In our recent work, an efficient nonlinear system identification approach using wavelet based State Dependent Parameter (WSDP) models has been proposed and investigated. This model has some unique properties which are very useful for the investigation of its bounded characteristics. This paper presents results on the bounded characteristics of WSDP models. These results reveal the clear relationship between the model's parameters and the boundedness of a WSDP model, providing important insight to the analysis of the BIBO stability of this class of nonlinear models. To validate and illustrate the developed theoretical results, an extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulation example is provided.


T his large study of elderly individuals with diabetes compared the rates of cardiovascular outcomes between patients initiating pioglitazone vs rosiglitazone treatment. Patients starting therapy with either of these 2 medications were similar at baseline, but those receiving rosiglitazone had greater allcause mortality and more congestive heart failure during follow-up compared with pioglitazone users. The risks of myocardial infarction and stroke did not differ significantly between these groups. This study helps inform the treatment choice between these thiazolidinediones.


Objective: To analyze the clinical features and causes of fractures in hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and explore preventive measures. Methods: The clinical data of 8 patients with fracture of mental disorder were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Eight patients with schizophrenia were found to have fractures in the neck of femur, head, hand, upper limb and tail. Conclusion: Elderly patients with schizophrenia who have been hospitalized for a long time are prone to fracture. Comprehensive nursing interventions should be given to them in order to reduce the developments of fracture events.


Our exploration of new electrode materials for biofuel cells has focused on increasing the electrode power density. Mediated enzyme electrocatalysts must be immobilized on high-surface-area porous supports in order to achieve high utilization of enzyme and redox polymer. Such porous electrodes provide: (i) nominal pore size much larger than 10 nm, the typical size of the enzyme, and sufficiently large to minimally impede reactant transport, (ii) sufficient electron conductivity (iii) good electrical contact between the electrode and mediator.


The frozen internal polarization-induced electric fields due to broken inversion symmetry in all conventional blue and green nitride semiconductor light-emitting semiconductor quantum well heterostructures point in a direction opposite to what is desired for efficient flow of electrons and holes. This state of affairs has persisted because of the desire to have p-type hole injectors on top of the quantum well active region. Because of the internal polarization fields in nitride heterostructures, there exist four permutations of doping and polarization for the realization of such light emitters. Which permutation is the most desirable for efficient light emission? In this work, we answer this question by demonstrating a fundamentally new approach toward efficient light emission with "bottom-tunnel junctions." The bottom-tunnel junction design aligns the polarization fields in the desired direction in the quantum well while simultaneously eliminating the need for p-type contacts and allowing efficient current spreading. By preventing electron overshoot past quantum wells, it disables carrier recombination in undesired regions of the quantized heterostructures and opens up the possibility for new geometries of integrating and stacking multiple light emitters.The frozen internal polarization-induced electric fields due to broken inversion symmetry in all conventional blue and green nitride semiconductor light-emitting semiconductor quantum well heterostructures point in a direction opposite to what is desired for efficient flow of electrons and holes. This state of affairs has persisted because of the desire to have p-type hole injectors on top of the quantum well active region. Because of the internal polarization fields in nitride heterostructures, there exist four permutations of doping and polarization for the realization of such light emitters. Which permutation is the most desirable for efficient light emission? In this work, we answer this question by demonstrating a fundamentally new approach toward efficient light emission with "bottom-tunnel junctions." The bottom-tunnel junction design aligns the polarization fields in the desired direction in the quantum well while simultaneously eliminating the need for p-type contacts and allowing efficient curre...


Platelets from three consecutive patients with essential thrombocythemia were studied. In each case there were characteristic abnormalities. These included absent aggregation in response to epinephrine and reduced aggregation by adenosine diphosphate. The platelets were aggregated normally by collagen. Uptake by platelets of serotonin labeled with radioactive carbon14C was reduced, and there was possibly reduced platelet adenosine diphosphatase activity. The platelets supported normal clot retraction, and gave normal platelet factor 3 availability. The abnormality appears to be specific for the disease rather than a nonspecific reflection of thrombocythemia.


In this paper underwater acoustic communication system based on Coded GFDM (CGFDM) is simulated and the performances are analyzed using different error-correcting codes. And also the parameter selection principle of error-correcting code is evaluated. To build practical and high performance CGFDM system the error-correcting codes from low to relatively high computational complexity, such as, convolutional code, RS code, serial concatenated code of RS code plus convo1utional code and turbo code is evaluated. The parameters of code rate, code length, generation polynomial, interleaving and interleaving matrix length are all considered and analyzed elaborately. Finally, the simulating experiments proved that there are some relative1y low complexities systems based on serial concatenated codes of RS code plus convolutional code that are able to gain better performance as the systems based on turbo code.


The network culture provides the positive role such as the initials in the young people's hands,the democratic legal institutions consciousness to the present-time college students who will select their values.And it also gives them the negative influences such as the consciousness irresponsibility and dishonest concepts.It is,therefore,that it is very necessary that the value education to college students by means of the main channels of classroom teaching and the innovative practices of moral instruction.


Infertility is a pervasive issue affecting a considerable proportion of couples in their reproductive years, with a projected 10%–15% prevalence. It is characterized by the incapability to achieve conception following a year of consistent, unprotected intercourse, and its far‐reaching consequences can take a profound emotional, psychological, and social toll on couples, inducing feelings of melancholy, exasperation, and anxiety. The appraisal of infertile couples' cases is a multifaceted and daunting process, necessitating a holistic understanding of the intricate underlying factors contributing to their infertility. Consequently, an individualized evaluation should be conducted, considering diverse parameters, such as the couple's medical history, age, infertility duration, and other relevant criteria. This paper will provide an in‐depth overview of the current approaches utilized in the evaluation of men with infertility, including the commonly employed diagnostic tools and procedures. Enhancing our comprehension of infertility assessment and management holds the promise of helping couples achieve their ultimate desire of conceiving and enriching their overall quality of life.


This paper examines the adjustment of developing country labor markets to macroeconomic shocks. It models a two sector labor market: a formal salaried (tradable) sector that may or may not be affected by union or legislation induced wage rigidities, and an unregulated (nontradable) self-employment sector facing liquidity constraints to entry. This is embedded in a standard small economy macro model that permits the derivation of patterns of comovement among relative salaried/self-employed incomes, salaried/self-employed sector sizes and the real exchange rate with respect to different types of shocks in contexts with and without wage rigidities. The paper then explores time series data from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to test for cointegrating relationships corresponding to the patterns predicted by theory. We identify two types of regime. The first corresponds to periods where demand shocks to the nontradable sector offer new opportunities to (informal) entrepreneurs, the informal sector expands "procyclically," and the exchange rate overshoots toward appreciation in the short run, or remains at its productivity determined levels. The second corresponds to periods of negative shocks to the formal salaried sector in the presence of wage rigidities where the sector plays a more traditional "buffer" role during downturns.


We discuss cosmic‐ray acceleration in Galactic and extragalactic sources and transport in cosmic magnetic fields. Discussion includes the acceleration in supernova shocks, the collective effects of cosmic rays in the Galaxy, the nature of "knee" in cosmic ray spectrum, the transition to extragalactic component, and the acceleration by AGN jets.


The present paper relates to a method for synthesizing the photostimulable storage phosphor BaFBr:Eu2+ that features high stimulation characteristics for use in image plates. All previous synthesis routes consist of a multistep process whereas the presented route is a one-step synthesis. Starting compounds are BaCO3, NH4F, and NH4Br, as well as EuF3 where the ammonium compounds are highly volatile at temperatures below 300°C. Their reaction products initiate the decomposition of BaCO3 and form BaFBr. The incorporation of F-centers and europium ions occurs at temperature exceeding 550°C. The individual reaction steps are monitored by simultaneous thermal analysis (thermogravimetry/differential thermal analysis) and the gaseous reaction products are detected by in situ mass spectroscopy. Intermediate and final products are characterized by x-ray diffraction techniques to determine the involved phases. Photoluminescence spectra reveal the typical emission peak of Eu2+ accompanied by a redshifted emission ban...


The following article appeared in the January 1977, Vol. 8, No. 2 issue of Simuletter, the journal of the Special Interest Group on Simulation, a group of members from the Association for Computing Machinery. Dr. Harold J. Highland is the editor of Simuletter and his address is: Chairman, Data Processing Department, State Technical College, Farmingdaler NY 11735. We have reason to believe that some of our readers might be able to "fill in the blanks" in the article; and though we cannot offer any prize, certainly not on the order of that given by Dr. Highland we shall be glad to publish any solutions (accompanied by "proof") in our April 1978 issue. We shall certainly keep our readers posted as to the results obtained by Simuletter solvers. Why not send your work to both and double the pleasure as it were!


Common Method Variance (CMV) refers to the overlap in variance between two variables because of the type of measurement instrument used rather than representing a true relationship between the underlying constructs. Researchers should give careful consideration to CMV although it may not surely bias the conclusions about the relationships between measures. CMV effect is often created by using the same method — especially a survey — to measure each variable. Procedural design and statistical control solutions are provided to minimize its likelihood in studies. A statistical control technique is a good solution if it can separate construct varience, method varience and error, and distinguish method bias at the item level from method bias at the construct level, and takes account of Method×Trait interactions. Thus, method-factor approaches are better than partial correlation approaches. It's very important to understand the model of every method-factor approache for selecting statistical remedies correctly for different types of research settings. Etimating evaluate the effect of CMV within specific research domains and the effect of CMV on empirical findings within a theoretical domain should be concerned for further research.


Scanning microarc oxidation (SMAO) is a coating process which is based on conventional microarc oxidation (MAO). The key difference is that deposition in SMAO is achieved by using a stainless steel nozzle to spray an electrolyte stream on the substrate surface as opposed to immersing the workpiece in an electrolyzer. In the present study, SMAO discharge characteristics, coating morphology, and properties are analyzed and compared to results obtained from MAO under similar conditions. Results show that MAO and SMAO have comparable spark and microarc lifetimes and sizes, though significant differences in incubation time and discharge distribution were evident. Results also showed that the voltage and current density for MAO and SMAO demonstrate similar behavior but have markedly different transient and steady-state values. Results obtained from coating A356 aluminum sheet show that oxide thickness and growth rate in SMAO are strongly dependent on interelectrode spacing and travel speed. Analysis of the SMAO coating morphology and structure showed that a denser and slightly harder layer was deposited in comparison to MAO and is attributed to reduced porosity and increased formation of α-Al2O3. Preliminary results indicate that SMAO represents a viable process for coating of aluminum surfaces.


In the terpolymerization of 2-chloroethyl vinyl ether—maleic anhydride—acrylonitrile and p-dioxene—maleic anhydride—acrylonitrile systems the compositions of the terpolymers obtained from feed of the same mole fraction were found to be changed beyond the limit of error for the given amounts and kinds of solvent. This change was considered to be divided into two parts. The first part, discussed quantitatively, was due to a dilution effect on the equilibrium complex formation between donor and acceptor monomer, and the second, as tentatively proposed, was due to a solvent effect on the reactivity of the complex.


A 22 years old man presented to emergency department with progressive shortness of breath and stridor over a three months period. He had no history of foreign body ingestion or chocking. He is a well articulate athletic Down's syndrome. He had a repair for ventricular septal defect at 3 months age. Fibreoptic naso-laryngeal endoscopy showed granulation tissue on his vocal cords with foreign body appearance between the cords. CT scan of his neck and chest showed a wishbone foreign body appearance at his larynx. Tracheostomy and micro-laryngobronchoscopy were performed.


A die-less wire drawing process has been developed in order to investigate the performance on the reduction of wire size of polymer coating on steel wire. Previous experimental investigations have shown significant reductions in area particularly using nylon and borosiloxane on copper wire. The present investigation shows that satisfactory reductions can also be obtained using these polymers on steel wire. A smooth adhered coating of the wire was produced with the nylon; however, drawing speed limitations were observed where break up of the coatings occurred.


The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between occupational professionalism of preschool teachers and their occupational self-respect. The study group of the research designed in the relational screening model consisted of 449 participants working as preschool teachers. Data from the study were obtained using the Occupational Professionalism of Teachers Scale and Arıcak Occupational Self-Respect Scale. As a result, it is determined that there is a moderate, positive and significant relationship between preschool teachers' professional self-esteem and occupational professionalism. In addition, according to the results obtained in terms of the variables examined in the study, professional self-esteem makes a difference in favor of teachers working in private schools according to the school type variable and do not make a difference according to the age variable. When the variable of education level is taken into consideration, it has been observed that as the education level increases, professional self-esteem increases. In addition, there is a significant difference in favor of female teachers in the sub-dimensions of professional professionalism, personal development, professional sensitivity, emotional labor and total scores. There is a significant difference in favor of teachers aged 41 and over in contribution to the institution, emotional labor and total scores. There is a significant difference in favor of teachers with postgraduate education in the sub-dimension of personal development. It is found that there is a significant difference in favor of associate degree teachers in contribution to the institution, emotional labor and total score. It has been concluded that teachers with 16 years or more professional experience have significantly higher professional professionalism scores than other groups, and teachers working in private schools have significantly higher professional professionalism scores than those working in public schools. number of male participants is very low compared to the number of female participants, gender-related differences were not included in this study. In future studies, professional self-esteem and professional professionalism can be examined in terms of gender variable and various comparisons can be made.


Recent studies has showed that the modification on land use have an impact to hydrology particularly flood and global climate variability. Therefore, the major factor decided to the effect of hydrological responses in contributing flood disaster in this research, is land use changes as well as climate variability. This study tries to provide a framework mainly to apply a semi-distributed hydrological model in a monsoon catchment and to quantify the relative contributions of physio-environment (i.e. land use change and climate change) effects to hydrological response and flooding in the River Kelantan catchment. The HEC-HMS hydrological model was utilized to show that land use change, predominantly deforestation for agricultural purposes, has potentially caused some increases in hydrological response over time (i.e. 16 years) in the upstream area. However, the predicted effect of precipitation change was about three-to-four times greater than that of land use change in the upstream area. In the downstream area land use change was predicted by the model to have led to a very small decrease in hydrological response between 1988 and 2004 compared to the precipitation change. It is plausible to suggest that during the monsoon season, with heavy precipitation and the large area involved, the effect of land use change on the hydrological response may reduce and allow precipitation to become the dominant factor in causing changes in peak discharge and runoff volume.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to compare the gestational results obtained with vitrified/thawed oocytes by a novel vitrification method (Vitri-ingá) to results obtained with fresh oocytes.

METHODS
A total of 125 IVF-ET procedures carried out over 2008 were analysed, in which 79 patients received embryos from fresh oocytes (Group 1), and 46 patients received embryos from vitrified/thawed oocytes using Vitri-ingá (Group 2). Fresh and vitrified/thawed oocytes were fertilized and embryos were transferred. Fertilization, pregnancy and implantation rates were compared.

RESULTS
Vitrified oocytes presented a survival rate of 84.9%. Fertilization, pregnancy and implantation rates showed no statistically significant differences between fresh and cryopreserved/thawed groups (81.3, 51.9, 21.3% and 80.8, 45.6 and 14.9%, respectively). Only the average number of blastomeres in Group 1 (6.86 +/- 2.07) was significantly higher than in Group 2 (6.35 +/- 2.26; P = 0.010).

CONCLUSIONS
Despite some differences in the patient groups, the clinical results of this study demonstrated that the Vitri-ingá method preserves the potential of human vitrified oocytes for fertilization and further development.


Humans are exposed to numerous technological products, among them are drugs with increasingly varied risks. Two areas of investigation permeate the environment of laboratories involved in monitoring drug quality. These are metrology and risk. The objective of this study was to elaborate a tool for evaluation of Potential Risk laboratories where tests are performed on drugs, minimizing analytical results with questionable reliability. The methodology used was based on the Model of Potential Risk Evaluation (MPRE) applied to RDC 11/12 - ANVISA / MS. The Risk Control Indicators (RCI) were planned in the Excel software. The tool contained 167 RCI. Although contains a large number of indicators, was very useful, applicable and easy to use in laboratory environment. With the help of it is possible identify the categories associated with the deviation of each RCI causes.


Oil and its refinery products have always been the most important source of energy for modern society, and, therefore, one cannot imagine the life of mankind in any field of its activity without this resource. Energy, military defense, transport, agriculture, domestic needs of the population, the economy of the country are directly dependent on oil and its prices, it plays an extremely important role for Russia in particular, since it is the main revenue item for the state, therefore, forecasting oil prices is a primary task. The purpose of the article is to forecast the prices for this resource for April-August 2018 on the basis of the neural network model use as one of the ways to implement artificial intelligence. Oil prices have been chosen as the object of forecasting, and the subject is the dynamics of oil prices. The choice of the object and the subject of forecasting was conditioned by the fact that the price of oil is one of the main factors affecting the state and pace of development of the domestic economy, and primarily GDP. The pricing of many types of oil is determined by the price of the Brent crude oil reference mark, including the cost of three out of five Russian export brands: Urals, Siberian Light and REBCO, calculated on the basis of Brent prices.


The present disclosure, a diagnostic test, to a process for the preparation of fetal nucleated red blood cells (NRBC) from a biological sample.


In the domain of working memory (WM), a sigmoid-shaped relationship between WM load and brain activation patterns has been demonstratedinyoungeradults.Ithasbeensuggestedthatage-relatedalterationsofthispatternareassociatedwithchangesinneural efficiency and capacity. At the same time, WM training studies have shown that some older adults are able to increase their WM performance through training. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging during an n-back WM task at different WM load levels was applied to compare blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses between younger and older participants and to predict gainsinWMperformanceafterasubsequent12-sessionWMtrainingprocedureinolderadults.Weshowthatincreasedneuralefficiency and capacity, as reflected by more "youth-like" brain response patterns in regions of interest of the frontoparietal WM network, were associated with better behavioral training outcome beyond the effects of age, sex, education, gray matter volume, and baseline WM performance.Furthermore,atlowdifficultylevels,decreasesinBOLDresponsewerefoundafterWMtraining.Resultsindicatethatboth neural efficiency (i.e., decreased activation at comparable performance levels) and capacity (i.e., increasing activation with increasing WMload)ofaWM-relatednetworkpredictplasticityoftheWMsystem,whereasWMtrainingmayspecificallyincreaseneuralefficiency inolderadults.


The most critical parts of a gas turbine engine are turbine blades and disc. They are designed to operate under severe conditions such as high turbine inlet temperature, high speeds, and high compression ratios. Owing to these operating conditions high rotational speed which is likely to be between 60000 and 100000 rev/min. Design optimization of fluid machinery based on computer simulation has become a reality today because of development of high speed. Highly complex flow patterns are being predicted by solving mass, momentum and energy equations and near accurate solutions at an acceptable level can be achieved. The present work aims at optimizing the blade shape and analysis of surrogate model of turbine blade. The sweep and lean variables are modified to enhance the efficiency, based objective. RANS equations are solved to get the flow field and objective function values. Based neural network, model has been constructed and the blade shape has been modified to enhance performance. The surrogate performances are evaluated for applicability in turbo machinery blade


Consider an open domain D on the plane, whose isoperimetric deficit is smaller than 1. This note shows that the difference between the barycenter of D and the barycenter of its boundary is bounded above by a constant times the isoperimetric deficit to the power 1/4. This power can be improved to 1/2, when D is furthermore assumed to be a convex domain, in any Euclidean space of dimension larger than 2. Keywords: Isoperimetric inequality on the plane, isoperimetric deficit, boundary barycenter, convex domains, isoperimetric stability.


We analyze the effects of including ∆(1232) isobars in an equation of state (EoS) for cold, β-stable neutron star matter, employing Relativistic Nuclear Mean Field Theory. The selected EoS reproduces the properties of nuclear matter and finite nuclei, and also allows for the presence of hyperons in neutron stars having masses larger than 2M . We find that the composition and the structure of neutron stars are critically influenced by the addition of the ∆'s, an observation that allows us to constraint their interaction with the meson fields sigma and omega. Imposing that the EoS is stable and ensures the existence of 2M neutron stars, as well as requiring agreement with data of ∆ excitation in nuclei, we find that, in the absence of other mechanisms stiffening the EoS at high densities, the interaction of the ∆'s with the sigma and omega fields must be stronger than that of the nucleons.


The need for good quality paper for dye sublimation transfer printing has been reported previously as a principal requirement for the process. Pigmented coated papers have gained acceptance in the traditional paper printing industry, but, despite their importance, have inspired very few reports in literature about their application in heat transfer printing. In the current work, we studied the influence of both clay and ground calcium carbonate (GCC) pigments and the incorporation of plastic pigment on the surface structure and mechanical properties of the coated paper used for transfer printing. The results showed that paper coating significantly reduced the surface roughness of the paper. The mechanical properties of the prepared coated paper, including tensile strength, stretch, tensile energy absorption (TEA), and burst index, were improved when coated compared to those of uncoated paper. The addition of plastic pigment to the coating mixture helped improve the paper's properties. The optical density of the transfer-printed polyester fabric using the prepared coated paper was also compared with that of uncoated paper. It was shown that a slight increase in optical density was evident in the coated paper. The possibility of producing a second polyester print from the exhaust paper was also investigated. Coated paper incorporating plastic pigment, in particular, showed higher optical density than did uncoated paper. We found that coated paper based on clay, GCC, clay/plastic pigment, or GCC/plastic pigment consumed less dye paste than uncoated paper though producing printed fabric with higher optical density—especially in the second print.


Do "queer cases" - like proverbial "hard cases" - make bad law?In this article, we take a careful look at how common law courts have addressed the asylum claims of homosexuals fleeing anti-gay prosecutions and violence in their home countries. Two top courts - the High Court of Australia, and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom - have now tackled the question in decisions hailed as major victories for both gay rights, and for the continuing vitality of the Refugee Convention itself.In these recent decisions, both courts struck down a doctrine under which gay claims to asylum had been rejected on the grounds that the applicants could - and should - "be discreet" about their sexuality, and thereby avoid the risk of being persecuted at home. In an extraordinary passage that has attracted significant public attention, Lord Rodger of the new UK Supreme Court asserted that "just as male heterosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically colored cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates".While these decisions are clearly liberating (indeed, exciting), this article provides the first critical assessment of their impact on international refugee law as a whole. We suggest that to reach their preferred result, the Australian and UK courts ran roughshod over the duty to find a "well-founded fear" of future persecution; that they failed clearly to understand the real human rights costs of the enforced concealment that so-called "discreet" homosexuals face; and that by finding that the Convention's requirement to show that risk "for reasons of" a form of protected status was met when risk follows only from going to concerts, drinking cocktails, or engaging in "boy talk" the courts severed the established - and critically important - link between refugee law and non-discrimination norms.We offer an alternative theory of how international refugee law can and should embrace the claims of sexual minorities who can avoid serious harm only by accepting self-repression. We believe that such claims should be assessed on the basis of the real, forward-looking risk of serious psychological harm that ensues in such circumstances. We also seek to open a discussion about just when risks that follow not from sexual orientation as such, but rather from actions vaguely (perhaps even stereotypically) associated with homosexuality can honestly be said to be threats "for reasons of" one's sexuality.


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased incidence of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis with osteoporotic pain syndromes, fragility fractures and osteonecrosis accounts for significant morbidity and impacts negatively on the quality of life. It is generally agreed that there is a need to increase awareness for inflammatory bowel disease‐associated osteoporosis. However, the best ways in which to identify at‐risk patients, the epidemiology of fractures and an evidence‐based rational prevention strategy remain to be established. The overall prevalence of IBD‐associated osteoporosis is 15%, with higher rates seen in older and underweight subjects. The incidence of fractures is about 1 per 100 patient years, with fracture rates dramatically increasing with age. While old age is a significant risk factor, disease type (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis) is not related to osteoporosis risk. Corticosteroid use is a major variable influencing IBD‐associated bone loss; however, it is difficult to separate the effects of corticosteroids from those of disease activity. The recommendations in inflammatory bowel disease are similar to those for postmenopausal osteoporosis, with emphasis on lifestyle modification, vitamin D (400–800 IE daily) and calcium (1000–1500 mg daily) supplementation and hormone replacement therapy (oestrogens/selective oestrogen receptor modulators in women, testosterone in hypogonadal men). Bisphosphonates have been approved for patients with osteoporosis (T‐score < 2.5), osteoporotic fragility fractures and patients receiving continuous steroid medication. Data on the recently Food and Drug Administration‐approved osteoanabolic substance parathyroid hormone and on osteoprotegerin are promising in terms of both steroid‐induced and inflammation‐mediated osteoporosis, the key elements of inflammatory bowel disease‐associated bone disease.


The fragile ecosystem of greater Himalaya is home to diverse flora and fauna which are vulnerable to climate change impact. This study aimed to determine the suitable habitat of King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah (Cantor, 1836) in the current scenario and near-future scenario of the year 2040-2060 (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5). Geographic coordinates of its occurrence were obtained from published literature and environmental layers were obtained from worldclim.org and processed using ArcGIS and software R. The model was developed using MaxENT algorithms. The model was validated using the area under the curve (AUC) and True skill statistics (TSS), which showed that the model is very good (AUC =0.86) and (TSS=0.6). The results showed that altitude is a prime factor affecting the distribution of King Cobra in Nepal with a percent contribution of 31% followed by actual evapotranspiration 14.4% and least by Mean diurnal range (Bio2nep) 7%. The model predicted an area of 41,214 Km2 as suitable habitat for King Cobra in Nepal. The Chitwan National Park possesses a maximum suitable area (726.89 km2) followed by Chitwan-Buffer Zone (601.68 sq. Km2) and least by Sagarmatha National Park (1.73 km2) and Shey-Phoksundo-buffer zone (1.73 Km2). Our data indicate urban areas being the most suitable sites followed by open forest covers. The projection indicates contraction of 8% and 4% in a suitable area for RCP 4.5 and RCP 2.6 respectively, whereas RCP 8.5 showed expansion of 4%. Having probably suitable habitat in urban areas research proposes frequent awareness camping about conservation and protection of vulnerable King Cobra in Nepal.


This study sought to develop a better understanding of the role that participatory sports and consumption of mediated sports play in shaping one's identity. The quantitative and qualitative study questioned identity formation at three levels: playing sports as a child, continuing to play sports as an adult and consuming sports via mass media. Louis Althusser's theory of Ideological State Apparatuses and other scholar's research on public pedagogy suggest that there are institutions, such as the media and sports, which serve as sites where we learn who we are as individuals. A total of 135 surveys were collected using online snowball sampling. The results suggest that sports do have a role in shaping identities, as males reported significantly higher levels of agreement than females. Additionally, older populations differently with playing sports as a child than younger populations who were less removed.


A preliminary investigation was carried out for the feasible use of blended coagulants to the treatment of textile waste water. In this paper, natural coagulant Moringa oleifera and Chemical Coagulant Alum of 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80 mL dosages were used. Floc formation in coagulation process had been studied in the laboratory scale to determine the optimum dosage of natural coagulants. Various proportions of MO: (Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 like 0:0, 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 30:70, 20:80, 10:90 and 0:100 were used in Pre and post treated textile wastewaters with coagulants were considered to evaluate the percentage removal efficiency on the major pollutants of concern in textile effluent such as turbidity, TSS, TDS, COD and BOD. From the observed results, the blended coagulant MO: (Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 of 50:50 dosage ratio gives better removal efficiencies with respect to turbidity, TSS, TDS, COD and BOD and appears to be suitable for textile waste water treatment, when compared with other dosage ratios.


We calculate the binding energies of $1s,$ $2s,$ ${2p}_{x},$ ${2p}_{y},$ and ${2p}_{z}$ donor states bound to X valleys in type-II GaAs-AlAs quantum well structures using an anisotropic variational method that enables us to take into account the effective-mass anisotropy and the quantum confinement. These binding energies present a strong dependence on the effective mass and the valley symmetry. Intradonor $1\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{s}2p$ transitions energies are shown to be up to 1000 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1},$ which is well above the energies usually observed for donors in type-I quantum structures.


Report describes state of development of Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X) network at end of 1989. Network includes mobile stations and base stations communicating by microwave radio relay via geostationary satellite. Provides three types of service: mobile telephone, mobile dispatch and digital data. Summarizes findings which serve as background for discussion of tentative specifications for design of network.


Introduction: Corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics provides a means for rapidly moving teeth purportedly with little damaging effects to the periodontium and with greatly reduced treatment time. The aim of this study was to enhance the orthodontic tooth movement by reducing the cortical bone layer (resistant to bone re-sorption relative to spongious bone) following Erbium, Chromium doped Yttrium Scandium Gallium Garnet (Er-Cr: YSGG)laser irradiation, without reflection of surgical soft tissue flap. Methods: In the present experimental study, 8 New Zealand Male rabbits were the samples for the research. The right first premolar of each rabbit (experiment group) underwent treatment for mesial movement with 75 gram of orthodontic force by using closed Ni-Ti coil spring (Dentaurum®). Coil spring was fixed in the cervical region of first premolars by means of ligature wire and No-Mix composite (Dentaurum®) and also activated to the cervical site of incisors. The left first premolars of the subjects were considered as the control group. Laser corticotomy was performed in anesthetized rabbits. Samples were sacrificed for determination of tooth movement after initiating premolar protraction on the 21 th day. The amount of orthodontic tooth movement was assessed by using a metal feeler gauge with the precision of 0.01 mm, between mesial surface of the second premolars and distal surfaces of the first premolars. The statistical package of SPSS (Kolmogorov - Smirnov and ANOVA test) was used for analytical evaluation of the measurements. Results: The amount of orthodontic tooth movement in the experimental group (mean=1.653±0.34 mm) was significantly (p<0.001) greater than that of the control group (mean=0.936 ±0.28 mm). The innovated laser assisted corticotomies enhanced the rate of orthodontic tooth movement on the intervention side, significantly (p<0.001). Conclusion: The innovated method of laser assisted flapless corticotomy is a useful procedure for reducing treatment time and damage to periodontium. It also eliminates the necessity of more invasive intervention of flap surgery.


We present x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data that show that the chemisorbed oxygen previously observed to be on the surface of thin $\mathrm{Al}{\mathrm{O}}_{x}$ layers formed by room temperature thermal oxidation is bound by oxygen vacancies in the oxide. Increasing the electric field across the oxide, either by overcoating with a metallic electrode, or by electron bombardment, drives this surface chemisorbed oxygen into the vacancy sites. Due to the low bonding energies of these oxygen sites, subsequent oxygen exposures draw these ${\mathrm{O}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ions back to the surface, reforming chemisorbed $\mathrm{O}_{2}{}^{\ensuremath{-}}$. $\mathrm{Al}∕\mathrm{Al}{\mathrm{O}}_{x}∕\mathrm{Al}$ tunnel junctions incorporating electron-bombarded $\mathrm{Al}{\mathrm{O}}_{x}$ barriers show a significant reduction in the low-frequency junction resistance noise level at $4.2\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$.


The purpose of this study is to examine the images of libraries and librarians in Korean children`s literature. For this purpose, fourteen children`s fictions that the main background is library are analyzed. Library`s role appeared in the children`s fictions is focused on reading books. In the children`s fictions, librarians are usually women and described as friendly and active people. And their role is shown as strongly committed to children`s reading activities. Library services and activities for information literacy education and cultural development of children is hardly reflected in the fictions. It implicates that the libraries and librarians in children`s literature is very reflective of those in the real world.


Indigenous zoo–therapeutic healing practice is an old practice passed on from one generation to Athe other by using the naturally available fauna in our environment. Rural tribal people of our Northeast India still seen relying on the traditional medicine prepared by our elders who are well expertise in handling the natural remedies from fauna. Dhemaji district of state Assam is inhabited by many tribes and among them Deori tribe contributes to the indigenous tribal population of the district. The present study focuses on this tribe and their traditional knowledge of using faunal species as medicine to heal different health problem. Due to dependence on modern medicinal treatment and anthropogenic activities, this tradition of using animal as remedy is not giving importance. Therefore it is an ardent need to research and conserve the ethno-zoological knowledge which was prevalent among the ancestors to treat different ailments. Therefore present study focuses on identifying the valuable medicinal properties of the animals.


Advanstar Communications' "Cardiometabolic Disorders and Weight: Action for Outcomes" initiative brings together comprehensive tools and information from our Web portal ModernMedicine.com, our 15 healthcare brands, and two of our pharmaceutical science publications.


Methodological procedures for determining sample size and for employing confidence intervals in hypothesis testing were described. The concept of confidence interval was explained and a distinction was made between the population distribution the sampling distribution and the sample distribution. Specific procedures were described for calculating confidence intervals for 1) a mean; 2) the difference between 2 independent population means for 2 samples; and 3) for the difference between 2 correlated means. Aa flow chart was provided to help investigators identify the order and the type of procedures to follow in drawing inferences from samples and in employing different statistical tests in hypothesis testing.


Liu Zi Jue Dao-yin Regimen plays a very important role in traditional Chinese health culture.Selecting 30 the elderly with voluntariness to exercise as research subjects whose constitution was not of significant difference,the thesis makes a lively experiment.By 3-month-exercise with the frequency of 5 times per week taking group training triply each morning lasting for an hour or so,the subjects develop a good state of their physical and mental healthy.Closely Comparing the physical indicators detected before the test time and psychological elements collected by filling a typical questionnaire with the ones got after the training,it's safely to say Liu Zi Jue Dao-yin Regimen plays an active part in helping middle aged senior citizens gain health.Their body shapes improve,the physical fitness better,the cardiovascular functions upgrade,blood lipids lower and the last but not the least.


ABSTRACT: The performance of the double pass solar air heater has been investigated experimentally and numerically using computational fluid dynamics. In the experimental investigations, three double pass solar air heaters were fabricated using ten tubes of aluminum. Aluminum Glass wool was used to insulate the sides and the bottom base with a thickness of 25 mm. Three configurations types was used for the experiments. The experiments time lasted through all the light of the day. For the numerical investigations, SolidWorks was used to generate the geometry of the model and Ansys Fluent was used for the simulations. The results showed that the temperature and the solar flux start to increase as the time raises form the morning then start to decrease at noon. Constantly the stored energy increases by day and decreasing by night. It was also found that vortices were generated in the collector by the air velocity.


Many of the university outstanding art works are the arts of excellence,sublime,tragedy,comicality and weirdness,and weird art is that of most shaking,miraculous,intelligent and interesting.This is the reason why people continuously seek and create weird art outside the arts of excellence,sublime,tragedy and comicality.But the confusion of aesthetic idea leads artists to think the non-weird art of shock,ugly and absurdity as weird art.


In a recent paper Jackson, Livingston and Pugh (1) suggest that the greatest difficulty in studies of triplet states in solution is the chemical one of obtaining pure solvents. A second source of difficulty in studying both singlet and triplet states in solution is the necessity of the complete removal of dissolved oxygen because of its high quenching efficiency (2-4). Using luminescence measurements, we have been able to show that even careful degassing procedures can introduce impurities into originally


Mice repeatedly exposed to uninfective bites or injected with noninfectious salivary gland homogenates from Aedes aegypti produced low levels of antibodies neutralizing Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus of mosquito origin. Effects on subsequent mosquito-borne infections could not be demonstrated, probably because the antivirus titers were too low. Cutaneous (type III-like) hypersensitivity reactions of mice to bites did not significantly affect the concurrent transmission of VEE virus. Preexisting edema and/or recent inflammation at the site of infective bites considerably reduced infection rates of mice exposed to infected mosquitoes.


Organisms living in extreme cold conditions find a unique solution for cold adaptation. They produce a group of proteins, called antifreeze proteins (AFPs) which cause depression of freezing point in a non-colligative manner. AFPs are unusual in every sense, i.e., their evolution, hydration and function. Evolutionary analysis reveals that AFPs do not emerge from a common ancestor; rather their evolution is independent and closely correlated to the Antarctic glaciation events. AFPs exert antifreeze activity by adsorption-inhibition mechanism. According to the model, ice can grow in the region between two bound AFPs, which results in the generation of a curved growing ice front. As a result, the radius of curvature decreases with further growth of the ice front and ultimately halts at the limit of critical radius. Main assumption of the model is that AFPs irreversibly bind to the ice surface, which is also validated by recent microfluidic experiments. Initially hydrogen bond mediated ice binding has been proposed, but experimental mutation data invalidated the hypothesis. A surface complementarity driven ice adsorption mechanism has been lately proposed, however, it is inadequate to explain the irreversible binding. Mechanism of ice recognition by AFP still remains elusive. Recently, AFPs have been shown to induce water ordering and we have proposed that the ordered hydration water adopts clathrate-like structure, which effectively adsorbs AFP on ice. Hydrophobic hydration induces clathrate formation around the ice binding surface. The model is highly promising and qualitatively explains mutational data and binding plane specificity data from ice-etching experiments.


The study analysed public perceptions of the changing gender roles and relations in the family in Kaduna metropolis of Kaduna state, Nigeria. Multiple stage sampling technique was used to select 152 men and 145 women. Data was generated through the administration of well structured questionnaire. Analysis was done with descriptive statistics. The socio-economic characteristics showed that the mean age of men and women were 45 and 48 years respectively with a mean income of N132, 000 for men and N118, 000 for women. Furthermore, the conventionally expected roles of men were, providing for the family and women cooking for the family. Also, the major decision by men is the family budgeting while the women decide which school the children will attend. The mean score of 3.5 and 3.7 for men and women respectively indicated that both agreed and accepted the changed gender roles. The major factors influencing changing gender roles are modernization, economic factors, social media and campaign for gender equality. The study concluded that family budget is majorly decided by men and recommended that men and women should complement each other in deciding the family budget and there should be intensified campaign on gender equality in terms of roles played in the family.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the importance of illness severity, child functional status, psychosocial stress, intrapersonal factors, stress processing, and social-ecological factors in predicting psychological symptoms among mothers of children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).

METHODS
Mothers of 92 children with JRA completed surveys while waiting with their children for physician appointments or during JRA meeting breaks.

RESULTS
Mothers reported higher mean levels of psychological symptoms than a normative group. Higher levels of psychosocial stress predicted increased psychological symptoms after accounting for disease severity and functional status. Maternal appraisal of the illness tended to moderate the relationship between illness stress and psychological symptoms, and maternal education moderated the relationship between daily hassles stress and psychological symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that mothers of children with JRA are at risk for psychological distress. Inteventions that take into account the buffering effects of maternal education and appraisal may serve to decrease the effects of maternal stress.


This study investigated the analysis of the impact of agricultural extension policies from 2001 to 2012 on Agricultural Development Programme contactfarmers' improvement in Abia State Nigeria. Specific objectives were to determine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, examine the awareness of the different agricultural extension policies on contact-farmers improvement, and determine the impact of agricultural extension policies on contact farmers infrastructural support facilities. Data were obtained using structured questionnaire and oral interview schedules. Descriptive and inferential statics were used in the analysis. The descriptive statistics used were included percentages and frequency distribution while the inferential statistics were regression and correlation coefficient analyses.Results showed that middle aged (30-50) years of contact-farmers actively involved fully in farm activities, 56 percent of the respondents were married while 49 percent of the respondents knew about agricultural development projects.Based on the results, the following were recommended, that government as a matter of urgency should provide extension services that will help to teach farmers the adoption and diffusion of new agricultural innovations'.There is need for increased and stable funding for research activities. That proper coordination of agricultural policies should be encouraged.


Objective. To delineate a perceived association of estradiol versus estradiol plus norethisterone hormone therapy on the prevalence of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women. Methods. The Women's Health in the Lund Area (WHILA) project covers 10 766 women aged 50–60 years, living in the Lund area, Sweden. Out of this population, 6908 (64%) women completed questionnaires, underwent physical and laboratory assessments and had self-reported information regarding colorectal cancer. Four hundred and twenty-two (6%) were premenopausal (PM), 3600 (52%) were postmenopausal without hormone therapy (PM0), 2452 (36%) were postmenopausal with combined hormone therapy (PMT-HT) and 364 (5%) were postmenopausal with estrogen monotherapy (PMT-E). Results. There were 21 cases of colorectal cancer (0.3%), one in the PM group, 16 in the PM0 group, two in the PMT-HT group and another two in the PMT-E group. Colorectal cancer prevalence was lower in the PMT-HT than in the PM0 group (odds ratio (OR) = 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.04–0.80). However, for the PMT-E group, the OR (95% CI) was 1.02 (0.86–1.20). There was a positive association between low physical activity (p = 0.04), low parity (p = 0.02) and risk of colorectal cancer. Conclusion. Combined hormone therapy seemed to be associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women in contrast to estrogen monotherapy. Hence the progestin might have a protective role.


Objective: To construct mammalian cell expression vectors for Mac-1 with CFP and YFP and apply FRET to study the dimerization and function of CD11 b( Mac-1 α subunit) and CD18(Mac-1 β subunit). Methods: The mammalian cell expression vector for CD11b fused with CFP at the carboxyl terminal was constructed to create recombinant plasmid of pCD11b-CFP. Then pCD11b-CFP was co-transfected with pYFP-CD18 into CHO cell, a fibroblast like cell line, as a target cell within which there are some signal pathways involved in inflammatory stimulation but without endogenous Mac-1. Then CHO cells stably expressing both CD11b-CFP and YFP-CD18 fusion proteins were selected by Western blot and laser scanning confocal microscope. Results: The cyan and yellow fluorescence in co-transfected positive CHO cells were observed under a fluorescence microscope. CHO-Mac-1-FP cells stably expressing both CD11b-CFP and YFP-CD18 fusion proteins were obtained as demonstrated by Western blot successfully. The adhesive activity of CHO-Mac-1-FP cells with CHO-1CAM-1 cells was increased markedly by treatment with PMA, suggesting the translocation of GD11b-CFP and YFP-CD18 to the plasma membrane in CHO-Mac-1-FP cells and dimerization of CD11b-CFP and YFP-CD18 just as the function of the wild type Mac-1. Conclusion: CHO-Mac-1-FP cells with adhesive activity are established successfully, thus CHO-Mac-1-FP cells may be useful for the study of Mac-1 by FRET and for other purposes.


Revelation 15:2 mentions "a kind of sea of glass mingled with fre". The expression "a kind of sea" suggests a fgurative sense, perhaps in reference to the Sea of Bronze of the ancient Temple (1 Kings 7:24-25), a huge hemispherical water tank called sea in the Old Testament. When the Apocalypse was written, it was customary for Christian communities from Jewish tradition to celebrate the Eucharist with the Jewish blessing cup reserved for Easter, inherited from previous generations. These cups were often made of semiprecious stone and were shaped like a bowl, which might justify their analogy with the sea. Moreover, some were translucent and veined if carved in agate, onyx or sardonyx, as is the case of the Holy Chalice venerated at Valencia Cathedral or some chalices at St Mark's Basilica Museum in Venice. The sacred author might refer to a Eucharistic cup carved in stone in Rev 15:2, in relation to another "sea of glass" mentioned in Rev 4:6 that could allude to the baptismal font, and, as an antagonism to the "great winepress of God's wrath" (14:19).


The tropical rainforests contain many tree species that produce edible fruits, seeds, vegetables and medicine. Moringa oleifera the tree species is widely cultivated in semi-arid, tropical and sub-tropical areas. The plant may be consumed as vegetable to improve nutrition, taken as medicinal plant to cure ailments and improve health, cultivated as forage for livestock, and used for live fencing. Moringa oleifera leaf, flower and seed were subjected under two forms (wet and dry) for antioxidant and dry form for nutritional. The nutritional compositions that were investigated are; moisture content, crude fibre, ash, crude protein and fats. The antioxidants to be investigated were: vitamin C, flavonoid, phenol, DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl picaryl hydrazyl), FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) and ABTS assay (ABTS, 2, 2′-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline 6-sulfonic acid). Standard procedures were used in the determination of the nutritional and antioxidant of M. oleifera leaf, flower and seeds. The result shows that the seeds nutritional composition is significantly higher in crude fiber (29.35%) and flower nutritional composition is also significantly higher in moisture (6.29%) and ash (13.05%) but the two are low in others respectively. Specifically, based on this result, both the wet and dry samples are good source of antioxidant and they are not detrimental to health.


There are six common features for precursory anomalies before strong earthquakes. The following features are in seismological aspect:first,the quiescent anomaly appears in the gap segment between occurred strong earthquakes;second, moderate and small earthquakes or swarms are quite active outside the source areas of strong earthquakes and quiescent within the source area during medium-and short-term stage,forming a ring or R-tgap.The features in the fixed station precursors are as follows:first is the nonlinear feature for the starting time of anomaly;second is non- continuous feature for the spatial distribution of anomalous stations;third is the sudden increase feature of anomaly quantity in the short-term and impending stages;fourth is the huge variation feature of anomaly amplitude in the short-term and impending stages.The evidences mentioned above can not be explained by the existed DD and IPE models,but can be taken as basis of hardening model of source.In the prediction practice of strong earthquakes,the gap segment and area can be taken as index of location,and increase of anomaly quantity and accompanying huge anomaly as the index of entering short-term and impending stages.The anomaly is not obvious within the source areas in other time segments except some cases1~ 2 days before strong earthquakes.It certainly makes a mistake according to the traditional model to guide the practice,and it can be avoided if using the revealed common features to direct prediction.


The construction of the eye dropper is such that the contained fluid comes in contact with its rubber bulb or cap, and this not alone at a time following a change in its position from the vertical to the horizontal but also when the rubber bulb has a greater pull than is necessary to fill merely a part of the glass tubing, and, as a result of this, the contents act on the rubber bulb and produce a change that becomes a source of danger when dropped onto or into sensitive parts of the body. An applicable example is the danger at the time of a cataract extraction when an open wound is exposed to these products of rubber dissolution. This danger is so obviously true concerning the harm that can come from the disintegrated rubber in an open wound that it was thought proper to devise an eye dropper


Zinc aluminum alloys in general and ZA22 in particular are versatile materials which are widely used in the automobile, aircraft and space craft industries due to their required and attractive properties e.g. high strength-to weight-ratio, good cast ability, high wear and corrosion resistances, in addition to the advantages of low–energy and non-polluting melting. . However, against these attractive properties they have the disadvantage of forming a dendritic structure with large grain size during solidification or homogenization of their casts, which tends to reduce their surface quality, mechanical and impact strengths. Hence it is very essential to modify their structure and refine their grains. In this paper, the effect of the ECAP process on ZA22 alloy after grain refinement of its structure by titanium, titanium plus boron and molybdenum on its metallurgical and mechanical characteristics is investigated. During the investigation, a new phenomenon had occurred on the upper surface of the work pieces, (the surface in contact with the upper part of the ECAP die) similar to the serrated chip type which was first observed by Merchant in1948, This formed the main objective of this paper, in which the causes of this new phenomenon, the mechanism of its formation and how to avoid its occurrence are presented and discussed.


In haptic simulation, a force feedback device is combined with a digital representation of a virtual world to create a kinesthetically immersive experience. The force feedback device, or haptic display, is usually a robotic manipulator with which a human operator interacts physically through a handle, stylus, finger-pad or some other form of customized interface. Modeling of the haptic display is often overlooked when building a haptic simulation. Understanding the dynamic behavior of the device is critical in assessing the stability and performance of the overall system as well as in the construction of the digital simulation. This paper describes some of the special modeling requirements for haptic displays. A dynamic model for Excalibur, a new three axis force display, is developed in a two step process. First an analytical model is constructed based on measured values and basic principals. Then the model is tuned using the results of vibrational testing to achieve a close match between the modal behavior of the theoretical and real systems. Numerical and experimental results are presented for representative points in the device's workspace.


In combination with the demand of measurement experiment on target signature, this paper introduces the design form of angle location measurement in automatic control system, the design making of control part, the connected technology of computer control part and the specific apply in measurement experiment on target signature.


In this work, the wind sensing technology that exploits the turbine rotor as an anemometer is further developed into a non-deterministic formulation. First, an inflow-turbine response map is identified, which relates out and in-plane blade root bending moments to both vertical and horizontal shears and misalignments. Then, this linear model is used with and without a Kalman filter to estimate online the wind field at the rotor disk once blade loads are measured. A comprehensive simulation study, including different wind speeds and turbulence intensity levels, was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the new non-deterministic formulation. The results show that introducing a Kalman filter in the estimation process allows for a significant improvement in the angle estimates with respect to the deterministic formulation, with no considerable additional computational cost.


The various activities—neurotoxic, proteolytic and anticoagulant—contained in the DEAE cellulose neurotoxic fraction of Vipera palestinae venom can be adequately separated by means of ammonium sulfate fractionation. The recovery of the neurotoxin, free from protease(s) and anticoagulant, is in the vicinity of 35%. Electrophoretic analysis of the isolated neurotoxin shows three different fractions, of which only one, positively charged, has lethal activity in mice. This component produces a single precipitation line in an agar immune electrophoresis plate.
 Venom protease(s), free of neurotoxic and anticoagulant activity, enhance the lethal activity of neurotoxin. The nondialyzable neurotoxin is split by trypsin and the dialysate is toxic for mice.
 Up to 1400 LD50 of the purified neurotoxin may be bound to and detoxified by 1 g of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The CMC-bound isolated neurotoxin is highly immunogenic in rabbits.


Recent U.K. educational policy has attempted to link curricula to 'industrial needs'. This paper attempts to put these changes in a social and historical context. It describes the major changes in political control, in pedagogy and assessment and in the ideological context of education. It then offers an analysis of the contradictory forces underlying these changes, and their potential for entrenching or overcoming existing patterns of educational inequality.


The Josephson plasma resonance in single-crystalline ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}\mathrm{}}$ has been investigated at a microwave frequency of 35 GHz in a ${\mathrm{TE}}_{102}$ cavity resonator as functions of external magnetic field $({\mathit{H}}_{\mathrm{ext}}\ensuremath{\Vert}c$ axis), temperature, and sample dimension $L$ of the $\mathrm{ab}$ plane. A sharp resonance is observed in a perpendicular oscillating electric field $({\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{rf}}\ensuremath{\Vert}c)$, whereas multipeaks are found in a parallel oscillating magnetic field $({\mathit{H}}_{\mathrm{rf}}\ensuremath{\Vert}ab)$. The former is independent of the sample dimension, while the latter shifts to higher fields as the sample size $L$ is reduced, and it disappears when $L$ becomes smaller than the critical length ${L}^{*}$. At 35 GHz, the value of ${L}^{*}$ is obtained to be 1.6 mm. The size-dependent resonance observed in ${\mathit{H}}_{\mathrm{rf}}\ensuremath{\Vert}\mathrm{ab}$ can be explained by the strong dispersion relation of the transverse Josephson plasma, while the size independence of the resonance in ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{rf}}\ensuremath{\Vert}c$ can be described by the longitudinal Josephson plasma as predicted by the recent theory of Josephson plasma of Tachiki et al. Since the longitudinal plasma mode is the Nambu-Goldstone mode in a superconductor, the experimental distinction between the longitudinal and the transverse mode leads to the conclusion that the existence of the Nambu-Goldstone mode as predicted by Anderson was experimentally confirmed by direct observation of the Josephson plasma resonance with longitudinal excitations. The finite gap found in the Josephson plasma resonance also provides a direct proof of the Anderson-Higgs mechanism within the context of the spontaneously broken phase symmetry of the gauge-field theory in a superconductor.


Context What actions do health care providers take for patients with poorly controlled cardiovascular risk factors? Content This large retrospective cohort study from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California found that, within a 6-month period, most patients received therapy modifications for the following poorly controlled risk factors: systolic blood pressure (64%), diastolic blood pressure (71%), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (56%), and hemoglobin A1c level (66%). The most frequent modifications were adding drugs and increasing dosages. Cautions We do not know how often patient preferences or suboptimal adherence influenced treatment decisions. The study did not directly link therapy modifications to clinical outcomes. The Editors Despite strong evidence that pharmacotherapeutic interventions contribute to preventing cardiovascular events in high-risk individuals (1-5), risk factor control remains suboptimal (6-9) and medications to reduce risk factors seem to be underused (10, 11). Underuse of evidence-based medications in chronic disease care may be partly due to clinical inertia (12) by physicians and health care systems. As such, it represents a possible avenue for quality improvement in health care (13, 14). The Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) has developed measures to assess health plan and individual physician performance (15) that are based directly on the proportions of high-risk patients whose low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, hemoglobin A1c levels, and blood pressure are in control. Although such measures may identify important deficiencies in quality (16) and are directly related to the health status of patients, they may be confounded by population differences in case mix and therefore cannot distinguish between a patient who is receiving poor care and a patient who is being appropriately treated but who either does not adhere to treatment recommendations or has particularly severe disease that is less responsive to treatment (17). Ideally, quality measures should reflect whether physicians and systems deliver appropriate or optimal care. Provider responses to poorly controlled risk factor levels, such as intensification of either behavioral therapy or pharmacotherapy, have recently been proposed as tightly linked process indicators of quality. Solid evidence suggests that these processes of care are directly linked to improved patient outcomes (18, 19). Such tightly linked process measures might be more clinically relevant than the levels of either testing or control (18). Higher testing rates have not been shown to be associated with better clinical control (7, 19). To better understand the potential utility and the feasibility of measuring therapy modifications in response to poor risk factor control as an additional measure of quality, we examined the frequency and predictors of therapy modifications in response to poorly controlled hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes in a large managed care population. Methods Study Participants Description of the Study Population We performed a retrospective cohort study within an 18-month period from 1 July 2002 to 31 December 2003 of all members of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program of Northern California who were older than 20 years of age. Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program is a fully integrated health care delivery system that provides comprehensive medical care to more than 3 million members. Members comprise approximately 30% of the northern California population and are demographically representative of the population (20). Primary care physicians, who worked with specialty care, health education, and nutrition education staff located in close proximity, followed most patients. Many primary care teams included care managers and either nurses or pharmacists, to whom patients with poor control could be directly referred. All services were covered benefits. Diagnostic Criteria We searched clinical databases, including inpatient and ambulatory diagnoses, ambulatory blood pressure measurements, laboratory results, and prescriptions for the 18-month period before 31 December 2003, to identify all patients categorized as having hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, or a combination of these conditions and to assess modifications in therapy in response to poor control. Criteria used to identify each condition (Appendix Table 1) have been described previously (21). Previous studies have documented the accuracy of the clinical databases used in our study for several diagnoses, including diabetes, coronary artery disease (CAD), and stroke (22, 23). Diabetes diagnoses, myocardial infarction, and stroke are confirmed at chart review in 98%, 99%, and 75% of cases, respectively. Study Cohort To assess therapy modifications in response to poorly controlled hypertension, dyslipidemia, or diabetes mellitus, we identified patients who met criteria for poor control of 1 condition or more at some point during the study period. Appendix Table 2 details our definitions of poor control. We did not include patients with moderately elevated risk factors because initial lifestyle modification is often appropriate for these participants (4, 5), so pharmacotherapeutic interventions may not be warranted. To allow a complete 6-month follow-up, we extended observation into 2004 for those whose poor control was first identified in the second half of 2003. We excluded members who were not continuously enrolled 4 months before and 6 months after the date of the defining measure of poor control because we did not have adequate time for observation (Figure). We also excluded patients with diabetes who were already treated with insulin therapy, because day-to-day adjustments in insulin dosage cannot be reliably identified from automated data sources. Figure. Flow of participants in the study. BP Measurements Therapy Modifications in Response to Poor Control On the basis of previous definitions of tightly linked quality measures (17), we defined a potential therapy modification as an increase in the number of drug classes, increased dosage of 1 medication or more, or a switch to another medication in a different therapeutic class. We did not treat switches to medications in the same therapeutic class as a therapy modification, unless the daily dose of the new agent represented an increase in bioequivalent dose compared with the previous agent, because a switch could be in response to side effects rather than an intensification of therapy. Other outcomes included a return to control without therapy modification, which was based on the last risk factor measurement recorded during the 6-month period; a return to near control (Appendix Table 2); and no therapy modification with either no return to control or no further measurement. This last category included patients with no follow-up visit during the interval. Recognizing that physicians may sometimes opt for nonpharmacologic recommendations for an elevated risk factor value, we created an outcome called appropriate care, defined as either a therapy modification or return to control without therapy modification within 6 months. We also examined responses within 3 months. Pharmacologic Management We defined pharmacologic therapy from prescriptions filled during the 4 months before and the 6 months after the first abnormal risk factor measure. We grouped drugs by drug codes into therapeutic classes, with 7 classes for hypertension (thiazide diuretics, other diuretics, -blockers, calcium-channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers, and other antihypertensive agents), 5 classes for dyslipidemia (statins, fibric acid derivatives, niacin, bile acid resins, and other lipid-lowering agents), and 5 classes for diabetes mellitus (insulin, sulfonylureas, metformin, thiazolidinediones, and other diabetes-related medications). We recorded daily dosages and defined increased dosage as any increase in daily dose in milligrams. When drugs from more than 1 medication class were taken, we considered a dosage increase for any class. For patients who did not have therapy modifications, we assessed the proportion of patients who may have already been receiving maximal therapy. We defined maximal therapy as receiving 3 medications for hypertension or diabetes (including the proportion who were receiving high doses of all 3 medications) or receiving a maximal dose of statin therapy (80 mg of simvastatin or 40 mg of atorvastatin). Combination lipid-lowering therapy was very uncommon. Covariates We examined the relationship between several patient factors and receipt of appropriate care in response to poor control, notably whether physicians responded differently in relation to patients' level of cardiovascular risk as reflected by the presence of several conditions or target organ disease. We defined 3 mutually exclusive categories of cardiovascular risk: history of CAD, other target organ damage, and no history of either condition. We defined previous CAD as any diagnosis of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, atherosclerotic heart disease, or coronary revascularization recorded during the previous 5 years. We defined target organ damage on the basis of the definitions of the Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC VI) (24): previous diagnoses of hypertensive heart disease, congestive heart failure, cerebrovascular or peripheral arterial disease, and nephropathy (defined as renal failure or insufficiency during the previous 5 years or by a most recent serum creatinine level greater than 124 mol/L [>1.4 mg/dL] for women or greater than 133 mol/L [>1.5 mg/dL] for men). Race and ethnicity data were available for 76% of patients from responses to previous member surveys and previous hospital discharges. Statistical Analysis For each condition, we determined th


Enormous and fundamental changes are currently taking place in health care delivery. These changes include the consolidation of health care providers—from hospitals, physicians, and insurance companies, to medical supply businesses, managed care networks, and other health care providers—and numerous health care and insurance reform efforts by government at all levels. These changes pose significant implications for the delivery of health care in the United States, and will impact the manner, cost, and accessibility of health care delivery. These changes will almost certainly affect the quality of health care services as well. The quality of health care in the United States has for many years been a central concern of government, industry, health care providers, payors, and consumers. Quality in health care is essential to overall national health, the guarantor of a productive and healthy populace, and an important indicator of United States social and technological preeminence.


In order to develop a system for a large scale coal solubilization and its bioconversion to utilizable fuel, we plan to clone the genes encoding Neurospora protein that facilitate depolymerization of coal. We also plan to use desulfurizing bacteria to remove the sulfur in situ and use other microorganisms to convert biosolubilized coal into utilizable energy following an approach utilizing several microorganisms (Faison, 1991). In addition the product of coal solubilized by fungus will be characterized to determine their chemical nature and the mechanism of reaction catalyzed by fungal product during in vivo and in vitro solubilization by the fungus or purified fungal protein. The main objectives are: (1) Cloning of Neurospora gene for coal depolymerization protein controlling solubilization in different host cells, utilizing Neurospora plasmid and other vector(s); (2) (a) Development of a large scale electrophoretic separation of coal-drived products obtained after microbial solubilization; (b) Identification of the coal derived products obtained after biosolubilization by Neurospora cultures or obtained after Neurospora enzyme catalyzed reaction in in vitro by the wildtype and mutant enzymes; and (3) Bioconversion of coal-derived products into utilizable fuel.


This report covers the first year of a two-year study of unpaved roads. Maintenance and reconstruction models of unpaved roads are reviewed. These models are based upon empirical and mechanistic methods, and they have the objective of evaluating deterioration, roughness propagation parameters, scraping maintenance, surface material loss, surface material selection and surface thickness. Unfortunately, most models require an extensive data base of road material properties to establish the values of coefficients in the model formulas. The transferability of models from one site to another is questionable. The use of these models in road management decisions is difficult, since they are fairly complex, and require accurate material properties as input. For these reasons it appears that, at present, sound preventive maintenance practices are a more beneficial way of reducing unpaved road costs. Therefore, a maintenance guidance manual for unpaved roads is presented in Appendix A. The objective of this manual is to provide sound maintenance guidelines for personnel who have maintenance responsibilities. It is intended as a working manual, and as such, is subject to revision and improvement.


In this work, the adsorption of Pb2+ onto maleic anhydride modified cellulose/diatomite beads (MCDBs) was investigated. Instead of the general process for esterifying the cellulose beads, a solvent free synthesis which needs no catalyst or solvent was used. An appropriate amount of calcium carbonate was added during the formation of MCDBs to increase pore structure after being removed under an acidic condition. The synthesized adsorbent was characterized by FTIR, SEM, and BET. The degree of the carboxyl group of MCDBs was found to be 0.450 mmol g−1 based on colloid titration. The effects of pH, temperature, contact time, and the concentration of Pb2+ on adsorption were studied in batch mode. The results indicated that the MCDBs had a good adsorption capacity toward Pb2+ with the maximum adsorption at 44 mg g−1. The experimental kinetic data fit the pseudo-second order model very well. Moreover, the adsorption process for Pb2+ was better described by the Langmuir isotherm model. The regeneration of the MCDBs could be readily accomplished using an HCl (1 M) treatment without lowering the adsorption capacity significantly.


Frederick Jameson once said that imagining the continuing deterioration of the earth and of nature seems easier for us than imagining the collapse of capitalism. Nevertheless, the act of imagining plausible consequences of our actions on environment is arguably one of the most efficient ways of raising awareness about environmental problems in order to propel us to make changes in our lifestyles that would accommodate a sustainable future. In envisioning possible scenarios about the future of earth, literature and literary imagination unquestionably play prominent roles. Likewise, "survival" of the species, especially survival of the humankind plays an important role in thinking about the future of the world. Since we "love ourselves best of all" as David Ehrenfeld says, a literary work's success in evoking a sense of extinction may shake us from our ungrounded beliefs that things will be all right in the future. Therefore, this essay argues that in overcoming such conflicting attitudes, postapocalyptic narratives could play a great part in preventing a future disaster that is already underway by creating a sense of crisis. The first part of the essay focuses on literature's relationship with environmental problems and elaborates on how post-apocalyptic fiction contributes to the task of raising public awareness. The second part of the essay explores the relationship between The Road and the aforementioned genre and elaborates on the grounds and outcomes of the centrality of "the road" and sources of energy such as food and oil in the novel by focusing on the novel's critique of over-consumerist culture and it investigates the authorial intentions of McCarthy.


This paper presents measured antenna impedance and patterns of a horizontally oriented folded dipole as it is moved toward a metal ground plane. The 915 MHz measurements on different antennas provide rules-of-thumb for RFID link design and suggest that changing antenna thicknesses may make tags more resistant to on-object degradations


Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are energy conversion devices that convert chemical energy to electrical energy with high efficiency and have the added advantage of least production of pollutants during their operation. SOFCs comprise of a number of components such as the anode, the electrolyte, the cathode and the interconnect. Each of these components is made of a different material with different thermophysical and electrical properties. Thermal expansion coefficient is one of the most important properties of these compounds. Various components should have matching thermal expansion behaviour to avoid cracking during thermal cycling and for long term operation of SOFCs. In this article, the thermophysical properties of materials for solid oxide fuel cells will be discussed with special emphasize on their thermal expansion behaviour.


Health of people with severe haemophilia (PwSH) improves thanks to the advancements in haemophilia care, giving them more opportunities in occupational integration. However, there is little literature on the occupational integration of PwSH.


* Foreword * Introduction * 1. Becoming a Widow * 2. Poverty, Work and Income Support * 3. Laws and Customs Concerning Inheritance * 4. Sex and Sexuality * 5. Widowhood in the Context of AIDS * 6. Remarriage * 7. Child Widows and the Children of Widows * 8. Older Widows * 9. Refugee Widows * 10. Human Rights, Equality and Legal Protection * 11. Conclusion: Widows Organising for Change * Index


The occurence of anemia following partial gastrectomy is well recognised: the reported incidence ranges from three to 63 per cent'. Iron deficiency is the commonest cause of the anaemia, deficiencies of either B12 or folic acid accounting for only a small number1. With the advent of vagotomy and drainage as the routine treatment for duodenal ulcer it was hoped that anaemia would no longer be a significant problem. However, Wheldon and associates2 found that truncal vagotomy with gastrojunostomy resulted in anaemia in 43.5 per cent of males and 84 per cent of females after 15 years. There are no published data comparing the incidence of anaemia in the long term after the various types of vagotomy with or without drainage. The purpose of this study is to compare the iron status of patients after six different types of vagotomy and drainage.


In these notes we address the canonical quantization of the cosmological models which appear as solutions of the low energy effective action of closed bosonic string theory (dilaton models). The analysis is restricted to the quantization of the minisuperspace models given by homogeneous and isotropic cosmological solutions. We study the different conceptual and technical problems arising in the Hamiltonian formulation of these models as a consequence of the presence of the so called Hamiltonian constraint. In particular we address the problem of time in quantum cosmology, the characterization of the symmetry under clock reversals arising from the existence of a Hamiltonian constraint, and the problem of imposing boundary conditions on the space of solutions of the Wheeler– DeWitt equation. Chapter 3 of the book Trends in General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, Nova Science Publishers, N. Y. (2005). E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com E-mail: email@example.com


How agricultural managers gain, process and use information in decision-making and problem-solving process refers to decision-making styles. A successful decision depends on the flexibility of using decision-making styles in different situations. The research paper monitors the dependence between the decision-making style of agricultural managers and their personal and working parameters. To identify the decision-making styles, the MB-type indicator (Myers-Briggs type indicator) was used. The results of non-parametric testing give proof that there is a statistically significant dependence between the type of decision problem and decision-making style, "Intuitive" and "Sensing". Parametric test ANOVA was applied to assess potential differences in the score of decision-making style by nominal-level variables. The results gave proof of a strong statistically significant difference in score of decision-making style, "Intuitive" and "Sensing" between groups of current leading position. The difference in scoring for "Thinking" and "Feeling" as decision-making styles was confirmed to be statistically significant even in functional areas of control. Subsequently, the size of this difference was calculated.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common inflammatory skin disorders. In most patients, AD is a starting point for developing other atopic diseases, e.g., food allergy, allergic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, allergic rhinitis, and asthma known under the umbrella of "atopic march". In addition to genetic predisposition, various environmental factors are essential for the development of this dermatosis. In young children, food is the most relevant factor. This paper discusses principles of the selection of complementary food, techniques, and terms of its introduction. Prolonging of breastfeeding, the adequate introduction of complementary food, and personified nutrition program prevent the atopic march. The authors highlight that there is no special diet for atopic dermatitis. Meanwhile, food should be safe, low allergy, and balanced to provide a child with essential macro-and micronutrients. In addition, the paper addresses the utility and validity of an elimination diet which should be prescribed only in established food sensitization and used under the control o f a specialist. KEYWORDS: atopic dermatitis, atopic march, infancy, early childhood, nutrition, complementary foods, prevention. FOR CITATION: Botkina A.S., Dubrovskaya M.I. Principles of complementary food introduction in atopic dermatitis. Russian Medical Inquiry. 2021;5(6):421–426 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821-2021-5-6-421-426.


PARENTERAL iron therapy is of particular value in pregnancy, and two preparations are in common use today. In this paper we describe trials which were undertaken to determine the more suitable one for use in a hospital of our kind, which with a shortage of antenatal beds caters for a population containing a high proportion of social classes IV and V. More than 600 patients were treated for anaemia last year in the antenatal wards.


This paper discussed the practice and experience of the personalized information services Heilongjiang August First Land Reclamation University library,and proposed the development direction of personalized information service under the network environment.


In this paper, combined with video monitoring system for each working face under the mine, distance measurement system under the mine and Matlab software, real-time monitoring, analysis and calculation of dust concentration under the mine are carried out. Firstly, the image of dust degradation was obtained according to the video monitoring system in the underground dust environment, and the transmission chart with block effect was obtained. Secondly, the obtained transmission figure is processed by Matlab to obtain the corresponding transmission of each pixel in the dust image. Then according to the dust dispersion measurement system to calculate the extinction coefficient, according to the distance measurement system measured the length of the radiation channel distance;Finally, according to the established dust image degradation model, the dust concentration change process and dust mass concentration at each moment and point can be obtained from the extinction coefficient, transmission rate and length of radiation channel. The research method in this paper is rapid and can be used for real-time and online continuous detection, so as to obtain the dust mass concentration and dust distribution in the dust environment.


It has been largely demonstrated and is nowadays admitted that the "Great Leap ahead" (1959-1961) has been a crucial period in the history of Chinese women. During this movement, a great number of "housewives," which we shall here call the "women of the Great Leap ahead," were integrated by the State into wage workers. Communist authorities boast about an original emancipation of "housewives" that broke ground in the male-female equality policy in China. Probably for that reason, this "accomplishment" has rarely been questioned by historiography. However, this image of emancipation is very ideological. We aim at revealing the construction of an unequal employment system for these housewives, a category which is an ideological construction in itself, first through a study of the history of employment politics in the 50s and 60s, second through in-depth interviews of 15 "women of the Great Leap Ahead" who worked in the same company in Shanghai. In their professional lives, these "housewives" have been submitted to a casual employment system, with low wages and no career outlooks, and without social protection — a system which reinforced the stable employment system in the Maoist times.


Abstract Research on the psychosocial adjustment of cancer patients in remission remains limited. Only recently has the potential for significant long-term psychological morbidity in survivors been recognized. This study reports the preliminary results of an ongoing study designed to evaluate the emotional status of long-term survivors of breast cancer compared with women who underwent low-risk breast cancer screening. The patients had no history of a psychiatric diagnosis. The Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered. Although the mean level of endorsement of depressive symptoms was within normal limits, it was significantly higher than in the breast screening group. The incidence of mild anxiety was also higher in the breast cancer group. The preliminary results showed that mild emotional distress persisted in disease-free women five years and longer after the diagnosis of breast cancer. Further study is needed to assess the degree to which other psychosocial fac...


A survey of the literature in which Liapunov's second method is used in determining the control Jaw is presented, with emphasis placed on the model-tracking adaptive control problem. Forty references are listed. Following a brief tutorial exposition of the adaptive control problem, the techniques for treating reduction of order, disturbance and time-varying parameters, multivariate systems, identification, and adaptive observers are discussed. The method is critically evaluated, particularly with respect to possibilities for application.


Abstract The impurities behaviour in matrix with phase transitions and soft modes is a very interesting problem for scientific and practical points of view.1–4 In this case there is a possibility of defects local symmetry breaking and appearance of new states, optical and luminescence properties. The most attractive for studies are the luminescence properties of laser-active impurities in matrix with temperature-dependent soft modes.


The quality of life is a very important issue in health psychology which covers a large part of the public health sense. The health is a common issue in many cultures and a key factor to play social roles. It is not only dependent on the physiological state of the individual, but it also depends on many aspects of his/her mental functioning. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between self- esteem and mental health with the quality of life in patients with skin diseases. This study was performed using correlational method. Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods were used to test research hypotheses. The Persian version of Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), General Health Questionnaire (CHQ-28) and Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were used to evaluate variables. The results showed that there are significant relationships between self-esteem, mental health and quality of life. Accordingly, the research hypotheses were approved. Moreover, the mental health and its various aspects had more contribution in predicting the quality of life in patients with skin diseases compared to self-esteem.