. This talk will discuss the societal and institutional obstacles facing Black women who seek mentors and puts forth several suggestion to universities on how they can facilitate mentoring between junior Black women academics and the majority of white (and perhaps male) potential mentors. Pamela J. Smith Associate Professor of Law, Executive Director of the Center for the Digital Globe, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, Columbia, MO Despite their best efforts, many women of color find themselves in a revolving door, going from one institution to another, seeking information, opportunities and mentors to succeed. This talk will discuss the societal and institutional obstacles facing Black women who seek mentors and puts forth several suggestion to universities on how they can facilitate mentoring between junior Black women academics and the majority of white and male potential mentors. This presentation is derived from Professor Smith's article, Failing to Mentor Sapphire: The Actionability of Blocking Black Women from Initiating Mentoring Relationships, 10.2 UCLA WOMEN'S LAW JOURNAL 701 (2000). In particular, Professor Pamela J. Smith contends that failure to mentor Black women in academia is a form of discrimination that should be separately actionable under Title VII of the Civil Right-sa-Act of 1964. ~heargues that the failure to mentor Black women in academia stems in part from the social barriers created by the implicit stereotypes of Black women held by senior colleagues. For example, Black women are perceived as angry, threatening, and intimidating, qualities displayed by the fictional character Sapphire on the Amos 'n' Andy show. Further, Black women are viewed as incompetent. Together, these stereotypes prevent the facilitation and development of trans-racial mentoring relationships. In addition to the social barriers that prevent Black women in academia from being mentored, institutional barriers hinder Black women from developing trans-racial mentoring relationships. One example of an institutional barrier is the failure to assign Black female academics to active and important committees by which they can interact with senior white colleagues in order to destroy negative stereotypes and thereby receive meaningful mentoring. Professor Smith believes that institutions will use their power to facilitate trans-racial mentoring relationships when personal stories of discrimination are effectively linked to these social and institutional barriers. Presenter Pamela J. Smith is an Associate Professor of Law (with tenure) at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. She is also the Executive Director of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for Digital Globe (CDiG). She teaches Software Law, Cyberspace Law, Patent Law, and the Digital Divide. In 1998, Professor Smith became a 1998 Visiting Law Fellow at S1. Hilda's College of Oxford University, spending the trinity term of 1998 in Oxford. In 1998 she was also selected as a Visiting Fellow at Durham University (England). In 2000, Professor Smith was selected as a Fulbright Lecturer. She was hosted by Renmin (People's) University of China in Beijing, China. At Renmin University's School of Law, she taught Chinese students U.S. Intellectual Property Law, Patent Law, Software Law, and Cyberspace Law. During this same period of time, Professor Smith taught Chinese lawyers and judges Tort Law, Software Law and Cyberspace Law, as part of Temple University's joint international LLM program with China University. In the Fall of 2001, she joined the law faculty of the University of Missouri-Columbia as part of an interdisciplinary E-commerce Initiative. She becamee the CDiG Executive Director in January 2001.


Creating video recordings of events such as lectures or meetings is increasingly inexpensive and easy. However, reviewing the content of such video may be time-consuming and difficult. Our goal is to produce a "comic book" summary, in which a transcript is augmented with keyframes that disambiguate and clarify accompanying text. Unlike most previous keyframe extraction systems which rely primarily on visual cues, we present a linguistically-motivated approach that selects keyframes that contain salient gestures. Rather than learning gesture salience directly, it is estimated by measuring the contribution of gesture to understanding other discourse phenomena. More specifically, we bootstrap from multimodal coreference resolution to identify gestures that improve performance. We then select keyframes that capture these gestures. Our model predicts gesture salience as a hidden variable in a conditional framework, with observable features from both the visual and textual modalities. This approach significantly outperforms competitive baselines that do not use gesture information.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. The University of Toronto Interfaculty Pain Curriculum has significantly improved students' pain knowledge and ability to develop interprofessional care plans over the period 2009 to 2019.


Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma is relatively uncommon accounting for 0.5% of all head and neck tumors occurring exclusively in adolescent males. It is a microscopically benign, yet locally aggressive tumor with high rates of recurrence and results in severe morbidity. Diagnosis requires high index of suspicion as it mimics other sinonasal conditions, like sinonasal polyp, neurofibroma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, etc. A case of 14-year-old boy with history of swelling in the right cheek, bilateral nasal obstruction, epistaxis, and watering from right eye referred for multidetector computed tomography is reported in this study.


PART ONE: REVIEW OF THE CAREGIVING LITERATURE Family Caregivers of Aging Adults With Disabilities - Karen A Roberto A Review of the Caregiving Literature PART TWO: ISSUES AND CONCERNS OF OLDER CAREGIVERS Aging Caregivers of Persons With Developmental Disabilities - Tamar Heller Changes in Burden and Placement Desire Older Caregivers of Family Members With Developmental Disabilities - Karen A Roberto Changes in Roles and Perceptions Caring for Adult Children With Mental Retardation - Ellie Brubaker and Timothy H Brubaker Concerns of Elderly Parents Aging Adults With Down Syndrome - Barbara A Hawkins, Susan J Eklund and B L Martz Biological and Psychosocial Considerations for Caregivers Adults with Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's - Elizabeth A Noelker and Lauren C Somple Clinical Observations of Family Caregivers PART THREE: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN OLDER CAREGIVERS AND THE SERVICE COMMUNITY Planning for the Transfer of Care - Joan B Wood Social and Psychological Issues Current and Future Service Needs of Aging Individuals With Developmental Disabilities Living With Relatives - Jean P Lehmann and Karen A Roberto Family Satisfaction With Case Management and Service Provision - Christine Rinck and Carl Calkins Rural and Urban Perspectives for Older Families of Persons With Developmental Disabilities Case Managers' Perceptions of Practice With Older Parents of Adults With Developmental Disabilities - Gregory C Smith and Sheldon S Tobin PART FOUR: PRACTICE, RESEARCH, AND POLICY DIRECTIVES Empowering Elderly Caregivers - Edward F Ansello and Karen A Roberto Practice, Research, and Policy Directives


Observation and first studies of the UV light-induced optical absorption for KTa1−x Nb x O3 single crystals (x = 0.004, 0.007, 0.012, 0.07) are reported. Under illumination (300–400 nm, 3.10–4.13 eV) at low temperatures a broad light-induced absorption band was found in NIR region, peaking at 5600 cm−1 (1.79 μ, 0.69 eV, T = 1.3 K) for x = 0.007. No light-induced absorption was found at room temperature in all Nb containing samples as well as in nominally pure KTaO3. Results of detailed studies, including photoconductivity and photoluminescence experiments, are associated with the localization of the charge carriers in the form of electronic polarons at low temperatures.


Introduction: Ageing is a natural phenomenon that involves a set of changes in the body and is associated with several life transitions, such as retirement, institutionalisation and death of spouse and friends, which entails the loss of social contexts and interactions, contributing to the experience of feelings of loneliness and isolation by the elderly. In an increasingly ageing and technological society, Facebook is the most used social network worldwide, and in Portugal, older people tend to use it more and more. Objectives: This study aimed to understand the relationship between the use of the social network Facebook and the loneliness experienced by the elderly. It was sought: to assess the degree of loneliness; to know the use of Facebook by the elderly in its different dimensions; and, to understand the impact of Facebook in promoting family ties and combating isolation. Methods: This is a mixed-approach and descriptive-correlational study. Data were collected through an online questionnaire, which integrated the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and interviews. The sample integrated 269 individuals aged 55 years or older, retired and Facebook users. Results: The results allowed concluding that most respondents use Facebook as a means of socialization and communication, as a source of knowledge, as a refuge against loneliness and a means of connection to more distant relatives. Conclusions: Facebook can help fight isolation and promotes the preservation of family and social networks, contributing to active ageing.


Eco - anthropology aims at studying the relationships between culture and eco - environment so as to achieve the scientific and sustainable coordination of development between ecology and environment as well as between man and environment.This paper makes a review of literature in this respect.


Committing errors is an inevitable phenomenon that happens to learners in the process of learning a foreign language, especially in writing skill. For many years, diagnosing what types of errors learners commonly made and why they are prone to committing such errors has become a great concern to language educators and researchers. The present study investigated organization errors in English compositions produced by 60 Vietnamese pre-intermediate learners on one task. The author collected data by writing tests and participant questionnaires. Analyses of the errors and survey data yielded the following main findings: (1) Among the five categories of organization errors, incoherence accounted for the largest percentage, followed by the poor topic sentence, disunity, poor conclusion and no conclusion; (2) There is a significant difference between the two genders in terms of the category of incoherence. Nevertheless, the difference in the other organization error categories between the two groups of participants was insignificant; (3) Several reasons were identified for the errors such as the lack of writing practice and the influence of Vietnamese.  Article visualizations:


During the process of retrifit the 10t/h industry traveling grate stove of Hangzhou Xidebao Group Corp.,we add the system of desulfurization by Ca-based sorbents in order to carry on the study in which we apply the technology of Two-Stage desulfurization and trial humiditication to industry.The experiment results indicate that the technology of Two-Stage desulfurization and duct humiditication superior to the other desulfurization by Ca-based sorbents, because it can highly improve the desulfurization efficiency without impact the thermal efficiency of furnace. So it has the obvious advantage in technology .At the same time ,using the intrinsic wet dust collector, we can heightern the desulfurization efficiency, and reduce the letting of soot, without adding investment. So it also show the evident economic superiority. So the technology can be used and popularized in industry.Figs 2,tables3 and refs 3.


Although adolescence is generally considered to be a time of good health, health problems do occur during these years. Laboratory professionals need to be aware of these problems so that adolescent patients can be treated properly. The major issues for today's adolescents are pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs of abuse, eating disorders, infections, accidents, and suicides. We describe the prevalence of many of these conditions and discuss the laboratory tests that are used to diagnose or monitor these problems. The aim of this article is to heighten the awareness of laboratorians and clinicians to the challenges of adolescent medicine.


A print head module with a slender ink distributing structure is disclosed. Said ink distributing structure has multiple chip recesses and multiple converged ink guiding tubes terminated at said chiprecesses. The size of said ink distributing structure can make it across the print medium. Multiple chips of ink-jet print head are respectively arranged in relative chip recesses. Each chip of printhead has multiple ink inlets communicated with relative ink guiding tubes. An ink distributing member has an ink tube for injecting ink in it and multiple outlets communicated with said ink guiding tubes.


Publication voltage (V, Vn) between two terminals (1a, 1b) for measuring, in particular a high-pressure system method and apparatus of the AC voltage. The method and / or device relies on electro-optical element (2; 2a, 2b, 2c) of the electro-optical effect. It travels through the electro-optic effect in electro-optical element (2; 2a, 2b, 2c) is introduced into two vertically polarized light waves, such as different optical phase shift. Thus, an indication may be measured at the electro-optical element n; n-th position or electro-optical element (2 2a, 2b, 2c); a signal (Sn) in the longitudinal electric field (2 2a, 2b, 2c). According to the present invention, a signal (Sn) is solved by using a blurring assuming test on an additional reference signal or quadrature signal (Sn ') of. By these plurality of electro-optical elements arranged in series between the terminals, to gain advantage from the aspect of cost-efficiency and insulation. Further, there is disclosed an apparatus for measuring pressure.


An analysis is performed to predict the densification during and the state of residual stress after hot pressing of annular alumina/zirconia (3Y-TZP) composites. The objective of the analysis was to study the residual stresses resulting from stress gradients during pressing and those from thermal expansion mismatch during the cooling of the compact from the pressing temperature to room temperature. It is predicted that the residual stresses are affected by the respective densification rates of the core and the annulus, their elastic modulus, and thermal expansion coefficient. For the system analyzed in this study, it is predicted that hot pressing reduces the residual stresses that result from the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients. This is due in part to the high densification rate and in part to the high elastic modulus of the alumina annulus compared to the zirconia core. For surface compression strengthening, a system where the annulus would have similar elastic modulus but lower densification rate and lower thermal expansion coefficient than the core would be more beneficial.


Studies of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) have been focused on passive margins with large floodplains [1]. SGD from active margins without substantial sediment cover remains unknown, but it is in the rapidly eroding highlands along these margins that the feedback between climate and weathering is most effective [2].
In Taiwan, measured erosion and silicate weathering rates are amongst the highest in the world. In a representative section of the northeast coast of Taiwan, at the outlet of the Liwu river, we have explored the possible magnitude and pattern of SGD, and its implications for weathering budgets. The river drains 4 km of emergent mountain relief, with a further 5 km of submarine relief above the Pacific abyssal plain. In the Liwu catchment, 16±1% of the river discharge (averaged over 37 years of record) comes from a deep groundwater reservoir, and deep seated chemical weathering of silicates accounts for 38% of the riverine silicate weathering flux [3]. It is likely that the large inland hydraulic head drives submarine discharge from this deep groundwater reservoir and weathering reactor.
We have used the radium quartet (228Ra, 226Ra, 224Ra, 223Ra) along with Temperature-Salinity (T-S) profiles on two 50 km West- East marine transects off the NE coast of Taiwan (<2000m water depth) to search for SGD. Stable isotopes, major elements, and Ra isotopes in water samples were analyzed to constrain the hydrogeology of rivers and two types of groundwater: sandy shallow aquifers (<200 m deep) and a deep bedrock aquifer (~400m deep).
Radium activities were measured using RaDeCC. Preliminray results show that the 224Ra and 228Ra activities at the sea surface exceed those in the average deep coastal water column. 228Ra activities are also slightly elevated in some stations at 400-600m depth, below the Kuroshio current. These stations have anomalously low salinity, when compared to regional hydrographic profiles. Given the strong density barrier presented by the Kuroshio current, these Ra and salinity excursions at depth are not likely to result from downward mixing of surface seawater. They may be related to groundwater discharge from submerged mountain bedrock.
The T-S and Ra-isotopes data suggest that there may be active SGD across the structural dip of the active margin of East Taiwan. Using both transects and the deep groundwater characteristics, we will add constraints on sediment/water interactions and the occurrence and spatial extent of SGD in the area.
[1] Moore (1996) Nature 380, 612-614. [2] West (2005) EPSL 235, 211-228. [3] Calmels (2011) EPSL 303, 48-58.


Neocategories, semicategories, precategories are well-known generalizations of categories. But they all suppose that sources and targets of morphisms fulfilled identity conditions. Here we intend to suppress those conditions. In doing this we get at the construction of a simple framework which seems appropiate to study Moore surfaces and their possible extensions in higher dimensions.


A recent article by the economist Samuel Brittan in The Financial Times was entitled "Make the world safe from crusaders." In his article, Mr. Brittan discussed one of the two books that most influenced him as a student. That book was Christianity, Diplomacy and War, and its author, Sir Herbert Butterfield, was one of the most eminent British historians of the twentieth century. Brittan noted that it was deeply regrettable that Butterfield's book "seems to have passed into oblivion... For there is no better antidote to the fantasies of the American neo-conservatives or the European liberal imperialists." Brittan is exactly right. Butterfield's work on the subjects of diplomacy and war, and the relationships of both to Christianity, deserves to be recollected, pondered and evaluated.


Proximate composition, organic carbon and caloric value of Ambassis gymnocephatus (Lac^pfede), an euryhaline fish, were determined to study the chemical changes during growth and maturity. The increase in protein, lipid and carbohydrate content with growth, in both males and females is interlinked with the maturity of gonads. Spent fishes of both sexes showed marlced depletion of protein and lipid indicating their value as energy reserves during maturity and spawning. The study reveals that in a small fish, like A. gymnocephalus, analysis of the animal as a whole gives a reliable estimate of the chemical changes during growth and maturity. THE PROXIMATE composition, percentage organic carbon and caloric content of Ambassis gymnocephalus, an euryhaline fish, growing to a maximum size of 80-85 mm have been estimated with a view to study the chemical changes taking place during growth and maturity. The author is grateful to Dr. E. G. Silas, Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin for constant encouragement and to Sri. K. N. Krishna Kartha for helping in the preparation of the manuscript. Material and Methods A. gymnocephalus of different sizes were collected from the Cochin Backwater and separated into 5 mm size groups. Four or five fish of the same size and maturity stage were taken in each group. The analyses were done on material dried to constant weight at 105° C and homogenised. The homogenised samples were stored in a desiccator till the time of analysis. All the analyses were on the entire animal. Moisture content was determined by drying the animal to constant weight at 105°C, ash at 550°C, protein by the modified Biuret method (Sumitra Vijayaraghavan and Vijayakumaran, 1979), lipid by the chlorofoim-methanol method of bligh and dyer(Raymont et ah, 1964) and total carbohydrate by the phenol-sulphuric acid method (Raymont et al, 1964). Organic carbon was determmed by the method of EL Wakeel and Riley as described by Qasim and Jacob (1972). Caloric content was estimated by the wet oxidation method (Karzinkin and Tarkovskaya, 1964). The fish were grouped into four classes immature, maturing, mature and spent. When sex could not be determined the fish were classified as immature, those at initial stages of maturity (stage I to IV) as maturing, and those in the final stages of maturity (stage V and VI) as mature. Males and females were treated separately. Results and discussion In both males and females slight increase in protein and lipid contents has been observed, with increase in size, the increase in lipid content being comparatively higher. The bigger fish analysed (71-85 mm), however, recorded lowest values for all these components since they were spent ones. Thus, the increase in protein and lipid contents with size was interlinked with stages of maturity of the fish. In the males lipid ranged between 7.18% and 15.26%, protein between 43.18% and 60.56 % and carbohydrate between 1.26% and 2.23% of dry weight. The lowest values were recorded in the spent fish and the highest m maturing and mature ones. Percentage of ash ranged


Copyright © Polskie Towarzystwo Kardiologiczne IMPACT OF ANTICOAGULATION THERAPY ON STROKE PREVENTION The current standard of stroke and death prevention stra tegy is based on lifelong oral anticoagulation mainly using vitamin K antagonists (VKA), having, at a maximum, over 60% relative risk reduction compared to placebo, and more recently on novel anticoagulants [7]. Despite proven benefits, VKA remain underused in clinical practice. Among warfarineligible patients, only 50% are actually being treated, and furthermore only half of them are within the therapeutic range of international normalised ratio (INR) [8]. The narrow therapeutic window of VKA results in a delicate balance between lack of efficacy and a significantly elevated risk of bleeding. The variability in pharmacokinetics, leading to the necessity of frequent blood tests, and numerous food and drug interactions, have a major impact on the patient's daily life and furthermore lead to a significant proportion of patients being either sub or supratherapeutic. In a large study of almost 42,000 patients with AF (ranging from 40 to 85+ years of age) only 70% remained on warfarin at one year and roughly 20% at six years [9]. In light of these findings, novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have been investigated as alternatives to VKA. Apixaban (direct factor Xa inhibitor) proved superior to warfarin in the ARISTOTLE trial with a 21% reduction of stroke and systemic embolism and, more importantly, an 11% mortality reduction [10]. The recently published ENGAGEAF trial compared two oncedaily regimens of edoxaban (direct factor Xa inhibitor) to warfarin in patients with moderatetohighrisk AF [11]. Both oncedaily regimens of edoxaban were noninferior to warfarin with respect to the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism, and were associated with significantly lower mortality from cardiovas cular causes. Another oral factor Xa inhibitor, rivaroxaban, demonstrated noninferiority to warfarin in the ROCKETAF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION RELATED RISK OF STROKE AND DEATH Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most com mon sustained cardiac arrhythmia with morbidity directly related to advanced age, presence of hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and coronary heart disease [1]. The threefold rise in AF morbidity predicted by 2050, together with the proven independent two to threefold higher risk of death for men and women in long term followup, reinforces the social importance of the disease [2]. The risk of dying is particularly high in the population of AF patients with AF related stroke. According to Framingham Study findings, patients with a history of stroke attributable to AF have 25% and 63% risks of dying within 30 days and oneyear followup, respectively. Dramatically high mortality and mor bidity emphasise the need for effective stroke prevention [3].