Background : Silent brain infarction (SBI) are common in elderly people and are associated with an increased risk of clinically apparent stroke. Hyperhomocysteinemia is also an independent risk factor for ischemic stroke. This study was undertaken to determine whether hyperhomocysteinemia was associated with SBI, and also to find prevention against SBI through correlation among homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B12. Methods : We enrolled 103 SBI patients and 107 healthy individuals and checked their fasting plasma homocysteine levels and analyzed the C677T mutation in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene. Results : The plasma homocysteine levels in subjects with SBI () were significantly higher than those in subjects without SBI (/L:p)moderate (10.0 to 13.2 ), and low () groups, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for SBI was significantly greater in subjects with high group compared with in subjects with low group (AOR, 3.58; 95% CI, 1.69 to 7.58: p = 0.0009). When we combined each MTHFR genotype with SBI patients and controls, the plasma homocysteine concentrations showed a significant inverse correlation with folate only in SBI patient with MTHFR 677 TT genotype (correlation coefficient: -0.495; p = 0.023). Conclusions : Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for SBI. Our findings show that reducing plasma hommocysteine level by folate intake may prevent SBI in patients with homozygous C677T mutation in the MTHFR gene.


Since the award of " Green Building of the Year,2006" and " Diamond-rated Green Building Certificate in 2009",the Delta Electronics' Tainan Plant has continued to conserve the energy utilization to 34.5% after the building has finished construction for already 3 years.In a questionnaire for all employees,the rate of satisfaction of this factory is even as high as 95%.It is not an expensive green building,on the contrary,it' s an ordinary and lowpriced technology of green building,for which construction fee is the same as other normal buildings.However,it has reached the beautiful and ecological architecture standard.


Refugees settling in Australia have many physical and mental health issues prior to arrival, issues that can be exacerbated by the settlement process. In Australia, the health needs of refugees are largely managed through a biomedical approach involving medication and/or psychotherapy and counseling. This approach stems from a clear separation between systems that deal with physical health issues and those dealing with mental health. The biomedical basis for working with refugee health issues has been useful up to an extent as the framework is very effective at disease control and prevention but is not so effective for chronic disease that is linked to multiple behavioral, socio-cultural as well as biological factors. Further, there are a number of other aspects of refugee health that biomedicine is unable to respond to effectively, such as cultural differences in understandings of health and illness, causality and healing, mind/body duality, as well issues of power relationships and structures. There is increasingly within Western medicine an awareness of the embodied interface between the spiritual, the social, the psychological and the biological being. Scholars argue that an integrated or holistic paradigm that incorporates the different aspects of health, including the biological, the psychological, the social and the cultural, would make for far better outcomes in terms of the health of refugees than the biomedical by itself.

This thesis examines the role that yoga therapy, as a complementary therapy, can play in responding to the complex health issues of refugees settling in Australia. The research presented in this thesis utilized qualitative research methodology involving a literature review and document analysis, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The participants included people of refugee background who had taken part in yoga programs in Australia, as well as support workers, medical practitioners and complementary therapists. The thesis describes the perception of the health of refugees settled in Australia among service providers and refugees themselves, and the key factors impacting on this. It further looks at the existing mainstream responses in Australia to the health needs of refugees. It then critically analyses the role that complementary therapies like yoga therapy can play, and concludes that, particularly if they are incorporated within an integrative medicine framework, they have a significant contribution to make towards supporting the health needs of refugees. The thesis argues that holistic systems that address different levels of being and incorporate biomedical systems as well as complementary and alternative medicine systems (CAMs), such as yoga, massage and tai chi, will support the health needs of refugees in a culturally appropriate and effective way. The thesis finally presents recommendations of strategies for future policy and practice.


that effect. Traister reads the Captivity and Restoration's uneasy commitment to Calvinist orthodoxy— its filtering of even the most horrific human experiences through a providential lens— as a sign of Mather's interference. Since Rowlandson's radical— and radically doubting— piety is located in her suffering body, so the argument seems to go, the mind that imposes an orthodox hermeneutic onto her experiences must belong to Mather. (This reading also has the benefit of making Mather into a stateidentified antagonist, allowing Rowlandson to stand as persecuted victim alongside Hutchinson, the Quaker Mary Dyer, and the accused at Salem.) But by essentializing Rowlandson's embodied piety rather than complicating it, as the text does so well in other chapters, this critical move diminishes Rowlandson's literary achievement and misreads the complexity of Christian religious experience, which always involves the interplay of body and mind, belief and doubt, orthodoxy and innovation. Rowlandson might have been better served by an analysis of her text's careful negotiation of publicity and privacy, a theme Traister usefully raises throughout his book. This might also have allowed for a more detailed discussion of Anne Bradstreet, who appears as only a minor character in Traister's story but who, as the most widely recognized exemplar of public (though not radical) female piety in seventeenthcentury New England, seems germane to Traister's argument, and whose oeuvre would be well served by his considerable analytical skill. Nevertheless, Traister's book is well conceived and his point well taken: the misreading of Hutchinson and her fellow Puritans— the tendency of historians, cultural critics, and politicians to fit these religious women to their own inaccurate narratives of secularization, whether imagined as progress or decline— is "inadequate to the purpose of better understanding the continuing force and place of religion in contemporary American and global politics today" (207). If we wish to comprehend our postsecular world, we must acknowledge the central but obscured place that female piety has held, both historically and rhetorically, in our construction of an American self.


Despite advances in reconstruction techniques, sacral pressure ulcers continue to present a challenge to the plastic surgeon.
Fasciocutaneous flaps are tissue flaps that include skin, subcutaneous tissue and the underlying fascia. Including the deep fascia with its prefascial and subfascial plexus enhances the circulation of these flaps. They can be raised without skin and are then referred to as fascial flaps. The present study was planned to evaluate the perforater Sparing Gluteal Fasciocutaneous flap for Sacral pressure sore.
The rotation Gluteal Fasciocutaneous flap for sacral pressure sore coverage have distinct advantage of rotation in the event of ulcer recurrence.  The flap from the gluteal crease derives blood supply from the inferior gluteal artery perforator (IGAP) and reliably preserves the entire contralateral side as a donor site.
The author describe their approach of preserving and incorporating musculocutaneous perforators into the conventional rotation design.Data from 11 patients (8 men, 3 women; mean age  [range 24-71] years old) whose sacral ulcers were closed with an IGAP flap between from Jan 2017 to Apr 2018 June  were retrieved and reviewed. All patients were bedridden; 1 patient in a vegetative state with a diagnosis of Cerebro vascular accident was referred from a local clinic, 2 patients had pelvic bone fracture on long duration traction, and 2 patients had a history of Cervical injury leading to quadriplegia , and 6 patient have hemiplegia due to spinal injury . The average defect size was 110 cm(2) (range 78-134 cm(2)). The average flap size was 75.8 cm(2) (range 46-111 cm(2)).
After surgery, the patients' position was changed every 2 hours; patients remained prone or on their side for approximately 2 weeks until the flap was healed. After healing was confirmed, patients were discharged. Complications were relatively minor and included 1 donor site wound dehiscence that required wound reapproximation. No surgery-related mortality was noted; the longest follow-up period was 24 months.
The present study was planned in the Department of Plastic Surgery, Pulse Emergency Hospital, Patna, Bihar. Total 11 cases of the operated from Jan 2017 to Apr 2018 were included in the present study. All the patients were informed consents. The aim and the objective of the present study were conveyed to them. Approval of the institutional ethical committee was taken prior to conduct of this study.
The data generated from the present study concludes that the modified method we proposed is relatively simple and easy for reconstructing sacral sores, provides sufficient padding, and has little donor-site morbidity. Once sufficient padding is established in cases like this, a takeaway from this report would be to study the recurrence rates compared with the classic fasciocutaneous flap.
Keywords: Fasciocutaneous flaps, Sacral pressure, sore, etc.


Objective To determine if the practice of active surveillance for prostate cancer (PCa) at the District General Hospital (DGH) level produces outcomes in keeping with those published from clinical trials. Subjects A cohort of 47 patients started on active surveillance for prostate cancer in 2002–2003. Methods Retrospective review of case notes, electronic records and the regional cancer register. Results This cohort of patients had significantly higher disease-specific mortality and greater progression to palliative forms of management compared to previously published studies. Conclusion The implementation of AS in routine clinical practice may be inconsistent, potentially leading to compromised patient outcomes.


Catabolite repression by glucose of the biosynthesis of alpha amylase and amyloglucosidase by Aspergillus niger CFTRI 1105 was studied in a solid state fermentation (SSF) and in submerged fermentation (SMF) systems and the results were compared. The addition of glucose did not enhance the production of alpha‐amylase and amyloglucosidase in an earlier fermentation system. However, a drastic reduction in alpha‐amylase production was observed in submerged fermentation by the addition of 5·0 mg ml−1 glucose and of amyloglucosidase production by 10 mg ml−1 glucose. Glucose concentrations above 50 mg ml−1 completely suppressed the production of both enzymes in the initial hours. In contrast, in the SSF system the repression was negligible, even when the glucose level was raised to 150 mg g−1 wheat bran for both alpha and amyloglucosidase synthesis.


The study of the 'gift' has always been dominated by French sociology and anthropology with an interest in the role of the gift as an expression of social solidarity and cohesion that dates back to Durkheim. This brief literature review draws on what is available in English but notes the need to explore further the extent to which the gift has been treated as a subject in French development studies. For the purposes of this review is a gift is understood as a material expression of a social relationship It can be divided and analysed in four components, the object that is given, the chain of relationships through which the gift passes, the motives of those involved and the rules or principles governing their behaviour (Berking 1999, cited in Osteen 2002)


In this paper, finite-time mean-square synchronization and structure identification of general complex network with stochastic disturbances, which is a zero-mean real m-dimension Wiener process, is investigated. The weight configuration matrix of the network under consideration needs not to be diffusive, symmetric or irreducible and is applicable to both directed and undirected networks. Based on finite-time stochastic Lyapunov stability theory, adaptive control and It 0 formulation, some novel criteria for the finite-time stochastic synchronization between drive and response complex networks were derived. Simultaneously, the structure of the drive complex network is identified. Numerical simulations are provided to show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed schemes.


This article aims to provide a brief overview of the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The analysis will be focused on the agreement itself, its flexibilities, and its impacts on the right
of access to affordable medicine. Particularly on medicines which are still under patent protection, a standardised protection period of the same, and the inclusion of pharmaceutical products within the ambit of patentable subject matter is arguably affecting one's right to access to affordable medications. Further, the clash of interests i.e between patent holders (mostly, big pharmaceutical companies) and affected people (mainly, patients and their family) is highly likely to happen – especially in poor and developing countries. This paper seeks to assess whether the right to health is undermined by the TRIPS Agreement, and the analysis finds that such right is not adversely affected by the same.


The issue shows theoretical and practical approach to the massive single-layer partition's design on the base of lumped model's method, provided by Zakharov A.V. The expediency of using the "Mass Law's" formula in case of the normal noise wave's incidence on the sound isolating partition, due to the adherence of continuity conditions of sound waves transmission at the interface of two media, is approved. The common simplified equations for the massive partition's sound insulation for the engineering method, which is based on lumped (discrete) models, are derived. The execution sequence of one-layer partition's engineering insulation design is given and the frequency response graph for the concrete one-layer partition based on this design is also represented. The comparison results of the medial three octave deviations of the sound isolation figures from the experimental data between Russian normative document method and the proposed engineering method for the different construction materials are represented.


Inferring gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is a challenging task in Bioinformatics. In this paper, an algorithm, PCHMS, is introduced to infer GRNs. This method applies the path consistency (PC) algorithm based on conditional mutual information test (PCA-CMI). In the PC-based algorithms the separator set is determined to detect the dependency between variables. The PCHMS algorithm attempts to select the set in the smart way. For this purpose, the edges of resulted skeleton are directed based on PC algorithm direction rule and mutual information test (MIT) score. Then the separator set is selected according to the directed network by considering a suitable sequential order of genes. The effectiveness of this method is benchmarked through several networks from the DREAM challenge and the widely used SOS DNA repair network of Escherichia coli. Results show that applying the PCHMS algorithm improves the precision of learning the structure of the GRNs in comparison with current popular approaches.


Private interest rates in attempting to save shooting biomass and sustainable fishing in the optimal case are reviewed. These variables determine the optimal total cost function depends on fishing. Fishing costs are independent of biomass and save only the amount of effort to comply. In general, the cost function of the amount of fishing effort and biomass is stored. Much biomass as a foreign agent and external costs of their fishing appears and the increase in costs to reduce the cost function with respect to fishing in both the desired variables in the optimal benefit system are set for private operation.


Permanence is one of the most important topics in biomathematics. The question of permanence of stochastic multi-species models is challenging because the current approaches can not be used. In this paper, an asymptotic approach is used, and sufficient criteria for permanence of a general n-species stochastic delay Lotka-Volterra competition model with Lévy jumps are established. It is also shown that these criteria are sharp in some cases. The results reveal that the stochastic noises play a key role in the permanence. This approach can be also applied to investigate the permanence of other stochastic population models with/without time delay and/or Lévy noises. c ©2017 All rights reserved.


Among all the environments for the running of enterprises,the supply chain is the most direct one.In the supply chain level,the dynamics of supply chain and the complexity of the internal of the supply chain cause some defects in the supply chain itself,which makes it vulnerable to the interference in the outside.The vulnerability of the supply chain may lead to the interrupt of the supply chain;it will bring about all aspects of the problems in business performance of the supply chain;and the risk of supply chain will become a reality.So,the vulnerability of the supply chain and how to measure this problem is of great significance.The short history of study on supply chain vulnerability makes the task of carrying out research on it very difficult.Based on the summary and review of the current situation of supply chain vulnerability studies,the author points out that we should further strengthen research on the causes,evaluation indicators and countermeasures of supply chain vulnerability and the hot points of related study to organize our future study.


The author describes the development history of European standards on explosion prevention and protection from nonelectrical equipment creating an ignition risk. EU Directives, ignition sources, mitigation methods and other precautions are outlined in this paper.


THE CHEMICAL SAFETY & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will move ahead with a previously canceled community meeting in Institute, W.Va., where it will present on April 23 preliminary results of its investigation of last August's fatal accident at the Bayer CropScience plant. CSB routinely holds such community hearings to explain its findings. But this meeting put the independent board between community members, who are concerned about their safety and the accident's cause, and Bayer officials, who say the meeting might release facility-specific, "sensitive security information" that could aid terrorists. The plant is covered by the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA), a 2002 antiterrorism law that Bayer cited when it urged CSB to cancel the meeting (C&EN, March 16, page 40). CSB agreed at first, Chairman John Bresland explains, but upon closer examination found that MTSA regulates transportation, not plant-specific processes. CSB, in negotiation with the Department of Homeland Security, developed ...


A closure (20, 20A, 20B) is provided for a system having an opening. The closure (20, 20A, 20B) comprises a body (24, 24A, 24B) having an outer end (32, 32B) and a passageway (30, 30B) for communicating with the system opening. The body (24, 24A, 24B) comprises a membrane (60, 60B) that initially the passage (30, 30B) closes. The closure (20, 20A, 20B) has a lid (26, 26A, 26B) to provide a motion to the body relative (24, 24A, 24B) between a closed position, which (access to the passage 30, 30B ) restricts, and an open position which allows a higher degree of access to the passageway (30, 30B) allows. The body (24, 24A, 24B) further includes a partition member (70, 70B) on which can be grasped by a user, at least a portion of the membrane (60, 60B) of the body (24, 24A, 24B) to separate. The separating member (70, 70B) extending from the membrane (60, 60B) away and has a deployed configuration, wherein the separating member (70, 70B) beyond the body outer end (32, 32B) projects when said lid (26 , 26A, 26B) is in the open position. The separating member (70, 70B) further includes the ability to assume a stowed configuration, wherein the lid (26, 26A, 26B) with the separating member (70, 70B) is engaged, when the lid (26, 26A, 26B ) is in the closed position. An elasticity of the separating member (70, 70B) pushes the separating member (70, 70B) from the stowed configuration to the erected configuration, when the lid (26, 26A, 26B) is moved from the closed position to the open position.


Natural developments show that many brutes form large social groups and move in regular forms. However, previous works focus on finding the motion forms of each single object or all objects. In this paper, we first propose an effective disseminated mining rule to jointly identify a group of acting objects and detect their motion forms in wireless sensor networks. Afterward, we propose a compaction rule, called 2 Samuel, which feats the received group motion forms to reduce the amount of delivered data. The compaction rule includes an episode unite and an information simplification phases. In the episode unite phase, we propose a unite rule to unite and compaction the localization data of a group of acting objects. In the information simplification phase, we develop a collision point Replacement (CPR) problem and propose an exchange algorithm that obtains the optimal solution. Moreover, we devise three replacing rules and gain the maximum compaction ratio. The experimental results show that the proposed compaction rule leverages the group motion forms to reduce the amount of delivered data in effect and efficiently.


4024 Background: Endoscopic biopsy after chemoradiation therapy (CRT) for esophageal cancer has been used to determine response to treatment. To test the validity of this methodology, we conducted a study to determine if endoscopic biopsy can accurately establish evidence of local pathologic complete response (pCR), defined as no residual local disease in the esophagus, in patients undergoing esophagectomy after CRT.

METHODS
We retrospectively queried a prospectively maintained database for patients seen at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1996 to the present who underwent, 1) CRT for esophageal cancer with the intent to proceed to esophagectomy post-treatment, and 2) post-CRT endoscopic biopsy. Data points included the pathology of the post-CRT endoscopy and resected surgical specimens, tumor histology, mean time from end of CRT to endoscopic biopsy, and mean time from endoscopic biopsy to surgery. Correlations were analyzed by the chi-square test and one way analysis of variance.

RESULTS
One-hundred thirty seven patients meeting our search criteria were identified. Ninety-percent of patients received cisplatin based chemotherapy and 5040 cGy of radiation. One-hundred four patients had a negative pathology on endoscopic biopsy. A negative pathology at endoscopic biopsy was a poor predictor of pCR (Positive Predictive Value = 37.5%), with 65% of these patients having residual local disease at esophagectomy. This result was not influenced by mean time from completion of CRT to endoscopy (p=0.5), or by mean time from endoscopy to surgery (p=0.47). A positive pathology at endoscopic biopsy was highly predictive of residual disease (p<0.001). When analyzed by histology, a negative endoscopic biopsy better predicted response for squamous cell carcinomas versus adenocarcinomas (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
Although improved for squamous cell cancers versus adenocarcinomas, a disease free endoscopic biopsy does not appear to be a useful predictor of a complete pathologic response after CRT. Neither the time to endoscopy after CRT, nor the time to surgery after endoscopy, influence this finding. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


A matching-aspiration-based methodology is developed to solving the bipartite matching problem in the case of indifferent order relations. The bipartite matching problem with indifferent order relations and matching aspirations is firstly given. Then, the indifferent order relations are translated into the indifferent Borda number matrix. Based on the indifferent Borda number matrixes, matching aspiration matrix and matching matrix, a bipartite matching model under the conditions of one-to-one bipartite matching is developed. Then the bipartite matching model is translated into a single-objective bipartite matching model by using the linear weighted methodology. The bipartite matching scheme can be got by solving the matching model. In the end, a position-staff matching example is presented to illustrate the application of the presented methodology.


The paper presents a study of improving the dynamic performance of a synchronous generator based wind power generation system, where a power electronic interface system is used for the variable speed wind turbine. Operation and control of the generation system are discussed. A method of improving the system dynamic performance, the use of a thyristor controlled resistor bank braking system, is studied. Simulations have been carried out to investigate the system performance and results are presented.


Community nurse Sheila Talbot, pictured, has won a three-year campaign to convince her local council to build public toilets suitable for people with learning disabilities who use wheelchairs.


The restraint and supervision of the Party's internal authority is the key,premise and base for enforcing restraint and supervision of the power in our country.To strengthen it dependson the Paryt's nature,with is borrowed from international communist movement and the Party's general regularity of development.We should constantly enforce our supervising awareness, improve the system,lay emphasis on supervising the authority of the Party's leading organs and leading cadres,and broaden the channal to make it develop into normalization,scinence and laws.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of awarding equal employee benefits on employees' level of job satisfaction. It also explores the link between equal employee benefits and job performance based on a study conducted at the Kenya Pipeline Company, Eldoret Branch in Kenya. The study employed the interpretive case study methodology and descriptive survey research to obtain in depth information from the respondents. The target population comprised 180 employees at KPC, Eldoret branch. Stratified random sampling was used to select 49 employees, and purposive sampling to sample 6 senior management staff. Data was collected using a questionnaire, document analysis and an interview schedules. Documents such as the company's journals and the strategic plan were analyzed so as to complement data obtained through the questionnaire and the interview schedule. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The study established that there is a positive correlation between equal employee benefits and level of job satisfaction among employee. There was also a significant correlation between equal employee benefits and increased efficiency as well as profitability. Conversely, there was no significant relationship between equal employee benefits and corporate image, employee retention, cost reduction and staff morale. From the findings, it is essential for the company to harmonize the benefits package so as to cushion itself and its employees against the harsh effects of inflation. Lastly, the company ought to review its benefits award structure so as to make it more competitive, equitable and transparent. The study contributes knowledge useful in streamlining employee rewards systems in a bid to attain competitive advantage, improved performance and good corporate image. The company will also attract and retain the best talent as a result of adopting best practices in employee benefits management, as the management will benefit from good relations with its employees and will save on costs associated with lockouts and strikes.


A. Rabbits are monogastric (single stomach), herbivorous (eat plant
material) animals.
B. They need nutrients (such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids or fats,
minerals and vitamins) in specific amounts to grow and perform at
their best.
1. Feed is very important when raising rabbits, because it accounts
for about 75 percent of your production costs.
2. In the wild, rabbits eat a variety of grains, greens, roots, and
roughages.
3. Most domestic rabbits eat a pelleted feed made to meet their
nutritional needs.
a. Rabbit pellets consist mostly of ingredients from plants
(primarily alfalfa meal and wheat middlings).
b. Pelleted rabbit feeds are available from many
companies and are easy to feed and store.


Objective Investigating Maternal and infant care specialist nurse training methods,to improve the professional level of maternal and infant care. Methods Introducing the PDCA cycle management method from total quality management into the training of clinical nurse specialists in maternal and infant care. In the training and evaluation of the specialized nurses,took specific measures in each steps of PDCA cycle. Results The one- pass rate is 99. 14% among the 116 specialized nurses,and the pass rate is 100% with a second try. Conclusion The PDCA cycle management method improve the professional knowledge,practice skills and nursing ability of nurses effectively,and improve the quality and safety of nursing.


Recent work by Lam on the decomposition of time-ordered products appearing in the time-evolution operator in terms of sums of products of nested commutators is endowed with a recursive algorithm. A sufficient condition for absolute convergence is subsequently obtained. Connection with Magnus expansion is established.


This analysis is based on the similarity between multiple scattering and slowing down (random walk) processes described by the same transport mean‐free‐path function λtr(s) (s=path length). We discuss the connection between λtr(s) and the characteristic appearance and scale of the trajectory pattern. Straggling is considered by means by stochastically discontinuous λtr(s) functions. In the application to electron penetration, we show that while nonrelativistic electron penetration is modeled by λtr=(r−s)/α, where r is the range and α is a material‐dependent dimensionless constant, highly relativistic electron penetration is modeled by λtr∝exp(−s/Λ), where Λ is a length characteristic for the penetrated material. The respective trajectory patterns are distinctly different. The effect of straggling on the trajectory pattern in the highly relativistic case is demonstrated by means of a simple model of the stochastic λtr(s) behavior.


TO THE EDITOR: Nordlinger et al comment on the preliminary data of the New EPOC (Eloxatin Peri-Operative Chemotherapy) trial, which demonstrates inferior outcome in patients treated with cetuximab added to chemotherapy. With surgery alone for liver metastases, survival curves show a plateau only after 10 years, which indicates cure in approximately 30% of patients, but surgery was noncurative in the majority of patients, most likely because the disease was not localized. With one possible exception, adjuvant, neoadjuvant, or preoperative chemotherapy has never been shown to increase survival. In contrast, patients with unresectable liver metastases may enjoy long-term survival if surgery is made possible by chemotherapy. What is considered resectable disease has changed over time. Instead of number and size of the metastases, the important criterion is now the percentage of remaining liver, resulting in the assessment of disease as so-called borderline resectable, as opposed to clearly resectable or definitely unresectable—a judgment that is largely dependent on the individual skill of the multidisciplinary team. This change in understanding of resectability is reflected in the design of studies. The EPOC study was restricted to patients with a maximum of four lesions (50% had one metastasis) visible on imaging. Given that the actual number of metastases detected intraoperatively may be higher, this restriction maximized the likelihood that patients had truly resectable disease, and chemotherapy was not performed to make surgery possible, but as a (neo)adjuvant approach to increase the cure rate (the plateau of the survival curve), similar to classic adjuvant situations after resection of the primary tumor. Despite this thoughtful selection, 10% of patients in the surgery group, compared with 4% in the preoperative chemotherapy group, could not undergo resection, primarily because the disease that was observed at surgery was more widespread than anticipated on the basis of imaging. Patients who could not undergo resection were considered to have experienced treatment failure for the calculation of the progression-free survival (PFS) curves, which separated only in the perioperative period and remained parallel thereafter, in contrast with all other positive, truly adjuvant trials. The small difference that was seen in PFS at long-term follow-up in EPOC most likely excludes a meaningful survival gain. Thus, preoperative chemotherapy may have reduced the size of disease that was actually unresectable, and its greatest potential may lie in reducing the size of borderline and unresectable disease that is thought to be resectable. For patients with such borderline or unresectable disease, a prospective randomized trial demonstrated a survival benefit when cetuximab was added to chemotherapy with either infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan, or infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin, as


The development of a speech recognition system requires at least three resources: a large labeled speech corpus to build the acoustic model, a pronunciation lexicon to map words to phone sequences, and a large text corpus to build the language model. For many languages such as dialects or minority languages, these resources are limited or even unavailable we label these languages as under-resourced. In this thesis, the focus is to develop reliable acoustic models for under-resourced languages. The following three works have been proposed. In the first work, reliable acoustic models are built by transferring acoustic information from well-resourced languages (source) to under-resourced languages (target). Specifically, the phone models of the source language are reused to form the phone models of the target language. This is motivated by the fact that all human languages share a similar acoustic space, and hence some acoustic units e.g. phones, of two languages may have high correspondence and therefore allows the mapping of phones between languages. Unlike previous studies which examined only context-independent phone mapping, the thesis extends the studies to use context-dependent triphone states as the units to achieve higher acoustic resolution. In addition, linear and nonlinear mapping models with different training algorithms are also investigated. The results show that the nonlinear mapping with discriminative training criterion achieves the best performance in the proposed work. In the second work, rather than increasing the mapping resolution, the focus is to improve the quality of the cross-lingual feature used for mapping. Two approaches based on deep neural networks (DNNs) are examined. First, DNNs are used as the source language acoustic model to generate posterior features for phone mapping. Second, DNNs are used to replace multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) to realize the phone mapping.


ABSTRACT The environmental contamination due to mining activities in the Andean region of Bolivia is a serious concern, as it leads to highly acidic (pH 2.4) acid mine drainage (AMD), severely polluted by sulfate (>12,000 mg L−1). Passive bioreactors entailing biological sulfate reduction and removal of metals through sulfide precipitation have been recognized as a promising biotechnology. The reactivity of mixtures containing locally available substrates: sheep manure, compost and straw, was assessed through batch experiments conducted with a synthetic solution simulating the composition of AMD from San José mine (Oruro). The removal of sulfate and metals was successful in all reactors, at the end of the experiment (56 days) sulfate concentrations dropped to 1378–2081 mg L−1, corresponding to a removal efficiency between 84% and 89%, while average removal for Fe, Zn, Pb, and Cd were 99.8%, 98.5%, 94.7%, 98.6%, respectively. The sulfate and metal removal showed three phases. In the first phase, the removal was independent of the organic composition and attributable to pH-controlled mechanisms i.e. adsorption, precipitation of oxy(hydroxides) and co-precipitation. During the second phase, sulfate and metals concentrations remained rather constant; while in the third phase, the removal was affected by the organic matter composition. Sulfate removal rate attained the highest values (227–243 mg L−1 d−1) in the third phase, and it was attributable to biological reduction with not sulfate limitation. The depletion of nutrients rather than the sulfate availability may have limited the sulfate removal at the end of the experiment. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


The crackes are common problem of Daqu starter and they include transverse crackes,vertical crackes and circumferential crackes.The growth of Penicillium in crackes will bring musty odor and bitterness in liquor,which causes serious damage on liquor production.The formation of Daqu crackes could be divided into pre-existing crackes,gas-producing crackes,and the crackes formed during storage.The relative prevention measures cover the following aspects: ①preparation of raw materials,semi-finished Daqu,and entry of Daqu stockroom according to technical standards strictly;②strict technical control during the fermentation of semi-finished Daqu.(Tran.by YUE Yang)


Accidents to children have become the number one problem. In 1967, 2682 children were victims of traffic accidents, i.e. 15.7% of all traffic deaths. The author deals particularly with penetration injuries and contusions to the thorax and abdomen. The former are relatively rare in children, thanks to the elasticity of the childs breast cage, - over a period of 21 years a total of 126 thorax injuries were observed out of 2713 accidents involving children, i.e. 4.6%. In all cases these involved contusions. With respect to age distribution, the 5 to 11 year old groups clearly predominated, with a peak at age 10. Approximately one third of stomach injuries - 462 cases in 22 years- were due to road accidents, and there is a growing tendency for these to increase because of increased motorization. The age distribution shows a definite peak between 5 and 6, and between 15 and 16. The ratio between boys and girls is 3:1, a result of the greater participation of boys in sport and games and in road traffic. A description of the diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for penetration injuries and contusions of thorax and abdomen follows. /TRRL/


ABSTRACT Historically important public US inbred line B37 continues to play an important role in maize (Zea mays L.) improvement in many different breeding programs. Since its original release it has undergone numerous seed increases in diverse programs that may lead to genetic changes due to artificial selection, drift mutations etc. Our objective was to estimate the level of genetic diversity among and within two B37 inbred populations from different sources in Bulgaria (Maize Research Institute (MRI) - Kneja and Institute of Forage Crops-Pleven) using 10 SSR markers. The set of SSR markers detected in average 1.9 different allelic variants per locus for two B37 populations, with mean expected heterozygosity (He)=0.170 for population from MRJ-Kneja and 0.046 for populations from IFC—Pleven. Cluster analyses indicated that both populations could be distinguished from each other. The observed new allelic variants at microsatellite loci bnlg1917, dupssr21 and bnlg1017 could be successfully used as markers for distinguishing of the maintained by different breeding programs populations of the inbred B37.


The session explores the meanings underlying the presence of names within, or absence from, sacred spaces and sacred texts. Papers focus on those individuals whose names were not written down or inscribed, or were removed, and those whose names, on the contrary, were put in prominent positions, and were thus considered particularly worthy to be named.


We present an automated framework for the calculation of beam functions that describe collinear initial-state radiation at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) in perturbation theory. By exploiting the infrared behaviour of the collinear matrix elements, we factorise the phase-space singularities with suitable observable-independent parametrisations. Our numerical approach applies to a large class of collider observables, and as a check of its validity, we compute the quark beam functions for transverse-momentum resummation and N-jettiness, which are known analytically at this order, finding excellent agreement.


This research visualizes the spatial patterns of diagnosed colon and lung cancer mortalities across the New York State. Kernel density analysis was applied to visualize the spatial patterns of old industrial sites across the state. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was applied to model the possible pollution impact of old industrial sites on colon and lung cancer incidents. GWR is a local spatial statistical model analyzing the relations of non-stationary factors across the space. It generates a separate spatially-weighted least square regression for each of the observations across the study area. The results shows that the high density clusters of the old industrial sites occur in the large urban areas of New York City, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany. GWR modeling indicates that high local R2 coincides with moderate cancer mortality incidents. The overall GWR predictions are satisfactory as the R2 of colon cancer is 0.8848 and that of lung cancer is 0.8755. However, AICc values are large for both types of cancer predictions.


Freeze-casting liquid dispersions of solid particles is a useful alternative for synthesizing porous solids, thus creating lightweight and mechanically resistant materials for various applications. This work describes and discusses different morphologies obtained by freeze-casting poly(styrene-acrylic) latex aqueous dispersions, either pristine or foamed, and compares them with those prepared by the addition of nanoclay. The surface area and dye sorption capacity of freeze-cast latex–clay nanocomposite monoliths are much higher than those of the freeze-cast latex only and the pore morphology is also different in these solids. The freeze-cast polymer displays an interesting morphology including a fishbone shape unprecedented in non-crystalline solids cast from aqueous media. Quite differently, the latex–clay nanocomposite exhibits only lamellar pores with irregular features on their walls. These differences are assigned to the stiffening role of the clay lamellae in the rubbery polymer, reducing the extent of particle aggregation and coalescence and thus preserving voids. Dispersion foaming prior to freeze-casting produces additional features in the solids but without making a positive contribution to the surface area and dye sorption capacity. These results are understood considering pore templating by ice crystal growth and the templating effect of clay particles on fine ice morphology.


This paper presents a detailed modeling and analysis of an inductive power transfer (IPT) system with a passive matrix power repeater. A high-order mathematical model is established to characterize the output power by taking all the mutual inductances among the primary, secondary, and the unit cells of matrix power repeaters into considerations. The model is used to analyze the relationship between the output power and the operating frequency of an IPT system with a 3 × 3 matrix power repeater. The study shows the optimal operating frequencies corresponding to maximum and minimum power transfer exist owing to the interactions among the magnetic fields generated by the primary current and induced currents of the unit cells of the matrix power repeater. The theoretical optimal frequencies for obtaining the maximum and minimum output power are determined by numerical analysis based on the proposed model, and they are verified by circuit simulation and experimental study within an error of 2%. The results are useful for power flow controller design with enhanced and reduced power regulation range.


We present a set of formulas for determining the far-field region of a radiator, or scatterer, by examining the integral representation of the magnetic field scattered by a thin straight wire. These formulas are the result of bounding the errors in magnitude and phase of the approximation of the gradient of the free-space Green's function in the far field. Since the error requirements vary from one case to the next, the dependence on them shows that the far field is not a hard-wired parameter, but depends on the sensitivity of a specific case to magnitude and phase errors.


Species composition, density and distribution of zooplankton in the water where the construction Primorsky petrochemical plant were investigated in January of 2009. The study revealed 6 taxa of zooplankton. The numerically dominant group was Copepoda (8 species). Сold-water oceanic and interzonal copepod species were predominant in Vostok Bay. The density of zooplankton varied from 1577 to 5095 indiv./м 3. The information may be important for degree of anthropogenic press on the quality of the marine water and zooplankton organisms as a result of construction of the petrochemical plant.


This paper endeavours to analyse the relationship between Global Health Governance and national health politics in the case of HIV/AIDS. The paper compares Brazil and South Africa as two cases in which the relationship between national politics and GHG has been structured in contrasting ways, ranging from conflict to cooperation. Different reciprocal influences are analysed through the interface concept. A differentiation is made between four kinds of interfaces: resource-transfer, organisational, legal, and discursive. The main finding is that despite a huge variety of global actors operating in the field of HIV/AIDS, national politics and actor constellations account for most of the contrasts between Brazil and South Africa in respect to their fight against HIV/AIDS. In contrast to Brazil, South Africa's HIV/AIDS policy has for a long time been dominated by one central political actor. Until 2003, the central ANC-government was able to push through its strict refusal to provide antiretroviral drugs in the public health system.


In the last decade, the developments of nano size materials of metal and metal oxide particles are intensively pursued because of their prominence in different fields of applications. Monoclinic Copper oxide nanoparticles have received appertain due to its wide range of applications in interesting size-dependent chemical properties and due to their interactive properties such as large surface-to-volume ratio and distinctive electronic and optical properties. Understanding of doping and conduction mechanism in this material are, however still intricate and challenging. Pure Cupric oxide nanoparticles and Na doped CuO are synthesized by the solution combustion method. Evolution of structure of these nanoparticles was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) was used for morphological study of CuO nanoparticles. AC impedance spectroscopy, a powerful technique to inquire the electrical properties of nano crystalline semiconductors is used to probe the dynamics of the mobile and bound charges in the bulk or interfacial region of CuO nanocrystals.In the last decade, the developments of nano size materials of metal and metal oxide particles are intensively pursued because of their prominence in different fields of applications. Monoclinic Copper oxide nanoparticles have received appertain due to its wide range of applications in interesting size-dependent chemical properties and due to their interactive properties such as large surface-to-volume ratio and distinctive electronic and optical properties. Understanding of doping and conduction mechanism in this material are, however still intricate and challenging. Pure Cupric oxide nanoparticles and Na doped CuO are synthesized by the solution combustion method. Evolution of structure of these nanoparticles was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) was used for morphological study of CuO nanoparticles. AC impedance spectroscopy, a powerful technique to inquire the electrical properties of nano crystalline semiconductors is used to probe the dynamics of the mobile and...


The paper is a review of the major trajectories of research in translation studies during the decade 2005–2015 and an updated projection of research trajectories for the decade 2016–2025. It conclu...


Extended x‐ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements have been made while simultaneously exciting x‐ray standing waves in a multilayer structure. This allows the EXAFS signal from selected regions within the multilayer unit cell to be enhanced. The technique is applied to a Ni‐Ti multilayer in which it is verified that strong standing‐wave fields can be excited in the presence of substantial interfacial roughness. The measurements reveal little Ni‐Ti intermixing and a strong low‐Z impurity signal in the Ti layers. The standing‐wave analysis indicates that the low‐Z impurity is distributed throughout the Ti layers.


This paper describes a normalization method of Haar-like features used for object detection. Previous method which performs variance normalization on Haar-like features requires a lot of calculations, since it uses an additional integral image for calculating the standard deviation of intensities of pixels in a candidate window and increases possibility of false detection in the area where variance of brightness is small. The proposed normalization method can be performed much faster than the previous method by not using additional integral image and classifiers which are trained with the proposed normalization method show robust performance in various lighting conditions. Experimental result shows that the object detector which uses the proposed method is 26% faster than the one which uses the previous method. Detection rate is also improved by 5% without increasing false alarm rate and 45% for the samples whose brightness varies significantly.


Aims: Recent literature demonstrates the use of geometric and radiometric information from airborne small-footprint LiDAR for individual tree level species identification. For Scandinavian species, the practically achievable accuracy has remained at 70-90% (Korpela et al. 2010, Vauhkonen et al. 2010) which is still considered insufficient. We investigated the use of radiometric waveform (WF) LiDAR features for species identification, and statistically analyzed the features in order to identify potential means for reducing their intraspecies variation.

Materials & methods: The LiDAR data included nine datasets acquired with Leica ALS60 and Riegl LMS-Q680i sensors with varying pulse density (2.2–19.5 pts m-2), wavelength (1064/1550 nm), flying altitude (500–2700 m a.s.l.), footprint diameter (0.11–0.61 m), and emitted pulse width (4.5–10.4 ns). The field reference consisted of geo-located Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and birch (Betula sp.) trees. We used two crown delineation methodologies: i) watershed segmentation followed by selection of segments containing single tree ("isolated trees", N = 3256), ii) manual photo-interpretation for treetop detection followed by delineation based on crown radius ("all trees", N = 10123). Features for the trees were calculated using only and first-or-only returns in the LiDAR pulse. The features included moments and deciles of DR intensity and 12 WF variables in the tree crown. The WF variables were calculated directly from the recorded signal without WF decomposition and are thus applicable to any dataset, independent on the shape of the emitted pulse. The experiments included exploratory analysis for identifying potential species separating features, feature selection and classification employing linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers, and statistical analysis of feature variation with linear mixed effects (LME) models. In the LME modeling, we used four datasets with comparable sensor and acquisition settings, which enabled separation of the effects of tree characteristics from the random noise. The feature variation was explained by fixed predictors (tree species, height, etc.), and a random tree effect, and the residual was modeled with a variance function dependent on the number of pulses per tree.

Results: The LDA classification accuracies were 89.6–95.6% for WF and 72.8–89.6% for DR intensity data among the isolated trees. The results for all trees remain to be confirmed. The SVM provided comparable or slightly better results. The WF features always provided higher classification accuracy compared to DR intensity features. The separation of spruce from birch improved in particular, which is a clear improvement compared to existing studies. Unlike in DR data, the classification accuracy in WF data was not dramatically reduced in low pulse density (2–3 pts m-2) datasets. The LME analyses revealed that a large portion of the intraspecies feature variation was due to differences between tree individuals. The unexplained variation (noise) was dependent on the number of pulses, and this dependency was strongest for the features related to pulse width. Thus, there are possibilities to slightly improve the applicability of these features and thus the classification results by increasing pulse density. However, the high variation inherent between tree individuals of the same species (tree effect) suggests that the improvement is limited. We identified one extremely useful group of features, namely those based on the total energy of the only returns. It had low intraspecies variation and low levels of noise, and was insensitive to pulse density. This explains why the gain from the WF data was particularly striking in the low density datasets. A minor drawback was that the total energy differed between species only in Leica data (1064 nm wavelength). We found no universal feature applicable in all datasets. This was due to both effects of pulse density and the sensor characteristics.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that a couple of basic WF features calculable directly from the WF signals (amplitude, total energy, pulse width) are sufficient to discriminate Scandinavian tree species. However, the choice of features depends on the sensor- and acquisition settings. We suggest further research in more accurate quantification and utilization of the sensor effects. In addition, efforts should be put towards the co-use of structural (e.g., height distribution) and radiometric features and the integration of WF data to an area-based LiDAR inventory system.


We show the existence of slow propagating phonons in quasi one dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates. The impurities are trapped inside the potential created by dark-soliton due to which the conditions to separate the three levels (qutrit), perfectly, has determined. We compute the phonon-soliton coupling and investigate the decay rates of the three level system. We derive the analytical expression of the linear susceptibility to demonstrate the phenomenon of acoustic induced transparency based on matter wave phononics. The dark-soliton qutrit with unique properties of transmission and dispersion revealing the possibility of slowing down the speed of acoustic pulse. Moreover, the present scheme could be proposed to analyze the diverse applications like quantum gates in the field of quantum information.


of inspection. A thorough examination into the details and working of the institution drew forth expressions of unqualified approval from the many doctors who availed themselves of the invitation. The architectural and sanitary arrangements, and those for ventilation and heating, won hearty commendation from the visitors, who minutely inspected every portion of the building. After ample justice had been done to an excellent luncheon the guests collected in the main ward, while an address of welcome was read by the Chairman, Mr. J. Ross Robertson, on behalf of the Trustees of the Hospital. Glancing at the past history of the institution, Mr. Robertson said that twenty years ago no hospital for sick children existed in the Dominion. Then the efforts of a few earnest women resulted in the commencement, on a small scale, of a movement which has


Abstract : As part of its investigative work on reactions that may occur when carbonate rocks are used as aggregates in concrete, the Concrete Division, U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, has made length-change tests of many different carbonate rock specimens stored in 1-N sodium hydroxide solutions. After three or more years of storage in the same solutions, and X-ray examination of several small rock prisms was made to investigate possible changes in composition at progressively greater depths beneath the outer surfaces. Results are discussed.


Starting from the necessity and urgency of guaranteeing the cultural rights and benefits of the citizens, this paper analyzes the status and functions of public library, and advances some ways for establishing the library service network system.


THE preparation of polished spheres of crystalline solids is an ancient art, and indeed it is not uncommon to find large spheres of quartz as exhibits in natural history museums. Using appropriate techniques, ir is possible to prepare spheres with different materials and of any desired size, even as small as half a centimetre in diameter. A spherical shape is evidently the most appropriate for a crystal to possess if we wish to observe or exhibit the variation of its optical properties with the direction of propagation of light over the entire possible range. Hence, a collection of such spheres is a useful acquisition for a crystallographic museum.


Multigrid methods have been proven to be an efficient approach in accelerating the convergence rate of numerical algorithms for solving partial differential equations. This paper investigates whether multigrid methods are helpful to accelerate the convergence rate of evolutionary algorithms for solving global optimization problems. A novel multigrid evolutionary algorithm is proposed and its convergence is proven. The algorithm is tested on a set of 13 well-known benchmark functions. Experiment results demonstrate that multigrid methods can accelerate the convergence rate of evolutionary algorithms and improve their performance.


This paper proposed an optimization algorithm for combining multiple classifiers based on Bayesian aproach and the method to improve the threshold.Firstly,these classifiers's confidence was computed.Secondly,these classifiers's confidence was used as pre-probability,and these pre-probability's vectors were combinated by adding these vectors.The final output vector was obtained.Lastly,the compositive classifier's recognizing precision was improved by threshold optimization.Experimental data showed that this arithmetic has simple,fast and high classification accuracy.


Goodwin and is devoted to a discussion of Akira Kurosawa and the atomic age. This is a more sympathetic reading of his work. The tenth chapter in this volume examines the narrative strategies of understatement in Black Rain as a novel and a film. This piece by John T. Dorsey and Naomi Matsuoka brings out a number of telling points. The final essay in the book, by Maya Morioka Todeschini, which is influenced by contemporary ethnographic and feminist theory, demonstrates how female hibakusha are stereotyped in cinematic discourse. These eleven essays, then, from their different vantage points foreground important aspects of hibakusha cinema. One can, of course, suggest a few more topics that would have added to the value of the book. Many of the essays included in this volume are thought-provoking. Personally, I would have liked to see a greater discussion of the interplay of the local, national, and transnational in the production of image and knowledge. All in all, Mick Broderick has performed a valuable service by extending the critical discursive boundaries of Japanese cinema. Under the general editorship of Yoshio Sugimoto a number of useful studies on Japanese culture and society have been published. Hibakusha Cinema is a useful addition to that list.


Red River strata in the Williston Basin consist of a succession of large-scale carbonate-evaporite cycles whereby open-marine carbonates pass in turn into laminated dolomudstone and thence into subaqueous anhydrite. In southeastern Saskatchewan, the Yeoman Formation and the Lake Alma and Coronach members of the Herald Formation comprise two such cycles. Although possessing an overall 'layer-cake' stratigraphy, Lake Alma and Coronach strata in the study area (Townships 1 to17 and Ranges 1 to 24W2) exhibit marked variation in thickness, probably due to differential movement along lineaments spatially and genetically linked to the orthogonal northeast–southwest and northwest–southeast basement structural fabric. Consequently, if present, rock layers exhibiting synsedimentary deformation features caused by earthquakes – seismites – would be possible evidence for fault movement along these lineaments during sediment deposition, and/or shallow burial and early diagenesis. Open-marine wackestones and packstones lack seismites probably because of reworking by wave action and the bioturbating infauna. By contrast, seismites are present in laminites and anhydrites which were deposited under low-energy conditions in which marine benthic animals were excluded because of elevated temperature and salinity. Brittle and quasi-brittle failures are indicated by microfaults, pseudo-intraclasts, and vein arrays. Softsediment deformation occurs in the form of convolute bedding, loop bedding, and dykelets. This variety of features is the result of the complex stresses that are generated during earthquake-induced ground motion, causing displacement, shearing, liquefaction, and fluid escape. These stresses are imposed on sediments of varying geotechnical properties while they are on the seafloor or shallowly buried. Preliminary correlation of seismites observed in cores shows that the basal part of the Coronach Member records at least one widespread event, while most seismites in other intervals are geographically more limited. These observations indicate that the area was affected by earthquakes of a range of magnitudes and localized faulting of varying intensity.


Rhinitis is an inflammation of the nasal mucosa; today, according to the World Health Organization, the prevalence of the disease is 40% of the world's population. Allergic rhinitis is the most common type of chronic rhinitis, affecting 10–20% of the world's population, and the severity of the disease is associated with a significant deterioration in the quality of life, sleep and performance. Allergic rhinitis is an inflammatory disease of the nasal mucosa caused by exposure to an allergen, causing IgE-mediated inflammation. Clinically, the disease is characterized by the following main symptoms: rhinorrhea, sneezing, itching and nasal congestion. Despite the general symptoms of allergic rhinitis, its impact on the quality of life of patients and the significant cost of treatment, including pharmacotherapy, many patients do not adhere to drug treatment regimens due to their insufficient effectiveness in eliminating the emerging symptoms. Pharmacoeconomic research identifies, measures and compares the costs and effects of drug use. This framework includes research methods related to cost minimization, cost-effectiveness, decision analysis, cost of illness, and patient quality of life. This article will consider one of the four main methods for assessing pharmacoeconomics - cost minimization analysis. A cost-minimization analysis is a pharmacoeconomic assessment by comparing the costs of two or more drug alternatives regardless of outcome. Since the pharmaceutical market is represented by a wide range of original, reference and generic drugs for the treatment of allergic rhinitis, an important aspect of our research is the selection of effective and economically acceptable therapy for outpatients.


In order to enable transparent and augmented use of multimedia content across a wide range of networks and devices, content adaptation is an important issue within multimedia frameworks. In this paper, we present a prototype application that receives digital video broadcast (DVB) TV streams on a PC, transcodes the streams on the fly according to the individual user requirements and packs the adapted content together with available metadata into a standard compliant MPEG-21 digital item (DI). In this form, the framework enables the live universal multimedia access (UMA) scenario where the DVB content can be transparently accessed by clients such as PCs and PDAs, anytime and anywhere


Abstract We studied the effects of interleukin-1α (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) on MCF-7 breast cancer cells to determine whether these cytokines act additively/synergistically to alter cell growth and metabolism. We found that IL-1 alone (1000 units/ml) inhibited cell growth to a greater degree (83.8%) than IL-6 alone (29.2%, P P -9 m) stimulated growth. Antagonism by the combination was greater than for either cytokine alone ( P P P P P P -9 m). Neither cytokine altered secretion of insulin-like growth factor-1. These findings indicate that IL-1 and IL-6 act additively to inhibit growth in the absence or presence of estradiol and modulate the estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor content of these cells. TGF-β may mediate the effects of IL-1; however, other pathways appear to be required for the additive effects of these cytokines.


Abstract Submarine trenching for pipeline installation in potentially unstable sediments has recently been of increasing concern. Although typical pipeline depths are less than 3 or 4 m, trenching operations generally cause local stress concentrations within the sediments and induce excess pore pressures. The result of these stress concentrations and pore pressure increases may be spreading of submarine slumps that can endanger pipelines or other nearby installations. A simplified analytical approach is described to estimate the extent of slump spreading caused by trenching. It is shown that the spreading potential is affected by many geotechnical characteristics of the sediments in addition to geomorphic processes and the oceanographic regimes governing the area. The primary geotechnical factors that influence spreading include the porepressure parameter Af , the degree of consolidation, the coefficient of earth pressure at rest, and the strength characteristics of the soil. Dimensionless parameters are ...


This paper presents a new latent topic multiple instance learning (LTMIL) for automated ECG classification. Due to the characteristics of multiple beats constituting an ECG and the high cost of having all the beats manually labeled, supervised machine learning techniques have achieved limited success in ECG classification. In this paper, we first discuss the rational for applying multiple instance learning (MIL) to automated ECG classification and propose a new MIL strategy called LTMIL for it which integrates the intra and inter ECG difference. It is a three hierarchical model. Firstly, we cluster all unlabeled beats into k topics using variable weighting, by which beats are reshaped to be dense and separable. An ECG and its beats are then represented as mixtures over topics. Consequently, the intra and inter ECG difference can be fully embodied in the difference between mixtures over topics. Finally, any supervised learning techniques can be applied to classification of transformed ECGs. Our experimental results on real ECG datasets from the PTB diagnostic database demonstrate that compared with existing multiple instance learning and supervised machine learning algorithms, the proposed algorithm is able to automatically classify ECG without labeling beats and improves the classification quality in terms of sensitivity and specificity.


to the main discussion for which we are gathered. I have no original contribution to make in any specialised field of knowledge or research, though I do admit some claim to have a little knowledge as to how best to get the results of other people's research, new knowledge and improved methods over into the understanding of the people who matter. On the medical side during the last twenty or thirty years a tremendous advance has been made in the knowledge of causes and prevention of disease and of the conditions necessary to the building up of a healthy body : t the


Fluorescein isothiocyanate was used as a label to show that a 3-aminopropylmethyldimethoxysilane (KH 550)-modified capillary column was prepared by microwave irradiation. A bromoacetate-substituted β-cyclodextrin (Br-β-CD) was successfully bound to the KH 550-modified column as a chiral stationary phase for open tubular capillary electrochromatography. Compared with conventional synthesis, the microwave-assisted process significantly decreased the preparation time of the stationary phase from 16 h to 40 min. Baseline chiral separation of 1-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol was achieved using the Br-β-CD modified column.


Transmitter combining apparatus includes up to five RF filters (100) coupled to a microstrip combiner (300) for combining up to five input signals for application to a common antenna. The RF filter (100) includes a ceramic resonator (116) sandwiched between first and second compensating discs (114 and 120) and first and second shield plates (142 and 148) for temperature compensation, low loss mounting and heat sinking of the ceramic resonator (116). Good thermal contact between the ceramic resonator (116), discs (114 and 120) and shield plates (142 and 148) is produced by a compressive force exerted by springs (144-147) of shield plate (142) when the top cover (112) is attached to the aluminum housing (124). The resonant frequency of the RF filter is tuned by means of an aluminum tuning shaft (102) and ceramic tuning core (118) which are positioned by brass bushing (133) in top cover (112). Input signals are coupled to each RF filter via respective input coupling loops (122) and output signals are coupled via corresponding output coupling loops (311) to the microstrip combiner (300). The microstrip combiner (300) includes a circuit board (310) having five transmission lines (601-605) and a short-circuited tuning transmission line (610), all coupled to a junction (620). The microstrip combiner (300) is tuned by means a variable impedance produced by varying the position of a dielectric tuning plate (630) with respect to the tuning transmission line (610).


Infant mortality is related to the weight of the newborn. The weight of a newborn is a benchmark used to assess the degree of public health. If a newborn weighs less than 2500 grams, it is called a low birth weight baby (LBW). The causes of LBW are many and varied. Internal and external factors of the mother, fetus and other factors such as behavior. This study will examine the factors associated with Low Birth Weight Babies (LBW) in North Tapanuli Regency in 2022. This study is a cross-sectional study with a total sample of 34 people (total sampling). The results of the univariate test showed that 25 mothers gave birth to LBW and 9 LBW mothers. The results of the bivariate test showed that there was a relationship between parity, pregnancy distance and exposure to health information media with LBW. The results of the multivariate test showed that there was a significant effect between parity and the incidence of LBW with an OR value of 13,141, meaning that mothers with high parity had a 13,141 greater chance of having low birth weight in North Tapanuli Regency. The role of the family and posyandu is highly expected. Socialization and family planning campaigns are enhanced through the use of print, electronic, and social media.


Micro/nanosystems have attracted considerable interests and seen significant advances over the years. The huge gap between technology development and commercialization can be largely attributed to the challenges faced in the integration and packaging of the devices. The packaging has to work around the diverse functional requirements while ensuring that the device is able to perform effectively and reliably at the prescribed operating environments. The trend to make products lighter, smaller and thinner is relentless; heavy emphasis is placed on user-friendliness, functionality, durability and price competitiveness. Wafer bonding is recognized to be a key technology for three dimensional (3D) integration and packaging; particularly for micro/nanosystems that require vacuum packaging and hermetic sealing. The bonding process can be applied to a wide range of materials, including silicon, III–V semiconductor compounds, glass and ceramics. Low temperature bonding offers crucial advantages in multifunctional systems packaging such as system in packages (SIP). Low temperature bonding, through-via interconnection, metal-to-metal joining, alignment and hermeticity are a set of process challenges that have to be collectively overcome before we are likely to see pervasive applications of micro/nanosystems.


NOTES ON AFTER-TREATMIENT. January 2Sth, 1897. Patient looked muclh better. Temperature 9S.6" pulse I26, respirationiS 28. Wound dressed. January 29tll, 1897. Wound was dressed and part of the gauze genitly withdrawn. Flatus passed per anunr. February 2nd, I897. The gaize packing wlich had been shortened daily was wholly removed. Temperature fluctuating between 9g9 and I00, pulse ioo. Patienlt cheerful and looked well. There was no fulness of epigastrium and no tenderness. There was no marked anTmia. February 4th, 1897. Bowels moved. February5th, 1897. Tlh tempera1u-c rosc to J04° last night owing to a stitch abscess, althouglh tnc rem-ainder of the wounid looked qluite well. This was manifestly dependent on the operation having to be udl(lertaken without tiie to prepare tle skin properly. Tlhere was neither fulness nor tenderness of the epigastrium and no signi of intraperitoneal suppuration. The daily dressings were discontinued, and boracic fomentatiolns ordered to be applied every four hours. February 7th, 1897. There was free suppuration around several of the siitures, wlhichlere all remiioved. February iith, 1897. The wound was beginning to look better and there was less pus on the fomentations. February I4, I897. V'Cry little suppuration Februaly i6th, 1897. Wound doing well. Fomelltttions were discontinued and the wound dressed siiiipjy. February 25th, I897. Wlouild almost completely healed. March 4th, 897. Wound healed. An abdomiiinal belt -was applied, and he ivas allowed to get up. Alarch 6th, I897. Patient was dischlarged today quite well. REMARKS. The nature of the injury is remarkable in that the perforating instrument, being somewhat blunt at the end, must have pushed aside the stomach and colon instead of perforating, though the fact of blood having been vomited shows that the stomach must have received the impact nf the file, and lhave suffered injury to its internal coats. The mesenteric vein lying at the back of the abdomen should be one of the vessels least liable to injury, and prohably could only be lacerated by a stab or gunshot wound. The extensive retroperitoneal hemorrhage gave rise to the suspicion that the pancreas might have been injured, but on enlarging the aperture at the root of the mesentery made by the file, the freely-bleeding vessel was seen and easily ligatured. Having arrested the hbmorrhage and cleansed the abdomen of blood and clot, the question arose in my mind as to the behaviour of the intestines under their new circumstancs, for, in addition to the blood extravasated beneath thie peritoneal coat, all the vessels must have been seriously congested owing to the return of blood along the superior mesenteric vein. Paralysis of bowel and peritonitis at least was to be feared-possibly gangrene-but, fortunately, neither complication interrupted recovery.


The present study was aimed with Cheese processing effluent sample were collected from Sri Ganapathy Dairy farms, RS Puram, Coimbatore District. These samples were subjected to analyze the physico-chemical parameters include pH, Salinity, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Solids (TS) before and after treatment. Estimation of Chloride, Phosphate and Calcium content were assessed by titrimetric and turbidity method respectively. The cheese processing effluent was serially diluted and transferred (10 -4 to 10 -6 dilution) to the nutrient agar medium and incubated. After incubation two bacterial species namely Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Lactobacillus fermentum were isolated and identified using morphological and biochemical characters. Among these, Lactobacillus bulgaricus were effectively degrade the effluent sample compared with Lactobacillus fermentum. The effect of treated effluent (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Lactobacillus fermentum) on growth of Vigna mungo was determined by pot culture experiment. After 28 th day of seedlings, the better response observed in morphological and phytochemical characteristics of Vigna mungo were recorded in T2 than other treatments.


Punctate palmoplantar keratoderma type I (PPPK‐BFB), also called Buschke‐Fischer‐Brauer disease (MIM 148600) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder of keratinization, characterized by multiple hyperkeratotic lesions on the palms and soles. Recently, PPPK‐BFB has been shown to be associated with mutations in the AAGAB gene in several families of European, African, Canadian and Asian origins.


CONTENTS: CRANIOFACIAL MORPHOGENESIS AND PRENATAL GROWTH: Initial demarcation of the head region the neural crest the branchial arch system development of the face development of the skull CRANIOFACIAL GROWTH: growth mechanisms growth pattern growth rate control mechanisms clinical implications THE DECIDUOUS DENTITION AND OCCLUSION: normal development disturbances in development malocclusion in the deciduous dentition THE PERMANENT DENTITION AND OCCLUSION: normal development disturbances in development TERMINOLOGY, PREVALENCE AND AETIOLOGY OF MALOCCLUSION: classification and terminology prevalence of malocclusion aetiology of malocclusion EXAMINATION OF THE PATIENT: the history skeletal form the muscular environment the dentition cephalometric analysis MANAGEMENT OF THE DEVELOPING DENTITION: management of the deciduous dentition management of the mixed dentition THE SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT: attainable change biological constraints the effectiveness of contemporary appliances behavioural constraints the stability of change RISK-BENEFIT APPRAISAL IN ORTHODONTICS: associations between malocclusion and dental health and function associations between malocclusion and social/psychological well-being risks of orthodontic treatment factors influencing the receipt of orthodontic treatment risk-benefit appraisal for the individual patient THE PRINCIPLES OF TREATMENT PLANNING: setting objectives for the final interincisal relationship visualization of proposed tooth movements estimation of space requirements estimation of anchorage requirements considerations in extraction planning choice of appliance retention application THE PROVISION OF SPACE INCLUDING PLANNED EXTRACTIONS: provision of space without extractions extraction of permanent teeth in association with active appliance therapy extraction of permanent teeth without active appliance therapy space maintenance COMMON TREATMENT PROBLEMS: opening space space closure alignment of ectopi


Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of atorvastatin in treatment of elder patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia.Methods Sixty eight patients were orally given with atorvastatin 20mg/d.Then their blood-lipids,liver and renal function tests and creatine kinase(CK) were examined.Results After treatment,blood levels of triglyceride(TG),total cholesterol(TCH) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C) were decreased,and blood level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) was increased,while the aspartate aminotransferase(AST),alanine aminotransferase(ALT),creatinine(Cr),blood urea nitrogen(BUN) and CK had no significant change.Conclusion Atorvastatin in treatment of elder patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia was significantly effective and comparatively safe.


The ecological adaptation of Fraxinus americana'Autumn Purple'in Daxing,Tongzhou,Changping,Huairou of Beijing was studied from six aspects of plant ecology characteristics,phenological phase,discoloration period,resistance,increment and disease-resistant ability,the comprehsnive evaluation was also conducted. The results indicated that Fraxinus americana'Autumn Purple'in Beijing area can accomplish germination,flowering,leaf expansion,growth,defoliation. Fraxinus americana 'Autumn Purple'has a strong resistance to adapt to the cold and dry winter,summer hot and humid climate conditions in Beijing area. It is more adaptive in summer and winter,no leaf scorch in summer dead branches in winter phenomenon,no serious diseases and insect pests,which has wide application prospect in Beijing area.


In this letter, we introduce the concept of k-error lattice structure to describe the stability of lattice structure for pseudorandom number sequences, give some of its properties, and make a study of the relationship between the k-error lattice structure and the k-error linear complexity. These properties and the relationship create an elementary framework to study the stability of the lattice structure of pseudorandom number sequences.


Total fat was estimated from different body parts of three fishes on wet basis. The fat contents of shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus), hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) and mullet (Liza subviridis) were 16.2%, 18.7% & 7.28% respectively in their body muscles, highest fat content was 73.5% in Shark liver. The saponification value were 209, 205, 201 in body muscles of shark, hilsa and mullet respectively and were 192 and 195 in the liver of shark and hilsa respectively. The highest value was found in shark body muscle. The iodine values were 106,116 and 97 in shark, hilsa and mullet body muscles respectively and the highest value was found in hilsa body muscle. Vitamin A contents were found 3254 and 845 μg/ml oil of shark and hilsa liver oil and 436, 9 and 3.5 μg/ml oil of shark, hilsa and mullet body muscle respectively. The cholesterol contents were 1.05%, 0.982% and 1.16% in the body muscle of shark, hilsa and mullet respectively. The cholesterol content was found in liver of shark and hilsa was 3.53% and 3.21%, highest content was found in the liver of shark.


Raman scattering experiments were carried out on Si∕SiGe heterostructures. The strain in both the top Si layer, and the Si1−xGex buffer layers with various Ge compositions was evaluated using several excitation sources, together with x-ray diffraction and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The strain-shift coefficient, which is a necessary quantity to evaluate the strain by Raman spectroscopy, was precisely determined. The dependence of the Si–Si band frequency on the Ge composition in the SiGe alloy was also examined. We found that the strained top-Si layers with a thickness below 25nm experience coherent growth on Si1−xGex buffer layers with composition x<0.35.


Aimed at the present? of low efficiency of Charge Service system,we analyze the Charge Service's regulations and measures,optimize the model of the Charge Service based on the Queuing Theory.Then,to the supermarket for empirical object,simulate the model of the Charge Service.According to the simulation results,the model of the charge service can be used to alleviate queue times and reduce the investment of the charge resources when the queuing time is established.


By employing a condenser system charging up at high speed with a triac switch, a stable tokamak discharge with a high repetition rate was achieved. A good reproducibility of the tokamak discharge made detailed measurements of spatial distribution of plasma and wave parameters possible, with a sampling technique. Basic studies on waves and particle transport in a tokamak configuration are possible with this system.


Marburg virus (MARV) causes sporadic outbreaks of severe disease with high case fatality rates in humans. To date, neither therapeutics nor prophylactic approaches have been approved for MARV disease. The MARV matrix protein VP40 (mVP40) plays central roles in virus assembly and budding. mVP40 also inhibits interferon (IFN) signaling by inhibiting the function of Janus kinase 1 (JAK1). This suppression of host antiviral defenses likely contributes to MARV virulence and therefore is a potential therapeutic target. We developed and optimized a cell-based high throughput screening (HTS) assay in 384 well format to measure mVP40 IFN antagonist function such that inhibitors could be identified. We performed a pilot screen of 1280 bioactive compounds and identified 3 hits; Azaguanine-8, tosufloxacin hydrochloride and linezolid; with Z scores of >3 and no significant cytotoxicity. Of these, Azaguanine-8 inhibited MARV growth at non-cytotoxic concentrations. These data demonstrate the suitability of the HTS mVP40 assay for drug discovery and suggest potential directions for anti-MARV therapeutic development.


The yeast casein kinases function upstream of the glucose sensors in the sensor/receptor-repressor signaling pathway. The sensor Rgt2 undergoes Yck-dependent phosphorylation on its C-terminal tail, which is necessary for Mth1 and Std1 binding and downstream signaling.


Considered philosophical premises methodology of sociological research: problem primacy of matter – consciousness, realism – nominalism, the subjective – objective, the plurality of truths.


Objective:We investigated the pathogenic bacterium susceptibility test of ventilator –associate pneumonia.(VAP).Method: We reviewed the pathogenic bacterium and susceptibility test of the 62 VAP cases in our hospital from January 2002 to May 2006.Result: The result displayed the composition of the main pathogenic bacterium of VAP: Gram-positive bacteria hold 14.2%,while Gram-negative bacteria hold 78.8%,the first three pathogenic bacterium is Klebsiella pneumoniae(47%);baumanii(17%);Pseudomonas aeruginosa(11%).And we also investigated that Klebsiella pneumoniae has high sensitive to the imipenem and fluroquinolone,especially the antibiotics which contain the extended-spectrum β-lactamase inhibitor such as cefoperazone-sulbactam and piperacillin-Tazobactam have the sensitivity to 50~60%,while to the aminoglycosides;the penicillins and the cepbalosporin P2,3,it has low sensitivity.Conclusion: The main pathogenic bacterium of VAP is Klebsiella pneumoniae,and the statistics result of the susceptibility test can be used as the reference in clinical medication.


In support of a well drilled in the Great Australian Bight (GAB) by the Glomar Jack Ryan dynamically-positioned (DP) drillship in 4308 feet of water in early 2003, drift-off riser analysis was carried out to establish "alert" offsets for the emergency disconnect sequence (EDS). Drift-off analysis of the vessel/riser system is a key element to the successful management of the riser on a DP drillship, as it deals with protecting the equipment in case of the potential loss of vessel power. At this well site, high seastates combined with wind and current conditions dictate that drilling should be carried out in accordance with "well-specific operating criteria" (WSOC). These criteria assist the crew by identifying the metocean conditions that limit various operations. Analysis of the drilling riser was carried out for drift-off, hang-off and recoil scenarios to establish certain criteria to avoid exceedence of allowable limits in the riser and conductor pipe. The novel aspect of this drift-off analysis is the use of a fully-coupled, time-domain, finite element solution. The fully-coupled aspect of this solution models the vessel / tensioner system / riser / LMRP / BOP / wellhead / conductor / soil interaction process more accurately and thus allows for less conservativism when compared to uncoupled solution methods. This enables the rig to work in areas that might otherwise be considered marginal due to the anticipated time spent waiting on weather.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the effects of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) on spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS).

LITERATURE SURVEY
We searched PubMed, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, REHABDATA, PEDro, CINAHL, AMED, and Web of Science until December 2022.

METHODOLOGY
Studies were selected if they included PwMS, using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as a main intervention, and the study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) including at least one outcome measure evaluating spasticity. Two researchers individually screened the selected studies. The study's quality was assessed using the Cochrane Collaborations tool. The researchers decided that the meta-analysis was not possible because the treatment interventions varied among the selected studies.

SYNTHESIS
In total, 147 studies were reviewed. Of them, nine studies met the eligibility criteria and included 193 PwMS (mean age = 43.25), 54.4% of whom were females. Eight studies considered "high" quality and one considered "moderate" quality. Seven studies that used rTMS demonstrated a significant decrease in spasticity in PwMS after the intervention. The remaining studies that provided tDCS did not show meaningful effects.

CONCLUSIONS
The evidence for the influences of rTMS on spasticity in PwMS is promising. The evidence for the impact of tDCS on spasticity in PwMS was limited. Further RCTs with long-term follow-ups are encouraged. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Hornitos are kind of chimney-like structures forming on the lava flow surface, which are discovered in America, Mexico and other places in the world. Wudalianchi volcanic field in northeast China, one of worldwide the most typical intracontinental volcanos, have perhaps the most abundant hornitos on basic lava flows. There are at least 1537 well-preserved hornitos discovered in Wudalianchi Volcanic field, majority of which distribute in lava flows of a newly-built volcano erupting in 1719-1721. Especially, lava plateau with sufficient water has hornitos concentrated distributed, in the largest scale and best developed. After morphologic and concentrated distribution characteristic analysis, it comes to the conclusion that water vapor in mixed gas is dominant in the formation of hornito, and gravity is also of some importance to shape a hornito. When the basic lava with volatile overflowed near to water area, the surface of lava condensated and consolidated while inside remained high temperature and low viscosity. Mixed gas containing volcanic gas and vapor started to aggregate after lava meeting groundwater, and intermittently broke surface of lava to escape, together with some lava spattering up and stacking around the vent to form a hornito, the inside of which stayed hollow as the routeway for gas to escape. When air pressure failed to eject lava from top jet, growth of a hornito ended. So, hornito is produced by the interaction of water with the hot flowing lavas, and its genetic mechanism manifests an important example of lava landform in continental basic basalt area.


Log analysis solutions for water saturation in shaly sandstone hydrocarbon reservoirs are elaborations of the Archie equation, with extra terms that accommodate volumes of shale or bound water and their associated electrical properties. There are a large number of alternative shaly sandstone equations that are used today because no uniquely satisfactory solution has been reached. Simpler equation forms run the danger of becoming simplistic, but are robust, comprehensible, and can perform surprisingly well when applied thoughtfully. More complex equations are better functional representations, but involve additional terms which are often difficult to estimate, while introducing more error interactions. With the typical situation of limited subsurface information and the variety of shaly sandstones, the comparative performance of any equation model is debatable. However, if models are used from the point of view of utility, then the calibration within a shaly sandstone reservoir can be made as an optimization problem based on a (provisional) recognition of water zones. By this means, a petrophysical optimum is honored rather than a purely mathematical one. The approach applies a statistical derivation of parameter values from the shaly sandstone reservoir under analysis within the framework of classic shaly sandstone equations that have been proposed from theoretical and laboratory considerations. Prolog: The Archie Equation From empirical observations, Archie (1942) established that the ratio of the resistivity of a completely brine-saturated rock (Ro) to the resistivity of its contained brine (Rw) was a constant for any given rock sample, and gave the name, resistivity formation factor (F) to this proportionality constant, i.e. F = R0 Rw Archie (1942) further showed that there was a strong linear relationship between the logarithmic transforms of the formation factor (F) and porosity (Φ) in sandstones which took the form of: F = 1 Φ where m took different values according to the relative consolidation of the sandstone sample. Unconsolidated sandstones showed low values of m, as contrasted with higher values in consolidated sandstones. This observation led to the informal name for m as the "cementation factor". In later work, particularly following the lead of Winsauer et al (1952), the numerator was generalized from 1 to the term a, so that the relationship could accommodate a variety of sandstone types. In the same paper, Archie (1942), showed that the ratio of the resistivity of a rock that was partially saturated with brine (Rt) to the resistivity of the same rock that was completely saturated with brine (Ro) could be related to the fractional water saturation (Sw) by the relationship:


Objective The objective of this analysis, as part of the multicentre prospective PORTO Trial, was to describe and compare perinatal outcomes of IUGR pregnancies with normal and abnormal umbilical artery (UA) Doppler studies. Study design The PORTO Trial recruited over 1,100 consecutive ultrasound-dated singleton IUGR pregnancies, defined as EFW < 10th centile. All fetuses underwent serial sonographic assessment until birth. Perinatal outcomes were documented for all participants. Results Of the 1,118 recruited patients, 606 (54%) had normal UA Doppler studies and 512 (46%) had abnormal UA Dopplers, defined as UA PI > 95th centile or AREDF. The group with abnormal UA Doppler was delivered earlier and more commonly by CS, had more admissions to NICU and adverse perinatal outcomes (Table 1). The 4 mortalities with normal Doppler all had EFW < 3rd centile. Abstract PP.01 Table 1 Comparison of groups with normal and abnormal UA Doppler Normal Doppler Abnormal Doppler p-value GA (enrolment) 30.4 ± 4.0 29.6 ± 3.8 0.0007 GA (delivery) 38.4 ± 2.2 36.6 ± 3.5 <0.0001 Birthweight 2641 ± 553 2203 ± 725 <0.0001 NICU admission 121 (20%) 191 (37%) <0.0001 Adverse perinatal outcome* 11 (2%) 49 (10%) <0.0001 Perinatal mortality 4 (0.7%) 6 (1%) 0.3652 Induction 303 (50%) 217 (42%) 0.0110 CS 190 (32%) 256 (50%) <0.0001 Instrumental 66 (11%) 41 (8%) 0.1025 NVD 350 (58%) 215 (42%) <0.0001 * composite outcome of IVH, PVL, HIE, NEC, BPD, sepsis and death Conclusion IUGR fetuses with normal UA Doppler studies have better perinatal outcomes than those with abnormal UA Doppler, however adverse perinatal outcome can occur with normal UA in more severe IUGR cases (EFW < 3rd centile).


Destructive elemental analysis of rubber samples for major and trace element constituents is a rather demanding task, mainly because of the need for sophisticated and time-consuming sample preparation procedures. X-ray analysis has so far been used in the rubber industry primarily as a rapid tool for qualitative analysis, but a more realistic estimate of the accuracy of this, in many aspects, advantageous technique indicates that it could qualify as a quantitative method. In this work rubber samples were analyzed by the X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRFA) technique, utilizing Cd-109 and Fe-55 for excitation radioactive sources. The quantification procedure used employed a minimum number of calibration steps, utilizing only single-element-thick standards and stable compounds, or standard reference materials. Matrix correction calculations employed known fundamental constants and absorption measurements on a particular sample. In order to validate the results, and to establish the accuracy of analysis, some samples were also analyzed by neutron activation analysis (NAA). For the same purpose, the analysis of some standard reference materials of biological and inorganic matrices were performed. The accuracy of 5 to 6% achieved by XRFA means that it should be considered in the rubber industry as a rapid, simple, and cheap alternative to the analytical methods usually adopted.