The paper published in this issue of the Journal by Molstad et al. [1] from Feiring, Norway, deals with the long-term survival after aortic valve replacement (AVR) in octogenarians and high-risk subgroups. A total of 1525 patients were submitted to AVR in their institution over a period of approximately 11 years. Included were 361 patients (24%) older than 80 years of age (mean 83.1 ± 2.4 years). The main aim of the study was to assess survival, and the accuracy of the outcome analysis is guaranteed by the Norwegian National Registry, assuring a complete follow-up. This comes at the time when there is great enthusiasm around for percutaneous aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which some now call, in my view inappropriately, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). This novel technique was initially implemented specifically for use in patients to whom conventional AVR was denied because it was either not possible or considered too high risk. This issue was triggered by the initial reports derived from the Euro Heart Survey, conducted one decade ago, which showed that approximately one third of the patients with severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis were never offered surgery [2]. Since then, this subgroup of patients have been given an opportunity for treatment of a pathology that cannot be treated by medical means alone, with a well-known natural history of up to 50% mortality within 1 year in patients with severe symptoms. Some studies have shown early TAVI results to be at least similar to those obtained with AVR. These preliminary results have had the effect of potentiating the implantation rate and in the last few years over thirty thousand patients have received the percutaneous valves in Europe, in an unprecedented surge of a new technique, massively driven by a multi-million dollar industry. In 2011, TAVI constituted 30.5% of all interventions in patients with aortic stenosis in Germany, where 40% of the TAVI performed in Europe is done [3]. It is evident that this intervention has an important role to play in the future and there are already studies under way involving younger and less risky patients. However, the majority, if not all, of the comparative studies thus conducted are based on risk-predicting models, such as the original EuroSCORE, which are now overwhelmingly recognized to overpredict risk, especially mortality. The new EuroSCORE II was launched very recently, and has not yet been widely used. Strangely, very few of these comparative studies used the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) risk score, recognized as being more accurate to predict surgical mortality. It is here that the current study by Molstad and colleagues becomes important. Not so much because of the number of patients included, as much larger series have been published, but because of the results reported. Importantly, the patients in the cohort were treated during the same period of use of the percutaneous valves, but with a mean follow-up of almost 5 years, which is important when referring to over 80-year olds. And this study includes all comers, comprising 58% of patients with associated coronary diseases requiring coronary artery bypass grafting. The logistic EuroSCORE of the latter group was 15.2 and 17.5% of the patients had an EuroSCORE over 20. Short-term (30-day) mortality was 2.2% in the whole population and 3.9% in the over 80-year group. Five-year survival was 83.1% for the whole population and 68.1% for the over 80-year old group where the median survival time was 7.3 years, which parallels the mean expected survival time for the general Norwegian population matched for age and gender in the octogenarian group (7.4 years). Other authors have recently reported equally good results with AVR in the elderly. El Bardissi and associates from Boston reported operative mortality of 3% and 1-, 5-, and 10-year survival of 91, 77 and 56%, respectively, in 249 octogenarians (mean age: 84 years; EuroSCORE: 11) undergoing AVR during this modern era, 'who might otherwise have been considered candidates for TAVI' [4]. And even more recently, Langanay et al. reported on 1193 AVR in octogenarians, with a mortality of 5.5% for isolated valve procedures [5]. Of interest, by comparison, 1-year survival after TAVI was 76.1% in the SOURCE Registry and 69% in the PARTNER trial, although both studies concluded that the survival was similar to surgical AVR in the populations studied. These results, and not those predicted by the most popular risk scores, should constitute the benchmark for both TAVI and AVR. Our Journal still receives reports of series of AVR with mortality figures approximating two digits, which should no longer be considered acceptable. Not even the usual presence of some of the risk factors so far identified should constitute a justification for higher mortality. Unequivocally, AVR in the elderly patient with


Watcher. Matt is actively involved in most aspects of the project and is focusing on DFuse related work for his dissertation. Worked for more than 160 Hours: No Contribution to Project: Prof. Starner is one of the faculty directly involved with the TVWatcher application research, collaborating on correlation techniques and usability studies of the application. Worked for more than 160 Hours: No Contribution to Project: Prof. Essa is one of the faculty directly involved in the TVWatcher application project, and collaborates on vision-based processing research used in the project for feature extraction and correlation.


Using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, computational screening of hundreds of pure silica zeolites were conducted to identify materials that show enhanced CO2 uptake under humid conditions. Herein, we show that CO2 adsorption performance can be either enhanced or degraded depending on the CO2/H2O binding site separations and characteristics of CO2–H2O interaction energies. As expected, CO2 adsorption capacity is significantly degraded when its binding sites overlap with the H2O sites. On the other hand, CO2 adsorption performance is enhanced when CO2/H2O binding sites are clearly separated as shown from the molecular simulations. However, we show that there are zeolite structures where CO2 enhancement is observed despite the close distance between the CO2 and H2O binding sites. It is demonstrated that favorable long-range Coulomb interaction between CO2 and H2O molecules is responsible for enhanced CO2 adsorption performance in these materials.


The anti-corrosion status and problems of special-shaped components such as flanges and valves in city gas pipeline are analyzed. The principle and application cases of a new spray anti-corrosion coating are introduced.


Background : The epidemiology and clinical significance of occult hepatitis B virus infection (serum hepatitis B surface antigen‐negative patients with detectable hepatitis B virus viraemia in serum) remains controversial with only limited information about its prevalence in patients on long‐term dialysis.


Serovars Cause Different Degrees of Invasive Disease Globally To the Editor—In the 1 January 2008 issue of the Journal, Jones et al. [1] describe the various disease outcomes caused by different serovars of Salmonella enterica. Their large data set provides a detailed overview of the situation in the United States over a 10-year period and concludes that disease outcome is a function of the serovar and that understanding this may be key to a more general understanding of invasiveness. We support this conclusion but would like to refine it in light of data unavailable to the authors but now published as part of a book chapter that we updated in August 2008 [2]. We analyzed published data provided by public health statistics from a range of countries in Europe, Asia, Australasia, and North and South America, to see which nontyphoidal serovars (NTS) of Salmonella are able to cause invasive disease. We observed that different serovars are associated with different "invasive indexes"— defined as the ratio of the number of isolates recovered from blood to the total number of isolates recovered (table 1)— but that the results are not entirely consistent between different countries. Comparing these invasive indexes with the data published by Jones et al. [1] confirms this conclusion. The majority of serovars deemed to be invasive in the United States are also invasive globally; however, some that are presently invasive in the United States are not causing invasive disease elsewhere in the world, indicating geographic distribution plays a role in the percentage of invasive disease caused by a particular serovar. This finding is supported by other recent reports; for example, the invasive index of serovar Schwarzengrund is 15.4% in both the United States and Brazil [3] but is 25% in Taiwan [4]. Another, more worrying example comes from several subSaharan African countries, where NTS are now the most common cause of bacteremia. In these countries, cases of invasive disease have been attributed to serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis, occurring in epidemics of disease caused by antibiotic-resistant strains associated with HIV status and age [5]. We believe that it is likely that the severity of salmonellosis caused by different serovars is related not only to humanhost factors [6] but also to bacterial phylogeny [7]. Twenty years ago, studies using multilocus enzyme electrophoresis showed that some serovars are single genetic entities (monomorphic), whereas others are clearly mixtures of strains [8]. These data are now supported by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and certain groupings known by a single serovar name actually represent genetically distinct groups that may cause different disease outcomes in humans. For this reason, we propose that, where possible, descriptions of disease severity should be associated with sequence types obtained by MLST, as well as with serovars. An extensive open-access database (http:// web.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/mlst/) of sequence types of Salmonella enterica is available that will help to achieve this goal.


During the mid-1960s, when communist politics were beginning to gain significant ground in Bengal, the playwright, actor, and director Utpal Dutt উৎপল দত্ত (1924–93) experimented with theatrical forms in the hope of creating a political theater and fomenting a proletarian social revolution. This essay examines his concept of the "revolutionary theater" and its underlying elements, which include traditional forms of theater like jatra and both Piscatorian and Brechtian techniques.


Sense of public interest, especially those high class office and relax on the ticket such as ticket reservations via the Internet. The author would like to create a web application bus agent Rosalia Indah as one means of information and promotion to the general public so they are more familiar with another agent Rosalia Indah Bus. In scientific writing, the writer will describe the manufacture of Agent Web applications Rosalia Indah bus which was placed on the Internet by using PHP. This site helps to provide complete information about the presence of a bus agent Rosalia beautiful on the island of Java. By using the programming language PHP is open source and very superior writer attempts to convey information and ticket reservations about the promotion to the general public.


Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of the Middle Jurassic Preuss Sandstone in Northern Utah and Eastern Idaho Preston Scott Cook Department of Geology, BYU Master of Science The purpose of this study is to analyze the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Middle Jurassic Preuss Sandstone and re-evaluate past sedimentological interpretations. The Preuss is located in northern Utah, western Wyoming and eastern Idaho and is stratigraphically equivalent to the Entrada Sandstone, which is Callovian in age (Dossett et al., 2014). This study is the first attempt at 1) a sequence stratigraphic framework, 2) a petroleum system analysis and 3) an extraterrestrial analog study for the Preuss. This study frames the Preuss within three broad facies groups: marine, coastal and terrestrial. The marine group includes the open marine and restricted marine facies with associated subfacies, the coastal group includes coastal sabkha and associated subfacies, and the terrestrial group includes alluvial, inland sabkha and eolian facies with associated subfacies. Three sections in northern Utah and one section in eastern Idaho compromise the focus of this study. The three Utah sections were measured and described, and samples were collected from two Utah sections and the Idaho section. The Preuss Sandstone was deposited in an asymmetrical retroarc basin, consequently the Preuss thickens from the east towards west-central Utah and the Jurassic Elko highlands. The deposits are mostly terrestrial, which is in accord with recent sedimentological interpretations, but at odds with the old paradigm, which postulates that the Entrada and Preuss were largely tidal in origin. There are marine transgressions within the trough of the retroarc basin, and the transgressions affect terrestrial sedimentary patterns. During marine incurstions, alluvium shed off the highlands is confined west of the seaway, and does not prograde east of the trough until all the available accommodation is filled. The Preuss was deposited during a complete third-order sequence-stratigraphic cycle that lies within the Lower Zuni II second-order lowstand. The Preuss Sandstone can be used as an outcrop analog for ancient and modern environments both here on Earth and on other planetary bodies. The petroliferous Norphlet Formation along the U.S. Gulf Coast was deposited in an environment very similar to the Preuss, but the Waltherian succession of facies might be slightly different. Likewise, the facies present in the Preuss are analogous to modern arid environments, such as the Persian Gulf. Furthermore, the alluvial, sabkha, eolian and shallow marine facies of the Preuss are highly similar to facies observed in ancient Martian environments and modern environments on Saturn's moon, Titan.


This paper describes a unified, theoretically rigorous approach for measuring the performance of data fusion algorithms, using information theory. The proposed approach is based on 'finite-set statistics' (FISST), a direct generalization of conventional statistics to multisource, multitarget problems. FISST makes it possible to directly extend Shannon-type information metrics to multisource, multitarget problems. This can be done, moreover, in such a way that mathematical 'information' can be defined and measured even though an evaluator/end-user may have conflicting or even subjective definitions of what 'informative' means. The result is a scientifically defensible means of (1) comparing the performance of two algorithms with respect to a 'level playing field' when ground truth is known; (2) estimating the internal on-the-fly effectiveness of a given algorithm when ground truth is not known; and (3) dynamically choosing between algorithms (or different modes of a multi-mode algorithm) on the basis of the information content they provide.


"Wages Total Dynamic Payment in Second College" is a practical salary distribution means for the reform of post performance salary system in colleges.It can effectively enhance the awareness of cost accounting and management,arouse the enthusiasm and initiatives of the teaching and administrative staff,and strengthen operations because it has expanded the autonomy of the College(Department and Office) income distribution and established evaluation mechanisms.The Post Performance Salary System has two important principles of Contribution Heterogeneity and Marginal Incentive Effect.Meanwhile,a complete performance evaluation mechanism is the guarantee for the normal operation of the Performance Salary System.College Performance Salary System needs to be implemented under the prerequisites of clear posts and public selection,to establish an effective performance evaluation mechanism,and to form the positive correlation between performance and salary so as to fulfill its stimulating function.


ONE of the commonest problems in the practice of medicine is the interpretation of transitory spells or attacks of central nervous system origin. Epilepsy, syncope, vertigo and migrainous aura, to mention the more important, have been well described clinically and investigated thoroughly during the past several decades. Another class of evanescent episode, although of equally ancient origin and recognition, has been fully delineated only comparatively recently, and here I refer to the transient attacks of cerebral ischemia associated with arterial atherosclerosis and thrombosis. While these brief spells of numbness, paralysis, dizziness, and so forth are often the forerunners of neurologic disaster, "straws which show how the intracranial wind is blowing", they not uncommonly prove benign and cease without any major sequelae. At present their clinical importance lies in the opportunity they provide us as physicians to introduce therapeutic measures before the full thrombotic stroke occurs, for it is a fundamental fact that the only treatment of a stroke due to ischemic infarction is the prevention of it. Once the cerebral tissues have been wrecked, every effort will avail nothing. It must be admitted that preventive measuresanticoagulants, surgical endarterectomy of cervical arteries, cessation of smoking, dietary restriction, avoidance of hypotension, etc.-have not yet been shown to be beneficial by means of scientifically designed therapeutic tests, but much of the available evidence hints that they are of some value in properly selected cases. In the light of the currently revived interest in cerebrovascular disease, I propose to review and discuss a few aspects of transient ischemic attacks of cerebral origin. At the outset some limits must be placed on the word "transient", and we might arbitrarily reserve this term for episodes lasting less than 24 hours. Cases of transient ischemic attacks (TIA) may be


This paper proposes an alternate view for understanding clusters and for determination of the variables that play a significant role in cluster makeup. We explore the creation of a new categorical variable from a given set of variables by means of the output of a clustering algorithm. We postulate that this new variable can be seen as being comprised of a few "important" variables and explore how this new variable relates to the original variables. Sensitivity analysis and discriminant analysis are used to confirm the selection of important variables. Then we show that this method is able to identify those key variables which vary most significantly throughout the clusters.


The term Oxymoron comes from the classical Greek language, which indicates a combination of two words of two separate meanings; 'oxus', which means 'sharp' or 'clever' and 'moros', which means 'foolishness' or 'stupidity.' 1 This phrase of 'clever foolishness' undoubtedly refers to the combination of antonyms in an unfamiliar way, and the paradoxical meaning of the two words is what characterizes the oxymoron in particular from other techniques. The term 'oxymoron' was translated into Arabic as 'al̓Irdāf al-Khulufiyy' which means "joining a word to another with which there is some kind of contradiction. It was defined as "an external paradox between two phrases in order to arouse admiration 2 or irony 3 or to achieve a rhetorical impact 4 .


This thesis examines whether and the extent to which investors respond to the Rule 144A debt offering through firm's stock returns. We conduct an event study methodology with 1,244 Rule 144A debt offerings from 1990 to 2012 to answer this question. We find that the announcements of Rule 144A debt offerings are associated with significant negative abnormal returns and these negative effects are more pronounced for the first-time issuers of 144A debt. On average, 144A debt issuers make a loss of 9.5 basis points (US$28.6 million) from the amount of 144A debt raised. However, we find a reversal effect on abnormal returns following the registration of 144A debt after 60 days from the issue date. Our findings suggest that ignoring the sample selection bias of 144A debt issuance choice can lead to erroneous conclusions that 144A debt does not affect firm's abnormal returns. In addition, we also find that firms in larger financial deficit tend to issue 144A debt.


The Rohr Turboliner is a gas turbine, mechanically driven unit train based on highly developed European technology. To adapt this technology to American practice and usage required a number of changes. One of these was conversion of the electrical systems from 380 VAC 50 Hz to 480 VAC 60 Hz and expansion of the control functions to meet specified requirements. This paper deals with the design and manufacture of six major control panels from development of the train functional schematic through production of the hardware.


The Mesozoic shelf margin in the Mahajanga Basin, northwest Madagascar, provides an example where inherited palaeobathymetry, coupled with sea‐level changes, high sediment supply and fluctuations in accommodation influenced the stacking patterns and geometry of clinoforms that accreted onto a passive rifted margin. Two‐dimensional (2D) seismic profiles are integrated with existing field data and geological maps to study the evolution of the margin. The basin contains complete records of transgression, highstand, regression and lowstand phases that took place from Jurassic to Cretaceous. Of particular interest is the Cretaceous, Albian to Turonian (ca. 113‐93 Ma), siliciclastic shelf margin that prograded above a drowned Middle Jurassic carbonate platform. The siliciclastic phase of the shelf margin advanced ca. 70 km within ca. 20 My, and contains 10 distinct clinoforms mapped along a 2D seismic reflection data set. The clinoforms show a progressive decrease in height and slope length, and a fairly constant slope gradient through time. The successive shelf edges begin with a persistent flat to slightly downward‐directed shelf‐edge trajectory that changes to an ascending trajectory at the end of clinoform progradation. The progressive decrease in clinoform height and slope length is attributed to a decrease in accommodation. The prograding margin is interpreted to have formed when siliciclastic input increased as eastern Madagascar was uplifted. This work highlights the importance of sediment supply and inherited palaeobathymetry as controls on the evolution of shelf margins and it provides a new understanding of the evolution of the Mahajanga Basin during the Mesozoic.


There are many different versions about the two sentences of the topic which are difficult to apprehend. Thus, here are two ways to probe into the topic. 1. Chuang Chou's theory of sophistry involved its syntax. 2. Chuang Chou's views toward good, evil, punishment and reputation involved his thoughts. 1. With regard to its syntax, the topic can be easily understood as follows. You do something which is considered as good (doing good), and then gain good reputation, but you don't think it is good reputation (gain no reputation). You do something which is considered as bad (doing evil), and then earn punishment, but you don't think it is punishment (earn no punishment). 2. With regard to his thoughts, there are five implications. (1) No intention to do good and to avoid evil. (2) No intention to pursue fine fame and to avoid notoriety as well as to run after good reputation and to keep away punishment. (3) Good and evil judged by others; punishment and reputation also exerted by others. (4) No criteria to judge good, evil, punishment, and reputation. (5) Good, evil, punishment and reputation controlled by fate, not by oneself. (6) To bear hardship with equanimity, then one can settle down and, furthermore, practice moral perfection.


This paper may be said to have reached the 'finishing line' in the great 'Senior Registrar paper-chase', but it is by no means a credit to the designers ofthe study who, by a little applied statistical thought, could have achieved much more. Despite the attempts of many [including the Editor of this Journal (Burton, 1975)] to promote statistical awareness it is distressing to see that magical 'P' values, however derived, seem to bamboozle authors and readers into believing that which common sense dictates to be plainly untrue.


Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay for Cdc42. The Cdc42 assay is based on a comparable assay developed by Hahn and colleagues [1, 2] for its close homolog Rac1. The Rac assay was subsequently used on several occasions by the Schwartz laboratory [3-5]. The assay is based on the principle that GFP-Cdc42 (or Rac) binds to its effector PAK only when the GTPase is in the GTP-bound state. When the effector region of PAK (the socalled p21 GTPase-binding domain or PBD) is labeled with Alexa546, Cdc42 activation therefore brings the two fluorophores into proximity, leading to increased fluorescence resonance energy transfer from GFP to Alexa546. Increases in FRET visualized in the microscope can therefore be treated as an indication of local Cdc42 activation.


The existence of multiple α, β, and subunits raises questions regarding the assembly of particular G proteins. Based on the results of a previous study (Rahmatullah, M., and Robishaw, J. D.(1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 3574-3580), we hypothesized that the assembly of G proteins may be determined by the interactions of the more structurally diverse α and subunits. This hypothesis was confirmed in the present study by showing striking differences in the abilities of the 1 and 2 subunits to interact with the the αo subunit. Chimeras of the 1 and 2 subunits were used to delineate which region is responsible. Support for the importance of the N-terminal region of the subunit comes from our observations that 1) the 2 subunit and the chimera bound strongly to the αo-agarose matrix, but the 1 subunit and the chimera bound weakly, if at all; 2) an N-terminal peptide made to the 2 subunit blocked the binding of the chimera to the αo-agarose matrix; 3) both the chimera and the N-terminal peptide were able to partially protect the αo subunit against tryptic cleavage; and 4) the chimera, but not the chimera, supported ADP-ribosylation of the αo subunit.


We propose a chain method of personal biometric parameter representation that is applied to user keystroke monitoring. The method increases the precision of keystroke feature representation and hence the precision of keystroke monitoring. The general idea of the method is based on the use of additional information about correlation between sequential keyboard events.


The operation of a reel-to-reel Nb 3 Al ohmic heating and quenching rig is described. Methods of temperature measurement and machine control are discussed, followed by the presentation of T c and J c results for several reel-to-reel processed strands. Presently the highest J c values are 1620 A/mm 2 at 12T. Additionally, a number of different Nb 3 Al precursors have been investigated using a short sample apparatus. Critical current density, J c , and microscopy results are presented for these wires. SEM studies have also been completed on as-received precursor wires and laminate structures which vary considerably from wire batch to wire batch and also between suppliers have been observed. Optical metallography of the A15 cores revealed a connection between porosity formation and Nb:Al stoichiometry.


To understand the real situation of heritage buildings of the Valle del Cauca that the Colombian government has listed as of Cultural Interest of the Nation (BIC), despite progress and achievements in terms of heritage protection, by the Ministry of Culture, it is evident in many cases the lack of knowledge of these goods and the need for action for the conservation of heritage buildings. Over the years, there have been frequent situations of ignorance of the legal framework by the three key players in the construction of memory and identity from the physical assessment of buildings that can recognize our history. The government custody and legislates the general rules for the protection of heritage at the national level, however communication required by the estates to the population, is based on legal articles that do not permeate the community, not illustrated and generate a lack in many cases even to the same owners of the properties listed. Train stations in Valle del Cauca represent more than 50% of the built heritage and are the most deteriorated buildings; the analysis performed in this study tends to establish a baseline of the causes and possible future actions that take into account the community that identifies with the heritage resource.


This study is intended to be exploratory in nature. It seeks a better understanding of i) how the OMU cluster emerged; ii) the characteristics of the offshore medical universities in the Caribbean cluster; iii) the contribution of the offshore medical universities to the economy of the host Caribbean countries; and iv) the prospects for enhancing the educational quality, and value added captured by the Caribbean in the medical value chain.


Recently, there has been a rapid rise in experiential research investigating the potential of exploiting magnetic induction tomographic techniques to improve security, develop industry, and enhance medicine. This investigation explored the functionality of a fully automated magnetic imaging system able to capture 2-D images of featured metallic objects in unshielded and beneath conductively shielded configurations. Images were captured using a programmable x–y stage that moved objects relative to, and when magnetically coupled with, a stationary induction sensor coil; thus, position-resolved measurements of variations in sensor inductance (L) clearly defined the features of conductive objects and distinguished different material types. This investigation concentrated first on exploring the system's ability to distinguish different metals from images that represented proportional conductivity maps, and second, on the effects that a range of shielding conductivity materials had on resultant image quality and resolution. This investigation has provided a greater understanding when assessing potential capability improvements that magnetic induction tomographic techniques could offer a security and/or industrial application.


Studies of 'food deserts', neighborhoods in which healthy food is expensive and/or difficult to find, have received much recent political attention. These studies reflect the popularity of a social ecology in public health, rising concerns over an obesity 'epidemic', and the increasing ease of spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). This paper critically examines these areas, arguing that work on food deserts is a spatialized form of neoliberal paternalism that bounds health problems within low-income communities. Alternative analyses of the urban food landscape, based on work in political ecology and critical GIS, may suggest more equitable paths forward.


Coffey (1911) and Stiles (1911) described somewhat similar techniques for the transplantation of ureters. Operations for transplantation previous to this date, suggested by various surgeons, were not satisfactory, and resulted in a high mortality rate. Coffey modified his first technique, designating it as Coffey II (1927), and Coffey III (1931). It is not until quite recently that more than a few cases have been


Introduction: The role of diet is crucial in the prevention of diseases. Physicians and health staff can play a vital role in decreasing disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Iranian health staff toward nutrition.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study on 473 health staffs of the Iranian health staff from 30 provinces of Iran were involved in this study during 2011-2012. The sampling method in this study in each province was stratified random sampling. KAP was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire.
Results: Approximately 40%-90% of participants knew the main groups of food; 44%-74% of them had information about importance of micronutrients, and the knowledge of health and nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating mother was84%-88%. Health staffs' favorite attitude toward the major food groups and micro-nutrition were 49%-90% and 26%-86%, respectively. And for the major food groups was 28%-98% and practice about health and nutritional needs of pregnant women and mothers was 80%-92%.
Conclusion: This study shows health staffs need more training on some topics of nutrition in Iran. Consequently, intervention programs and nutrition education to improve employee performance in the health center is necessary.


Suicide is an individual activity to extinguish life itself. This fact occurs since man became aware to exist as thinking being and owner of his actions. The referred study aimed to analyze the socio-psychological context of suicides' relatives, the analysis of affectivity and coping strategies. To this end, 20 families took part and responded to a semi-structured questionnaire. The main results indicated the characterization of the family members, aging between 27 and 37 years, women with primary education, married, Catholic and regarding religious practice (40%) consider themselves average practitioners of religion. Regarding the economic aspect, the family income is around 1-3 minimum wages, retirees, with large household composition, and own their own homes. However, they don't vehicles. Suicide is an issue of social relevance, a public health issue which suggests the necessity of development of preventive measures and the study points out elements for early assessment and intervention in risk situations. The study highlights the importance of analyzing affectivity and coping strategies of family members seeking to better understand the underlying reasons for their actions, since the stressful situations favor the appearance of emotional reactions essential for the survival of man. Increased efforts are required to sensitize the population about the risks prominent to suicide. Therefore, the public administration should ensure rapid access to psychiatric support, through the primary health care in cases of high risk for suicide Public policies should encourage and implement appropriate training and professional support for programs that have the goal of preventing suicide.


The main aim of this paper is to provide an accurate boundary detection algorithm of the prostate ultrasound images to assist radiologists in making their decisions. To increase the contrast of the ultrasound prostate image, the intensity values of the original images were adjusted firstly using the PCNN with median filter. It is followed by the PCNN segmentation algorithm to detect the boundary of the image. Combining adjusting and segmentation enable us to eliminate PCNN sensitivity to the setting of the various PCNN parameters whose optimal selection can be difficult and can vary even for the same problem. Analysis and experimental results show that the best segmentation output can be drawn from the simple and sophisticated ultrasound images using the spiking neural networks.


Abstract Sedimentation of reservoirs is a major environmental problem facing developing countries. Because of increasing human and cattle population and intensive agricultural operations without adequate soil conservation measures many of the reservoirs are silting up. Unless systematic procedures for monitoring and corrective action are initiated sedimentation will continue and irreversibly damage water‐resource systems. Three major reservoirs have been studied and reasons for siltation have been highlighted. The case study of Tungabhadra Reservoir indicates that it is possible to reduce the rate of siltation through priority treatment of the catchment areas.


The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in India has made commendable efforts to formulate its strategies based on continuous research and evidences generated through Behavioural Surveillance Surveys among general population and high-risk-groups viz. sex workers, men having sex with men (MSM), intravenous drug users (IVDUs) etc. While there is focus on extensive awareness creation among the masses, for effective prevention, the NACP has initiated targeted interventions among the high-risk populations. Now NACP aims at going beyond the high-risk-groups and extend the interventions to populations that are vulnerable to HIV such as the tribal people and those socially disadvantaged in both rural and urban areas.


Learning outside the classroom (outdoor study) is an effort to create learning, to avoid boredom and perceptual learning only in class. The approach to learning outside the classroom uses several methods such as assignment, question and answer, and learning while doing or practicing with learning situations while playing. Students get bored quickly with conventional methods. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of pre and post test using the method of learning outdoor study on Communication subjects to increase the learning achievement of Nursing Health Department Vocational High School students totaling 80 students. The design of this study is Quasi Experiment research. Data collection methods that will be used in this study are pre test and post test questionnaires distributed to students of the Nursing Department, before and after the Communication teaching and learning process using outdoor teaching methods and conventional methods. To analyze data using paired T Test. The results obtained are that there is a significance between the pre test and post test of the learning outdoor method, which is 0.00. But the use of conventional methods is not significant with a result of 0.50.
Keywords: Learning method, outdoor, conventional


Internet technology is advancing with each passing day, the user's demand is also increasing. Of course the users will more concern to quality of service. The vendors must find out a win win method of resource allocation to meet users and itself. Therefore, the resource allocation of cloud computing has become one of hottest topics. In literatures, some researchers have proposed resource allocation methods which include allocation of virtual machines and service classification, etc. However, these methods are based on subjective observations that lead to the overall cloud architecture becomes imbalance. In order to prevent such situation happened, we use the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to solve the imbalance problem. In this paper, our analysis is start from the user's requests, and use the DEA to evaluate the whole cloud parameters. Then we can find out the resource allocation policy which is the most suitable between the users and vendors.


Arctic Investigations Program, Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and revention, 4055 Tudor Centre Dr., Anchorage, Alaska 99508, United States Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, 4055 Tudor Centre Dr., Anchorage, Alaska 99508, United States Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, Box 528, Bethel, Alaska 99559, United States


Book reviews: Adam, Barbara, Ulrich Beck and Joost van Loon (eds), The Risk Society and Beyond: Critical Issues for Social Theory (reviewed by Charlotte Augst); Mansell, Wade, Belinda Meteyard and Alan Thompson, A Critical Introduction to Law (reviewed by Ralph Sandland); Rowe, Michael, The Racialisation of Disorder in Twentieth Century Britain (reviewed by Preet Nijhar); Boland, Faye, Anglo-American Insanity Defence Reform: The War Between Law and Medicine (reviewed by Victor Tadros); Kauzlarich, David and Ronald C Kramer, Crimes of the American Nuclear State at Home and Abroad (reviewed by Roger S. Clark); Lippens, Ronnie, Chaohybrids: Five Uneasy Peaces (reviewed by Bruce A. Arrigo); Basu, Srimati, She Comes to Take Her Rights: Indian Women, Property and Propriety (reviewed by Saira Rahman)


The calculation of the convolution is considered the most important part in convolutional neural network-based artificial intelligence (AI) deep learning accelerator (DLA) architecture.Regardless of employing the traditional von Neumann architecture or the non-von Neumann compute-in-memory architecture, the variations arising from the integrated circuit (IC) process at the mass production stage must be considered. The AI model accuracy also needs to be improved.The open neural network compiler (ONNC) is an architecture-aware AI software development kit toolchain, which is capable of evaluating the AI model on fixed-point Edge AI DLAs for the open neural network exchange model.In this paper, the ONNC toolchain and the NVIDIA DLA (NVDLA) field-programmable gate array are employed to investigate the NVDLA static random-access memory stuck-at fault impact on model accuracy. The fault-mitigating results after applying a recovery mechanism in the IC process hard failure are also discussed.A method for utilizing the ONNC framework and the recovery guidelines for the resistive random-access memory -based computer-integrated manufacturing DLA architecture is also proposed.


Natural oils and waxes are commonly used for wooden furniture and parquet surfaces. In the present study, linseed oil, hard wax oil and hard wax were applied as the surface finish on thermally modified beech wood. Adhesion of surface finishes to wood was evaluated by both Cross-cut test and Pull-off test. The impact resistance of the surface finishes was determined according to the standard. The film hardness was determined by the pencil test according to the standard. According to the Cross-cut test, the adhesion of oil surface finishes to native wood and to thermally modified wood was the same. Adhesion of wax surface finish to the thermally modified wood was lower than to native wood. According to the Pulloff test, the adhesion of oil surface finishes to thermally modified wood was lower than to native wood. Adhesion of wax surface finish to the thermally modified wood was the same as the adhesion to native wood. Thermally modified wood showed the increased surface hardness of the selected oil and wax surface finishes under static load (Pencil hardness test); however, under dynamic load (Impact resistance test), it showed increased brittleness.


Digital or ladar fiber optic position sensors may be a promising alternative to electrical LVDT or RVDT for aeronautics. They are rugged devices, they do not need some form of referencing to avoid any error arising from random in-line loss, and they give absolute measurement results. Besides they are to date, the sensors which are the most advanced in tests for aeronautical applications. In this paper we present new concepts for these sensors which make them easier to implement on an aircraft. One of these ideas consists in referencing the optical fiber length from the emitter/receiver to the ladar sensing head, thus making the sensor acquisition independent of the optical fiber length. The other principles which are discussed in this paper concern digital fiber optic sensors. The second concept consists in adding a checksum to each position encoding word in order to test if the measure is valid or not. At last we propose a specific quantization law.


Modulating the current input of two uncoupled Hindmarsh-Rose neurons by using the membrane potential of Hindmarsh-Rose neuron under different initial conditions, the evolution mechanism of synchronization process of the two neurons is revealed by analyzing interspike interval sequences. When periodic stimulation is u sed, the full synchronization is realized in two identical neurons, and the sync hronized response of modulated neurons can be different from the stimulation sig nal; and phase synchronization can be obtained in two neurons with different par ameters:two neurons with small parameter mismatch can be synchronized to the per iodic response different from the stimulation signal, and two neurons with big p arameter mismatch can only be synchronized to the response in phase synchronizat ion with stimulation signal. When chaotic stimulation is used, two systems can o nly be synchronized to the response being in phase synchronization with stimulat ion signal. Obviously, chaotic stimulation is more helpful in encoding and deco ding information. Analyzing the relation between the largest condition Lyapunov exponents and the stimulation strength shows that when the largest condition Lya punov exponents of the two systems are both negative is the necessary condition for synchronization. The chaotic stimulation signal can more easily synchronize two neurons than periodic stimulation signal, implying that the effect of chaoti c stimulation is stronger than periodic one, and the experiments also confirm th is conclusion.


James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul were financial journalists employed by the Daily Mirror, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, to write a regular column entitled "City Slickers." The column was devoted to reporting rumors and making recommendations to readers to buy and sell shares based on these rumors. At some point they were joined by Terry Shepherd, who gave them tips and ideas and helped to broadcast these on the Internet. The Daily Mirror is a typical "red top" tabloid. It is read by people with relatively little interest and expertise in investments and the workings of


In order to reduce the injury of pedestrians in collision accidents and analyze the impact of collision position and collision angle on pedestrian injury degree, a simulation model of pedestrian-vehicle collision is established by using PC-crash software, and the significant factors affecting pedestrian injury are found out through orthogonal test, and the injury law of significant factors to pedestrians is analyzed. It is found that vehicle speed has the greatest influence on pedestrian casualties, followed by collision angle and collision position, and pedestrian speed has the least influence on pedestrian casualties; When the speed is higher than 60km/h, pedestrians will be fatally injured; Pedestrians suffer the least when the collision angle between people and vehicles is 90; When pedestrians rush out from the left front of the vehicle, when the vehicle speed is less than 40km/h, the collision damage between pedestrians and the right edge of the vehicle is minimal, and when the vehicle speed is greater than 40km/h, the collision damage between pedestrians and the left edge is minimal.


Introduction to The Problem: Trust towards the legal system and interpersonal trust might lose significance and be increasingly replaced by technical determinacy following the loss of state sovereignty as a result of the deterritorialization of the law in the technical globalized world. The future evolution of artificial intelligence and digitalization may provide instruments to displace law as a social control instrument and at the same time reduce the human factor in the law. Purpose/Objective Study: This paper is describing the connection between the ubiquity of the internet and the rise of disruptive technologies. It asks for the future role of the ethic in the legal system in a technologized society.


A start support apparatus to be disposed in an electromotive vehicle includes a requested driving force calculation portion, the startable driving force calculation portion, and an indication portion. The requested driving force calculation portion calculates a requested driving force that is generated at a motor based on operation by a driver of the electromotive vehicle. The startable driving force calculation portion calculates a startable driving force that is required to be generated at the motor for starting the electromotive vehicle. The indication portion shows a degree of gap between the requested driving force and the startable driving force.


There were various comments on "Hong Men Yan" and many experts described it very completely and perfectly.This article simply discusses something about its image building of the characters.


Study Group: ESGI 31. Southampton 22–27 March 1998 Communicated by: David Allwright Industrial Partner: Elkem Team Members: Harold Hanche-Olsen, Norwegian University of science and Technology; Peter Howell, University of Oxford; Andrew Lacey, Heriot-Watt University; Mark Peletier, Eindhoven University of Technology; Donald Schwendeman, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Warren Smith, University of Nottingham; Richard Tew, University of Nottingham; Jonathan Wattis, University of Nottingham. Industrial Sector: Materials processing Tools: Partial differential equations, Stability analysis, Heat equation, Dynamics


This paper proposes a model for extracting rules from the case base, splitting the case into description and conclusion parts. With the aid of domain knowledge, the two parts are respectively abstracted toward the parts of the rule. The model is helpful to connect the cases and rules, therefore offers the basis of integrating the CBR and the RBR. It also enables the automation of case revision. Some of problems are discussed on the model.


Punctual Pade approximants are considered as a summation method of the slowly convergent partial wave expansions associated with the scattering by long range potentials. The asymptotic behavior of the family of sequences [n,n+m], with fixed n, of the Pade table, is studied. A set of theorems are proven, which show that their rate of convergence increases rapidly with n. It is noted that these approximants may be computed by means of the recurrent e and η algorithms.


Part 3 of this book explores the real-world application of design for behavioural change principles and tools within five thematic areas. These five areas are as follows: • Sustainability • Health and wellbeing • Safety • Design against crime • Social design.


Citrates as auxiliary complexing agent were introduced into the bath composed of pyrophosphate and stannous pyrophosphate for Cu-Sn alloy electroplating, and the properties of the plating bath and alloy coating were analyzed based on electrochemical measurement, X-ray diffraction analysis and corrosion paste test. Results show that the eiectroplating bath has good throwing power and can be well used to prepare uniform Cu-Sn alloy coating containing 10% Sn in a wide range of electric current density. The iron and steel surface was activated during the early stage of electroplating, which contributed to increasing adhesion of the alloy coating to substrate. The coating had good crystallinity and better corrosion resistance than electroplated Cu coating and dark Ni coating. Besides, as-deposited CuSn alloy coating could be well applicable to decorative Cr coating. This process had good stability, and could realize Nisaving and Nireplacing.


More than a decade since the 22 February 2011 earthquake devastated Christchurch CBD, partially demolished and neglected buildings remain present in the post-earthquake landscape. Christchurch City Council has made significant progress in recent years to reduce the level of neglected buildings across the central parts of the city. To encourage remediation of these buildings, the Council initiated the Barrier Sites programme to keep track of central city sites. This paper documents the current inventory of derelict properties and investigates issues that are delaying progress on these sites. We explore regulatory levers that can be used to influence action on these buildings (e.g. provisions in the Building Act and council bylaws). We also investigate how the local market drivers influence the speed of regeneration. Our review identifies gaps in the regulatory powers to act on barrier sites. Taking action involves meeting difficult definitions and tests under legislation and/or taking court proceedings. Specific legislative tools are needed to provide Councils with the powers they need to ensure action is taken on barrier sites to progress the regeneration of the city after a disaster. We also find that the delays in removing the cordon and uncertainties of the public sector anchor projects contained in the Blueprint have led to the loss of private investment and forced central city developments compete with more affordable commercial and residential offerings outside the CBD. With the passing of the 10-year anniversary of the earthquakes, this project offers a timely reminder of the mammoth struggles that the city has overcome evident in the numerous modern and resilient buildings, yet a few 'battle sites' slow the much-needed regeneration towards a resilient city centre.


In this manuscript we study hitting sets both from a combinatorial and from an algorithmic point of view. A hitting set is a subset of vertices of a hypergraph which intersects all the hyperedges. A packing is a subset of pairwise disjoint hyperedges. In the general case, there is no function linking the minimum size of a hitting set and a maximum size of a packing.The first part of this thesis is devoted to present upper bounds on the size of hitting sets, in particular this upper bounds are expressed in the size of the maximum packing. Most of them are satisfied when the dimension of Vapnik-Chervonenkis of the hypergraph is bounded. The originality of this thesis consists in using these hypergraph tools in order to obtain several results on graph problems. First we prove that a conjecture of Scott holds for maximal triangle-free graphs. Then we generalize a result of Chepoi, Estellon and Vaxes on dominating sets at large distance. We finally study a conjecture of Yannakakis and prove that it holds for several graph subclasses using VC-dimension.The second part of this thesis explores algorithmic aspects of hitting sets. More precisely we focus on parameterized complexity of graph separation problems where we are looking for hitting sets of a set of paths. Combining connectivity tools, important separator technique and Dilworth's theorem, we design an FPT algorithm for the Multicut problem parameterized by the size of the solution.


Several spacecrafts show an anomalous flyby. In a previous paper a non-prefered reference frame is studied moving uniformly relative to the prefered one. In this article the Doppler frequency residual is derived. The prefered reference frame is given by the isotropy of the CMB and the non-prefered one is the Earth. The resulting jump is much too small to explain the measured anomalous flybys of the different spacecrafts. Therefore, the transformations from the prefered frame to the non-prefered frame are replaced by the corresponding total differentials. A formula for the Doppler frequency residual is derived. It is applied to the prefered frame of the Earth and the non-prefered frame of the rotating Earth. The resulting Doppler residual depends on the direction of the velocity of the spacecraft and the position of the observer on the rotating Earth. It is similar to the experimental formula of Anderson et al. which is independent of the position of the observer.


Common approaches to the simulation of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) assume heat transfer in circulating fluid and grout to be in a quasi-steady state and ignore fluctuations in fluid temperature due to transport of the fluid around the loop. However, in domestic ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems, the heat pump and circulating pumps switch on and off during a given hour; therefore, the effect of the thermal mass of the circulating fluid and the dynamics of fluid transport through the loop has important implications for system design. This may also be important in commercial systems that are used intermittently. This article presents transient simulation of a domestic GSHP system with a single BHE using a dynamic three-dimensional (3D) numerical BHE model. The results show that delayed response associated with the transit of fluid along the pipe loop is of some significance in moderating swings in temperature during heat pump operation. In addition, when 3D effects are considered, a lower heat transfer rate is predicted during steady operations. These effects could be important when considering heat exchanger design and system control. The results will be used to develop refined two-dimensional models.


In 2008 the Rotorua District Council (RDC) identified that the capacity of the final clarifiers in the secondary treatment process at the Rotorua wastewater treatment plant (RWWTP) were limiting treatment capacity. Treatment of additional flows from the soon to be reticulated Eastern Area Catchments and solids loss due to overloading needed to be addressed. A project was implemented for the planning of a new (third) clarifier and associated infrastructure. In addition, the capacity of the whole plant (including all solids and liquids streams) was assessed to determine which processes would require upgrade/expansion to meet the projected population to 2050. The capacity study identified (assuming the existing Bardenpho process was retained for current and future flows) that to provide redundancy and process capacity that the Bardenpho would need to be extended and a fourth clarifier would need to be added before 2050. The RWWTP is built on an area that is influenced by geothermal activity and by the water level of Lake Rotorua. The ground conditions are therefore challenging for the founding of large water retaining structures such as clarifiers (the additional clarifiers would be in the order of 3000m each). To overcome these conditions preloading and/or piling of the structures would be required. This presented both a construction/design risk and a program risk in terms of the time required for pre load (greater than 12 months) for a new clarifier. A refined investigation was undertaken to find the most appropriate solution for the plant expansion taking into account geotechnical conditions, space restrictions, existing infrastructure, continuity of operations, whole of life and capital costs. The solution selected was to retrofit one of the three existing, disused, reactor clarifier tanks on site into a membrane bioreactor plant to be operated in a side stream to the existing Bardenpho reactor. This solution will deliver an overall increase in capacity from a current average flow of 17ML/d to 24ML/d, providing sufficient capacity to allow for the projected growth of the catchment for the next 30 years as well as providing immediate redundancy for operations staff to conduct maintenance on the existing clarifiers. This MBR will be the first in New Zealand to use GE hollow fibre membranes (for an MBR application) and will be New Zealand's largest municipal MBR, with a peak capacity of 11ML/d. This paper presents the methodology of the capacity study, the selection of the membrane type and the configuration of the membrane bioreactor.


The objective of the experiment described in the article was the evaluation of Polish digital resources searchable by the engine Europeana. Queries were created so as to represent proportional shares of common names, named entities and their combinations. They were manually enriched by students, experienced professionals and humanities-oriented educated persons. The system responses were then evaluated according to their Mean Average Precision. The average efficiency of information retrieval for Polish monolingual queries was weak: there were only 26.6% of highly relevant responses and as much as 73.5% of queries produced unsatisfactory results. MAP produced the best results for the automatic search (0,314), while enriched files contained less relevant results: for the expert users MAP value was 0,1795, for the educated users it was 0,1529 and for students 0,1279. The overall results proved that the IR process concerning Polish resources searchable by Europeana require significant improvement.


Bacterial adhesion and proliferation is a serious and increasing concern in everyday life, and is responsible for significant damage in several industries, including textile, water treatment, marine transport, medicine and food packaging. Notwithstanding the enormous efforts by academic researchers and industry, a general solution for restricting bacterial colonization has not been found yet. Therefore, new strategies for controlling bacterial activity are urgently needed, and nanomaterials constitute a very promising approach. This Special Issue, with a collection of 21 original contributions and one commentary, provides selected examples of the most recent advances in the synthesis, characterization and applications of nanomaterials with antibacterial activity. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are well-known antibacterial agents versus a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains. They have gained a lot of interest owing to their chemical stability, catalytic activity, wound-healing capacity, high conductivity and surface plasma resonance. It has been demonstrated that they possess higher antibacterial activity compared with their bulk counterparts owing to their higher surface-to-volume ratio, providing better contact with microorganisms [1]. For instance, Al-Dhabi et al. [2] synthesized AgNPs from active marine Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi-87 collected from Dammam and Al-Kohbar regions of Saudi Arabia. The NPs showed noticeable antimicrobial activity against wound-infection pathogens such as Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia Coli strains. However, the low stability of AgNPs hinders some medical or hygienic applications, and hence it is important to investigate the shelf life of the material under different storage conditions. Korshed et al. [3] investigated the antibacterial effects of laser-grown AgNPs, stored under different conditions (daylight, dark and cold), against E. Coli bacteria. Results showed that the antibacterial activity of the laser-generated AgNPs lasted 266 to 405 days, over 100 days longer than the chemically produced ones. Another concern is the potential toxicity of AgNPs in the environment and in human beings, since it has been reported [4] that they induce damage in mitochondrial cells of a number of organisms, including mammals. A simple solution is the use of zeolites, in which Ag+ can be incorporated by ionic exchange. The idea is not only to introduce Ag+ inside a solid matrix, but also to form bonds that hinder the release of Ag+ from the material. In this regard, Jędrzejczyk et al. [5] investigated the antimicrobial activity of Ag cations trapped in a faujasite-type zeolite and added to paper pulp to obtain sheets. The paper with the modified faujasite additive showed higher antibacterial activity towards E. Coli, Serratia marcescens, B. subtilis and Bacillus megaterium, as well as better antifungal action against Chaetomium globosum, Cladosporioides and Aspergillus niger than AgNP-filled paper. Another method for immobilizing AgNPs is their incorporation in a silica matrix to form Ag–SiO2 nanocomposites [6]. A gauze impregnated with a Ag–SiO2 sample showed higher antibacterial effects against S. aureus and E. Coli than commercial Ag-containing dressings, indicating their suitability for the management and infection control of superficial wounds.


The present invention relates to a cooling structure for an electric motor used for machine tools and industrial machines, the cooling sleeve is disposed within the housing, The movable installed on a rotary shaft of the electric motor is installed able to rotate inside the stator, the cooling by injecting a cooling fluid between the sleeve and the housing gives to cool the heat generated by the coil of the stator, is the outer surface of the cooling sleeve made of a smooth surface, the cooling passage on the inner surface of the housing wherein the cooling sleeve is inserted into the installation is circumferential as with a predetermined gap it is formed continuously formed while closing the sequencing ends of the housing the cooling sleeve inserting groove bearing is installed some sequencing end of the front bearing housing and the cooling sleeve to the rear bearing housing is inserted into each of which each and are successively a cooling channel formed on the inner surface of the housing Circumferential cooling groove that connects the two is formed at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction on the outside of the cooling sleeve inserting groove, to meet with the two cooling flow path for one of the circumferential cooling grooves are adjacent to each other formed on the bearing housing circumferential cooling grooves are connected to give a complete cooling passage sequentially. Cooling structure for an electric motor, an electric motor, a cooling mechanism


Fire and explosion often occur together that seriously threatens the safety of engineering structures. In order to investigate the explosion resistance of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns at elevated temperatures, the finite element (FE) model of explosion resistance performance for circular CFST columns at elevated temperatures was established using the ABAQUS software. The fire and blast loads were simulated using ISO 834 standard fire and ConWep model, respectively. In the model, the static implicit and dynamic explicit analysis was coupled using "Restart" and "Import" commands and the strain-rate effect was considered. The experiment results of related literatures, including the temperature field, fire resistance duration and explosion resistance of CFST columns, were used to verify the feasibility of the method. Based on the validated FE models, the explosion mechanism of CFST columns subjected to standard fire was analyzed, including the failure modes, full-range analysis, development of stress and strain, interaction between steel tube and concrete and energy consumption. The influence of duration time, material strength, steel ratio and explosion equivalent on the explosion resistance were studied. The maximum mid-span deflection (Δpeak) was employed to quantitatively analyze the explosion-resistance performance of the CFST columns. The results show that shear failure firstly occurs at both fixed ends, and then the whole column presents flexural failure mode when subjected to explosion load under fire condition. With the increase of duration time, the proportion of energy consumption of steel tube decreases, and plastic deformation of concrete gradually becomes the main energy consumption mechanism. The concrete strength, explosion equivalent and axial load ratio have significant influence on the explosion resistance of CFST at high temperatures. After 0 min and 90 min fire duration, the explosion resistance is improved by approximately 21% and 42% respectively when the concrete cubic compressive strength increases from 30 MPa to 50 MPa.


A tutorial presentation is made on topics related to the measurement of charged particle beam currents. The fundamental physics of electricity and magnetism pertinent to the problem is reviewed. The physics is presented with a stress on its interpretation from an electrical circuit theory point of view. The operation of devices including video pulse current transformers, direct current transformers, and gigahertz bandwidth wall current style transformers is described. Design examples are given for each of these types of devices. Sensitivity, frequency response, and physical environment are typical parameters which influence the design of these instruments in any particular application. Practical engineering considerations, potential pitfalls, and performance limitations are discussed.


PURPOSE
To show the importance of ocular biometry in establishing the power of intraocular lens.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
We studied 212 eyes operated in the University Eye Hospital from Cluj-Napoca by planned extracapsular extraction with intraocular lens implantation. Before operation there was performed ocular biometry, using SRK II formulas for calculation of intraocular lens. At 6 weeks after operation, we checked the ocular refraction by dioptronometry and we established the optical correction of the patients.

RESULTS
The standard error was statistically significantly in all cases. In 84.19% of cases it was performed visual acuity with optimal correction over 0.7.

CONCLUSION
The ocular biometry represents significant factor in obtaining a very good visual acuity after cataract operation.


To reduce the total cost of production of hydrogen and oxygen from water splitting, many efforts have been made to develop first row transition metal materials instead of precious platinum-group catalysts. Recently, porous catalysts with high conductivity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have attracted more attention. Here, a quaternary inorganic framework consisting of Ni0 and Ni(OH)2, graphite-like C, and titanate nanotubes (referred to as the Nix/C/TNT framework) has been successfully fabricated. Compared to the precious Pt/C for the HER and IrO2/C for the OER, the fabricated Nix/C/TNT framework exhibited high activities towards water splitting. At a current density of 10 mA cm−2, its OER overpotential is as small as 280 mV while its HER overpotential is as small as 145 mV. The excellent electrochemical performance can be attributed to its unique structure of the Nix/C/TNT framework that can effectively expand the interface, maximize the reacting sites, and thus guarantee rapid mass and electron transfer.


Based on the Pippard-Buckingham-Fairbank relation, a theory of critical ultrasonics near the isotropic-nematic transition in a liquid crystal is developed. This allows us to demonstrate that the attenuation data at different frequencies do indeed collapse on a single scaling plot in the isotropic phase.


In this paper, the hydrogen release amount of SiC particle reinforced aluminum matrix composite (SiCp/Al) base plate, titanium alloy enclosure and its packaging shell was studied, the influence of substrate surface morphology on the hydrogen storage state of the coating was analyzed, and the hydrogen release mechanism of the packaging shell was discussed. The results show that the gold-plated SiCp/Al composite is the main source of hydrogen release from the package shell, and its complex surface morphology leads to different hydrogen storage states of the coating. At the early stage of baking, the hydrogen storage release is mainly due to micropores and interface defects, which is the main reason for the large amount and dispersion of hydrogen release from the package shell. Continuous baking is mainly stable release of lattice hydrogen storage, resulting in stable and discrete release of hydrogen.


The paper deals with the advantages of the spray etching method and presents the construction data of an original laboratory etching equipment which performs optimal working parameters: chemical attack from both sides of the part and differential chemical attack, flow and temperature controlling of the etching solution, low lateral etching, high productivity and great fineness of processing. There are also presented the results of the tests performed by the authors in order to execute double etched screens used in SMD technology. The obtained results confirm the constructive solution, chosen for the equipment design.


Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is a leading supplier of vegetable oil and high-quality protein meal in world markets. Processors expect an oil yield of at least 11 lb bu-1 and want to produce a 48% protein meal. On-farm soybean yields show a linear increase of ~0.45 bu a-1 yr-1, but the prevalent negative association between yield and seed protein concentration resulted in a decrease in seed protein of ~2 percentage points during the past 80 years. Seed oil concentration typically is slightly positively associated with yield and highly negatively correlated with protein, and estimates for the 2021 US soybean extraction rate indicate an all-time high of 11.9 lb bu-1. More extreme levels of protein or oil in the seed have been achieved, but trade-offs with yield and/or the other major component make those soybean lines unsuitable for the commodity market. With large projected increases in demand for both oil and protein, a commodity bean with improved balance of major components that meets the needs of the farmer and processor is needed. By focusing on processing outputs, we realized an improved balance of seed components between protein, oil, and soluble carbohydrates. In multi-environment trials over years, the improved soybean lines yield as well as the elite checks, produce a 48% meal and yield ~1.5 pounds of oil per bushel. In Nebraska tests over two years and 6 locations, new lines showed elite yields (76-86 bu a-1) equal to the checks, produce a 48% protein meal and yield 12.7 pounds of oil per bushel. With judicious choice of parental lines, evaluation and selection based on multiple seed traits and yield, it is possible to increase both oil and protein concentration in the seed and achieve elite yields for commodity markets. These soybeans can help meet the growing demand for both soy protein and oil and provide improved yield and quality for farmers and processors.


The purpose of this research is to study the possibility of identifying students, statistically, by analyzing their behavior in different consecutive activities. In this project, there are three different sorts of activities: animated example, basic example, and parameterized exercises. We extracted the behavior of each student from the log activities of the Mastery Grids platform. Additionally, we investigate by using unsupervised learning technique, whether there are common patterns, that students share or not while performing these activities. We conclude that we are able to identify students from their behavior, besides that there are some common patterns.


In this article the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance is analysed to identify existing problems and ambiguities regarding the business application of CSR. Theory and recent research is investigated to suggest a model of the CSR activities classification, based on effectiveness and CSR's social and corporate impact. As the effective selection and measurement of CSR investments allow better distribution of resources and growth of programmes with the greatest potential, it is necessary to recognize the most suitable methods of researching the CSR-CFP relation. Consequently, improvement in understanding this relation, its causality and opportunities of CSR, leads to more innovative strategies, incorporating the social and business synergy.


1744-6872 Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1097/FPC.0000000000000397 R.B.A. is a stockholder in Personalis Inc. and 23andMe, and a paid advisor for Youscript. There are no conflicts of interest for the remaining authors. PharmGKB summary: lamotrigine pathway, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics Taraswi Mitra-Ghosh*, Samuel P. Callisto*, Jatinder K. Lamba, Rory P. Remmel, Angela K. Birnbaum, Julia M. Barbarino, Teri E. Klein and Russ B. Altman


Foremost is Australia's first National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy. This document recognises that Australia's fight against antimicrobial resistance (AR) requires a collaborative effort from stakeholders across the domains of human health, animal health, food production and agriculture. It also recognises AR to be a problem that does not respect national borders and that international action will be required, consistent with the development of a Global Action Plan by the World Health Organisation.


With the increasing share of renewable energy and power electronics, the power system is gradually showing the characteristics of low inertia and spatial distribution. In order to accurately grasp the system inertia level, a data-driven equivalent inertia partition estimation method is proposed. First, frequency event sample data sets is built in batches considering a variety of typical operating scenarios. Next, according to the frequency response curve, the power grid is partitioned by the k-means algorithm based on dynamic time warping (DTW) distance. Then, the mapping between frequency response data and the system equivalent inertia is constructed based on the long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithm. Finally, the IEEE39 buses system simulation shows that the proposed method can reflect the spatial distribution characteristics of inertia with simple process, high accuracy, and good engineering applicability.


A three-dimensional finite element model of hot ring rolling process for 304 stainless steel was established based on the platform of DEFORM-3D finite element. The macro-law of 304 stainless steel hot ring rolling process was simulated. The variation of metal flow, load change, the ring blank forging, metal damage etc in hot rolling process for 304 stainless steel ring was analyzed. These results can provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of 304 stainless steel ring hot rolling process, the improvement of the workpiece quality and the fine control.


We propose full-single λ operation under normal conditions and an ONU-side Fresnel antireflection for bypass and backup path switchable point-to-multipoint systems. The 4ONU optical coherent system provides full-duplex fiber transmission without power penalty using wavelength conversion and shared link switching for primary link failure.


The electrical customer service system serves as a reciprocal window open to customers in power-expenditure information and service.It consists of seat center,PBX,IVR,CTI,database and network,etc.This system adopts the most advanced present-day development technology,works under the mode of data centralization,applied with the market net-station,uses the most popular means of communication to provide rapid and efficient service for users.


The invention provides a method for preparing p-chlorobenzene sulfonhydrazide. The method comprises the following steps: reacting 4-chlorobenzenesulfonamide, methyl ethyl ketazine and water which are used as raw materials at a certain temperature to synthesize p-chlorobenzene sulfonhydrazide, centrifuging and filtering the obtained precipitated solid substance after the reaction ends, washing the obtained filter cake, and drying the washed filter cake to obtain the finished p-chlorobenzene sulfonhydrazide. The method has the advantages of simple process, few side reactions, high reaction yield, simple post-treatment, few impurities and high purity of the obtained product, reuse of ammonia and butanone recovered from byproducts in synthesis of the methyl ethyl ketazine, low production cost, no generation of organic salt-containing wastewater, and small discharge of wastes, and is a green and environmentally-friendly production technology.


Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disorder which causes bone loss in course of time leading to increasing the fracture risk. The disease is often silent and known only when fractures occur. Both men and women are equally affected. But women are more susceptible to osteoporosis. The main cause of fragility fractures in women is due to the estrogen deficiency. For the treatment of Osteoporosis the potential biological use of traditional medicines have been exposed to logical assessment since synthetic medications are considered to have a wide range of side effects and they lack efficacy. Hence broad research is to be done to examine the therapeutic plants to be utilized as an option for the treatment of Osteoporosis. The present survey work demonstrates the data on medicinal plants with their common name, phytochemical constituents, reported pharmacological activities and their Osteoporotic action.


Although there is no convincing evidence of RCD infection in species other than the European rabbit, questions remain about host specificity and the possibility of subclinical infections. There is much that is unknown in regard to the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the disease.


It is the privilege of a critic to express his personal reaction to the work under review. Another may disagree, but there is hardly a subject for argument unless one is striving to convert the reviewer. To the extent, however, that objective grounds are assigned as the basis of judgment, these grounds, as fact and logic, are subject to the same type of scrutiny as any other literary or scientific pronouncement. From this point of view I consider the recent "Critique of Dodd's Dimensions of Society," by Ethel Shanas.2 It is necessary first o point out an apparently fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the critic of the book reviewed. A common error of book-reviewing is to criticize the author for writing the book he did instead of some other book. Miss Shanas makes this error. It was to be expected that a work of such unconventional content as Dodd's Dimensions would run afoul of this academic malpractice, although Dodd is explicit (see especially pp. 8-II of the Dimensions) that his purpose is to set forth a methodological nd classificatory system, not to survey empirical findings. But that he has not done the latter is the chief count on which the critic belabors the volume. She says: "S-theory definitions would seem to be useless to the sociologist in studying human behavior" (p. 2I5), and "no amount of improvement, however, in the reliability of these nonsense syllables would increase the amount of information [italics mine] which such syllables give about any particular problem" (pp. 2I6-I7). It is impossible to meet this type of criticism, for Dodd has no intention of supplying the information sought by the critic on the "particular problems" in which she is personally interested. Dimensional sociology3 deals only with recorded data. Dodd works on the level of data, not phenomena, and he expressly disclaims major contribution to the technique of observation. He is concerned exclusively with the next level of abstraction-that of summarizing and manipulating recorded data for the purpose-of establishing conceptual relations among them of the type regarded as scientific. This is the level of semiotics, the contributions of which to the generalization and unification of logical form have been so vast in the works of Boole, Peano, Whitehead, Russell, Schroeder, Frege, Peirce, and Carnap. The failure to keep in mind the basic nature of Dodd's task crops up repeatedly and vitiates much of the reviewer's specific riticism.4 Allied with this misunderstanding is Shanas' complaint that "it [S-theory] tells us neither how to select the salient characteristics of a situation nor how to analyze or understand them" (p. 227). This is a misconception of the function of theory in the process of inquiry. All specified recorded characteristics in the situation are selected as recorded. The analyst has no discretion here. Selection is made at the earlier stage when the researcher decides what to investigate and what indices of it to collect and record. That is, the investigator-not a theory -must decide what to investigate. That which is salient is relative to what the investigator desires (a value judgment) to predict and con-


The aim of the bachelor thesis was to focus on the job satisfaction of secondary school teachers within the Zlin Region and also to find out the connection of job satisfaction with the gender, the length of practice and the type of school the teacher operates on. The theoretical part includes knowledge of work satisfaction, work motivation and its connection with work satisfaction and also knowledge from the teaching profession. In connection with the theoretical part, the bachelor thesis contains also the practical part, in which are included, among others, the results of quantitative research. The data collection tool was a standardized Paul E. Spector questionnaire called Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS).


The life history and habits of Corythucha ciliata(Say) was observed in Shanghai,and its occurrence was investigated.There were five generations each year and overwintering adults could survive on trunks and branches in middle and late October in Shanghai.Adults began to damage in middle April and laid eggs at the end of April.The nymphae of first generation was found at the beginning of May,which duration was 17 to 18 d,and the whole generation duration was about 30 d.The generations overlapping was obvious between July and August.C.ciliata took place in all 11 districts in shanghai,and the four roads with highest damaging rate were West Longhua Road,Zhaojiabang Road,North People Road and West Yanan Road,where the damage rate was 100%.The three roads with highest pest indexes were North People Road of Songjiang District,West Yanan Road and South Shuicheng Road of Changning District,with the indexs 95.6%,76.7% and 72.2%,respectively.


The N-doped nano-TiO2 (nano-N-TiO2), which was doped with different mole ratio of hydroxylamine hydrochloride to tetrabutyl titanate (1:2, 1:1, 3:2, 2:1 and 3:1), was prepared by a one-step sol-gel method using hydroxylamine hydrochloride as nitrogen source in the doping procedure. Influences of calcination temperature and mole ratio of hydroxylamine hydrochloride to tetrabutyl titanate on the crystal phase structure and photocatalytic activity of the prepared nano-N-TiO2 samples for degradation of rhodamine B under UV and UV-Vis light were investigated. The results show that the crystal phase transformation for the nano-N-TiO2 samples from anatase to rutile phase is restrained by increasing the N-doping amounts. When the mole ratio of hydroxylamine hydrochloride to tetrabutyl titanate is 2:1, the nano-N-TiO2 sample calcined at 500 ℃ shows the photocatalytic degradation rate of 54.81% to rhodamine B within 1 h under UV light, while the nano-N-TiO2 sample calcined at 600 ℃ shows the photocatalytic degradation rate of 99.13% to rhodamine B within 2 h under UV-Vis light.


Whether the PE teachers' quality is high or low influences directlly the quality of qualified personnel training.The content of college PE teachers' quality is very wide.There are not only the basic demands of moral character,knowledge structure and specialized skills,but also the higher demands of teaching opinion,scientific research level and creative ability.Only with comprehensive qualities can PE teachers fulfill the PE teaching task at college.


The incidence study idcntified the cases of encopresis in the particular year group of schoolchildren in Stockholm, rendering them available for further analysis. The series thus obtained was then studied together with a suitable series of controls in the clientele investigation presented below. This comprised a field study. with interviews with parents and children and a psychiatric assessment of mothers and children, as well as a psychological examination of the children and telephone interviews with their teachers.


As we move further into the 21st century, few would deny the contributions made by the neurosciences to the modern world. Part of the significant progress in neuroscience is based on its notable success in merging approaches from the biological, the psychomedical and the social sciences, a


In May 1991, a 38-year-old woman presented with a circumscribed and indurated plaque in the right hypochondriac region that averaged 2 cm in diameter. The overlying skin appeared normal. The patient reported that a similar skin lesion had been completely removed from the same site in October 1990. Moreover, there were no factors known to her that might have caused this lesion to develop, that the family history was negative, and that the patient was in good health. After 2 months the lesion grew and reached a size of 4 cm in diameter. Laboratory studies showed no particular abnormalities and because the woman was 4 months pregnant, the entire plaque was excised. The lesion measured 4 x 2 x 2 cm, was well circumscribed, and stony hard. On section it presented a granular white surface. The specimen was fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin; 5 iJm sections were stained for hematoxylin and eosin. Histopathologic examination revealed a voluminous and circumscribed growth in the deep dermal and subcutis that was well defined, with irregular borders and a zonal pattern, indicating the presence of mature ossifying areas in the center (Fig. 1). There were branching trabecular and osteoid areas with pleomorphic and immature cells at the periphery and spindle cell proliferation at its margin (Figs. 2, 3). No osteoclast-like tumor giant cells were seen. A few mitotic figures were present. Light microscopic examination of the first lesion, which was removed in October 1990, revealed a similar bistologic picture. The patient had a cesarian delivery at tbe 38th week of pregnancy. During a 3-year follow-up period she did not show relapses and is at present in good health. On the basis of the patient's age, the tendency for relapse, the benign clinical course and the histologic zonal pattern characterized by a mature osteoid area surrounded by a pleomorphic cellular zone without osteoclast-like tumor giant cells and atypical mitoses, we propose the diagnosis of cutaneous aggressive osteoblastoma.


Discharging process by multiple tunnelings is proposed and studied theoretically in thin-oxide MNOS structures. Traps at the silicon dioxide-silicon nitride interface and in silicon nitride layer are taken into account. Three tunneling processes are considered in the analysis. Those are (i) from the interface to silicon conduction band, (ii) from the silicon nitride layer to silicon conduction band, and (iii) from the silicon nitride layer to the interface (and then to silicon conduction band). From the analysis of these tunneling processes, physical interpretation for the maximum tunneling distance is derived.


Abstract A scheme is proposed that relates surface flux densities of sensible heat, latent heat, and momentum to routine weather data. The scheme contains parameterizations concerning the radiation components and the surface energy flux densities. The parameterizations are developed and examined using observations from 1987 of a grass-covered surface at Cabauw in the Netherlands. It is shown that improvements in the parameterizations are achieved by incorporating an albedo dependence on solar elevation, a longwave downward radiation with a correction for the amount of high clouds, and a soil heat flux with a soil temperature approximated by a 24-h-mean 2-m temperature. In addition, the Penman–Monteith concept for the latent heat flux is utilized with a simple one-parameter surface resistance, which depends on atmospheric moisture deficit in particular. Special attention is paid to the treatment of surface inhomogeneities. A distinction is made between stable conditions, when measurements in the lower 10 m...


The purpose of this article is to study the cure kinetics of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A(DGEBA)/4,4'-methylene dianiline(MDA)/nitrile/hydroquinone(HQ) system Nitrile compounds such as malononitrile (MN), succinonitrile (SN) and glutaronitrile (GN) were introduced to serve as chain extenders and hydroquinone (HQ) was also added to serve as a reactive accelerator or a catalyst to lower the reaction starting temperature. The nitrile compounds/HQ was added at the ratio of 4:1 in phr. By adding HQ, reaction starting temperature and activation energies were decreased. The autocatalytic reaction carried out by -OH was accelerated and the cure reaction was already advanced at low temperature, which was elucidated in studies of cure behavior and cure kinetics by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Hydroxyl group offered by HQ aided the formation of termolecular transition state and ring opening of epoxide. So, the cure reaction was accelerated and proceeded at the low temperature. The triple bond of nitrile was also successfully reacted with primary amine and hydroxyl group at the low temperature and chain extension resulted from the formation of -NRC(O)NH- during cure was accomplished. Impact strength related to the toughness was increased.


Hempedu Bumi, Andrographis paniculata a popular Malay ethnomedicinal
plant used to treat various kinds of diseases like common cold, fever, liver
disease and snake bite. Andrographolide a bitter compound present in the plant
posses many medicinal properties like anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-HIV
and promising anticancer activity. Large amount of the compound is being
extracted from the plants so there is a need for commercial cultivation of this
plant, but seed dormancy proved to be a major obstacle for this process. So
production of non-dormant synthetic seeds is an alternative to the dormant
natural seeds for the mass cultivation of this plant. Hence the present study is
aimed to produce somatic embryos and synthetic seeds using plant tissue culture
technique. The zygotic embryos from immature seeds of A. paniculata were
inoculated on to MS media containing various auxins (NAA, IBA, 2, 4-D), and
cytokinins (BAP, TDZ and Kinetin) for the induction of somatic embryos. Out
of all the treatments used, only 1.5 mg/L NAA + 0.75 mg/L Kinetin produced
somatic embryos after 6 weeks of culture and the number of somatic embryos
per explant was 9.8 ± 0.6. NAA alone produced rhizogenic calli and NAA along
with BAP produced hard friable white callus, 2, 4-D alone and 2, 4-D with
cytokinins (BAP, Kinetin) produced creamy callus, while IBA alone and in
combination with cytokinins (BAP, Kinetin), TDZ resulted in germination of
embryos into seedlings. The somatic embryos produced were coated with
sodium alginate solution and made into synthetic seeds. The synthetic seeds that
have been produced can be used as planting material and for conservation of the
plant for future uses.


Objective To investigate the effect of two methods(swim-up and pure sperm gradient centrifugation)on sperm routine test,acrosome integrity and DNA fragmentation.Methods Semen sample of 90 patients were treated with swim-up and pure sperm gradient centrifugation,and then routine parameters,sperm acrosome integrity and sperm DNA fragment before and after treatment were analyzed.Results The sperm concentration decreased markedly after treated by the two methods and the survival rate and sperm mobility increased obviously(P0.01).The rate of normal sperm morphology and acrosome integrity increased significantly(P0.05).The index of sperm DNA fragment decreased markedly(P0.01).No difference in treatment were noticed between the two methods.Conclusions The acrosome integrity was increased,sperm DNA fragment decreased after treatment with the two methods.The sperm quality can be optimized by using the two methods.


Background. The Neretva nase, Chondrostoma knerii Heckel, 1843, is an endemic cyprinid species distributed in the Neretva River basin in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, designated in the EU Habitats Directive as a species requiring conservation within member states. According to the IUCN, the species is catalogued as vulnerable (VU). Available scientific data indicate that significant aspects of its biological and ecological characteristics, as well as conservation requirements, are scarce and largely composed of outdated records. This paper provides a summary of the main life history traits, particularly those related to the conservation challenges and a detailed list of the current state of knowledge. Material and methods. This review was based on published literature in the form of research articles, monographs, books and technical reports, as well as unpublished data Results. All available data were organized, critically analysed and presented in a comprehensive form. Issues related to species conservation were highlighted with respect to the impact of development activities. The longterm monitoring data of reproduction activity in the Hutovo Blato wetland were presented, showing the lowering of spring inflow capacity as the major factors for spawning success. Conclusion. This review will, hopefully, serve as foundation and indicative example for future research aimed at better understanding the origin and status of this fish species in order to assure effective management and conservation programs.


Prurigo pigmentosa is a rare inflammatory skin disease of unknown aetiology, predominantly found in Japanese females. It presents as pruritic, symmetrical erythematous urticarial macules and papules on the trunk and neck, eventually developing reticular hyperpigmentation. The disease has a fluctuating course, with exacerbations lasting months to years. Prurigo pigmentosa has a distinct histopathological sequence. Early lesions show superficial perivascular neutrophilic infiltration, papillary dermal oedema and spongiosis. Established lesions demonstrate patchy, lymphocytic lichenoid changes, with necrotic keratinocytes (Civatte bodies) in the epidermis. Late lesions demonstrate lymphocytic infiltration, epidermal hyperplasia and parakeratosis. In September 2016, a 38-year-old woman presented with an 8-year history of reticulate hyperpigmentation involving her neck and trunk, with previous inflammatory papules in these areas. Her primary concern was the hyperpigmentation. Figure 2 In vivo nail colour changes after immersing, respectively, in 1) 10% ascorbic acid, 2) 5% glycerol, 3) 10% ascorbic acid/5% glycerol w/w in distilled, and 4) distilled water for 2 weeks: 100% of the nails from 10 volunteers (in the columns 1 and 3 from the left side) turned yellow after soaking in 10% ascorbic acid, or 10% ascorbic acid/5% glycerol w/w in distilled water, whereas the colour of 100% of nails from the volunteers (in the columns 2 and 4 from the left side) remained unchanged after soaking in 5% glycerol w/w in distilled water or distilled water.


The solute carrier 22 (slc22) family is a group of transmembrane proteins that specialize in the transport of organic ions. A sub‐category of slc22 consists of organic anion transporters (OAT) that transport cyclic nucleotides such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). In the process of light to dark adaptation of fish eyes, cAMP is hypothesized to be a regulatory signal between the photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) that drives pigment granule aggregation in the latter. We hypothesize that cAMP is exported from the photoreceptors into the sub‐retinal space, and one of the slc22 OAT proteins imports cAMP into the RPE. To test this hypothesis, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) was used to test for the presence of mRNA encoding seven different OAT proteins (1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e and 3) in whole eyes from zebrafish. Messenger RNA encoding each of the OAT proteins was detected, corroborating results of earlier studies. Experiments are underway to test which of the OAT genes are expressed in isolated RPE. Identification of the OAT proteins in RPE is an important step in illuminating a novel signaling pathway.