by Ryan So Socioeconomic status has a major effect on a child's learning and development. Children of low socioeconomic status often have lower abilities than peers of higher socioeconomic status (U.S. Department of Education, 2007a; 2007b). The Head Start program was designed to reverse the negative effects of low socioeconomic status. The present study uses the Preschool Language Scale—Fourth Edition to compare the expressive and receptive language of three groups of kindergartners: those who attended a Head Start facility (HS+), qualified for Head Start but did not attend (HS-), did not qualify for Head Start due to income (NQ). One-Way ANOVAs comparing groups' expressive and receptive language were statistically significant. Lastly correlations were run language and items from a parent survey, and maternal education, prekindergarten education, household income, and number of times moved before kindergarten were correlated with expressive and receptive language. EFFECT OF PRE-KINDGARTEN EDUCATION ON LANGUAGE AS MEASURED BY THE PRESCHOOL LANGUAGE SCALE—FOURTH EDITION by Ryan Y. So A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Communication Disorders and Social Work University of Central Missouri October, 2014 © 2014 Ryan Y. So ALL RIGHTS RESERVED EFFECT OF PRE-KINDGARTEN EDUCATION ON LANGUAGE AS MEASURED BY THE PRESCHOOL LANGUAGE SCALE—FOURTH EDITION by Ryan Y. So October, 2014 APPROVED: Thesis Chair: Dr. Nancy Montgomery Thesis Committee Member: Dr. Robert de Jonge Thesis Committee Member: Dr. Carlotta Kimble Thesis Committee Member: Dr. Gregory Turner ACCEPTED: Chair, Department of Communication Disorders and Social Work: Ms. Jean Nuernberger UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL MISSOURI WARRENSBURG, MISSOURI


The study had been carried out to investigate features in Edublog that could enhance students engagement in learning. Therefore, the study had also been conducted to explore Edublog usage in education and to provide future researchers with valid findings on this area of research. Each Edublog feature had been investigated to gain perspective on its function as well as investigating students level of engagement when using Edublog based on related educational theories.


E-procurement has the potential to provide savings to organisations by properly developing, planning, allocating the company's resources and communicating effectively with vendors. Through the implementation of an enterprise resources planning (ERP) and the electronic data interchange (EDI). As a result, buyers and sellers can develop partnerships through the automation of delivery schedules by linking the company's material management system with the vendors system. The success of these initiatives however, depends on the vendors' willingness to participate in an e-procurement system. Therefore, this paper attempts to examine the factors that would attract the vendors to participate in an e-procurement system. A survey was carried out on two hundred and fifty five registered vendors of a public listed company in Malaysia. This study found that the component of spending analysis is the most important component that influences the successful participation of the system while the contract management feature is the least important component.


Many university sites are geographically distributed, with more than one installation or campus at which their students can study. While this is true of university systems, such as the State University of New York, the University of Wisconsin, the California state universities, to name just a few, there are individual universities that maintain more than one campus. Some of these campuses are the location for specialized study, such as medical schools or oceanographic research centers. Other universities, though, maintain more than one general campus in the same city, providing geographically distributed access to the universities' degree programs. The Carnegie classification defines these as urban multi-campus institutions:


Results of the KISMET tungsten dispersal experiment indicate a relatively small degree of wall-rock contamination cause d by this underground explosive experiment. Designed as an add-on to the KISMET test, which was performed in the U-1a.02 drift of the LYNER facilit y at Nevada Test Site on 1 March 1995, this experiment involved recover y and analysis of wall-rock samples affecte d by the high-explosive test. Th e chemical , high-explosive blast drove tungste n powder, placed around the test packag e as a plutonium analog, into the surrounding wallrock alluvium. Sampl e analyses by an analytical digital electron microscope (ADEM) show tungste n dispersed in the rock as tin y (<10 μm) particles, agglomerates, and coatings on alluvial clasts. Tungsten concentrations, measured by energy dispersive spectral analysis on the ADEM, indicate penetrati on depths less than 0.1 m and maximum concentrations of 1.5 wt % in the alluvium.


Meta-analysis is one of the statistical analyses of a large collection of analysis results from individual for the purpose of interpreting findings. The purpose of selecting an appropriate model for combining the results to produce an overall statistic from the included studies. Confidence intervals estimate for meta-analysis consider for heterogeneity among studies of experiment. The models for meta-analysis are the fixed effect model and the random effect model. The coverage probability and expected length are the criteria for evaluating the performance of confidence intervals.


Tannin and anthocyanin interaction were studied by UV-Visible spectrometry to understand both copigmentation phenomenon and polymerization reactions. The aim of the work was to conduct studies in wine like model solution (pH 3.2 and 0 or 12% Ethanol) to understand the role some parameters on color. The parameter studied were: Tannin size, presence of ethanol, acetaldehyde. The molecules studied were catechin, epicatechin and grape seed proanthocyanidins which were fractionated in monomeric, oligomeric, and polymeric fractions. Concerning copigmentation, tannins can a? as copigments regardless of their mean molecular weight although monomers more efficient. Even if better copigments exist in wine, because of their relative high content, they are likely to play a major role in wine color. Concerning reactivity with anthocyanins, the relative influence of molecular weight and acetaldehyde presence were studied. Results show that the molecular weight has little influence on the kinetic of anthocyanin disappearance. In contrast the presence of acetaldehyde greatly increase the reaction kinetic, especially when both anthocyanin and tannin are present.


Objective To study the effect of bile tract drainage on the prevention of bile leakage in the patients with liver fracture.Methods 25 cases of liver fracture performed with bile tract drainage between January 2003 and December 2007 were reviewed.34 cases of liver fracture without bile tract drainage from January 1998 to December 2002 were used as the control group.Results No bile leakage occurred in the cases with bile tract drainage,and 6 cases(17.65%) occurred in the cases without bile tract drainage.2 cases with bile leakage were re-operated with inferior midriff cavity and bile tract drainage.No death occurred in the studied patients.The possibility of bile leakage in patients with bile tract drainage is much less than in those without bile tract drainage(P0.05).Conclusion The bile tract drainage has the effect on preventing bile leakage in the patients with liver fracture.


Ninety-nine individual milk samples from 37 cows in lactation week 10–35, selected for producing well or poorly/non-coagulating milk, were compared regarding protein composition, total calcium content, casein micelle size, pH, and coagulating properties after addition of 0·05% CaCl2. The results showed that a low κ-casein concentration in milk was a risk factor for non-coagulation. CaCl2 addition improved coagulating properties (coagulation time, curd firmness) of nearly all samples and eliminated differences between poorly/non-coagulating and well-coagulating milk, particularly regarding curd firmness. A second, independent data set with 18 non-coagulating or well-coagulating milk samples were analysed for protein composition, where indications of a similar association with κ-casein was observed.


Acknowledgements This thesis is for all of the little saplings out there. I owe more thanks to Georgina DeWeese Wight than I can put words onto paper. Not only was it her idea for me to write this paper, but she also guided me along in this endeavor. I am grateful for the opportunity to write a thesis while still an undergraduate and partake in all that comes along with it. I am glad I was put under Georgina's wing; otherwise I might have failed miserably. Also, I owe a great deal of thanks to her husband, Jason Wight, for his expertise in computer software and SAS. Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer was instrumental in this work. He guided me through unfailingly to see that I not only become a better student, but also a better researcher and geographer. I cannot leave out all of the people whom I annoyed with many questions, and yet they all answered so graciously: Abstract For studies interested in determining the age structure of a forest stand, node counting is often used for trees too small to extract an increment core. However, node counting of yellow pine (e.g. Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens Lamb.) and Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana Mill.)) saplings has yet to be proven as a reliable method for estimating age. The most common method currently used involves removing an entire cross-section from the sapling, thereby killing the tree. This method can be detrimental in areas where Table Mountain pine stands are now in decline. If node counting proves an accurate method for determining sapling age, then harvesting of saplings would no longer be necessary. This study evaluates the effectiveness of node counting on yellow pines as a means of estimating ages of pine saplings. At Griffith Knob, located in the Jefferson National Forest, Virginia, branch nodes on 130 yellow pine saplings were counted to estimate age in the field, then harvested and aged by ring counts. We found that a single node counted in the field approximates 1.2 yrs of actual age. Age can be estimated in the field using the following equation: estimated age = 0.7178 (nodes) + 7.3488. Our method of estimating ages of pine saplings suggests counting branch nodes on saplings in the field is a viable method for estimating actual age.


The media frequently reported on the distressing news of vocational school students' sexual behaviors.While the public were shocked,we should also consider the problems underlying these distressing events,namely,the proper sex education for the students.The paper proposed some suggestions and approaches based on the analysis of the current status of sex education for vocational school students.


Discusses relationships between state territoriality, political fragmentation, cultural assimilation, and social movement; relationship among states, territoriality and indigenous people of the Sami homeland, politics of territorial identification of Anglo-Montrealers, (the Quebec problem), and European integration, territorial features, and state borders in EU; 4 articles. Sami people are an example of an indigenous people and minority faced with changes of state territoriality and assimilation, Northern Europe.


ABSTRACT Use of pesticide in agricultural production abates crop damages from pest attack. However, it affects farmers' health and environmental ecology negatively. Hence, revealing socially optimal level of pesticide use is an essence. We estimate such optimal level by accounting both positive and negative effects through using damage control and willingness to pay approaches, and then, compute associated social welfare gain for paddy production in the south-west region of Bangladesh. Similar studies focusing paddy production, one of the most pesticide-intensive agricultural practices in Bangladesh, have not been found in the literature. The study finds the socially optimal level of pesticide use to be 1081 gram/acre against the mean use 1600 gram/acre. Accordingly, around 32 percent of mean pesticide is overused, though it is far below than the private optimal level. Adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technology with training limits such overuses close to socially optimal level. This adoption generates substantial health and environmental benefit of BDT 4902 per acre at a cost of private loss BDT 241 per acre. Hence, social welfare gain is around BDT 4660 per acre or around US$ 200 million in aggregate. However, this estimate widely varies with the adoption of IPM with or without training.


Fluidized-bed catalytic cracking (FCC) of vacuum gas oils, which produces aggregated value liquid fuels such as gasoline and liquid petroleum gas, is an important process in petroleum refining. Cracking reactions take place in risers, which are transported solid bed devices. In order to model risers it is necessary to develop kinetic schemes; however, complex catalyst deactivation, reaction paths, and nonisothermal behavior of these adiabatic units make it difficult to propose accurate schemes. The main mechanism of catalyst deactivation has been under research for more than 60 years, being related to coke formation during FCC reactions and the consequent active sites coverage and catalyst's pore blockage. Although it is usual to model these phenomena as a function of "time-on-stream", it is possible to explain it in terms of effectiveness factors. If pore blockage is noticeable, then different activity related to each reactant is reflected by the relative magnitude of individual effective diffusion coeff...


This article analyzes the types and sources of network ethics problems;puts forward 4 basic principles and 6 pairs of contradictions in building up network ethics and points out that strengthening the network morality education is the basis for building up network ethics.


Objectives: Diabetes has become a major health and socioeconomic issue for India in last one decade. The condition is identified by an increased blood level which leads to generation of many harmful products collectively known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These products have been implicated in the secondary complications of Diabetes. Both artificial and natural compounds have been used to prevent the accumulation of AGEs. The present study was designed to investigate the role of Nigella sativa seeds in the inhibition of early and advanced glycation products in vitro . Methods: BSA was glycated in the presence of fructose for 28 days at 37 oC in the presence and absence of seed extracts. The amount of glycation products were measured by established methods like browning, NBT assay, and DNPH, methods. . The effect of black cumin seeds was also checked on glycation of DNA and the sample was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Results: In the presence of black cumin seed extracts, there was a significant decrease in the amount of early and advanced glycation products as compared to BSA + fructose sample. The seed extracts also reversed the glycation-induced DNA damage. Conclusion: The results indicate the inhibitory role of Nigella sativa in the process of glycation of proteins and DNA.


Objective:Through an analysis of the results of "failed dynamic hip screw( DHS )" cases,produce a reliable method of classification which ,using simple radiology,could both predict post-operative complications and also demonstrate the importance of osteoprosis in the treatment of the difficult fractures.Method:Using the methods of retrospective review,We have collected 355 cases of intertrochanteric fractures treated by DHS fixation between June 1998 and June 2003 and followed for a minimum of year. We used Singh's classification as a measure of osteoporosis and also classified the fractures according to Boyd-Griffin, Evans and AO system.The postoperative radiographs were examined for failure of reduction,varus angulation100°, perforation of the femoral head, more than 20mm extrusion of a lag screw or metal failure.Result:We found 98 cases which showed radiographic failures.Four were stable fractures and 94 unstable fractures (Evans' classification).Unstable fractures with osteoporosis had a failure rate of more than 50%.Conclusion:The use of Singh′s classification and Evans' classification for femoral intertrochanteric fractures based on pre-operative X-ray allow for an accurate prediction of post-operative failure of fixation,for an unstable intertrochanteric fractures combined with osteoprosis(Singh's index above Ⅲ),treatment with a bipolar hemiarthroplasty should be preferred to DHS.


This paper deals with the motion generation approach developed for our omnidirectional mobile robots. Our objective, overall control architecture of the mobile robot, and its motion controller are considered. The key idea and advantages of the proposed motion generation approach are discussed. The approach is implemented and tested on the omnidirectional mobile robot and the experimental results obtained are presented. The operation of the control system is illustrated by a video on the remote control of the robot and the visually-coupled motion of the two robots.


Driver inattention is among major contributing factors to traffic accidents. There have been and continue to be efforts by governing bodies, car manufacturers, and researchers to prevent driver inattention or, failing that, to mitigate its effects. Many vehicles nowadays come equipped with driver monitoring systems that can alert the driver to, or compensate for, inattention. Moreover, the research community continues to explore and investigate more robust approaches to deal with inattention. Meanwhile, vehicle automation, to various degrees, is becoming more prevalent, with the human's role in the driving task changing depending on the level of autonomy. This necessitates that inattention detection, moving forward, be studied and designed in view of automation and in the context of a specific level of vehicle autonomy. Driver inattention and vehicle automation interact in a complex way, and that needs to be taken into account in the design of future vehicles. We explore this interaction in this paper in light of research findings, and survey inattention detection systems and attempt to contextualize them within popular frameworks for next-generation autonomous vehicles.


We study the outer regions of the Milky Way globular cluster NGC 7089 based on new Dark Energy Camera (DECam) observations. The resulting background cleaned stellar density profile reveals the existence of an extended envelope. We confirm previous results that cluster stars are found out to ∼ 1 ◦ from the cluster's centre, which is nearly three times the value of the most robust tidal radii estimations. We also used results from direct N -body simulations in order to compare with the observations. We found a fairly good agreement between the observed and numerically generated stellar density profiles. Because of the existence of gaps and substructures along globular cluster tidal tails, we closely examined the structure of the outer cluster region beyond the Jacobi radius. We extended the analysis to a sample of 35 globular clusters, 20 of them with observed tidal tails. We found that if the stellar density profile follows a power law ∝ r − α , the α slope correlates with the globular cluster present mass, in the sense that, the more massive the globular cluster the smaller the α value. This trend is not found in globular clusters without observed tidal tails. The origin of such a phenomenon could be related, among other reasons, to the proposed so-called potential escapers or to the formation of globular clusters within dark matter mini-haloes.


Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common pediatric rheumatic disease and, like any chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease, has an increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with the general population.

 In this work, we investigated the relationship between inflammation and cardiovascular risk during JIA.

 This was a retrospective study including adults with long-standing JIA according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria over a period of 28 years (1994–2022). Clinical and biological parameters were collected. Cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) were also assessed: family history of cardiovascular event, physical inactivity, smoking, arterial hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity.

 We included 29 patients (17 females and 12 males) with an average age of 35.69 ± 11.72 [18–61] years, an average age of disease onset of 11.10 ± 4.25 [2–16] years and an average diagnostic delay of 52.96 ± 95.97 [0–336] months. The average disease duration was 24.48 ± 12.76 [1–47] years.
 Mean C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were 42.74 ± 63.37 [2–218] mg/l and 69.67 ± 36.23 [36–108] mm/h. A biological inflammatory syndrome was noted in 65.5% of cases (n = 19).
 CVRF were present in 41.4% (n = 12) of cases: family history of cardiovascular event (n = 2 cases), physical inactivity (n = 5 cases), smoking (n = 3 cases), arterial hypertension (n = 4 cases), diabetes (n = 4 cases), dyslipidaemia (n = 4), and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (n = 4).
 Our statistical study concluded that CVRF (all types) were more frequent in case of elevated inflammation markers (60% vs 15.4%; P = 0.016). In addition, the presence of biological inflammatory syndrome associated with smoking in our population (20% vs 0%; P = 0.048). In contrast, we found no significant difference when comparing the rest of CVRF according to the elevation of inflammation markers.
 Furthermore, we found a correlation between biological inflammation and the presence of CVRF (all type) (r = 0.456; P = 0.015). However, no correlation was found with the CVRF taken separately.

 Inflammation is correlated with cardiovascular risk in JIA. Control of inflammation and modifiable CVRF is recommended in this disease.


The overseas deployment problem on Japan Self-Defense Forces has always been one of the focuses of Chinese and foreign academic research. China began to give importance to the research on SDF participation in peacekeeping operations from the early 90 s of last century, and then launched a series of actions following the three events: Japan's participation in the Persian Gulf ruled out mine action; Announcement of "peaceful cooperation law" and Japan's dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Cambodia. About this armed forces formed after World War II, Scholars in different fields of study are in possession of unique ideas in terms of military, international relations, economics, history and culture. Summarizing and analyzing after inducing the related research in the academic field can not only enrich our understanding of the self- defense forces and the future direction of Japan but also provide an important reference for China's peacekeeping operations by studying Japan's PKO Action.


The relaxation modulus and creep compliance curves of PTFE membrane against time were obtained by the uni-axial stress relaxation and creep tests.The generalized linear viscoelastic model,fractional model and fractional exponential model were adopted to simulate the test curves and make precision comparisons.The analysis results show that all the above models can be used to describe the relaxation modulus and creep compliance of PTFE membrane in the short time.For the generalized linear viscoelastic model,the relaxation modulus and creep compliance in the long time do not agree with the test results,this model has a low precision in the long-term prediction.For the fractional model,the long-term relaxation modulus and creep compliance can be predicted well.The fractional exponential model can predict the warp creep compliance in the long time,but it has a low precision for the long-term prediction for the relaxation modulus and weft creep compliance.


Physics technology plays significant effects in agriculture due to the advantages of new species making, produce and quality increasing, anti-drought and anti-diseases, quality examining and environmental protection. The technical characteristic of physics technology was summarized which included near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS), magnetism and static technology. The status and development of physics technology in agriculture were discussed.


A new laser ablation/inkjet process has been developed for the interconnect of thin film photovoltaic modules. This process involves laser ablation and inkjet printing of insulator and conductor materials carried out with high precision. Any error will compromise the device efficiency by increasing the series resistance or by causing shunting effects. Here we present a way of characterizing these interconnects using Scanning White Light Interferometry (SWLI). The SWLI technique allows the precise measurement of the laser scribe profile. We also present the use of a transmission line method (TLM) for the measurement of the contact resistance between the inkjet silver conductor and the Transparent Conducting Oxide.


Based on "the national look" of the fashion design field, this paper analyzed in detail how to make use of Chinese national elements to design modern fashion collection by a case of "the rainbow dream", focusing on the selection of the source of inspiration and how to design modern fashion by using national color, pattern (line), and other items of costume. It emphasizes that the Chinese designers should pay more attention to the modernity of the fashion in national style and some suggestions about it is given by some typical examples. Finally, it summarizes the rules and the prospect of the fashion design about the national look.


A transonic-flow theory of thin, oblique wing of high aspect ratio is presented, which permits a delineation of the influence of wing sweep, the centre-line curvature, and other three-dimensional (3D) effects on the nonlinear mixed flow in the framework of small-disturbance theory. In the (parameter) domain of interest, the flow field far from the wing section pertains to a high subsonic, or linear sonic, outer flow, representable by a Prandtl–Glauert solution involving a swept, as well as curved, lifting line in the leading approximation. Among the 3D effects is one arising from the compressibility correction to the velocity divergence, absent in classical works; this effect also leads to a correction in the outer flow in the form of an oblique line source. More important is the upwash corrections which includes the influence of both the near and far wakes, as well as the local curvature of the centre-line. For straight oblique wings, local similarities exist in the 3D flow structure, permitting the reduced equations to be solved once for all span stations. An analogy also exists between the oblique-wing problem and that of a 2D transonic flow which is weakly time-dependent; this provides an alternative method of solving numerically the inner airfoil problem. Solutions to the reduced problem are demonstrated and compared with full-potential solutions for elliptic oblique wings involving high subcritical as well as slightly supercritical component flows.


Summary We propose a 'learned' iterative solver for the Helmholtz equation, by combining traditional Krylov-based solvers with machine learning. The method is, in principle, able to circumvent the shortcomings of classical iterative solvers, and has clear advantages over purely data-driven approaches. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach under a 1.5-D assumption, when adequate a priori information about the velocity distribution is known.


An SDR (Software Defined Radio) system based on general purpose computing platform has benefits of ease of software development process, high degree of software compatibility, and cost-effectiveness of general purpose processors. This paper discusses design and implementation of a dual-mode SDR system that supports both cordless phone and walkie-talky system running on Linux-based general purpose computing platform. For this purpose, we designed modulation and demodulation software on open source-based GNU radio middleware. We also designed a customized RF front-end hardware which performs frequency conversion between RF and IF. The proposed SDR system successfully exhibited its ability to operate both cordless phone and walkie-talky communication on Intel processor-based general purpose computing platform. But experience with the prototype SDR system shows that further research is required for run-time software reconfiguration and efficient integration with conventional TCP/IP protocol stacks.


Hans Jonas is well-known for his work published under the title
The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for
the Technological Age. The idea of care is incorporated in his
concept of responsibility which is a prospective caring
responsibility in fact. The study, departing from Jonas'
concept of ethics based on one sole principle, investigates the
role of notion of care in Jonasien ethics and the place the
notion of care takes in his Principle of Responsibility
("Prinzip Verantwortung"). Furthermore the paper searches for
the relation between responsibility and care in Jonasien
ethics, taking into account the historical background of Jonas'
use of care. Finally the potential impact of the notion of care
for contemporary ethical theories will be discused and care as
a prospective and conceptual tool for bioethics discourse in
the age of bio-information-technology will be proposed.


Abstract Abstract 3949 Poster Board III-885 Background Mid-treatment positron emission tomography (PET) has been found to predict clinical outcomes in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Currently, risk-adapted therapy based on mid-treatment PET has been widely evaluated. This study was intended to assess the prognostic value of mid-treatment PET in patients who achieved metabolic complete response (mCR) at post-treatment PET. Methods From February 2002 to March 2009, total 130 patients in whom post-treatment PET showed mCR were included in this study. We performed retrospective analysis of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) according to the results of mid-treatment PET. Results Median age (range) was 51 (16-85) years old, and 70 (54%) patients were male. International Prognostic Index (IPI) was low (0-2) in 91 (70%) patients and high (3-5) in 39 (30%) patients. As a front-line chemotherapy, most frequently administered regimen was R-CHOP (76%). Eighty-seven (67%) patients were mCR, and 43 (33%) patients were metabolic partial response (mPR) in mid-treatment PET. With 24 months of median follow-up, 3 year-rates of PFS and OS in overall patients were 74% and 87%, respectively. Differences of survival outcomes between patients with mCR and mPR at mid-treatment PET were not statistically significant in terms of PFS (p=0.13) and OS (p=0.76). Conclusions In patients with metabolic CR at post-treatment PET, survival outcome was not influenced by the results of mid-treatment PET. Therefore, risk-adapted therapy solely based on mid-treatment PET might be inappropriate in the management of newly diagnosed DLBCL. Download : Download high-res image (94KB) Download : Download full-size image Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an ongoing increase in the use of remote consultations in general practice in England. Though the evidence is limited, there are concerns that the increase in remote consultations could lead to more antibiotic prescribing. Methods We used patient-level primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink to estimate the association between consultation mode (remote vs face-to-face) and antibiotic prescribing in England for acute respiratory infections (ARI) between April 2021 - March 2022. We used targeted maximum likelihood estimation, a causal machine learning method with adjustment for patient-, clinician- and practice-level factors. Findings There were 45,997 ARI consultations (34,555 unique patients), of which 28,127 were remote and 17,870 face-to-face. For children, 48% of consultations were remote whereas for adults 66% were remote. For children, 42% of remote and 43% face-to-face consultations led to an antibiotic prescription; the equivalent in adults was 52% of remote and 42% face-to-face. Adults with a remote consultation had 23% (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.23 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.18-1.29) higher chance of being prescribed antibiotics compared to if they had been seen face-to-face. We found no significant association between consultation mode and antibiotic prescribing in children (OR 1.04 95% CI 0.98-1.11). Interpretation This study uses rich patient-level data and robust statistical methods and represents an important contribution to the evidence base on antibiotic prescribing in post-COVID primary care. The higher rates of antibiotic prescribing in remote consultations for adults are cause for concern. We see no significant difference in antibiotic prescribing between consultation mode for children. These findings should inform antimicrobial stewardship activities for health care professionals and policy makers. Future research should examine differences in guideline-compliance between remote and face-to-face consultations to understand the factors driving antibiotic prescribing in different consultation modes. Funding No external funding. Keywords general practice; England; antibiotics; remote consultations; telehealth; telemedicine; TMLE; causal inference; machine learning; acute respiratory infections; antimicrobial resistance; covid; ARTI; ARI; antibiotic prescribing; primary care


Collaborative innovation is at the heart of smart city development, yet also notoriously challenging due to fundamental differences between public and private sector actors that need to collaborate, while dealing with high levels of uncertainty. Whereas existing practice-based work on collaborative innovation describes various relevant antecedents, barriers and success factors, this prior work potentially underestimates the true complexity of collaborative innovation initiatives. Therefore, scholars have increasingly called for a more dynamic, theoretical understanding of collaborative innovation. In response to these calls, our study draws on institutional theory to build a dynamic understanding of collaborative innovation for smart city development. Specifically, we conduct a longitudinal in-depth case study to develop a causal loop model, grounded in rich qualitative data, to capture and theorize the key behavioural patterns of a collaborative innovation initiative for smart city development. The model describes how the dynamic interplay between uncertainty, adherence to own institutional logics and governance complexity can both enable and undermine collaborative initiatives. We contribute by developing a dynamic theoretical perspective on collaborative innovation, one that promotes cross-fertilization at the intersection of the smart city theory, organization theory and collaborative innovation literature. Moreover, our findings highlight the important role of organization theory, specifically institutional logics, in explaining the collaborative dynamics of smart city development.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the wide‐ranging nature of organizational change research and practice with reference to the diverse context of Asia.Design/methodology/approach – Specific reviews of literature are highlighted which have identified the relative dearth of research which could be used to inform the theory and practice of management in Asia. The paper proceeds to offer an overview of the four papers included in this themed section on organizational change in Asia.Findings – After reviewing the four papers, a summary is presented of two key themes which emerge from this body of work, that is, in the process of considering various aspects of organizational change in Asia, the four papers tend to place a relatively heavy emphasis upon the ownership of organizations, and issues directly associated with human resource management. These two themes are identified as recommended areas for future research.Originality/value – This paper provides an introduction to the themed section o...


The invention discloses a medical bed transfer device. The medical bed transfer device comprises a dragging mat and a driving mechanism for dragging the dragging mat, wherein the dragging mat is provided with dragging holes and reinforced straps. The driving mechanism comprises a shell, a motor and a rotating shaft, the motor and the rotating shaft are arranged in the shell, a motor shaft is connected to the motor, and the rotating shaft sleeves the upper end of the motor shaft through a connector. A linkage gear is mounted at the top end of the rotating shat, and a pair of transmission gears is arranged on two sides of the linkage gear symmetrically and meshes with the linkage gear. A gear shaft is arranged in the center of each transmission gear vertically, a dragging rope is wound around each gear shaft correspondingly, and a hook is connected to the dragging end of each dragging rope. Combined with the dragging mat, the connector and a switch, the driving mechanism plays a role in driving transfer of a patient without manual force exertion, and accordingly the medical bed transfer device has the advantages of high automation degree, simplicity and rapidity in bed transfer and high practicality.


Maintenance states of some unit testing equipment are introduced and how to realize automatic detection of this testing equipment′s single PCB is put forward;some key technologies including design of interfere detection,design of PCB′s protection,design of fault permission are deeply studied.According to all of these technologies,this testing equipment with simple construction and reliable properties is designed,also how to design this testing equipment′s hardware and software is presented.It′s proved that it is a simply operated,flexible tested,conveniently carried detection system and has much military benefit.


Purpose – The purpose of the research was to compare web site designs used by the fastest growing companies in the USA to the largest companies in the USA and to benchmark those designs against best practices as defined by a leading consultant in the industry.Design/methodology/approach – This approach surveyed the web site designs by each group of companies against a set of best practices and developed summary data about the observations.Findings – The largest companies in the USA used designs that are more consistent with the best practices as defined by a leading consultant in the industry.Research limitations/implications – The fastest growing companies did not use best practices in their web site design and still maintained very rapid growth as evidenced by their national rankings. A poorly executed design was less of a detractor to the company's success than anticipated. Web site design may have a role (positive or negative) in the company's growth rate but further research is required to understand...


Objectives: Sometimes referred to as the "pediatric" ACL injury, tibial spine fractures, although less commonly seen, are believed to share the same injury mechanism as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. And while incidence rates of ACL tears have been known to be increasing in recent years, to our knowledge, trends in incidence rates of tibial spine fractures (TSFs) have not yet been reported in the literature. With sport specialization becoming a more commonly discussed topic, our goal was to report on the incidence rates of TSFs over a 7-year span at a single-center, and to compare rates of injury in these two conditions by sport and other patient characteristics. Methods: This was a retrospective comparison study of all patients presenting between 1/1/2010 and 1/1/17 with either a TSF or an ACL tear at a single pediatric hospital. Medical records were queried for all TSFs and ACL tears using ICD-10 and ICD-9 codes. Incidence rates of both injuries over time were compared against one another. Incidence rates were further stratified based on sex, race, age, BMI, and sport/mechanism of injury, and bivariate analyses were performed to find significant differences between groups. Results: 43 patients with a TSF and 947 patients with an ACL tear were identified during the study dates. On graphical analysis of the rates of ACL tears and TSFs treated at our center, there was an upward trend in the yearly incidence of both injuries, particularly in the last two years. TSF age ranged from 3 to 17 years with an average of 12.5 ± 2.8 years. ACL tear age ranged from 6 to 24 years with an average of 15.2 ± 2.3 years. Comparisons of sport, age, sex, and BMI were all found to have significant differences (p < .001 for all) between the two injuries. Race was not found to be significantly different between the two injuries. Conclusion: Our data supports the hypothesis that, similar to ACL tears, incidence rates of TSFs have been increasing in recent years. Injury during sport was found to be significantly different between the two injuries, with football being the most common sport for TSFs and soccer being the most common sport for ACL tears. ACL tears also draw from a slightly older age population (15.2 ± 2.3 years) than TSFs (12.5 ± 2.8 years), and TSFs are more commonly seen in males and those with lower BMI when compared to ACL tears. Figure 1. Figure 2.


Introduction: Little focus has been placed on improving the efficiency of robotic surgery. The aim of this study is to demonstrate areas of inefficiency between robotic (RSG) and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and show that the robot can be effectively integrated into a bariatric surgery practice. Methods: We retrospectively identified 25 consecutive LSG and RSG and compared preoperative (patient enters operating room (OR) to skin incision), operative (incision to skin closure), and postoperative (skin closure to out of OR) times. Analysis of variance comparing RSG versus LSG was performed, and turnover times for consecutive cases were analyzed. Results: The mean preoperative, operative, and postoperative times for LSG versus RSG are 42±8 versus 46±1, 88±19 versus 119±32, and 13±7.6 versus 11±5 minutes respectively. There is a statistically significant difference between LSG and RSG operative times (p<0.001), but there was no significance between preoperative (p=0.164) and postoperative (p=0.395) t...


To the Editor: We previously reported an overall response rate of 58% in a phase II trial with high-dose fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin (LV) used against colorectal carcinoma.' Twenty-two patients were entered onto this study. All patients were required to have either a Hickman (Travenol Laboratories, Deerfield, IL) or a Port-a-Cath (Pharmacia Deltec, St Paul, MN) single-lumen catheter to allow treatment in an outpatient setting. The therapy consisted of 5-FU (2,600 mg/m2) with LV (500 mg/m2) administered intravenously via an external infusion pump over a 24-hour period. LV was reconstituted with bacteriostatic water to achieve a final concentration of 10 mg/mL. 5-FU in liquid form was used without dilution. LV and 5FU were admixed and infused together. Catheter blockage was observed in 50% of our patients. An examination of the occluded catheters revealed a hard gritty substance that was identified as calcite (calcium carbonate) by infrared spectroscopy.2 This complication has not been previously reported. Over the past 2 years, we have used two lumen catheters in lieu of single-lumen catheters. 5-FU and LV (not admixed) are infused through separate lumens using two external pumps. Infusion time is 24 hours; both drugs are infused concurrently. Patient acceptability has been 100%. Furthermore, we have not observed a single case of catheter blockage. We believed our observation should be brought to the attention of other investigators who have been using our therapy of high-dose 5-FU and LV and have experienced catheter blockages. Because calcium carbonate formation is the cause of blockage, fibrolytic agents will not be useful. However, placement of doublelumen catheters with the avoidance of the admixture of FU and LV will overcome the catheter blockage problems. Our early experiments suggest that calcium dissociates from calcium LV and chemically reacts with plasma bicarbonate; this will be explored in further laboratory research.


The dependence of cell growth on methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP) function in bacteria and yeast is firmly established. Here we report experimental evidence that the control of cell proliferation in mammalian cells is directly linked and strictly dependent on the activity of both MetAP‐1 and MetAP‐2. The targeted downregulation of either methionine aminopeptidase MetAP‐1 or MetAP‐2 protein expression by small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly inhibited the proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) (70%–80%), while A549 human lung carcinoma cell proliferation was less inhibited (20%–30%). The cellular levels of MetAP‐2 enzyme were measured after MetAP‐2 siRNA treatment and found to decrease over time from 4 to 96 h, while rapid and complete depletion of MetAP‐2 enzyme activity was observed after 4 h treatment with two pharmacological inhibitors of MetAP‐2, PPI‐2458 and fumagillin. When HUVEC and A549 cells were treated simultaneously with MetAP‐2 siRNA and PPI‐2458, or fumagillin, which irreversibly inhibit MetAP‐2 enzyme activity, no additive effect on maximum growth inhibition was observed. This strongly suggests that MetAP‐2 is the single critical cellular enzyme affected by either MetAP‐2 targeting approach. Most strikingly, despite their significantly different sensitivity to growth inhibition after targeting of either MetAP‐1 or MetAP‐2, HUVEC, and A549 cells, which were made functionally deficient in both MetAP‐1 and MetAP‐2 were completely or almost completely inhibited in their growth, respectively. This closely resembled the observed growth inhibition in genetically double‐deficient map1map2 yeast strains. These results suggest that MetAP‐1 and MetAP‐2 have essential functions in the control of mammalian cell proliferation and that MetAP‐dependent growth control is evolutionarily highly conserved. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In order to make Dahlia better service in the north garden,the current situation of Dahlias in the Northern landscape were summarized.Meanwhile,the aesthetic value,ecological habits,configuration of Dahlias were discussed.In the end,some suggestions were put forward according to the existing problems in the development of Northern landscape.


HLORPROMAZINE has attained wideC spread clinical use as a pharmacologic agent for controlling symptoms of emotional disturbances in psychiatric patients. In view of its reported tranquilizing, sedative, and antiemetic effects as well as its potentiation of a variety of anesthetic and analgesic agents, chlorpromazine has also been used as premedication for anesthesia in surgical However, a number of clinical and experimental studies involving both animal subjects and human patients have reported hypotension, tachycardia, and other cardiovascular changes, as well as potentiation of hypotensive reactions to some general anesthetic agents, after the administration of single doses of phenothiazine~.~-?


Heliobacteria are a recently uncovered class of photosynthetic bacteria comprised of a novel chromophore, bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) g. Only the substitution of a vinyl group for an acetyl group on ring I distinguishes the macrocycle of BChl g from that of the more common BChl b. The different substituents impart small differences of 30 nm or ∼500 cm -1 in the Qy transitions of the chromophores in vitro but result in 2000-cm -1 differences in the energies of the primary donors in reaction centers containing BChls b (960 nm) and BChls g (800 nm)


Guye, M. G. 1988. Sterol composition in relation to chill-sensitivity in Phaseolus spp.—J. exp. Bot. 39:1091-1096. The relative composition of the free sterols campesterol, sitosterol and stigmasterol was determined in the primary leaf laminae of six bean (Phaseolus spp.) cultivars, known to differ in chill-sensitivity, prior to, during and following chilling of whole plants at 5 °C for 24 h. Campesterol levels showed no significant changes during the chill-warm cycle and no relation was found between campesterol levels and chill-sensitivity. Transfer of plants from chilling to warm conditions resulted in an increase in the mol ratio of sitosterol to stigmasterol (S/S) in one of the most chill-tolerant genotypes (P. coccineus cv. Prizewinner) and a decrease in this sterol ratio in the most chill-sensitive genotype (P. aureus cv. Berken). Genotypes representing a range of intermediate chill-sensitivities (P. vulgaris cvs 251, 222 and Tendergreen) showed no changes in S/S during a chill-warm cycle. Prior to and during chilling S/S was positively related to chill-tolerance.


The paper is dedicated to problems of military intervention of the USA and NATO countries in affairs of the sovereign states on the basis of materials of Iraq, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Libya and Syria.


Author Background: Dr. Yair Wiseman teaches and advises MSc and PhD students at Bar-Ilan University, Israel Aircraft Industries, and Holon Institute of Technology. He has an MSc and PhD from Bar-Ilan University, and Albert Einstein is his academic great-great-grandfather (i.e., the advisor of the advisor of the advisor of Dr. Wiseman's advisor). Dr. Wiseman completed two postdocs: at the School of Computer Engineering at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Georgia Tech Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems. He has collaborated with other partners and received research grants to run an active laboratory from inter alia Sun Microsystems, Intel, Polak Foundation, and The Open University; and he has evaluated several large projects of the European Union, Israel Science Foundation, MB Logic, and more. He has been a committee member for dozens of conferences around the world and judged numerous academic articles, and he currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous academic journals, including the World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, American Journal of Vehicle Design, and more.


As global semiconductor gradually develop into the post-Moore era, the status of microelectronic packaging technology in the IC industry is becoming increasingly prominent, and the requirements for high precision and high speed of microelectronic packaging equipment are also increasing. The gantry type motion platform is widely used in chip packaging. However, due to the mechanical coupling of the beam between the two linear motors of the gantry type motion platform, the system positioning accuracy and synchronization performance are seriously affected. In this paper, a self-made gantry motion platform is taken as the research object, and a cross-coupling synchronization algorithm based on fuzzy feedforward controller is proposed to realize the synchronous control of the system, including a fuzzy feedforward controller and a compensation controller based on cross-coupling principle. The cross-coupling controller takes the speed difference of two linear motors as the input signals, which compensates to the speed loop after being adjusted by the PI controller. The simulation results show that the crosscoupling synchronization algorithm based on fuzzy feedforward control can ensure the positioning accuracy, the response speed is faster, the anti-interference ability is stronger, and the synchronous follow performance is good, which basically meets the high-speed and high-precision requirements of the microelectronic packaging industry.


■ Strong demand for accountants leads to rise in compensation. Business expansion and ongoing compliance requirements will drive the demand for skilled accounting and finance professionals and intensify recruitment challenges next year, according to the just-released 2007 Salary Guide from Robert Half International. As a result, salaries for many specialties are on the rise, with a national average increase in base compensation of 3.8% projected for 2007. Research shows that compliance professionals, internal auditors, financial analysts and public accountants are among those expected to see the greatest gains in base pay. The 2007 Salary Guide is based on an analysis of the thousands of job placements managed by the company's U.S. offices. "Business growth and compliance-related issues are fueling demand for individuals with expertise in areas such as compliance, financial analysis and general accounting," said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. "Because of the limited supply of skilled accounting and finance professionals, employers today are offering premium compensation to attract and retain top talent." Businesses, public companies in particular, are looking for professionals with knowledge of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements to help maintain compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other regulatory requirements. Chief compliance officers with large companies (more than US$250 million in sales) can expect the largest percentage increase in base compensation of any position in 2007, with average starting salaries forecast to rise 14.4%, to between $132,500 and $181,250. Internal audit managers in large companies will see base compensation in the range of $77,500 to $101,500, up 5.8% from 2006. An increasingly competitive hiring environment is prompting public accounting firms of all sizes to make recruiting a year-round priority in areas such as audit, corporate governance and tax and risk management. In 2007, average starting salaries for senior manager and director positions at midsize firms ($25 million to $250 million in sales) are projected to climb 7.6%, to between $82,000 and $120,000 annually. Entry-level professionals at small firms (up to $25 million in sales) can anticipate a 5.1% increase in average starting salaries, to the range of $38,000 to $44,000 per year. To attract top performers, firms have raised salaries and signing bonuses for new recruits and existing staff, and options such as flexible scheduling, part-time work and telecommuting have become increasingly common. Banking and financial services firms also are facing competition for talent. Business analysts in this sector are expected to see a 6.5% increase in average starting salaries in 2007 ranging from $46,750 to $60,500. Private bankers will see base compensation rise to the range of $43,500 to $62,250, an increase of 6.3% from 2006. Average starting salaries for trust accountants are projected to climb 3.4% to between $39,750 and $52,000. Other key findings reported in the 2007 Salary Guide include the following:


Samples of unconsolidated clayey sandstone were submitted to percolations with NaCl and CaCl 2 solutions with ionic strengths 1=0,01 and 1=2 at 20, 60 and 90 °C. ; When temperature rise from 20 to 90 °C, the permeability decreases for the 1=0,01 solutions, but increases for the 1=2 solutions. Fluid circulations are accompanied by an entrainment of fine particles, all the more great since solutions become more diluted. ; This behaviour, explained by the phenomenon of clay flocculation-deflocculation, is governed by attraction and repulsion potentials between particles. Calculations of the free energy and the forces present show that the electrokinetic phenomena govern both flocculation and migration of fine particles in sandstone.


Artificial intelligence is facing an insurmountable difficulty: it can't make machine humanlike intelligence. This paper presents a new kind of intelligence, called as Ubit intelligence. This paper explains what is human intelligence; why AI can't make machine humanlike intelligence; then introduces Ubit intelligence by experiment examples; make machine memorize knowledge from learning, understand the memorized knowledge in machine, think the memorized knowledge in machine like human without AI algorithm, and explains how it can make machine humanlike intelligence. This paper also introduces the foundation of Ubit Intelligence: Ubit Semantic Computing, a total new theory. The advantages of Ubit intelligence listed show that Ubit intelligence is far beyond artificial intelligence.


ABSTRACT This essay takes up the incommensurate but connected afterlives of the socialist visions cultivated by anti-colonial and radical revolutionary movements in Vietnam and the USA. The most significant period of American-–Vietnamese entanglement, the Vietnam War, occasioned socialist visions with seemingly opposite results: while in Vietnam, revolutionary socialism 'succeeded' in capturing the state, in the USA, Left movements were brutally crushed, leading many to mourn their 'failure'. Yet in the twenty-first century, it seems less and less clear what 'success' and 'failure' mean at a time when the socialist Vietnamese government has become the deliverer of land for global speculative markets, while massive anti-finance movements have emerged in the USA. Juxtaposing the iconography of mourning mobilized by some Vietnamese protesters against the socialist state's land appropriation for speculation with present-day reflections on the ghostly residues of 1960s era US social movements, particularly the Asian American Movement in Karen Tei Yamashita's I-Hotel, this essay reflects on the possibilities and limitations of contemporary socialist imaginaries. It argues that the ghostly emergences and disappearances of the Vietnam War in Yamashita's text conjure a vision of our socialist pasts as eternally present, if fragmentary and occluded by their refraction through the Cold War. The book represents this 'movement' as having multiple origins and end points, while the land protests evoked grief over what could have been yet can still be, both creating an alternative temporality for social justice and disorganizing the progress narrative that underlies the very criteria of failure and success.


For a new road hydronic snow melting process with coil pipe imbed in road,three kinds of road experiments were implemented.The snow melting characteristics,conformation and heat transfer characteristic were investigated in different pipe pitches.Meanwhile,parameters such as the variations of road surface temperature,the heat quantity per surface area and temperature difference per pipe length,etc were studied to explore the influence and effect of snow melting process factors and to get a better understanding of this process.As shown in experimental results,the snow melting process can be dived into four stages.As the pipe pitch is different,the time required in these four stages of density road is the shortest.At the same time,the smaller the pitch pipe is,the greater snow free area ratio,and snow melting capacity is also stronger,the heat quantity per surface area is bigger,but the growth limit of temperature difference per pipe length exists.


A side view of the double sided ladder is shown in Figure 1. There are two types of double sided ladder; 6 chip and 9 chip. The 6 chip ladder has three SVX II chips mounted directly opposite the cooling channel and 3 chips mounted at the ladder end. The 9 chip ladder has 4 SVX II chips directly opposite the cooling channel and 5 chips at the ladder end. The power density is highest in the 6 chip ladder. All plots and calculations in this Engineering Note pertain to the 6 chip ladder with the understanding that the 9 chip temperature profile is somewhat improved over the 6 chip due to the reduced power density in the row of chips opposite the cooling channel. The two dimensional finite difference technique used for these calculations is described in DOEN 447 and will not be described here. The assumed thermal conductivity of beryllium is 190 W/m-K, and that of silicon is 149 W/m-K. The SVX II power dissipation is assumed 0.400 W. There is no cable or hybrid component power dissipation in this set of simulations. The epoxy in the glue joints consists of 2 mils thickness of thermally conductive epoxy with 0.8 W/m-K conductivity and 1 mil thickness of 0.22 W/m-K unfilled epoxy. The assumed gas temperature outboard of the bulkhead is 15 C with a convection coefficient of 5 W/m{sup 2}-K. The cooling channel temperature is 0 C. The intention of this series of simulations is to determine the optimum thickness to achieve an acceptable silicon temperature during operation of the ladder. Once the operating temperature profile is known, the temperatures within the beryllium substrates are used as input for an ANSYS* calculation of the bow of the ladder during operation. A series of calculations have been performed over the last several months in order to consider the effect of thickness, chip power, gas temperature, etc. on the temperature profile. Only the final plots are shown here in runs 660, 661, and 662. In these three plots the conditions are identical except for the beryllium substrate thickness which is 0.3/0.3, 0.4/0.4, and 0.5/0.3 bottom/top beryllium thicknesses, which are in dimensions of mm.


Topicality: Chronic tonsillopharyngitis is one of the most common diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
Although more and more physicians are preferring modern non-surgical treatments and abandoning the use of surgery to treat chronic compensated tonsillopharyngitis, there is still no consensus on approaches to conservative therapy.
One of the modern methods of controlling the microflora of the oral cavity is the use of lantibiotics. This creates competitive pressure of endogenous opportunistic flora and viruses, preventing episodes of disease recurrence.
The relevance of our study is due to the need to optimize and improve pharmacotherapy, not only during the exacerbation of the disease, but also to form a stable remission, which will significantly improve the quality of life of patients.
Materials and methods: A total of 36 patients were observed in the study, who were divided into two groups with different treatments. Group 1 received classical therapy, including local sanitation of the tonsils by was hing the gaps with NaCl solution 0.9% daily from the first visit until the 7th day and taking topical combination drugs (antiseptic, local nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug – benzydamine) for 1 tab. 3 times a day for 7 days. Group 2, if necessary, received washing the lacunae of the tonsils with a solution of 0.9% NaCl, and took an oral probiotic Baсtoblis (S. salivarius K12) 1 tab. at night for 1 month according to the instructions.
The McIsaac scale and microbiological examination of pharyngeal smears were used to establish the clinical diagnosis.
Results: On the seventh day of treatment, there is a rapid improvement in the well being of patients in both groups. In the first group there is a more effective elimination of pain symptoms and in the second group of bad breath. However, at the time of the 16th week from the start of treatment, in the first group due to more frequent recurrences of the disease, there is a significant deterioration in all indicators.
The results of the microbiological study revealed a significant reduction in the colonization of the oropharyngeal cavity by pathogenic strains of staphylococci and Escherichia coli in group 2 at 16 weeks after treatment.
Conclusion: Based of the study, it can be concluded tht bacterial therapy has shown significant effectiveness in achieving long-term remission in contrast to the other study group, which was effective only during the acute period of the disease.


: Two types of novel anti-corrosive ceramic internals, the hybrid ceramic internal 8 and ceramic plate, are designed and tested under pilot conditions for future industrial 9 application in lithium extraction from salt lake brine. A standard liquid-liquid system with 10 medium interfacial tension, 30% TBP in Shellsol 2046 – water with acetic acid as solute, is 11 used to test axial dispersion and mass transfer parameters, which are important to 12 determine height of extraction columns, over a range of operating conditions. Results show 13 that the hybrid ceramic internal has 50% lower axial dispersion coefficient and 50% higher 14 mass transfer coefficient, both contributing to better mass transfer performance. Under 15 proper operating condition, height of transfer unit of hybrid ceramic internal can reach as 16 low as around 0.2m, which shows very good efficiency and makes it promising to be applied 17 in the near future. 18


The mechanisms of transfer of sulfur to the volatile phase and char phase during the pyrolysis of tires have been investigated by complementing the available literature data with TGA experiments. For isothermal experiments, the global selectivity expression could be simplified into an intrinsic form of sulfur loss selectivity, which is solely a function of temperature. Two other phenomena have been found to influence the intrinsic sulfur loss selectivity: solid matrix desulfurization and metals sulfidation. In the case where tires would contain no metals and pyrolysis was performed at a temperature of 400°C or higher, decomposition kinetics is limiting and the intrinsic sulfur loss selectivity would converge to the value of 1. Below 350 °C, mass transfer limitation will promote solid matrix desulfurization, producing sulfur loss selectivity greater than 1. Over 350 °C, if zinc and/or steel are present in tires, sulfidation will cluster sulfur in the solid phase and sulfur loss selectivity will become lowe...


The participation of students from both undergraduate medical education (UGME) and postgraduate medical education (PGME) in independent patient care contributes to the development of knowledge, skills and the professional identity of students. A continuing collaboration between students and their preceptor might contribute to opportunities for students to independently provide patient care. In this systematic review, we aim to evaluate whether longitudinal training models facilitate the independent practice of students and what characteristics of longitudinal training models contribute to this process.


Streams and lakes accumulate chemicals from many different human activities across the landscape (fig. 1). Watersheds collect water from precipitation that runs off the land surface, carrying with it chemicals from urban and residential areas (streets, sidewalks, parking lots, lawns, and gardens); crop lands treated with pesticides, manures, and other organic and inorganic fertilizers; pastures and animal-production facilities; and lands where energy and mineral resources are extracted. Municipal, commercial and domes-tic wastewater-treatment systems, industries, and landfills can discharge their wastewaters directly to streams, and although the wastewater typically is treated, current treatment technologies are not designed to remove all chemicals. Groundwater, which discharges to streams and accounts for much of streamflow during dry seasons, also can carry contaminants from spills, leaks, septic systems, and land-applied chemicals that infiltrate to the water table as well as naturally occurring chemicals that leach from aquifer material. Even chemicals from smoke-stacks, automobiles, and other emissions to the atmosphere can make their way into streams. As a result, surface waters can have complex mixtures of natural and anthropogenic chemicals that include pes-ticides, pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, and a wide range of chemicals produced as waste byprod-ucts of commercial and industrial activities.


Purpose Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) have a negative impact on patients' quality of life and frequently pointed to as a major factor for treatment abandonment. Serotonin (5-HT3) receptor antagonist is considered as key treatment for CINV. Ramosetron and palonosetron are recently developed 5-HT3 receptor antagonists and known as more superior than other first-generation 5-HT3 receptor antagonists. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of ramosetron and palonosetron and determine which drug is more effective for prevention of CINV. Methods Colorectal cancer patients treated with chemotherapy were enrolled consecutively. Patients were assigned to receive intravenous injection of ramosetron 0.3 mg or palonosetron 0.25 mg at 30 minutes before initiation of moderately emetogenic chemotherapy. Ramosetron group added oral administration of 0.1 mg ramosetron on the second and third days of chemotherapy. Efficacy parameter consisted of nausea and vomiting. Results Ninety-one patients received ramosetron and 89 patients received palonosetron. Presentation of vomiting and nausea symptoms was not significantly different between the two groups during acute (0-24 hours) and delayed period (after 24 hours). Conclusion The incidence of CINV between the ramosetron and the palonosetron group has not shown any difference during acute, delayed, and overall period.


List of Contributors Preface, F. Feldbrugge, W.B. Simons "Capital Punishment in Russia", D. Barry "The Treatment of Anti-Constitutional Parties in Eastern Europe", G. Brunner "Rights, Contracts and Constitutional Courts: The Experience of Russia", R.I. Dragneva, W.B. Simons "Human Rights in Russian Legal History", F. Feldbrugge "The Constitutional Principles of Bona Fides and Impermissibility of the Abuse of Subjective Rights", G.A. Gadzhiev "The Extradition of Political Offenders Between Russia and Georgia", G. Ginsburgs "How Right Are Economic and Social Rights? The Interaction Between Law and Economics in Human Rights", J. de Kort "European Spaces: The Eastern Schengen Border and the Societies "In-Between", J. Lowenhardt "Property Rights as Human Rights: A Post-Communist Paradigm?", K. Malfliet "The Constitutional Right to a Favorable Environment and the New Law on the Protection of the Environment: Problems of Environmental Review", H. Oda "On the Inequality of the Vote in the Russian Federation's State Duma Elections", H. Oversloot "Planned Politics: The Russian Law on Political Parties", R. Verheul Index


The construction of liquid hydrogen and deuterium targets that may be stored for 40 to 50 hours is described. The targets may be used in investigations of fast charged particle interactions under conditions of well- described geometry. Data are presented on the performance of the target during an investigation of p + p yields d + pi /sup +/ reactions using polarized proton beams at 538, 616, and 654 Mev. Another target was used for investigating pi meson production in p-d interactions at 660 Mev. (R.V.J.)


Abstract The spectrophotometric method of bromate (BrO3 −) determination by phenothiazines was applied to natural water samples and the interferences due to the presence of inorganic and humic substances were investigated. Common ions present in natural waters did not interfere and only the less abundant NO2 − and Fe2+ exhibited strong interferences. Interferences of the two latter ions, if they existed, could be controlled and the method proved to be accurate and with a low detection limit. However, it was found that the presence of soluble humic substances resulted in positive interference, rendering the method unsuitable for bromate determination in natural waters and restricted its use in pure bromate solutions. This interference can be attributed to the electron acceptor groups invariably existing in the humic molecules. Since humic substances can remain in the water even after its ozonation, they will also contribute to a positive interference in bromate determination in potable waters.


be implemented for l.arqe areas. The objectives of these experiments were to determine relationships of key aqronomic characteristics and spectral properties of crops and to integrate spectral and meteorological data for forecastinq crop yields. Reflectance data of corn, wheat, and soybeans were acquired with radiometers that simulate Landsat MSS and TM sensors. The spectral indices, greenness, and normaJized difference were highly correl ated wi th leaf area index


Like the well-known dialogues discussed in the previous chapter, Lucian's prolaliai, or sophistic prologues, underscore the satirist's profound engagement with Old Comedy. Despite their obvious differences in form and context, three of these prolaliai—You are a Literary Prometheus, Zeuxis or Antiochus, and Heracles—mimic the agonistic and rhetorical strategies of an Aristophanic parabasis. Of particular interest is the degree to which the comic poets' stage biographies appear to inform the details that Lucian provides about his own career. Taken together with Aelius Aristides's Or. 29, discussed in chapter 2, these texts point to an interest in parabatic language that was capable of divorcing it from its original performance context.


Act as selective modulators of the CRF1 receptor, 5-aryl - H-pyrazolo [4,3-d] pyrimidines, 6-aryl - pyrazolo [3,4-d] pyrimidines and related compounds further chemically related also provides compounds that. These compounds are useful for the treatment of a number of CNS and peripheral disorders, particularly stress, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disorders, and eating disorders. Pharmaceutical compositions in which the therapeutic methods are further packaged in such disorders is also provided. The compounds of the present invention, as probes for the localization of CRF receptors, also useful as a standard for CRF receptor binding assay. Methods of using such compounds in receptor localization studies are also provided.


Resonant DC link power conversion circuits can experience irregular current or voltage pulses due to abrupt changes in the voltage or current that excites the resonant link. This paper presents a control technique to eliminate these irregular pulses in both series and parallel resonant link converters without any additional switch or passive component, resulting in pulses with uniform amplitude. This technique is not restricted to any particular modulation strategy and leads naturally to a design methodology. Experimental results are presented.<<ETX>>


As mentioned in the Introduction to this volume although numerous studies of magnetic anomaly patterns in the Pacific have been made (Vine, 1966; McKenzie and Parker, 1967; Pitman and others, 1968; Herron and Hayes, 1969; Atwater and Menard, 1970; Atwater, 1970; Hayes and Pitman, 1970 and more recently Herron, in press), the analyses of the anomaly pattern of the equatorial Pacific have been limited because magnetic anomalies associated with northerly trending ridges near the equator have low amplitudes and are difficult to interpret. Consequently, very little has been published on the development of the Central Pacific some 20 degrees on either side of the equator.


The selectivity of agricultural mechanization system in the new reclaimed areas must be based on anticipated performance. The most pertinent variable is the size or the capacity of the machine. A computer program was built and developed in Visual Basic programming language, to predicted implement field capacity. The data gathered during seedbed operations, planting and harvesting were used to provide time sequenced studies for equipment and operator productivity. Using data gathered in five new reclaimed areas were used to compare results from some field crops. Fields are relatively flat with straight-rows. The obtained results showed that the calculated values of theoretical and effective field capacities by the developed computer program were identified to that obtained in the field experiments. This means that the developed rogram is able to calculate the required parameters correctly.


An attempt is made to model traveling-wave optical modulators in the microwave frequency range by two methods: a desktop computer method based on the effective complex dielectric constant and a more rigorous method, i.e. the mode-matching technique. The aim is to quantify both bulk microwave and metallic losses and to determine the phase velocity in the microwave frequency range. This study takes into account the geometry of the cross section of the structure, the multilayered nature of the waveguide, and the hybrid nature of the mode. The two methods are compared for moderately lossy structures and shown to give quite similar results. However, when more realistic structures with highly doped multilayered substrates are considered, only the rigorous method can be used.<<ETX>>


Abstract We derive new variance formulas for inference on a general class of estimands of causal average treatment effects in a randomized control trial. We generalize the seminal work of Robins and show that when the researcher's objective is inference on sample average treatment effect of the treated (SATT), a consistent variance estimator exists. Although this estimand is equal to the sample average treatment effect (SATE) in expectation, potentially large differences in both accuracy and coverage can occur by the change of estimand, even asymptotically. Inference on SATE, even using a conservative confidence interval, provides incorrect coverage of SATT. We demonstrate the applicability of the new theoretical results using an empirical application with hundreds of online experiments with an average sample size of approximately 100 million observations per experiment. An R package, estCI, that implements all the proposed estimation procedures is available. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


In this Final Project of the Degree in Primary Education an analysis of the evolution and characteristic of the concept "creativity" is presented through the definitions of different authors. The importance of the creative thinking in education and the diverse ways in which it can be developed in the students as another subject of the curriculum is also explained. Next, taking into account the educational laws, it is considered the situation of the English subject and the creativity in the classrooms. Finally it is suggested a didactic design that allows the promotion of children creative thinking through the English Language Learning.


Overall, Linnemann achieves his goal of writing a book that offers a 'critique of the politics, culture and ideology that underpin and animate both methamphetamine and the war on drugs' (p. 224). Throughout, Linnemann illustrates how simplistic binary opposites are used to construct the methamphetamine imaginary, emphasizing its power to destroy both individuals and communities. Like the crack-baby campaign in the late 1980s/early 1990s, socioeconomic inequalities and their subsequent impact are disavowed. Rather than attribute the physical and psychological destruction of meth users to socioeconomic factors, such as poor nutrition, health care or housing, meth is blamed. In other words, the exigencies of capitalism and its economic imperatives are prioritized, while meth and other drugs, are attached to grand narratives surrounding crime, particularly organized crime, and terrorism, which feed into the culture of fear and insecurity that is subsequently used to justify draconian solutions to methamphetamine, and the drug problem, more generally. Meth Wars is essential reading for scholars and students interested in drugs, and drug policy more generally, but its appeal is interdisciplinary and includes media, cultural studies, politics, geography and sociology. Because of Linnemann's engaging writing style, however, anyone with an interest in drugs, Breaking Bad or meth, inside or outside academia, would find this book interesting. I have but one criticism: the cover does not do justice to the contents of the book. The cover looks like a scout badge awarded for bob-a-job week; an amateurish design that hardly reflects the sophisticated analysis of the book. Therefore, I advise would-be readers to refrain from judging this book by its cover as they are in for a treat and a thoroughly enjoyable, and engaging, read.


Summary The four youngest megaflood channels on Mars - Mangala Valles, Marte Vallis, GrjotValles and Athabasca Valles - date to the Amazonian Period and originate at fis- sures. The channels show common in-channel morpholog- ical indications of flood activity (streamlined forms, lon- gitudinal lineations, scour), as well as evidence for vol- canic, tectonic, sedimentary and/or glacial/ground ice pro- cesses. The fissure sources and channel termini have varied expressions,suggestingvarioustriggeringmechanismsand fates for the floodwaters. Possible triggering mechanisms include magmatic processes (dyke intrusion), tectonic pro- cesses (extensional faulting) and a combination of both types of processes. Surface morphology suggests that each of these mechanisms may have operated at different times and locations. Upon reaching the surface, the water likely would have fountained at least a few tens of metres above the surface, producing some water and/or ice droplets at the fountain margins. The likely sources of the floodwater are subsurface aquifers of a few kilometres' thickness and a few tens of degrees Celsius in temperature.


An injection apparatus 30 having a hopper 35 and a plasticizing cylinder 31 and the screw 32, using a metal mold 10 having a volume scalable mold cavity 10a, the mold a foaming agent-containing molten resin from the injection device 30 injected and filled into the cavity 10a, and then a foam injection molding method of a thermoplastic resin to be molded by a larger mold cavity 10a by foaming a foaming agent-containing molten resin, containing a blowing agent into the thermoplastic resin the, using a mixture of bubble nucleation agent and effervescent gas as a foaming agent, a mixture of the injection apparatus 30 of the hopper 35 or plasticizing cylinder and screws 31 and 32 to 0.1MPa or more, a pressure of less than 1.0MPa in supply, and carried out by contacting the mixture to the plasticized before or plasticized thermoplastic resin is present in the hopper 35 or plasticizing cylinder and screws 31 and 32.


Background:  Increasing evidence points at an important function of vitamin D metabolites for growth regulation in various tissues, and new vitamin D analogs are interesting candidates for the treatment of malignancies, including squamous cell carcinomas (SCC).


This paper proposes the asynchronous dynamic pipeline floating-point arithmetic unit which consists of two main parts: the dynamic pipelined arithmetic unit and the controller. Dynamic pipelining is used to increase speed and reduce the size of the circuit. The arithmetic unit architecture based on a four-phase micropipeline can operate four functions: add/subtract, negate, absolute and compare. The controller is divided into two main parts: pipeline scheduler and stage controller. The format of floating point is singleprecision (32 bits) IEEE 754.VHDL is used to design the circuit, and it is simulated by ModelSim. The simulation result shows that the circuit can operate correctly without stage collision, and cover the IEEE 754 including the exceptions.


A short approximate formula for estimating the inductance of parallel linear conductors of rectangular section is developed. This formula is shown, theoretically and experimentally, to be reliable to within 2 per cent, provided that the length of the conductors is great compared with their section and spacing. An additional formula is put forward for estimating the end effect in those cases where the conductors cannot be assumed to be infinitely long.As the spacing between the lead and return conductors increases, the approximate formula approaches asymptotically to the theoretical formula from which it was developed. If this spacing exceeds half the perimeter of either conductor the difference between the approximate formula and the theoretical formula is less than ½ per cent.


Abstract Elementary hydraulic switching control aiming at energy efficiency can be done by connecting a hydraulic cylinder alternately with a high pressure and a tank line in a pulse width controlled mode. The switching frequency is crucial for the energetic efficiency as well as for the speed fluctuation of the generated motion. This paper clarifies why and in which way the efficiency optimal switching frequency is related to some resonance condition. A simple non-linear, non-dimensional, second-order differential equation is derived that represents the dynamic behaviour of the drive system. It is investigated by asymptotic expansion methods. If valves with a relatively small nominal flowrate are used the optimal frequency is close to the natural frequency of the load oscillating in the hydraulic cylinder's compressible hydraulic fluid. Larger valves enable higher efficiency and weaken the role of resonance. The optimal frequency becomes smaller.


Aristotle really intended by the 'lantern' of the sea-urchin (531 %); he assumes that the mouth-apparatus is meant. At 533 g Wimmer's KVKXW TTTOV is accepted, but not the same editor's insertion of ITIOV at 52O3. With regard to the app. crit., it is difficult to see what purpose is served by including what can, in an edition of this sort, be described only as lumber; much of it is transcribed from Dittmeyer, with some additions from Bekker which Dittmeyer did not think worth including. Anyone who uses the Bude edition can hardly be interested to know that the first hand, even of one of the best manuscripts, wrote o<f>ty£ by mistake for otfrfg at 487 32; if such information is needed, it can be found in Bekker or Dittmeyer. Material of this sort tends to swamp whatever there is of real interest for the non-specialist reader, and a Bude editor, if he has not the freedom to omit information of this sort, should boldly demand it. Louis has very rightly broken up Bekker's enormous paragraphs into convenient shorter ones, but in order to make the lines of the Greek text tally exactly with Bekker's, a paragraph sometimes begins with a single word at the end of a line (e.g. To at 52gig). As this typographical solecism seems to be making headway elsewhere, it may be timely to register a protest against it. Some useful short notes and cross-references are provided, divided between the foot of the page where they belong and the back of the book; the index of technical terms, names of animals, etc., is promised for the final volume in the series of biological treatises.


Recognizing that the interrelationships between chronic conditions that complicate rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are poorly understood, we aimed to identify patterns of multimorbidity and to define their prevalence in RA through machine learning.


Professor Herman Sikl, who died in Prague at the age of 66 on January 16 of this year, was a member of the General Advisory Board of this Journal. Professor Sikl studied medicine at the Charles IV University, Prague. After graduation, in 1913, he worked under Professor Thomayer and studied pathology under Professor Hlava, the founder of the Czech school of morbid anatomy. In 1921 he was appointed Privatdozent and in 1928 assistant professor. In 1937 he became full professor and director of the Hlava Institute of Pathology at the Charles University. In this post he remained until his death. In the course of his tenure of this post, Professor Sikl built up the Czechoslovak Bioptic Centre for the diagnosis of tumours, which covers the whole of Czechoslovakia. Now, over 20,000 specimens from all parts of the country are being examined and reported upon in this centre yearly. Professor Sikl regarded pathology as the basis of clinical medicine: throughout his career he maintained the closest touch with his clinical colleagues; the full facilities of his department were always at their service and all his researches were aimed at throwing light upon problems of clinical medicine. Very early in his career he described the nature of the exanthem of typhus and later was even able to identify rickettsiae in the skin rash. He was one of the first to demonstrate the presence of protein crystals in the kidney in diffuse plasmocytosis; he did much work on cardiac disorders and believed that he had proof of the allergic nature of certain types of myocarditis. Professor Sikl's technique of dissection of the heart by transverse sections is largely applied, particularly on the Continent, in the study of cardiac malformations. He was one of the first to draw attention to, and to study, the carcinoma of the lung prevalent in the workers in the uranium mines of JAchymov.


More than a decade ago, Bogost invented the concept of 'procedural
 rhetoric'—the idea that games and software can make arguments through
 their mechanics. Even earlier, he founded a studio called Persuasive Games
 that adopted procedural rhetoric as a design philosophy. These ideas
 have had some influence on game studies and design, including finding
 their way into the title of this volume. And yet the promise of persuasive
 games in the world as a force that would introduce systems literacy to
 the mass media has not been successful. What happened, and what—if
 anything—can be done about it?


The mode of naming is the target of both cognitive sciences and communication study.Furthermore,it can be approached from linguistics and culture.Being the most familiar in communication,most of the dishnames are formed by series of nouns,which are the corpus for the study of lang uage structure and naming mode.The naming mode is hierarchical,including phonetics,semantics and grammar from a linguistic point of view,and rhetoric and psycho logical aspects from a cultural study.If we study the dish-naming mode "N+N" from a hierarchical point of view,the combination structure will be discovered.


There is a growing trend of user demand for highly immersive media that provides a sense of reality. The utility of virtual reality, which is expected to be a promising industry, arises from the interaction process of user interest, participation, and immersion. Therefore, the concept of engagement, which leads to user behavior by eliciting their experiences and interests, is crucial in determining the success of virtual reality content. Effective application of the concept of engagement is necessary at this point. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the visual characteristics of HMD, the sense of reality of virtual reality content, and media engagement to develop efficient user experience design strategies that enhance engagement in virtual reality content. Through a review of previous studies, we derived each characteristic factor and conducted a survey/statistical analysis of the relationships between them. As a result, we concluded that the visual characteristics of HMD have a significant impact on the sense of reality of virtual reality content. Additionally, it was analyzed that interactivity, media invisibility, and current event factors among the factors affecting the sense of reality in virtual reality have a significant impact on immersion, interest, and attention. In the competition of deepening sense of reality-based services, we expect virtual reality technology to actively utilize the engagement factors of virtual reality content and contribute to the development of virtual reality content that integrates various media.


In post-Soviet years, the North Caucasus gained the reputation of a politically unstable, conflict-generating region, with specific problems rooted in the distant past. To better understand the essence of today's problems, it is necessary to study the complex vicissitudes of North Caucasus regional history at crucial moments. The article aims to clarify the role of the ethnic factor at the early stage of the Civil War in the North Caucasus (1917-1918). It traces the dynamics of interethnic confrontation in the very complicated poly-ethnic and multi-confessional region and the impact of this dynamics on the struggle between the opposing political forces. How did the Bolsheviks and their opponents use the ethnic factor for their own interests? Understanding the impact of ethnic identities on the conflict is of broader relevance; it is through an ethnic matrix that unresolved social problems turn into irreconcilable interethnic contradictions. This case study from the revolutionary era is based on hitherto unstudied archival material from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History.


According to the mechanical structure and operation principle of differential-drive two-wheeled robot, and aiming at the nonlinear systems with uncertainties variable structure, a trajectory tracking model based on sliding mode control (SMC) was designed by utilizing state vector to establish the model of system and controller. The simulating results show that robot can track line, circle and S shape trajectories well, which gave reasonable dynamic responses, adjustment performance, as well as perfect disturbance rejection. The system can eliminate errors according to the deviation from sliding surface by switching the structure of controller and is robust to external disturbance.


The ratios of oleic acid to linoleic and linolenic acids in phospholipid classes and triacylglycerol of rice grains were unexpectedly higher in the increasing order of cold tolerance among three varieties cultivated in Hokkaido. However, grain diglycosyldi-acylglycerol was found to be richer in linolenic acid, formed mostly within plastids, as the rice cultivars were more cold-tolerant.


With the continuous innovation of technology, it becomes especially important to predict and prevent PV system failure in advance and ensure the reliability of the system operation. By analyzing the aging phenomenon of PV modules and the corresponding changes of PV model parameters, this paper summarizes the three factors that affect the health state of PV system, namely transmittance, series resistance and shunt resistance. A fuzzy algorithm to classify the PV system health status into "Health", "Sub-Health" and "Fault" is proposed. Firstly, the fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering method is used to obtain the clustering centers of the sample data set of the PV array. Then, the health state is diagnosed by applying the normal distribution membership function. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed method is verified by MATLAB/Simulation.


Accessible online at: www.karger.com/dsu Dear Editor With interest we read the article by Abir et al. [1] entitled 'Surgical treatment of achalasia: Current status and controversies' including a brilliant overview on pharmacologic, interventional and surgical treatment modalities. However, we would like to point out the following considerations on the topic: (1) In our institution we use the 'Starck dilator', a mechanical device with four expandable metal branches allowing a maximal diameter of up to 4 cm. Using the Starck dilator we obtain similar success rates without perforation [2], when compared to up to 15% as reported for pneumatic dilatation [1]. This may at least in part be due to a more uniformed application of mechanical force directed towards the circumference of the esophagogastric junction via the four expandable metal branches of this mechanical dilator [3]. In addition, the Starck dilator is considered to allow direct transmission of tissue resistance to the handset via the metal branches when compared to an air-filled balloon used during pneumatic dilatation, thus indicating successful dilatation of the lower esophageal sphincter. (2) Concerning the surgical treatment of achalasia, we would like to bring to your attention a novel concept including transgastric stapled esophagofundostomy (TSE) and partial fundoplication [4]. In contrast to myotomy [1], TSE results in complete dissection of the left lateral wall of the distal esophagus and the esophagogastric junction, thus suggested to disenable closure of the myotomy. Although still at an experimental level, TSE is suggested to evolve suitable for individuals with end-stage achalasia with or without unsuccessful prior dilatation(s) [5]. The transgastric approach is considered to be advantageous in patients following failed myotomy, where ab externis identification of the musculature covering the esophagogastric junction may be difficult or impossible [6]. (3) In results of the abstract, the authors include balloon dilatation into medical therapy. To our understanding, the term interventional therapy would seem more suitable for dilatation. References


A handling and sorting system for pigs in large groups raised on deep-litter, has been developed at the University of Minnesota's West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC), Morris Minnesota. The design of this handling system was based on the knowledge of pig behavioral principles. The purpose of this handling system were to (i) minimize stress to the pigs and stock people whilst handling, (ii) reduce the number of people required to handle and sort pigs raised in large groups and (iii) develop a facility that is economically viable for the producer. The handling and sorting facility consists of a circular tub connected to a chute leading to an individual weighing scale and load out ramp. The pigs enter the circular tub and centrally pivoted swinging gates rotate and push the pigs through the chute. The chute is angled to encourage pig flow, and a weighing scale is located at the end of the chute. The chute has the capacity to facilitate all sizes of pigs from weaners to sows through widening of the chute with additional panels. Once the pigs are weighed they are sorted and loaded. A minimum of two people can operate the facility - one person pushes the pigs through the tub and chute (by operating the central swinging gates in the tub) and the other person weighs and sorts the pigs. Measurements collected in a preliminary study included time to weigh a pen of pigs and the number stockperson interactions with the pigs. This handling facility has been extremely successful in terms of minimizing handling and sorting time. The interest it has generated by pork producers indicates that the facility appears to be economically


The polaron effects in quantum dots are investigated theoretically. It is shown that the exciton polaron energy is large in materials with degenerate valence band. This energy increases with decreasing dot radius. In the strong confinement regime the electron–hole pair can create significant polarization of the medium in ionic crystals. This polarization should manifest themselve in multi-phonon interband transitions and large Stokes shifts of the optical lines.