Africa's Third Liberation: The New Search for Prosperity and Jobs Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst Johannesburg, South Africa: Penguin Books, 2012, 248 pp. The new millennium has been good to Africa. Its economy grew at an average annual rate of 4.9 percent between 2000 and 2008. Then came the financial crisis and growth dipped to 2 percent. Since 2009, the International Monetary Fund estimates growth has averaged 5.4 percent. Between 2001 and 2010, six out of the ten fastest growing economies were in Africa. This trend, the Fund predicts, will continue. What was the impact of growth on the lives of ordinary Africans? "After steadily increasing from 51 percent in 1981 to 58 percent in 1999," the World Bank has recently found, "The extreme poverty rate fell 10 percentage points in ... [sub-Saharan Africa] between 1999 and 2010 and is now at 48 percent--an impressive 17 percent decline in one decade." That reduction in poverty is especially encouraging considering that the population of Africa rose from 375 million in 1980 to 823 million in 2010. Contrary to some commentators, Africa's fortunes improved less because of high commodity prices and more because of the slow but steady spread of capitalism. Resources accounted for only about a third of Africa's newfound growth, according to the McKinsey report "What's Driving Africa's Growth?" Internal structural changes accounted for the rest, including reduction of inflation, foreign debt, budget deficits, taxes, and trade barriers, and improvements of the business and legal environments. Africa's Third Liberation: the New Search for Prosperity and Jobs is a much-needed and unapologetic call for further structural reforms in sub-Saharan Africa. As Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst acknowledge, the environment for African economic development has been slowly improving. For example, both political freedom as measured by the Freedom House and economic freedom as measured by the Fraser Institute rose since the end of the Cold War. Overall, however, African political and economic elites lack a comprehensive commitment to development. As the authors write, "If Africa's first liberation was from colonial and racist government, and the second from its liberators, the third is the change in focus of politics itself. Concentrating on economic development to the exclusion of much else is required." Too often, African elites "revert to populism, patronage and economic nationalism rather than venturing reforms that will expand the economy." Faced with the haphazard nature of African reforms, the authors traversed the developing world--from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica in Central America, to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, and Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Bangladesh in Asia--in search of lessons applicable to Africa. What did they find? In the Middle East, Mills and Herbst found remarkable openness to immigration or "'appetite to import skills and good, efficient management where this cannot be found locally. …


HfO2 based ferroelectric materials have great application potential in ferroelectric tunneling junction. Here, the low temperature annealed Zr-Rich HfxZr<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1_{-\text {x}}\text{O}_{{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> films based ferroelectric tunnel junction is fabricated on a silicon substrate. It is found that ferroelectricity of the film under operating voltages of 3.3V, 3.5V and 3.7V are excellent, where the largest residual polarization 2Pr is above 50 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/cm2. The excellent ferroelectricity enables the device to operate at an extremely high speed of 50ns and achieve a high tunneling electro resistance ratio (>50). Based on the first principal calculation, we found that Zr-Rich HfxZr1-xO2 films will show more O-phase and less T-phase. This research paves the pathway to improve the performance of the HfO2 based ferroelectric tunneling junction for future ferroelectric application.


Facilitating public debates about crime and its various facets is at the core of public criminology. Public criminology focuses on the role that criminologists play in the manner that they contribute to public debates related to crime. I suggest herein that empirically investigating public opinions offered in response to criminal events like riots on social media sites can contribute to a more informed sense of various public understandings about crime, a process that serves as a point of entree for the public criminologist. I provide a brief summary of the 2011 Vancouver riot in British Columbia and outline how social media brought increased attention to the riot that in turn helped people to make sense of the riot. I briefly explain how to deal methodologically with select materials gathered from social media and then develop some basic user-generated themes relating to the riot, including, user production of evidence and punishment. I conclude with a short discussion for how this might contribute to a public criminology.


The extent to which ovarian hormones impact the development of diabetic nephropathy is not well known. To characterize how changes in hormones across the menopausal transition impact the development of early diabetic kidney damage we used the 4‐vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) model of menopause, which induces gradual ovarian failure (OF) in B6C3F1 mice. 2 weeks after mice entered OF, diabetes was induced with streptozotocin. Follicle numbers and gross ovarian histology were not different between cycling diabetic and non‐diabetic mice or between OF‐diabetic and OF‐non‐diabetic mice. After 6 weeks of diabetes blood glucose was elevated in OF‐diabetic mice compared to cycling diabetic mice (336 ± 31 vs 218 ± 37 mg/dL, P<0.05). Glomerular area was not different between control mice and cycling diabetic mice, however glomerular area was significantly increased in OF‐diabetic mice compared to cycling diabetic mice (118 vs. 100%, P<0.05). There were no differences between any groups in the degree of glomerulosclerosis. Using microarray analysis and real‐time PCR we found that mRNA expression of midkine was increased 1.74 fold (P<0.05) and immediate early response gene 1 was increased 1.85 fold (P<0.05) in kidneys from OF‐diabetic mice compared to cycling diabetic mice. These results suggest that the changes in ovarian hormone production that occur at menopause exacerbate the development of diabetic kidney disease.


Background To address the current and any future pandemic, we need a robust, real-time and population-scale collection of data. Rapid and comprehensive knowledge on the trends in reported symptoms in populations provides an earlier window into our progress against the viral spread, and helps predict the need and timing of professional healthcare. We thus used a CE-marked medical online symptom checker service and validated the data against national demand of care to estimate the progression of the pandemic in Finland. Methods Our data comprised real-time ©Omaolo Covid-19 symptom checker responses (414 477 in total) and daily admission counts in nationwide inpatient and outpatient registers provided by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare 16th March-15th June, 2020 (the first wave of the pandemic in Finland). The questionnaires responses provide self-triage information input to a medically qualified algorithm that produces a personalized probability of having the Covid-19 and provides graded recommendations for further actions. We trained linear regression and XGBoost models together with F-Score and mutual information feature pre-selectors to predict the admissions 1 week ahead. Results Our models reached a MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error) between 24.2% and 36.4% and MdAPE (Median Average Percentage Error) between 20.1% and 25.1% in predicting national daily patient admissions. The best result was achieved by combining both ©Omaolo and historical patient admission counts. Our best predictor was linear regression with mutual information as the pre-selector with slight advantage over XGBoost. Conclusions Accurate short-term predictions of Covid-19 patient admissions can be made, and both the symptom check questionnaires and the daily admissions data contribute to the accuracy of the predictions. Thus, symptoms checkers can be used to estimate the progression of the pandemic, which can be considered when predicting the health care burden in a future pandemic. Key messages Digital surveillance of symptoms enables rapid and contactless tracing of epidemic progression. Prediction models can help support medical decision making in an epidemic to promote and protect public health and prevent health care system overload.


Summary.  The ability of ex vivo expansion to increase the long‐term repopulating capacity of a graft is still unknown. One problem is the most reliable way to quantify transplantable cells. We addressed this point in a baboon model based on autologous transplantation of serial limiting doses of non‐manipulated or ex vivo‐expanded mobilized CD34+ cells and determined the threshold doses of non‐manipulated and expanded cells which supported long‐term multilineage engraftment. In the expansion group, CD34+ cells were cultured for 6 d with a combination of early acting cytokines (Flt3‐ligand, stem cell factor, thrombopoietin and interleukin 3). Grafted cells were characterized by their surface antigens and biological properties [semisolid assays, long‐term culture‐initiating cells (LTC‐IC) and non‐obese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient reconstituting cells (SRC)]. Animals were followed for at least 12 months post transplantation. The expansion protocol yielded 12·3‐fold, 16·9‐fold, 3·7‐fold, 3·5‐fold and 2·2‐fold increases in CD34+ cells, granulocyte‐‐macrophage colony‐forming units (CFU‐GM), megakaryocyte CFU (CFU‐MK), LTC‐IC and SRC respectively. It induced a modest increase in the long term reconstitutive ability of the graft; the threshold value for long‐term engraftment was 0·5 × 106/kg CD34+ cells in the control group and 0·3 × 106/kg CD34+ cells in the expansion group, although one animal in this latter group remained hypoplastic. Frequencies of SRC had a high predictive value of long‐term engraftment (r > 0·80). The main advantage of the protocol was the acceleration of granulocyte recovery, achieved at the different doses tested. In conclusion, these experiments suggest that this ex vivo expansion protocol marginally amplifies long‐term reconstituting cells.


The General Medical Council is to conduct a major review of its guidance on sanctions that can be placed on doctors after fitness to practise hearings.

Niall Dickson, the GMC's chief executive, announced the move at the council's conference on professionalism in Manchester on 12 December.

"Next year we will conduct a major consultation on our sanctions guidance—the advice we give our decision makers and panels on the appropriate sanctions to protect the public and uphold the reputation of the profession," he told the conference. The GMC's sanctions guidance is used by the fitness …


The genus Elatostema J.R. Forst. & G. Forst. (Urticaceae) is a large Palaeotropical group with perhaps 300 or more species. Eight new species are described here, six of which are endemic to Mt Kinabalu, and a new name is established.


The effects of inflammation on collagenase and gelatinase were studied in dog gingiva. Inflammation was induced by the placement of cervical ligatures. Collagenase activity was measured using soluble [14C]-acetylated collagen with high specific activity as substrate and separating the reaction products by 50% dioxane (Terato et al. 1976). Two forms of collagenase, a soluble enzyme free from the substrate and an insoluble enzyme bound to the substrate, were extracted by neutral salt solution and by sequential sonication in low and high salt buffers, respectively. Treatment with a high concentration of trypsin was necessary for detection of collagenase activities in both extracts. The collagenase activities in the neutral salt extract and the first sonic extract were significantly higher in inflamed gingiva after 1 week of plaque formation than in healthy gingiva, but that in the second sonic extract showed no significant increase. After 3 weeks of plaque formation, the activities in neutral salt extract and the first sonic extract of inflamed gingiva similarly showed significant increases relative to controls. On the other hand, gelatinase activity did not vary significantly with the induction of inflammation.


This paper uses a discrete‐time, discrete‐state Monte Carlo simulation model to evaluate representative strategies for investing and spending a fixed sum designed to fund consumption during the period after retirement. Two assets are considered – one providing a riskless real return, the other a market portfolio of bonds and stocks. A stochastic process for the returns from the market portfolio is proposed. Then a set of Arrow‐Debreu state prices is obtained on the assumption that the market portfolio is an efficient investment strategy. The model is used to forecast ranges of consumption and ranges of the ratios of year‐to‐year consumption, and also to estimate the values of components of future consumption.


Prosperity of information technology triggers a tremendous amount of digital data that needs to be stored by storage memories with ultra-high capacity. Although probe-based memory has exhibited its superb storage merits, its developments to date, however, remain slow due to several physical limits. In order to overcome its drawbacks, and to further advance probe storage technologies, a comprehensive review regarding the current status and future prospect of probe-based memories become of importance. In this paper, we first presented the physical principles of various reported probe-based memories and their respective advantages/disadvantages, as well as their current status. Subsequently, up-to-date progress made on these probe memories and some novel probe memories concepts is proposed. The prospect of a probe-based memory device is finally predicted.


Photograph of Frank Smith, a Teach North Texas student, standing behind a podium and holding a green ribbon in his hand. The speaker from earlier is standing to the side by a doorway to the outside. They are at the UNT College of Education Grad Banquet.


There is a synergistic evolutionary relationship between local government cooperation and regional spatial structure.Through the spatial distribution of a region,the regional division of labor specialization and the integration of regional space,local government cooperation can influence regional spatial structure;through the consensus on cooperation,the scope of cooperation,the content of cooperation and the mechanism of cooperation,regional spatial structure can influence local government cooperation.Based on this mechanism,intergovernmental relations should be enhanced in order to achieve the synergistic evolutionary relationship between local government cooperation and regional spatial structure,which is confirmed by the case study of the Pearl River Delta city group.However,the development of the city group also faces some obstacles.Therefore,this region needs to strengthen local government cooperation.


Along the Arctic coast of Alaska sea ice affects structures placed on and under the sea bed and influences the erosion and dispersal patterns of sedimentary particulates and pollutants. Most directly, ice gouges the sea floor to depths of a few meters, with return periods on the inner shelf of tens of years and, in places, annually, primarily during freezeup and breakup. These sea-floor ice-gouge patterns provide information on the motion and characteristics of the local ice canopy. The design and alignment of pipelines and coast structures should consider that ice gouging extends to the coast and onto the beaches; however, ice gouging is less apparent on beaches owing to lower gouge intensities and vigorous wave reworking. In the long term, gouging contributes to high rates of coastal and shelf erosion. Protruding ice keels extending downward from the sea-ice canopy divert and focus currents causing increased sea-floor scour to depths of a few meters below the sea floor. Sea-ice freezing during the commonly turbulent fall storms causes large volumes of sediment and pollutants to be sorted, resuspended, and, ultimately, incorporated into the ice canopy. Most entrained material is re-released to the nearshore the following open-water season however, some material maymore » be transported offshore to become part of the Arctic pack. During freezeup and breakup (4-5 months/yr) when these processes are most active, trafficability in the Arctic nearshore is nil owing to the instability of the ice canopy, and so our comprehension of this processes is limited.« less


A practical procedure is given for assessing a p value for the hypothesis that two samples come from populations having the same mean, for the case when the two variances cannot be assumed equal.


567 The Blue-black Grassquit Volatinia jacarina (Linnaeus, 1766), popularly known in Brazil as "tiziu", is an inhabitant of open areas, and also common near cities (MarcondesMachado, 1988). The most remarkable characteristic of this species is the male blackish blue iridescent plumage, especially during the reproductive season (Queiroz, 2008). Nevertheless, variation in this colouration pattern is not uncommon, being noted mainly in captive specimens, with few observations in wild individuals (Piacentini, 2001). Herein, we report a new record of aberrant plumage colouration of the wild Volatinia jacarina from Mato Grosso state, Brazil. Nine individuals of V. jacarina were mist netted between 17-22 November 2009 during an environmental impact study in "El Dourado" farm (52° 14' 12" W and 15° 32' 01" S), municipality of Barra do Garças. Of these, one individual presented a different plumage colouration that consisted of very clear almost yellow across the head and many dorsal clear spots (Figure 1). Following the plumage colour classification proposed by Nemésio (1999) we describe this individual as "arlequins" colouration. This class is the most common variation form and consists in total suppression of melanin in the bird's head (Nemésio, 1999; Piacentini, 2001). The variation of plumage colouration can be explained by some factors such as exogenous (e.g. food) or endogenous (e.g. relative mating) (Nemésio, 2001). Some studies relating structural New record of aberrant plumage in Blue-black Grassquit (Volatinia jacarina Linnaeus, 1766, aves: Emberizidae)


A Ni(ǁ)/Tris(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine(TPMPP)-catalyzed reductive cross-coupling reaction of benzyl oxalates and tetrasulfides to synthesize unsymmetric disulfides. The benzyl oxalate works as the carbon radical precursor to participate in the reaction. This catalytic...


Abstract Oximes, hydrazones, and semicarbazones can be converted to their corresponding carbonyl compounds in good to high yields by a combination of silica chloride and wet SiO2.


Failure of composite materials due to poor anticipations of damages occur very frequently. Damages in composite materials may exist as visible or non-visible with different configurations and identities. Thus, investigation of damages existence in composite materials has to have prior attention to avoid the failure of structures. The current work investigates the damping response offered by a damaged fiber-reinforced polymer plate. The plate is put under three different conditions regarding the damage existence. The focus is to measure the loss factor in all cases and determine whether there is a difference among them to prove damage presence in the composite part. The loss factor is experimentally measured by measuring the reverberation time RT60. The resulting data of loss factors show a well-distinguished difference that might lead to predicted damages and to do a more expanded analysis of this issue.


We revisit the problem of high-dimensional multiple packing in Euclidean space. Multiple packing is a natural generalization of sphere packing and is defined as follows. Let $ N>0 $ and $ L\in\mathbb{Z}_{\ge2} $. A multiple packing is a set $\mathcal{C}$ of points in $ \mathbb{R}^n $ such that any point in $ \mathbb{R}^n $ lies in the intersection of at most $ L-1 $ balls of radius $ \sqrt{nN} $ around points in $ \mathcal{C} $. We study the multiple packing problem for both bounded point sets whose points have norm at most $\sqrt{nP}$ for some constant $P>0$ and unbounded point sets whose points are allowed to be anywhere in $ \mathbb{R}^n $. Given a well-known connection with coding theory, multiple packings can be viewed as the Euclidean analog of list-decodable codes, which are well-studied for finite fields. In this paper, we derive various bounds on the largest possible density of a multiple packing in both bounded and unbounded settings. A related notion called average-radius multiple packing is also studied. Some of our lower bounds exactly pin down the asymptotics of certain ensembles of average-radius list-decodable codes, e.g., (expurgated) Gaussian codes and (expurgated) Poisson Point Processes. To this end, we apply tools from high-dimensional geometry and large deviation theory. Some of our lower bounds on the optimal multiple packing density are the best known lower bounds. These bounds are obtained via a proxy known as error exponent. The latter quantity is the best exponent of the probability of list-decoding error when the code is corrupted by a Gaussian noise. We establish a curious inequality which relates the error exponent, a quantity of average-case nature, to the list-decoding radius, a quantity of worst-case nature. We derive various bounds on the error exponent in both bounded and unbounded settings which are of independent interest beyond multiple packing.


Conflict resolution model and strategies for multi-agent hybrid systems on Integratable Manufacturing Execution System (I-MES)is researched in this paper. An architecture based on the multi-agent of I-MES is built firstly. In order to classify the occurring conflicts in the job-shop, Program Evaluation and Review Technique/Critical Path Method is introduced into the conflict analysis process. By integrating plans of every part agent, conflict category is classified according to the places where conflict occurred. According to the result of conflict analysis, the corresponding conflict resolution strategies based on the KQML and BDI theory are also discussed detailly. At last, the multi-agent based I-MES is developed to validate the conflict resolution strategies and negotiation protocols.


Talking about sex is not a taboo again in today's life. Teenagers with all the problems of the problem, it seems necessary to know and understand about sex life, problems and impact. This article describes the introduction of sex education that can provide understanding and benefits for teenagers, especially in knowing the opposite sex in order to establish a healthy dating relationship.


His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve,of the award of a Bar .1;0 the Military Medal to the undermentioned Non-commissioned Officers and Man;_ No. 1121 Cpl. T. Trainor, Royal Army Medical Corps. (M.lYI. gazetted Angust 10, ;1916.) No. 386013 Serjt. W. W. Cowans, Royal Army Medical Corps. (M.M. gl).zetted .-October 27, 1916.) . No. 40222 Serjt.,D. Semple, Royal Army lYiedical Corps. (M.M. gazetted December 21, 1916.) . _ No. 37128 Pte. (Acting Serjt.) A. C. Cardy, Royal Army Medical Corps. (i\r:M. gazetted February 19, 1917.) . _ '


Persons with immune‐mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are at an increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ). In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a highly efficacious vaccine, recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV), for prevention of HZ in immunocompetent patients ≥50 years of age. This study was undertaken to estimate RZV vaccination among adults ages ≥50 years with IMIDs during 2018–2019 and to examine possible vaccine‐related flares following RZV.


In March 1969 in the Budapest Appeal of the Warsaw Pact member states' Political Consultative Committee a proposal was made to convene a Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was proposed. The Soviet Foreign Ministry undertook active efforts to implement this idea, including its promotion at the Nordic "direction". Neutral Sweden was regarded by the Soviet political leadership as a country that could assist the USSR in the preparation and organization of the CSCE. It was considered that "the two sides' positions in many cases are similar or close to each other". On the basis of documents from the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation (AVPRF) the author of this article analyses Soviet-Swedish relations in the late 1960s — first half of 1970s with the preparation for and carrying out of the CSCE as a background.


The primary purpose of this study was to identify the effect on mathematics achievement and attitude of homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping of gifted sixth grade students. The secondary purpose was to find the effect on mathematics achievement and attitude of homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping on average- and low-ability students. There were 208 subjects in the study. The results indicated that there was a positive effect for achievement in mathematics for identified gifted sixth graders in homogeneous grouping when compared to gifted students in heterogeneous grouping using the TOMA (Test of Mathematical Abilities) – Computation Subtest. No statistically significant difference was found for mathematics achievement for average and low ability students based on grouping. Quantitative and qualitative results will be shared related to students' attitudes toward grouping.


Abstract The progesterone concentration in the ovarian venous plasma of 17 ewes on the sixth day after mating was found by a chromatographie method. The uteri of 9 ewes contained normal morulae or blastocystsand those of 8 ewes contained abnormal ova. The progesterone concentration of the plasma did not differ significantly between groups.


Design-build is a procurement method which has been strongly promoted by the government on public construction in recent years. It has various advantages, including shortening time for the project and reducing interface conflicts. In addition, lump sum contracts can avoid possible future over budget of the project for hosting authorities. However, since the design-build mode was introduced into Taiwan, no matter it is in the procurement or performance stage, disagreements between contractors and authorities have often emerged. Therefore, this research used some examples of disputes in the performance stage in an actual case as the scope of our study and sought for solution. This research reviewed literatures concerning design-build projects, performance disputes and project management, and used an actual case as the research objects. We summed up 24 questions from the performance conflicts, and analyzed the reasons of the conflicts through interviewing the personnel who had actually executed the design-build project. In the process, it could be found that part of the disputes had been solved through consultations and the majority had agreed with the results. But there were still some of problems that people could not reach agreements due to the different views on the contracts. This research analyzed the reasons of the conflicts, classified the conclusions into the nine knowledge areas from the view of PMBOK, and posed suggestions on the strategy of contractors handling the performance conflicts of public construction design-build projects. On the suggestions of conflict handling, because it is not necessary to implement every step listed in the PMBOK in the project management model, we just need to follow the classification method of the nine knowledge areas, find out appropriate management techniques, and properly use the knowledge of project management to obtain the effect. Lastly, the contribution of this research is the reasons we found through our interviews of the conflicts in the design-build case, which could be references for those units executing design-build projects in the future. In addition, because the view of PMBOK was adopted as the strategy of handling conflicts, future studies or executors will know how to apply the nine knowledge areas to the management of case project.


Background Children allergic to cow's milk are fed a soy‐ or a hydrolysed cow's milk‐based substitute. Neither can rule out a sensitization risk. Previous studies have shown that hydrolysed rice is tolerated by animals and children with multiple food hypersensitivities.


Metal‐replete cuticle was characterised by back‐scattered electron imaging, secondary ion mass spectrometry, proton induced X‐ray emission and SEM‐X‐ray microanalysis. Each technique was found to have singular advantages and limitations for localising and quantifying metal content. Manganese and zinc were found coincident at the mandibular cutting edge of the leaf‐cutting ant Atta sexdens; these two metals were found in different zones within jaws of the ragworm, Nereis virens; while only manganese was found in the jaws of the termite C. cumulans.


We study the formation dynamics of spinor polariton condensates trapped in ring-shaped confining potentials created by excitonic reservoirs. We consider in detail the interplay of the effective spin-orbit interaction provided by transverse electric and transverse magnetic photonic modes splitting (TE-TM splitting) and exciton Zeeman splitting provided by an external magnetic field. We demonstrate that tuning of the trap size obtained by shaping of the external nonresonant and depolarized pumping allows formation of pairs of half-vortices of topological charges $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1/2$ in both spin components. Further, we show that the probabilities of the realizations of four possible vortex configurations strongly depend on the value of the magnetic field. For certain values of the field, the probability of the formation of a vortex with desired topological charge reaches 90%, which opens the possibility of on-demand control of angular momentum of quantum fluids of light with a magnetic field.


An optical image can be stored in the slow surface states of Ge and can be read out by the separated medium acoustoelectric effect with a surface wave on LiNbO3. It is found that the surface is sensitive even to optical power as weak as 0.9 µW/mm2 at 368 nm wavelength. The memory time is considerably long due to the `slow' property of the surface states, depending on surface treatment so that the more oxidized surface has the longer memory time. The optical image is easily erased by applying a gate voltage for several seconds.


The current explosion of data and information on the Internet-based Infosphere has made the problem of locating information sources, accessing them and combining information from them a very critical task. The notion of Intelligent Software Agents has been proposed to address this challenge, Intelligent Software Agents are programs that must act on behalf of their users in order to perform laborious information gathering tasks, such as locating and accessing information from various on-line information sources, resolve inconsistencies in the retrieved information, filter away irrelevant or unwanted information, integrate information from heterogeneous information sources and adapt over time to their users' information needs and the shape of the Infosphere. These tasks are performed automatically or with little help from the users. Most current research on Intelligent Agents has focused on the development of a single information gathering agent. It is clear, however, that the Infosphere is the natural playground of Multiple Intelligent Coordinating Agents. This arises from the vastness of the available information, the heterogeneity of the information resources, the diversity of information gathering and problem solving tasks that the gathered information supports, and the presence of multiple users with related information needs. This talk will address issues involved in designing multiple Intelligent Agents that coordinate and learn from each other in order to support information gathering and integration. In addition, the talk will discuss opportunities in the Infosphere for multi-agent research and development. We will draw examples from our work on the PLEIADES project which is developing distributed collections of Intelligent Agents that cooperate, negotiate and learn from each other in performing goal-directed information retrieval and integration to support a variety of problem solving tasks.


Fresh semen samples were collected from a total of 269 individuals attending the Family Welfare Planning Clinic. 29 had azoospermia following vasectomy, 12 had azoospermia due to spermatogenic defect, and the remainder had varying grades of sperm density and motility. Physical and morphological evaluations of the semen samples were made. Ascorbic acid was estimated in whole semen by the method of Roe an Kuether. Total cholesterol in plasma was determined. The total cholesterol concentration showed a gradual decline in the group with sperm count of 1-20 million/ml to the lowest level in the group with a count of 61-80 million. It then increased progressively up to the counts of 101-120 million/ml. Ascorbic acid concentration was significantly higher in patients with azoospermia due to defective spermatogenesis. The azoospermic specimens of vasectomized individuals contained significantly higher level of ascorbic acid than in dysspermatogenic azoospermia. The percentages of motile sperm in samples were unrelated to either cholesterol or ascorbic acid concentrations.


Case A 39-year old G1P0 with a monochorionic diamniotic pregnancy presented at 20 weeks gestation with Stage III twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. • Twin A: donor twin with anhydramnios, absent bladder, and absent diastolic flow in the umbilical artery and estimated fetal weight of 202 grams (<3%). • Twin B: recipient twin with polyhydramnios (MVP of 13.3), cardiac hypertrophy, intermittent reversal of flow in the ductus venosus, and estimated weight of 314 grams (28%).


Coal is a mineral matter found in layers or beds in sedimentary rocks. It is a very highly variable substance. In addition to the variations from lignite to bituminous and anthracite, there are vast differences in its heating value, amount of volatiles, sulfur, moisture and so on. The chemical and physical properties of coal make it an important industrial raw material. There is proven 639 million tonnes of coal reserves in Nigeria. This paper examines the potential and current role of coal in the industrialization of Nigeria. Industries are now dependent on fuel oil as a source of fuel because of its economic and technological advantages over coal. Coal is a source of industrial energy for the future after the known oil reserves might have been exhausted. In the short term, coal can be used as a material for chemicals, iron and steel production as well as a substitute for wood energy in the process of industrialization.


The Center for Global Development (CGD) has been working on a new approach to foreign aid called Cash on Delivery Aid (COD Aid) in which donors commit to make payments in direct proportion to measured progress towards a shared objective. The COD Aid approach builds on a trend in foreign aid modalities to pay for results and give greater autonomy to recipient countries in determining how to spend aid funds (summarized by the term "country ownership"). The approach has been described in detail in Birdsall and Savedoff, Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid (2010), which includes a specific proposal to help countries achieve universal primary schooling and a chapter exploring applications of the concept to other sectors. Additional materials are available on the CGD website (www.cgdev.org). The idea of COD Aid emerged from an analysis of the basic relationships between those who fund and receive international assistance (Barder and Birdsall 2006) and, thus, is applicable to almost any sector if the challenges of defining, measuring and verifying an appropriate indicator can be met. The idea of applying COD Aid in the health sector has arisen in a number of different contexts, with particular interest expressed in addressing malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, and water. Birdsall and Savedoff (2010) describe how the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) shared similar features with COD Aid in the case of immunization. Hallett and Over (2010) describe a strategy through which donors could provide incentives to developing countries to achieve measureable reductions in the rate of new HIV infections. Kaplan (2010) has explored the issues in applying COD Aid to increase access to drinking water in developing countries. This paper assesses the challenges of applying COD Aid in the health sector by providing information on a number of indicators that could be used for a COD Aid agreement. It is expected to serve as the basis for a consultation that would identify and assess practical proposals for applying COD Aid to improve health in developing countries.


We have measured the magnetic-field dependence of the paramagnetic to high-temperature magnetically ordered phase transition ${T}_{Q}(H)$ in ${\mathrm{CeB}}_{6}$ from 2 to 30 T using cantilever magnetometry. It is found that the phase-separation temperature continuously increases in field with an increasingly positive slope. In addition, we find that measurements in strong magnetic-field gradients have no effect on the phase transition.


. Technology smashes the price system. Howard Scott. Harper's. Jan., 1933. . The measurements of technocracy. C. N. Edge. Living Age. Jan., 1933. . Technocracy offers a cure. Allen Raymond. Current Hist. Feb., 1933. . Technocracy and communism. Bliven. Technocracy: good medicine or a bedtime story? George Soule. New Repub. Dec. 28, 1932, Feb. 1, 1933. . Machines and the future. Archibald MacLeish. Scrambled ergs: an examination of technocracy. Henry Hazlitt. Nation. Feb. 1, 8, 1933. Unemployment. Operation of unemployment-insurance systems in the United States and in foreign countries, 1931 and 1932. Anon. Monthly Labor Rev. Jan., 1933. . The state and the unemployed. John Hilton. Pol. Quar. Jan., 1933. . Unemployment relief: the administrative problem. R. C. Davison. Contemp. Rev. Jan., 1933.


After the commercialization of housing in 1998,the housing price goes up quickly,which is caused by the exceeding of money supply to the economic aggregate.The over supply of money is highly related to the mode of economic growth.The economic development is pushed mainly by exports and investment,especially the investment of government.The choosing of economic system also leads to the over supply of money passively and actively.The investment of government relies on the land premium.In the condition that city land-transfer's amount is restricted,the land premium will go up,which pushes the price of houses exceeding residents' purchasing power.


This article compares the Great Depression of the thirties with the current global crisis and offers some useful lessons for designing policies to overcome the crisis and begin a strong recovery. One of the lessons is that a small fiscal expansion has only small effects and that a monetary expansion may help to stabilize the economy even if interest rates are near to zero. In addition, policymakers should avoid reducing the incentives early and should consider that the financial and the real recovery go together.


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY : to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized complex treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in combination with chronic prostatitis using a combined physiotherapeutic effect, taking into account the individual chronobiological characteristics of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS : We examined 60 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis who were sent to the TUR of the prostate. Patients were divided into two groups ( n = 30). The comparison group (CG) was treated with alpha-blockers and fluoroquinolones for 28 days. In the main group (MG) – personalized complex therapy. The effectiveness of treatment was evaluated at the time of treatment (visit 1), two weeks later (visit 2) and 4 weeks later (visit 3). The severity of lower urinary tract symptoms, prostate volume and residual urine volume, hemodynamic parameters in the gland were evaluated, and a bacterioscopic and bacteriological examination of prostate secretion was performed. RESULTS : At the end of 4 weeks of therapy, statistically significant differences ( p < 0.05) were found in the MG for all the studied parameters. In the bacteriological study of prostate secretions at visit 1 Escherichia coli prevailed in the crops. At visit 2 to the CG bacteria were detected in 11 (36.7%) crops, and in 10 (33.3%) patients in the MG. At visit 3, no microbial growth was detected in both groups based on the results of a bacteriological examination of prostate secretions. Initially, both groups had low hemodynamic parameters in the prostate. After the treatment, a more pronounced dynamics of improvement of blood flow in the gland by visit 2 was noted in the MG than in the GP. By visit 3, statistically significant differences were found in all the studied indicators ( p < 0.05). CONCLUSION : Thus, according to the results, a personalized comprehensive treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis reduced the severity of lower urinary tract symptoms and manifestations of the inflammatory process in the prostate, improved hemodynamic parameters and increase of efficiency of antibacterial therapy, as evidenced by the results of bacteriological studies. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY : to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized complex treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in combination with chronic prostatitis using a combined physiotherapeutic effect, taking into account the individual chronobiological characteristics of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS : We examined 60 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis who were sent to the TUR of the prostate. Patients were divided into two groups ( n = 30). The comparison group (CG) was treated with alpha-blockers and fluoroquinolones for 28 days. In the main group (MG) – personalized complex therapy. The effectiveness of treatment was evaluated at the time of treatment (visit 1), two weeks later (visit 2) and 4 weeks later (visit 3). The severity of lower urinary tract symptoms, prostate volume and residual urine volume, hemodynamic parameters in the gland were evaluated, and a bacterioscopic and bacteriological examination of prostate secretion was performed. RESULTS : At the end of 4 weeks of therapy, statistically significant differences ( p < 0.05) were found in the MG for all the studied parameters. In the bacteriological study of prostate secretions at visit 1 Escherichia coli prevailed in the crops. At visit 2 to the CG bacteria were detected in 11 (36.7%) crops, and in 10 (33.3%) patients in the MG. At visit 3, no microbial growth was detected in both groups based on the results of a bacteriological examination of prostate secretions. Initially, both groups had low hemodynamic parameters in the prostate. After the treatment, a more pronounced dynamics of improvement of blood flow in the gland by visit 2 was noted in the MG than in the GP. By visit 3, statistically significant differences were found in all the studied indicators ( p < 0.05). CONCLUSION : Thus, according to the results, a personalized comprehensive treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis reduced the severity of lower urinary tract symptoms and manifestations of the inflammatory process in the prostate, improved hemodynamic parameters and increase of efficiency of antibacterial therapy, as evidenced by the results of bacteriological studies.


dian world in which the supply of a non-tradable consumer good is uncertain. Turnovsky [10] using the same two good linear production model, has analyzed the implications of technological uncertainty. The latter author also examines the case of a small country facing externally generated random fluctuations in the terms of trade. A less complete discussion of terms of trade uncertainty also appears in Ruffin [9]. Assuming that factors of production are mobile only prior to learning the value of the random parameter, a major focus of these papers is on the possibility of specialization reversals. For example, it is shown that there are conditions under which it is optimal to specialize in the good which would not be produced were the terms of trade to take on the expected value with certainty. However, in none of the above papers is there a systematic attempt to obtain conditions sufficient to determine either the allocational, or welfare implications of international price uncertainty. We will show in the following pages that there are indeed relatively weak conditions under which it is possible to derive such implications. The discussion proceeds under the assumption of a convex production technology including of course the Ricardian special case. While the model is extended to many goods in Appendix 3 we will, for expositional ease, consider a two good world in the text. The main body of the paper compares the optimal allocation when there are random fluctuations in the international prices of the two goods with the solution when the ratio of these prices w = P1IP2 or "terms of trade" takes on its expectation with certainty. This is extended to the case of mean preserving increases in price uncertainty in Appendix 2. Specifically it is shown that the optimal response to such uncertainty is to reduce the output of good 1 if risk aversion is sufficiently low. However, with higher risk aversion it becomes optimal to move away from highly specialized production and towards the production point which is optimal in the absence of trade possibilities. Unlike the general analysis of the implications of increasing risk by Rothschild


A 73-year-old right-handed woman from Wisconsin presented to her local hospital in early March with sharp central chest pain, epigastric discomfort, and painful swallowing. Findings on a work-up for intra-abdominal pathology and cardiac ischemia (including extensive blood work, serial electrocardiograms, and a computed tomographic [CT] scan of the abdomen and pelvis were unremarkable, and the patient was given a presumptive diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Before discharge, however, the patient developed recurrent fevers ranging as high as 39.4oC and had difficulty with speaking. Over the next day, her mental status and speech continued to worsen, prompting transfer to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The patient's medical history was notable for nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy with frequent ventricular ectopy, polymyalgia, and hypothyroidism. Her surgical history included excision of 2 parathyroid glands for hyperparathyroidism. She had traveled only within the upper Midwest. Her medications were all oral and included 81 mg/d of aspirin, 12.5 mg of carvedilol twice daily, 50 mg/d of losartan, 40 mg/d of furosemide, 400 mg/d of amiodarone, 20 mg/d of prednisone (as part of a slow taper after an initial dosage of 30 mg/d started 4 months earlier), and 125 μg/d of levothyroxine. On physical examination, the patient had a temperature of 38.4°C, a heart rate of 92 beats/min, a regular blood pressure of 140/60 mm Hg, a respiratory rate of 24/min, and an oxygen saturation rate of 94% while breathing room air. Her mucous membranes were dry, and 2 shallow bleeding ulcers were noted on her upper palate and tongue. Findings on examination of the lungs, abdomen, extremities, and skin were normal. However, cardiac examination revealed a grade 2/6 systolic ejection murmur. Neurologic examination revealed that the patient was somnolent, opening her eyes and maintaining arousal only when verbally stimulated. She was unable to follow even simple 1-step commands and answered "yes" to most questions. Her speech was otherwise unintelligible. The patient was able to track with her eyes and blinked to threat bilaterally. Her optic discs were flat, and her face was symmetric. She had strong spontaneous movements of the upper and lower extremities and localized to pain throughout. Reflexes on the right were slightly stronger than those on the left. The right plantar response was extensor, whereas the left was flexor. No nuchal rigidity was observed.


The critical equipment and its control,to realize semi-endless rolling of strip were introduced,which were including high-speed flying shear.threading device and AJC.The successful experience of 0.8mm ultral-thin strip developed in Tangshan Iron and Steel Co.,Ltd.was introduced tool.


To improve the safety and reduce the power failure,by means of over voltage,over current,leakage and short circuit monitor,the power status can be classified as safe,slight failure and major failure 3 levels of control.Data collected by electricity obstacle pickup coil,SCM determines the power failure level by the level coefficient Wi,and signals warning,cuts off power or alarms.Meanwhile,through GR47 wireless module and GPRS network sends out messages to avoid serious losses and save time for maintaining.The intelligent power failure remote monitoring system can be use in families,student dormitories,factories and stores.


Danjiangkou reservoir area is the main water source and the submerged area of the Middle Route South-to-North Water Transfer Project of China. Soil erosion is a factor that significantly influences the quality and transfer of water from the Danjiangkou reservoir. The objective of this study is to assess the water erosion (rill and sheet erosion) risk and dynamic change trend of spatial distribution in erosion status and intensity between 2004 and 2010 in the Danjiangkou reservoir area using a multicriteria evaluation method.The multicriteria evaluation method synthesizes the vegetation fraction cover, slope gradient, and land use. Based on the rules and erosion risk assessment results of the study area in 2004 and 2010, the research obtained the conservation priority map. This study result shows an improvement in erosion status of the study area, the eroded area decreased from 32.1% in 2004 to 25.43% in 2010. The unchanged regions dominated the study area and that the total area of improvement grade erosion was larger than that of deterioration grade erosion. The severe, more severe, and extremely severe areas decreased by 4.71%, 2.28%, and 0.61% of the total study area, respectively. The percentages of regions where erosion grade transformed from extremely severe to slight, light and moderate were 0.18%, 0.02%, and 0.30%, respectively. However, a deteriorated region with a 2,897.60 km2 area was still observed. This area cannot be ignored in the determination of a general governance scheme. The top two conservation priority levels cover almost all regions with severe erosion and prominent increase in erosion risk, accounting for 7.31% of the study area. The study results can assist government agencies in decision making for determining erosion control areas, starting regulation projects, and making soil conservation measures.


Research into haptic perception typically concentrates on mechanoreceptors and their supporting neuronal processes. This focus risks ignoring crucial aspects of active perception. For instance, bodily movements influence the information available to mechanoreceptors, entailing that movement facilitates haptic perception. Effortful manual wielding of an object prompts feedback loops at multiple spatiotemporal scales, rippling outwards from the wielding hand to the feet, maintaining an upright posture, and interweaving to produce a nonlinear web of fluctuations throughout the body. Here, we investigated whether and how this bodywide nonlinearity engenders a flow of multifractal fluctuations that could support perception of object properties via dynamic touch. Blindfolded participants manually wielded weighted dowels and reported judgments of heaviness and length. Mechanical fluctuations on the anatomical sleeves, from hand to the upper body, as well as to the postural center of pressure, showed evidence of multifractality arising from nonlinear temporal correlations across scales. The modeling of impulse-response functions obtained from vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis revealed that distinct sets of pairwise exchanges of multifractal fluctuations entailed accuracy in heaviness and length judgments. These results suggest that the accuracy of perception via dynamic touch hinges on specific flowing patterns of multifractal fluctuations that people wear on their anatomical sleeves.


Assessing the impact of an individual's social network on an individual is difficult without administering a large number of surveys. Online social networks with built-in data collection circumvent this problem. The data collected by an exercise-focused social media website and mobile app allowed the estimation of the effect of both the behavior of the social network and the size of that network on the behavior of individual service users (31,200 users reporting 67,699 exercise events with a potential range of 87 weeks). The results are consistent with the theory of normative social behavior in that the amount of exercise reported by the user's social network as well as the size of the user's on-site social network affected the user's exercise behavior over time.


To cope with increasing vehicular traffic and extensive application demands on vehicular cellular networks, opportunistic vehicular networks are used to disseminate mobile data by high-capacity device-to-device communication contacts when vehicles come into the communication range of each other, which offloads significant traffic from the cellular network. The current opportunistic vehicular data transmission models often do not take into account the fact that the contact duration is usually very short, due to the high mobility of vehicles, which will limit the amount of data that can be transmitted during one opportunistic contact. In this paper, we consider a mobile data offloading system that integrates cellular network and vehicular opportunistic communications. Based on this proposed system, we establish a mathematical framework to study the problem of contact-aware optimal resource allocation for mobile data offloading by the explicit consideration of the contact duration. Based on theoretical analysis of this problem, we derive an optimal scheme for mobile data offloading to optimally allocate the network resources in terms of opportunistic contacts and offloading helpers' storage. By carrying out extensive simulation using two realistic urban vehicular traces, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our contact duration aware optimal offloading scheme, in comparison with a wide range of existing schemes.


According to the last census, conducted in 1999, the population of Kazakhstan is 14.9 million people, making Kazakstan the fourth most populous former Soviet republic. Fifty-six percent of the country's residents live in cities (National Statistical Agency, 1999). With a population density of approximately 6 people per square kilometer, Kazakhstan is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world.


Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder that affects 1 – 3% of the population. The therapy of epilepsy is briefly reviewed in this article, focusing on new data on antiepileptic medications. In the last decade, several new antiepileptic medications, that is, lamotrigine, gabapentin, topiramate, oxcarbazepine, zonisamide, levetiracetam and pregabalin, are available in the US for partial epilepsy. These medications have been reviewed with focus on their clinical use, side effects and limitations. There have been new data on antiepileptic medications and their teratogenic effects, effects on bone health and effects on female health. New developments in the therapy of epilepsy have provided different options to treat this chronic disease. This has provided greater choice for patients and their physicians.


We report a rare case of a chronic discharging orbital sinus with retained multiple pieces of wooden stem. A 50-year-old male presented with swelling and discharge of 8 months duration on the medial aspect of right upper lid following a fall. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed presence of a foreign body granuloma. Orbital exploration revealed presence of multiple fragments of plant stems. Removal of these stem pieces along with granulation tissue resulted in resolution of his symptoms. The patient, on retrospective enquiry, gave the history of presence of Parthenium plants in the area where he fell. This case report highlights the need to suspect a retained foreign body in the presence of a non-healing wound.


Combining with course of moving sunshine design,from the characteristics of children products,analysis of modular design methods and its cases in the child furniture design,it explored the importance of modular methods applied in the children furniture.


(pronounced: [ka:toka:]  developed by the EU-funded project "CA2Africa" (www.ca2africa.eu)  directed to regional experts, research teams and managers of development projects with a focus on CA promotion  allowing them to self-assess their CA promotion projects along a systematic, expert-based list of questions and criteria, and is  guided by existing diffusion theories and conceptual models designed to be able to assess the socio-economic and cultural conditions that hinder or promote the adoption of CA under the heterogeneous conditions of Africa.


Forming mechanism of the residual stress field in the case of carburize quencher is detail expounded.Based on the parameters thermal conductivity coefficient,specific heat,convection coefficient,facies change temperature,specific enthalpy and thermal expansion coefficient etal.which are obtain by experiment,the numerical simulation about the course of carburize with multi time-varying parameters by the finite element software ANSYS,obtain the correspond to data of forming the stress field in the course of carburize and the residual stress field after carburize.The effects of carburize depth on residual stress field are discussed,so providing reliable theory gist for effective controlling the formation of residual stress field.


In order to improve the performance of transmission error measure system,take harmonic reducer as an example,general procedure for evaluating uncertainties of transmission error measurement system was deduced,each uncertainty component was found.The type A and type B uncertainties were analyzed,and then the influence of each uncertainty component was analyzed.At last,relevant measures for reducing uncertainties are put forward aiming at optimizing the performance of the transmission error measurement system using grating.


This paper presents a design of iterative learning contouring controller (ILCC) by considering actual contour error compensation (ACEC) to enhance the contouring performance of CNC machine tool feed drive systems. The proposed control iteratively modifies NC programs for each drive axis to reduce the contour error. Hence, the proposed controller can be directly applied to commercial CNC machines currently in use without any modification of their original controllers. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been experimentally verified through linear motor CNC machine tools with a non-smooth rhombus trajectory. Experimental results have shown that the maximum and mean contour error was reduced by 90.56% and 79. 34%, respectively, as compared to the originally equipped controller.


The U.S. FDA's newly issued guidance on bioequivalence recommends the use of individual bioequivalence (IBE) for highly variable drugs and possibly for modified release dosage forms. The recommended approach to the analysis is to follow the methodology of Hyslop, Hsuan and Holder (HHH), based on a linear mixed model. A limitation of the HHH method is that it works only for uniform designs, such as RTRT/TRTR. In this paper, we present an alternative approach based on a multivariate model. The multivariate model is shown to be a strict superset of the linear mixed model and can successfully model data where the mixed model fails. Our multivariate approach coincides with the HHH method where the HHH method applies, but generalizes to any high‐order cross‐over design, such as the Balaam design, RTR/TRT, and TRSS/RSTT/STRR. We present numerical examples to demonstrate the proposed method, and examine its properties with a simulation study. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper several video conferencing systems are discussed. These include single person-camera, voice-switched, split-screen, continuous presence, and virtual space systems. Special emphasis is placed on the more recent video conferencing systems, i.e., the continuous presence and the virtual space systems. The role of digital signal processing in the video conferencing environment is discussed. The interaction between service definition, the video conferencing system, and the digital signal processing requirements is highlighted.


In this paper, we present results from an experimental evaluation of centroiding algorithms, simple center of gravity (CoG) and weighted center of gravity (WCoG) in a Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor at different light levels and background noise conditions. CoG performs better than WCoG at good light conditions. WCoG performs better than CoG algorithm at low light level conditions and in cases of high intensity.


The growth of cancer cells is characterized by the blocking of normal differentiation. Nonetheless, the cytotoxic effects of standard anticancer chemotherapy are directed not only at the malignant cells but also at normal tissues. A more rational approach to treating cancer would be to use compounds that induce differentiation of human tumor cells. Such agents may act by producing a more mature phenotype, activating apoptosis (programmed cell death), or suppressing the growth of tumor cells. Unfortunately, the clinical application of this strategy is still in its infancy. One major obstacle with many agents is that the high concentrations required for . . .


A new system is proposed in order to prevent over-rotation of a small horizontal axis wind turbine in a strong-wind condition. The system consists of a mandrel bar and a fiber-reinforced rubber pipe in which the metal fiber is arranged with oblique angle. This is installed at the root of each blade respectively. When the rubber pipe is subjected to the centrifugal force due to the rotation of the blade, the fibers are forced to be straight in the loading direction. This yields the torsional deformation of the pipe, and achieves the change of the pitch-angle of the blade corresponding to the revolution of the turbine passively. The tensile tests are performed to examine the fundamental elastic behavior of the fiber-reinforced rubber pipe. To investigate the performance of the electric power generation by the wind turbine with the present system, the wind tunnel tests are carried out. It is confirmed that the present system enables to avoid the over-rotation of wind turbine and realizes the stable power generation even in the strong-wind condition.


urinary urgency sensation separately on numeric rating scales. We then compared their ratings of 0-10 (0 [ no symptom, 10 [ high symptom) of pain, pressure, discomfort and urgency and their correlations, to discover group differences between IC/BPS and OAB patients. RESULTS: ratings or were identical (6.2 (cid:4) (cid:4) (cid:4) the three-way correlations between pain, pressure, or were The correlation between pain and discomfort ratings was extremely high at 0.95, that IC/BPS patients interpreted pain and discomfort as similar concepts and rated their intensity nearly identical. Among OAB patients, the correlations between pain and urgency (0.21) and between pressure and urgency (0.26) were very weak. The correlation between discomfort and urgency was moderate patients could urinary urgency from pain and pressure, but urgency and discomfort were less clear. CONCLUSIONS: pain, pressure, or discomfort as the similar concepts and their similarly. The concurrent use of three descriptors pain, pressure, or discomfort is reductant among IC/BPS. Bladder pain separated OAB from IC/BPS better than pressure or discomfort. OAB patients can distinguish urinary urgency from pain and pressure, but this is less clear cut between urgency and discomfort. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: We investigated de- mographic and socioeconomic variables associated with cessation of Onabotulinum toxin (BTX) therapy after 1 and (cid:3) 2 injections in adult patients treated for Urgency Urinary Incontinence (UUI). METHODS: People treated with BTX for UUI between 2015-18 were identi fi ed from CPT codes (n [ 835). The cohort was fi rst assessed for variables associated with stopping BTX injection after an initial treatment. For this, the cohort was divided into patients receiving no additional BTX for 2 years after 1 st injection (A) and those receiving at-least 1 additional BTX (B). Next, the cohort was assessed for variables associated with stopping BTX after 2 injections. For this, we identi fi ed people with (cid:3) 2 BTX between 2015-20 (n [ 514) and divided the group into those who stopped after 2 BTX (C) and those who continued to receive additional BTX (D). Socioeconomic differences were estimated using U.S. census tract indicators to calculate disadvantage index (DI- neighborhood proportion of female headed families; public assistance income; income < federal poverty; age 16 þ unemployed) and af fl uence index (AI- proportion of: income > $75K, age 16 þ employed professionals; (cid:3) Bachelor's degree). Indexes: 0.0 (least), 1.0 (most) disadvantaged or af fl uent. RESULTS: The mean cohort age (n [ 835) was 57 and 68% were female. The median DI was 0.078 and AI was 0.375. Comparing groups, A (n [ 305) and B (n [ 418), A had a higher DI (DI [ 0.08 vs 0.07, p [ 0.021) and lower AI (0.35 vs INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Sacral Neuromodulation (SNM) is an established advanced therapy for treatment of symptoms of overactive bladder, nonobstructive urinary retention, and fecal inconti- nence supported by studies with long-term follow up. The ELITE study is an ongoing global, prospective, post-market study to con fi rm the clinical performance and safety of the InterStim TM Micro SNM system in all indicated conditions. METHODS: Eligible subjects with symptoms of OAB (greater than or equal to 8 urgency frequency episodes per day and/or 3 or more episodes of urinary urge incontinence on a 3-day voiding diary) were enrolled in the OAB cohort following successful therapy evaluation and neurostimulator implant. Subjects completed voiding diaries and questionnaires at baseline and 3-month follow up. Safety was evaluated by collection of reportable adverse events (AE). Data are reported as mean (cid:4) standard deviation or with 95% con fi dence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Subjects enrolled in the OAB cohort (n [ 68) had a primary diagnosis of UUI (22%), UF (7%), or both UUI and UF (71%). Most subjects were female (89.7%). The mean age was 62 (cid:4) 13 years and BMI was 32 (cid:4) 7 kg/m 2 . At baseline UUI subjects (n


The environmental regulation of industrial processes that generate fluoride-containing effluents is globally restricted due to the high toxicity of the ion. At Ternium, recirculated cooling water in the Continuous Casting Spray (WTP # 2) dissolves part of the flowing powder, resulting in concentrations of 20 to 30 mg / L of fluoride. For the development of the fluoride treatment process that complied with the legislation, keeping in the effluent treated Fluoride concentration less than 10mg / L and Aluminum less than 3.0mg / L, a research was carried out using a conventional Jar Test equipment totaling 165 tests. The trials were planned according to literature reviews describing the method of chemical precipitation of calcium fluoride, aided by Aluminum Cations. At the conclusion of the research, a Technological Route was developed to treat the effluent generated in the purge of the WTP # 2 system fulfilling the legislation, reaching a removal of 70% to 80% of Fluoride. At the end, a dosage optimization step was carried out, which resulted in a reduction in the number of treatment steps and a reduction in the amount of chemicals used, thus reducing the cost of treatment. The reduction in treatment costs was of the order of 3 million reais annually, keeping the effluent treated with concentrations of contaminants below the limits of environmental regulation.


Background. Vitamin B 6 (VB 6) is a water soluble vitamin which is important for the normal function of multiple organ systems. It is metabolized to the active molecule pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP). Purpose of the study was to investigate the metabolic disorders of VB 6 in patients (pts) with various chronic kidney diseases (CKD). Methods. Erythrocyte (Er) VB 6 was investigated in 15 pts suffering from chronic glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome (CG NS), GFR stage 1; urinary excretion (UE) of VB 6 was investigated in 15 healthy subjects during maximal water diuresis, in 12 pts with CKD, GFR stage 3 - 4, during the diet with restriction (2g/day) or high intake (15g/day) of NaCl and in other group of 15 CKD pts, GFR stage 3-4, after i.v. administration of 20 mg furosemide. The effect of 50 mg pyridoxine (P)/day on several parameters of cellular immunity in haemodialysis (HD) pts was investigated. In addition Er VB 6 was investigated in 16 HD pts during erythropoietin (EPO) treatment. Vitamin B 6 in plasma and urine was determined by radioenzymatic assay, and Er VB 6 was determined by means of an indirect method and it was expressed as the effect of PLP in per cents. Plasma oxalic acid was determined by spectrophotometric method using oxalate oxidase which is free from vitamin C interference. Results. In pts with CG NS plasma VB 6 (15.5 ± 3.8 nmol/L) and Er VB 6 (effect of PLP: 42.1±7.5%) were significantly decreased ( p<0.01), and plasma oxalic acid was significantly elevated (9.8±2.3 µmol/L), (p<0.01). Six months supplementation by 50 mg P/day led to the effect of PLP in the normal range (16.3±1.4%) in CG NS pts. Maximal water diuresis in healthy subjects and i.v. administration of 20 mg furosemide in CKD pts led to the significant increase of UE of VB 6 . No change of UE of VB 6 during the diet with high intake of NaCl (15g NaCl/day) in CKD pts was found. Urinary excretion of VB 6 depends on water diuresis. Three-month use of daily 50 mg P led to a significant improvement of some parameters of cellular immunity in HD pts. The effect of PLP in HD pts treated by EPO increased from 19.0±1.8 to 30.4±2.4%, (p<0.01). After three months supplementation of 20 mg P/day, the effect of PLP was in the normal range. Conclusion: We recommend administering 5-50mg P/ day for prevention of VB6 deficiency in CKD pts.


The morphology and evolution of magnetic properties in multisample sintering (MSS) of yttrium iron garnet (Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 , YIG) and single-sample sintering (SSS) of nickel zinc ferrite (Ni 0.6 Zn 0.4 Fe 2 O 4 , NZF) were studied in detail, focusing on the parallel evolving relation - ship with their dependences on sintering temperature. Sintering is an important process in ferrite fabrication which involved the process of transforming a noncrystalline powder into a polycrystalline solid by heating process. Under the influence of heat, the surface area is reduced through the formation and growth of bond between the particles associ - ated with reduction in surface energy. This makes the particles move closer, grains to form by the movement of grain boundaries to grow over pores, and results in decreasing the porosity and increasing the density of the sample. Technological applications, espe cially in electronics applications, require high-density nanostructured ferrites, integrated by sintering from nanoparticles. The evolution from low to high sintering tempera ture will result in the transition from disordered to ordered ferromagnetism behavior. Multisample sintering (MSS) of yttrium iron garnet (Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 , YIG) and single-sample sintering (SSS) of nickel zinc ferrite (Ni 0.6 Zn 0.4 Fe 2 O 4 , NZF) have been used as a studied material in this research work. The mixed material was crushed by using a SPEX8000D HEBM machine at room temperature. The raw mixed powders were milled according to 10:1 ball to the powder weight ratio (BPR) for 6 h. The milled powder was granulated by using polyvinyl alcohol (1 wt.% PVA) as a binder and 0.1 wt. % zinc stearate was added as a lubricant. The previously granulated powder was then uniaxially pressed into toroidal form with pressure of 440 MPa. The single toroidal sample was repeatedly sintered from 600 up to 1200°C with an increment of 25°C under ambi-ent air condition for 10 h. The evolution of microstructural properties of the sintered toroid was studied using a NovaNano 230 FESEM. The distribution of grain sizes was measured by taking at least 200 different grain images and estimating the mean diameters of individual grains for each sample using J-image software. The saturation induction, B s , and coercivity, H c , were determined from a B-H hysteresis loop which was obtained via a Linkjoin Technology MATS 2010SD Static Hysteresis graph. The frequency variations of the complex permeability were measured using an Agilent HP4291A Impedance Analyzer in the range of 1 MHz to 1.8 GHz.


DIY label Akashita Corporation Empathy Division has premiered a new compilation called Innovations In Sound and Communication, featuring 6 tracks ...


© Oxford University Press, 2014. This chapter focuses on the social determinants of physical and mental health and disability among older people. It begins by reviewing research on social and economic inequalities in health in older ages, concluding that much of the work on inequalities in older age has focused on documenting differences rather than testing theories as to what the generative mechanisms may be. It then discusses several of the specific social determinants that may contribute to these inequalities, either as aspects of socioeconomic position or as mediators on the pathway between socio-economic position and health.


The article presented the steps of Geoinformation mapping using satellite imagery to create an electronic topographic and thematic maps (ETTK). Distinguished the basic blocks ETTK and presented their direction practical for use.


Abstract:In southern Louisiana's Mississippi basin, the parishes upriver from New Orleans are home to multiple restored sugar plantations and museums focused on the history of plantation slavery and the culture of the region. This interview-essay is based on interviews conducted individually with slave plantation site and museum operators, artists, academics, and those between and beyond these categories. The interviews are presented as a staged dialogue on the dynamics of violence, commerce, identity, and agency that construct plantation slavery tourism in Louisiana in conflicting ways.


A theory is formulated to derive an effective interaction in nuclei in the framework of the unitary model-operator approach. A unitary operator is introduced to describe two-body correlations, and it is determined from the condition that the effective interaction should be decoupled between the low momentum model space and the high-momentum space. The unitary-transformed Hamiltonian is re presented in a cluster expansion form. The one- and two-body cluster terms are mainly discussed. The theory is applied to the calculation of the energies of the ground- and one-body states with the Reid soft core potential. A large gain of the energy has been obtained for the ground state in comparison with the result of the usual G-matrix theory. As for the one-body energies obtained, agreement with the exper imental values is fairly good. Although the discrepancies with the experiments still remain at the 1O~ 15 % level, the present approach shows to have some desirable features compared with the nuclear many-body theories proposed so far.


This article has been retracted by the editors. To many lay people & clergy, life in a monastery represents tradition, order, continuity, & a general withdrawal from worldly affairs. As such, any changes are seen as revolutionary. A case study of de Lindenburgh monastery in the province of Brabant, the Netherlands, based on a literature survey & participant observation from 1978 to 1984, shows that this picture is the misleading result of adopting a short-term view. What seem to be revolutionary changes are in fact little more than culmination points in a long-term process of continuous adaptations to the outside world, the driving forces of which are a combination of internal monastical competition, factionalism between the diocesan & monastic clergy, & rivalry with worldly power configurations. The insights gained from such a study may provide insights into other religious conflicts, ie, the troubles over the appointment of the new bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch. 9 References. HA


Purpose:   The purpose of this article is to review the current knowledge relating to risk factors, tumorigenesis and survival of patients with metachronous colorectal cancer to address potential advances in surveillance and management of patients with colorectal cancer.

Methodology:   The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE and Ovid databases were searched from 1966 to December 2008 for both published reviews and published articles on metachronous colorectal cancer regarding incidence, carcinoma sequence, clinical characteristics, risk factors, detection, treatment, surveillance and survival. Further articles were obtained by a manual review of the reference lists of all retrieved articles. All publications relevant to this study were included.

Results:   Factors likely to increase the risk of developing metachronous colorectal cancer include; age, personal and family history of multiple malignancies, synchronous polyps, hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer and microsatellite instability.

Conclusion:   Pre-operative colonoscopic polyp status and biopsy analysis regarding microsatellite instability are essential in identifying patients at risk of metachronous colorectal cancer. A rapid adenoma-carcinoma sequence less than the accepted 2 to 5 years would warrant stringent colonoscopic surveillance. Thus, frequent colonoscopic surveillance is recommended, within the first 5 years post-operatively, for the detection of metachronous colorectal cancer.


The utility model provides an air conditioning water cooling storage device, which belongs to the technical field of air conditioning refrigeration and water cooling storage. The air conditioning water storage cooling device comprises a cold accumulation tank and a conduit pipeline communicated from the inner side to the outer side of the tank. The conduit pipeline comprises a high temperature water pipe arranged above the inner part of the cold accumulation tank and a low temperature water pipe arranged below the inner part of the cold accumulation tank; a water distribution tank body arranged above the inner part of the cold accumulation tank is communicated with the high temperature water pipe; the water distribution tank arranged below the inner part of the cold accumulation tank is communicated with the low temperature water pipe. According to the temperature difference, the air conditioning water cooling storage device of the utility model can cause the flowing water to be evenly delaminated and flow homogeneously, so that the thickness of the thermocline is small, the thermocline is even and an intangible protective screen is formed. The water distribution device has the advantages of stable operation and water outlet temperature and good cold accumulation effect.


A novel speech separation structure which simulates the cocktail party effect using a modified iterative Wiener filter and a multi-layer perceptron neural network is presented. The neural network is used as a speaker recognition system to control the iterative Wiener filter. The neural network is a modified perceptron with a hidden layer using feature data extracted from LPC cepstral analysis. The proposed technique has been successfully used for speech separation when the interference is competing speech or broad band noise.


To the Editor. —Nelson's review 1 leaves many aspects uncovered and omits pertinent data that have been helpful for advocates who believe that intrathecal methylprednisolone acetate (Depo-Medrol) does have a safe role in the symptomatic management of lower limb spasticity in multiple sclerosis. I shall not address claims of effective epidural therapy in patients with radiculopathy. The article fails to mention previous discussions in similar forum 2,3 and data from our own studies 4 in which 100 patients with multiple sclerosis, with severe spastic paraparesis not responsive to common pharmacologic agents, were given 285 intrathecal injections of 80 mg of methylprednisolone acetate given each at 3- to 6- month intervals, with an average of 3.02 injections per patient per 24 months. By adhering to simple criteria for indications (spasticity, incapacitating clonus, gait, and sphincter dysfunction)


Riemann Integral of Functions R into C In this article, we define the Riemann Integral on functions R into C and proof the linearity of this operator. Especially, the Riemann integral of complex functions is constituted by the redefinition about the Riemann sum of complex numbers. Our method refers to the [19].


By two design examples in base band CDMA system, this paper shows that, designing the algorithm by using signals binary expansion can greatly reduce the number of operation, thus improves the real time performance.


Collaborative Resources Solutions (CRS) is based on a real situation outlining the issues related to buying a service organization. This instructional case requires students to provide advice to a client who is considering purchasing a 50 percent ownership of a similar consulting business with the vision of blending the two companies together and increasing the knowledge base of her current company; therefore improving the ability to target more to clients. The case requires the students to evaluate the strategic, valuation, and financial issues in considering the acquisition of the existing business. In order to do so, students are required to analyze the financial information provided, both historical and forecasted, as well as analyzing key internal operations issues that may impact the future success of the business. This case is suitable for use in upper-level undergraduate business strategy courses and accounting courses, as well as in master-level accounting courses. Assessment rubrics and teaching notes accompany the case for use by instructors.


Problems faced by CV. Akura Belitang OKU Timur is how the influence of motivation on employee work discipline, while the purpose of this thesis is to determine the effect of motivation on employee work discipline. The hypothesis proposed is that motivation has a strong influence on employee work discipline in the CV. Akura Belitang Timur OKU. From the calculation results obtained figures r = 0.697. after consultation with conservative standards it turns out that 0697 lies between 0.600 - 0.799 which is included in the strong correlation. So it can be said that there is a strong influence between motivation on employee work discipline on the CV. Akura Belitang Timur OKU. Then to answer the hypothesis test proposed in the previous chapter has a relationship or not, then tested with a hypothesis test and obtained to = 2.916 then when connected with t value at a confidence level of 0 , 95 which means the error rate of 0.05 is t count greater from t table (2.916 greater than 1.833), the hypothesis proposed is to reject the null hypothesis (Ho) and accept the alternative hypothesis (Ha).


Supersymmetry is shown to emerge at the superconducting quantum criticality of a lattice model realizing a single Dirac cone. No definitive evidence of spacetime supersymmetry (SUSY) that transmutes fermions into bosons and vice versa has been revealed in nature so far. Moreover, the question of whether spacetime SUSY in 2 + 1 and higher dimensions can emerge in generic lattice microscopic models remains open. Here, we introduce a lattice realization of a single Dirac fermion in 2 + 1 dimensions with attractive interactions that preserves both time-reversal and chiral symmetries. By performing sign problem–free determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that an interacting single Dirac fermion in 2 + 1 dimensions features a superconducting quantum critical point (QCP). We demonstrate that the N=2 spacetime SUSY in 2 + 1 dimensions emerges at the superconducting QCP by showing that the fermions and bosons have identical anomalous dimensions 1/3, a hallmark of the emergent SUSY. We further show some experimental signatures that may be measured to test such emergent SUSY in candidate systems.


Objective
To comparative analyze the influence factors of short-term (6 months) and long-term (10 years) prognosis in patients with HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), and to provide some reference values on clinic therapy and follow-up management.

Methods
The data of 524 hospitalized patients with ACLF from January 2001 to December 2009 were analyzed retrospectively. The follow-up termination time was December 2013. Patients were all given internal medical therapy, and were given antiviral therapy with nucleoside and nucleotide analogs (NAs) (yes/no) and plasma exchange in artificial liver support system (yes/no) according to the patient′s informed choice. The method of Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the short-term prognostic factors and long-term prognosis factors of ACLF.

Results
The short-term prognosis factors in patients with ACLF were MELD scores, ages, percentage of neutrophils, hepatic encephalopathy, whether to apply NAs or not, HBV DNA levels, times of plasma exchange in artificial liver support system, cholinesterase levels and total bilirubin levels in turn (P<0.05). The long-term prognosis factors were ages, whether to apply NAs or not, MELD scores, cholinesterase levels, concomitant infection, white blood cell counts, gender and hepatic encephalopathy in turn (P<0.05), and antiviral therapy with NAs was a time-dependent independent prognostic factor.

Conclusions
There are some differences between the short-term prognosis factors and the long-term prognosis factors in patients with ACLF. We should give antiviral therapy with NAs, measures to improve liver function, preventions and treatments of infection and hepatic encephalopathy and other complications from early-stage to long-term follow-up managements. And in early-stage of ACLF we should also give the treatment with artificial liver support system.

Key words:
Hepatitis B virus; Acute-on-chronic liver failure; Prognosis; Regression analysis


LiH is one of the most common moderator materials for neutron moderation; due to its high density, high neutron capture cross section and physical-chemical properties that provides usage at elevated temperatures. Hadronic interactions of low energetic neutrons and generated isotopes–particles have been investigated for a situation in which LiH was used as a neutron moderator by using GEANT4, which is a powerful simulation software. In addition, energy deposition along LiH material has been calculated at low neutron flux


Curcumin (C), a natural anticancer agent suffers extremely low aqueous solubility and rapid systemic elimination, therefore, the aim of the present study was to develop and optimize biocompatible, biodegradable solid lipid nanoparticles containing curcumin (CSLNs) using Solvent Injection Method. The components selected to develop the SLNs were Glycerol MonoStearate (GMS; the lipidic carrier), Poloxamer 407 (P407; Surfactant) and Ethanol (solvent for the drug and the lipidic carrier). The combination and ratios for the optimization process were carried out using 23 full-factorial design. The experimental design runs (8 formulations, H1-H8) were prepared and the design dependent responses (assessment of particle size, Entrapment Efficiency % and the in vitro release study) were characterized. The developed formulae showed a nanometric particle size range (203.0-345.0nm), high Entrapment Efficiency % (62.77-87.42 %) and prolonged release over 24 hr period (55.97-89.64 %). These results were analyzed using JMP® 10 software which its analytical tools were used to draw Pareto charts and the interactions plots. On the basis of the software analysis, formulation H9 with a desirability factor of 0.582 was selected as the optimized formulation and was evaluated for the dependent responses. Formulation H9 showed a particle size of 249.1 nm, 74.51 % Entrapment efficiency, 85.72 % in vitro release over 24 hr and these results suggested that the solid lipid nanoparticles formulations could be a promising method to sustain the release of curcumin.


Usage: ystvo agriculturally and plant protection, in particular the cabbage, against bacterial diseases. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION: cabbage seeds are treated gidrotermi- cally, then treated with a suspension of bacteria of the strain Pseudomonas sp. VKPM B-3481 at a concentration of 106-109 cells / ml, seeded in a greenhouse. Before landing in the root system cabbage seedlings treated again above bacterial suspension of the strain, and then kochanoobrazovani phase. Processing reduces bacterial suspension cabbage vascular disease and mucosal bacteriosis 13 times. Table 1.


【In order to improve thickness profile of cold rolled steel strip, a computer simulation and actual cold rolling experiments on a 4-high tandem cold mill were carried out. In this study, tapered barrel end at top work roll and incurved barrel body at bottom work roll were examined for reducing edge drop and threading of stripe. Also, the most effective stand of tandem cold mill and magnitude of optimal taper crown at several stand were investigated under a typical rolling condition. From actual rolling experiments, it was verified that thickness deviation over strip width could be improved up to 1.06% by applying tapered and incurved work roll only at the second and up to 0.89% by applying them at both the second and the third stand.】


The relationship between energy systems and the spatial structure of society has been a subject of growing interest since the energy crisis of the 1970s. This work argues that energy considerations should be integrated into the land-use planning programme.


STUDY QUESTION
What are the significant factors that influence the outcome of a PGD treatment?

SUMMARY ANSWER
The age of the woman and the number of biopsied cells per embryo are of significant importance for a successful PGD treatment.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
Younger women are more likely to succeed with an IVF treatment.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
Cohort study, retrospective analysis of 569 PGD cycles, 1996-2009.

PARTICIPANTS, SETTING, METHODS
256 couples and 569 PGD treatments at 'Stockholm PGD centre'. At this centre after 2003, a 1-cell policy was applied, when possible, with respect to the reliability of the diagnostic test and since 2009, 1-cell biopsy policy was also applied for monogenic disorders.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
The women under 36 years of age were three times more likely to get pregnant after PGD treatment, P = 0.003 and odds ratio 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-6.5]. The 1-cell biopsy cycles were twice as likely to result in a pregnancy in comparison with cycles were 2 cells were removed from the embryo, P = 0.0013 and odds ratio 2.55 (95% CI 1.44-4.52). No other factors were found to be significant for the outcome.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
Retrospective analysis with 1- and 2-cell biopsies at different times.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
The results will have an impact on the implementation of PGD in general, thereby making it possible to significantly improve the treatment outcome.


Abstract : The ability to predict the burning rate of a propellant from its ingredients would be an extremely valuable aid to the formulation of new propellants. We have been developing such a capability over the last 5 years and recently described its use for nitrate-ester propellants. In this report, we first present results of applying this model (the CYCLOPS code) to advanced nitramines propellants, both cyclotrimethyeletrinitramine (RDX) and hexanitrohexaazaisowirtzitane (CL20) oxidizers in an energetic binder made of a bisazidomethylene oxetane-azidomethylenemethyl oxetane (BAMO-AMMO) mixture. A substantial revision in the available gas-phase reaction mechanism previously used for neat RDX was required, necessitating Quantum-Rice. Ramsperger-Kassel calculations for many new reaction paths. The resulting mechanism grew from 45 species and 232 reversible elementary reactions to 80 species and 550 revemible elementary reactions. Burning rates computed by the model compared very well with measured rates for both the RDX- and CL20-based propellants. Temperature profile measurements were available for the RDX propellant only, but the code computations indicated a much shorter dark zone than that measured with microthermocouples. These are the first calculations of burning rates for advanced nitramine propellants, and the results are encouraging.


In this paper, we consider a stochastic inventory system of two products where a fi xed proportion of the unsatisfied ed demand for one product purchases the other product as a substitute. We formulate the optimal inventory control problem as a dynamic program; and by developing two key technical results, we derive several important structural properties (including joint concavity and submodularity) of the value functions. Based on these properties, we show that the optimal inventory policy for each product in each period is a base-stock policy where the base-stock level is a decreasing function of the maximum of the initial inventory level of the other product and a critical control number. We further prove that, as the initial inventory level of the other product increases, the base-stock level of each product converges to the optimal base-stock level of an auxiliary single-product lost-sales inventory system. We also provide intuitive interpretations and a numerical example to facilitate the understanding of our analytical results.


NMR measurements are reported here on a particular ${\mathrm{Ce}}^{3+}$-doped Ca${\mathrm{F}}_{2}$ crystal which, when analyzed in the light of existing relaxation theory, yield explicit expressions for the effective magnetic moment of the paramagnetic spin, its associated autocorrelation time, and the contribution of the surrounding shifted nuclei to the second moment of the nuclear-resonance line shape. Additional more direct measurements of this cross second moment using both Mansfield's coherent-double-pulse technique and a free-induction-decay decomposition agree with the moment predicted by the above analysis to within experimental error. Some common pitfalls in the interpretation and comparison with theory of such data are also pointed out. Finally, attention is called to serious inconsistencies between the autocorrelation times resulting from this analysis and impurity-spin-lattice relaxation times obtained from EPR measurements on similar systems.


This chapter examines fiduciary principles in health care law. There is no unanimous agreement when it comes to the precise doctrinal consequences of labeling health care actors as fiduciaries in various contexts, such as personal injury, decisional authority, financial influence, and procedural rules. In the case of patients and physicians, certain attributes are said to constitute an archetypal fiduciary relationship, including agency, dependency, trust, and information asymmetry. Thus, many legal decisions and commentators argue that physicians have fiduciary responsibilities to patients. For courts, however, hospitals are not fiduciaries. They regard private hospitals as ordinary commercial enterprises. This chapter first provides an overview of arguments over whether physicians and non-physicians (for example, hospitals and health insurers) are "fiduciaries" before discussing health care fiduciaries' duty of loyalty and duty of care, along with their other obligations such as duties of confidentiality and full disclosure. It also explores the ability of health care fiduciaries and patients to waive fiduciary duties, as well as how courts have addressed distinct causes of action for physicians' breach of fiduciary duty. It shows that courts often invoke fiduciary concepts and terminology in discussing physicians' obligations to patients, and that physician-patient (and other medical treatment) relationships have classic attributes of fiduciary status.


In the article the process of participation of church is examined as a religious association in the process of forming of the social state in Germany of XIX of century Author is designate the role of church as a permanent active subject of social legal politics along the whole length of development of the German state system. One of factors, providing ability of church to have influence on development of the state system, belonging churches were status of public corporation and legal autonomy. In the article the change of methods of realization of social legal politics of church is demonstrated in XIX of century In connection with appearance of new factors influencing on worsening of position of population in Germany in the first half of XIX of century, a church forced to undertake active steps in the process of fight against worsening of quality of life of population, a scale and methods of conduct of this fight changed. Representatives of the Church originally developed the theory of social justice and security, were the first structures of local legislative initiatives in the field of labour protection, in General, improve the quality of life of certain categories of workers, and in 1871, and the Imperial Reichstag. The author concludes that a decisive role in shaping the social German statehood played church, she pioneered the development of the welfare state.