Four fi eld experiments were conducted during 2003–2005 in north-east Thailand to study the effects of method and time of planting on seed production, forage production before closing to seed and forage as harvest stubble of 2 apomictic brachiaria hybrid cultivars, Mulato (Brachiaria ruziziensis × B. brizantha) and Mulato II (B. ruziziensis × B. decumbens × B. brizantha). Seed crops established by planting tillers produced 60% (Trial 2 vs Trial 1) and 117% (Trial 3) more seed than seed crops established by sowing seed. Crops planted with tillers produced approximately 20% more infl orescences and 90% more seeds/m2 than crops planted with seed. Planting early in the wet season (May–June) produced the most brachiaria hybrid seed in 3 out of 4 trials in the current study, with infl orescence numbers and seeds/m2 being the determining seed yield components. Forage production before closing to seed was signifi cantly higher in early-planted seed crops than those planted late and in crops planted with tillers than in those sown from seed. Seed yields of both hybrid cultivars were extremely low (≤ 150 kg/ha). The failure of cv. Mulato, in particular, to produce adequate quantities of good seed, was attributed to a failure of seed-set (most likely caused by pollen sterility), caryopsis maturation or a combination. The low seed production of cv. Mulato II was caused by waterlogging, because, in an adjacent trial with no waterlogging, seed yields were over 500 kg/ha.


1The University of Tokyo, Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, School of Engineering, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan 2The University of Tokyo, Nuclear Professional School, School of Engineering, Tokai-mura, Ibaraki 319-1188, Japan 3Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo 201-8511, Japan 4Tsinghua University, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing 100084, China


The voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) of the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM; Mannella & Kinnally, 2008)—also known as mitochondrial porin—has long been implicated in regulating the mitochondrial response to certain cell death stimuli (Galluzzi & Kroemer, 2007). This includes a potential role in MOM perme-abilization (MOMP) during apoptosis, which is a necessary step in the release of cytochrome c—a critical cofactor for downstream activation of caspases—from the organelle. Although controversial, it is possible that VDAC is a component of the permeability transition pore complex, and therefore its influence could also extend to the inner membrane, regulating membrane potential and ATP production. Among the strongest indications that VDAC has a role in the regulation of cell death are the reported interactions between VDAC and members of the BCL2 family of proteins. BCL2 proteins are important regulators of the mitochondrial pathway to apop-tosis (Youle & Strasser, 2008). The multi-BH-domain-containing, pro-apoptotic members BAX and BAK are the essential gateways to MOMP, and it has been suggested that both physically interact with VDAC (Galluzzi & Kroemer, 2007). In particular, Cheng and colleagues (2003) concluded that a minor VDAC isoform—known as VDAC2—acts to physically restrain BAK in the MOM in non-stimulated viable cells. However, death stimuli, including that elicited by truncated BID (tBID)—an activated, pro-apoptotic, BH3-only BCL2 family protein—displaced inactive BAK from VDAC2, promoting BAK oligomerization. In view of this collective evidence, it was a surprise when gene deletion studies suggested that all three Vdac gene products are dispensable for mitochondrial-dependent cell death in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs; Baines et al 2007). In addition to necrotic cell death driven by defects in the perme-ability transition pore—elicited, for example, by oxidative stress or calcium overload—a range of other stresses were also unaffected by the deletion of Vdac1–Vdac3. A compelling study by the Hajnoczky group, published in this issue of EMBO reports, now reprises the role of VDAC2 in regulating BAK, but suggests a function for VDAC2 that is diametrically opposed to the antagonism of BAK by VDAC2 reported by Cheng and colleagues (2003): VDAC2 promotes tBID-induced apoptosis by recruiting newly synthesized BAK to mitochondria. What is going on? Can three such divergent conclusions—no role, antagonism and promotion of apoptosis by VDAC2—be reconciled? The answer is probably yes, but the focus is on BAK and tBID. Reconstitution experiments using purified proteins or peptides and liposomes of known lipid composition have suggested a core pathway to MOMP, defined exclusively …


This paper investigates the reorientation of fibres and local mechanisms of deformation in a composite material inspired by the mechanics and structure of wood cell-walls. The mechanical response of the material is calculated under tensile loading conditions by means of the computational homogenisation of a two-dimensional representative volume element (RVE) of material. Here, the fibres are represented by a periodic alternation of alumina and magnesium alloy fractions, embedded in a soft epoxy matrix. In order to validate the present multi-scale framework, we compare our numerical prediction for the reorientation of fibres in the wood cell-wall composite with experimental data, finding a good agreement for a wide range of strains. Numerical simulations show that the model is able to describe the reorientation of fibres and the different stages of local deformation and failure in the proposed wood-inspired material. Furthermore, we assess a simple expression to calculate the reorientation of fibres and the in-plane Poisson's ratio of the present composite.


Abstract Portulaca umbraticola Kunth stem cuttings were treated with BA or BA and NAA in different concentrations. BA was applied by spraying or by the quick-dip method. Independent of application type, in almost all of the treatments BA and BA applied with NAA increased the percentage of rooted cuttings, but had no effect on the number of roots, apart from BA in the 0.5 g dm-3 concentration, which doubled the root number. Treatment with BA alone resulted in more intensive axillary shoot development, although only in one concentration (0.2 g dm-3) did BA significantly influence the number and length of lateral shoots. BA applied together with NAA had no effect or inhibited lateral shoot development. After measurement, rooted cuttings were planted in pots in order to assess subsequent plant growth. Our data indicated that the positive effect of BA on shoot development disappeared during the subsequent cultivation of the plants. BA alone applied by spraying did not influence the number and length of initial and secondary lateral shoots, whereas BA applied with NAA negatively influenced the length of initial lateral shoots as well as the number and length of secondary lateral shoots.


The effects of stimulating sympathetic nerve fibers and of intra-arterial norepinephrine on vascular pressures and resistances in muscle and paw of perfused forelegs of dogs were compared by means of small vessel cannulations and during constant blood flow. The following conclusions may be drawn: 1. Sympathetic nerve stimulation causes constriction of the large artery segment predominantly. The constriction appears to be most intense at the level of the carpus. 2. The large artery constriction at the level of the carpus diverts blood flow away from the paw and into more proximal muscular parts of the foreleg. 3. Changes in segmental vascular resistances during nerve stimulation differ in paw and muscle. In the paw, venous segments constrict markedly whereas small vessel segments usually dilate and may constrict minimally; but in the muscle, arterial and small vessel segments constrict more than venous segments. 4. The effects of norepinephrine differ from those of nerve stimulation. Norepinephrine causes constriction of small vessels in paw predominantly. Constriction of both small vessel and venous segments in paw exceeds constriction of corresponding segments in muscle.


Guangxi Huashan Frescos is as famous as Guilin scenery.As tourism and culture departments further develop Huashan Frescos resources and tourism scenery,tourism product market of Huashan Frescos would come into being.In this paper,national custom and craftwork relating to Huashan Frescos is analyzed;and the element distilling from national Characteristics is used to design tourism products.At the end of this paper,a specific design is put forward.


Glypican-6 (GPC6) is a cell surface co-receptor to transduce growth factor and protease signaling and regulate cell proliferation and differentiation. Altered GPC6 expression was associated with human tumorigenesis. This study investigated the effects of GPC6 knockdown on regulation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell proliferation, cell cycle distribution, and colony formation in vitro. A lentivirus-carrying GPC6 shRNA or negative control was used to infect nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2Z cells. Levels of GPC6 mRNA and protein were assayed using qRT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Cell proliferation was detected using Celigo cell counting, while cell cycle distribution was assessed using flow cytometry. Colony formation was assayed using PI-FACS. GPC6 mRNA was expressed in CNE2Z cells, and lentivirus-carrying GPC6 shRNA decreased levels of GPC6 mRNA and protein in CNE-2Z cells. GPC6 knockdown reduced tumor cell proliferation and colony formation as well as number of cells at G1 phase of the cell cycle, but increased the number of cells at the S and G2/M phases. This study demonstrated that GPC6 knockdown has a critical effect on proliferation and colony formation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells; thus, GPC6 may be a potential target in treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.


Glue-induced stresses decrease the accuracy of surface-mounted fiber Bragg gratings (FBG). Significant temperature dependent glue-induced birefringence was verified when a thermally cured epoxy-based bonding technique had been used. Determining the peak separation of two azimuthally aligned FBGs in PM fibers combined with a polarization resolved measurement set-up in a temperature range between -30°C and 150°C revealed high glue-induced stresses at low temperatures. Peak separations of about 60 pm and a nonlinear temperature dependence of the glue-induced birefringence due to stress relaxation processes and a visco-elastic behavior of the used adhesive have been shown.


Purpose: This research project compared the accuracy of 3 methods of meniscal injury diagnosis that are commonly employed in a clinical orthopaedics: Clinical examination, MRI and Arthroscopic surgery. Method: A retrospective review of charting was used to collect meniscal injury assessment data for 116 patients that had sustained an acute anterior cruciate ligament injury to one knee. Sixty-eight of the 116 patients had the presence of a meniscal lesion confirmed via surgery. Sensitivity and specificity of "hands on" clinical examination and MRI interpretation were determined using the results of arthroscopic surgery as the gold standard. Sensitivity and specificity of "hands on" clinical examination relative to MRI interpretation was also calculated. Finally, the findings of all three methods of meniscal evaluation were compared. Results: Accuracy testing demonstrated that the sensitivity and specificity of clinical examinations (0.54 / 0.81) was comparable to levels observed for MRI (0.69 / 0.70), and when directly comparing the findings of clinical examination against MRI, that there was a high level of agreement when a meniscal lesion was not present (specificity: 0.91), but a much lower level of agreement when a meniscal lesion was suspected (sensitivity: 0.54). In general, when comparing the findings from clinical examination, MRI, and arthroscopic surgery, complete agreement among all 3 methods of evaluation occurred in only 51% of the patients. Conclusion: Our results serve to highlight the inaccuracies associated with meniscal injury assessment when evaluating an acutely traumatized knee joint, and suggest that the incidence of secondary joint trauma following ligament injury may be under predicted.


According to Health Canada, the proportion of Canadians aged 65 and over rose from 4.8% in 1921 to 12.3% in 1998. This cohort is projected to grow further before reaching a plateau at more than 20% of the population by the year 2026. This trend is not unique; similar predictions have been made for both industrialized and nonindustrialized countries worldwide. Not surprisingly, a great deal of effort has been expended attempting to predict the impact of this demographic drift on the provision of health care. Less examined, however, has been the effect of this trend on health care providers themselves. Already in Ontario, Canada, however, one in four family practitioners and one in three specialists are over 55 years of age. While the rate of physicians' retirements has been increasing, these older physicians are going to become an ever-more-valuable resource as the ratio of physicians to population declines. Most of the medical education research that has used age as an independent variable has been performed in the context of physician-review programs. This literature suggests that aging induces cognitive changes in the way that diagnosticians approach clinical cases. There are discrepant findings, however, in terms of whether clinical performance improves or declines with aging. In this paper we systematically examine the small amount of evidence available in medical education that highlights the issue of aging and attempt to reconcile contradictory findings by drawing on the much larger psychological literature on pre-senile aging. Finally, we identify some of the specific implications for continuing education.


Recently, as the service condition of high temperature components are becoming severer and almost beyond its ultimate performance, protective coatings are expected to be effective solutions to keep the reliability and durability of high efficiency apparatus. Thermal barrier coatings(TBCs) have been applied to cool down the metal temperature and to protect damage under thermal exposure of hot gas path components in gas turbines[1]. As TBCs are used in very severe conditions, thermally induced damage and material degradation are inevitably induced during service and delamination of coating layer may occur finally as the result of coalescing multiple lateral cracks and some vertical cracks after the evolution of oxide layer between top coat and bond coat schematically shown in Fig.1. However, the mechanism of damage and degradation is still not clear enough because there are so many factors affecting the delamination life[2]. Therefore, one objective of this paper is to focus on how the EBSD observation of thermal exposure samples of TBC top coatings can be applied to identify the particle morphologies after the plasma spraying and another is to evaluate the damage process until the delamination of top coatings. Optical microscope observation was conducted on laboratory test samples of TBC system after thermal exposure using electric furnace and for measuring the pore fraction amounts during the process. SEM observation was also conducted to measure cracks induced by thermal exposure. It should be noted that the detailed microstructural features of TBC top coat have not been clearly observed by the conventional optical microscope or scanning electron microscope (SEM) because those measures cannot reveal the detailed proper boundaries of top coat splat particles. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) method[3][4] is expected to be an effective tool for observing the morphologies of such particles, but the application of EBSD to the TBCs has not been popularized enough due to the difficulties in preparing the observation surface of TBCs and in identifying the exact crystal systems. We demonstrate the current status for visualizing the splat morphologies in top coat by EBSD and depict some problems in applying the technique. EDS(Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy)


Application of cricoid pressure during rapid sequence induction (RSI) of anaesthesia leads to difficult airway. No channeled videolaryngoscope (VL) has been compared with the Macintosh laryngoscope for facilitating intubation in RSI. Thus, we compared Airtraq® VL with Macintosh laryngoscope for simulated RSI in patients scheduled for elective surgeries.Following approval from Institutional Ethics Committee-Human Research, this randomized study was conducted. Patients of either sex, aged 18-65yr, ASA grade I/II, scheduled for elective surgeries under GA were included. 'Group DL' underwent direct laryngoscopy (DL) using Macintosh laryngoscope and Group VL with Airtraq® videolaryngoscope. Time taken for intubation, Cormack-Lehane (CL) grade of laryngeal view, number of intubation attempts, and haemodynamic parameters were noted. Student t-test and chi square test were used for statistical analysis.A total of 140 patients with 70 in each group were included. The mean time taken for intubation was significantly higher in VL group (84.70 ± 28.05s) than DL group (23.90 ± 6.67s). The optimal laryngeal view (i.e. CL grade I or II) was significantly improved in VL group than DL group i.e. 97% vs 94%. In group DL, 99% (n=69) were intubated in first attempt; whereas 60% (n=42) in Group VL (p<0.001). Hemodynamics was better in group VL.Airtraq® VL is better than conventional Macintosh laryngoscope for endotracheal intubation during RSI in terms of optimal glottic view, ease of intubation and haemodynamics. On the contrary, the "time taken to intubation" and the first attempt intubation rate were higher with Airtraq® VL.


OBJECTIVE
The reproductive goals of married couples living in impoverished areas of China affect survival rates and quality of life of female children in those areas. The goal of this study was to collect information on parents' attitudes toward reproduction, gender preferences/prejudices, and to collect relevant socioeconomic and demographic data.

METHODS
Random sample families were enrolled from 3 poverty counties. Sample size included parents of 1800 children from birth to 6 years old. The children were divided into 6 age groups at one-year interval. Baseline data were collected and a questionnaire (endorsed by UNICEF) was used to evaluate reproductive expectations and gender preferences of parents.

RESULTS
(1) The success of the One Child Family program has lead to a decreased overall birthrate. (2) The gender ratio (boys:girls) of the 3 counties studied was 100:87-100:95-100:97. No gender imbalance was found in this study. (3) The "Boy Preference" was still expressed by both fathers (69.0%) and mothers (65.7%). Approximately 40% of fathers and 37% of mothers interviewed expressed that only a male child would be acceptable. (4) Approximately 65% of both fathers and mothers recognize that girls are more likely to care for aging parents.

CONCLUSION
Government initiatives have encouraged small families, yet in this region gender ratio of newborns is still normal. More educational and social programs are needed to influence perceptions regarding gender and to eliminate the suboptimal status/poorly perceived value of girls in many societies.


the public-health sphere. Part of the problem seems to be the topical organization of the book, which gives little sense of broad chronological changes. The reader should also be mindful that McKeown's view of improved nutrition as the crucial factor in infectious-disease decline, which is the view followed by Smith, has been recently challenged on the basis of new demographic evidence. Simon Szreter's 'The Importance of Social Intervention in Britain's Mortality Decline' (SocialHistory f Medicine, • 988) convincingly makes the case that 'directed human agency' in the form of public-health measures may have been of far more importance than ill-defined rising living standards. While Szreter leaves open the question of an indirect relationshp between sanitary measures and improved nutritional efficiency due to lowered incidence of intestinal diseases, Smith's work avoids any such complexities. Nevertheless, the book remains a vivid and informative account of a


First- and second-harmonic dielectric susceptibilities are maidenly studied on Samarium Orthoferrite of mesoscopic/500 nm and nanoscopic/55 nm grainsizes. Magneto-electrically coupled to the antiferromagnetic and spin-reorientation transitions, fundamental and harmonic dielectricity consistently reflect the global/local polarization effects of crystallite-size dependent electrical orderings. Bulk and incipient ferroelectricity respectively in nanoscopic and mesoscopic crystallites concur the higher-temperature antiferromagnetic ordering (T_N ~670 K). Upon the spin-reorientation transition at lower-temperature (T_SR ~470 K), re-entrant relaxor state in the nano-crystallites and bulk-like/temperature-windowed ferroelectricity in the meso-crystallites emerge. In the nano-crystallites, magneto-electric signature of interfacial spins' de-pinning (T_SP ~540 K) is exclusively revealed by the scaled-harmonics.


Review of Theune, Michael, and Bob Broad. We Need to Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry. Multilingual Matters, 2017. It's your first time on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. November in Illinois is surprisingly bitter. It's the wind, you think, uncertain how it gathers such velocity when all coasts are hundreds of miles away. You make it through the Eckley Quadrangle and to the English building, where you're meeting Michael Theune and Bob Broad to discuss their latest book, We Need to Talk: A New Method for Evaluating Poetry. You're thankful when you're out of the cold and in Michael's office, the three of you sitting around a table, until Michael stands. "Coffee?" he asks, grabbing a carafe and filling a cup of his own. "Please," you say. Michael takes a cup from a stand on a bookshelf, fills it, and places it in front of you. "Cream or sugar?" "Black's fine. Thanks," you tell him. Michael fills a third cup and sets it in front of Bob, smiling as he sits. "We've known each other awhile," he says, "Bob and I. I know how he likes his coffee." You smile. "Thanks for agreeing to meet with us," Bob says.


The concept of metacognitive learning with a spiritual approach is to focus on the role of mind and language and how to apply it in reading to improve emotional of intelligence in understanding the universal meaning of the text. This essay uses the approach Centered Attention of Meditation (FA). That is to focus the mind on objects, images, or words in sentences that are understood to add insight to the context of what the author explained, to connect the reader to understand the mind and language. This essay is here to open the freezing of the universal meaning of the text from what covers the mind and the meaning of language with the reading formula (B+B), namely "Stop and Think". Human language is a linguistic structure that must be understood through understanding of meditation.


The formed coke making of Hunter Valley (slightly fusible) coal copreheattreated Hunter Valley has been studied using petroleum pitch A 240 as a coking additive to reveal the effects of copreheattreatment and carbonization conditions on the strength and CO2 reactivity of the resultant formed coke by considering their mutual relation.The copreheated coal prepared under rather milder conditions (around 450°C within 15 min) exhibited better fusibility at the carbonization stage, providing a solid formed coke of high strength when carbonized in a vessel without moulding pressure at a low heating rate. In contrast, higher forming pressure and higher heating rate resulted in a expanded coke of low strength. The copreheattreated coals prepared under severe conditions (at higher temperature than 480°C for longer soaking time than 8.0min) did not fuse well when carbonized at a lower heating rate without forming pressure, resulting in the low strength. These severely copreheattreated coals required to get high strength formed coke higher pressure of around 200kg/cm2 and smaller particle size less than 100 mesh before forming. A high heating rate at the carbon-ization was also favorable for the high strength.Such results suggest that the amount of volatile matter, its released rate at the carbonization stage and the size of pore remained after the forming affect the fusibility and adhesion extent of copreheattreated coal particles in the carbonization stage.Fine grained mosaic anisotropy was developed in the whole cokes thus produced, of which CO2 reactivities at 1000°C was low and comparable to that of a commercial blast furnace coke. The HI or BI fraction of a copreheated coal produced cokes of very high strength (>300kg/cm2), however, their reactivities were very high. Many micropores (<1μm) observed by SEM in the cokes may enhance the reactivity althongh they are indifferent to their strength at this low strength level. The effects of copreheat-treatment and carbonization conditions on the coke quality were mecha-nistically discussed by relating them mutually.


APIs can crystallise in multiple distinct forms, each with their own physical properties such as dissolution rate, crystal habit or melting point. This phenomenon, known as polymorphism, has long been recognised by pharmaceutical industry and regulatory bodies alike as playing a crucial role in the formulation of drugs marketed in crystalline form. Experimental screens for polymorphs, salt forms or co-crystals are an important instrument in determining the most suitable solid form. Especially the thermodynamic stability landscape needs to be explored thoroughly, as identification of the thermodynamically most stable form is paramount. Discovery of a more stable polymorph after a plant has been commissioned has implications for patents and for the manufacturing process--especially if the more stable polymorph is discovered by a competitor. The Achilles\' heel of experimental polymorph screens is kinetics: the route to the thermodynamically most stable form may not be accessible during the experiment, causing the most stable form to be missed completely. Theoretical polymorph screens (generally referred to as crystal structure prediction) do not suffer from kinetics and are therefore the instrument of choice to complement experimental polymorph screens in order to check if possible stable polymorphs have been overlooked. In the early days, such in silico polymorph screens were highly unreliable due to the quick and dirty nature of the methods used in evaluating the relative thermodynamic stabilities of the predicted polymorphs. The availability of relatively cheap computing power, however, has changed this completely, as demonstrated in the 2007 Crystal Structure Prediction Blind Test when the application of high-quality quantum-mechanical calculations correctly predicted the crystal structures and relative stabilities of all four target compounds. The strengths and weaknesses of in silico polymorph screens with such high-quality quantum-mechanical calculations will be demonstrated using unpublished results on the antiretroviral agent Efavirenz as an example.


Subtitle: Computer science and data management skills may be perequisites for future air traffic controllers, claims a former top FAA official.


Multi spectral capacitive sensor (MSCS) is a sensor that is formed based on the concept of white noise impedance spectroscopy. This concept utilizes the spectral noise frequency approach of the frequency domain signal resulting from the field effect on the dielectric. As a sensor, the consistency results obtained is stable, so that it can facilitate analysis. In this study, we tried to compare data groups, starting with 100 data sets and 300 data sets from a total of 600 data sets for H2O and H2O mixed with NaOH materials and H2O mixed with HCl using a new transformation, namely Tamsir statistical transformation (TST). Furthermore, grouping data uses the total amplitude value of each data set obtained. We obtain the results in the form of differences between groups of data with fluctuations in response patterns that are close together which are shown in 2D graphics. Hence, we can implement the data groups as a reference pattern of fluctuations in a material.


This article addresses the gap between the visionary documents of Guatemala's emerging democracy and public policy when it comes to tax reform and the nonprofit sector. It formulates possible ways to utilize Guatemalan tax reforms to both expand the country's meager tax base and generate a thriving culture of philanthropy to benefit nonprofit and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). By mapping and analyzing the laws affecting the formation and oversight of Guatemalan civil society organizations, which were important agents of change during Guatemala's long civil war and peacemaking process, the article builds on a scholarly conversation about philanthropy in Latin America. The author makes recommendations for Guatemala, analyzing in part the proposals of Guatemalan civil society groups during the 2006-07 Pacto Fiscal tax reform effort. The regulatory framework of the NGO sector in developing countries like Guatemala is particularly important in an atmosphere of increased government contracts and partnerships with NGOs for traditionally State-sponsored public services.


AC small-signal immittance spectroscopy is employed as a viable tool to demonstrate electrical characterization, performance improvement, and quality assurance issues of smart materials-based components and novel devices. The variation in the ac response, complemented via dc measurements within a range of tolerating temperature, delineates competing phenomena occurring in the microstructures of these engineering material systems. The results are presented in a generic manner with possible explanations on the mechanisms for two selected Debye-like (nearly ideal) and non-Debye (non-ideal) low-capacitance resistors. This spectroscopic approach allows systematic development of a representative equivalent circuit, considered to be the characteristic of the devices and components, for specific applications.


We present the model of a cylindrical pore with chains tethered by one end to its inner surface. The conformational and "quasistatic" (under low and medium shear rates) hydrodynamic properties of the system are studied. Since it was shown by other researchers that the density profile of the polymer layer is only slightly affected by flow in the region of low and medium shear rates, we do not take flow into account when calculating chain conformations. The conformational properties of the concave layer are very similar to those of the flat one. They are characterized by the layer thickness h. The hydrodynamic properties are characterized by the hydrodynamic thickness Lh. We show that Lh depends strongly on the chain surface density σ under conditions of the "mushroom" regime in contrast to h. Finally, we predict that the net permeability of the cylinder could decrease with the increasing temperature. It enables us, principally, to control the pore permeability with temperature.


83 am pleased to announce the winner of the Medical Journal of Australia/Pfizer Australia Research Award for 2010. This $10 000 award recognises and rewards the best original research published each year in the Journal, and was presented at the annual Australian Medical Association National Conference in May this year. This year, the Journal's Content Review Committee awarded the 2010 prize to Peter Morris and his colleagues from the Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University and the Northern Territory Clinical School of Flinders University in Darwin and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney for their article, "Single-dose azithromycin versus seven days of amoxycillin in the treatment of acute otitis media in Aboriginal children (AATAAC): a double blind, randomised controlled trial". This trial was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the report was published in the Medical Journal of Australia on 4 January 2010. Acute otitis media, particularly perforation of the tympanic membrane, is a major public health problem among Aboriginal children. Only one in 10 children has bilaterally normal ears and hearing. This research group has previously found that long-term antibiotic treatment resolves middle ear effusion and prevents perforation. Because of often poor compliance with treatment regimens over several days, this trial compared a one-off intervention with a standard 7-day regimen. They found that single-dose azithromycin was more effective than a 7-day course of amoxycillin at eliminating the bacterial pathogens, but it was not more effective at curing acute otitis media in this population. Disturbingly, both treatments failed in half the cases treated. The group is now evaluating a double-dose regimen of azithromycin. This was the first randomised controlled trial of antibiotic treatment of acute otitis media in a population with high rates of acute and chronic tympanic membrane perforation. Because single-dose therapy virtually ensures treatment compliance, the findings of this study are potentially practice changing. This award has been sponsored by Wyeth Australia since 1995. We are grateful for their support over the years, and now welcome Pfizer, who acquired Wyeth in 2009, as our cosponsor. The award was presented by Dr Bill Ketelby, Country Medical Director of Pfizer. Pfizer had no role in the study or in the choice of a winner, and it was purely coincidental that a drug that is manufactured by the company was used in the study.


Jingyang,Hubei is a community for nationalities rich in natural and cultural ecological resources.Thanks to the construction of Shui Buya Hydro-Electric Power Station in Qingjiang River,and the resettlement of the immigration in the new town of Jiangyang,the oral and non-material cultures here are faced with danger on the one hand,there is the best opportunity for people here to construct the ecological villages for national culture in western China and?ultimately develop tourism on the other hand.Thus the choice of a good position for establishing the ecological villages for national culture,identifying the influences of community culture on tourism,and the protection of the harmonius cultural and ecological enviroment may provide a referential paradigm for establishing the ecological villages for national culture and seek the sustanainable development in social and economic fields.


Abstract : Unified Action Civil-Military cooperation has long been recognized as essential to success in COIN, but execution on the ground has often been uneven and difficult. While agency cultures and doctrinal differences are always present, truly integrated civil military operations are clearly the way ahead. During its Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) rotation, Combined Joint Task Force-82 (CJTF-82), located in ISAF s Regional Command (East), broke new ground with Unified Action the first ever attempt to fuse military and civilian organizations into one operational headquarters at an ISAF Regional Command.


Workload control (WLC) has been elaborated in the early 1980s to a hierarchical production control concept for job shop manufacturing. In the 1990s the analytical research at the University of Groningen focused on assessing the strengths and weaknesses of this concept and on developing alternatives. Research at the University of Hannover focused on improving the practical applicability of the WLC concept. While the practical experiences confirm the strengths of the WLC concept, some extensions of the basic concept have been developed which may overcome some weaknesses suggested in literature. This paper aims at bringing the theoretical and practical knowledge regarding the WLC concept together. It gives a review and classification of strengths and weaknesses reported from analytical research and it discusses the extensions that have been developed based on practical experiences.


This work analyzes the alter modern and baroque aesthetic developed by Luis Quiroga in his novel "Polvo, Sombra, Nada". Some concepts of the Theory of Form formulated by Carlos Rojas are used to study the novel as a symbolic machine of high complexity, constructed in radical opposition to the hegemonic banality, in search of the overcoming of the postmodern canon, especially the loss of depth of the narrative genre. The analysis of the novel is done through the examination of the following components: its structure in the form of a fold; a high level of experimentalism; the construction of a multiplicity of characters and their quasi-historical plot that is questioned by the meaning of human existence; its literary goal dimension; the use of the heteronymous device in the author's work; the space-time loop of the text. Finally, this work aims to disseminate the contributions of Quiroga in the development of an alter modern aesthetic of Baroque sign, from the narrative that is produced in Ecuador today.
Keywords: Ecuador, baroque novel, alter modern aesthetic, Polvo-Sombra-Nada, Luis Quiroga.


Women with overweight experience stigma in clinical interactions. Emerging evidence suggests that one near‐term approach to offset the negative consequences of weight stigma could be to capitalize on benefits of patient–physician weight concordance. However, it is likely that patient attitudes towards physicians with overweight are complicated and multifaceted and may include stigmatization of providers with overweight.


In state space times series models the development over time of the observed series is determined by an unobserved series of state vectors. The paper considers the estimation of these vectors by the mode of the posterior
distribution of the state vectors given the data. It is shown that the estimates are the solution of an optimal unbiased estimating equation.


An accurate description of a reservoir is crucial to the management of production and efficiency of oil recovery. Reservoir modeling is an important step in a reservoir's future performance, which is in direct proportion to reservoir management, risk analysis and making key economic decisions. Saturation and pressure changes, and porosity and permeability distributions are the most common parameters to estimate in the oil industry. In order to reduce the number of parameters in reservoir description, the different upscaling techniques have been used. At the rock physics level, the Gassmann and Hertz-Mindlin theories are applied in order to incorporate the fluid substitution and pressure changes, respectively. The most popular method at the elastic level is the Backus (1962) averaging. This method is based on the zero frequency limit of seismic wave field in a vertically heterogeneous structure. We extend the Backus averaging for the low-frequency regime by using the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff series (Serre, 1965). That allows us to compute the frequency dependent effective medium parameters. These parameters can be used in seismic modeling and inversion with band-limited seismic wavelet.


How to help teachers to design teaching plan for raising student's competency at secondary school in Laos is now of great concern. On the other hand, teachers teach sciences almost by lecturing theory only. They rarely explain the problems based on actual phenomena that occur in pupils' daily life nor do experiment during the class. Thus, one of the vital concerns for Lao's science education is that the summative and formative assessment for science learning are both only focused on evaluating the pupils' knowledge.  To improve the quality of learning and pave a  new way  for teaching by doing physics experiment, we developed a practical science course "Heat and temperature" with hands on  activities and realistic application. For measuring experimental competence, the framework for practical assessment from Etkina 2002and Metzger 2012 was adapted and used (E. Etkina, Van Heuvelen, Brookes, & Mills, 2002) (Metzger, Gut, Hild, & Tardent, 2014) . In this paper, we describe the process and experiences of how to develop the course with comprehensive worksheets and hands on equipment. We also interpret the way to gather evidence of experimental competence during the course. After that, we present some initial results of the development of pupils' competence during the course.


The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA 1974), passed twenty-five years ago, has been hailed as a significant advance for organised labour and a model for modern work-place regulation. This article argues that, contrary to conventional interpretations, the making of the Act was dominated by business interests. We suggest that the Act's emphasis on self-regulation and goal-setting made it vulnerable to deregu-latory initiatives, which are unlikely to be reversed by new Labour in the foreseeable future.


One key step in the plant restoration process is the collection of seeds from the field. For the selection of source populations of target plant species for translocation purposes (reintroduction or reinforcements), several approaches are possible. A practical method involves the use of data from reciprocal transplant studies. If no direct data are available, knowledge of population genetics and the phylogeography of the target species can serve as an alternative. In this short review, we briefly propose guidelines for those collecting seeds for plant species restoration based on population genetics theory, focusing on two main questions: Where does the plant material come from and how are sources designated, and how are seeds efficiently collected from local populations? While genetic data on a larger scale (phylogeography and population genetics) are needed to form a reply to the first question, similar data on a smaller scale (fine-scale genetic structures within populations) are necessary to shed light on the second issue.


FIELD: lighting engineering. SUBSTANCE: lamp has bulb holding filler that incorporates sulfur, selenium and/or tellurium. Ratio of bulb volume to its surface area is at least 0.45 cm, sulfur, selenium, and/or tellurium concentration in filler composition is not over 1.75 mg/cu. cm; power supplied to filler per unit of bulb volume is between 5 and 100 W/cu. cm. EFFECT: enhanced efficiency of lamp. 2 cl, 5 dwg, 3 ex


The digital temperature and humidity controller based on SHT11,which regards MSP430F149 single chip as the core,and is composed of temperature humidity sensor,power supply,LCD,keyboard,sound light alarm and JTAG module.SHT11 firstly measures the environmental temperature and relative humidity.Then,the digital signal is transmitted to MSP430F149 controller.At last,the controller realizes the non-linearity and temperature compensation of the relative humidity,and transmits real temperature and relative humidity values to LCD.Accordingly,the measure and control of the environmental temperature and humidity are realized.


According to several types of research, one of the most important issues and principles of sustainable development that urban professionals pay attention to it recently is Just City. One aspect of Justice in cities, spatial justice, has particular significance by Unequal and discordant Expanding in cities regarding creating unequal areas. On the other hand, the urban spatial structure affects the equal distribution of elements and services. If this structure is devoid of justice ideology will lead to a complex social crisis and spatial issues as spatial conflict. Accordingly, this study aims to analyse the spatial justice and structure in the case of Yazd city to know how they influence each other. Spatial justice is examined from the view of "Equality of opportunity". Involved criteria are "equality", "Physical diversity", "human diversity" and "urban spaces", and spatial structure based on "Space Syntax" technique with "integration", "control", "connect" and " intelligibility " parameters. These criteria are Scored and analysed by FDAHP techniques and GIS. The result shows favourable status in the Central District, and as getting away from the disadvantaged downtown District increased. On the other hand, the spatial structure analysis reveals the most spatial coherent analogue the north-south axis with a little depth and isolated District (Spatial segregations) have located in the corners and edges of the city. Results from the superposition of these two analysis layers show a compatibility relation between the spatial structure of Yazd and the pattern of justice distribution except in the central and historical centre.


In a Tortoiseshell: In this excerpt from Pragya's writing seminar research paper (the "R3"), she analyzes the generational split in female support for Hillary Clinton during the November 2016 election, This introduction is a great example of how to approach a risky, controversial topic by grounding the argument in data, engaging with the existing literature to build an original theoretical framework, and motivating it all with relevance to current events.


Objective: To study coping strategies, social support and life orientation in patients following moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in relation to health-related quality of life. Subjects: Eighty-five patients with moderate or severe TBI and 68 control persons. Methods: Estonian versions of the COPE-D test, the Brief Social Support Questionnaire, the Life Orientation Test and the RAND-36 questionnaire. Results: Persons with TBI reported using task-oriented and social/emotional support strategies less often and avoidance-oriented strategies more often than control persons (p < 0.05). The social support network, satisfaction with it and optimism as life orientation were lower in the patient group (p < 0.05). Task-oriented coping styles, satisfaction with social support and optimistic life orientation were associated with the majority of the domains of health-related quality of life and resuming work after TBI. Conclusions: To achieve effective rehabilitation and to enhance patients' well-being, it is important to improve the quality and amount of social support network, as well as to support patients' adequate coping efforts for promoting an active lifestyle.


Abstract : Below are summarized the significant findings of research carried out under the contract. High temperature annealing of SiO2/Si structures in oxygen- deficient ambients initiates interfacial decomposition of oxide, leading to electrical activation of existing inactive defects. Addition of trace oxygen to the annealing ambient prevents formation of electrical defects; Metal impurities initiate the SiO2/Si interfacial decomposition reaction; Positron annihilation depth profiling is sensitive to defect structures in thermal oxides, possibly associated with intrinsic defect generation which occurs during the thermal oxidation process; and An advanced ultrahigh-vacuum-based multichamber processing and analysis system for CVD and oxidation studies has been designed, fabricated, and demonstrated.


witness gives up something; his concerns change. A practical analysis of this shift in power must concern itself with two kinds of immunity. By that, I do not mean "transactional" as against "use" immunity. While distinctions between the two are important, the inquiry is not begun until it separates voluntary from involuntary immunity. Some people seek immunity and some have it thrust upon them. Different questions should be asked in each instance.


Innovative forms of presentation are increasingly being called for in the case of drugs today. The driving forces behind this trend are the increasing self-medication of patients and the need for a more rapid, more reliable and less expensive form of administration of drugs by professional medical personnel. The packaging is thus assuming new functions and developing into an easy-to-use dosage and application system. Plastics such as COC offer the necessary properties for implementing new technical solutions.


As a consequence of the industrial revolution, countries around the world began to exploit natural resources more than ever before without regard for maintaining a balance between development and nature. The problems stemming from these human actions has compromised the ability of subsequent generations to meet their needs from the earth and in the last few decades, have obliged them to restructure their educational systems in terms of environmental and sustainability education. Turkey has also introduced a new high school geography program that emphasizes environmental and sustainability education. At present, there is an urgent need to test the relationships between theory and practice to understand whether Turkish schools provide sufficient education on the environment and sustainable development (SD). This study used survey research in an attempt to measure student knowledge levels in environmental and sustainability issues as well as student opinions about the importance, place and future of SD in Turkish high schools. The results suggest that students were relatively knowledgeable about environmental issues, but their knowledge of SD was not satisfactory. The students had significant knowledge gaps concerning certain environmental and sustainability issues. It is quite promising however, that the surveyed students believed that SD was an important concept for their future. Moreover, the students seemed ready to take part in any activity promoting SD.


&NA; Malignant melanoma is the most severe form of skin cancers in humans. Incidence of this malignancy is still increasing worldwide. The highest incidence is mentioned in Australia (50–60/100,000 of cases). Success of malignant melanoma therapy depends on the stage of disease revelation. Localized cutaneous melanoma is generally well curable. The main problem is the treatment of advanced malignant melanoma with distant metastases. Therapy of this malignancy is based on surgical resection of lesion, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, biochemotherapy, and so on. The current results of malignant melanoma treatment are unfortunately often unsatisfactory. Improvement and enhancement of efficacy of contemporary immunotherapeutic methods should be in the forefront of interest. Renaissance of the old concepts of immunotherapy (Coley's toxin and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine administration) could be one way to reduce possible adverse effect of standard methods of malignant melanoma treatment.


Some common hydraulic speed-control and locked circuits were introduced.The problems and shortcomings of some circuits were analyzed,and corresponding improvement measures were given.The notices in the application of these speed-control and locked circuits were given.


Ad hoc networks comprise independent cooperative nodes which work together to constitute a system having a value greater than the sum of the values of the individual components. The nodes cooperate to gain access to the medium or to establish a messaging infrastructure by relaying foreign packets. However, when nodes in an ad hoc network operate autonomously without a central authority, they tend to defect, e.g., do not forward each other's packets following the game theoretic analysis. External mechanisms may preserve and enforce cooperation in network in return of additional operational costs or security overheads. However, low power devices may lack computational power that is required to implement the system. Recent works in evolutionary game theory have shown that cooperation may survive in a lattice structured biological network without any enforcement. The spatial structure of the network may allow the survival of the cooperative nodes when they imitate the dominant surrounding strategy. Imitating strategy helps low power devices adapt dynamically to the environment rather than giving deterministic and static decisions. In this work, we apply the imitation strategy to ad hoc networks which have geometric random network structure different from the lattice structured networks. Simulations show that simple imitation strategy allows cooperation to be spread over the network.


The OWLeS IOP2b lake-effect case is simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with a horizontal grid spacing of 148 m (WRF-LES mode). The dynamics and microphysics of the simulated high-resolution snowband and a coarser-resolution band from the parent nest (1.33-km horizontal grid spacing) are compared to radar and aircraft observations. The Ice Spheroids Habit Model with Aspect-ratio Evolution (ISHMAEL) microphysics is used, which predicts the evolution of ice particle properties including shape, maximum diameter, density, and fall speed. The microphysical changes within the band that occur when going from 1.33-km to 148-m grid spacing are explored. Improved representation of the dynamics at higher resolution leads to a better representation of the microphysics of the snowband compared to radar and aircraft observations. Stronger updrafts in the high-resolution grid produce higher ice number concentrations and produce ice particles that are more heavily rimed and thus more spherical, smaller (in terms of mean maximum diameter), and faster falling. These changes to the ice particle properties in the high-resolution grid limit the production of aggregates and improve reflectivity compared to observations. Graupel, observed in the band at the surface, is simulated in the strongest convective updrafts, but only at the higher resolution. Ultimately, the duration of heavy precipitation just onshore from the collapse of convection is better predicted in the high-resolution domain compared to surface and radar observations.


Background
Although it has been considered that sedation in children undergoing EEG tests is effective and safe and complications are infrequent, occasionally adverse sedation-related events are presented.
Objective
The aim of this work was to determine if it is possible to carry out EEG in children up to 4 years old without sedation and analyze the factors that could influence upon the possibility of performing EEG, in vigil or with sedation. Methods: In the period between November 2001 to November 2004, 489 patients up to 4 years old were studied in order to analyze how several parameters (sex, age, and diagnosis) could influence upon conditions of performing electroencephalogram (with or without sedation). Patients were assembled into several groups : sex, age (I: 0 - 12 months; II: 13 - 24 months; III: 25 - 36 months; and IV: 37 - 48 months), and diagnostic. The affections were : epilepsy, hyperkinesia, cerebral palsy, spasticity, sobbing spasm, encephalopathy, and psychomotor retardation.
Results
281 electroencephalographic studies were carried out in vigil and this value represented 57,5% of the total electroencephalograms performed. During the performance of the study the children\'s behavior was independent of sex and initial diagnostic, but it was influenced by age. The higher number (104) of studied carried out in vigil was performed in children from 37 to 48 months, which represented 70,8 % of cases. The lowest percentage was obtained in children with psychomotor retardation
Conclusions
In most cases, it is possible to carry out electroencephalograms on children without using sedative drugs. To perform this study in vigil is advantageous because the recording of electroencephalographic signs in abnormal conditions of brain functioning and the appearance of contamination in the recording due to sedative drugs, which could confuse the diagnosis are avoided Introduction
Bien que considere comme inoffensive, la pratique de l\'EEG sous sedation chez l\'enfant n\'est pas a l\'abri de complications.
Objectif
Le but de l\'etude est determiner s\'il etait possible de pratiquer l\'EEG chez l\'enfant âge 4 ans ou moins, sans sedation.
Methodes
Entre novembre 2001 et novembre 2004, 489 patients âges de 4 ans ou moins ont ete regroupes selon l\'âge (groupe I: 0 - 12 mois ; groupe II : 13 - 24 mois ; groupe III : 25 - 36 mois; et groupe IV: 37 - 48 mois), le sexe, le diagnostic (epilepsie, hyperkinesie, paralysie cerebrale, spasticite, spasme en flexion, encephalopathie, et retard psychomoteur au cours de la pratique de l\'EEG, avec et sans sedation.
Resultats
281 EEG (57,5%) ont ete realises chez des enfants en etat de vigilance normale. Le comportement des enfants etaient independents du sexe et du diagnostic mais essentiellement influence par l\'âge. Les EEG ont pu etre realises principalement chez les enfants (104) entre 37 et 48 mois (70,8 %). Le pourcentage le plus bas a ete observe chez les enfants atteints d\'un retard psychomoteur.
Conclusion
Il est possible de realiser des EEG chez l\'enfant sans sedation. De plus, une vigilance normale permet d\'etudier l\'activite electrique du cerveau sans artefacts lies aux medicaments utilises.
 Keywords : Electroencephalogramme, Enfants, Sedation, Technique, Electroencephalogram, children, sedation, Technic African Journal of Neurological Sciences Vol. 24 (1) 2005: pp. 55-62


Stranski–Krastanow islands of InP nucleate in straight rows when deposited by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on linearly patterned GaInP/GaAs surfaces. The patterns were produced by overgrowth of lithographically defined W stripes 30° off from [110] on a GaAs(001) surface. Depending on the geometry of the grown GaAs/GaInP mesa stripes the islands were found to align either on top of the ridges, at the sidewall near to the mesa edge or at the bottom of the trenches. The highest density of almost equidistant coherent islands observed in some of the rows is in the order of 10 islands/μm, corresponding to a surface area density of 1010 InP islands/cm2. The maximum density of randomly distributed islands in the unpatterned area otherwise is only 2×109 islands/cm2. The results show a successful combination of overgrowth of conducting metal stripes and lateral geometrical positioning of dots in one in situ growth step.


A sample of 15 000 faint spiral galaxies is used for the statistical determination of internal absorption by investigating the projected surface brightness. Analyses with different disc models yield small absorption values. For a more realistic three-component model, however, a central face-on optical depth of τ 0 =7 is obtained, which is in agreement with suggestions that spiral galaxies are not optically thin


This paper narrates the process that Chinese women took up teacher post in China institutions of higher learning since 1995.It also discusses the status of women teachers in China institutions of higher learning.In the end,the countermeasures for improving women teachers' status are provided.


Objective To compare the clinical efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) alone and TACE+MLT(Melatonin) for patients with unresectable advanced primary liver cancer(PLC). Method From Jan. 1997 to Jan. 1998, 100 admitted patients with unresectable PLC were randomized into 50 cases receiving TACE alone and 50 cases treated by TACE+MLT (20 mg/day × 7 days before TACE). ResultsThe effective rate(WHO standard) of TACE and TACE+MLT were 16% and 28% respectively( P 0 05). The 0 5, 1, and 2 year′s survival rate in TACE group was 82%,54% and 26% respectively, and in TACE+MLT group was 100%,68% and 40% respectively(all P 0 05).IL 2 levels significantly increased while sIL 2R expression decreased in MLT+TACE group ( P 0 01). Conclusion MLT significantly enhanced the immunological protection of PLC patients, improved the effect of TACE, and prolonged survival.


This paper analyzes the feasibility of a new 3DTV broadcasting service scenario via Advanced Television Systems Committee Mobile/Handheld (ATSC‐M/H). We suggest a dual‐channel system in which a left‐view image is encoded by MPEG‐2 with HD quality and a small‐sized right‐view image is encoded by AVC. Also, the left view is transmitted through ATSC main channel and the right view is transmitted through ATSC‐M/H channel. Although the transport stream formats of two channels are different from each other, we demonstrate that it is possible for the ATSC 2.0 decoder to synchronize the display of the left and right views when both encoders use a common wall clock and time stamp. We also propose a program specific information descriptor which guarantees full compatibility with the conventional 2D HDTV and emerging mobile TV services. Finally, we provide the results of subjective visual quality assessment of the proposed system in support of its 3DTV service quality.


In the production of agricultural and horticultural crops, damage by pests and the like is still significant, and development of a novel pesticide for agricultural and horticultural use is desired because of the emergence of pests that are resistant to existing chemicals, and the like.
Provided, as a solution, are: an oxazepine compound represented by general formula (I) or a salt thereof; a pesticide for agricultural and horticultural use, which contains the oxazepine compound or a salt thereof as an active ingredient; and a method for using the pesticide for agricultural and horticultural use.
(In the formula, R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 may be the same as or different from each other and each represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group or the like; R 5 and R 6 may be the same as or different from each other and each represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, or alternatively, R 5 and R 6 represent, together with a carbon atom to which R 5 and R 6 are bonded, an optionally substituted phenyl group, a pyridyl group or the like; R 7 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkynyl group, a cyanoalkyl group, an alkoxyalkyl group or the like; Y represents an oxygen atom, S, NH or the like; Y 1 represents C=O, C=S, a CH 2 group or the like; A represents a CH group or the like; and m represents 0 or 1.)


Brazil is the world largest producer of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) leading to a great generation of residues such as bagasse and straw, which represent two thirds of sugarcane energetic potential. Regarding these residues energetic potential, it is interesting to study their application in biorefinery processes. Thus, this work aimed at performing a chemical characterization of sugarcane straw and bagasse from RB867515 cultivar grown in Rio Grande do Sul-Brazil aiming at their use as feedstock in biorefinery processes. The obtained results were compared to data from other states and it was possible to conclude that edaphoclimatic conditions of Rio Grande do Sul have little influence in sugarcane residues chemical composition. Sugarcane bagasse presents larger potential for energetic use because of its volatiles content (74.82%) slightly higher than straw (68.90%), besides its high lignin content (21.85%) and higher calorific value (18.70 MJ/kg). Both sugarcane residues produced in Rio Grande do Sul have potential use as substrate in the obtainment of high value-added products from their cellulosic fractions (41.30% and 37.25%, respectively). The evaluation of energetic and chemical potential of sugarcane bagasse and straw produced in Rio Grande do Sul leads to the conclusion that these materials have high potential for use as feedstock in biorefineries.


This systematic and empirical review attempted to expand the frontiers of knowledge by analyzing the existing delicate space between organizational culture and customer service quality, using Kenya Power as a statistical representative sample of the Electrical Energy Sector in Kenya. Organizational culture has been a topical issue in the corporate world for many decades due to its assumed ability to predict business effectiveness and success. Whereas this conviction is a true story in most companies across the globe, in some companies, it is a dreadful undertaking and Kenya Power is no exception. To examine this delicate space, the study tested a null hypothesis of no significant effect between (X) organizational culture and (Y) customer service quality while taking into account the existing multiple covariates within the causal chain. Utilizing a mixed method approach, the study collected both numerical and qualitative data from 76 respondents (n) Original Research Article Ssemugenyi et al.; ARJASS, 10(4): 20-32, 2020; Article no.ARJASS.56183 21 (statistically obtained from 95 N) and 10 key informants respectively. At the univariate level, frequency counts and means were used while at the multivariate level, multiple linear regression analysis was applied in order to determine the total impact of X(s) on Y, while qualitative analysis was carried out through thematic and discursive methods. Study findings revealed that, all the 7 constructs of the independent variable had a positive and significant effect on the dependent variable. The R Square, which indicates the total impact of X(s) on Y stands at 76%, implying that, the constructs of the independent variable positively and significantly predicted the dependent variable. The extraneous variables, which in this case were competing with the independent variable to explain a change in the dependent variable stand at 24%. Implying that, the excluded independent variables as far as quantitative data were concerned, had a weak impact on the dependent variable. However, the interview results indicated a divergence in opinion and reasoning. Key informants alluded that, re-branding strategies, customer focused models, political factors, ICT adoption, research, quality management system and so on are more relevant than culture itself in predicting organizational effectiveness and customer satisfaction. It is upon this basis that this study recommended that, much as organizational culture is being applauded for shaping customer service quality by the numerical data, it is much more logical to focus on the new inroads provided by the qualitative data in this study. Integrating research, ICT, customer-driven models, and quality management systems in the business processes at Kenya Power, will not only help the firm to establish a competitive culture; rather, will keep it afloat and sound in a business context.


Thank you for reading sex breath and force sexual difference in a post feminist era. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search hundreds times for their favorite readings like this sex breath and force sexual difference in a post feminist era, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious bugs inside their desktop computer.


A convincing case can be made that current land-use patterns in the Central Hardwood region reflect a significant underutilization of our land-based resources. A land-use strategy is required that would allow landowners who are interested in converting marginal crop lands to forests, or unproductive woodlots to productive woodlots, to make the change without financial loss. Agroforestry has the potential to precisely do this. Agroforestry, an integrated land-use management approach for both production and conservation benefits has gained remarkable acceptance since the early 1990s. It provides the landowner the opportunity to develop a portfolio of short- and long-term investments and serves as a viable alternative to conventional forestry and agricultural practices.


Energy-efficient SIMD permutation operations are key for maximizing high-performance microprocessor vector datapath utilization in multimedia, graphics, and signal processing workloads [1-3]. A wide SIMD vector permutation engine is required to achieve high-throughput data rearrangement operations on large data sets, with scaled supply voltages to deliver high energy efficiency. An ultra-low-voltage reconfigurable 4-way to 32-way SIMD vector permutation engine consisting of a 32-entry × 256b 3-read/1-write ported register file with a 256b byte-wise any-to-any permute crossbar for 2-dimensional shuffle is fabricated in 22nm CMOS. The register file integrates a vertical shuffle across multiple entries into read/write operations, and includes clockless static reads with shared P/N dual-ended transmission gate (DETG) writes, improving register file VMIN by 250mV across PVT variations with a wide dynamic operating range of 280mV-1.1V. The permute crossbar implements an interleaved folded byte-wise multiplexer layout forming an any-to-any fully-connected tree to perform a horizontal shuffle with permute accumulate circuits, and includes vector flip-flops, stacked min-delay buffers, shared gates to average min-sized transistor variation, and ultra-low-voltage split-output (ULVS) level shifters improving logic VMIN by 150mV, while enabling peak energy efficiency of 585GOPS/W measured at 260mV, 50°C. The permutation engine occupies a dense layout of 0.048mm2 (Fig. 10.1.7) while achieving: (i) nominal register file performance of 1.8GHz, 106mW measured at 0.9V, 50°C; (ii) robust register file functionality measured down to 280mV (subthreshold) with peak energy efficiency of 154GOPS/W; (iii) scalable permute crossbar performance of 2.9GHz, 69mW measured at 1.1V, 50°C with deep sub-threshold operation at 240mV, 10MHz consuming 19μW; and (iv) a 64b 4×4 matrix transpose algorithm with 53% energy savings and 42% improved peak throughput of 263Gbps measured at 1.8GHz, 0.9V.


As the markets of Middle and East-European countries, after transformation emerge more and more, mergers and acquisitions are becoming increasingly common form of business restructuring and strategic alliance. Increasing frequency of this type of deals pose as a pressure on business people and government officials at all levels to have a basic understanding of reasoning behind such actions and their mechanics. The following article provides a review of relevant sources containing theories of mergers and acquisitions. Its aim is to present highlights of merger and acquisition activity in context of these aforementioned theories on data concerning Middle and East-European countries, in a defined time-frame starting form 2012 to 2017.


Landsat MSS data (and formerly ERTS) have initialized an euphoric boom to obtain excellent and specific information for the use in regional planning and environmental tasks. Nevertheless, in many cases those expectations have been proven to be overemphasized if one was faced with the concrete problems in this field of application. With some of the first results of a pilot project in southern Bavaria (F.R.G.) using TM-data, we are now able to support the expectation of providing very detailed and geometric accurate planning base data. An object-oriented presentation of spectral features for micro-climatic investigations, hydrological sealing, land use, and indicators in the vitality of vegetation canopies enables us to state a high potential for much more differentiated land information analysis. In this context, it should be pointed not only to the high-resolution capabilities but especially to the properties in the nir and swir channels of TM.


In the article, the results of research of juvenile offenders value system are presented. The specifics of their value attitude to life, to people, to themselves are considered.


The surface configuration of pristine layered oxide cathode particles for Li-ion batteries significantly affects the electrochemical behavior, which is generally considered to be a thin rock-salt layer in the surface. Unfortunately, aside from its thin nature and spatial location on the surface, the true structural nature of this surface rock-salt layer remains largely unknown, creating the need to understand its configuration and the underlying mechanisms of formation. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy, we have found a correlation between the surface rock-salt formation and the crystal facets on pristine LiNi0.80Co0.15Al0.05O2 primary particles. It is found that the originally (014) and (003) surfaces of the layered phase result in two kinds of rock-salt reconstructions: the (002) and (111) rock-salt surfaces, respectively. Stepped surface configurations are generated for both reconstructions. The (002) configuration is relatively flat with monatomic steps while the (111) configuration sho...


In view of the known adverse health effects of formaldehyde and its suspected carcinogenicity, a convenient and simple apparatus for its rapid detection is highly desirable. A portable high-throughput liquid absorption air sampler (PHTLAAS) was therefore evaluated for the rapid and ultrasensitive detection of formaldehyde. Controlled concentrations of formaldehyde in air were generated with a constant-drive syringe pump and mixing chamber apparatus and were either sampled by the PHTLAAS, at a rate of about 200 L/min, or fed to two series-connected liquid impingers. In either case, the formaldehyde was absorbed in a small volume of aqueous sodium bisulfite and measured by the chromotropic acid method. The reddish-purple color of the chromogen formed with chromotropic acid provides a sensitive test for the screening of low levels of formaldehyde in ambient air. Comparison of samples collected from the test sampler with those from the impingers before and after each test yielded PHTLAAS collection efficienci...


impose unreasonable limits on freedom of expression. But how do they know what is reasonable or not? As Hiebert points out, the limitations clause itself offers no instructions to decision makers. The fact is that the courts are compelled to evaluate the merits of impugned legislation, an exercise that includes the assessment of whether there are alternative and better means to accomplish the desired legislative objective (7, 54). It is a utilitarian exercise. In terms of sheer expertise, then, it is unclear why judges are best situated to resolve disputes that require utilitarian considerations in addition to rights-based ones, since judges are not trained to be utility calculators. Thus the claim of special expertise cannot compensate for the judicial democratic deficit that lies at the heart of the problem of judicial review. In her appraisal of the theoretical literature on judicial review in general, and the limitations clause in particular, Hiebert finds little of practical sustenance. However, anyone who has not looked at the literature for some time will find the appraisal of it educative. In my view, the real eye-popper is what Hiebert calls the "rights-are-paramount" position, the proponents of which apparently regarded the Charter as a statement of such profundity as to encompass everything that is worthwhile in the world. They think that a "free and democratic society" encompasses no extra-Charter values in the name of which legislators might properly limit Charter rights. This is a frighteningly tautological stance, and it is a relief to read that the Supreme Court of Canada has not accepted it (72). Hiebert forges her own contribution to the literature on judicial review of the Charter by shifting attention from the courts to the legislative arena and demanding that elected representatives justify explicitly their policy choices in terms of the implications of them for Charter rights. As she points out, the development of this perspective in policy debates would be of considerable assistance to the courts when they are called upon to review the reasonableness of contested legislation. More than that, it would enhance the very quality of democratic debate by helping to bring clarity to thinking about the tension between rights and limits on rights. As readers ponder the merits of Hiebert's recommendation, they can thank her for a clear and well-organized discussion of that most difficult of combinations: democracy and entrenched rights.


An apparatus (10) for checking the diameter of an eccentric pin (8') of a small-size shaft (8), for example a shaft for compressors, includes a support (16), a first arm (19) rotating with respect tothe support (16), a second arm (22) rotating with respect to the first, a Vee-shaped reference device (28) carried by the second arm, a measuring device (25,26,24,37,38) associated with the referencedevice, limiting devices (29,29',30,30') for limiting the rotations of the arms and thrust means (33) for keeping the reference device in contact with the pin in the course of the checking.A hydraulicactuator (13) displaces the apparatus (10) from a rest condition to a checking condition, in which the reference device (28) is in contact with the pin (8') to be checked, and vice versa.


In the field of computer vision, great progress has been made in the classification of few-shot images recently. However, challenges in improving classification accuracy and training stability remain. To address this issue, a novel meta learning method aiming at few-shot was proposed in this paper, which is a relationship comparison network based on attention mechanism. The network is an end-to-end network, consisting of three folds: feature coding, feature combination, and relationship coding. Firstly, the attention mechanism is introduced into the feature coding module and spectral normalization is used to normalize the weight parameters of the convolutional layer of the module, resulting in better extraction of key feature information from few-shot images and enhanced training stability of the attention mechanism comparison network. Secondly, in order to compare the feature information of the sample set and the query set, the feature information of the extracted sample set and the query set is combined into a new feature information in the feature combination module. Besides, the relationship coding module can learn a depth measurement method to calculate the relationship score of combined feature information and realize the classification of few-shot images. The performance of Attention Relation Compare Network Meta-Learning was evaluated on few-shot data set, namely the Omniglot and Mini ImageNet. It was indicated that our method excelled other few-shot learning method in accuracy and efficiency and improve the training stability to some extent . Experiments show that our method produces very competitive results when compared to the state-of-the-art method, and our model also exhibits the training stability.


Arvicolid radiation in Europe is documented by 52 FAD (First Appearance Datum) and 34 LAD (Last Appearance Datum) in the last 5 Ma. Cantor Dust Method testing gives good linearity on the Log-Log Graphs. Both FAD and LAD series clearly obey chaotic but deterministic dynamics. Computation shows that both Fractal dimension and Information dimension are coherent and strengthen evidence of a fractal structure set. The Red Queen hypothesis and the Stationary model are discussed


Rural areas are defined differently in various literature sources. However, any scientist points to changes in rural areas that are associated with the outflow of people to cities and land abandonment in some regions. The multifunctionality of rural areas determines their importance in the development of any country. In the European Union (EU), 28.0 % of the EU-28 population lived in a rural area in 2015, while in Latvia – 32.3 % of its total population. Therefore, support instruments of the second pillar of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (rural development) contribute to a sufficient standard of living for the rural population and include both economic and social objectives. The research aims to analyse the EU support instruments for rural development that promote economic and social development in rural areas in Latvia. The research analyses the definition of the concept of rural territory given in national and EU policy documents and the results of project-type measures of the EU CAP second pillar (rural development) support instruments implemented during the planning period 2014-2020 for national rural development policy. It was found that in Latvia total available public funding for the RDP 2014-2020 was EUR 1.541 million, there were 6 main priorities and 88 % projects were funded at the end of February 2021. Progress in implementing the support measure Farm and business development was analysed in detail.


Computational results are presented for the transitional or turbulent flow about a prolate spheroid, at alpha = 10 deg or 30 deg, correspondingly, using an implicit, approximately factored, partially flux-split algorithm, based on the thin-layer equations. The computed flow field is in good agreement with available experimental data.


We are developing a bolometric astronomical interferometer in mm and submm wave bands by applying Martin-Puplett type Fourier transform spectrometer to aperture synthesis technique. Since the spectroscopically resolved intensity distribution of four Stokes parameters are measurable by this instrument, we refer this to multi-components Fourier transform interferometer abbreviated as MuFT. Fundamentals of the MuFT with results of laboratory experiments and current status of astronomical observations with MuFT are summarized.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality in developed countries (Jan et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2008). Despite a long held understanding and strong characterization of the traditional and non-traditional risk factors for CVD, some mechanisms of CVD onset have only recently been uncovered. As a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, atherosclerosis and its progression involve innate and adaptive immune systems. Using new concepts and technologies to improve the current understandings of the molecular pathogenesis of inflammatory and immune responses would lead to the future development of novel therapeutics for these diseases. Biomedical literature and databases, available in electronic forms, contain a vast amount of knowledge resulting from experimental research (Ishii et al., 2007; Palakal et al., 2007). In the past decade, both traditional hypothesis-driven research and discovery-driven "-omics" research, including genomics, transcriptomics (Liang et al., 2005), proteinomics, metabolomics, glycomics, lipidomics, localizomics, protein-DNA interactomics, proteinprotein interactomics, fluxomics, phenomics (Joyce & Palsson, 2006), and antigen-omics (http://www.cancerimmunity.org/links/databases.htm) (Houle et al., 2010; Shimokawa et al., 2010; Weinstein, 1998;2002), has generated a tremendous amount of data and established many experimental data-based searchable databases. These databases include PubMed, nucleotide database, protein database, and other databases generated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (see the NCBI handbook at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21101/) and other institutions. This development has not only provided resources, but also raised unprecedented challenges and opportunities for biomedical scientists to develop more systemic and panoramic approaches to analyze the data contained in the databases and generate new hypotheses. The inconsistency between the vast amount of experimental data, various searchable databases, and relatively smaller numbers of database-mining research papers (< 50 papers on database mining in inflammation and immune responses listed in the PubMed) indicate the challenges that experimental biomedical scientists face, which include both technical/methodological difficulties and out-of-date concepts. Traditionally, medical literature search using the Index Medicus was the major approach for biomedical scientists to identify knowledge gaps and preparing new hypotheses. However, this approach has been significantly enhanced by more systemic approaches such as 1)


This paper introduces new techniques for automating the inspection of microcircuit mask patterns. The techniques are non-comparative, thereby eliminating the need for a reference pattern, and demonstrate an advantageous combination of simple optics and electronics to produce a system with excellent defect-sensitivity and speed. A single focussed laser spot is scanned over the mask. The resulting diffraction patterns are immobilized in the Fourier plane, where they are analyzed by a special photodetector array. Optimum designs for this array follow from a discussion, in terms of the Boundary Diffraction Wave theory, of the diffraction pattern differences between typical defects and valid mask features. The design and performance of a practical mask inspection system based on these principles is presented.


Almost as soon as Odysseus sets sail from the terra firma of Troy in the direction of Ithaka, once the sacred citadel has been burnt to ashes, he seems to enter a Never-Never land of giants, monsters, witches, demigods and demigoddesses, strange beasts, fabulous kingdoms, and the dead. One adventure follows on the heels of another in a sequence as bewildering as any which ever occurred in the murky woods of Arthurian legend. Odysseus travels south, north, east, and west to the limits of the known earth. He spends seven years languishing on the island of Ogygia 'at the navel of the ocean' (1.50). At different moments he is threatened with tempest, armed attack, cannibalism, dismemberment, sorcery, and several sorts of seduction. He captures magnificent booty, receives fabulous gifts, enjoys the love of two goddesses, and is offered the hand of a king's daughter in marriage — and by the time that he finally arrives on the shore of Ithaka and sets out to reclaim his kingdom, he is utterly alone, bereft of all companions, his appearance that of a ragged beggar.


We have created a catalog of edge-on galaxies based on the publicly available DR2 data from the Pan-STARRS survey.The intensive use of an artificial neural network has significantly improved the quality of candidate selection. The catalogprovides homogeneous information on astrometry, photometry, and non-parametric morphological statistics for 16551 edge-on galaxies. Our catalog is intended for studying the three-dimensional structure of galaxies with different morphologiesand the scaling relations for disks and bulges.


The well-definedness of particles of any kind depends on the limits, approximations, or other conditions that may or may not be involved, for example, whether there are interactions and whether ostensibly related energy is localizable. In particular, their theoretical status differs between its non-relativistic and relativistic versions: One can properly define interacting elementary particles in single-system non-relativistic quantum mechanics, at least in the case of non-zero mass systems; by contrast, one is severely challenged to define even these properly in the relativistic quantum field theories that now underlie the study of particle physics. Here, the impact of localizability on this status is reviewed in relation to the work of Paul Busch on positive operator valued measures that significantly probes the relevance of quantum unsharpness to it.


This paper studies the forecasting mechanism of the most widely used machine learning algorithms, namely linear discriminant analysis, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors, random forests, artificial neural network, naive Bayes, classification and regression trees, support vector machines, adaptive boosting, and stacking ensemble model, in forecasting first-generation college students' six-year graduation using the first college year's data. Five standard evaluating metrics are used to evaluate these models. The results show that these machine learning models can significantly predict firstgeneration college students' six-year graduation with mean forecasting accuracy rate spanning from 69.58% to 75.17% and median forecasting accuracy rate spanning from 70.37% to 74.52%. Among these machine learning algorithms, stacking ensemble model, logistic regression model, and linear discriminant analysis are the best three ones in terms of mean forecasting accuracy rate. Furthermore, the results from the repeated ten-fold crossvalidation process reveal that the variations of the five evaluating metrics exhibit remarkably different patterns across the ten machine learning algorithms. Index TermsMachine learning algorithms, firstgeneration college students, six-year graduation, forecasting evaluation.


False data injection (FDI) attacks on sensors and actuators are adverse in multi-agent systems (MASs), and they degrade system performance and even cause instability by tampering transmission signals. Resilient control for such attacks is critical in the real world. In this paper, a distributed adaptive resilient control scheme is proposed. This scheme is based on observers for reconstructing signals with projection operators and dual-terminal dynamic event-triggered mechanism. The update of the controller and intermittent communication among agents are determined by the proposed dual-terminal triggered mechanism, and two triggered functions work independently in individual follower. Compared with traditional static one, it not only achieves satisfactory consensus performance but also reduces triggered number. Also, state estimators are developed for reconstruction of combined measurements, and continuous monitoring is removed. Theoretical analysis shows that our proposed adaptive resilient scheme attenuates adverse effects of FDI attacks and the followers track the leader with Zeno-free behaviors. Finally, two illustrative examples are presented to verify the effectiveness of our adaptive resilient scheme.


Control of post-emergence damping-off, basal stem rot, and root rot of vetch (Vicia sativu) caused by Pythium debaryanum and other pythiaceous fungi, was obtained in a sod-sown field trial at Wollongbar, New South Wales, by applying the fungicide Dexon (R) (p-dimethylaminobenzenediazo sodium sulphonate) with the fertilizer in the furrow at sowing. Dexon improved plant establishment and survival, and increased plant vigour in the early stages of growth. Dry matter yield of vetch was increased from 206 lb an acre without Dexon, to 604 lb an acre with Dexon applied at 8 oz an acre (4.3 mg per row ft), with a corresponding reduction in the cost of fodder produced. Yield responses were also obtained at lower and higher rates, but at 64 oz an acre the Dexon was phytotoxic and no yield response was observed despite excellent disease control.


Sawdust is one of the major biomass that was produced over 1 million ton per year in Thailand. A large amount of sawdust can be used as renewable energy. Gasification is one of the high-efficiency processes to convert biomass to the gaseous product. Sawdust is suitable to be converted to the gaseous product due to its high proportion of volatile (73%). In this work, sawdust thermal conversion was investigated by using a stairmand type cyclone gasifier with 100 mm diameter. The operation of the cyclone with short residence time and high efficiency of particulate separation from the gaseous product is suitable for a small particle like sawdust. The influences of equivalence ratio (0.15-0.60) and reactor temperature (700°C, 800°C and 900°C) on the waste conversion performance were determined. The gas composition (CO, CO2, CH4, H2, and CnHm), carbon and hydrogen conversions, lower heating value and cold gasification efficiency were reported. The data analysis indicated the optimum equivalence ratio is 0.45. Excessively lower or higher equivalence ratio negatively affected the gas composition and heating value of gaseous product. The optimum of reactor temperature is 900°C. The lower temperature also adversely affected the gaseous product, conversion of carbon and hydrogen. The lower heating value of product gas is range from 0.95-3.45 MJ/m3 and the cold gasification efficiency is range from 28-68%. The optimal condition of sawdust gasification in cyclone gasifier is equivalence ratio of 0.45 and temperature of 900°C at which total carbon and hydrogen conversionsare 90% and 60%, respectively.


Toll‐like receptor‐4 (TLR‐4) protects against Gram‐negative bacteria expressed lipopolysaccharide and 'danger signals' from injured or dying cells. Although decidual cells (DCs) and interstitial trophoblasts (ITs) are in close contact, TLR‐4 has been studied extensively only in ITs.


FiatLux Imaging leveraged advances in the video gaming industry to develop software for processing 3D medical images, a product made to order for tight budgets.


The fatigue strengths of welded joints in welded structures are much lower than those of the base metal because there are stress concentrations and tensile residual stresses at weld toe.Low transformation temperature electrodes(LTTE) dressing is an useful method for improving the fatigue strengths of welded joint.The fatigue tests of LTTE dressing were carried out on both transverse and longitudinal fillet welded joints.At cycles of 2×10~6,the fatigue strengths of LTTE dressing are 154.7MPa and 173.9MPa,respectively,which is 101.4% and(100.3% of) those of TIG dressing.This shows that LTTE dressing in improving fatigue strength is useful or better than TIG dressing,while,LTTE dressing is easier than TIG dressing and it can deal with different position of weld beams.


A recent article published in Blood reveals that adolescents and young adults with hematologic malignancies face a myriad of unique psychosocial issues that impact quality of life and milestones, including education, career and financial options, family planning, and establishing individual identity (2018; doi:10.1182/blood-2017-11-778555). According to the study, adolescents and young adults (AYAs), or those ranging from 15-39 years old at cancer diagnosis, encounter differences in tumor biology, psychosocial challenges, and issues related to access to care and long-term follow-up. Although survival among the population has improved over time, progress made in treatments and survival of specific tumors typically lags behind that of children and older adults. AYAs typically present with hematologic malignancies that span from pediatric cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia to adult tumors, including nonHodgkin lymphoma, as well as Hodgkin lymphoma, the most common tumor among the 15-39 age group, the study noted. The lack of progress in survival rates among the AYA population could include diverse and incompletely understood tumor biology; inadequate access to and low participation rates in clinical trials; treatment non-adherence rates between 27 percent and 60 percent; insufficient awareness of cancer risk and symptoms among patients and health care professions, resulting in diagnostic delays; and limited knowledge among health care professionals regarding AYA treatment protocols, study authors said. The 15to 39-year-old age group encounters a series of important life milestones, resulting in emotional, social, and developmental transitions that present unique challenges when teamed with a cancer diagnosis. From completing education and pursuing gainful employment and financial independence to creating an individual identity, establishing autonomy, forming meaningful relationships, and having children, AYAs in particular struggle to reach life milestones while undergoing cancer treatment. "A cancer diagnosis and treatment challenge the ability of AYAs to achieve these milestones," Husson, et al, wrote. "Although AYA patients with a hematologic malignancy face challenges similar to those of older and younger patients, including short-term effects, such as hair loss and pain, and long-term effects of cancer treatment such as fatigue and cognitive problems, the consequences are different in this phase of life and more pronounced." In the AYA population specifically, the study noted, treatment decisions should include considerations of the impact of long-term and late effects of treatments.


Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of quantitative culture of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid for the diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia and identification of causative agents. Methods: Study group consisted of 30 epiaodes in 28 patients, enrolled from January 1995 through June 1996. Inclusion criteria were 1) presence of respiratory symptoms such as cough, sputum or dyspnea 2) increased peripheral blood leukocyte count (≥11,000/mm³) 3) Fever (≥38.3oC) 4) purulent sputum 5) new or progressive infiltrate on chest radiography. For the diagnosis of pneumonia and its causative agents, sputum smear and culture, blood culture and BAL fluid studies were performed. BAL fluid studies included differential count of white blood cell, BAL fluid smear and culture, detection of elastin fibers and presence of intracellular organisms (ICO). Quantitative culture of BAL fluid was considered positive if colony forming units was more than 1.0×10(4)/ml. Positive criteria for ICO was presence of microorganism in more than five per 100 of phagocytes, Result: Recruited were 22 males and 6 females. The mean age was 57.5±13.5 years (range 25-84), Of 30 episodes underwent BAL fluid studies, 19 cases were diagnosed to be bacterial pneumonia, S. aureus (7 cases) was the most common causative agent and was followed by P. aeruginosa (4), E. cloacae (2), A baumanii (1), H. influenzae (1) and a-hemolytic Streptococcus (1). Sensitivity of quantitative culture of BAL fluid for the diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia was 68.4% and its specificity was 63.6%. Elastin fibers were detected in 5 cases (31%) and ICO over 5% in 3 cases (15.7%). When criteria of quantitative culture of BAL fluid, detection of ICO and elastin fibers were applied together, diagnostic rate of pneumonia was 84.2% (16/19). Conclusion: Quantitative culture of BAL fluid was sensive and specific compared to sputum and b1ood culture for the diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia, It was suggested that detection of ICO and elastic fibers in BAL fluid could raise the diagnostic rate of bacterial pneumonia.