Abstract : Emergency Management has been around in our country for more than two centuries and, during that time, has undergone significant changes. However, it was in the days following September 11.2001 that the U.S. realized that the threats America faces today are much greater than those faced in previous years. The threats posed by terrorism could prove to be more than our current system can handle. New legislation created Federal Coordinating Centers (FCCs) that were strategically placed Veteran's Administration (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD) hospitals, which could be called upon to set up receiving centers and accept patients from other areas in response to a man-made or natural disaster. Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) is the designated FCC for the Hampton Roads region of Southeast Virginia. As such, NMCP understands and recognizes the need to be prepared for the possibility of being activated to receive patients. This paper analyzes the preparedness of NMCP to be activated under the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), and compares NMCP's full-scale drill to FCCs that have been activated for real world events.


It is widely assumed that the scenic attractiveness and other public good aspects of agricultural land can be utilized as a source of livelihood in rural areas in the form of recreation and tourism. In this study we use two approaches to consider whether agricultural landscapes are preferred as a destination for recreation (day trips) and rural tourism (overnight trips). We first analyse the choice of recreation site type based on a model that aggregates sites using the presence of agricultural land as an aggregation variable. Population survey data on recreation trips reveal an association between the respondent's living environment, recreational activities and visit characteristics and the probability of choosing a destination with agricultural land. Second, we also estimate the demand functions for trips to agricultural sites and other destination types to consider whether the presence of agricultural land, as opposed to other land use categories, increases the number of trips and the benefits of recreation. The results suggest that agricultural landscapes are inferior to alternative site types in terms of per-trip benefits. However, agricultural landscapes are associated with high annual benefits because of the high rate of visitation.


The main objective of this paper is to present the basic content of the theories of politics proposed by Machiavelli and Spinoza. The primary task is to answer the questions: what is politics?, what are its main characteristics?, and what can we expect from it? The answers to these questions are given through analysis of the notion of 'imperium', present in the writings of both authors and, also, through that of the problems of the human condition and of human nature, which function as basic assumptions of Machiavelli's and Spinoza's conception of politics.


During the 1950s and '60s, sweeping changes were made in the mathematics curriculum that were largely due to fundamental changes that had occurred in mathematics. Among these changes was a trend toward emphasizing the structural nature of mathematics. However, changes in the content of geometry represented more of a tentative groping than did changes in content dealing with the real numbers. Many approaches to geometry were proposed, such as those of transformation geometry, synthetic geometry, analytic geometry, and vector geometry. Although agreement was not reached as to approach nor indeed even as to the purpose of geometry in the curriculum, mathematics educators did agree that more geometry should be included and included much earlier than was done traditionally. Jean Piaget seems to be the only investigator who has systematically and extensively studied the development of the child's spatial concepts. This comprehensive theory is developed in detail in Piaget's books The Child's Conception of Space and The Child's Conception of Geometry. The first volume is a report of Piaget's studies of the development of the child's representational space.' In this work he contends that it is topological representation that first develops in the child. The projective and Euclidean concepts derive from the topological concepts. It is this first volume, The Child's Conception of Space, which is of concern in this paper. In the first five chapters of the book, Piaget presents his evidence that the young child's representational space is topological. Among the "topological relationships" described by Piaget are proximity, separation, order, and continuity. Interpretations of Piaget's work and inferences from it must be based on a study of his claims and on his evidence supporting such claims. It is the purpose of this paper to describe briefly Piaget's tasks and his results and to analyze the mathematics involved in each task. Difficulties involved in making inferences for mathematics education will be pointed out. Descriptions and analyses will be restricted to those tasks dealing with what Piaget calls topological relations.


The present invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the PCD of a sector tooth of a recliner, which comprises a holder which is formed in a circular shape and is inserted into a circular groove on a sector tooth; a pair of pole teeth which is inserted into the circumferential surface of the holder to be symmetrical and is separated from each other; and a measuring bar which is inserted into a gap between the pair of pole teeth on the circumferential surface of the holder. The apparatus can facilitate the PCD measurement of the sector tooth by measuring a position where the pair of pole teeth is engaged with the gear teeth on the sector tooth, can also check the roundness of the sector tooth, and can facilitate the check for a PCD measurement value.


Cool season annual forages such as cereal grains can provide early season grazing as well as high quality stored feed. The goal of this project was to determine yields and quality of annual cool season forages harvested at various growth stages and under different fertility regimes. In addition, the fatty acid profile and concentration were determined for treatments. Enhancing beneficial fatty acids in cattle feed may result in enhanced nutritional quality of milk. This includes potential increases in Omega-3 fatty acids that are touted to be heart healthy. The data presented here is from one replicated research trial in Vermont. Crop performance data from additional tests in different locations and often over several years should be compared before you make conclusions. This project was supported through the Organic Valley Farmers Advocating For Organic Fund.


We have studied the electrical characteristics of p‐GaAs/n‐Si heterojunction diodes grown by molecular‐beam epitaxy in an effort to investigate the quality of the heterointerface. Both Ga and As prelayers were used to initiate the growth of GaAs epilayers on Si substrates. Current‐voltage and capacitance‐voltage measurements were made between 300 and 83 K. Ideality factors for heterojunction diodes were as good as n=2.0, despite the 4.1% lattice mismatch between Si and GaAs. At high temperatures the I‐V characteristics were dominated by generation‐recombination mechanisms that lead to a temperature‐independent logarithmic slope with applied bias. By removing a thin layer from the Si surface, the surface leakage current was reduced by more than an order of magnitude. The measured intercept voltages, as determined by capacitance‐voltage measurements, have no strong dependence on the type of prelayer used to initiate the growth of the GaAs epilayer on Si substrates. The maximum spread in measured intercept v...


In a 2005 phase III trial, Scandinavian investigators showed that at a median follow-up of 8.3 years, men with clinically localized prostate cancer who


In this chapter, we consider the 2-variable fragment of first-order logic with counting quantifiers. The main result of this chapter is that the satisfiability and finite satisfiability problems for this logic are both NExpTime-complete. Formally, we take C 2 to be the set of function-free formulas of first-order logic with counting quantifiers, but employing only the variables x and y. For convenience, we restrict attention to purely relational signatures with predicates of arities 1 or 2: it is routine to show that adding individual constants, nullary predicates or predicates of arity 3 or more does not affect the results presented here. (By contrast, adding even unary function-symbols to the signature would result in an undecidable logic.) In the presence of counting quantifiers, equality is definable by the formula ∀x.e(x, x) ∧ ∀x∃ ≤1 y.e(x, y). Consequently, we shall assume that the equality predicate ≈ is available. The Löwenheim-Skolem-Tarski theorem guarantees that, if a first-order formula has a model, then it has a finite or countably infinite model. Since our concern in this chapter is the problems Sat-C 2 and Fin-Sat-C 2 , we shall henceforth silently take all structures to be either finite or countably infinite. The fragment C 2 presents us with much greater challenges than any of the fragments considered so far. For a start, C 2 lacks the finite model property.


This article probes into the increasing problems of accounting estimate in the process of auditing,expati- ates on the difficulties in auditing the authenticity of accounting estimate,the veracity of the sum,the rationality of modification,and presents some workable approaches to such problems.


Abstract The altitude factor for adjusting raindrop velocities from sea level depends primarily on air density and drop size. An adjustment factor is formulated as the air density ratio raised to a power m that varies linearly with drop diameter from 0.4 at 1 mm to 0.5 at 5 mm: m(D) = 0.375 + 0.025D (mm). The improved velocity adjustment can be directly incorporated into the standard equation for calculating the size distribution from the Doppler spectrum. An integral mean value (m) is provided to adjust sea level values of rainfall rate and mean (and mean square) Doppler velocities. The recommended value of m varies from 0.41 to 0.46 depending on application. The simplest adjustment is obtained using 0.42 for rainfall rate and 0.45 for mean Doppler velocity.


Research in the theory of solitons and its applications has undergone impressive development in recent years and has affected a broad range of fields, including theory of special functions, quantum integrable systems, numerical analysis, cellular automata, representations of quantum groups and


The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold disruption across the globe and all countries irrespective of the strength and resilience of their health systems are feeling the burden. Intensive care units are facing a surge of patients requiring invasive ventilation.It is likely that requests for a tracheostomy in COVID-19 ventilated patients will soon come our way. It is difficult to predict the burden, but it would be remiss not to be prepared.


Unit commitment is an important and difficulty aspect of optimal operation of power systems.Because it belongs to be mixed variables programming that is difficult to find the optimal solution in mathematics.This paper presented a new method combining of neighbor search and interior point to solve unit commitment(UC) nondeterministic polynomial(NP)-hard problem.The structure of neighborhood is defined and a new way to adjust neighborhood was put forward in which various restrictions can be dealt with to ensure the result feasibility.The large and complex discrete space which is even difficult to obtain solutions will be replaced by a very small solution neighborhood.The advantages of interior point method,for example with good astringency and high precision,will be fully played to accelerate the speed of calculation.100 units and 24 hours systems were tested to verify the presented method.The CPU time cost is only 4s while the financial cost is very low,which have shown the proposed method is very promising for large scale application.


The effect of the Programed Math Tutorial-programed tutoring in mathematics-on achievement of kindergarten and first grade children was investigated in three field studies. In one, 140 first-graders were tutored; in the second, 136 first-graders were tutored; in the third, 32 kindergarten children were tutored. After a full year of tutoring as a supplement to regular classroom instruction, achievement posttests were administered to these groups and to comparable groups of untutored children. Significant differences favoring the Programed Math Tutorial groups were found in all three field studies.


This paper covers reading and oral and written text production abilities that should be developed by the school, in order to ensure and expand manners of social participation by citizens. Based on an analysis of some reading exams, improvement in the school's activities is found to be necessary, by executing a planned and consistent project that interacts with the cultural practices of its students. To do this, a presentation is given of how to appropriately explore various text genres, always with the teacher's mediation and guidance. The text shows how teachers can face this challenge collectively, since reading and text production are tasks used for every curricular component and not just in Portuguese Language.


EPDM composites with carbon black (CB 50, CB 25), with silica (SC 60), and without fillers (NF) were exposed to 0.6 to 10 MPa hydrogen gases at 30°C, and the influence of fillers on hydrogen content and blister fracture of EPDM composites was investigated. The hydrogen contents of CB 50, CB 25, SC 60, and NF were proportional to hydrogen pressures up to 10 MPa. It is confirmed that the behavior of their hydrogen contents follows Henry's law. The addition of the carbon black raised the hydrogen content of EPDM composites, while the addition of the silica did not raise that of EPDM composites. With respect to diffusivity, the carbon black lowered the diffusivity of EPDM composites, while the silica hardly influences that of EPDM composites. According to the observation of blister damages of CB 50, CB 25, SC 60, and NF, the blister damage of SC 60 is the slightest. It is considered to be due to lower hydrogen content and relatively better tensile properties compared with the others.


Historicism and the question of censorship in the Renaissance the typography of censorship in the Renaissance fractured images - the censor and the history plays of the 1590s "little better than libels" - the censorship of history and satire, 1597-1603 "poore dismembered poems" - the drama and the new regime, 1603-1608 "too sawcie in censuring princes" - drama and censorship, 1608-1624 some conclusions.


This paper covers the design and testing of a circuit to emulate synaptic transmission in electronic circuits. It briefly explains the mathematical models of synaptic behavior, and then delves into the structure and performance of the electronic model.


The solubility correlations for the H{sub 2}O-CO{sub 2} system applied so far for numerical simulation of geothermal reservoir and well flows are crude. This is due, at least partly, to the significant disagreement existing between the solubility models and results published in the specialized literature. In this work we analyze the reasons underlying this disagreement. On this basis, we propose a thermodynamically correct, and numerically accurate model for the solubility of carbon dioxide in water. Its range of validity is up to 350 C and 500 bar. Our main contributions are: (a) the adoption of an equation of state for the gas phase that realistically accounts for the non-ideal behavior of both components and that of the mixture, within the P-T range considered; and (b) to accurately include the effects of temperature and pressure on the solubility of carbon dioxide in the liquid phase. The proposed model fits the available phase equilibrium data for the H{sub 2}O-CO{sub 2} system nicely. In particular, it does not present the severe conflict between the linearity of the model and the lack of linearity of the data, evident in earlier models. The tight fit obtained with our model indicates that the complexities of H{sub 2}-CO{sub 2} phase equilibrium are well represented by it.


Various phenomena involving university students such as suicide and gang fights indicate that students mental health conditions of need to be worried about. Some studies had linked the public space utilization with social interaction facilitation and social cohesion, as well as social cohesion with mental health. The original contribution of this research is that it employed perceived social cohesion as the mediating variable of the predictive relationship between public open space utilization with mental health. The design of this research is non-experimental, predictive correlational. As many as 375 university students in Jakarta participated in this research (Mage = 20.8 years old; SDage = 1.4 years old). This research used convenience, incidental sampling technique. The path analysis showed that the perceived public open space utilization is able to predict mental health level through perceived social cohesion (χ 2 = 0, df = 1, p > 0.05, RMSEA < 0.05).


From the angle of economy, the Xiyuan loan was resulted from the changing of Japanese economy and the need of Chinese economy after the World War . The loan took economy as the core seemingly, but in fact it was the political loan. The actual use of the loan showed the interior essence that the Duan Qirui government of the Northern Warlords and the Japanese government colluded with each other. The Xiyuan loan had negative effects to China and Japan.


The purpose of this paper was to examine, through the use of quantitative research and a comparative literature review, the incidence of patient falls, particularly among the elderly, within a healthcare facility. Patient incident reports revealed the presence of environmental and patient conditions which appeared related to the occurrence of such accidents. Among these were fall location, associated patient activity, equipment, patient environmental orientation, mental status and time of day. Design improvements in the following areas were suggested: door "hold-open" devices, floor surface, equipment mobility, footwear design, nursing supervision, patient mental and physical assessment, lighting, environmental markings, and doorway and furniture design.


Deep learning techniques have been recently widely used in the field of texture image generation. There are still two major problems when applying them to tile image design work. On the one hand, there is still lack of enough diverse ceramic tile images for the training process. On the other hand, the output image is difficult to control and adjust, and cannot meet the designer's requirements of interactivity. Therefore, we propose a multi-stage generation algorithm of tile images based on generative adversarial network(GAN). First, the multi-scale attention GAN is applied to generate controllable texture image. Then, the SWAG texture synthesis GAN is also applied to obtain controllable and diverse image style. And finally, through the style iteration mechanism and the multiple step magnification method based on image super-resolution reconstruction network, the final tile images can be automatically generated with larger-size and higher-precision. The relevant experiments demonstrate that our method can not only generate high-quality tile images in a relatively short period of time, but also consider human interaction to a certain extent, and maintain a certain degree of control over the main texture and style of the final generated tile images. It has good and wide application value.


This research aim to study how Benuaq society around Muara Lawa District, manage agriculture system and internal knowledge about rice varieties. This research use ethnobotanical approach: collecting ethnobotanical data of rice varieties and traditional system of swidden cultivation. Data was obtained by using direct participatory technique by interviewing the people (key informants) about their practice and perception. The interviews were unstructured open-ended discussion onknowledge and farming activities including about diversity in rice varieties. Subsequently, quantitative data from questionnaires was combined with depth-interview data from key informants. The Benuaq indigenous systems, practices, and cultivation preferences held by the Benuaq are guarded toward maintaining their rice diversity. The Benuaq systems of upland rice cultivation, site selection for umaq establishment, plant species for fertility indicator, and cultivation of wide ranges of upland rice varieties indicate their sophisticate knowledge in agriculture. Unfortunately there has been degradation in the indigenous knowledge among the young Benuaqs.Key words: Benuaq, ethnobotanical, indigenous, upland rice.


The study of the behavior of the ionosphere during disturbances is traditionally an important task. One of the authors in the GA 2018 paper found two groups of similar magnetic storms in 2013 and discovered a similarity in the behavior of the critical frequencies foF2 according to the data from the Sodanküla high-latitude station in the northern hemisphere, but this similarity was reduced to a negative disturbance, which is also characteristic of a large number of dissimilar magnetic storms. Nevertheless, it seemed interesting whether such a similarity could be inherent in the behavior of the total electron content TEC of the ionosphere. The study was carried out using data from three stations Juliusruh, Tromso, Longyearbyen near the 15° N meridian. It turned out that this similarity is observed in the behavior of foF2 and TEC, which is confirmed by high correlation coefficients between these parameters both during months and periods of disturbances.


Stevens Institute of Technology has applied the cross-correlation method for the detection of low flying aircraft using passive acoustics. A modified cross correlation method was tested for finding the time difference of arrival of acoustic signals from various unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), collected by NASA's Langley Research Center. Cross-correlation was applied for UAV detection and for measurements of the time difference of arrival that is used for estimating the direction of arrival. The microphone separation combined with the high speed of the target had led to a significant differential Doppler effect leading to de-correlation of the received signals. For the compensation of those effects, Stevens applied a modified de-skewed short-time correlator (DSTC) approach. The detection ability of the cross-correlation method also depends on the cross correlation properties of ambient noise. The collection was performed in a relatively quiet area, to estimate the performance of the cross-correlation metho...


Investigation result shows that for the running KDY pump sets,such defects are existed as the leakage of lubricant oil,too big clearance at the shaft alignment,difficult to seal off the pump for repairing purpose, easy to wear down for the bearing and bearing insert. Relative improvement is presented to the originaldesign of the pump sets. The authors consider that the efficiency of the improved KDY pump sets is going up from 65% to 80%, the leakage amount of lubricant oil per month is down to 4kg, which elongate the service life of the thrust bearing and bearing insert.


The Errors and inconsistencies present in the data cause massive problem in Data Warehousing. Aprodigious solution is required to extract relevant data for efficacious and infallible decision making. Therefore in this paper, we propose a mechanism an efficient Variegated Data Swabbing algorithm to enhance the eminence of raw data, by removing errors, inconsistencies, redundancies, and duplicity from the structured data. Proposed variegated data swabbing algorithm takes two data-sets from two different data sources, integrates them to form a new single data-set by removing all the duplicate rows along with the missing values or NaN values from the data. Spell checker algorithm is applied to the proposed system for checking mistakes or misspellings of words, suggestion for the respective words provided. The proposed system provides the better and efficient results than the existing algorithm in terms of Accuracy, Execution time and Space.


Experimental results of the flywheel energy storage systems are presented. This report finalizes the work of the UPC in the context of the GeoPlex European Project. This document contains only the experimental results of the system, while the associated theoretical results and simulations are presented in previous works.

The experimental results validates the policy management, the port Hamiltonian models and the developed controllers using the IDA-PBC approach along the project


Over an extended period, remote-sensing-based individual tree analysis has played a critical role in modern forest inventory and management research. The segmentation of individual trees from aerial point clouds usually depends on the characteristics of peak-like uplift on the crown surface; however, the performance inevitably decreases with increasing visibility of such features in point clouds, especially for high-density forests. Herein, we developed a novel hierarchical region-merging algorithm that first over-segmented the entire forest scene based on local density and then merged the over-segmented partitions into pairs through a stepwise optimal process to produce the final segmentation. In the region-merging method, a global merging cost was introduced to shift from local detection of crown features to use the overall compactness of forest point clouds. The experiments were conducted using unmanned aerial vehicle light detection and ranging (UAV-LiDAR) point clouds from three coniferous stands with different densities and a high-density coniferous and broad-leaved mixed stand. A total of 5510 field-measured trees in 36 plots were used to assess the accuracy of the proposed method. Our method achieved F-scores of 0.91, 0.88, 0.84, and 0.80 for low- (~700 stems/ha), medium- (~1000 stems/ha), and high-density (~2000 stems/ha) conifer stands and coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests (~1800 stems/ha), respectively. Compared with the classical individual tree segmentation methods (marker-controlled watershed segmentation and point cloud region-growing algorithm), our method obtained comparable performance in low-density conifer stands and superior performance in the other stands. Furthermore, the region-merging algorithm could detect 10% more suppressed trees on average, which led to an apparent improvement in detection accuracy. The proposed algorithm provides a flexible segmentation framework that could be further improved by a different design that merges costs or applies multiscale segmentation with different stopping criteria.


Shape-persistent contorted ladder polymers are an intriguing and unusual class of polymers. Using catalytic arene-norbornene annulation (CANAL) polymerization and with norbornadiene and dibromoarenes as monomers, we synthesized a series of ladder polymers with fused norbornyl benzocyclobutene backbones and varied conformations. A diaryl spiro-orthocarbonate monomer was used to reorient the ladder backbone perpendicularly to induce three-dimensional kinks, and a p-dibromo-xylene comonomer was used to statistically vary the distance between the spirocyclic kinks in the ladder backbone. Norbornyl benzocyclobutene ladder polymers with no spirocyclic backbone twists possess much more compact conformations than ladder polymers with frequent spirocyclic backbone twists in solution. While spirocyclic twists in the polymer backbone had minor effects on the surface area and microporosity, incorporation of rotatable single bonds in the repeat unit significantly decreased both the surface area and pore volume. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017


Cloud computing offers features such as resource pooling, comprehensive network access, rapid elasticity, ondemand self-service, and measured services that result in new business trade. Computer-based design provides foresights that can be converted into methods, which can then be used to implement a product design idea by integrating capabilities for intelligent information support and group decision, thereby exploiting a common enterprise network model and knowledge interface through shared technologies. The processing power that is needed to simulate designs in real world is one of the challenges in computer-based design. Cloud-based simulators offer new possibilities to control "network effect" by depending on access to large groups of computational resources that are available in "cloud" to overcome challenges such as limited processing power and information storage capability. In this study, we focus on computer-based design in engineering through simulation using cloud computing. Keywords— Cloud computing, computer-based design, simulation, prototype, technology.


OBJECTIVE
To describe clinical outcomes in youth with new-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) treated with a modified, twice-daily regimen of a mixture of NPH insulin and rapid-acting insulin analogue at breakfast and separate injections of rapid-acting insulin analogue and insulin detemir at dinner.

METHODS
Our clinic database was used to describe changes in insulin doses, hemoglobin A1c (A1C) levels, and frequency of severe hypoglycemia during the first year of therapy in young patients with T1DM diagnosed between September 2006 and April 2009. Data are presented as median values (25%, 75%).

RESULTS
Overall, 108 patients (62 girls; mean age, 10.0 ± 0.4 years) were eligible for inclusion. Total daily insulin doses at 3, 6, and 12 months were 0.6 (0.4, 0.8), 0.7 (0.4, 0.9), and 0.8 (0.6, 0.9) U/kg, respectively. A1C levels were 9.8% (8.5%, 10.8%) at 2 weeks (baseline). Of the 108 patients, 19 had switched to insulin pump therapy by 3 months and 49 had switched by 12 months after initial diagnosis of T1DM. The 49 pump-treated patients had an A1C of 6.9% (6.6%, 7.3%), whereas the 59 injection-treated patients had an A1C of 7.2% (6.7%, 7.7%) by 12 months. There were only 6 severe hypoglycemic events in 5 patients; none occurred during the first 3 months, none occurred during the night, and all occurred in patients receiving insulin injection treatment.

CONCLUSION
A twice-daily insulin regimen that uses insulin detemir for overnight basal replacement and morning NPH insulin to avoid lunch and afternoon snack doses is an effective initial treatment for young patients with new-onset T1DM that can provide a smooth transition to intensive basal/bolus insulin pump therapy.


Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is common in tropical Sub-Saharan countries. The allele most frequently associated with G6PD deficiency in this a region is G6PD 376G/202A. Here, we show that, the prevalence of G6PD deficiency is 12% in the Sereer ethnic group from Senegal ant that the 376G/968C genotype is predominant; the frequency of the 376G/202A genotype is very low in this ethnic group. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the predominant cause of glucose -6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is G6PD A-(376G/202A). 376 G is a polymorphic mutation (allele A) and 202A is responsible for the enzyme deficiency. 1 However, the 376G mutation may also be associated with other deleterious mutations: 376G/680T, 376G/968C (G6PD A) and 376G/542T (G6PD Santa-maria). The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of G6PD deficiency in the Sereer group from Senegal. This was done by molecular analysis because enzymatic activity was difficult to measure locally. The study took place in the Niakhar area located 150 km southeast of Dakar, where the large majority of people belong to the Sereer ethnic group. We investigated 430 unrelated children (220 girls and 210 boys). DNA analysis was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For amplification of exons of the G6PD gene, we used specific 5'-biotinyled primers in order to screen for the mutations 202A, 376G, 542T, 680T, 968C by reverse dot blot hybridization. The Sereer group is the second most important ethnic group in Senegal (17%). Using a molecular technique we established the prevalence of G6PD genotypes in this population living in a tropical region of Africa. The frequencies of the G6PD B (376A), A+ (376G), A-(376G/202A; 376G/680T; 376G/968C) and Santamaria (376G/542T) alleles were 0.68, 0.20, 0.11 and 0.01 respectively. Several genotypes were observed in the females. Three girls (1.4%) were enzyme-deficient (A–/A–) and 40 girls (18.2%) were carriers of a deleteri-ous mutation. The frequency of the wild type B allele was relatively high in this group and similar to that reported by Pinto et al. 2 in Equatorial Guinea (0.72). The frequency of the B allele is lower in other tropical Sub-Saharan countries: 0.51 in Gabon 3 and in the Ivory Coast. 4 The prevalence of G6PD deficiency in the Sereer group was relatively low (12% among males) compared to that in other tropical Sub-Saharan countries: around 21% in several African populations; 1 22% in the Ivory Coast and 24% in Nigeria. 5 The distribution of the dele-terious mutations …


The aims of this work were to quantify the spores and the most probable number of AMF propagules in soils from the Caraiba Mining, Bahia; to detect the effect of the season in the dynamics of AMF propagules and to determine the effects of mining on the potential of mycorrhizal infectivity. Soil samples were collected in the dry (August/98) and rainy seasons (February/99), from six subareas of the copper mining area: 1 - site that receives the waste product; 2 - the industrial area surroundings; 3 - low grade deposits; 4 - preserved "caatinga"; 5 - interface between the caatinga and the waste product area; 6 - site for extracting top soil for purpose of land filling. Thirty-two plant species were identified in the two meters around each collecting point. The highest diversity (21 species) occurred in the subarea 4, whereas the lowest plant diversity was observed in the subarea 3 (two species). The subareas 1, 3 and 5 presented the least spore number (< 1 per g of soil), possibly because of the high values of Cu and Fe and more alcaline pH in these soils. In general, spores density and number of infective propagules were low (< 2 per g of soil). There was no significant difference between number of spores in the dry and in the rainy seasons, except for the place 6. However, there was variation between the sub areas, with significant differences in both seasons.


The tensile forces affecting pile foundations are usually transferred to the bedrock by rock anchors. If drilled piles could transfer some of these tension forces, foundations could be lighter, execution works easier and the whole system could be more cost-efficient. The aim of the paper is to present the loading tests made for the drilled, grooved pipe piles to define their tensile capacity and to assess their ability to work as tension force transferring structure. The study includes literature review of existing research on tension piles and testing. The review covers the different methods for transferring tensile forces, the geotechnical design of tension piles and the main problems in the design. The testing part focuses on a pull-out test on pipe piles with a grooved surface. The literature review found several reasons to update current geotechnical design practices on tension piles. It showed that the design methods are conservative and not at an optimal level of precision. In addition, several recent studies have examined the tensile resistance of piles, revealing three main factors affecting bond strength: the relation between the diameter of the drill hole and that of the pile, the roughness of the steel surface and the quality of the grouting. Furthermore, the stresses are not distributed uniformly along the length of the pile, but are highest on the top of the pile and lowest at the tip of the pile. Hence, the bond strength cannot be increased by increasing the bond length. The results of the pull-out test proved that the bond strength of the pile is significantly increased by the grooved surface. However, over half of the steel piles could not be pulled out of the bedrock as loading had to be discontinued at the yield capacity of the steel piles for safety reasons. Thus, the actual tensile capacity of the piles remained undetermined. Anyway the grooved pipe piles proved to have a great potential to be used as tensile force transferring structures.


Using oxygen ion implantation and pulsed laser melting, we have synthesized thin films of highly mismatched ternary (y = 0) and quaternary (y = 0.12) Zn1−yMnyOxTe1−x alloys with oxygen content in excess of x ∼ 0.01. We show that incorporation of a small amount of isoelectronic oxygen leads to the formation of a narrow, oxygen‐derived band of extended states located well below the conduction band edge of the Zn1−yMnyTe matrix. The structure of the conduction band is well described by the anticrossing interaction between O localized states and the extended states of the host semiconductor matrix. As a result the conduction band splits into two subbands with distinctly non‐parabolic dispersion relations. The three absorption edges of this material (∼0.73, 1.83 and 2.56 eV) cover the entire solar spectrum providing a material envisioned for the multi‐band, single junction, high efficiency photovoltaic devices. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Sidney and Beatrice Webb, in their book The State and the Doctor, which was submitted in the first instance as a memorandum to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws in 1909, dismiss the work of the free dispensaries and medical missions in one short paragraph.


Choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) was tested for the separation of azeotropic mixtures of ethanol–ethyl acetate, n-propanol–n-propyl acetate and n-butanol–n-butyl acetate via liquid–liquid extraction. The mixture of choline chloride with malonic acid with a molar ratio of 1:1 was used. Extraction experiments were conducted with the ternary mixture ethanol–ethyl acetate–DES at temperatures 293.15, 303.15, and 313.15 K and with ternary mixtures n-propanol–n-propyl acetate–DES and n-butanol–n-butyl acetate–DES at 293.15, 303.15, 313.15, and 323.15 K. Liquid–liquid tie-lines for studied systems were determined. The extraction performance of DES was characterized with solute distribution coefficients and values of selectively respectively to alcohol. The influence of the alkyl chain length of the alcohol and ester on the phase equilibria was investigated. Experimental data were fitted using the nonrandom two liquids model.


In order to predict manoeuvrability of ships in seaways a mathematical model for approximating the hydrodynamic forces acting on the ship has been extended for taking into account mean forces and moments due to waves. RANS computations for a twin screw passenger ship in waves of various lengths coming from all directions have been used to determine the coefficients of the mathematical model. The paper shows that a double parametric approach on wave length and encountering angle is capable of reconstructing the mean forces and moments for all considered situations.


Abstract After an initial decline from April through June 2020 (from 22.2% to 11.9%), adjusted in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 inpatients peaked twice and was significantly higher than June 2020 for subsequent months except in July and October 2020. Adjusted mortality trends differed across age groups between November 2020 and February 2021.


We perform density-functional theory calculations to investigate the adsorption of oxygen at the Au111 surface, including on-surface, subsurface, and surface oxide formation. We find that atomic oxygen adsorbs weakly on the surface and is barely stable with respect to molecular oxygen, while pure subsurface adsorption is only metastable. Interestingly, however, we find that the most favorable structure investigated involves a thin surface-oxide-like configuration, where the oxygen atoms are quasithreefold-coordinated to gold atoms, and the gold atoms of the surface layer are twofold, linearly coordinated to oxygen atoms. By including the effect of temperature and oxygen pressure through the description of ab initio atomistic thermodynamics, we find that this configuration is the most stable for realistic catalytic temperatures and pressures, e.g., for low-temperature oxidation reactions, and is predicted to be stable up to temperatures of around 420 K at atmospheric pressure. This gives support to the notion that oxidized Au, or surface-oxide-like regions, could play a role in the behavior of oxide-supported nanogold catalysts.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of Jigsaw cooperative learning method on students' learning performance in Economics. Data of 127 students enrolled from two classes are collected in spring semester in 2014. Empirical findings support that Jigsaw cooperative learning method benefits students' academic achievement and knowledge retention in terms of the increase in mean scores and the decrease in standard deviation of scores.


The present invention provides a metal slurry, comprising: an organic solvent; a surfactant which has a hydrophilic group and a lipophilic group; a mass of the paste, but more than 60% by mass of the metal powder is less than 95% by mass, wherein the hydrophilic group of the surfactant is a sulfo group, a sulfonyl group or two carboxyl group-containing polyoxyethylene, lipophilic group of the surfactant is an alkyl or alkoxy substituting 12 or more carbon atoms containing phenyl, the surfactant is selected from polyethylene oxide of at least one ethylene lauryl ether carboxylic acid and the alkylbenzene sulfonic acid. The metal powder-containing particles do not agglomerate and exhibit excellent dispersibility, and as a metal material for conductive paste. The slurry can be dispensed with a conventional method of manufacturing a conductive paste part of processing steps and can shorten the processing time and labor savings.


The organization of medical education in the United States is in a constant state of flux. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to categorize medical education into Undergraduate, Graduate and Continuing Medical Education. In actual fact, medical education is a continuum which begins with the time when the individual decides upon Medicine as a career. This may be as early as secondary school or more probably in the college years. From these premedical years the medical student continues through the medical curriculum into post-graduate or specialty residency training programs. Following this period, it has been shown beneficial to participate in the program of continuing medical education. This is an enormously expanding field and is becoming more formalized and even mandatory in some areas a prerequisite for re-licensure and specialty recertification. This system is in place in response to the real or alleged concerns of the public for assurance of the continuing competence of practicing physicians. In reference to Graduate Medical Education, the American Medical Association (AMA) helped to establish the Liaison Committee on Graduate Medical Education (LCGME). In referring to the bylaws of the LCGME, consider the previously adopted statement entitled "A Proposal for the Establishment of a Liaison Committee on Graduate Medical Education," has developed from the five points of agreement by the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Council of American Specialty Societies. On January 25, 1972, in Washington, D.C., this organization was developed as a new body, a vehicle for improving the quality of graduate medical education by broadening the base of support for the accreditation process through the involvement of interested groups in the medical community. Now, after eight years of experience with the operation ofLCGME as the accrediting agency for graduate medical education, certain limitations in the structure of LCGME have appeared. For the sake of improving the quality of the accreditation process, certain changes now become mandatory.


Three children standing in front of a candy store window.
Translation of title: We will know how to sacrifice.
Promotional goal: Fr. J72. 1918.
Item is no. 226 in a printed checklist available in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room.
BZZ


Eric Mugambi Nturibi, Consultant Physician and Public Health Specialist, Nairobi, Kenya; John Kunda, Lecturer, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Kamau Edna Wairimu, Department of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Nairobi School of Medicine, Nairobi, Kenya. Correspondence to: E M Nturibi. Email: email@example.com Introduction The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) defines asthma as a heterogeneous disease characterised by chronic inflammation and defined by a history of respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and cough that vary over time and intensity, together with variable expiratory airflow limitation.1 Asthma is a common non-communicable disease (NCD) affecting an estimated 300 million people worldwide.2 Asthma is responsible for about 15 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) or 1% of the total global burden of disease. Uncontrolled asthma is responsible for substantial social and economic losses.3 The prevalence of asthma is variable but it is generally accepted that it is increasing.4,5 An estimated 10% of the Kenyan population or about four million people have asthma.6 In January 2011, Kenya released its first version of guidelines for asthma management to supersede its 2005 consensus statement.7 Since then, the country's essential package of medicines has expanded to include inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) which are the backbone of asthma management.8 Although asthma control has been brought within reach of patients, owing to the availability of less costly generic drugs, weak health systems present a formidable obstacle to achieving desired goals. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) defines chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a common preventable and treatable disease characterised by persistent airflow limitation that is usually progressive and associated with an enhanced chronic inflammatory response in the airways and the lung to noxious particles or gases and notes that exacerbations and co-morbidities contribute to overall severity in individual patients.9 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COPD was the fifth leading cause of death globally in 2001. By 2020, COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide. An ageing population, reduced mortality from ischaemic heart disease and infectious causes, and tobacco smoking are partly responsible for the growing prevalence of the disease.10 There is marked heterogeneity and variation in the prevalence of COPD globally. The prevalence of COPD among those aged 40 years and above is estimated at 10.0% (95% confidence interval (CI), 8.4–11.8%).11,12 In the developed world, COPD is predominantly a male disease but recent data suggest this gap is closing fast and women appear more susceptible to the ill effects of tobacco smoking.13 A literature review of the burden of COPD in Africa (2009) did not find any studies from Kenya.14 A 2009 review showed high prevalence of tobacco smoking among healthcare workers (54%) and undergraduate students (54.7%), and among those aged 13–15 years (13%). Kenya enacted a tobacco control bill in 2004 as part of its obligations under the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC). The bill regulates tobacco taxation, advertising, sponsorship, and promotion, and is responsible for restrictions on smoking in public, warnings on cigarette packs, pack content, and age restrictions on sales. However, enforcement of the bill is far from ideal.15 The fifth objective of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2014–2020 action plan calls for 'support for national capacity for high quality research and development' as a key pillar for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.2 With reference to asthma in the US, Wright et al call for 'research strategies that embrace the complexity of asthma' through a 'shared conceptual framework' proposing 'trans-disciplinary research' as a means of understanding the biomedical and ecological framing that characterise the 'real world complexity of asthma epidemiology.'16 An understanding of 'framing effects' is an important step towards improving health outcomes for asthma.17 For example, in the US the 'pattern of distribution of asthma by race and socio-economic status' may have resulted from inequalities in society.18 Little is known about the framing of asthma and COPD in the research literature from Kenya. The aim of this review is to explore the coverage of asthma and COPD in the local scientific literature and to identify thematic frames through which the diseases are viewed. Priority areas to guide future research are then proposed.


AbstractThis paper explores the seismic fragility curves for gravity dams with or without ground motion vertical component within the context of performance-based earthquake engineering. Structural analyses are performed using multiple-record incremental dynamic ones. The resulting capacity curves are contrasted with the well-established ones of framed structures. An optimal intensity measure parameter is also selected among 37 variations, and it is determined that the combined spectral acceleration leads to lowest dispersion. Finally, the derived fragility curves using the scaled records are compared with those from probabilistic seismic demand analysis (unscaled records). Results show acceptable consistency between the two methods. In addition, the effect of accounting for the epistemic uncertainty and pool elevation are discussed and are found to respectively alter the dispersion and median value of the collapse fragility curves.


Small-scale silos (60-litre polyethylene barrels) were used to examine the chemical composition of grass silage after the application of slurry, at 40 m3/ha, at a range of timings, at two sites with contrasting rainfall; North Wyke, in Devon (high rainfall) and Reaseheath College, Cheshire (low rainfall). Grass plots (60 m2) received cattle slurry via surface broadcast (S), shallow injection (I) or surface placement by trailing shoe (T) techniques at 10, 6 or 2 weeks before an early silage (first) cut in May/June, and 6 or 2 weeks before a second cut in June/July. Control plots (C) received no slurry treatment. The harvested grass was compressed and sealed in the experimental silos and samples of the herbage at ensiling and of ensilage (after >100-day fermentation) were analysed for various chemical components. Herbage yield was measured when the harvests were taken. Wetter than average weather conditions in both years resulted in silages with variable DM content (range 140–277 g/kg) being made at both sites. Generally, silages were poorly preserved with high pH and NH4+-N and low lactic acid contents. In particular, the silages from treatment S where slurry was applied 2 weeks prior to harvest exhibited characteristics indicative of clostridial growth, with high pH (range 4·0–5·2) and NH4+-N (106–213 g/kg total N) and low lactic acid (16–86 g/kg DM) contents. Damage to herbage caused by the injection tines on taller swards (treatments I at 6 and 2 weeks before cutting) was evident and the injection process was impeded by tall grass. This contributed to herbage contamination with soil and slurry on these treatments and, consequently, to poor silage fermentation. Silages made with slurry application method T at all timings showed improved fermentation characteristics compared with the other treatments, particularly at North Wyke. The results indicate that silage quality is unlikely to be compromised by slurry applications made in early spring, during February, March or even in April, where these are at agronomically sensible rates. Such practice will enable better utilization of slurry nitrogen (N), reducing risks of nutrient losses via leaching or surface runoff. Furthermore, shallow injection and, particularly, trailing shoe slurry application techniques may be used to increase flexibility of slurry management by allowing more immediate spreading before cutting than with conventional surface broadcasting, without detriment to silage quality.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of IFRS adoption on MENA's emerging stock markets and to shed some light on the macro-economic determinants which have had an important influence on stock market development. The empirical study is conducted using a balanced panel data from 14 Middle Eastern and North African region countries. Econometrics issues are based on estimations of two random effects specifications. We find that the adoption of IFRS affects positively and significantly stock market development. This paper has some policy implications for MENA region countries. In order to promote stock market development in the region, it is important to encourage non-adopting countries to harmonise their accounting standards with IASB's ones. Most existing empirical literature has focused largely on the consequences of IFRS at the firm-level. In this paper, we examine the country-level association between IFRS adoption and stock market development. This paper aims at making an in-depth analysis of 14 MENA countries' financial markets in order to assess how they can improve their capital markets, and hence, be of benefit to the global investor.


A method is given by means of which quasi-permanent "velocity" fields may be constructed in which absolute vorticity is conserved if the atmosphere is treated as barotropic. For vorticity displacements these fields may be considered as constant for time intervals of the order of magnitude 24 hrs. Some simple approximate integration formulae are given for the Poisson- and Helmholz-equations. A graphical procedure is introduced to derive the isolines of vorticity and to perform the integration work. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1952.tb01003.x


This study examines the effect of agricultural extension services on poverty reduction among members of farmers' cooperative societies in Kano State Nigeria. The agricultural extension services is one the objectives of Farmers Empowerment Programme (FEP) which was designed and implemented under National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in 2007 with the sole purpose and mandate of fighting or alleviating poverty levels among members of farmers' cooperative societies in Kano State, Nigeria. In spite of the above mandate, there are several concerns (complaints) about the persistent increase of poverty level among farmers in Kano State in particular and Nigeria in general (Garba, 2006; National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 2010; Okpe and Abu, 2009; World Bank, 2015). In 2004, the national statistics showed that 68.9 million (54.89%) people were affected by poverty in Nigeria, but this problem has continued to get degenerated as the number of people living in poverty increased from 112.47 million (69%) in 2010 to 119 million (70%) in 2015 (National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 2004; 2010; 2012). While, in the geo-political Abstract: This study examines the effect of agricultural extension services on poverty reduction among members of farmers' cooperative societies in Kano State Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. Primary data collection method was used in which self-administered questionnaire were distributed to a total sample of 217 respondents selected from the target population of 498 members of farmers' multi-purpose cooperative societies. Pearson correlation and binary logistic regression model were used to determine the influence of agricultural extension services on poverty reduction among the respondents. The mean per capita expenditure was used as a dependent variable, while agricultural extension services as the independent variable. The results showed that getting access to market, access to inputs, access to credits, assisting poor farmers to improve their farming productivity, demonstration of farming methods, and assisting poor farmers to generate more income accounted for 63.09% variation in agricultural extension services. Further analysis from correlation and logistic regression showed that there was negative significant relationship between agricultural extension services and poverty reduction among members of farmers' cooperative societies in this research. This means that as agricultural extension services increases the poverty level among members of farmers' cooperative societies falls or decreases. The study recommended that providing good access to market, access to inputs, access to credits, assisting poor farmers to improve their farming productivity, demonstration of different farming methods, and assisting poor farmers to generate more income should be adequately taken into consideration.


A new boundary element formulation for analysis of shear deformable plates subjected to dynamic loading is presented. Fundamental solutions for the Mindlin plate theory are derived in the Laplace transform domain. The characteristics of the three flextural waves are studied in the time domain. It is shown that the new fundamental solutions exhibit the same strong singularity as in the static case.


Abstract : In 1957, a new method for the synthesis of methylphosphonous dichloride, in high yield, by the reduction of the aluminum chloride-phosphorus trichloride-methyl chloride complex in diethyl phthalate solution by finely powdered antimony, was developed. That this is a general method for the synthesis of the more volatile alkylphosphonous dichlorides was demonstrated by the preparation, in good yield, of a series of compounds from the aluminum chloride-phosphorus trichloride complexes formed from ethyl chloride, n-propyl chloride, i-propyl chloride, n-butyl chloride, and s-butyl chloride. As expected, isomerization occurred in the case of the normal alkyl chlorides. (Author)


Quasi-ballistic electrons injected from the $\mathrm{n}^{+}$ region into the gated n-region of the $\mathrm{n}^{+}\text{-}\mathrm{i}\text{-}\mathrm{n}\text{-}\mathrm{n}^{+}$ graphene FET (GFET) strongly drag the quasi-equilibrium electrons in the n-region. We found that this Coulomb drag can substantially influence the current-voltage characteristics leading to instability of graphene Dirac plasmons and resulting in coherent oscillations/ amplification in the terahertz range.


Cerebral abscess occurring in patients with congenital disease of the heart is rare and not commonly recognized. There are early recorded observations of cerebral abscess in patients dying with congenital heart disease, but it was not until 1880 that Ballet 1 first made clear the relationship of these two morbid conditions. The incidence of congenital heart disease varies considerably in the necropsy observations reported from different institutions. For example, 75 cases of this anomaly reported by Leech 2 from the Johns Hopkins Hospital constituted 1.29 per cent of all the cases in which necropsy was done, whereas the 105 cases of congenital anomalies of the heart or the great vessels reported by Gibson 3 from the cardiac service of the Children's Memorial Hospital were 5.4 per cent of the 1,950 cases of infants on whom autopsy was performed. Cerebral abscess as a complication is not mentioned by either author. All


Axon P systems are a class of spiking neural P systems. In this paper, the axon P systems are used as number generators and language generators. As a language generator, the relationships of the families of languages generated by axon P systems with finite and context-free languages are considered. As a number generator, a characterization of the family of finite sets can be obtained by axon P systems with only one node. The relationships of sets of numbers generated by axon P systems with semilinear sets of numbers are also investigated. This paper partially answers some open problems formulated by H. Chen, T.-O. Ishdorj and Gh. Păun.


Temporary obturator' is necessary for maxillectomy procedures to minimise functional disabilities of speech and the swallowing of food and fluid following surgery. It also provides a base to hold surgical packing and/ or tissue conditioners in place. This packing helps to restore function and counter act contraction during healing of the ,tissues at the operated site. Dental clinicians are often faced with the problem of surgical staffs requesting an obturator for their patients at short notice. This article describes a fast technique of constructing an immediate surgical obturator.


The LupusQoL is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure for patients with lupus.We conducted this study to compare the efficiency of LupusQoL with the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), a generic quality of life (QoL) scale, in Russian patients with lupus. Both questionnaires were conducted for one visit to the clinic.Disease activity was evaluated by the SLEDAI-2K, and chronic damage by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Damage Index score (SDI). Associations between the LupusQoL and SF-36 domains were examined, while also examining age, disease duration, and disease activity for each questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation coefficients, and Students t test were performed to analyze the data.A total of 400 patients with lupus (F/M 363:37, mean age 34,2±11.5 years, mean disease duration 106,3±91,9.0 months) were included, and 63 % of these were active and 56 % of these had SDI≥1. The mean SLEDAI 2K score was 9,6±8,0.QOL as assessed by SF-36 and LupusQoL was low in this group of patients with SLE. The mean scores for each of the domains of the LupusQoL and SF-36 are shown in Table 1. The mean scores are < 60 in 8 domains of the SF-36 but not in social functioning (62,03±27,19) and physical function (62,35±28,53).Table 1.Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient for SF-36 and LupusQoLLupusQoLdomainsMean (SD)SF-36domainsMean (SD)rPComparablePhysical health66,20±23,18PF62,35±28,530,770,96Emotional health64,65±24,75MH50,51±8,400,380,94Pain70,03±24,68BP47,0±8,86-0,330,02Fatigue62,7±24,73VT53,04±22,59-0,700,83NoncomparablePlanning63,90±28,46SF62,03±27,19Intimaterelationships72,92±30,93GH49,14±20,51Burden to others50,68±27,79RE49,84±43,86Body image65,18±27,60RP40,46±41,35PCS45,15±7,65MCS48,46±5,41The MCS and PCS scores were both < 50. Despite the fact that the mean score in LupusQoL was always higher than in SF-36 for each of the comparable domains, 3 standardized p values were not statistically significant (mean score in 400 patient visits: physical health/physical function, 66,20±23,18/62,35±28,53, p = 0.96; emotional health/mental health, 64,65±24,75/50,51±8,40, p = 0.94; and fatigue/vitality 62.70 ± 24.73/53.04 ± 22.59, p = 0.83), 1 standardized p value was statistically significant - pain/bodily pain 70.03 ± 24.68/47.00 ± 8.86, p = 0.02. The correlation of the comparable domains of LupusQoL and SF-36 was studied. There was a strong correlation between comparable domains in LupusQoL and SF-36 in 400 patient visits (physical health and physical functioning, r = 0.77; emotional health and role emotional, r = 0.38; pain and bodily pain, r = -0,33; and fatigue and vitality, r =- 0.70; all p values < 0.0001).For the 4 non-comparable domains of the LupusQoL, there was a correlation between 3 domains of LupusQoL and 1 of the component scores of SF-36: body image and SF-36 MCS, r = 0.20; planning and SF-36 MCS, r = 0.13, r = 0.73; and burden to others and SF-36 MCS, r = 0.19; body image and SF-36 PCS,r=0,38; planning and SF-36 PCS,r=0,66; and burden to others and SF-36 PCS,r=0,38.The LupusQoL-Russian is sensitive to change in SLE patients with active SLE. LupusQoL and SF-36 were equivalent in assessing the HRQOL in the Russian SLE patients. Both LupusQoL and SF-36 are easily completed by patients and correlate very well with each other.None declared


Concepts of causation are discussed, as are alternative explanations of an association other than causation. Nine types of genetically sensitive natural experiments are described, together with their assumptions and limitations. Social selection biases can be dealt with by designs involving the universal introduction or removal of risks. The use of instrumental variables is discussed in relation to early puberty, China's one-child policy, and Mendelian randomization. Regression discontinuity designs are described as a way of dealing with confounders. We end by considering whether natural experiments are really needed, and we conclude that they are. We note that natural experiment opportunities are widely available and do not constitute a discrete number of designs.

Keywords:

social selection;
genetic mediation;
reverse causation;
confounding variable;
multivariate twin designs;
discordant twin pairs;
discordant sib pairs;
children of twins (CoT) design;
extended children of twins (eCoT) design;
longitudinal twin and parent design;
adoption studies;
assisted reproduction technologies;
maternal versus paternal smoking;
migration strategies;
twin–singleton comparison;
time-series design;
universal risk design;
instrumental variables;
Mendelian randomization;
regression-discontinuity design


We present a solution for a variant of the 2D containment problem, to create a texture atlas. The texture atlas is an efficient color representation for a given VRML scene. It contains a composition of several texture images stored in one file. The containment problem is the question how to place a set of shapes into a "container shape" without overlapping, while minimizing the area of the container. In our case we place a set of texture images of arbitrary shape into a rectangle. We use a heuristic search algorithm based on Minkowski operators to solve the 2D translational containment problem. This particular problem is called packing problem and is known to be NP-complete. We present its practical implementation and show results measured on several test scenes.


Introduction The production of Kraft pulp is an important industrial process. At a typical Kraft pulp mill, this process involves the reaction of wood fiber with cooking liquor (sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide, and sodium carbonate). The byproducts of the bleaching process, which need to be surveyed according to environmental regulations, are hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide.


In this letter, we propose and demonstrate a novel implementation of optical carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection to efficiently transport Ethernet frames over a star coupler (SC) based passive optical network. We introduce a redirection mechanism at the SC to achieve high channel efficiency.


Background: Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L) is an annual hardy crop grown in India from Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south, to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal in the north. It is known to have high drought tolerance and, for its potential to sustain in marginally less fertile soil. The grain has high nutritional properties thus possess medicinal values. Owing to multiple utility factors and sustainable growth rate amidst climate change, makes it an ideal crop for cultivation. In the present study accessions of Kodo millet ((Paspalum scrobiculatum L) from twelve different geographical regions of India were evaluated for quantitative and qualitative traits to determine its growth conditions under varied climatic conditions.Methods: Total of 96 indigenous germplasm were collected across the country and were sown in a breeding farm to grow selectively healthy crops in a randomized block design manner during kharif 2012 & 2013. Observations of quantitative traits were recorded on five arbitrarily selected plants in each replication for different physiological traits.Results: The statistical data revealed significant differences among all the studied accessions. Mainly IC482729 and IC404789 from Tamil Nadu had high biomass, straw yield, and yield per plant. IC396004 from Chhattisgarh showed advantageous performance in earliness with medium plant height. Therefore, the present findings helped in identifying elite germplasm accessions and could be effectively used in the Kodo millet enhancement program.


Single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy techniques such as Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) and single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) not only possess an unprecedented high sensitivity but also have high temporal and spatial resolution. Therefore, they have an immense potential both in investigation of fundamental biological principles and in clinical applications. FCS analyses are based on both theoretical approximations of the beam geometry and assumptions of the underlying molecular processes. To address the accuracy of analysis, firstly the experimental conditions that should be fulfilled in order to obtain reliable physical parameters are discussed and the input parameters are carefully controlled accordingly to demonstrate the performance of FCS measurements on our home-built confocal multiparameter photon-counting microscope in several in vitro and in vivo applications. Secondly, we performed a comprehensive FCS analysis of rhodamine family of dyes to evaluate the validity of assigning the correlation relaxation times to the time constant of conformational dynamics of biomolecules. While it is the common approach in literature our


A large family of plasmas has collisional mean-free-path much longer than the non-neutral sheath width, which scales with the plasma Debye length. The plasmas, particularly the electrons, assume strong temperature anisotropy in the sheath. The temperature in the sheath flow direction ([Formula: see text]) is lower and drops toward the wall as a result of the decompressional cooling by the accelerating sheath flow. The electron temperature in the transverse direction of the flow field ([Formula: see text]) not only is higher but also spikes up in the sheath. This abnormal behavior of [Formula: see text] spike is found to be the result of a negative gradient of the parallel heat flux of transverse degrees of freedom ( qes) in the sheath. The non-zero heat flux qes is induced by pitch-angle scattering of electrons via either their interaction with self-excited electromagnetic waves in a nearly collisionless plasma or Coulomb collision in a collisional plasma, or both in the intermediate regime of plasma collisionality.


Background: The specific mechanism of action of each anesthetic drug on the immune system is still incompletely known. It is important to know how the various anesthetics used in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) act on the inflammatory response because the choice of the anesthetic agent can influence the patient's immune system. Aim: Evaluation of the effect of anesthetic drugs used for total intravenous anesthesia (Propofol and Midazolam) on the inflammatory response after minimally invasive gynecological surgery. Patients, Materials and Methods: The inflammatory response in 20 female patients who underwent minimally invasive gynecological surgery under which intravenous anesthesia was performed. Depending on the combination of anesthetics used, we subdivided the study group into two groups, Group 1 consisting of the patients (n=10) who were given for total intravenous anesthesia, the combination with Midazolam+Fentanyl, and Group 2 (n=10) the patients who received the combination of Propofol+Fentanyl, respectively. Surgical interventional procedures included day surgery: diagnostic and operative hysteroscopy, endometrial ablation, surgical treatment of vulvar disorders. Serological profiling of patients was performed by dosing the serum concentration of nucleotide-binding domain (NOD) and leucine-rich repeat protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes, interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), IL-10 before and two hours after the surgical procedure. Results: In our study, we found that in both groups of patients (Midazolam+Fentanyl – Group 1, Propofol+Fentanyl – Group 2), NLRP3 and cytokines concentrations in the serum were higher after MIS than those before MIS. Conclusions: It appears that both Midazolam and Fentanyl and Propofol and Fentanyl have an immunomodulatory action due to the anti-inflammatory effect of both anesthetics. Therefore, anesthesiologists must choose an anesthetic method that uses individualized anesthetic agents, depending on the patient's immune status and disease.


Thank you for reading the defence of truth herbert of cherbury and the seventeenth century. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their chosen novels like this the defence of truth herbert of cherbury and the seventeenth century, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they cope with some malicious virus inside their laptop.


There is no real attempt here to consider the complexities of the debate, and no allusion to the careful work of linguists such as Murison and Aitken. The argument that the distinction between sixteenth-century Scots and English is simply an invention of nationalistic literary critics is worrying. The suggestion that "the fervour of Scottish nationalism . . . is currently in the process of recreating its historical narrative fiction as a symbol of Scottish independence from England" (p. 7) makes a reductive and generalizing claim about the objectivity and value of much important historical and literary research. Robinson's critical approach is often unmeasured, and beyond this there are major problems with the presentation of the text, which would have benefited immensely from more strenuous proofreading: imbedded for embedded (p. 2); A Palace in the Wild referred to throughout as A Place in the Wild; Janet Hadley Williams becomes Janet Williams in the bibliography; Gregory Kratzmann is identified as Kratzman; Douglas's translation of the Aeneid is found in the bibliography under Virgil, with the title unitalicized, and one bibliographical reference is simply to "Press, New Jersey" (p. 180). Such errors are avoidable, and do nothing to ameliorate the more fundamental problems with this book. The attempt to examine Scots literature alongside that of contemporary English literature is laudable, but unfortunately the book's contents do not live up to the promise suggested by the title. Kate McClune Merton College, Oxford


The present invention relates to a home network and a method of channel allocation. The home network, first a plurality of having a cue data of the first judges whether or not the data having the priority for the data packet unit received from the buffer, an external server that stores the data to be provided to each device temporarily transport cost a priority detection unit, several packet frames for sensing that includes a sensing portion, the possible available channels according to the number at one time transfer of a packet detected by the frame detection section for one frame of data stored in the buffer placed in the buffer queue It characterized in that it comprises a channel assignment to assigning a channel to the extent. As a result, it is possible to reduce the delay time of the radio data, it is possible to improve the picture quality of video services. Further, by assigning on the basis of the order in which data is input channels, it is possible to ensure the performance of all of the devices. The home network, a home gateway, a frame, packet, channel, assignment


A SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infectious, removed) compartmental model is constructed to represent disease progress in a two cultivar mixture. The concept of the spore pool is the means by which inoculum exchange between the constituent cultivars is represented. Infection frequencies for each cultivar are permitted to vary with that cultivar's susceptible fraction according to a power-law relationship. For each cultivar, new additions to the susceptible class balance deaths from the removed class so that the total leaf area of all four SEIR classes remains constant. It is shown that an equilibrium with non-zero diseased classes exists in a certain parameter regime. A numerical stability analysis is performed using the model equations linearised about this equilibrium. The effects of changing induced resistance parameters within the model are demonstrated graphically. It is also demonstrated that the proportion of susceptibles as a function of mixture composition has an optimum in the regime where nontrivial equilibria exist, a feature of practical interest provided that equilibrium is reached within a growing season.


The present invention relates to a metering device for metering the dispensed fluid, in this apparatus, the storage container and connected to the metering head, wherein the mandrel is guided in the metering head and having a passage for transferring fluid.


Little is known about the communication abilities, needs, and services provided for children who are homeschooled. The current study utilized a national survey to explore this topic and to better inform future research to determine if families who homeschool have the necessary resources for information, support, and services regarding children's speech, language, and literacy abilities. The participants of this study were contacted through a variety of homeschool associations via social media. The survey was developed through Qualtrics and guided by resources from two existing surveys directed towards homeschool education (Lewis, Robertson, Parsons, 2005; United States of Commerce, 2008). The survey was distributed and opened during a four-week span. Ninety-eight participants answered questions about whether they were aware of services available to them through their state, if their child(ren) had received any previous speech and hearing services, their child(ren)'s development, and their interest in receiving extra information about communication skills and/or speech-language pathology services. Sixty parents indicated in the survey that they were aware of what public resources were available to them and their family. Out of 118 reported children, 24 children were reported as not typically developing in one or more areas (speech, language, reading, writing). Only 22 parent participants indicated interest in receiving additional information/education about different areas of development and/or speechShelby Hinrichs Speech and Language Skills, Needs, & Services 2 language services. It is vital that researchers explore this area more, in order to inform home educators about the developmental expectations in the areas of speech, language, and literacy and to educate this population about the public resources available to them. THE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE SKILLS, NEEDS, AND SERVICES FOR CHILDREN WHO HOMESCHOOL: A NATIONAL SURVEY When considering education, identifying which form of schooling is optimal for a particular student can be controversial. For some families, homeschooling is the answer to this debate. The number of people homeschooling their children in the United States is growing rapidly (Ray, 2018). Currently there are roughly 2.3 million children being homeschooled from ages five to seventeen years (Ray, 2018). These many unknowns, such as the speech-language needs and services available for students who are homeschooled; the current study aims to explore this particular topic. First, however, a review of what is known about the homeschool population is provided. Demographics of Families Who Homeschool Homeschool education is not owned by a certain race, geographical area, or even socioeconomic background. Even though the vast majority of students who are homeschooled may be white, there are many other ethnicities in the homeschool community including Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Pacific Islanders (Ray, 2018). Homeschool education is prevalent across settings, as 41% live in rural areas, 28% live in suburbs, and 21% live in cities (Ray, 2018). Furthermore, according to a recent survey, the gender of students who participate in homeschool education is fairly equal, as about 54% percent of students who are homeschooled are female and 46% percent are male (Ray, 2018). Reasons for Choosing Homeschooling Shelby Hinrichs Speech and Language Skills, Needs, & Services 3 Many explanations have revealed the recent increase in homeschooling popularity. For example, personal beliefs such as religious views are one of the main reasons parents indicate as rationale for their decision to homeschool. According to Vieux (2014), homeschooling was the number one type of education that appealed to religious conservatives with concerns regarding the public school curriculum. In 2014, 36% of parents with children who were homeschooled indicated that they took their children into home education due to the desire to provide more of a religious structure, and this statistic continues to grow (Vieux, 2014). In addition, homeschool education's growth has expanded as parents developed concerns after their child started in a public or private school system. Some of these concerns included the safety of their children. These situations have been associated with school security and bullying (Ray, 2018). According to Brian Ray from National Center for Education Statistics (2018), 91% percent of parents were strongly concerned about the atmosphere and the environment of schools which included the issues of safety, drug use, peer pressure, and bullying. Some parents were not only concerned about the child's physical well-being, but also disappointed in academic environments, as 74% percent of parents surveyed indicated that they were dissatisfied with learning styles brought into public schools (Ray, 2018). Dissatisfaction towards academic systems has been a double-ended issue spanning from parents believing that no one was challenging their child enough in the classroom, to the opposite end of the spectrum where parents thought that their child wasn't getting the essential support they needed in the classroom (Ray, 2018). Specifically, parents of children with special needs deal with this first hand, which is why they have also found that home education has been a positive change to their family and child's life. In 2013, 17% percent of parents who have their Shelby Hinrichs Speech and Language Skills, Needs, & Services 4 children participating in home education were because their child had special needs (Ray, 2018). Even though the majority of reasons for home education of children were because of unhappiness, dissatisfaction, or other "push" factors, some parents decided that home education adapted to their daily life and better suited their child(ren)'s academic needs. In addition to the factors provided from parents' criticism, the prominent statistics comparing homeschooling to public school systems had been the leading factor that has drawn societal interest towards homeschooling. Recent statistics have shown high success rates in relation to home education in many areas of standardized testing. According to Brian Ray, in 2015 homeschool students typically scored 15 to 30 percentiles above public school students on academic achievement tests. These students also received above average SAT and ACT test scores; colleges take this into consideration when they recruit and award scholarships to students who are homeschooled (Ray, 2016). Not only have some parents noticed advancement in their children's academics, but homeschooling can also strengthen family ties. Studies completed in Israel (Guterman & Neuman, 2017) have revealed parents' opinions about the relationships among their families. These parents reported a substantial impact in relationships between children and parents, and also between siblings regardless of family size (Guterman & Neuman, 2017). Strengthening family relationships is not the only thing that there is more time for when utilizing home education, but also more time is available for children to get further involved in other activities. For example, many famous people like Tim Tebow, Simone Biles, and numerous music artists were homeschooled due to their commitments in specific areas such as athletics, music, and acting (Top Education Degrees, 2018).


As a result of studies of the values of the technical characteristics of self-propelled rod sprayers of domestic and foreign models and modifications, the values of the mass, power of the installed engine and the volume of the working fluid tank are analyzed. Their correlation and dependence fields are obtained. The theoretical and empirical laws of the distribution series, the mathematical expectation, the standard deviation, the coefficient of variation, the confidence interval of the average value, the 95% range of the distribution of the values of the volume of the tank of the working fluid of the sprayers are determined.


Coal bottom ash (CBA), one of the coal combustion byproducts, is a source material good enough for the synthesis of geopolymers considering its high silica and alumina contents, although it has not been used widely because of large particle size. We grind CBA to have a mean particle size of 44.57 μm, and synthesize the geopolymer by activating it with 14 M NaOH solution. To achieve a high compressive strength within a short time, we synthesize the geopolymer by following the procedure: (1) mix CBA with an adequate amount of activator NOT to make it flowable, and then mold it in 5 cm cube, (2) demold specimens and heat them in 75 °C oven below 36 hours, and then (3) irradiate 700 W microwave for several minutes. The compressive strength reaches to above 40 MPa by microwaving specimen for 3 minutes after oven curing for 36 hours. Our experiment shows that high compressive strength can be achieved rapidly by employing microwave combined with conventional oven curing.


Psoriasis is a chronic, multifactorial inflammatory disease; its clinical severity can vary widely. Treatment of severe cases during pregnancy is of special interest. To date there is scarce information available and most data comes from other medical specialties that use similar treatments. Immunosuppressors are strongly discouraged during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Amongst biologic agents, anti‐TNFα having been the longest on the market has allowed for the most experience. It is known that transplacental transport of these drugs does not occur until gestational week 22, once organogenesis is completed. Within this group certolizumab pegol, seems to be the safest choice, as its molecular structure does not cross the placental barrier. Beyond pregnancy, it is important to take into account these drugs' half‐life and passage to breast milk, as well as its impact on neonatal immunization.


Shear behaviour of wall under in-plane loading of low rise load bearing type masonry buildings is of immense importance. This paper describes the nonlinear finite element analysis of the reinforced hollow concrete block masonry (RHCBM) wall highlighting the modeling details, assumptions and boundary conditions. Push over analysis was carried out using FEM program on a 6mx2.7m wall, varying various control parameters to study their effect on it's performance. The vertical reinforcement was varied from a low value (0.1%) to a relatively higher value(0.71%) in bundled form and as well as in distributed form. With the increase in reinforcement the increase in the load carrying capacity and improvement in cracking behaviour was observed in the wall The effect of horizontal reinforcement and the effect of vertical load on the wall, keeping other parameters as constant, was also studied. Very little amount of horizontal reinforcement also showed significant increase in the over all performance of the wall. Lateral loads versus deformation curves are drawn and the cracking patterns at different stages of loading are also plotted.


Portland cement concrete fracture properties—specific fracture energy, fracture toughness, and brittleness—were investigated for typical Michigan highway concretes containing different coarse aggregates and varying in age: 7,28, and 91 days. These fracture properties can be determined from the complete load-deflection curve of a notched beam. The effective beam is 965 mm long, 100 mm wide, and 200 mm high, with a 100-mm center notch. Results show that the specific fracture energy, which determines the resistance to crack propagation, for a concrete pavement mix is controlled primarily by the coarse aggregate type. Differences of 100 percent were obtained between aggregate types. A glacial gravel yielded the highest resistance (160 N/m), and the dolomitic limestones and blast furnace slag yielded the lowest resistance (80–100 N/m), although the concretes all had similar strength properties. The fracture toughness, resistance to crack initiation, was found to be linear related with concrete strength. Typically this results in improved early age fracture toughness for concretes containing dolomitic limestone and blast furnace slag as coarse aggregate, compared to glacial gravel, because natural aggregate concrete typically has slower strength gain initially. Concrete brittleness, based on the entire load-deflection response, showed that concretes containing stronger coarse aggregate, such as glacial gravel, are significantly less brittle at early ages than are concretes containing weaker aggregate. However, these stronger aggregate concretes become more brittle, and thus crack sensitive, over time.


In the counseling process ideally students are open in presenting their problems. But on the fact that the students is less open in expressing problems to the teachers of guidance of counseling. Therefore individual counseling services are the right choice in expressing the problems experienced by students at school. Through individual counseling students are open and can feel how to know themselves and help develop their potential. This article is a literature study that will explain the students' self-disclosure about problems in individual counseling services. The results of the literature review obtained under self-disclosure become one of the important things that must exist in the implementation of counseling, because self-disclosure as one indicator of closeness and disclosure of personal information as an individual's need to obtain solutions to the improvements made in each.


In our first note, we introduced the terminology adapted to a study of linear transformations in complex Hilbert space and discussed certain geometrical aspects of self-adjoint transformations. We shall now develop analytical representations of such transformations or operators. For this purpose it is necessary to define the concept of a canonical resolution of the identity:3 a canonical resolution of the identity is a family of special operators or projections, Ex, defined for all real values of X, with the properties


It is important to study history as it provides us with solutions to contemporary problems in the light of past experiences, and to study the negatives and positives of these solutions, and based on the principle that people with visual disabilities are a human energy that must be invested in order to serve the progress and prosperity of society, it is important to shed light on this category and contribute to conveying an honorable image of it. it may be a motive for others who were stopped by the extinguishing of the ray of light and insight from completing their lives for a spark of hope that would restore their passion for life, and the study aims to: Document the emergence of goalball for the blind Iraqi Paralympic Games, and document the formation of players and the administrative and technical staff of the Iraqi national team goal ball for the blind men advanced in the Asian championships For the period (2014-2022), documenting the participation and achievements of the Iraqi team with the blind men's goalball advanced in the Asian championships for the period (2014-2022), and critiquing and analyzing the participation and achievements of the Iraqi team with the blind men's goalball advanced in the Asian championships for the period (2014-2022), and identifying. The most important reasons and obstacles that prevented the Iraqi team from achieving advanced results in the Asian championships with the goal ball for the blind men. The two researchers adopted the historical inferential approach, based on the results obtained for the participation of the goal football team for the blind men, the advanced category in the Asian championships for the period from 2014 AD until 2022 AD, in order to fit this approach and the objectives of the study.  The target is for the blind men, the advanced category, and a number of coaches and administrators in the Iraqi Federation for the Blind Goal for the Blind. The two researchers reviewed a number of scientific references in the field of the history of physical education, sports for people with disabilities and visual impairment, as well as studies and research related to writing the theoretical framework for the study, in addition to newspapers and magazines. IBSA and the Paralympic Federation for West Asia WAPF, in addition to that, personal interviews were relied on with the players participating in the Asian Championships for the period (2014-2022), and a number of federation administrators according to an unregulated questionnaire, prepared by the two researchers aimed at organizing and classifying questions in a scientific manner.  To get acquainted with the information related to the problem of the study, as well as to identify the most important reasons and obstacles that prevented the achievement of advanced results in some of the specific Asian championships under study. The researchers concluded in the light of the results obtained from the study: that the participation of the advanced men's goal soccer team in the Asian regional tournaments is at the required level, since competition with teams that have a long history in this sport with better capabilities, and that the participation of the advanced men's goal soccer team has achieved a high achievement. The team won gold and silver medals in the three West Asian tournaments, because the team's players had experience in competing at the level of the teams participating in this tournament, and the availability of logistical aspects represented by the support, capabilities and efforts made by the players of the goal soccer team for the blind men, the advanced category and the device  Administrative and technical, as well as the appropriate choice in time and place, the involvement of the team's players in the internal and external camps, all of this contributed to achieving advanced positions and high achievement. In light of the findings of the two researchers, the most important recommendations came: the need to analyze and critique the participation and achievements of teams with visual disabilities in various sports, an analysis based on the scientific methodology, because any development we seek in any field, we must  Standing on the most important positives and trying to make a greater effort, and the failure to achieve the advanced and required level, calls us to identify the most important obstacles and reasons that prevented the achievement of the required level and high achievement, and then try to find appropriate solutions to them, and the need to increase interest in the sport of people with visual disabilities, as they are They consider a creative human energy that contributes to the progress and prosperity of society, the need to pay attention to historical studies of various events and periods of time, as they help us in setting strategic plans and predicting the future, and striving to provide all the requirements of modern training halls, equipment and tools, which contribute to raising the level of training for the blind goal ball to highest possible.


Three cases of optic disc edema arising from radiation optic neuropathy isolated to the intra-ocular optic nerve following external beam radiation for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are presented. A literature review of the etiology, presentation, and treatment is included for discussion, along with proposed diagnostic criteria.


Results are reported on a trial study conducted to determine the working status of luminaires in the patient wards of a representative hospital located in Ankara, Turkey. The sampling plan used took in four floors from an eleven-storey ward building having 3 semi-detached blocks with each floor allocated to a specific clinical department, and 36 patient rooms of varying accommodation from the total of 297 on the eleven floors; also in the sample were two types of access corridor from each of the four floors. Findings showed that the working status was independent of floors, but not of five other variables considered. Further investigations were considered necessary for broader generalisations and to determine underlying causes.


Aim:  Targeted newborn hearing screening for infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may be considered when resources preclude universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS). However, process outcomes have not been compared between stand‐alone NICU hearing screening programs and NICU screening within a full UNHS program.