Background Because hemodilution decreases the oxygen‐carrying capacity of blood, it was hypothesized that severe hemodilution would decrease the tolerance to alveolar hypoxia. Methods Hemodynamics, oxygen transport, and blood lactate concentrations were compared in ten pigs with normal hematocrit (33 +/‐4%), and ten hemodiluted pigs (hematocrit 11+/‐1%; mean+/‐SD) anesthetized with ketamine‐fentanyl‐pancuronium during stepwise decreases in inspired oxygen fraction (FIO2; 1.0, 0.35, 0.21, 0.15, 0.10, 0.05). Results Median systemic oxygen delivery (DO2 SY) became critical (the DO2 SY value when arterial lactate exceeded 2.0 mmol *symbol* l sup ‐1) at 10.4 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 min sup ‐1 (range 6.9–16.1) in hemodiluted animals and at 11.8 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1 (5.9–32.2) in animals with normal hematocrits (NS). The relationship between mixed venous oxygen saturation and arterial lactate values was less consistent and median critical mixed venous oxygen saturation was higher (P < 0.05) in the hemodiluted group (35%, range 21–64), than in animals with normal hematocrits (21%, 7–68%). In animals with normal hematocrit, decreasing FIO2 from 1.0 to 0.10 resulted in a decrease in DO2 SY from 26.3+/‐9.1 to 9.3 +/‐3.9 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1 (P < 0.01). Cardiac output did not change, systemic oxygen extraction ratio increased from 0.23+/‐0.08 to 0.68+/‐0.13 (P < 0.01), and arterial lactate from 0.9+/‐0.2 to 3.4+/‐3.0 mmol *symbol* l sup ‐1 (P < 0.05). Cardiac venous blood flow, as measured by retrograde thermodilution, increased from 5.7+/‐2.9 to 12.6+/‐5.7 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1 (P < 0.01). When FIO2 was reduced to 0.05, three animals became hypotensive and died. In the second group, hemodilution increased cardiac output and systemic oxygen extraction ratio (P < 0.01). Cardiac venous blood flow increased from 4.1 +/‐1.7 to 9.8+/‐5.1 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1 (P < 0.01), and cardiac venous oxygen saturation from 22+/‐ 5 to 41+/‐10% (P < 0.01). During the subsequent hypoxia, cardiac output and DO2 SY were maintained until FIO2 = 0.15 (DO2 SY = 10.1+/‐3.3 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1). Cardiac venous blood flow was then 18.5+/‐10.7 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1 (P < 0.01), but in spite of this, myocardial lactate production occurred. At FIO2 = 0.10 (DO2 SY = 7.7 +/‐3.0 ml *symbol* kg sup ‐1 *symbol* min sup ‐1), arterial lactate concentration increased to 8.5+/‐2.3 mmol *symbol* l sup ‐1 (P < 0.01), and most animals became hypotensive. All hemodiluted animals died when FIO2 was decreased to 0.05 (P < 0.01 when compared to animals with normal hematocrit). Conclusions Systemic and myocardial lactate production occurred at similar systemic oxygen delivery rates in hemodiluted and nonhemodiluted animals. Mixed venous oxygen saturation may be a less reliable indicator of inadequate oxygen delivery during hemodilution.


This paper explores the nature of management control systems in an inter-agency collaborative arrangement. A Western Australian case study (the PECN project) highlights strategies for successfully providing services to people with highly complex needs, which could not be achieved by siloed attempts by individual agencies. This paper makes a significant contribution by providing evidence on multiple control systems which combine both horizontal and vertical controls to achieve better outcomes. The authors found strong evidence of trust-based relationships among the agencies which appeared to have a positive effect on inter-agency working.


Timing side channels in two-user schedulers are studied. When two users share a scheduler, one user may learn the other user's behavior from patterns of service timings. We measure the information leakage of the resulting timing side channel in schedulers serving a legitimate user and a malicious attacker, using a privacy metric defined as the Shannon equivocation of the user's job density. We show that the commonly used first-come-first-serve (FCFS) scheduler provides no privacy as the attacker is able to to learn the user's job pattern completely. Furthermore, we introduce an scheduling policy, accumulate-and-serve scheduler, which services jobs from the user and attacker in batches after buffering them. The information leakage in this scheduler is mitigated at the price of service delays, and the maximum privacy is achievable when large delays are added.


This paper introduces an novel lexicographic methodology whose goal is the development of a reference syntactic lexicon for French. This methodology proposes to gather and validate both manually and on corpora lexical information coming from the main existing resources, following recent works on three of them. The proposed process relies on a double validation with appropriate user interfaces: on the one hand thanks to lexicographic work by linguists, and on the other hand by the exploitation of automatically parsed textual and dictionary corpora.


This study takes the Chinese fir forest management of medium site conditions in Zhejiang province as an example,from the perspective of forest carbon sequestration supply,uses the cost-profit method to measure the supply cost of carbon sequestration,which avoids the defects that the forestation cost method doesnt differentiate forestlands' conditions and types.The study shows:the price of forest carbon sequestration supply has negative correlation with forestland scale;and has positive correlation with the expected rate of cost and profit.Under the 18 yuan/ton CO2e for carbon sequestration price,the economic and rational involvement of forest carbon sequestration trades smallest management scale is 1000.4 ha.Reducing the transaction costs has become the key that influencing the realization of forest carbon sequestration trade.


Abstract : The objective of this program was the development of new and improved surface treatments for graphite fibers in order to provide optimum bonding to structural resins. Experiments conducted with Fortafil 5-Y, a polyacrylonitrile based graphite yarn, demonstrated that short time exposures to liquid systems containing a strong oxidizing agent, such as sodium chlorate, in refluxing aqueous sulfuric acid, could increase the shear strength of epoxy composites containing these fibers to levels in excess of 10,000 psi. Other combinations of oxidizing agents and oxygen acids were also effective; there was evidence that intercalation reactions played a role in these rapid treatments. Air oxidation also was found to improve composite shear strength but at a cost to other fiber and composite properties. Continuous gas phase and other types of surface treatment experiments were performed. There was indication that silane or other types of chemical coupling agents affected the bonding of oxidized fibers to epoxy resins. Dark field electron microscopy studies indicated the retention, after surface treatment, of the high degree of orientation at the surface of the fiber. Electron photomicrographs of replicas of the fiber surface showed some pitting resulting from surface treatment as well as some etching away of surface features. Measurements of surface area and oxygen content also showed the effect of surface oxidation, both of these being increased by surface treatment. (Author, modified-PL)


The purpose of this note is to develop an elementary proof of the classification of isometries of the Euclidean and hyperbolic planes. The proof is constructive and elementary; it illustrates the distinction between the two geometries by presenting a Euclidean construction which in the non-Euclidean case breaks down at the last step, revealing the horocycle rotation. The proof is developed in the framework of absolute geometry (geometry without the parallel postulate) as far as this can be pushed. The basic result concerning rigid motions is the following, which can be found in [1, p. 46] for the Euclidean plane:


An ischemic stroke results from blockage of an artery in the brain. There are many causes of an ischemic stroke. Determining the cause guides treatment to prevent future strokes. One common cause of stroke is an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF). AF causes as many as 1 in 5 strokes. AF is diagnosed by recording the heart rhythm with an EKG. To prevent stroke from AF, a medicine called warfarin is used. However, AF can come and go, and a patient may not feel anything. When this happens, AF is called paroxysmal AF (PAF). If a stroke patient has PAF and it is not detected, the risk of a future stroke increases.

Recently, doctors have used technology to monitor stroke patients outside of the hospital. In a study in this issue of Neurology ®, researchers looked at the frequency of PAF after stroke using a device called a transtelephonic EKG monitor (TTM).1 TTM is a pocket-sized device with dry electrodes that stick to the chest wall. When a patient presses a button, the device will record a 30-second EKG. The patient can send the EKG to a receiving center by dialing the center and holding the device up to the phone. The authors reviewed the records of patients admitted to their stroke center. All patients had been diagnosed with a stroke or TIA. A TIA is like a stroke but the symptoms go away quickly. All patients had been tested to determine the cause of their stroke or TIA. This testing included a brain MRI and a …


Unjust discrimination against people with mental ill health should be replaced with universal rules based on decision making ability, writes George Szmukler, but Scott Weich worries about legal distractions that won't improve outcomes while services are so thinly stretched


Modern telemetry systems require flexible bit rate telemetry encoders in order to optimize mission formats for varying data rate requirements and/or signal to noise conditions given a fixed transmitter power. Implementing a variable bit rate telemetry encoder requires consideration of several possible architectural topologies that place different system requirements on data acquisition modules within the encoder in order to maintain adequate signal fidelity of sensor information. This paper focuses on the requirements, design considerations and tradeoffs associated with differing architectural topologies for implementing a variable bit rate encoder and the resulting implications on the encoder systems data acquisition units.


This essay explores the rich interactions between the fields of folklore and biblical studies over the course of the 20th century until the present. The essay argues for the continued relevance of folklore and related fields to an appreciation of ancient Israelite cultures and their artistic inventions. It concludes with several case studies that underscore the fruitful realizations that emerge from this sort of interdisciplinary humanistic work.


In this study, we collected respiratory motion data of external skin markers and internal liver fiducials from several swine. The POLARIS infrared tracking system was used for recording reflective markers placed on the swine's abdomen. The AURORA electromagnetic tracking system was used for recording 2 tracked needles implanted into the liver. This data will be used to develop correlation models between external skin movement and internal organ movement, which is the first step towards the ability to compensate for respiratory movement of the lesion. We are also developing a motion simulator for validation of our model and dose verification of mobile lesions in the CYBERKNIFE Suite. We believe that this research could provide significant information towards the development of precise radiation treatment of mobile target volumes.


The advantages of the recursive digital filter as a real-time signal processor are stated, and, as an example, a fourth-order Cheby?shev lowpass filter has been synthetised and programmed into an online computer. Typical responses are shown for pulse, step and low-frequency mixed sinusoidal signals.


quality has been known for many years. In a chemical study of Burley tobacco flavour, E. Demole and D. Berthet1) identified many volatile organic acids. 1. Wahlberg et al.2) found many volatile organic acids in the volatile flavour fractions of Virginia tobacco. M. Noguchi et al.3) observed a significant relationship between the levels of volatile organic acids and the degree of aging of tobacco. Several gas chromato


Even with the early and broad recognition of the importance of education (Bayer 1989), efforts to mobilize educational programs have been both sporadic and limited. By the end of 1981, AIDS surpassed both Legionnaire's Disease and toxic-shock syndrome as an epidemic to be reckoned with (Shilts 1987), yet the Federal government failed to respond for seven years. "Understanding AIDS" (U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources 1988), prepared under the direction of then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, did not appear in print until 1988. For the most part, AIDS education programs have been developed by a variety of organizations with a corresponding variety of agendas. The earliest and most concerted educational efforts are those developed and sponsored by gay groups and targeted toward the homosexual population. Despite Herculean efforts on the part of gay groups, however, lack of consensus in the early stages is well docu-


This paper investigates determinants of growth of m ilk production in German dairy farms. Event history analysis is applied to estimate the l ik lihood of a farm's moving from a nongrowing episode into a growing episode and to asses s the impact of various covariates on that likelihood. The analysis is based upon a balanced p anel of annual farm accounts from 616 specialised dairy farms from Germany, covering the financial years 1995/96 to 2008/09.


Introduction. Acapulcoites and lodranites constitute two related groups of " primitive achon-drites " [1-3] that possess recrystallized textures, chondritic mineralogy, planetary-type rare gases, and approximately chondritic bulk compositions. They are widely considered to have formed by partial melting of chondritic material [4-10]. Although Kallemeyn and Wasson [11] suggested that acapulcoites could have been heated during collisions on their parent asteroid, McCoy et al. [8] ruled out this mechanism because acapulcoite olivine grains typically exhibit either sharp optical extinction or undulose extinction (without associated planar fractures), characteristic of un-shocked (S1) or very weakly shocked (S2) rocks. However, because it is possible that post-shock annealing processes could heal damaged olivine lattices [12,13] in asteroidal materials and make the samples appear less shocked than they once were [14-16], it is worthwhile to search for relict shock features in acapulcoites and lodranites. The two MET acapulcoites are probably paired. A key clue to the petrogenesis of acapulcoites is the presence of relict chondrules in five of these meteorites. Yanai and Kojima [17] identified a few recrystallized BO chondrules in Y74063; McCoy et al. [8] reported a single 1300×1900-µm-size relict RP chondrule in Monument Draw. I now report that GRA98028 contains ~6 vol.% relict POP and PP chondrules ranging in apparent diameter from 400 to 700 µm. Dhofar 1222 contains ~4 vol.% relict RP, GOP and PO chondrules ranging in apparent diameter from 300 to 1400 µm; NWA 725 contains ~3 vol.% relict POP, BO, PO and GOP chondrules ranging in apparent diameter from 300 to 900 µm. There are no known examples of relict chondrules in lodranites. [Chondrule textural types: BO = barred olivine; RP = radial pyroxene; PO = por-phyritic olivine; PP = porphyritic pyroxene; POP = porphyritic olivine-pyroxene; GOP = granular oli-vine-pyroxene.]


A holding method registration database registered in association with how to hold when carrying the article and the article (112), when a person is carrying a target object, holding method determining determines how to have the target object and processing means (107), extracted from the registered articles to the holding manners registration database (112), an article method of holding that is determined by the holding method determination processing unit (107) is registered as a candidate article the first article candidate extraction means (114) for, so comprises a. .FIELD 1A


Objective:To investigate the effect of donors cytokine induced killer cells cells combine DCs loaded with whole antigens of U266 cells on the U266 cells survival in vitro.Methods:100 ml peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from healthy donor by employing blood cell separator.Adherent cells were cultured for DCs and suspension cells for CIK cells culture.After 7 days,DCs were loaded with whole antigens of U266 cells and added CIK cells to co-culture.To observe the cells morphous by inverted microscope and scanning electron microscope.The immunophenotype assay was used by the FCM.To evaluate killing rate of U266 cells by lactic dehydrogenase release.Results:Majority cells were round and minority cells were fusiform in the CIK cells,the DC cells had typical prominence.The majority CIK cells express CD3 positive,after cultured CD3 and CD56 coexpression positive cells added.DCs loaded with whole antigen of U266 cells,CD80 and CD86 expression positive cells added.The results showed that DCs loaded with whole antigen of U266 cells co-culture with CIK cells can kill more amount U266 cells than CIK solo.Conclusion:The CIK cells combine DCs loaded with whole antigen of myeloma cells can obtain more powerful anti-myeloma effect.It may be eliminate minimal residual desease after stem transplantation and be worth research in future.


The features of reading communities and the psychology of reading on the Internet are considered, including the phenomenon of literary fanaticism, the «popular» recommendation of books, the relationship between readers and writers, the advantages and disadvantages of reader criticism. The reasons for the confrontation between reader and literary criticism, as well as the reasons that led to the crisis of professional literature examination are analyzed. It is concluded that overcoming the crisis of reading in Russia depends more on the further self-organization of readers on the Internet than on government campaigns to support reading. At the same time, the importance of analyzing reader feedback is emphasized in order to recreate an accurate and complete picture of reading in the country and to study the peculiarities of readers' perception of various books and literary genres.


This study is set out to model and forecast the cryptocurrency market by concentrating on several stylized features of cryptocurrencies. The results of this study assert the presence of an inherently nonlinear mean-reverting process, leading to the presence of asymmetry in the considered return series. Consequently, nonlinear GARCH-type models taking into account distributions of innovations that capture skewness, kurtosis and heavy tails constitute excellent tools for modelling returns in cryptocurrencies. Finally, it is found that, given the high volatility dynamics present in all cryptocurrencies, correct forecasting could help investors to assess the unique risk-return characteristics of a cryptocurrency, thus helping them to allocate their capital.


ABSTRACT: This article situates The Mindy Project in a broader sociocultural context by examining its reappropriation of the cinematic romcom and the televisual sitcom. It is argued that the audience's knowledge of the conventions and stereotypes of the genre allows for an interrogation not only of contemporary social convention but also of postfeminism itself.


Abstract: Inflammation is the human body response by the injure as a results the inflammation will release LOX. To curve the conditions we use the bioactive from the nature are essential oil from Curcuma longa and Cymbopogon citratus because has a potential has pharmacologist activity. The purpose of this research to investigate the role essential oil from Curcuma longa and Cymbopogon citratus through LOX gene. Several chemical substances, including 3,7-dimethyl-1,3,6-octatriene, camphor, eugenol, curzerene and isoborneol were retrivied from PubChem database. The PyRx 0.8 was used to minimize and convert the sdf file to pdb format file of ligands. Those compounds were predicted their interaction using STITCH online server. Ligands and protein were docked by HEX Cuda 8.0.0 program, 3D and 2D views were evaluated using Discovery studio ver.19.0.0 and LigPlot+ ver 2.2, respectively. We found fourteen amino acid residues from LOX which bound the chemical compounds. Those interaction was supported by hydrogen bond with variety energy binding. To sum up, the essential oil from Curcuma longa and Cymbopogon citratus has a potential function as inhibitor LOX by inhibiting fourteen active side of the LOX gene.


This small and easily read book will be primarily of interest to child psychiatrists, but its theme has also implications not only for the worker with adults but also for the sociologist. Dr. Jackson has set out to study the nature of aggression and has designed a pictorial projection test for this purpose : this has been used among other investigations on groups of so-called normal, neurotic and delinquent children, and their responses which are given in great detail are certainly of interest. The theme of the book is that destructive aggressive behaviour is not directly derived from a primary instinct of this nature, but is the result of the early frustration of the attempt at self-realisation, generally by faulty family relationships. Many will feel this hypothesis not as yet proved, but it is certainly a rather more hopeful one in its implications for treatment, and Dr. Jackson's case studies, though they are by no means a record of consistent success, do support her attitude.


With the concept of a "balanced portfolio" for federal science funding gone from the Bush budget, Capitol Hill supporters of the physical sciences will spend the summer engaged in what looks to be a difficult search for more money.


The most direct way in which to evaluate the effectiveness of any educational program is to observe the behavior of its product in the affairs of daily life. When this behavior is inefficient, unwholesome, or not in accord with accepted social standards, the school must examine its own program, the personality of the learner, and elements in the environment both in and out of school, to locate the causes of the unfavorable condition. When once the causes have been determined, the necessary corrective and remedial measures can be taken. In order to carry out this program successfully, the school must in many instances seek the cooperation of other social agencies that deal with elements in the environment over which the school has little direct control.


Concerning the subsynchronous oscillation caused by the integration of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) to the power grid via the series compensation circuit, a method to assess the stability of subsynchronous oscillation based on the dissipation intensity is proposed in this article. First, the transient energy that DFIG generates in one oscillation period is defined as the dynamic energy of DFIG, and the model of DFIG dynamic energy containing internal control and external networks is constructed. And then, according to the Lyapunov stability theory, the negative gradient of dynamic energy is defined as the dissipation intensity, which reflects the dissipation effect of DFIG on the energy generated during oscillation. On this basis, the effect of the series compensation degree, phase-locked loop, and converter control parameters on subsynchronous oscillation is assessed, and real-time assessment of the stability level of DFIG-integrated power system is realized. Finally, a simulation model is built in RT-LAB to verify the proposed method. Simulation results demonstrate that the stability level of the system can be assessed accurately according to the value of dissipation intensity. When the value of dissipation intensity is positive, system oscillation converges. When the dissipation intensity is zero, the system oscillates with constant-amplitude oscillation. When the value of dissipation intensity is negative, system oscillation diverges.


Abstract : A longstanding performance goal for Army ground surveillance radars is the automatic classification of moving ground targets on the battlefield. Limited classification has been achieved by splitting the radar doppler spectrum into lower and higher frequency bands, thus distinguishing between targets having different radial velocities. While this is an important feature, since only certain targets (vehicles) are capable of obtaining high radial speeds, it does not provide a distinction between a moving man and vehicles having low radial speed components. That there are distinct differences in the doppler signatures between man and vehicle is easily established by listening to typical doppler return signals. One can clearly distinguish the step modulation of a walking man from the relatively constant or slowly changing tone of a vehicle. As to be expected, a spectrogram of a walking man shows this repetitive behavior. Most obvious is a sinewave like frequency modulation at the step frequency of the main body return power appearing as a black band near 100 Hertz. This oscillatory temporal characteristic in the doppler shifted frequency is practically never seen in vehicular return and is the discriminant chosen for automatic classification.


PURPOSE: A producing method of wet rice-noodle is provided to mold steamed dough with a steamed noodle sheet to maintain the unique taste and texture of the wet rice-noodle. CONSTITUTION: A producing method of wet rice-noodle comprises the following steps: mixing raw material formed with micro powder, and combined water including salt with a high speed mixer to obtain mixed dough; forming steamed dough by supplying steam into the high speed mixer; forming a steamed noodle sheet using the steamed dough with an extruder; cooling and aging the steamed noodle sheet, and forming thin noodle sheets with a continuous roller; and cutting to make noodle threads.


Candidiasis in heroin abusers Jennifer Hoy, MB, and Bryan Speed, FRACP; S Dally and others ..... ........ 1549 Comparison of accuracy of digital and standard mercury thermometers K J Collins, MB, and A N Exton-Smith, FRCP ................................ 1549 Effect of thalidomide on orogenital ulceration J Efthimiou, MRCP, and S Spiro, FRCP; P W Bowers, FRACP, and R J Powell, MRCP 1550 A perspective on SWOP (Speakers Who Oppose Publication) J R A Mitchell, FRCP .................. 1550 Alternative mechanisms for the hypotensive effects of adrenergic blockade I A Greer, MB, and others ............. 1551 Alpha, antagonistic and antiserotoninergic action during administration of ketanserin J Vermylen, MD, and others ............ 1551 The incidental malignant melanoma R W Griffiths, FRCS, and James C Briggs, FRCPATH ............................. 1552 Anorexia nervosa S W Brown, MRCPSYCH, and G Szmukler, MRCPSYCH ........................... 1552 Excess mortality among children discharged from hospital after treatment for diarrhoea in rural Bangladesh E M Mankazana; S K Roy, MB, and others 1552 Twelfth rib syndrome R C F Catterall, FRCS . ........... 1553 Breast feeding and atopic eczema J M Mahood, MRCP ................... 1553 ABC of sexually transmitted diseases A T L Chin, MRCPATH ............ 1553 Honorary senior registrars R P H Thompson, FRCP ........... 1554 Business management for the NHS Mary White, Ma . ............. 1554 Open letter to John Patten I R Stuart, MRCGP .................... 1554 Mental Health Act Commission and the code of practice S Spencer, FRCPSYCH .................. 1554 Points Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (A Bryceson); Parathyroid hormone and 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in elderly people (N Lawson and A J Taylor); Q fever (P M Fleiss); A National Museum of Health (R F Fisher); Possible hepatotoxicity of zimelidine (C N Sawyer, and others); Testing efficacy of proposed new consultant appointments (D N Baron); Dr John Bodkin Adams (P Hoskins); Personal papers (Doris Jackson); Medical care in South Africa (A Hastings); Are herbal cigarettes a health hazard ? (I Redstone). . 1555


This paper analyzes the characteristics of today's social networking in consolidating the ruling position of the party's significance.But as the impact from the Internet changes the traditional one-dimension,hierarchical political situation,it also brings new challenges to the party's ruling authority and the Internet political participation.At the same time,the paper also proposed ways to solve the problem,namely:positive guidance,officials at all levels to strengthen their knowledge of the importance of the Internet,to improve the party's ruling power mode of operation,to improve the bounded rationality of decision-makers,to make smooth channels for political participation of the public as well as to maintain the party's governing authority.


Although expert consensus states that critical thinking (CT) is essential to enquiry, it doesn't necessarily follow that by practicing enquiry children are developing CT skills. Philosophy with children programmes around the world aim to develop CT dispositions and skills through a community of enquiry, and this study compared the impact of the explicit teaching of CT skills during an enquiry, to The Philosophy Foundation's philosophical enquiry (PhiE) method alone (which had no explicit teaching of CT skills). Philosophy with children is also said to improve metacognitive (MC) skills but there is little research into this claim. Following observable problems with ensuring genuine metacognition was happening in PhiE sessions on a reasonably strong understanding of what metacognition is – a method has been developed and trialed in this study to bring together, in mutual support, the development of critical thinking and metacognitive skills. Based on the work of Peter Worley and Ellen Fridland (KCL)The Philosophy Foundation ran an experimental study with King's College London in Autumn 2017 and Autumn 2018 to compare the impact of teaching CT skills and MC skills against classes which just have philosophical enquiry. The approach developed and used for the study employs the explicit teaching of some CT and MC skills within the context of a philosophical enquiry (as opposed to stand-alone teaching of these skills) and yields some positive findings both qualitative and quantitative. Both studies took place over one term (12 weeks) and a control and intervention group were used in each study. This report focuses on the second year of the study, with 220 ten and eleven-year-old children involved in eight classes across three state schools in South East London. Although there were limitations to the study the results indicate that the explicit teaching of these skills during a philosophical enquiry can help children use CT and MC skills more successfully than philosophical enquiry alone. keywords: critical thinking; metacognition; philosophical enquiry. enseñar pensamiento crítico y habilidades meta-cognitivas a través de la investigación filosófica. informes de un practicante sobre experimentos en el aula.


Replication in distributed database is the process of copying and maintaining database objects in multiple databases that make up a distributed database system. In this paper, we will manage fragmented database replication and transaction management for Malaysian Greater Research Network (MyGRANTS) using a new proposed algorithm called Binary Vote Assignment on Cloud Quorum (BVACQ). This technique will combine replication and fragmentation. Fragmentation in distributed database is very useful in terms of usage, efficiency, parallelism and also for security. This strategy will partition the database into disjoint fragments. The result shows that managing replication and transaction through proposed BVACQ able to preserve data consistency. It also increases the degrees of parallelism. This is because by using fragmentation, replication and transaction can be divided into several subqueries that operate on the fragments.


INTRODUCTION To achieve a particular goal of improved yield or quality in vineyard management, it is essential to understand the impact of plant–soil–water dynamics at different phenological growth stages on plant physiology. This is not possible without the measurement of key variables, such as the effective plant rooting depth, daily cropwater use, the macroclimate and microclimate, soil type, and irrigation-system performance. This review provides an overview of Australian technological contributions to precision management of irrigated viticulture in the past 20 years. This involves an integrated approach of mapping soil spatial properties to generate irrigation management zones, evaluation of irrigation system performance and the use of nearcontinuous soil-water profile dynamics in making irrigation scheduling decisions and implementing irrigation management strategies, such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial rootzone drying (PRD). This integrated approach is used to strategically manage soil-moisture levels in order to control growth, yield and quality parameters in the production of a range of horticultural crops including vine grapes. In the grape variety Shiraz, three primary growth stages can be identified. From flowering to fruit set, no moisture stress is allowed. RDI is applied post-flowering and prior to veraison in order to increase the pulp to skin ratio and concentration of colour and flavour, while reducing vegetative vigour. From veraison to harvest, soil moisture is maintained at sufficient levels to maintain grape turgor. Soil-moisture levels are an integral part of the strategy for both the management of sugar and anthocyanin levels during berry ripening and that of flavour compounds during the latter stages of the crop cycle. These combined strategies can be used to overcome some underlying challenges of irrigated agriculture and at the same time provide economic and environmental benefits.


The average reviewer for a journalism and mass communication scholarly journal sees four to six manuscripts per year, is male, white, 46 years old, holds a doctorate and senior rank, and is widely published. This survey of 215 reviewers of 11 JMC journals (including Journalism Quarterly, Journalism Monographs, and the Journal of Communication) finds that about one-third of the polled reviewers feel they help set the agenda of the field, although more gave that power to journal editors. About seven of ten review for more than one journal, suggesting that the criteria used in evaluating manuscripts—for example, clear conceptualization and strong evidence—are widely spread across the journals of our field.


Though the well known Fermat's conjecture on the diophantine equation x^n + y^n = z^n is named "Fermat's big theorem", in fact probably much more important for number theory is what is called "Fermat's little theorem" which was the most important step up to that time in order to discover a primality criterion. This exceptional criterion of primality still has its exceptions: Fermat pseudoprimes, numbers which "behave" like primes though they are no primes; but they are still a class of numbers at least as interesting as the class of primes. Among Fermat pseudoprimes two classes of numbers are particularly distinguished: Poulet numbers (relative Fermat pseudoprimes) and Carmichael numbers (absolute Fermat pseudoprimes). The initial aim of this paper was only to see which Poulet numbers can be obtained concatenating primes (or, in other words, whichever admit a deconcatenation in prime numbers) but, inspired by a characteristic of a subset of Poulet numbers, I also made the following conjecture: there exist an infinity of primes p obtained concatenating to the right a prime q having the sum of the digits s(q) equal to a multiple of 5 with 3. The Smarandache prime-partial-digital sequence (see A019549 in OEIS): : 23, 37, 53, 73, 113, 137, 173, 193, 197, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 241, 257, 271, 277, 283, 293, 311, 313, 317, 331, 337, 347, 353, 359, 367, 373, 379, 383, 389, 397, 433, 523, 541, 547, 557, 571, 577, 593, 613, 617, 673, 677, 719, 727, 733, 743, 757, 761, 773, 797, 977 (...) The Fermat pseudoprimes to base two (Poulet numbers) sequence (see A001567 in OEIS): : 23, 37, 53, 73, 113, 137, 173, 193, 197, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 241, 257, 271, 277, 283, 293, 311, 313, 317, 331, 337, 347, 353, 359, 367, 373, 379, 383, 389, 397, 433, 523, 541, 547, 557, 571, 577, 593, 613, 617, 673, 677, 719, 727, 733, 743, 757, 761, 773, 797, 977 (...)


This paper presents methods to combine measurements of a linear time-invariant system in such a manner that the new system obtained is strictly positive real (SPR). In particular, this paper focuses on how to best combine measurements in a linear fashion by minimizing the difference in an $\mathcal{H}_{2}$ or $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ sense between the new system and a given desired system. The methods proposed to linearly combine sensor measurements rely on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which lead to tractable synthesis procedures. Numerical examples involving noncolocated elastic mechanical systems are provided that illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques when used for output tracking control.


The laboratory-learning environment needs to become more exploratory and undergo a transformation from its traditional confirmatory role in the learning of science. This is necessary to effectively allow students to achieve scientific literacy. The availability of powerful tools for data collection and analysis provides an opportunity for students to engage in activities similar to those found in scientific work. An investigation of science teachers' use of microcomputer-based laboratories in inquiry-based activities shows the benefits inherent in the technology; in particular, an improvement in performance on content-related tasks and in using process skills necessary for inquiry-based learning was found. The ability to correctly predict the outcome of an experiment is strongly correlated with the agreement between different modalities used in the prediction. Thus, performance on science tasks using graphical analysis can be enhanced by the described methodology; recommendations are offered for successful implementation of inquiry-based instruction.


Forage sorghum has been identified as a potential source of biomass for heating by direct combustion. An important aspect of the production system is crop drying prior to storage or processing, such as pelletizing. In order to properly evaluate the effects of maceration or other similar treatments on the field drying of sorghum, a baseline of the drying characteristics of sorghum needs to be established. This was accomplished by drying samples of sorghum stalks in an Armfield UOP8 laboratory-scale tray dryer at an air temperature of 50°C and air velocity of 0.5 m/s. Stalks were cut into either 200 mm or 50 mm lengths. For some of the 200 mm lengths, the ends were sealed in paraffin wax to duplicate infinite cylinders so that the drying characteristics of the waxy skin could be determined separately from the cut ends.
 The data was fit to several standard exponential type models, including a two-term Newton model, and a separation of variables model based on Fick's law. The length of the stalk and the sealing of the ends significantly affected the drying rate. Statistical indicators demonstrated that standard exponential models adequately capture the drying curves and are on par with the separation of variables model. The two-term Newton model and the separation of variables model provided a distinction between the axial and radial moisture migration. Using the separation of variables model, the effective diffusivity of sorghum stalks was determined to be 4.17 x 10-8 and 8.81 x 10-6 m2/hr in the radial and axial directions, respectively.


The current topic on the role of the antonyms in the Bulgarian language training of dental medicine students is based on observations conducted in three groups in the specialty, first and second years respectively. When communicating with Bulgarian patients students have to use words of the opposite meaning, to specify a particular problem in determining the dental status of the patient. The choice of antonyms is mandatory for determining the degree of sensations, sensitivity of the tooth to hot or cold, sensations during the mastication of solid or soft food, treated and untreated caries, in necrotic or vital teeth, sharp or dull pain, in an intact or broken filling, in slow or fast chewing of food, and many others. We present the results of the survey, analyzing them and offering guidelines for future research in the field of antonymy and synonymy in the Bulgarian language. In the course of the study, we are reviewing the idea of opposition with the ancient philosophers, referring to Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Hegel, and more precisely the concept of the opposite, as an expression of duality. We also refer to the views of modern linguists who explore and classify antonyms. In the Bulgarian language learning process, we consider the partial opposition of the lexemes by showing examples from the practice of dental students. In part, we also consider incomplete (near) antonyms, the use of which is also found in students' work. We draw attention to distinguishing the role of antonyms in artistic literature and in scientific styles. We investigate the use of antonyms in the determination of temporal and spatial relations, indicating a common seme. Of course, not every concept or phenomenon has a precise antonym. We point out examples in which the use of one lexeme in an anonymous pair calls for the opposite. We note that the same opposing couple breaks their semantics into different linguistic situations. The present work is abundant with examples from the "Bulgarian language textbook for foreign students" 2018, which is used in the direct work of Bulgarian language teachers for training in the second year when introducing specialized texts on dental medicine A semantic analysis of the examples is made, indicating the degree of opposition in the respective antonymous pair. The aim of the study is to assist students in their practice with Bulgarian patients, especially when working with children, as the antonyms play a significant role in determining the dental status and the history of patients.


David Bohm 1984 Henley on Thames: Routledge and Kegan Paul xv + 170 pp price £3.95 ISBN 0 7102 0031 5 This is not a new book, nor even in any real sense a new edition. It is a reprint of a book published 25 years ago with a new preface summarising, very briefly, some of the developments during that period.


We report in this study the largest surface capture density of E Coli using the wild-type T4 bacteriophage; whereby higher surface capture density can enable higher sensitivities for surface-based biosensors. This was possible due to our purification of the phage lysate, which significantly improved phage surface density, achieving maximum (jamming) surface coverage. Our methods could be generalized to be applicable to a large set of phage biodiversity. We can develop a new screening method to select for the best bacteriophage, for bacterial biosensor application, out a set of candidate phages.


Ultrasonic tomography technique has a great potential value in many applications such as medicine, underwater acoustics, non-destructive testing, etc. However, one of the most disadvantages of this technique is time consumption in reconstruction process. The distorted Born iterative method (DBIM) has been utilized to reconstruct the ultrasound tomography. It can take several iterations depend on the quantity of measured signals. This paper has proposed a solution of fast reconstruction by combining interpolation technique and DBIM. The tomography of scatters' sound contrast is first reconstructed with a raw meshed integration area. We can easily obtain the convergent even after one or two iterations using DBIM. After that, the interpolation is applied to the signal to obtain a dense image. A method like nearest neighbor is chosen because it doesn't generate any new data values. Finally, the dense image is brought back to DBIM to continue the reconstruction process. The simulation show that we can save up to 50% of reconstructed time.


This paper attempts to present the results of our experimental test on the adsorption of arsenate from the aqueous solution via the natural pumice as an adsorbent for arsenate removal from the groundwater with high-content rate As. For our study purpose,we have done thorough exploration of the effects of the different adsorptive parameters,such as the adsorbent dosage,the contact time,the initial arsenate concentration and the solution p H in hoping to optimize the reaction conditions. In addition,we have managed to further interpret the adsorption data concerned by resorting to Freundlich and Langmuir models with the data gained from the kinetic studies and analyzed via the kinetic pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order model. The results of the aforementioned experiments can be generalized in the following manner: The removal rate of arsenate tends to increase with the increase of the mass ratio of pumice. And a pumice dosage of 10 g / L would be enough to remove arsenate as high as to 95. 15%.Furthermore,we have found that it would take 9 hours to get the adsorption equilibrium or balanced under the normal experimental conditions. Moreover,the adsorption rate of arsenate tends to be decreased while the amount of arsenate adsorbed increases with the increase of the initial arsenate concentration. The experimental experience tells us that over 90% of arsenate with the initial concentration of 10 mg / L can be removed by pumice. Furthermore,arsenate adsorption can also affected by changing the p H value. For example,the arsenate absorption by pumice tends to increase with the increase of p H value to 4 and then begins to fall whereas in contrast the arsenate sorption tends to drop steadily with the increase of p H value. Besides,the adsorption isotherm fitting results reveals that the adsorptive isotherm due to the arsenate adsorption with the help of pumice is in better accord with the Langmuir model than with that of Freundlich. For example,the monolayer adsorption capacity of the absorbent can be expected to reach 2. 53 mg / g as is gained from the Langmuir isotherm.According to the fitting results,the pseudo-second order of the kinetic models is reported to provide a higher degree of correlation with the experimental data of the arsenate adsorption. One more point that is necessary to add up is that the adsorption kinetics can best be described by the pseudo-second-order model instead of the first,which implies that the rate-controlling step of arsenate adsorption on pumice can be attributed to the chemical adsorption by the ion exchange process. And,finally,it can be concluded that the pumice adsorbent under study can be regarded as a promising low-cost favorable adsorbent,fit for arsenate-removing from the groundwater with high-content rate of As.


We investigate the relationship between customer and supplier firms' abnormal accruals to examine whether the supply chain is an important transmission channel of abnormal accruals. We propose "ear...


Purpose – This study aims to focus on the role of learning activities on the development of Romanian students making the change from academia to the workplace, specifically focusing on the role of three learning activities: classroom teaching pedagogies (in‐vitro); field experiences (in‐situ); and self‐development experiential activities.Design/methodology/approach – Using a 12‐factor scale developed by the authors to measure the role of learning activities on professional identity (PI), 364 students in an English‐language BBA program at a prominent Romanian university were surveyed via an online survey service. From this sample 97 valid responses were obtained and these were regressed on a measure of PI to test three main hypotheses.Findings – In‐vitro, in‐situ, and self‐development experiential activities exhibited a positive relationship to PI. The two most significant predictors of PI were found to be membership of a professional student group and the use of case studies in class.Practical implication...


The packaging of DNA into chromatin determines the transcriptional potential of cells and is central to eukaryotic gene regulation. Recent sequencing of patient mutations has linked de novo loss-of-function mutations to chromatin remodeling factors with specific, causal roles in neurodevelopmental disorders. Characterizing cellular and molecular phenotypes arising from haploinsufficiency of chromatin remodeling factors could reveal convergent mechanisms of pathology. Chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 8 (CHD8) encodes a chromatin remodeling factor gene and has among the highest de novo loss-of-function mutations rates in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mutations to CHD8 are expected to drive neurodevelopmental pathology through global disruptions to gene expression and chromatin state, however, mechanisms associated with CHD8 function have yet to be fully elucidated. We analyzed published transcriptomic and epigenomic data across CHD8 in vitro and in vivo knockdown and knockout models to identify convergent mechanisms of gene regulation by CHD8. We found reproducible high-affinity interactions of CHD8 near promoters of genes necessary for basic cell functions and gene regulation, especially chromatin organization and RNA processing genes. Overlap between CHD8 interaction and differential expression suggests that reduced dosage of CHD8 directly relates to decreased expression of these genes. In addition, genes important for neuronal development and function showed consistent dysregulation, though there was a reduced rate and decreased affinity for CHD8 interactions near these genes. This meta-analysis verifies CHD8 as a critical regulator of gene expression and reveals a consistent set of high affinity CHD8 interaction targets observed across human and mouse in vivo and in vitro studies. Our findings highlight novel core functions of CHD8 and indicate direct and downstream gene regulatory impacts that are likely to be associated with neuropathology underlying CHD8-associated neurodevelopmental disorder.


Rational delivery route can improve the efficiency of logistics distribution, SOM neural network can keep the topological characteristics between the neurons, so SOM is used to solve the shortest delivery route of logistics. One delivery node is selected as input vector of the network randomly and the out put nodes of the network is 2 times than the number of delivery nodes. When training, the network will identify the weight vector closest to the delivery node and move it and its neighbors closer to the delivery node. After training, every delivery node has the closest node respectively. The steps using SOM to find the shortest route is brought out. Test our method with different delivery nodes, results show that SOM algorithm can obtain faster convergence rate and get the better optimal solution.


The Bronx High School of Science is a unique public high school open to all New York City students who pass a competitive entrance examination. The library's collection reflects the diversity of the school's programs. A special feature of the library's program is a basic library skills mini-course for all freshmen and incoming sophomores taught by the librarians. The library's computer has been used in such areas as ordering, creation of bibliographies, overdues, catalog card generation, serials, word processing and data base searching. Additional computers will be used in the 1987-88 school year to automate the library's card catalog and circulation records as part of a pilot project.


Inspired by the classic friction phenomenon in life, a multi-layer interdigital Electret/Triboelectric Multilayered Power Generator (ET-MPG) that imitates the friction of book pages is designed. Its production is based on a flexible substrate and has special properties that other rigid devices do not have. For example, a very small positive pressure can increase its output performance by 80%, and the final peak power density can reach 0.18W/m2. Through exploration experiments, it is known that the number of output peaks of the interdigital electrode has a corresponding relationship with the number of figures, and the output performance can be multiplied. When the sliding rate is 1m/s, the highest peak voltage reaches 30 V, the average output power of a single layer reaches 10 µW, and the power density can reach 54 mW/m2 in the preliminary results. In addition, by exploring the influencing factors of the friction between the intersecting books, we can understand the large amount of energy contained in this multi-layer flexible structure. The peak energy density of a single page reaches 2.3 J/m2. In addition, the electret generator not only has a high-performance output, but also because it uses all flexible materials, its wearing comfort is unmatched by other rigid devices. This is of great significance to the energy supply of wearable devices and the energy collection on the surface of the human body.


ABSTRACT We report the results of a small user study of a visual XML browsing prototype, called the Mandala browser, where dots representing entire documents or portions of documents are plotted around the periphery of a circle and drawn inward by colored magnets that are assigned values by the user. The result is akin to a Venn diagram that provides a visual representation of the interaction between multiple Boolean queries. In this study, eleven participants were given a pre-study interview, then asked to carry out a series of tasks where the dots represented speeches in plays by Shakespeare and finally were debriefed in a concluding interview. We gained from this study a range of valuable insights into how details of the Mandala browser design could be improved. Participants mentioned, for instance, that they would like to retain a connection between results and the visualizations that produced them, that they would like to be able to make notes on result sets, and that they would like to be able to save subsets within results. They also asked for tools that support collaborative searching, as well as for federated searching across collections. The user feedback confirmed the potential value of the Mandala interface and provided guidance for the next iteration of development. (ProQuest: ... denotes obscured text omitted.) INTRODUCTION Browsing interfaces are intended for people interested -fn gajmng some understanding of the contents of a collection, or in some cases pftflftse results from an initial search retrieval. Browsing interfaces can therefore" be seen as having a complementary relationship with retrieval interfaces, where the goal is to obtain a retrieval target. A typical approach to information browsing is to provide the user with a list of documents, which may be ordered according to some convention such as alphabetically by author or title, or chronologically by date of publication (sometimes called faceted browsing). A more visually complex approach is to organize documents in nested tiles where relevant information is expressed through the position, dimension and appearance of each tile (Schneiderman, 1992). Yet another approach is the Scatter/Gather browser proposed by Pirolli et al. (1996), who developed a prototype visualization where documents were represented by dots that could be grouped and subsetted dynamically by the user. The literature includes a wide variety of examples of visually compelling browsing interfaces, including Small (1996) who proposed a 3D prospect view for browsing texts of Shakespeare's plays and Bederson (2001), who described asystemfororganizingthumbnailsof images. More recently, designers working with public APIs (programmatic interfaces) from social networking sites like www.flickr.com have developed a number of browsing interfaces that extend Bederson's ideas through tools suchas the color picker by Bumgardner (2005). Another example is the orbiting globes of information at http://dartdesign.de/, which allow the user to browse a constellation of moving representations that rotate under user control. The various crystal-based displays by Spoerri (2007) provide still further examples, and the 'dust & magnet' project by Yi et al. (2005) shows an inventive and interactive use of the magnet metaphor. In the context of rich-prospect browsing (Ruecker 2003), each of these interfaces includes some degree of meaningful representation, coupled with the provision of tools for manipulatingthe display. Browsing interfaces can also be used for studying parts of individual documents, such as the speeches in a play. In addition to the discussion of browsing interfaces and their features, the literature also includes discussion of the methods of evaluation. For instance, Plaisant (2004) suggests the need for new and more comprehensive strategies for evaluating the success of browsing interface designs. While most browsing interfaces provide both some representation of individual items and tools for manipulating the display, not all are concerned with the structural arrangement of the items (word clouds created at Wordle. …


The present study was an assessment of postprandial glucose concentration after carbohydrates‐rich meals using continuous glucose monitoring in 30 children with type 1 diabetes treated using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion with a rapid‐acting insulin analog.


The Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) method is employed to simulate numerically the steady flow and transient flow under variable openings of the nuclear safety grade 2 single-seat pneumatic diaphragm control valve,which is a sleeve valve.The steady simulations under rated condition tells that there is a large amount of vortex in the valve seat necking and around the valve cone,which leads to a much greater flow impact on the head of the valve cone and uneven pressure distribution on spool face.More consideration should be taken on the characteristics of the valve cone accordingly,when designing a valve of this kind.Then the transient flow under 100% and 40% openings is simulated numerically on the basis of steady simulations.The pulsation of the pressure magnitude at the points with large vorticity,in the valve seat necking and around the valve cone,is monitored.The main pulsation frequencies differ from the low natural frequencies of the model,which means that it is safe from leading to structural resonance.


Inthis workitisaimedtodetect transformer internal fault andmagnetizing inrush currents by usingindependent component analysis (ICA). A laboratory transformer isused forreal-time experiments to examinethesuggested technique. Laboratory experiments coverturntoturnfaults performed inprimary andsecondary windings andinrush conditions. Diferential (Id) andrestraint (Ir) currents are analyzed byICAandMATLAB TM isusedforrequired calculations. Transformer internal faults canbedetected effectively withtheproposed method.


Partial oxidation of methane by nitrous oxide has been studied behind reflected shock waves in a single-pulse shock tube over the temperature range of 1400-1940 K, at pressure of 15 atm, and with uniform gas residence time of 0.4 ms. The experimental concentration profiles of reactants and major products in the N 2 O partial oxidation of CH 4 have been modeled satisfactorily by a detailed chemical kinetic reaction model. Sensitivity and rate of production analyses of the model have been used to identify the rate-determining reactions in both N 2 O and O 2 partial oxidations of methane. The model has been used to predict methane conversions and products' selectivities at reactant mole fractions up to 0.5


Abstract The input-output functional relationship of a plant is identified and expressed in explicit form over a finite time horizon. Several schemes (orthogonal expansions, ARMA and MA models) are shown to result in a similar problem formulation. The identified model is operated on the fixed structure of a discrete time PID controller, and the parameters of the latter calculated as to minimize a performance index that penalizes both the quadratic departure of the error from the desired value and large variations in the error signal therefore avoiding abrupt controller actions Results from simulation are given in terms of tuning the PID controller of a triple effect evaporator that simulates a. real equipment used at the industry to obtain juice concentrate.


In this paper we have described the possible mathematical connections between some Ramanujan's equations and various formulas concerning several sectors of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology


Modern electronic systems, especially sensor and imaging systems, are beginning to
incorporate their own neural network subsystems. In order for these neural systems to learn in
real-time they must be implemented using VLSI technology, with as much of the learning
processes incorporated on-chip as is possible. The majority of current VLSI implementations
literally implement a series of neural processing cells, which can be connected together in an
arbitrary fashion. Many do not perform the entire neural learning process on-chip, instead
relying on other external systems to carry out part of the computation requirements of the
algorithm.
The work presented here utilises two dimensional instruction systolic arrays in an attempt to
define a general neural architecture which is closer to the biological basis of neural networks - it
is the synapses themselves, rather than the neurons, that have dedicated processing units. A
unified architecture is described which can be programmed at the microcode level in order to
facilitate the processing of multiple neural network types.
An essential part of neural network processing is the neuron activation function, which can
range from a sequential algorithm to a discrete mathematical expression. The architecture
presented can easily carry out the sequential functions, and introduces a fast method of
mathematical approximation for the more complex functions. This can be evaluated on-chip,
thus implementing the entire neural process within a single system.
VHDL circuit descriptions for the chip have been generated, and the systolic processing
algorithms and associated microcode instruction set for three different neural paradigms have
been designed. A software simulator of the architecture has been written, giving results for
several common applications in the field.


Ability to make collective agreements determines life of many organizations. But does it matter for the decision to make a new organization? On the data of 82 homeowners associations (HOAs) in Moscow and Perm factors that underpin HOA formation are studied. A logit-regression analysis is used. Ability of tenants to resolve the collective action problem in operating housing infrastructure shows its importance along with the physical characteristics of an apartment building. Thus HOA formation by homeowners is a signal of their ability to manage a house. Collective action paradox begins to play role not only ex post, but also ex ante, prior to organization's establishment.


A knowledge based method for scheduling arrival aircraft in the terminal area has been implemented and tested in real time simulation. The scheduling system automatically sequences, assigns landing times, and assign runways to arrival aircraft by utilizing continuous updates of aircraft radar data and controller inputs. The scheduling algorithm is driven by a knowledge base which was obtained in over two thousand hours of controller-in-the-loop real time simulation. The knowledge base contains a series of hierarchical 'rules' and decision logic that examines both performance criteria, such as delay reductions, as well as workload reduction criteria, such as conflict avoidance. The objective of the algorithm is to devise an efficient plan to land the aircraft in a manner acceptable to the air traffic controllers. This paper describes the scheduling algorithms, gives examples of their use, and presents data regarding their potential benefits to the air traffic system.


Studies have shown that course organization and structure, student engagement, learner interaction, and instructor presence have accounted for considerable variance in student satisfaction and perceived learning in online learning environments through a range of pathways, although no research to date has tested the mediational relationship identified. This study expanded upon the existing literature about online learning and the variables that influence student satisfaction and perceived learning. The researchers investigated the relationships among course structure/organization, learner interaction, student engagement, and instructor presence on student satisfaction and perceived learning. The results of this study were intended to inform practice related to increasing retention and improving the quality of online teaching and learning.


The invention belongs to the technical field of biological engineering preparation and relates to a method for preparing high-concentration bacillus cereus solid-state probiotics through liquid fermentation and solid fermentation. The method comprises the following steps of: carrying out liquid fermentation on bacillus cereus to a logarithmic phase and mixing in match with a solid fermentation medium with the same weight to realize the inoculation of a large dose of bacteria liquid; and then carrying out solid fermentation again to prepare a high-concentration thallus preparation. The method for preparing the probiotics through liquid and solid double fermentation has the advantages of simple preparation process, easiness in control, uneasiness in bacteria infection, high strain concentration, low post-processing cost and friendly production environment.


Medical treatment approval is an absolute requirement to do medical treatment. According toSubekti, an agreement also called an approval because both party is agree to do something. Itcan be said that both terms (agreement and approval) have a same meaning. (Subekti, 1987,Law Agreement, Intermassa, Jakarta). Medical treatment approval form is a law agreement,therefore medical treatment approval must meet the legitimate of an agreement, as regulated inarticle 1320 and 1321 KUHP. The purpose of this research is to describe the compatibility andcompleteness of approval form fulfilment. This research conducted in Ajibarang Hospital usingdescriptive research methodology to give a detail, systematic and comprehensive description about everything related to the compatibility and completeness of approval form fulfilment.This research found that in substance the Medical Treatment Approval Form of Ajibarang Hospital has not fulfil the principle of agreement which is regulated in article 1320 and 1321KUHP, and the Medical Treatment Approval Form of Ajibarang Hospital 98% is not filledcompletely. The incompleteness is consist of : 91, 7 % the approver identity is unallocatedcompletely; 36, 7 % the patient identity is unallocated completely; 10,8% the medical recordnumber is unallocated completely; 24,8% the approver status is unallocated completely; 21,6%the signature witness of patient family is unallocated completely; 4% approver signature isunallocated completely, and 1,8 % medical treatment explanation is unallocated completely. Key word : Medical treatment approval, compatibility, completeness


ABSTRACT This essay aims to show how the development of close reading, and more specifically its relationship to authorial intention, is itself historically contingent on technological development. In historicising New Criticism through the lens of its context within an economy of technological development, the essay asks how newly available technologies might impact and perhaps alter some of New Criticism's essential tenets about the nature of close reading, particularly its relationship to the author. The argument focuses specifically on Roland Barthes's landmark essay, 'The Death of the Author', as we confront new technologies and a new technological context in which authorial intention may be newly accessible. Introducing one such technology, proteomic literary forensics, which allows scholars to identify intimate information about the life of the author at the time of composition, I argue that underlying methodological assumptions of close reading, particularly the constellation of interpretive practices foregrounded by the idea of the 'Death of the Author', may limit the possibilities of literary inquiry, particularly for cultures of literature that seeks to reckon with the marginalisation of voices and groups of people. Finally, this essay seeks to demonstrate the way that authorial intention might productively be brought into practices of close reading.


The dynamic and uncertainty of large-scale service-oriented software trend to cause high complexity of the exceptions logic which can lead to be extremely difficult to verify the termination of exception handling process. However, the termination of exception handling process is important foundation to ensure its correctness. If the exception handling process does not terminate, service-oriented software will not work normally. The current research rarely focuses on the verification method of termination for exception handling process in service-oriented software, thus exception handling can not be guaranteed to achieve the desired objectives. Therefore, this paper proposes a colored Petri net (CPN)-based verification method of termination for exception handling process in service-oriented software. Firstly, this method establishes the hierarchy CPN model for exception handling (HCPN4EH) including the CPN description of normal flow and exception handling logic. Then, the termination of exception handling process can be analyzed and verified according to the established model. Finally, an example demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of this method. The results of termination verification can provide the foundation for fur-ther analysis of correctness of the exception handling process.


IN view of the fact that more than 80 species of the genus Silene possess the basic number 12 (cf. Darlington and Wylie, 1955; Cave et al., 1955-60 and supplement), the discovery of the number n = 10 in Sitene conoidea (cf Khoshoo, 1960) is rather significant. There is, however, one species, S. fortunei which has been reported to possess n =-15 (Heaslip, 1951). Assuming that both S. conoidea and S. fortunei are valid species of the gonus Silene, it is obvious f rom the haploid numbers n = 10 and n = 15, that possibly the original basic number of this series is 5. S. conoidea is, therefore, tetraploid and S. fortunei is hexaploid. Such polyploids in which the polyploidy and its grade are not apparent have been termed "crypt ic polyploids " (cf. Khoshoo, 1960).


Due to its perennial nature and size, the acquisition of phenotypic data in grapevine research is for the most part restricted to the field. Techniques to assess phenology and morphology traits are mostly based on visual scoring. Some traits like biotic and abiotic stress and especially quality traits are evaluated by invasive measurements. The new arising sensor technologies make non-destructive evaluations of phenotypic traits available for grapevine research by using different sensors and sensor platforms, from greenhouse and lab application to the field application. Varying outdoor light conditions and background used to be the biggest environmental impact and challenge for field phenotyping of grapevines. Facing these problems the presented Phenoliner is a new type of ground based, robust field phenotyping platform. Following the concept of a movable tunnel, the vehicle is based on a grape harvester. It is equipped with different sensor systems within the tunnel (multi-camera system, hyperspectral cameras) and above (RTK-GPS, orientation and speed sensors). Through an artificial light source in the tunnel it is independent from external light conditions. In combination with the artificial background the Phenoliner allows standardised acquisition of high-quality, geo-referenced sensor data. The multi-camera system is used for the automated acquisition of colored 3D data of multiple vine rows for the automated calculation of yield parameters (number of grape bunches and berries, berry size) to be used for yield prediction. The hyperspectral cameras are used to detect spectral data in a broad range of spectral bands covering a spectrum from 400 nm to 2,500 nm to evaluate e.g the health status.


An overview is given of integrable models of quantum, classical and statistical mechanics defined as evolution models in wholly discrete (2+1)-dimensional space-time and based on a special type of auxiliary linear problem.


Context: Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a research methodology intended to obtain evidence from scientific articles stored in digital libraries. SLRs can be performed on primary and secondary studies. Although there are guidelines to the SLR process in Software Engineering, the SLR process is not fully and rigorously specified yet. Moreover, it can often be observed a lack of a clear separation of concerns between what to do (process) and how to do it (methods). Objective: To specify the SLR process in a more detailed and rigorous manner by considering different process modeling perspectives, such as functional, behavioral, organizational and informational. The main objective in this work is specifying the SLR activities rather than their methods. Method: The SPEM (Software & Systems Process Engineering Metamodel) language is used to model the SLR process from different perspectives. In addition, we illustrate aspects of the proposed process by using a recently conducted SLR on software testing ontologies. Results: Our SLR process model specifications favor a clear identification of what task/activities should be performed, in which order, by whom, and which are the consumed and produced artifacts as well as their inner structures. Also, we explicitly specify activities related to the SLR pilot test, analyzing the gains. Conclusion: The proposed SLR process considers with higher rigor the principles and benefits of process modeling backing SLRs to be more systematic, repeatable and auditable for researchers and practitioners. In fact, the rigor provided by process modeling, where several perspectives are combined, but can also be independently detached, provides a greater richness of expressiveness in sequences and decision flows, while representing different levels of granularity in the work definitions, such as activity, sub-activity and task.


The substantial rise of wage inequality in Central and Eastern Europe has attracted the attention of sociologists, concerned with social equity, and economists for whom it indicated the growing differentiation and restructuring of relative prices on the labour market. This research wanted to study wage inequalities from the second point of view by analyzing relative wages during the transition period in Hungary and Romania. In this paper we would like to discuss the policy relevance of the research, summarize the main empirical findings and draw conclusions for policy.


Si nanocrystals are promising materials which can be used for optical sensor, memory devices and future optoelectronics devices. In this work we study the morphology surface and interface of the silicon rich oxide (SRO) films with different nanocrystals (nc-Si) embedded in a thin SiO2 matrix (Silicon excess). Also the surface roughness after annealing was investigated by means of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). AFM images show different morphologies in the surface of the different films. The morphology changes could be associated to the gas flow ratio (Ro) and time of thermal treatment. All images demonstrated grain like structure with size nanometer, which was characterized by height distribution, average roughness, grain and pore mean diameter. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) reveals that a small layer formed in the surface of the SRO is SiO2 and the composition of the films ins in the volume varied with respect at the flow ratio, these data have allowed us to correlate the surface and interface structure with the composition of the SRO films


An explicit 3D software "FEAPIM" has been developed at LMARC to perform efficiently the injection simulation to predict and simulate a segregation effect in the mixture flows during MIM, and segregation is the most defect in metal injection molding. In order to reduce it on suggest optimization strategy.A cost function is first defined to account it, and optimization strategy has been developed using the Design Of Experiments (DOE) to find the most influent parameters. Four sensitive parameters are found : Powder volume fraction, Interaction coefficient, Powder density, and Binder density. In order to decrease the computational cost associated to optimization, the response surface, using the Moving Least Square Approximation (MLSA), is used to approximate the cost function. Then a genetic algorithm is coupled with this response surface to obtain the optimal values in reasonable time. The optimization strategy proposed in this paper has been applied to the tensile test. Optimization results are compared to...


Based on analysing the connotation and the elements of scientific and technological innovation ability of chemical industry, this paper establishes an evaluation index system of scientific and technological innovation ability of chemical industry, and evaluates scientific and technological innovation ability of Shandong chemical industry by the means of principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The relevant measures and suggestions are put forward to promote the scientific and technological innovation ability of Shandong chemical industry.


Bangladesh, like other developing Asian countries, is undergoing rapid urbanisation and deep socio-economic changes. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in the eastern part of the country has always been a unique area. It is characterised by the presence of diverse highland groups, each with its own language, culture and settlement patterns. The region, once isolated and not well researched, is now experiencing increasing transmigrations and urbanisation. The urban form of local traditional towns, affected by socio-economic changes, is at a risk of losing some of the spatial patterns that provide their sense of place. This paper discusses the background and complexities of CHT, at the edge of different cultural and political regions, and thus provides preliminary understanding of the traditional settlements in this region. A spatial analysis of selected urban areas has been based on qualitative data. This paper aims to discuss a methodological framework to inform a data collection process about morphological patterns in culturally diverse regions. It suggests that this methodological framework could have useful applications in investigating geographic areas with similar social and ethnic complexities


2-Cyanoguanidine [(NH2)2CNCN (cnge)] stabilises co-ordinatively unsaturated copper(I) in bis(µ-pyridazine)-bis[(2-cyanoguanidine)copper(I)] tetrafluoroborate 1, which has been structurally characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis [triclinic, space group P, a= 754.8(2), b= 971.3(2), c= 937.2(2) pm, α= 118.94(2), β= 94.72(2), γ= 107.44(2)°]. The cation in 1 contains two trigonal-planar copper(I) atoms bridged by two pyridazine (pydz) molecules and terminally co-ordinated by a cnge molecule. It acts as a receptor molecule binding a further pydz to form tris(µ-pyridazine)-bis[(2-cyanoguanidine)copper(I)] tetrafluoroborate 2. The structure of 2 was also determined [monoclinic, space group C2/c, a= 2229.3(7), b= 850.0(3), c= 1568.5(3) pm, β= 99.13(2)°]. It contains two distorted-tetrahedral copper(I) atoms bridged by three pydz molecules and terminally co-ordinated by a cnge molecule. Thermogravimetric analysis of 2 showed that heating removes the third bridging pydz molecule to regenerate 1; this behaviour is ascribed to the unusually high stability of the co-ordinatively unsaturated copper(I) moiety in 1.


Introduction:
 Our aim was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with delayed appearance of DWI lesion among initially DWI-negative clinically suspected stroke patients in the follow-up DWIs during in-hospital care.

 Method:
 Among 5271 patients admitted to stroke unit as clinically suspected stroke/TIA within 7 days from symptom onset in our hospital via ER for 2010~2017, we selected subjects based on the following criteria 1) initial negative DWI (n=827), 2) follow-up DWI within 14 days (n=751). Then, we excluded 57 cases (hemorrhagic cases (n=4), cerebral angiography studies between MRIs (n=53)). Finally-included 694 cases were divided into two cohorts for temporal external validation (2010~2015 (n=488) as derivation; 2016~2017 (n=206) as validation).

 Results:
 Of 5271 cases, 827 cases (15.7%) showed initial negative DWI. In 694 finally-included cases, 22.5% (n=156) showed delayed appearance of DWI lesion. In derivation cohort, factors showing significant relationship with positive conversion comprised: medical histories such as atrial fibrillation (aOR 6.17, 3.23-12.01); symptoms including objective hemiparesis (aOR 4.39, 1.90-10.32) (Table 1). These factors were used to construct DWI-CONVERSION score (Table 2a). Its c-statistic was 0.813 in derivation cohort and 0.808 in validation cohort, which is significantly higher than that of ABCD2 score in validation cohort (c-statistic=0.678; P<0.01 for comparison; Table 2b).

 Conclusion:
 We identified prevalence and clinical factors significantly associated with delayed appearance of DWI lesions in clinically suspicious stroke patients. DWI-CONVERSION score is a simple tool to predict it.


This research explores whether high school students' perceptions of the prevalence of a social hierarchy at their school vary depending on the status of the students' self-identified social group. Multiple past studies and popular media have identified that students of all age levels form social groups with similar peers, and these groups often have different popularity and status rankings within the school environment. Previous research has noted that students' perceptions of peer dynamics can vary based on one's own social group, and this study explores this specifically by comparing students' perceptions of the prevalence a social hierarchy at their school to their self-identification with one of the 12 social groups defined in a study titled Contemporary College Students' Reflections on Their High School Peer Crowds by Rachel Gordon and other researchers in 2019. A voluntary, electronic survey was sent to students of North Creek High School asking students to describe their social group's status level and their opinion of the prevalence of a social hierarchy at North Creek. Analysis of the 125 survey responses found that there was a significant positive correlation between the self-identified status of a student's social group and the student's perception of the prevalence of a hierarchy. Additionally, self-identified high-status students identified more distinct and stereotypical social groups at their school than self-identified low-status students did. The connections these results have to past research are discussed and avenues for further exploration are identified.


Several cognitive psychologists have written about the importance of placing instruction within "authentic" contexts that mirror real-life situations. They argue that knowledge learned in academic settings does not necessarily transfer to non-academic settings. Whether preparing performance technologists or instructional designers, educators must strive to create meaningful problem-solving contexts that enable students to define, and subsequently solve, real-world problems. In an attempt to address this issue we have modified the way we teach instructional design. This paper discusses a cognitive apprenticeship approach to teaching design, which incorporates elements of modeling, coaching, reflection, articulation, and exploration. We describe how these features are embedded within three phases (orientation, situated training/learning, and exploration) of an introductory instructional design course designed to move our novice designers along a continuum of expertise as they develop and refine their own professional design skills. Although the apprenticeship model described here specifically addresses concerns within the context of preparing instructional designers, we believe that this model can be adapted to address similar issues in the education of performance technologists.


Improvement for search efficiency of Grid Information System(GIS) plays a key role in improving the performance of grid system. In the GIS based on Resource Category Tree(RCT), which uses AVL tree to manager computing resource, when the height of RCT becomes high enough, the search efficiency will be poor. In order to improve the search efficiency, this paper presents an optimization solution based on heuristic search algorithm and applies it in the original system successfully. Detail steps of experiment and result analysis are given. It turns out that this solution does improve the search efficiency of the information system.


We introduce a generalized version of the Ablowitz–Ladik model with a power-law nonlinearity, as a discretization of the continuum nonlinear Schrödinger equation with the same type of nonlinearity. In this model, we study the interplay of discreteness and generic nonlinearity features. We identify stationary discrete-soliton states for different values of nonlinearity power , and address changes of their stability as the frequency of the standing wave varies for given . Along with numerical methods, a variational approximation is used to predict the form of the discrete solitons, their stability changes, and bistability features by means of the Vakhitov–Kolokolov criterion (developed from first principles). Development of instabilities and the resulting asymptotic dynamics are explored by means of direct simulations.


A 50-year-old woman reported to our hospital with a 2month history of abdominal distension and discomfort. She had no past history of any surgery and medical comorbidities. On per abdomen examination there was a palpable mass up to 36 weeks size with restricted mobility and having slight tenderness on right side. Bimanual examination revealed same mass on right side with uterus felt separately from mass and being deviated towards left side. Pouch of Douglas was smooth and rectal mucosa was free on per rectal examination.


Abstract Scholars have recently begun to study civil society on the regional level more systematically. When regionalization of civil society is studied, it is often understood within processes of regional governance in which state actors craft regional institutions and policy frameworks to solve common problems. Yet, most studies dealing with civil society in regional governance have a state-centric approach, focusing on the marginalization of civil society organizations (CSOs) in such processes, treating them as rather passive actors. This is especially true for research on southern Africa. Contrary to previous studies, this article shows under what circumstances CSOs are granted space in regional policy-making related to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is concluded that, in light of CSOs' material and economic weakness, one of the key factors determining their advocacy success on the regional level is production of knowledge and strategic use of communication tools. Even though many challenges remain, for example, the power structures inherent in the SADC, the case of civil society advocacy around the SADC is a sign of a new form of participatory regional governance in the making, which is more democratic than present modes of regional governance in Africa.


We report on fundamental structural and optical properties of lateral polarity junctions in GaN. GaN with Ga- to N-polar junctions was grown on sapphire using an AlN buffer layer. Results from scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy measurements indicate a superior quality of the Ga-polar GaN. An extremely strong luminescence signal is observed at the inversion domain boundary (IDB). Temperature dependent micro photoluminescence measurements are used to reveal the recombination processes underlying this strong emission. At 5 K the emission mainly arises from a stripe along the inversion domain boundary with a thickness of 4-5 μm. An increase of the temperature initially leads to a narrowing to below 2 μm emission area width followed by a broadening at temperatures above 70 K. The relatively broad emission area at low temperatures is explained by a diagonal IDB. It is shown that all further changes in the emission area width are related to thermalization effects of carriers and defects attracte...


Minimum variance (MV) adaptive beamforming has been applied in medical ultrasound imaging to improve lateral resolution, but standard MV method is quite sensitive to the perturbation of the received signal. Due to the inhomogeneity of human tissues, sound speed varies and there exists a certain amount of time-delay error for each channel which is referred to as phase aberration. A robust minimum variance adaptive beamforming method was proposed in order to avoid significant degradation under more practical circumstances. The sample covariance matrix was reconstructed with a forward-backward method. And the steering vector was estimated via maximizing the output beamformer power, which was turned into a quadratic convex optimization problem with proper constraints. The simulations with Field II showed that the proposed method was robust in the presence of phase aberration and could maintain its performance for improving imaging quality.


Secretary Work in art design College is a long-term and heavy task. As the front line management worker, academic secretary faces with various kinds of work and huge responsibility. the paper discusses the job content of academic secretary, summarizes its working responsibility, analyzes the characteristic of teaching in art design major, proposes thoughts on the working method innovation of academic innovation in art design college.


The process of joining materials is very necessary to facilitate the manufacture of industrial products. Among these connections are rivets, bolts, nails, glue, and welding which is mostly done on metal materials. The aircraft skin is usually connected with rivets through a drilling process. Joining metal materials, especially aluminum, uses many welding techniques. The welding method currently being developed is Friction Stir Welding (FSW). FSW developed the Friction Stir Spot Welding (FSSW) process in joining metals, especially in this study using 2024-T3 aluminum. The purpose of combining the rivet method with FSSW is to see the material's mechanical characteristics when applied to aluminum material. The FSSW method uses a 2500 RPM engine speed milling machine using a blunt tool holder with a pin dimension of 2.5 mm. It is carried out using a pneumatic drill using a drill bit with a dimension of 2.5 mm. Aluminum 2024-T3 has of 200×20×2 mm dimensions, a hole spacing of 15 mm with double rivet lap joint installation. The results showed that the FSSW variation had a higher tensile shear strength of 2.8% than the drilling variation. However, the hardness value in the drilling variation is 56.3% higher than the FSSW variation in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ). Microstructural observations also indicate differences in the HAZ region, where the FSSW is reduced in size and longer. This is due to the heat treatment process due to friction between the pin tool and the aluminum, thus changing the structure.


:  Now a day's, lot of accidents due to drunken driving and overloading. At times truck drivers do over timing and there are chances of them falling asleep which can lead to accidents. Overloading of vehicles is a daily routine amongst the people concerned with the business. This proves to be very dangerous at times and has resulted in many accidents. Apart from accidents, it also has severe effects on roads and other civil infrastructure. In this project, we are developing an Auto Lock System using Alcohol Breath sensor, Load sensors, IR sensor and Ultrasonic sensor.  If alcohol is detected or over loading is detected or if there is petrol theft or sudden petrol leakage or if the driver falls asleep while driving, in any of the above cases the buzzer will buzz and a message will show on LCD regarding the condition and the breaking of the ignition circuit will take place. Keywords: Overloading, Alcohol sensor, Load sensor, Ultrasonic sensor, IR sensor, LCD, Buzzer


Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) is the dominant technology of the future mobile communication and its synchronization is still an important subject need to be studied.Contraposed to the inaccuracy of the SchmidlCox Synchronization Algorithm in the symbol timing synchronization estimation,we propose an improvement of the sliding window that take symbol synchronization correlation operation on the training sequence.The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We present an activity, involving a parked car, for estimating the surface temperature of the Sun. The activity entails both outdoor quantitative observations and theoretical analysis, and yields a result for the surface temperature of the Sun within 12% of the accepted value. It can be used as an independent study project to spark students' interest and facilitate learning.


Through ten years of work and thinking,a discussion on audio production field belonging to the production of TV public signal for sports is made,which appeared in recent years.Without being limited to a pure technical papers,which is boring,clear views on many aspects like ideas,experience,mentality,TV technology,TV arts,economics and industrial chain,etc,are setted,and the questions on how to be a real A1 diversified and substantively are answered,trying to get rid of impatience of common practice and establishing a scientific,practical system with others,and partial standard of measuring in industry is presented.


Whether or not to give antibiotic prophylaxis to children known to have vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR) remains highly controversial. In 2007, the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) came out against its routine use, and since then many authorities have questioned this advice, some using the pages of this journal. The evidence from published trials is contradictory and confusing. Now a new multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) from the US makes an important contribution to the debate (The RIVUR Trial. NEJM 2014;370:2367–76). Over 600 children (92% girls) aged 2 months to 6 years were randomised. Each had a firm diagnosis of one or two confirmed urinary tract infection (UTI): fever >38°C and/or urinary symptoms within 24 hours of urine collection; specimens were from clean catch, catheter or suprapubic aspiration only, and needed to show pyuria and a positive bacterial culture. Each had undergone voiding cysto-urethrography (VCUG), confirming VUR grades I–IV. All had radio-labelled DMSA scanning at baseline and after 1–2 years. The case group received co-trimoxazole (trimthoprim 3 mg/kg, sulphamethoxazole 15 mg/kg) daily, while the controls received a convincing placebo. Over two years of close observation for UTI, the prophylaxis group had significantly fewer proven recurrent infections (hazard ratio 0.41; 95% CI 0.34–0.74). Prophylaxis proved more effective in those whose initial infection was febrile, and in those with underlying bowel or bladder dysfunction. Unsurprisingly, the prophylaxis group had more E. coli infections that were resistant to co-trimoxazole (63% vs 19%). However, perhaps more interestingly, there was no significant difference in the incidence of DMSA-proven renal scarring at the end of the study: around 11% for both groups. An accompanying editorial highlights that this study was more rigorous than previous RCTs of prophylaxis: younger age group included, more robust UTI ascertainment, better radiology (Ingelfinger JR, Stapleton FB. NEJM 2014;370:2441). However, only one type of medication was used, and there remains the question of very long-term renal outcomes after 2 years. Also, it seems likely that parents participating in the study would have had a heightened awareness of symptoms of UTI and the need for treatment compared to parents in the real world, thus possibly making outcomes seem better in the control group. These results beg the question of why do we use prophylaxis anyway? From these data, if it's to prevent recurrent infections, it works. If it's to prevent scarring, it doesn't. If prophylaxis doesn't prevent scarring, and VUR gets better with time anyway, do we actually need to know whether VUR is present? One conclusion from this might be that we should be doing fewer VCUG examinations – as recommended by NICE.


A brief look at the way that all sides of the political debate (mis)use federalism arguments in pursuit of their policy goals.


The article explores the possibility of using repeated analyses based on the DNA melting method to increase their validity, namely, to reduce the error in determining the DNA melting temperature Tm. A statistically significant difference in the Tm values of the analyzed samples in successive analyses was experimentally revealed, which prevents the validity from increasing. It is shown that an increase in the temperature Tm on average by 0.12 deg. in the series of experiments is due to the evaporation of 1.65% of water from the test tube. A change in mass by 0.8 ± 0.1% of the total mass of water in test tubes was experimentally revealed as a result of a thermal regime similar to the analysis by the melting method, which partially confirms the assumption. It is recommended to take this effect into account during re-analyses using the DNA melting method and to implement measures that prevent water evaporation. Analytical expressions are given for the relative assessment of the sodium ion concentration changes and the water volume in the sample.