Climatologies of cloud frequencies were compared from two satellite sensors, the high-resolution infrared radiometer sounder (HIRS) and the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II), during two summers (June, July, and August 1989 and 1990) and two winters (December, January, and February 1989–1990 and 1990–1991). Both sensors were operating simultaneously during these periods, which spanned 12 months. The two data sets generally agreed on the locations of clouds; however, SAGE II reported higher frequencies of clouds by 12–22 percentage points. The differences in the frequencies of clouds appear to be caused by differences in sensor sensitivity and scanning field of view sizes, both of which would have the same effect. SAGE II has a higher sensitivity to thinner clouds and a larger field of view than the HIRS. The vertical distributions of clouds also show close agreement except for the low levels (below 3 km) and the upper troposphere where SAGE II reported more clouds. The very thin subvisual cirrus detected only by SAGE II also were generally found in the same locations where HIRS reported denser clouds, indicating a relationship between subvisual cirrus and other cloud forms.


According to the genomic sequence of PCV-2 published in GenBank,one pair of primers were designed in the ORF2 for amplifying the 371 bp fragment in PCR experiments.The PCR product was labeled with digoxigenin as DNA probe for detection of PCV-2.The hybridization assay result showed that the eight recombinant bacteria of PCV-2 were positive,but no cross-hybridization was detected with DNAs of PCV-1,PRRSV,PPV and PRV.The sensitivity result indicated that as few as 10 pg DNA of PCV-2 could be detected by the DIG-labeled probe.The high sensitivity and specificity of the DIG-labeled probe would be useful in field diagnosis and epidemic investigation.


Since 1990s more and more enterprises have realized the importance of commercial rules such as "customer-centered" or "market-targeted", the experience economy has turned up recently. This new time has triggered a great revolution in human history of design: the experience design has arisen. In this context, the following paper aims to discuss the application and importance of psychological factors in experience design and how to use the psychological and related knowledge to get rid of the market predicament of product homogenization, so as to upgrade and develop the traditional product.


A medical implant of polymeric material WITH INCREASED RESISTANCE TO OXIDATION which is formed by a method comprising the steps of placing a resin powder in a sealed container. A substantial portion of oxygen is removed from the container through well a vacuum, an oxygen absorber OR FOR EXPULSION Inert Gas. THEN the container is pressurized with a gas such as nitrogen, argon, helium or NEON, SO POSSIBLE LONG-TERM STORAGE. IN USE, RESIN IS TRANSFERRED TO A DEVICE AND METHOD TRAINER melting the resin in a reduced oxygen atmosphere to produce a material POLYMERIC ROUGH AS A rod or bar. The medical implant is then formed from said GROSS FIXED AND SEALED IN A AIRTIGHT WRAPPING IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF REDUCED OXYGEN. IMPLANT IS THEN STERILIZING RADIATION AND AFTER WRAPPING POSTED ON for a predetermined time and at a sufficient temperature to form ANY LINKS BETWEEN FREE RADICAL IN NEIGHBORING polymer backbones.


To the editor:

I was interested to read the paper by Hu et al. [1] published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Periodontal & Implant Science The authors aimed to determine the reliability of presurgical planning based on the use of two types of radiographic image (digital panoramic radiography [DPR] and cone-beam computed tomography [CBCT]) evaluated by beginner dentists placing implants. They report the mean presurgical measurement error was significantly smaller for CBCT than for DPR in the maxillary region, whereas it did not differ significantly between the two imaging modalities in the mandibular region. As the authors point out in their conclusion: "Presurgical planning can be performed safely using DPR in the mandible; however, presurgical planning using CBCT is recommended in the maxilla when a structure in a buccolingual location needs to be evaluated because this imaging modality supplies buccolingual information that cannot be obtained from DPR." [1].

Why did the authors not use the exact intra-class correlation coefficient for quantitative variables?

Furthermore, why did the authors did not report the weighted kappa for qualitative variables to assess the reliability?

Regarding reliability or agreement, it is worth remembering that although statistics cannot provide a simple substitute for clinical judgment, it is crucial to at least avoid the common mistakes in reliability analysis of using the wrong tests, such as the t-test (paired or independent), Pearson correlation coefficient r, or method of least squares [2-5].


Various types of signal-responsive polymers were grafted on surfaces of porous membranes as polymer brushes. The grafted polymers shrank and extended in response to environmental signals, such as pH, ionic strength, temperature, redox reaction and photo-irradiation. The pore size was regulated by the extent of the polymer brush. The phenomenon was observed in situ by atomic force microscopy. As a result, the substance permeation through the porous membrane was controlled in response to the signals. The permeation control was rapid in comparison with hygrogel-type membranes, and was reversibly performed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Forty‐seven cases of lymphosarcoma and reticulum cell sarcoma in which leukemic conversion occurred were compared to 48 cases of lymphosaicoma in which leukemic conversion did not occur. The mortality, morbidity, and neurologic complications were studied. The mortality was greatest in the leukemic group regardless of the presence of neurologic complications. Forty percent of the leukemic group developed neurologic complications in contrast to 23 percent of the nonleukemic group. Forty‐four percent of the neurologic complications in the leukemic group were meningeal sarcomatosis. The infiltrative meningitis was "atypical" in its presentation in view of the relatively small number of premonitory signs and symptoms. In the nonleukemic group, there were 44.4 percent peripheral neurologic problems and no meningeal complications. The meningeal syndrome responded to a number of therapeutic regimens, the most widely used in this study being intrathecal methotrexate. It is concluded that the rapid course of illness in the leukemic group and the neurologic complications (similar to those encountered in acute leukemia) reflect the severity of illness and acuteness of the leukemia.


A high-conductivity oxide thin film of the spinel type Li1+xTi2-xO4 (0≤x≤1/3) was prepared by the sol-gel method. Lithium acetate and tetra-n-butyl orthotitanate were used as raw materials, and diethanolamine was used as a solvent. A thin film was prepared by dip-coating of silica glass substrates into a solution. The composition depended on the atmosphere of synthesis. The insulator composition with x equal to 1/3 was obtained by heat-treatment at 750°C in the air. The conductive compositions with x equal to 0.2 to 0.05 were obtained by heat-treatment at 750°C in the H2 atmosphere. The average film thickness was an 1.2μm. The conductivity increased with decreasing x. When x is 0.05, logσ was 2.1 (S/cm). The charge carrier in the thin film, was confirmed to be electron by the Seebeck coefficient measurements. The electric conduction of the thin film showed a higher value than that of powder of the same composition.


Aiming at construction of pair-wise layout unit in optimization pair-wise layout,a method of con-struction of pair-wise layout unit based on algorithm of2D graphics configuration has been proposed,which has effectively simplified processing on graphics of layout part and improved automation level of optimization layout and utilizing rate of material.


The coupling of boundary elements and finite elements combines the advantage of boundary elements for treating domains extended to infinity and that of finite elements in treating the nonhomogeneity of equations and the complexity of domains. In the case of the Laplacian, by taking a circle or a sphere as the artificial coupling boundary, it is shown that the corresponding boundary integral equation can be solved without any cost and the coupled system is reduced to a simple finite element system. Two multigrid methods are proposed to solve this finite element linear system. Both methods are of optimal order and can be used to solve such finite element equations as efficiently as to solve those arising from interior boundary value problems.Numerical experiments are included to show the efficiency and advantages of the methods. An apparent significance of the methods is that the boundary elements appear neither in the discretization nor in the coding.


letter's language in the poem. Embedded in a text that is both the signal act of a poet claiming full authority and "range" and the voicing of romantic yearning cycled directly from letters to Boldereff, Olson's Maximus hovers in what can be read as the poem's trans-subjective borderland. "Flashing more than a wing, / than any romantic thing, than memory, than place," Olson's poetic text blurs the boundaries between the private and the public acknowledgment, the mythic and the ordinary self a shift that, if not carried forward in the life, has clear consequences for the art:


'Ka Hua Kula' ("golden fruit" in Hawaiian) guava (Psidium guajava L.) has been released by the Department of Horticulture to fill the need of a better cultivar for processing guava puree.


Two strains of lactic acid bacteria, isolated from Tibetan mushroom, have strong antifungal activity against molds. These strain was identified as Lactobacillus paracasei by its Riboprinter Microbial Characterization System and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The supernatant of these strain could inhibit the growth of indicator strain strongly after excluding hydrogen peroxide and low pH. It was not sensitive to trypsin, proteinase K, pepsin and α-chymotrypsin. These bacteriocins were resistant to heating at 121 ℃ for 20 minutes and showed highest activity at low pH (6.0). The bacteriocins had a wide spectrum of activity as antagonism was detected not only towards a variety of molds, but also to Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.


The political intentions for the past 20 years have broadly speaking been to reduce the number of publicly owned and publicly run activities. Outsourcing is an often applied way to cut public spending by totally or partially privatize public activities. Telecommunications is an obvious outsourcing candidate as it is hardly a core activity for the public sector. Furthermore, there is today a competitive market for telecommunications services. At the same time it can be difficult to separate telecommunications from other activities as every organization's processes and virtually all employees use telecommunications services. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce full competition on the telecom market and exposed to the new ways to procure and outsource telecom services. A SOTIP (Swedish government Open Telecommunications systems Interconnection Profile) model for procurement of telecommunications services outgoing from users' needs was developed in order to meet these new requirements. A buyer or outsourcer can use SOTIP as a checklist in order to avoid mistakes by forgetting some important requirements.


This paper provides a lesson on compounding interest calculation as applied to retirement planning using an EXCEL spreadsheet. Detailed instructions for instructor preparation, a student assignment, the class demonstration and various methods of student debriefing are included. An ideal venue for this lesson would be an introductory finance course not specifically targeted to business majors, though this learning module fits into any course that includes a section on personal financial management or one that explores compounding interest and present/future value calculations. The basic lesson is designed for lower division courses, but additional material is provided to make it more appropriate for upper division courses including material on various investment vehicles, social security regulations and mortgage calculations. While the lesson is designed for students with minimal exposure to EXCEL, there are extensions to the lesson appropriate for students with more EXCEL experience. The classroom part of this lesson uses approximately one to one and a half hours of class time and employs an EXCEL spreadsheet available from the author. Experience has shown that this lesson has significant impact on students and has prompted several students to opt into employer provided savings plans such as 401k plans and even open their own individual retirement accounts.


Wealth density concept is proposed to further study wealth identification quantifying, as a new property of measuring wealth. By wealth density of quantitative analysis, it can distinguish between the general wealth and the wealth identification, thereby, expanded research based on wealth identification can have a more solid theoretical foundation. Based on wealth density concept, further wealth distribution space and wealth density curve is proposed, and from the perspective of wealth density, some issues of generalized virtual economy like wealth identification generalization, monetary system based on wealth identification and psychological needs r elements escape are reinterpreted.


A novel class AB current-mode output stage is presented. The circuit adopts an active-bootstrapped technique which allows low-voltage operation. Moreover, high transfer accuracy and an extremely high output resistance are also achieved without compromising the frequency response. The excellent performance of the circuit is confirmed by simulations using a 0.8 µm CMOS technology.


A Wireless Local Area Network otherwise as WLAN gives a flexible data communication system rather than using a wired LAN within a building. It uses radio frequency to transmit and receive data which minimizes the need for wired connections. The intention of this paper is to evaluate the performance of WLAN protocol network IEEE802.11n with the data rate of 2.4GHz which is achieved by using optimized network simulating tool, RIVERBED modeler 17.5. The performance of the protocol were measured by setting up three main functions. Media access Delay, data packet loss, Data dropped buffer overflow. Data packet received by all the workstation is larger than the other protocols. The possibility of data flow and communication will be higher. In addition, the delay that occurs can be eliminated by increasing the channel transmission rate


The main aim of this paper is to present the general safety analytical models of complex multistate technical systems related to their operation processes including operating environment threats. In the case of critical infrastructure, the determination of its safety function and its risk function, which graph corresponds to the fragility curve are defined. Moreover, its mean lifetime up to the exceeding a critical safety state and the moment when its risk function value exceeds the acceptable safety level and the critical infrastructure and its components intensities of degradation and the coefficients of operation process including operating environment threats influence on the critical infrastructure and its components intensities of degradation are introduced as the other significant safety indicators. The proposed models are given for multistate series, parallel, "m out of n", consecutive "m out of n: F", series-parallel, parallel-series, series-"m out of k", "mi out of li"-series, seriesconsecutive "m out of k: F" and consecutive "mi out of li": F"-series systems.


An organic solar cell according to one embodiment comprises: a substrate; a first electrode located on the substrate; an active layer which is located on the first electrode and includes an organic photoelectric material; an electron transport layer which is located on the active layer and includes an organic material; a second electrode located on the electron transport layer; and a plurality of first metal nanoparticles in which at least a part is located within the electron transport layer.


Sustainable open data management systems are key elements to overcome long-term publishing and consumption challenges on open data platforms. However, most existing solutions have not been envisaged as sustainable approaches to cope with key data attributes such as timeliness, accessibility and usability. In this paper, we present a framework that addresses these challenges and ensures the efficient publication of dynamic data on open data platforms, as well as improving the consumption experience of end-users. The framework describes the architecture of a sustainable system that can operate continuously in an automated way. It involves: 1) introducing an evolvable and scalable ecosystem to guarantee the access to dynamic data when they are made available; 2) tackling governance using an autonomous agent to provide the capacity of dynamically publishing/unpublishing data resources on open data platforms. It ensures easier accessibility and greater efficiency for data developers, facilitating the development of data-enabled products, thus helping developers to seize the opportunities of the data economy; and 3) improving the consumption experience by introducing conversational bots, which enhances the usability of open data. We demonstrate the results and validity of the solution in practice through its implementation, evaluation and exploitation as a practical system in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Spain. The framework developed can be considered a generic solution to manage open data publishing and consumption challenges in other domains.


In the current scenario with the Internet of Things looming on every aspect and activity of daily life, the need for the interconnection with information grids is inevitable. Information from one device to another, to others, is always happening and thus, are prone to transmission errors. To mitigate these errors, CRC can be used. The added error checking feat is also an issue since the device will need to code and decode the checksum. This research presents the energy consumption of a microcontroller with an internal Cyclic Redundancy Check module. Such microcontroller is the PIC24FV32KA302 from Microchip. An energy profile was used to determine the behavior of microcontroller using a CRC-16 configuration.


Use of the best-designed structure parameters obtained from a simulation analysis is an efficient means to develop semiconductor lasers. From this viewpoint we have developed a simulation program which is of practical use. The characteristic aspect of the program is to find physical parameters mainly from theoretical calculations without recourse to experimental data, and to take into account the Auger recombination and the intervalence-band absorption. This makes the program useful for arbitrary materials. To attain high-speed simulation, we have used some simplifying models for calculations which would otherwise be complicated inherently in the inner stripe geometry. It is found that despite various simplifications, calculated results offer a satisfactory quantitative description of experimental results on laser operations in GaAlAs lasers such as the threshold current and the differential quantum efficiency.


Where Westporters and locals select their favorite books across a wide range of subjects and interests. Please scroll down for selections.


1 Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 2 School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, Department of Cardiology, University Heart Center Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, 4 Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, Department of Cardiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 7 Faculty of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 8 IMB, UMR 5251, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France, 9 IHU Liryc, Electrophysiology and Heart Modeling Institute, Fondation Bordeaux University, Pessac, France


The real estate portal has grown into a successful e-Business model that is combined on and offline. Although IT technologies have shown rapid growth, the real estate portals have failed to satisfy the expectations of the Internet users. Based on Michael Porter's competitive forces framework, this study proposes five competitive strategies for continuing growth of the real estate portals. First, to strengthen bargaining power against supplier, buyer and potential new entrants, the real estate portals need to construct a basic network that is cost efficient and maintains real estate goods and makes profits by collaborative deals. Second, strengthen brand value and endeavor to escape from dependency on the Internet portals. Third, develop services to consider changed circumstances and give a lot of sources to make profit to real estate agencies. Fourth, concentrate on marketing to draw in the Internet users and adapt strategies that have been successful in other fields. Finally, real estate fields can seek out ideas for developing new business models from other successful e-Business models and should benchmark them to reduce expenses to a minimum and increase benefits to a maximum.


Nowadays, one of the most promising developments for a safer and more sustainable mobility is the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV), where the Advanced Driving Systems (ADAS) and connectivity cooperate and take advantage of each other. The Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) might be one of the beneficiaries of such collaboration, being in turn the key enabler of platooning. While this cooperation improves safety and driving efficiency, it also opens the door to increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. This paper analyses a CACC based platoon model approach in which communication is vulnerable to jamming attack. Jamming attack refers to to an unwanted signal radiated by a malicious device intended to impair the quality of an operating link. Two different platooning variants are compared taking diverse scenarios into account. The presented approach shows how platooning can be susceptible to cyberattacks and some directional measures to mitigate it are proposed.


This research highlights a procedure which includes a feature selection technique to single out relevant attributes, and an ensemble technique to handle the class-imbalance issue. In this research we look at two potential scenarios: (1) Ensemble models constructed from the original datasets, without feature selection, and (2) Ensemble models constructed from the reduced datasets after feature selection has been applied. Four feature selection techniques are employed: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Pearson's correlation, Greedy Stepwise Forward selection, and Information Gain (IG). The aim of this research is to assess the effectiveness of feature selection techniques using ensemble techniques. Five datasets, obtained from the PROMISE software depository, are analysed. Tentative results indicate that ensemble methods can improve the model's performance without the use of feature selection techniques. Based on the area under curve (AUC) performance measurement PCA feature selection and bagging based on K-NN perform better than both bagging based on SVM and boosting based on K-NN and SVM. The AUC values based on K-NN with PCA enhanced for three datasets CM1, KC3, MC2. The AUC values for the three datasets are 0.726, 0.775, and 0.750 respectively. Feature selection techniques, including Pearson's correlation, Greedy Stepwise, and IG, weaken the ensemble models' performance.


Nanotechnology is the technology, that deals with the particles of size less than 100nm. It is a combined field of Chemistry, Electronics, Biology, Materials science, chemistry and Engineering. It is the fastest growing area for the maintenance of skin health as well as for diagnosis and management of cutaneous diseases. Nanotechnology is applied for manufacturing of materials, electronic chips, for medical diagnosis and healthcare, biotechnology, space exploration, textiles, sports equipment, etc. However, use of nanotechnology in cosmetics is not new and has been introduced since 1961 with the advent of liposome technology used to market some moisturising creams. This widespread influence of nanotechnology in the cosmetic industries is due to enhanced properties that are attained by the particles at nano levels including color, transparency, solubility etc. Its progress will also give opportunity for cosmetic industry to develop new bio compatible and bio degradable products and will yield products of better quality.


Background: MMS19 was recently identified as part of the cytosolic iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster assembly (CIA) machinery. Results: MMS19 and MIP18 both interact with CIA and Fe-S proteins, and ANT2 binds to this complex. Conclusion: MMS19, MIP18, and ANT2 facilitate Fe-S cluster insertion into cytosolic Fe-S proteins. Significance: Identification of proteins in the CIA complex elucidates aspects of cytoplasmic iron-sulfur cluster assembly. Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters are essential cofactors of proteins with a wide range of biological functions. A dedicated cytosolic Fe-S cluster assembly (CIA) system is required to assemble Fe-S clusters into cytosolic and nuclear proteins. Here, we show that the mammalian nucleotide excision repair protein homolog MMS19 can simultaneously bind probable cytosolic iron-sulfur protein assembly protein CIAO1 and Fe-S proteins, confirming that MMS19 is a central protein of the CIA machinery that brings Fe-S cluster donor proteins and the receiving apoproteins into proximity. In addition, we show that mitotic spindle-associated MMXD complex subunit MIP18 also interacts with both CIAO1 and Fe-S proteins. Specifically, it binds the Fe-S cluster coordinating regions in Fe-S proteins. Furthermore, we show that ADP/ATP translocase 2 (ANT2) interacts with Fe-S apoproteins and MMS19 in the CIA complex but not with the individual proteins. Together, these results elucidate the composition and interactions within the late CIA complex.


A new method using a cylindrical lens with two wedges to improve the uniformity of the line laser is provided to solve the problem of laser beam uniformly transmitting in the laser communication.The theory model of the optical system for the beam shaping was built with ZEMAX.The uniformity of the beam through the cylindrical lens is analyzed with the model at the different parameters(radius,angle between two slopes and the refractive index of lens medium).The result shows that the line laser with the uniform intensity distribution can be obtained by changing the cylindrical lens parameters under the condition of far field.


The structure, magnetic properties and microstructure of Sm2Fe15−xCuxGa2C (x=0 and 0.5) ribbons prepared by melt spinning and subsequent heat treatment were studied. A significant increase in coercivity has been found for ribbons prepared with the addition of a small amount of Cu. The maximum coercivity μ0Hc is 1.4 and 2.0 T at room temperature for ribbons with x=0 and 0.5, respectively, after annealing in vacuum at 1043 K for 15 min. A small amount of Cu addition has little effect on the lattice parameters, Curie temperature TC, and magnetocrystalline anisotropy field HA at room temperature, while it decreases the saturation magnetization Ms. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants K1 and K2 for the x=0 and 0.5 samples were determined in the temperature range between 50 and 293 K, using magnetically aligned samples. The variations of coercivity, magnetization, and remanence as functions of applied field and temperature are consistent with the view that the magnetization of Sm2Fe15−xCuxGa2C ribbons wi...


During the construction of buildings and structures, as well as during operation, it is often necessary to carry out a set of measures to reduce the level of ground (underground) water. This is due to the frequent occurrence of dangerous natural and man-made processes - flooding of built-up areas, which cause adverse changes in the natural and man-made environment. The article discusses the main methods of water reduction, in order to choose the optimal and rational method of work during the construction and operation of buildings and structures. When choosing the most effective and optimal method of water reduction, it is necessary to take into account not only the physical properties of the soil, but also the technical, technological and economic aspects of the problem being solved.


Using the theory of moduli of curves, we establish various slope inequalities for general fibered surfaces. More precisely, we introduce the notion of functorial divisors on Artin stacks and prove a theorem concerning their effectiveness. Furthermore, we consider the moduli stack of reduced and local complete intersection canonically polarized curves and prove that the closed substack parametrizing non-stable curves has no divisorial components. Applying the above theorems to some tautological divisors on various moduli stacks of curves, we obtain several slope (in)equalities, e.g., a generalization of Moriwaki's slope inequality, slope equalities of general fibered surfaces whose fibers satisfy the Morsification conjecture. As applications, we provide a positive answer to Reid's conjecture concerning algebraic Morsification of non-hyperelliptic fibrations of genus $3$ and a positive partial answer to the question posed by Lu and Tan regarding the Chern invariants of fiber germs.


This book brings together 11 essays by international specialists in Victorian culture and modernism. The volume opens with a general introduction to distributed cognition that also sets out its relevance to the humanities, followed by a period-specific introduction.
The essays revitalise our reading of Victorian and modernist works in the fields of literature, art, philosophy, material culture and the history of science and technology by bringing to bear recent insights in cognitive science and philosophy of mind on the ways in which cognition is distributed across brain, body and world.


The tendencies and prospects of the Russian economy development as an energy net-exporter country are considered in the context of perspective supply-demand dynamics in the world energy markets. Medium- and long-term prospects of oil and gas prices dynamics as one of the key factors of economic growth in Russia in the post-crisis period are analyzed. It is shown that due to predicted slowing of the world energy demand growth rates and strengthening in this connection of the competition in the traditional Russian markets the dual Russian economy character (it is not only a producer, but also a rather intensive consumer of energy) makes the problem of internal economy diversification very urgent. A conclusion is made that it is necessary to carry out preventive measures aimed at accelerated transformation of the Russian gas sector (or in addition to the oil sector) into a major factor of economic growth.


The authors present the results of a clinical and endoscopic controlled trial of outpatients with duodenal ulcer treated with carbenoxolone (CBX) and carbenoxolone plus antacids (CBX + AA). They observed complete healing of the duodenal ulcer in 77%-83,3% in both groups of patients. They concluded that CBX is important in the treatment of duodenal ulcer been equally effective alone or in association with antacids.


What is the potential for using nonprofit institutions to foster radical change in the United States? At a time when the public sector is heavily constrained, does the third sector provide a base for radical activity? Recent writing advocating growth of the sector is surveyed, as are some of the sector's most significant areas of activity. While most nonprofit institutions function for social reproduction and tight constraints exist for all of them, they do offer some means by which to work for change.


The "geography" of the Balkans is "prisoner" to a double discursive "incarceration": externally, within the field of balkanism and internally, within the national paradigm. "Geography" is a symbolically inscribed region, and the Balkans' historical legacy defines the region as a specific "geography," however national paradigm defines historical legacy. If the national paradigm were abolished, this would rupture the chain of top-down signification and leave the geography open to a multitude of intersecting histories. To this end, this essay examines two canons of national paradigms: those of Benedict Anderson and Maria Todorova. Central to each paradigm is the incommensurability thesis of nationalism and racism, race, and nationality. To argue the opposite to their thesis – that modern nations are racial formations, that nation is not imagined but rather racialized communities – this essay strategically uses "race" to show how the national paradigm recycles Eurocentric colonial amnesia and inscribes the Balkans "geography" as raceless.


The northernmost section 1 (StA 1) of the section of line being upgraded (ABS) and newly built (NBS) between Karlsruhe and Basel runs from Karlsruhe to Rastatt Süd. 16 km of new line is being built, which should be in operation in 2022. The core structure of StA 1 is the 4, 270 m long Rastatt Tunnel, the second largest engineered structure in the overall ABS/NBS Karlsruhe‐Basel project after the Katzenberg Tunnel. The main contract for the construction of the tunnel was awarded in August 2014. The first preparatory construction measures on site started in summer 2013. Due to the prevailing conditions of topography and existing infrastructure and the continuously increasing requirements of approvals and codes, the construction of the Rastatt Tunnel poses great challenges for the engineers, which demand innovative solutions in design and construction as well as a collaborative approach from all those involved in the project.


The changes in the emergy structure of Beijing urban ecosystem were analyzed with Emergy method from 1990 to 2001,some indicators of emergy were selected such as per capita emergy,the density of emergy,the potential of ecological functions,the basic carrying capacity of population,the self-supporting rate of emergy,and so on,and the dynamics of emergy of the city were assessed.The research result shown that Beijing urban ecosystem developed up to a higher level,but the city also faced great challenges from ecological and environmental pressures and it was an urgent task to strengthen the capacity building of sustainability for the city development.Some key areas for this capacity building also were presented.


Miniaturization of sensing devices not only reduces the size, but also enhances the performance and reliability in sector of automation, space, weather monitoring and forecasting. It has become important for scientist and researchers working in the field of micro-electro-mechanical system area to simulate the structure before actual fabrication. This paper reports about the performance of proper meshing required to lead the exact results of simulated circular silicon diaphragm with the help of finite element method. In this paper, we have shown that the proper meshing of the circular silicon diaphragm has shifted the vibrating frequency of the diaphragm under different pressures applied.


M6ssbauer spectroscopy was used to determine the iron-containing minerals that remained in two different Spanish subbituminous coals after acidic treatments. Spectra were taken before and after treatments of both coals with HCI and HCI followed by HF. Pyrite, jarosite and Fe2*-clay were the main iron mineral constituents of the untreated samples. After the treatments significant changes in the relative concentration of these s[~-cies were noticed. The weakness of the used demineralization procedures is discussed.


A primary condition of rational physiological analysis is the discovery of organic invariants. An organic invariant is a property of the organism expressing its capacity to exhibit a particular kind of performance. The property clearly must be determinate, 1 in the sense that it is experimentally recoverable in adequate repetitions of the observations, else we have no right to regard it as expressing anything. The quantitative measure of this property should be independent of the specific magnitudes of the inciting conditions. Considerations of this sort are peculiarly important for the study of behavior, 1 although obviously not confined to this field, and for the use of data based upon organic response. Response to visual flicker supplies an example? The elementary problem is to deduce from the properties of the data of such responses the nature of the system in which these properties are determined and by which their exhibition is governed. This is essentially a problem of statistical mechanics. Its solution requires the use of


ABSTRACT This contribution presents a set of original and innovative methodological procedures for the development and the verification of artificial neural networks (ANNs). The procedures are conceived to provide a practical support in the build-up and verification processes of ANNs and address the following open issues: (i) the possibility to a-priori know the minimum size and the best assortment of the training database to optimize the ANN performance; (ii) the verification of the adequacy and effectiveness of the ANN input parameters, in order to avoid redundant information that may cause overfitting; and (iii) the assessment of the reliability of the ANN predictions when applied to new data. For this purpose, the procedures are applied to an existing ANN tool that the authors have recently designed for the prediction of the main parameters characterizing wave interaction with coastal and harbor structures. The main outcomes of the analyses suggest that (i) the size of training database depends on the ANN degrees of freedom; (ii) the use of three literature indicators allows to verify the appropriate selection of the input parameters; and (iii) the Euclidean distance among training data and new inputs can provide a useful a-priori indication of the reliability of the ANN predictions.


Data communication in mobile and cellular environments is still in its infancy. Data traffi c generated by mobile users lacks the diversity of the fi xed Internet. On the one hand, the limited bandwidth available for mobile users is still a major hurdle for some Internet applications. On the other hand, a universal inexpensive mobility solution built to support the different wireless architectures while offering service ubiquity is still missing. Despite this, some applications such as location-based services (LBS) have found a natural application domain by mobile users. Data traffi c, in such applications, is generated by users accessing information linked to their movement context. To improve access to these services while limiting the effects of mobility, communication should occur near the edge, while staying localized. In this paper, a distributed approach is proposed for mediating location information between heterogeneous geographic information severs in a peer-to-peer manner. A design methodology is proposed to ensure the localized impact of mobility-lead communication overhead. Both numerical and simulative analyses are carried out. mobile LBS, vertical handover, overlay, range queries,


The present document starts from the relative existence of the electromagnetic field, reaching through mental experiments to its connection with the gravitational field, without the necessity to resort to other space - time dimensions or supplementary "exotic" particles. The main idea is: Generalized Relativity says, through the Equivalence Principle, that local we cannot distinguish between the effects of an accelerated movement (effects of an acceleration field) and the effects of a gravitational field. Knowing that an electron located in a field of acceleration (accelerated) will radiate in report to an observer outside of the acceleration field effect, then through the aforementioned equivalence, and an electron being at rest in a gravitational field, has to radiate in reference to an observer who is outside of that gravitational field. In conclusion, it explain why we have expansion "super-accelerated" of the universe, without the necessity of dark energy.


The results of the study of eight selected and elite gooseberry seedlings in the Middle Urals are represented in this article. All seedlings, with the exception of II-12-4, are winter-hardy. The hybrids II-7-7,8 and II-10-4 have the maximum berry weight (7.9–9.0 g). In 2019, variety 'Demidovsky' (II-7-7,8) was accepted to State Variety Testing program.


Avoiding flow-induced vibration damage is a major concern to the designers and operators of shell-and-tube heat exchangers. This paper discusses the characteristics of tube vibration as determined from a research program featuring tests of an industrial-size exchanger. The state of the art in understanding and predicting tube vibration and shell-side flow distribution is briefly reviewed. Finally, research needs are identified and discussed.


Body ecology is a micro-ecology. It is a discipline derived from philosophical naturism, deep ecology and
holistic body-mind practices developed since 1850 in the corporeal experience of body recreation, outdoor
living, and body awakening techniques using emersiology. It is because we transform the practices of individuals
that ecology is transformed. This paper seeks to explain the new discipline of body ecology, and its
focus on the significance of micro-situations and micro-experiences.


Perioperative fluctuations in pulmonary function and nutritional state in a patient on home oxygen therapy (HOT) who had malneutrished for advanced gastric carcinoma which intussuscepted into the duodenum with ball valve syndrome are reported. An 83-year-old man, whose pulmonary function (FEV 1.0%) and undernourishment were rapidly deteriorating, was admitted to the hospital because of dyspnea, vomiting, and weight loss. After a distal gastrectomy, body weight, FEV 1.0%, and prognostic nutritional index were prominently inproved up to the state before HOT induction. In patients with latent chronic occlusive disease of the lung or those on HOT, determinant factors on the pulmonary function might be perioperative changes in nutritional state from preoperative malnutritional state due to associated malignancy to postoperative improved nutritional state along with improved feeding.


The present invention discloses a fountain solution containing green lotus leaf extract, prepared from the following raw materials in parts by weight of component: methyl paraben 3-4, 6-7 trialkyl ammonium chloride , sheep milk fat 4-6, 4-6, glyceryl monostearate, triethanolamine 0.6-0.8, 8-10 disodium hydrogen phosphate, stearate, 4-6, 4-6 dichloromethane, acid sodium hexametaphosphate 2 -3, jojoba oil 0.5-0.8,2- butoxyethanol 5-7, 10-12 carboxymethylcellulose, lotus leaf extract 0.2-0.4, 0.2-0.4 Chamomile essential oil, imidazolinium betaine 1- 2, polyphenols 0.3-0.5, ethylenediamine 1-2, 1-2, pentaerythritol, vaseline 2-3, 1-2 compound additive, water 10-15. Environmental fountain solution containing lotus leaf extract of the present invention has a low surface tension, good wetting properties, chemical stability characteristics, a water film is formed in the blank portion of the printing plate uniformly, and environmentally friendly.


We present a simple method for causing the end of a silicon nitride atomic force microscope (AFM) tip to emit light, and we use this emitted light to perform scanning near-field optical microscopy. Illumination of a silicon nitride AFM tip by blue (488nm) or green (532nm) laser light causes the sharp part of the tip to emit orange light. Orange light is emitted when the tip is immersed in either air or water; and while under illumination, emission continues for a period of many hours without photobleaching. By careful alignment of the incident beam, we can arrange the scattered light to decay as a function of the tip-substrate separation with a decay length of 100–200nm. The exponential decay of the intensity means that the emitted light is dominated by contributions from parts of the tip that are near the sample, and therefore the emitted orange light can be used to capture high-resolution near-field optical images in air or water.


This paper addressed the feasibility of using an active piezoelectric buffet suppression system to reduce buffet vibrations in vertical tail aircraft. During the assessment, functional requirements were defined, models were developed, and full-scale piezoelectric buffet suppression systems were designed and evaluated. A variety of actuator distributions, sensor locations and controller architectures were examined and it was found that significant performance improvements could be achieved (greater than 70 percent) with minimal weight penalties (less than 8 percent). This work enabled the evaluation of issues such as system performance versus added weight and piezoelectric actuator control authority and power requirements. The study showed that the added performance benefit (in terms of vibration reduction and fatigue life) are far greater than the weight penalty, and that piezoelectric actuators have the control authority required to suppress high energy buffet forces within aircraft geometry, weight, and power constraints. Further, the high performance achieved (much greater than that defined in the functional requirements) suggests that systems can be designed with a much lower weight penalty (1/2 to 1/4) than that assumed in this study.


A1. (Invited) Deep UV LEDs with GaN/AlN quantum structures using polarization-induced doping SM Islam, Vladimir Protasenko, Sergei Rouvimov, Samira Chandra, Jai Verma, Huili (Grace) Xing, and Debdeep Jena The 230-270 nm emission is very attractive for water purification, sterilization application, diagnostics and hazardous chemicals detection. Unfortunately, LED devices emitting at short wavelengths and utilizing AlGaN for active area suffer significant energy losses due to non-radiative recombination near structural defects. Replacing AlGaN with ultra-thin GaN quantum wells (QWs) and quantum dots (QDs) and AlN for barriers can solve this problem due to better carrier localization in quantum dots, absence of compositional variation in GaN/AlN structure, and better light extraction with TE polarized emission. Also traditional impurity doping schemes are difficult for such high Al content AlGaN alloys due to the large activation energies of dopants. In order to solve the issue of doping, polarization-induced (or Pi-) doping scheme is used in the devices. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate electrically injected tunable deep UV emission from GaN/AlN quantum structures. The emission wavelength is tuned over 231 nm→270 nm range by changing thickness of GaN layer placed between similar thicknesses of AlN barrier. We grew the LED structures on commercially available AlN templates on Sapphire with a threading dislocation density of ~1e10 cm-2 using plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). Polarization doping (Pidoping) is established by changing the chemical composition linearly for both p and n doped regions of the LED structures. The Pi-doping ensures flat bands for both electrons and holes in the n and p doped regions respectively which facilitates smooth injection of carriers into the active region that emits the light. Thin AlN barriers in the active region enables tunneling of carriers which further enhances carrier injection. We grew 1-4 monolayers (MLs) thick GaN QDs by Stranski-Krastanov mode between 2 nm thick AlN barriers. By varying the GaN thickness, the emission wavelength can be tuned over 231-270 nm range. A2. Surface Plasmon Propagation in Cut Waveguides Paul Johns and Gregory Hartland Nanoscale optical waveguides can be used to create nano-circuits, perform logic functions, split signals, or aid in the development of plasmonic lasers. In these applications, long propagation lengths and control of the modes is desireable. Developing plasmonic devices requires an under-standing of how defects in the waveguides affect propagation, and how plasmons couple between devices. An example of a plasmonic waveguide is a gold nanobar (a nanowire with a rectangular cross-section), which supports bound and leaky propagating surface plasmon polaritons. Defects were introduced into single-crystalline gold nanobars by cutting them in several places using FIB milling. Plasmons were launched using end-fire coupling, and a pump-probe spectroscopy technique was used to directly image the plasmon propagation in the nanobars. The intensity of the plasmon mode was shown to decrease at the cuts. Finite element method calculations as implemented by COMSOL Multiphysics were used to study how the mode shapes were changed by the discontinuities and to study damping of the modes during propagation. The results of the calculations are in good agreement with the experiments, and show that a resonance effect occurs at gap sizes of ~30 nm. It was determined that of the two primary modes that propagate through the structures, the leaky mode (which occurs at the interface of air and gold) is heavily damped by the cut while the bound mode (which occurs at the interface of glass and gold) is not as severely affected. A3. Engineering the Reststrahlen Band with Hybrid Plasmonic/Phononic Modes W. Streyer, K. Feng, Y. Zhong, A.J. Hoffman, and D. Wasserman The so called phononic materials has drawn more and more interest because of their superiorities over the traditional plasmonic materials in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range. Comparing to the surface plasmon polaritons (SPP), the surface phonon polaritons (SPhP) supported by phononic materials suffer from much smaller material loss, which can result in longer propagation length and higher Q factors in propagation and localized modes, respectively. However, the SPhP modes are confined within the spectral range between a material's transvers and longitudinal phonon frequencies, also known as the Reststrahlen band. In order to break the limitation of the fixed spectral range for SPhP modes, here we demonstrate that for materials with appropriate free carrier concentration, the hybrid surface plasmon/phonon polariton (SPPhP) modes can be supported across a range of frequencies including those generally forbidden by purely phononic materials. In this work, we first characterize the intrinsic and doped GaAs samples by measuring their reflection spectra around the Reststrahlen band of GaAs. The samples are then patterned with gratings so that the incident light can couple to the surface of the samples as SPhP or SPPhP modes. The reflection spectra of TE polarized light with different azimuth angels are obtained from both RCWA simulation and measurements. Dispersion curves of the hybrid modes are calculated and mapped out based on the RCWA simulations. The TM reflection spectra are also acquired in the same way. It is observed that localized resonance modes have been excited around the LO phonon frequency of GaAs, which can be the potential bridge between LO phonons and free space photons at the same energy. A4. Application of critical dimension metrology techniques for the fabrication of low loss optical waveguides Yuan Tian and Douglas C. Hall For Silicon photonics applications aimed towards integrating light-emitting compound semiconductors with Si electronics integrated circuits, wafer bonding is often preferred to III-V heteroepitaxial growth on Si for its smaller resulting density of interface misfit dislocations and other advantages. Oxide to oxide wafer bonding, where strong bonding can be formed at annealing temperatures <350°C, is essential when bonding GaAs or InP wafers to Si in order to avoid thermal dissociation of the compound semiconductor and issues related to mismatched coefficients of thermal expansion. We propose and demonstrate that optimized III-V compound semiconductor wet thermal native oxides with low surface roughness, typically < 1 nm, offer additional flexibility for photonic/silicon wafer bonding, as the surface roughness can readily meet the sub-nm requirement even for thick oxide layers. The method can be applied through oxidation of a variety of III-V compound semiconductor alloys used in both GaAs and InP systems. Compared to other complicated pre-bonding treatment processes including fabrication of outgassing channels and plasma activation, our wet thermal native oxide mediated bonding technique may enable a more reliable, lower cost process readily applicable to large scale wafer bonding. Possible applications include the development of broadband, low-cost on-chip Erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers employing InAlP thermal native oxides (a promising rare earth host), and the improved fabrication of silicon hybrid lasers to combine the communication advantages of photonic devices with well-established Si CMOS fabrication techniques. Preliminary calculations suggest that both oxidation and annealing steps can be achieved under 350°C to avoid known thermal degradation mechanisms in InP-based quantum well laser heterostructures. Experiments demonstrating successful low temperature wafer bonding of compound semiconductors with thin wet thermal native surface oxides to oxidized Si wafers will be discussed. A5. Application of critical dimension metrology techniques for the fabrication of low loss optical waveguides Zachary C. Santonil and Douglas C. Hall This talk presents the use of critical dimension (CD) metrology as a means to optimize the fabrication of low-loss deepetched high-index contrast (HIC) III-V compound semiconductor waveguide structures. HIC waveguides have been a topic of interest in the area of photonic integration in that they can be used to attain micrometer bend radii as opposed to the millimeter band radii exhibited by conventional waveguide structures. However, as the lateral refractive index contrast increases, these structures are much more susceptible to scattering loss due to sidewall roughness. Previous work conducted by our research group has focused on improving sidewall roughness through an isotropic oxidation smoothing process. In order to realize the lowest possible loss HIC waveguides, it is essential to further optimize each fabrication stage in order to fully minimize the final sidewall roughness accumulated after several processing steps. Thus, CD metrology was recently implemented with the intention of extracting quantifiable and relative metrics to observe the various contributions to sidewall roughness introduced throughout the fabrication of the waveguide structure. Using modern line digitization techniques with the SuMMIT CD Suite on images obtained through scanning electron microscopy, fabrication steps can be analyzed and optimized by comparing various CD metrics – in particular – line edge roughness (LER) and correlation length (Lc). For waveguide optimization, reduced LER is always desirable, whereas the more complex relationship between waveguide loss and correlation length is nonmonotonic and depends on the waveguide geometry. This talk will discuss the implementation of line digitization techniques to obtain the LER and Lc of waveguide processing steps such as lithography, pattern transfer to a hard silicon nitride etch mask, and inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching of the waveguide ridge structure. Various other process improvements useful for achieving reduced sidewall roughness for low HI


Background:
 Lay advisor interventions for hypertension are frequently tailored to a single racial group. We conducted a systematic review comparing components of lay advisor interventions for hypertension across racial groups in the US.

 Methods:
 Multiple databases were searched from 1980 to 2020 using relevant search terms.

 Results:
 Of 5986 articles, 14 studies were eligible for inclusion: 5 with predominantly white participants, 4 with Black participants, 3 with Hispanic participants and 2 with Asian participants. All studies but two were RCTs.

 One study with white participants and one with Hispanic participants were clinic-based; all other studies were community-based. Lay advisors were matched to participants' social groups in 13 studies and 1 study used health coaches with a bachelor's degree. Home visits were included in 44% (4/9) of studies with minority participants and in no studies with predominantly white participants. Most (4/5) studies with white participants included group education and one study had individual education. All studies with Black participants included only individual education. Two studies with Hispanic participants included group education while one study used health coach phone calls and home BP monitoring. Both studies with Asian participants included group education with follow-up individual education.
 For BP outcomes: 3 studies with predominantly white participants, 3 with Black participants, 1 with Hispanic participants, and 2 with Asian participants showed statistically significant improvement. One health coach study with Hispanic participants showed a systolic BP reduction of 19.3 mm Hg; all other studies showed mean systolic BP improvements between 6 to 8.3 mm Hg across races. Three studies examined hypertension control outcomes, of which 2 studies with Asian participants showed improved hypertension control. Individualized low-intensity interventions were as effective as high-intensity interventions.

 Conclusion:
 Lay advisor interventions were effective and mainly community-based across racial groups. Individualized education by lay advisors belonging to patients' social groups may be a feasible and effective approach for health systems that care for diverse populations.


This paper provides an overview of school psychology research published in Japan from July 2017 to June 2018. With the aim of studying the possibility that school psychology can contribute to child and teacher support and student guidance, we (1) reviewed the history of the relationship between teachers and school counselors in student guidance, (2) summarized the papers presented at The 60th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology (Keio University), and (3) classified the topics of research published in the field of school psychology. It was found that various psychoeducational education programs are being developed. However, the time and opportunities to implement such programs are limited due to the busyness of the schools and teachers. Additional studies focusing on the process and meaning of support for children provided by school teachers are needed. Finally, the necessity of focusing on a teacher's practical thinking in student guidance is discussed.


In observational studies of growing pigs in North Carolina, we cultured paired samples of mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and cecal contents for Salmonella using standard methods for selective enrichment and plating. Apparent Salmonella prevalence was higher among cecal (39.2%) than MLN (20.5%) samples from the same animals. Salmonella Typhimurium var. Copenhagen (STC) and S. Derby comprised 84% of all isolates at slaughter. For these two serovars we found an association between serovar and sample type. The odds of isolating STC from MLN rather than cecum were 5.7 (95%CI 3.0 to 10.7) times higher than the odds for S. Derby. The odds for isolating STC from MLN versus cecum were 58 times higher for groups where STC had been isolated from the pigs on farm than for groups where it was had not been detected on farm. These findings suggest biological differences among common group B Salmonella serovars in the pig. Introduction The conventional view of medical microbiologists, that all Salmonella serovars are pathogenic, implies that all merit equal consideration in control programs. This view is supported in part by the frequent emergence of previously unfamiliar serovars in outbreaks of human salmonellosis (Cherubin, 1981). Beyond the few host-adapted serovars that show little or no propensity for cross-species infection (S. Typhi; S. Gallinarum/Pullorum; S. Choleraesuis; etc.), there is minimal information available with respect to epidemiological heterogeneity among Salmonella serovars. However, over many decades it has been clear that relatively few Salmonella serovars are implicated in the vast majority of cases of human and animal salmonellosis. The underlying reasons for this have not been critically considered, but biological and epidemiological differences among serovars are one obvious possibility. In field studies Salmonella in North Carolina, we examined the distributions of serovars isolated in paired samples of mesenteric lymph node (MLN) and cecal contents of individual slaughtered pigs from 4 farms. Of primary interest was the question of whether the choice of sampling site would influence conclusions regarding the profile of serovars present in a swine population. However, at a mechanistic level, discordant results for these tissues might also provide some insight into the interactions of various serovars with the host. Materials and Methods The experimental design and methods employed for this study have been described in detail elsewhere (Gebreyes et al., 2004). Longitudinal sampling of individually identified growing pigs was conducted on 2 cohorts of 60 pigs from each of 4 farms. The final fecal samples on farms were collected within 24 hours of slaughter. Following slaughter, paired samples of mesenteric lymph nodes (10g) and cecal contents (10 g) were cultured using standard methods of selective enrichment and plating. The total number of paired samples collected at slaughter was 405. Colonies with morphology typical of Salmonella were screened biochemically then sent for serotyping to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. Comparison of farm and slaughter results was reported in detail by Gebreyes et al (2004). This report compares results obtained from paired samples of cecal contents and MLN from individual pigs that were not detailed in that study. Serovars isolated from the slaughtered animals were described as concordant if the same serovar had been isolated from that group of pigs at slaughter, or discordant if the serovar had not been isolated at the farm. Results The prevalence of positive cultures was significantly higher for samples collected after slaughter (29.8%) than for fecal samples on farms (8.9%). Prevalence was higher among 405 cecal samples (39.2%) than 405 MLN samples from the same animals (20.5%). Although multiple serovars were isolated both on farms and at slaughter, S. Typhimurium var. Copenhagen (STC) and S. Derby comprised 64% of all isolates. For all groups, the number of serovars isolated from cecal samples (1 to 7; median 5) was greater (P = 0.03; Wilcoxon rank sum test) than for MLN samples O R A L P R E S E N T A T IO N S 59 SafePork 2005 (range 0 to 4; median 2.5). Overall, 84% of MLN isolates (n = 130) were concordant with serovars on the farm, while only 41% of cecal isolates were concordant (OR 7.4; 95% CI 4.2 to 12.8). For the 2 predominant serovars we found a statistically significant association between serovar and sample type (MLN node vs. cecum). Of 84 isolates of S. Derby obtained at slaughter from 6 cohorts, 66 (78.6%) were from cecal samples. In contrast, of 119 isolates of STC among 6 cohorts, 45 (37.8%) were from cecal samples, and a similar distribution was seen among 18 isolates on S. Typhimurium in one cohort (44% from cecal samples). Across all other serovars (n = 93), the proportion of isolates obtained from cecal samples (69.9%) was similar to that for S. Derby. The odds of isolating STC from MLN rather than cecum was 5.7 times higher (95%CI 3.0 to 10.7) than the odds for S. Derby. Considering only those cohorts in which S. Derby or STC had been previously isolated from pigs on farm, there were 87 instances in which the corresponding serovar was isolated from MLN compared with 60 isolations from cecal samples. In contrast, when these serovars had not been isolated from a group on the farm, only 6 MLN isolates were obtained compared to 51 cecal isolates. However, these ratios differed greatly when stratified by serovar. In all 6 cohorts where S. Derby was isolated at slaughter, the numbers of cecal S. Derby isolates exceeded (total 66) the number of MLN isolates (18). In contrast, for STC there was no such consistent pattern. While the ratio of MLN to cecal isolates overall was of the order of 2:1 for STC, across 3 of the 6 cohorts the number of cecal isolates (total 20) exceeded lymph node isolates of STC (1 only). In these 3 cohorts, STC had not been isolated from pigs at the farm while for the remaining 3 cohorts in which MLN isolates exceeded cecal isolates, STC had been isolated from the pigs on farm. The odds for isolating STC from MLN versus cecum was 58 (95% CI: 7.4 to 457) times higher for the 3 groups where STC was found on farm than for groups were it was not detected on farm. The corresponding odds ratio (3.1) for S. Derby was not statistically significant (0.92 to 10.4). Discussion These data were gathered in an observational study designed for other purposes (Gebreyes et al., 2004). Consequently interpretation of the data has to be cautious due to the possibilities of confounding or bias. The key outcome of the difference in prevalence and serovar profile between farm and slaughter and the likely role of infection during transport and lairage was discussed in detail by Gebreyes et al (2004). Regarding the results of the paired MLN and cecal samples presented here, the differences in prevalence are of less interest than the qualitative differences (distribution of serovars). The prevalence results are likely to be highly subject to methodological factors including sample weights (Funk et al., 2000). However, the observation that these two sources yielded markedly different serovar profiles implies that choice of samples may substantially influence the serovar profile observed in a study. Only 1 isolate per sample was serotyped, and the possibility that multiple serovars were present in samples must be acknowledged. However, this would be unlikely to explain the distribution of the results unless bias in colony selection was different for cecal and MLN samples. It is prudent to acknowledge that all studies of prevalence and serotypes of Salmonella are likely biased with respect to both sampling and bacteriologic methods (Rostagno et al., 2005). Although identical microbiological procedures were followed for both groups of samples, the sensitivity and selectivity of the enrichment procedures could vary between MLN and cecal samples which obviously present very different microbiological milieus. At first glance, our data indicate that results from culture of MLN were more concordant with farm results than for were those from cecal samples. It could be inferred that MLN samples yield a better assessment of on-farm exposures than do cecal samples. However, it must be remembered that 65% of MLN samples were STC or S. Typhimurium and that potential differences in serovar biology may have confounding effects. The apparently higher concordance of MLN samples could arise from several scenarios. Assuming a high risk of exposure in lairage, the rate of colonization of the cecum my exceed that of the MLN. Recent experimental studies confirm that multiple serovars of Salmonella can colonize both alimentary and non-alimentary tissues (including MLN) within 3 hours of intranasal inoculation (Loynachan et al., 2004). However, the high challenge doses used and low numbers used in these experimental studies may not permit detection of variations among serovars that may occur with recent exposure. Another experimental study found differences among Salmonella serovars with respect to their rates of transmission among pigs (van Winsen et al., 2001). Our data strongly suggest that the propensity of STC to translocate to MLN was substantially greater than for S. Derby and other serovars isolated in this study.


This chapter explains the theological boundaries within which Martin Luther developed his thoughts about theology of ministry. The fundamental task of the minister is to be the servant of the Word because this is the only way in which faith can be generated. The importance of the faithful is given theological significance with the scriptural expression: ?priesthood of all believers.' At the level of the church, the public ministry of Word and sacrament applies, which has also been instituted by Christ, but which is additionally dependent on a particular call from the church. The way in which Luther developed his theology of ministry from his central theme of justification by faith leads to the question of how Zwingli and Calvin connected their theology of ministry with their central theological themes and whether they relativized the importance of ministry.Keywords: Christ; Martin Luther; ministry


In the massive SO(3) gauge field theory, a critical choice of the configuration ansatz leads to a system of the Bogomol'nyi type equations governing the unstable modes of the model. A 't Hooft periodic condition implies the quantization of the flux lines confined in a cell domain if a certain class of solutions exist. The present paper establishes an existence theorem for such solutions via a constrained variational principle. These solutions exhibit the analogous properties of the vortex‐like solutions predicted in the theory of type II superconductivity by Abrikosov.


and the patient needs to be referred – provided that the oncological situation permits. Ideally, risk of sterility should not be a reason for tumor patients to refuse necessary chemotherapy. There is encouraging long-term outcome data for children conceived after their mothers received chemotherapy. Initially, the individual risk of chemotherapy induced amenorrhea (CIA) needs to be calculated, as described in the current DGGG guideline [3]. However, even if the risk seems rather low, particularly in very young women, fertility preservation needs to be addressed because of the potential of permanent consequences. The planned fertility protection procedures should not interfere with the efficacy of chemotherapy, but they should be offered to any female patient between the age of 14 and at least 40 years of age. Three possible techniques of preserving fertility can be discussed: About 2 weeks are needed for ovarian stimulation and subsequent cryoconservation of oocytes or embryos after in-vitro fertilization [4]. Pregnancy rates are higher if a partner is available and in-vitro fertilization can be aimed for. For laparoscopic removal of ovarian tissue without stimulation and subsequent cryoconservation, only about 3 days are needed. The evidence for ovarian protection by GnRH analogues is still controversial [5]; if indicated, the first GnRH injection should take place at least 2 weeks before start of chemotherapy in order to allow for an initial hormone surge before cessation of ovarian function. Overall, at present, success rates of all these techniques are still limited; methodological advances may however lead to better success rates in the near future. Thus, young patients need to be adequately counseled in order to be able to make an informed choice. In choosing the appropriate method, hormone-dependency of the cancer needs to be taken into account. In hormone-independent malignancies such as the NHL in the case report by Hauenstein et al, all fertility preservation methods would potentially be available. In hormone-dependent cancers such as the majority of breast cancers, methods potentially influencing tumor biology need to be considered with great care. In this issue of OnkOlOgie, Hauenstein and colleagues describe a tragic case of a young patient with a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who died after complications from a gastro-intestinal recurrence of her NHL [1]. The authors' underlying assumption is that this tragic death could have been prevented if the patient had not refused standard chemotherapy after initial diagnosis because of a strong desire to become pregnant. Even though their 28-year old patient became pregnant only 3 months after initial surgery for a gastric NHL manifestation, she and the 19-week old fetus did not survive septic complications of the rapid NHL recurrence. Physicians treating cancer patients are increasingly confronted with female patients who still have a strong desire to have children of their own, mostly patients with breast cancer and hematological malignancies. In industrialized countries, women tend to postpone their first pregnancy until they have established themselves in their jobs. Thus, age at first childbirth has constantly increased over the last decades. In Germany, it now lies at 26 years with a mean number of 1.37 children per woman (www.destatis.de). In view of increased cure rates for at least some cancer types and progress in reproductive techniques, various ways of fertility protection during chemotherapy can be discussed with young patients. The advice to patients regarding the optimal method for fertility protection needs to be based on several factors, taking into account tumor characteristics (time schedule between tumor diagnosis and start of chemotherapy, kind of tumor, stage of disease, and prognosis) as well as the patient's current life circumstances such as age and availability of a partner. Survival is probably the focus of a newly diagnosed cancer patient. Nevertheless, due to the potentially permanent consequences, the topic of fertility preservation should be early and proactively addressed by the treating physician in every cancer patient with child-bearing potential within the thorough discussion of the oncological therapy concept [2]. If this topic is an issue for the patient, more specialized counseling (i.e. reproductive medicine, psychooncology) may be required


The task of university communication with a potential student is to provide information that will enable assessment of the available selection options and making a decision about studying at a given faculty and at a given university. Effective activities in the field of university communication with potential students require proper planning, also in terms of communication channels used. The starting point when choosing effective tools and communication channels is to learn the needs and expectations of the candidates for the studies. The aim of the article is to define communication channels in which young people undertaking studies seek information about the possibilities of studying and convincing arguments in order to increase the effectiveness of promotional messages from universities. The article base on results of own research. The on-line survey (CAWI) was conducted in September 2018 on a sample of 409 respondents in one of the economic faculties in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship (random sample). #0# Introduction The development of the information society causes a change in many processes taking place in the economy, but also changes in consumer habits related to communication. The most important features of the information society include: the growing importance of information in all aspects of life, the widespread use of information technology, developed information and communication means, or extensive teleinformation infrastructure (Grzywińska-Rąpca,


The cylindrically gated (10,0) carbon nanotube field effect transistor having n-i-n device structure has been simulated by using the non-equilibrium Green function method and self-consistent calculations. The gate bias polarity and device temperature have been found to significantly influence the drain current obtained from energy-position resolved current spectrum under ballistic transport limit through simulations. The effect of temperature on drain current is seen to be more pronounced in thermionic emission as compared to band-to-band tunnelling.The cylindrically gated (10,0) carbon nanotube field effect transistor having n-i-n device structure has been simulated by using the non-equilibrium Green function method and self-consistent calculations. The gate bias polarity and device temperature have been found to significantly influence the drain current obtained from energy-position resolved current spectrum under ballistic transport limit through simulations. The effect of temperature on drain current is seen to be more pronounced in thermionic emission as compared to band-to-band tunnelling.


The literature of social rights is bigger every day. This show us an important concern for its present and future. From the Right and the political philosophy defenders and critics of these these rights approve or do not approve them. Nowadays, they know that the social rights are one of our most important legal and moral challenge at a time that going to confuse the society and the economy


Segmented polyurethane-ureas were prepared from low-molecular weight homopolymers or triblock (PEP) copolymers of ethylene and propylene oxides and 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate with hydrazine as chain extender. Equilibrium sorption of water vapor at 23°C was measured at eight to nine values of relative vapor pressure, 0.08 ≤ p/p0 ≤ 0.97. The effect of the structure (composition and length) of soft segments was studied. Sorption capacities were found to be lower than the reference values computed under the assumption that the contributions to sorption by the chain constituents are additive. This finding was assigned to the shielding effect of hard segment domains on the interaction of water molecules with hydrophilic (ethoxamer) groups of soft segments. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Due to the uncertainties of wind speed and various system states, to make the wind plant (WP) operates more efficiently, it is essential to maintain a fine match between the WP generated power and the wind power that can be accommodated into the connected transmission network. In the paper, for a WP with certain number of the wind turbine generator (WTG), each with a specific capacity, the proposed Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) approach is used to obtain the operational efficiency estimated by the average wind power that the power system can actually derive and with this information, how many WTG are suitable for the WP is thus suggested. The results also provide the information which parts of the network should be reinforced such that the operational efficiency of the WP can be improved.


The conditions of coal, the characteristics of physiognomy and the situation of production are summarized and the key problems of sustainable development in North West coal mine are analyzed. It is necessary and feasible to set up and run the system ISO14000. Finally, based on the strategy of sustainable development of Gansu coal industry, the specific ideas of implementing the standardization environment management system of China is put forward.


There are a number of different systems for electronic accompanying of the education at the Faculty of Electronic Technologies, Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria [1]. The main part of those systems is oriented towards the educational process itself [2, 3, 4]. A system oriented towards the auditorium based education and application of the Internet for the control of its process is being developed for several years [5]. The E-management system makes it possible to present a subject via an Internet site, which also shows its legitimacy (fig. 1.b).


Environmentalism is in trouble. Some denounce it for being 'depressing and dowdy'; others have announced its 'death'. Environmentalism faces three problems: the disconnection of 'the environment' as an intellectual concept from popular understandings, the broader development culture in which environmentalism is preached and the denial discourse it is popularly seen to spread. As a result, environmentalism is not dead but has become a 'zombie' category. Environmentalism can be reframed to enable more effective engagement with green practices by drawing constructive alignment between discourses of environmentalism and notions of fragmented and malleable identities. Doing so works towards a vocabulary of theory and practice that is sensitive to hybridity and contradiction, whilst retaining the utopian stimulus of conventional environmentalism. Drawing on the terminology of Haraway, 'coyote' environmentalism is one move towards a more productive framing of environmental practice.


Language-anthropology is a borderline discipline in which linguistics and anthropology overlap.When this discipline came into being,it studied the languages and culture of native people.At present,it mainly concerns endangered languages to maintain varieties of human cultures.Endangered language study may draw on the theory and method of anthropology.


One key-point to the success of data warehousing lies in the design of the warehouse design which must meet the user's needs. But, how can we meet personalized needs for analysis? In this paper, we introduce an approach which enables the user to integrate his own knowledge on the field in order to enrich the analysis capabilities of the warehouse and progressing its diagram. We also present some elements that are necessary for its implementation i.e. management model for the data warehouse progression, algorithms, etc. User knowledge is expressed in terms of "if-then" type rules. These latter are used to create granularity levels in dimension hierarchies. We developed this approach with a banking institution in order to allow its users to meet their needs for personalized analysis of banking data.


The paper examines various aspects of the specificity of the postmodern trend in tourism - food tourism. Basic concepts are defined and classification of its various manifestations is proposed. Analyses are made for opportunities of responsible tourism in this area in order to achieve sustainability. In conclusion is proposed a model that creates opportunities for integrating socially responsible practices in the tourism sector through responsible food tourism.


Xihoumen Bridge is the fourth bridge of the Zhoushan Mainland and Islands Link Project and is a suspension bridge of asymmetric structure.The south and north anchorages of the Bridge are all of gravity type anchorages and the geologic structures at the sites where the anchorages are located are complicated.The in-situ tests for the bearing capacity and frictional resistance coefficient of the rock foundation at the bottom of the south anchorage foundation pit were made.The results of the tests indicate that the bearing capacity of the rock foundation meets the values selected for the design.At different levels of the designed normal stress,the shear failure at the contact between the tested concrete slab and the rock foundation does not occur between the binding surface of the slab and rock,instead,the rock in the range of the tested slab fails first due to the shear force,the rock completely crashes and the allowable value of the frictional resistance coefficient determined by the tests is 0.61.


Thermal expansion coefficient, glass transition temperature, and deformation point for As-Se glasses have been determined from curves of elongation versus temperature. Data obtained are shown in Table 1 and Fig. 2. The results are summarized as follows:1) Glass transition temperature, Tg, and deformation point, Td, increase with increasing the As content up to its maximum at about 40 atomic per cent and then decrease. The relationships of Tg and Td versus the As content in the range of content 25-30 per cent give the negative deviation from linearity. It seems to be interpreted as evidence for formation of the weak bond of Se, such as nonbridging selenium in the glass.2) From the values of Tg and liquidus temperature, Tl, in Table 2 it can be seen that the "two third rule, Tg/Tl=2/3" holds fairy well.3) The relation between thermal expansion coefficient, α, and Tg is given by formula of the equation α⋅Tg2=constant.


Accurate cross sections of deuteron–induced reactions within an enlarged energy range up to 50 MeV are definitely involved by demands of on-going strategic research programs (ITER, IFMIF, SPIRAL2-NFS) using deuteron beams. Among them, the (d, p) and (d, 2p) reaction cross sections leading to hydrogen– gas bubble accumulation in the structural materials are very important for radiation damage studies. In contrast to the case of neutrons, systematics of deuteron activation cross sections, including those leading to hydrogen, triton, and helium–gas accumulation, is modest while even the newest evaluations show apparent discrepancies. Thus, the present work is devoted to the comparative analysis of measurements, model calculations, and evaluation corresponding to (d, p), and (d, 2p) activation cross sections, to improve the description of existing data and to provide trustful predictions where no measured data exist.


OBJECTIVE To investigate the sanitary situation of the drinking water in Huli district of Xiamen and provide scientific basis for strengthening the supervision and management of drinking water supply.METHODS Samples of the terminal tap water and the secondary water supply were analyzed by statistics from 2008 to 2011.The major analysis indicators included microbial indicators,toxicological indicators,sensory properties and chemical indicators,digestive indicators and water quality reference indicators.RESULTS The total qualification rate was 86.30% for the terminal tap water,and 71.51% for the secondary water supply.The total qualification rate of the terminal tap water was higher than that of the secondary water supply.The total qualification rate of the terminal tap water were significantly different in each year,the second year highest and the third year lowest.The total qualification rate of the drinking water was significantly different in the use of the buildings,the catering industry highest in the terminal tap water and the pure residential buildings highest in the secondary water supply.CONCLUSION The total qualification rate of the drinking water in Huli District should be further improved by using sub-pressure and chlorination technology,replacing the material of the water supply pipe,cleaning secondary water pools regularly and strengthening the monitor to weak links.


Dear Sir,

While not disagreeing with the general conclusions of Caironi and Gattinoni in their recent paper1 and actually very much appreciating their detailed review of albumin physiology, we should like to state one basic point of disagreement.

Referring to albumin's imidazole residues the authors write "In fact, having a pH of about 6.75, the residues may both give up or accept H+ from the environment depending on the surrounding pH, thereby acting as a buffer molecule". Apart from the fact that 6.75 represents the pK and not the pH, in our opinion albumin is not a buffer under physiological conditions.

Buffers are defined, according to Donald van Slyke, as "substances which by their presence in solution increase the amount of acid or alkali that must be added to cause unit change in pH2." Buffering capacity is measured in mEq/L (per pH unit), commonly symbolised as the "b value". Even though almost 90 years old, van Slyke's conclusion still holds true: "The ability of the blood in vivo to neutralize non-volatile acids without change in pH is not due to buffer action ... . It is due to the volatility of one of [the] acids, CO2, and the ability of the respiratory apparatus to remove... excess CO2 .... ".

If albumin is to be considered a buffer, its concentration ought to be positively correlated with the b value of whole blood. Its acid-base properties have been well characterised in human plasma by Figge3 and Constable and Stampfli4. The formulae for the relation of albumin dissociation with pH can easily be incorporated into the well-known set of six basic equations proposed by Peter Stewart5, i.e. mass conservation, electroneutrality, the Henderson-Hasselbalch formula, and the three dissociation mass equilibria for water, the non-volatile weak acids and bicarbonate/carbonate. We integrated these equations into our acid-base computer programme for pH calculation and simulated titration by adding acid to the plasma, varying the buffer base (Strong Ion Difference, SID)6.

In complete accordance with Stewart's own results5 "the properties of complex systems ... are often quite contrary to qualitative predictions" and "adding a weak acid to a CO2 solution actually decreases the buffering ability of that solution rather than increases it" (chapter 7.3).

The buffer strengths of solutions with albumin values of 20, 40 and 60 g/L and normal electrolyte composition and pCO2 are calculated to be 71, 62 and 54 mEq/L per unit change in pH; the graphs can be created on our website6.


The principle of operation, method of construction and general characteristics of the eddy-current coupling are reviewed. The influence of efficiency on the comparative running costs of a coupling drive is considered, and it is indicated that costs can compare well with competitive systems. Coupling drives are shown to be applicable to a wide range of control variables. It is shown that the low control power makes the coupling ideally suitable for multimachine systems, examples of which are described.


The aim of this article is to better understand how service companies, which were initially non-profit organizations, can develop a commercial activity in open source software. From a theoretical point of view, the strategic behavior of firms is influenced by social rules to which they must, at least partially, comply in order to seem legitimate. At the methodological level, this research builds on the work of Lisein et al. (2009) who have identified four key dimensions in the ideology of the OSS. A quantitative study on a sample of 71 Open Source Software Companies (OSSC) allows highlighting three strategic behaviors. Two of them represent hybridization strategies, while the third is much closer to a strict commercial logic. Then, the qualitative study of three cases of OSSC, that were previously sampled, were used to better understand the benefits that these companies expect from interacting with the non-commercial sphere and the strategic maneuvers they deploy. Our results confirm that OSSC are positioning themselves on the four generic principles constituting the ideology of OSS. Therefore Lisein et al. (2009) Model seems validated. However, our observations show that it is possible to combine market and non-market logics with different behaviors. These behaviors are distinguished on three key dimensions: the discussions with the open source community relationship, the type of legitimacy sought, the strategic maneuvers deployed. This research may well be of particular interest to managers of OSSC to better understand the consequences and implications of their strategic positioning choices between market and non-market sphere.


It is often that images generated from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) are noisy, distorted, or incomplete pictures of a target or target region. As the goal for most SAR research pertains to automatic target recognition (ATR), extensive filtering and image processing is required in order to extract the features necessary to carry out ATR. This thesis investigates the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in order to improve upon the feature extraction process by laying the foundation for ANN SAR ATR algorithms and programs. The first technique investigated is that of an ANN edge detector designed to be invariant to multiplicative speckle noise. The algorithm designed uses the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm to teach a multi-layer perceptron network to detect edges. In order to do so, several parameters within a Sliding Window (SW), are calculated as the inputs to the ANN. The ANN then outputs an edge map that includes the outer edge features of the target as well as some internal edge features. The next technique that is examined is a pattern recognition and target reconstruction algorithm based off of the associative memory ANN known as the Hopfield Network (HN). For this version of the HN, the network is trained with a collection of varying geometric shapes. The output of the network is a nearest-fit representation of the incomplete image data input. Because of the versatility of this program, it is also able to reconstruct incomplete 3D models determined from SAR data. The final technique investigated is an automatic rotation procedure to detect the change in perspective relative to the platform. This type of detection can prove useful if used for target tracking or 3D modeling where the direction vector or relative angle of the target is a desired piece of information. v Acknowledgements This project is a continuation of prior SAR research at Cal Poly under Dr. John Saghri with the sponsorship of Raytheon Space & Airborne Systems. First I would like to thank Dr. Saghri for supporting me in exploring the more abstract intracicies of Neural Networks as my contribution to SAR research at Cal Poly. As such, I would also like to thank Dr. Yu for introducing me to Neural Networks. Without her class on computational intellegence, I would have never thought to apply Neural Networks to radar. And for Dr. Zhang, who's class on computer vision proved invaluable for understanding the fundamentals of automatic computer …


The present study deals with the variations ill tile literacy, socio-economic status of urban beggars, and the relationship between their literacy (dependent variable) with selected variables of sociu-economic development in Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The study is based on primary source of data, collected through the field survey in the Aligarh district carried out during 2009. All the towns were selected for the survey. The 6 per cent wards from each town have been selected in which 25 per cent beggars 'households from each ward were randomly surveyed for the study. Altogether, 396 households were selected for the present study. The analysis of the present research work reveals that excluding the Dhanipur block, all the central blocks of the district have medium level of literacy rate, whereas, the majority ofblocks (fifty per cent) of the district witnessed low level of development among urban beggars.


In Sweden, as many other European countries, centralized large-scale electricity production has traditionally been used to meet the electricity and heat demand. During recent years however, small-s ...


Tribal people are inhabiting indifferent locations of Pilibhit Tiger reserve region of Rohilkhand division of Uttar Pradesh state of India. The study area comprises of second largest forest cover among all the districts of Uttar Pradesh. This manuscript provides information on 21 medicinal plants belonging to 17 angiosperm families which are used by different tribal groups and indigenous people for curing various animal diseases. Few of the important medicinal plants are Achyranthus, Datura, Polygonum, Litsea, Bombax, Azadirachta etc. The use of locally grown, wild medicinal plants for curing different animal ailments was observed to be widespread and prevalent in this area.


A distributed database is a database in which not all storage devices are attached to a common processor.[1] The storage devices are stored in multiple computers, situated in the identical physical locality or may be isolated over a network of interconnected computers. Contrasting parallel systems, in which the processors are tightly coupled and constitute a single database system, a distributed database system consists of loosely coupled locations that share no physical mechanisms. This paper addresses various challenges in designing a distributed database. This paper also addresses designing factors in distributed database like replication, duplication, architecture, fragmentation, security and database integrity across multiple database and review the previous work done recently.


ABSTRACT Background Ischemic stroke is a clinical condition characterized by focal or global cerebral dysfunction resulting from inhibition of brain blood flow. Genetic factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. As a result of IL-18 (−607 C/A, −137 G/C) gene variations, it is thought that binding of transcription factors may be affected and IL-18 mRNA expression can be modulated. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to investigate the roles of IL-18 (−607 C/A), IL-18 (−137 G/C) gene variations in the development of ischemic stroke in Trakya Region of Turkey. Methods Our study was performed with 90 ischemic stroke patients and 89 healthy controls. Genotype distributions of IL-18 (−607 C/A, −137 G/C) gene variations were determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Results GC genotype and CA genotype of IL-18 (−137 G/C) and IL-18 (−607 C/A) gene variations were determined higher significantly in patent group as compared with other genotypes. However, the statistically significant difference was not determined between patients with ischemic stroke and healthy control groups in terms of IL-18 (−137 G/C) and IL-18 (−607 C/A) gene variations (p > 0,05). Allele frequencies of IL-18 (−137 G/C) and IL-18 (−607 C/A) in patient and control groups were significantly different from the Hardy-Weinberg distribution (p < .001 for all). Conclusion Although these gene variations' genotype distributions were not determined as a genetic risk factor for the development of ischemic stroke, allele frequencies of IL-18 (−137 G/C) and IL-18 (−607 C/A) in patient and control groups were significantly different from the Hardy-Weinberg distribution.