Protection of myocardium from ischemic and reperfusion lesions continues to be an important issue in the modern cardiac surgery. Russian and foreign publications contain a significant number of data about the protective impact of pre- and pos t-c onditioning with inhalation anesthetics (sevoflurane, isoflurane, and desflurane) on the myocardium. The article highlights that this protective action is maximum when these drugs are used during the whole operation and it means during cardiopulmonary bypass as well. Therefore, currently, the listed above inhalation anesthetics are used fairly frequent during cardiopulmonary bypass. However, the technology of inhalation anesthesia during perfusion has a number of specific features: changes in the pharmacokinetics of drugs (which provides impact on the dosing of anesthetics), design of oxygenator, which plays a certain role when the anesthetics are supplied to the blood, monitoring during inhalation anesthesia, technical assistance for this technology and important safety issues. This review describes the abov e-m entioned aspects.


This work aimed to study the thermo-electro vibration of a piezoelectric micro-plate resting on the orthotropic foundation. To catch the small-scale effects of the structure, couple-stress theory was employed. Motions of the structure were modelled based upon different shear deformation theories including exponential, trigonometric, hyperbolic, parabolic, and forth-order shear defor-mation theories. These modified shear deformation theories are capable of considering transverse shear deformation effects and rotary inertia. Equation of motions are derived with Hamilton's prin-ciple and to solve these equations an analytical approach is applied. Besides, Effect of different boundary conditions including SSSS, CSSS, CSCS, CCSS and CCCC are investigated. The pre-sent results are validated with the previously published results. In the result section, the influences of various parameters such as increasing temperature, boundary conditions, foundation parameters, thickness ratio, aspect ratio, external volatage, and length scale on the natural frequencies of the plate are illustrated in detail.


In Behera Governorate (Egypt) there are different t reatment systems such as activated sludge (A.S), trickling filter (T.F) and oxidation ditch (O.D) systems. 20% of the governorate population is served by sewage system and treatment plants. The major objectives of this research are: i) study the treat ability aspect of three wastewater treatment systems (activated sludge (A.S), tricklin g filter (T.F) and oxidation ditch (O.D)) and ii) conduct a comparison study between t he above three systems. The O.D system gave the highest COD, BOD and suspended solids % removal comparing with the other two systems (A.S and T.F systems). Result s showed that The O.D system is not only the best as far as the wastewater treatmen t but is also the lowest cost of treatment.


The first experiment was performed on the Shenguang III prototype laser facility using implosion balloon filled with pure deuterium gas.An plastic scintillation detector was used to measure D-D neutron yield.The neutron yields are about 108.The uncertainties of neutron yields ~10%.


Context. Direct measurements of fundamental parameters and photospheric structures of post-main-sequence intermediate-mass stars are required for a deeper understanding of their evolution. Aims. Based on near-IR long-baseline interferometry we aim to resolve the stellar surface of the F0 supergiant star Canopus, and to precisely measure its angular diameter and related physical parameters. Methods. We used the AMBER/VLTI instrument to record interferometric data on Canopus: visibilities and closure phases in the H and K bands with a spectral resolution of 35. The available baselines (' 60 110 m) and the high quality of the AMBER/VLTI observations allowed us to measure fringe visibilities as far as in the third visibility lobe. Results. We determined an angular diameter of = = 6:93 0:15 mas by adopting a linearly limb-darkened disk model. From this angular diameter and Hipparcos distance we derived a stellar radius R = 71:4 4:0R . Depending on bolometric fluxes existing in the literature, the measured = provides two estimates of the e ective temperature: Te = 7284 107 K and Te = 7582 252 K. Conclusions. In addition to providing the most precise angular diameter obtained to date, the AMBER interferometric data point towards additional photospheric structures on Canopus beyond the limb-darkened model alone. A promising explanation for such surface structures is the presence of convection cells. We checked such a hypothesis using first order star-cell models and concluded that the AMBER observations are compatible with the presence of surface convective structures. This direct detection of convective cells on Canopus from interferometry can provide strong constraints to radiation-hydrodynamics models of photospheres of F-type supergiants.


In 1489, after the surrender of the coastal towns of Almunecar and Salobrena during the Granada War (1482-1492), the Catholic Monarchs immediately set about repairing and improving the military defences of the castles situated in both towns. Due to the important efficiency displayed by the pyroballistic artillery during that war in order to attack and seize the fortresses and towns of the Nasrid Kingdom, the old Andalusi walls were unable to withstand the attacks, therefore the monarchs, together with the captains of their artillery immediately began to adapt the fortifications that had been conquered to make a stand against the new weapons. Basically this led to the construction of artillery barriers based on the experience of those fortresses constructed or adapted during the 15 th century in Castile. Particular reference was taken from the important construction of the Castle of la Mota in Medina del Campo. In this article there will be a study of the features of the artillery barriers built in both fortresses.


Expressions are derived for the dispersion of a laser gain medium at arbitrary values of the power density within the laser. These expressions apply to multimode operation of a laser where the mode spacing is less than the pressure-broadened atomic linewidth. The dispersion calculations are used to predict the spectra of beats between adjacent oscillating modes as a function of parameters characterizing the laser cavity and the gain medium. Experiments aimed at testing the accuracy of the threoretical predictions are described. It is shown that the theory gives a reasonably good description of the variation of the center frequency of the beat spectrum with internal power density. However, for reasonably high power densities, the observed width of the beat spectrum considerably exceeds that predicted. This discrepancy is related to an effective width of each oscillating mode.


Introduction: Acute appendicitis is the leading cause of emergency surgery in the pediatric population. Laparoscopic appendectomy helps reduce morbidity and mortality of this disease. Today it has accepted the use of laparoscopy in complicated appendicitis. Objective: To determine the clinical outcome of patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery for complicated appendicitis. Material and methods: We reviewed the records of patients diagnosed with appendicitis who were treated by minimally invasive surgery. Results: 41 laparoscopic appendectomies were performed in patients with complicated appendicitis. 61% was performed in patients aged six to 10 years. Localized peritonitis was found in 56%. Abdominal abscess in presented as a complication in 12%. Conclusions: Our results are similar to those reported in other series.


Many philosophers argue that individuals have duties to do their fair shares of the demands of achieving important common ends. But what happens when some individuals fail to do their fair shares? Are the remaining duty bearers required to take up the slack? The most prominent view, Fair Shares, holds that individuals are never required to take up the slack. But this view has counterintuitive implications; in many cases, it would show callous disregard not to take up the slack to help those in dire need. The central alternative, Slack-Taking, holds that considerations of fairness have no bearing in determining whether individuals are required to take up the slack. But this view fails to capture the practical importance of fairness in nonideal circumstances. I defend an alternative view, Weighing, according to which individuals properly weigh the value of fairness against the value of taking up the slack in determining whether they are all-things-considered required to take up the slack. While this view has been suggested before in the literature, I develop it by clarifying its structure and underlying rationale and defending it against important recent objections.


Abstract The Constitutional Court in Carmichele was correct to hold that '[where] the common law deviates from the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights the courts have an obligation to develop it by removing that deviation'. Anton Fagan's argument that this is false is flawed because he misquotes, misrepresents and misunderstands the Court's argument. Further, Fagan's argument that the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights is merely a secondary reason for developing the common law that can be trumped by the individual moral views of judges, is also flawed. It is based on a mischaracterisation of the Hart-Fuller debate that is both unconvincing and inappropriate. Both he and Stuart Woolman are incorrect to elevate rights over the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights. The s 39(2) approach to developing the common law does not make the Bill of Rights vanish; rather, it provides a mechanism for bringing horizontal rights to fruition. Finally, s 39(2) is not merely a mechanism for achieving coherence, it is a mechanism for achieving a coherent and just legal system that is superior to Fagan's preferred mechanism of leaving justice up to the individual moral convictions of judges.


We study the time- and spectrally-resolved exciton dynamics of a few-layer molybdenum disulfide using ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy. We find that the carrier induced broadening significantly influence on the band-edge transmission spectra even with small carrier densities.


We present a method to calculate flame volume based on 3D point cloud data of flame surface. The method reconstructs the multi-view flame data into 3D point cloud data, and then constructs a flame triangular mesh model, which is used to calculate the projected volume of a single triangular mesh, and then obtains the flame volume data. We show the flame volume results from the flame image to the flame triangle mesh model, and the calculated flame volume. The accuracy of the method is also verified by calculating the volume of easily computable objects. It is shown that our method can calculate the flame volume conveniently.


The reliability assessment of the load carrying capacities of piles based on dynamic approach using Hiley, Janbu and Gates formulae is reported in this paper, this has become necessary because pile capacities determined from dynamic formulae have shown poor correlations and wide scatter when statistically compared with static load test results. In practice, uncertainties are common phenomena in engineering, therefore all the interrelated variables in the load carrying capacities of piles should be treated as random variables. Assuming practical probability density functions, the concept of the First-Order Reliability Method (FORM) as a powerful tool for estimating nominal probability level of failure associated with uncertainties is therefore invoked for estimating the implied reliability levels associated with the formulae of Hiley, Janbu and Gates. The results show that there is a good correlation between the implied safety levels in Hiley and Janbu formulae, while those associated with Gates are exceptionally different and grossly conservative.


This paper presents a cross-modal approach for extracting semantic relationships between concepts using tagged images. In the proposed method, we first project both text and visual features of the tagged images to a latent space using canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Then, under the probabilistic interpretation of CCA, we calculate a representative distribution of the latent variables for each concept. Based on the representative distributions of the concepts, we derive two types of measures: the semantic relatedness between the concepts and the abstraction level of each concept. Because these measures are derived from a cross-modal scheme that enables the collaborative use of both text and visual features, the semantic relationships can successfully reflect semantic and visual contexts. Experiments conducted on tagged images collected from Flickr show that our measures are more coherent to human cognition than the conventional measures that use either text or visual features, or the WordNet-based measures. In particular, a new measure of semantic relatedness, which satisfies the triangle inequality, obtains the best results among different distance measures in our framework. The applicability of our measures to multimedia-related tasks such as concept clustering, image annotation and tag recommendation is also shown in the experiments.


The cover picture shows the mushroom Mycena rosea whose fruiting bodies contain two new red pyrroloquinoline alkaloids named mycenarubin A and B. So far, pyrroloquinoline alkaloids are mainly known from marine sources. The new secondary metabolites have been detected by means of a comparative HPLC profiling of the fruiting bodies and the mycelial cultures. The absolute configuration of the mycenarubins was established by a stereoselective synthesis of the model compound (S)-4-carboxydamirone C and comparison of its CD spectrum with the CD spectra of the mycenarubins. Details are discussed in the article by S. Peters and P. Spiteller on p. 1571 ff.


As part of the continuing effort to identify approaches to improve the safety and reliability of the Space Shuttle system, a Five-Segment Booster (FSB) design was conceptualized as a replacement for the current Space Shuttle boosters. The FSB offers a simple, unique approach to improve astronaut safety and increase performance margin. To determine the feasibility of the FSB, a Phase A study effort was sponsored by NASA and directed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. This study was initiated in March of 1999 and completed in December of 2000. The basic objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of the FSB design concept and also estimate the cost and scope of a full-scale development program for the FSB. In order to ensure an effective and thorough evaluation of the FSB concept, four team members were put on contract to support various areas of importance in assessing the overall feasibility of the design approach.


Art from Africa has been given short shrift in the United States and Europe until recently. Despite shows at Houston Fotofest in 1998, Noorderlicht in 2000, Snap Judgments at the International Center for Photography in 2006, and major international surveys curated by Okwui Enwezor (Dokumente 11,1998-2002) and Simon Njami (Africa Remix 2004), photography from Africa--even post-Apartheid South Africa--has been largely overlooked by the global art community. With the exception of Zwelethu Mthethwa, most. South African photographers known outside of the country have been white men such as David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo, William Kentridge, Guy Tillim, and American-born Roger Ballen. In the fifteen years since South Africa has emerged from Apartheid, its rigid structures of order and classification have given way to a new and more inclusive multicultural system, which has sparked remarkable development across all aspects of artistic expression. A small but provocative show in England at the Djanogly Art Gallery at the Lakeside Arts Centre University of Nottingham-Trent, "Life Less Ordinary: Performance and Display in South African Art," curated by Anna Douglas, brought the diversity and energy of the South African art scene to the fore. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Photography's role in supporting Apartheid's power structures based on surface difference--skin color--is shown by an introductory selection of enlargements from the Dompas or Passbooks, the personal cards of identity required to be carried by every black South African from 1952 to l986, after which all citizens were required to carry a pass that included a I.D. photo and the description of his or her racial classification: "Coloured," "Indian," "Cape Coloured," or "White." The passes also denoted name, gender identification, registration number, and date and place of birth. Nelson Mandela's very public burning of his Dompas in 1952 was an early milestone in the "Defiance Campaign" against Apartheid and far more risky that the act of burning one's draft card during the Vietnam war era. Douglas brought twelve artists together and contextualized them as operating within and outside the mode of representation of the Edward S. Curtis-like figure of Alfred Duggan-Cronin, whose staged "documentary" photographs captured the destruction of tribal life around the Kimberly mines in the early twentieth century in the manner of Curtis's epic, legendary, and controversial series, "The North American Indian." The twelve featured artists--Brett Bailey, Dineo Bopape, Araminta de Cleront, Steven Cohen, Pieter Hugo, Michael MacGarry, Nandipha Mntambo, Zanele Muholi, Brett Murray, Tracey Rose, Athi-Patitra Ruga, and Berni Searle--address issues of identity using a variety of artistic strategies. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hugo's series "Looking Aside" (2002-05) addresses the position of albinos in South African society with a series of ID-like photos, including one of the artist looking no different than his subjects. The selections undermine skin color as a marker of racial identity--as determined by the State--while underscoring the position of albinos in African society as radical "Others," at risk of exile and even murder for cultural reasons. De Clermont's "Body of Knowledge" (2008) explores the use of superficial markers, such as prison tattoos, to assert social ranking in a socio-political structure where violence reigns. Both artists depict these external signifiers--skin color and tattoos--in traditional modes of ethnographic portraiture. Murray, in "The Renaissance Man" (2008), and Rose, in "Ciao Bella: Ms Cast" (2001-02), examine race through historical stereotypes, whether by re-creating blackface historical portraiture in a take on Yinka Shonibare's own Victorian "blackface" parodies, or through a Cindy Sherman-esque series of "miscastings" in which the artist-performer re-enacts a variety of "female" roles including "Mami," "Lolita," and "Venus Baartman," the last presenting the artist as a "naked savage" running through the savannah. …


A short informal overview about recent progress in the calculation of the effective action in quantum gravity is given. I describe briefly the standard heat kernel approach to the calculation of the effective action and discuss the applicability of the Schwinger - De Witt asymptotic expansion in the case of strong background fields. I propose a new ansatz for the heat kernel that generalizes the Schwinger - De Witt one and is always valid. Then I discuss the general structure of the asymptotic expansion and put forward some approximate explicitly covariant methods for calculating the heat kernel, namely, the high-energy approximation as well as the low-energy one. In both cases the explicit formulae for the heat kernel are given.


In general, there are two kinds of linear classification methods: one is MSE, and the other is FLD. Because linear methods are not sufficient to analyze the data with nonlinear patterns, the nonlinear methods KMSE and KFD are hence developed from MSE and FLD, respectively. Both transform the instances from the original attribute space to the high-dimensional feature space and then linear methods are applied. The objective of FLD and KFD is to find the directions on which the projection of training instances can provide the maximal separability of classes. FLD and KFD are known to be inefficient for datasets with a large amount of attributes and instances, respectively. To improve the computing efficiency, we use MSE for linear classification problems. However, MSE, like SVM, can use only the one-against-one or the one-against-the-rest approach to solve the multi-class problems. Both are inefficient compared to FLD and KFD where only one model is built to discriminate multiple classes simultaneously. Thus, we develop the multi-class MSE with Sherman-Woodbury formula to improve the computation efficiency. It can deal with multiple classes simultaneously by a class-labeling scheme. The different class-labeling schemes are determined by the Gram-Schmidt process. The nonlinear application, multi-class KMSE, is also developed from the multi-class MSE. Then, a simulated example is used to show how the proposed method works and to visualize the meaning of the class-labeling scheme. Finally, two real-world datasets are used for comparing the proposed method with other conventional methods.


In dc microgrid (MG) systems, energy storage systems (ESSs) capable of short- or long-term energy buffering are indispensable for energy management and providing high-quality electric energy. The MG should be able to operate in both islanded and grid-connected modes. A sudden failure of ac utility grids can lead to an inoperable condition of the MG or a large transient phenomenon accompanied by oscillation and overshoot during the mode transition. This paper proposes a control scheme of the bidirectional dc–dc converter for the ESS to resolve the issue associated with mode switching. The proposed control scheme provides autonomous and smooth mode switching, thereby reducing the reliance on the communication with the central controller, and enhancing the reliability of the system. To validate the proposed concept, simulation results and experimental results are provided.


Special use valuation. The only major exception to the willing buyer/willing seller test is special use valuation of land used in a farming or ranching (or other closely held) business. The executor of an estate may elect to value real property devoted to farming or ranching (or other closely held businesses) at its special use value rather than at its fair market value. The most common approach for determining the special use value of agricultural land is to obtain cash rent figures on comparable land and discount that amount by an IRS-prescribed interest rate for the part of the country in which the land is located.


International Docs International Docs The Embattled UN Depository Jim Church Introduction Last year I wrote a DttP column about the United Nations Depository Library System (UNDL), but much has changed since, unfortunately for the worse. The situation has become so serious and the UN Department of Public Information's (DPI) handling of the issue so confusing, I have almost lost faith in UN Publishing. While several advocacy efforts are underway, includ- ing a letter-writing campaign from UN Depositories around the world, an ALA Resolution, 1 and collaborative efforts with other nongovernmental organizations, the DPI seems chiefly focused on its short-term financial interests rather than access to UN information. The communications released by the DPI have also been fraught with complexity and inconsistencies. If we sup- port open access to information, we need to rebuff decisions made by the DPI and UN Publications to effectively disband the UN Depository Library System. This article is both a chal- lenge and a plea to the UN to alter course and reinstate a robust UN depository program, to embrace open access, and to foster digital redundancy. Background The UNDL dates back to 1947: for a brief history please see my previous column. 2 The UNDL had been under duress for years, but things began to seriously unravel when in July, 2013, Depository Libraries (DLs) received an email from the UN Dag Hammarskjold Library (DHL) on behalf of the DPI stating that the printing and distribution of material from the United Nations Publications Office in New York would cease. The mes- sage also stated that "at the earliest possible opportunity we will provide Depository Libraries with online access to their standard range of publications via the UN eCollection, once it is launched. This access will be on the same fee basis in 2014 as applied to Depository Libraries in 2012." 3 (author's emphasis). Nine months later, a "Consultation Paper" entitled A New Strategic Direction for UN Depository Libraries was distributed to depositories about the future of the Depository Program. 4 The paper outlined various options for re-engineering the UNDL and asked Depositories for honest feedback. Librarians responded with their views, which they assumed would be reflected in future UNDL policy. The results were published, in part, in an executive summary. 5 Of primary interest in the paper was elaboration about the proposed United Nations E-Collection: 6 The pricing for the E-Collection, which will not go live before 2015, is not yet set. The current projection, which is not guaranteed and could go up or down, is that the price will be around $10,000 for a standard annual subscription. The annual registration fee for UNDL status is also provisional. It will include an E-Collection subscription and is currently projected at $5,000 for libraries in Higher Income states (as defined by the World Bank); $2,500 in Upper Middle-Income states; $500 in Lower Middle Income states; and $250 in Low Income states. This rate will be further discounted by 40% for Depository Libraries registered on 1 January 2014 which pay their 2015 registration fee within three months of launch of the E-Collection. The E-Collection will cover all UN paid publications, initially from 2009 onwards and eventually including pre-2009 publications as they become available in the E-Collection format. The UNDL registration fee will also give access to all other UNDL services—DHL training, assessment and support; branding materials to advertise UNDL status; access to any special UNDL services with the Digital Repository, when available. 7 From the outset, pricing for the E-Collection and its suc- cessor products has been nebulous. But before elaborating fur- ther one needs to understand what is meant by a "UN paid publication." Paid publications include the research output and scholarly communication of the United Nations: examples include statistical annuals like the Demographic Yearbook, jour- nals, and scholarly monographs. These titles have long been sold to libraries and researchers and are currently under copyright. Most were distributed to Depositories for years. Publications also differ from UN "documents" which are the official records and working papers the UN produces in the course of its busi- ness. UN documents are primarily discoverable via two online platforms: UNBISNet, the catalog of UN documents indexed by the UN Libraries in New York and Geneva; and the ODS, the Official Documents System of the United Nations. It seemed that the E-Collection could be the Digital Publications Library we had been hoping for. But the issue was complicated because another information system, the "UN Digital Repository" was introduced in the Consultation Paper. Using this system, DLs would reportedly have "Access to UN documents and free publications on the UN Libraries Digital Repository, with downloadable files and cataloguing data." The DttP: Documents to the People Fall 2016


PurposeGifting is a typical monetization strategy for live streaming platforms to motivate providers' live content contribution. However, research regarding the factors that affect individuals' gifting intention is still at an infant stage. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that affect individuals' gifting intention during live streaming.Design/methodology/approachThe authors build a model to uncover the factors that affect individuals' gifting intention from a streamer–content perspective, and the hypotheses are largely validated by online survey data through structural equation model analysis.FindingsIndividuals' perceived attractiveness of the streamers is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related live streaming, whereas individuals' perceived similarity with the streamers is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related and non-leisure-related live streaming. For live content-related factors, the individuals' perceived utilitarian value of content is significantly and positively associated with gifting intention for non-leisure-related live streaming, whereas the individuals' perceived hedonic value is significantly positively associated with gifting intention for leisure-related live streaming. Perceived symbolic value is insignificantly associated with gifting intention for neither type of live streaming.Originality/valueThe research is an original work and significantly contributes to live streaming and PWYW literature, and the findings derived from this study can guide live streaming platforms to regulate individuals' gifting intentions/behaviors better.


Lake Basaka is expanding at a significant rate. Before the establishment of Matahara Sugar Plantation, the lake was like a small surface pond created during rainy season and used as grazing area. The lake expansion has certain negative consequences to the region. Thus, appropriate method of quantification of the Lake expansion is extremely important. In this particular study, the areal expansion of the Lake Basaka and sugarcane plantation was analysed. Four LandSat images (1973, 1986, 2000 and 2008) were taken for the cloud-free period and processed in ERDAS Imagine and ArcGIS softwares. Three techniques were employed in the delineation of the areas of the lake and plantation: visual interpretation of FCC in GIS, enhancements and advanced classification in ERDAS Imagine. The study result shows that Lake Basaka expansion is very significant and the increment is geometric rather than linear. Overall, the finding indicates that visual image interpretation gives a fast and accurate indication of the Lake Basaka expansion compared to image enhancement and classification techniques.


This article covers the modeling, formulation, solution, and software development of the geometrically nonlinear static finite element method of truss structure. Firstly, we summarize the total Lagrange bar elment formulation, which includes the tangent stiffness matrix and the internal force vector. Secondly, static class diagrams and dynamic sequence diagrams assist students in designing software architecture. Thirdly, the analytical example of the 2-bar truss structure and the numerical example of the 10-bar truss structure are presented to promote students' understanding of geometrically nonlinear finite element theory and application. Finally, the developed software is free for educational research and can be downloaded from the website: http://mach.jlu.edu.cn/hb_images/xygk/xssz_sz_js.php?id=395.


An 85 GHz, TE11 mode cyclotron auto-resonance maser (CARM) amplifier experiment is being planned at NRL. The experiment will use a Marx accelerator, a field-emission diode, and a 1 kW, 85 GHz Extended Interaction Oscillator (EIO). The accelerator will provide electron beam pulses with duration in excess of 100 nsec. A wiggler will be used to provide transverse momentum to the 10-100 A, 500 kV pencil electron beam. Stability against absolute instabilities is a critical issue for CARM Amplifiers. The goal of this program is to study the stability of a CARM amplifier theoretically and experimentally over a wide range of parameters.


Strategic transformation and strategic risk are both hot topics in foreign research. From the angle of strategic transformation and based on its connotation, theoretical basis and dynamics, this paper mainly analyses what causes the strategic risk and how it acts, and presents that strategic risk of strategic transformation has a close relation with a company's environment, dynamical mechanism, pressure inertia and support systems. In the end, it also provides some methods and countermeasures to keep away strategic risk.


Scholars assessing Richard Nixon's contribution to the desegregation of Southern schools have often been unimpressed. His biographer Stephen Ambrose concedes that there was some White House contribution, but observes that "Nixon had to be hauled kicking and screaming into desegregation on a meaningful scale, and he did what he did not because it was right but because he had no choice." The political scientist Michael Genovese concurs, telling us that Nixon sought to "withdraw the federal government from its efforts at desegregation." A recent civil rights dictionary concludes that this was "the first successful presidential candidate to be opposed to civil rights enforcement," adding that "many of his tactics thwarted the furthering of school desegregation." The noted civil rights historian, William Chafe, meanwhile, contends that "Nixon repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to the politics of polarization"; "continued to embrace" southern evasions that "had been invalidated by the Supreme Court"; and used "the power of the presidency to delay, if not halt completely, federally imposed school desegregation." And Kevin O'Reilly, in an overview of presidential leadership on civil rights, finds the 37th president to have been essentially indistinguishable from the race-baiting George Wallace. Nixon resented the Alabamian, he reveals, because "he wanted the gutter all to himself." Considering a number of contenders, he concludes that "school desegregation emerged as the administration's most important and enduring (anti)civil rights crusade."


Superpositional model of fundamental frequency ( F 0 ) contours as suggested by the Fujisaki model can well represent F 0 movements of speech keeping a clear relation with linguistic information of utterances. Therefore, improvement of HMM-based speech synthesis is expected by using the merit of superpositional model. In this paper, a targets-based superpositional model is proposed in the light of the Fujisaki model. Here, both accent and phrase components are parameterized by respectively defined low and high targets which allow flexible interac-tion between accent and phrase components. Due to the flexible interaction, the new method consistently treats such complex F 0 movements as low digging, varying declination, and final lowering by simply adjusting parameter values. This facilitates extraction of the model parameters from observed F 0 contours, which is one of major problems preventing the use of the Fujisaki model. Extraction of the target parameters is evaluated for a Japanese speech corpus and the F 0 contours generated by the model are used for HMM training instead of the original. Listening test of synthetic speech indicates significant improve-ments in speech quality. Micro-prosodic effects are also investigated. Results show that adding the micro-prosody to the generated F 0 contours does not significantly improve speech quality. model of F 0 contours to strengthen automatic extraction of the model parameters from observed F 0 contours. The proposed model is of the merit of the Fujisaki model: a limited number of model parameters can well represent F 0 contours of speech keeping a clear relation of linguistic information of utterances. By using F 0 contours generated by the proposed model for HMM training instead of original F 0 's, an improvement in synthetic speech quality was achieved. The effects of micro-prosody on HMM-based speech synthesis were also investigated with the proposed model. The results show that having micro-prosody or not does not significantly affect synthetic speech quality.


The adoption of customer orientation by an SME hotel trying to fight for excellence in a robust competition has drawn the writer's interest. The research question to answer is: How the SME hotel adopts the customer orientation to respond to the competition and the changing environment. The research approach is qualitative. The informants are members of the hotel management staff having hands on managerial and supervisory responsibilities. Besides interviews, the writer conducted observation and triangulation. The result of this research shows that the hotel adopts customer orientation informally. They collect, distribute and respond to the information in line with their limited knowledge and capability in a financial constraint. A unique work culture of 'gotong royong' is created where efforts are aimed at responding to customers' interest, satisfaction and value The inductive process in this research enables the writer to construct a mini theory which should be proved true by quantitative researches.


Books, like chronometers, (lifter more from one another in their internal organization, than in their external form and appearance. A handsome time-piece and a half-guinea volume may be quickly constructed of soft and perishable materials; and, they may run or sell to a certain extent; but time shews, in general, that manufactures of slow construction, are of long duration. It is a very easy thing for a physician to have his name


leading voices on employment, politics, sports, and cultural norms and practices. He also presents Robinson's accomplishments in relation to other iconic figures such as Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, and Earl Lloyd. In the course of setting the historical stage, Dressman explains how Robinson worked tirelessly to prevent his players from getting involved in protests, marches, sit-ins, and boycotts. Robinson insisted their role in the civil rights struggle consist of demonstrating that they could compete with the best teams on the field, enhancing the profile of their college, graduating, and making something of their lives. Another little known detail that Dressman underscores is that Robinson was also instrumental in helping women students achieve their goals, allowing some to reside in his home with his family so they could complete their education. Although Eddie Robinson is well written and the arguments are presented clearly, one drawback of the book is the small number of illustrations; however, this minor detail does not take away from the incisiveness of the book. Robinson's tenure as a coach, educator, and father figure serves as a model to those seeking a career in athletics. Given that he amassed 408 wins; played football games in Mississippi Veterans Stadium, Yankee Stadium, the Superdome, as well as in Hawaii and Tokyo, Japan; and sent more than 200 players to the professional ranks, Robinson is considered one of the greatest coaches in sports history. Dressman's biography offers several lessons that can have a lasting effect on any athletic or educational program. They involve empowering and enriching the lives of youth, developing and nurturing students' intellectual acumen and personal growth, building institutional alliances and community networks, and fostering productive relationships among stakeholders. Eddie Robinson should appeal to a broad audience. It is a primer for those interested in careers in sports or sportsrelated fields. It is also a contribution to African American and sports history, sport management and pedagogy, coaching education, and physical education.


The theory of atoms in molecules leads to a convenient partition of the crystalline space into atomic regions that are space filling and allow a decomposition of the bulk compressibility of a crystal as a volume-weighted sum of local compressibilities. Using available ab initio calculations for the complete alkali halides (AX) family in the rock salt phase and some selected spinels, we find that the pressure at the limit of stability of the crystal matches exactly those of the individual ions (or group of ions), pointing to the conclusion that the ionic volumes at the equilibrium define the relative compressibilities of the ions (or group of ions) in the crystal at all pressures. We also analyse the functional dependence between the ionic compressibilities and volumes for the AX family. We show that these ions exhibit universal behaviour when the local bulk moduli are correlated with the pressure referred to the spinodal pressure value, instead of volume. This fact allows us to define a generalised equation of state for the individual ions based on the spinodal instability hypothesis.


Results Our records of subjects' stress, emotion and physiological responses demonstrated that the stress elicitation paradigm was successful. Average self report of stress (p=0.003) and anxiety (p<0.001) levels as well as the heart rate (p<0.001) increased from the low stress task to the high stress task, and decreased during the relaxation period (Fig. 1). Salivary cortisol, a stress related hormone, steadily increased across the experiment and reached its peak 10 minutes after the end of the high stress task (p=0.02), consistent with the expected time lag between peripheral cortisol and behavioral measures. Subjects' ratings of task difficulty (p<0.001), effort required (p=0.001) and frustration (p=0.002) were significantly elevated in the high stress condition relative to the low stress condition. In addition, we found that perceived stress level was significantly correlated with perceived anxiety level across subjects (r=0.78, p=0.007). Regression analyses showed a positive correlation between the changes in CBF and subjective stress rating between the high and low stress tasks in the ventrolateral right prefrontal cortex (RPF) and left insula/putamen (LIn/Pu) area (Fig. 2), which have been linked with the processing of certain forms of negative affect, especially fear and disgust. A further regression analysis revealed a strong correlation between changes in baseline CBF and subjective stress rating during stress tasks in the right prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, which are important regions involved in emotion and vigilance/attention. The scatter plot in Fig. 2 shows that the serial subtraction task yielded a greater CBF increment in right prefrontal cortex in subjects who reported larger amount of stress elevation, and this activity even lasted after the task was completed. Paralleling behavioral data showing correlation of perceived stress and anxiety, similar pattern of brain activation (especially right prefrontal activation) was observed when self report of anxiety was used as the predictor for regression analyses.


At first,several methods to decrease the leakage currents of poly-silicon thin film transistors are proposed.Then,the electric characteristics of p-Si TFTs which use ultra-thin channel and common channel are compared respectively,and find that the former behaviors better.At last,the relationships between the device's performances and the material's characteristics are analyzed.


This paper reports on the development of an heuristic algorithm for designing airport terminal layouts. Current practice of generating layouts depends heavily on past designs and intuition. No formal design method exists. This algorithm was devised to assist the designer quantitatively. The airport terminal is represented by a set of four types of components connected by a set of links. The components in turn are represented by equations of circles which are manipulated in accordance with the principles of analytic geometry. The result is a physical layout of each floor of the terminal building. Each layout is optimal in that total passenger movement is minimized.


From the Book:
In the past decade, LDAP directories have risen from a relatively obscure offshoot of an equally obscure field to become one of the linchpins of modern computing. Increasingly, LDAP directories are becoming the nerve center of an organization's computing infrastructure, providing naming, location, management, security, and other services that have traditionally been provided by network operating systems. Design and deployment of a successful LDAP directory service can be complex and challenging, yet little information is available explaining the ins and outs of this important task.
When two of us (Mark and Tim) finished writing a previous book, LDAP: Programming Directory-Enabled Applications with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol in early 1997, we soon realized there was another, much bigger piece of the directory puzzle still to be addressed. The previous book was aimed at directory application programmers, but nothing similar was available to address the needs of directory decision makers, designers, and administrators. This book is aimed at that audience.
Recognizing the size of the task ahead of us and remembering the joys of giving up evenings and weekends for months at a time to meet deadlines for our first book, we quickly decided to expand our team. Just as quickly, we decided there was no one we'd rather share the fun with than our longtime friend and colleague, Gordon Good, at the time a senior directory developer at Netscape. Aside from being the third leg of the LDAP development team at the University of Michigan (U-M), Gordon brought a wealth of system administration experience from his past life as a directory and e-mail administrator and Web masterfor U-M. With Gordon on board, the three of us set about writing a book that we only half-jokingly referred to as the "LDAP Bible." The first edition of Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services was published in 1999.
Two years later, we realized that it was time to update this book and publish a second edition. LDAPv3 work in the IETF was mostly complete. Numerous extensions to the basic LDAP protocol were being developed. LDAP support in commercial and open-source software was widespread. In this edition, we cover these recent directory services developments. In addition, in response to reader suggestions we have streamlined the text, added more hands-on examples, updated the examples to reflect currently available software versions, and updated the case studies to reflect current directory practice. We thank all the readers of the first edition who provided helpful suggestions, and we hope that you find this second edition even more valuable.The Book's Organization
This book includes 26 chapters in 6 parts. Part I introduces directories and LDAP. Parts II through IV each address a different part of the directory life cycle. Part V discusses how to leverage your directory service after it's up and running. Finally, Part VI presents three directory services deployment case studies.
Part I, "An Introduction to Directory Services and LDAP," provides a comprehensive introduction to directories and LDAP. For readers unfamiliar with the topic, this section should bring them up to speed and provide the background necessary to understand the rest of the book. It also includes a section on the history of directories for readers interested in how all this technology came about.
Part II, "Designing Your Directory Service," begins to delve into the directory life cycle by covering the first and in many ways most important phase: design. We cover all aspects of directory design, from determining your needs, to designing your data sources, schema, namespace, topology, replication, and finally privacy and security.
Part III, "Deploying Your Directory Service," covers the next phase in the directory life cycle: deployment. We cover everything from choosing the right directory products to piloting your service to putting your service into production. We've also included a section about analyzing the cost of your service and how to help reduce those costs.
Part IV, "Maintaining Your Directory Service," concludes our coverage of the directory life cycle with a look at the maintenance phase. We cover such topics as backup and disaster recovery, maintaining data, monitoring your directory system, and troubleshooting problems when they occur.
Part V, "Leveraging Your Directory Service," talks about how to take advantage of the service you have designed and deployed. We discuss the benefits and pitfalls of directory-enabling existing applications, creating new applications that use the directory, and how your directory can coexist with other data sources.
Part VI, "Case Studies," closes the book by presenting several directory case studies. Some of the case studies presented are real, and some are fictitious, but all are designed to illustrate the concepts of directory design, deployment, and maintenance in action.The Book's Audience
This book is primarily intended for three kinds of readers: decision makers, architects, and administrators. In addition, anyone who wants to know more about LDAP or directories in general will find the book useful, as will software engineers who develop directory applications.
Directory decision makers will find this book useful in understanding directories and the kinds of business problems they help solve. Decision makers will find Part I useful for explaining the basics of directories. Part VI should also prove useful by providing some realistic examples of how directories are used and the benefits they can bring.
Directory architects will find this book useful in defining the design problem and providing a methodology for producing a comprehensive directory design. The design methodology is focused on a practical approach to design based on real-world requirements. We highly recommend that directory architects and designers read the whole book, with special emphasis on Parts II, III, and IV. A good directory design results in large part from a clear understanding of the other aspects of the directory life cycle and how the directory will be used.
Directory administrators will find Part IV especially useful. It focuses on the maintenance phase of the directory life cycle, where administrators spend much of their lives. We also highly recommend that administrators read the rest of the book to get an idea of the directory big picture, as well as to understand some of the directory design decisions that are bound to make their lives either miserable or enjoyable.
Other interested readers can pick and choose from the sections of the book that interest them. We encourage all readers to at least skim Part I, to ensure that they have the background required to benefit from the rest of the book. We've tried to structure the book so that each chapter stands by itself as much as possible. Readers should be able to read the chapters covering topics that interest them, without wading through chapters of less interest. Finally, we think all readers will find the case studies presented in Part VI interesting. They give different perspectives on directories designed to illustrate the trade-offs that different directory needs imply.Contacting Us
Finally, if you have comments or suggestions about this book or if you'd like to tell us about an interesting directory deployment or application you've developed, we'd like to hear from you.


Endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) are morphologically and molecularly heterogeneous. We report novel gene fusions (EPC1::EED, EPC1::EZH2, ING3::PHF1) identified by targeted RNA sequencing in five cases. The ING3::PHF1‐fusion positive ESS presented in a 58‐year‐old female as extrauterine mesocolonic, ovarian masses, and displayed large, monomorphic ovoid‐to‐epithelioid cells arranged in solid sheets. The patient remained alive with disease 13 months after surgery. The three ESS with EPC1::EED occurred in the uterine corpus in patients with a median age of 58 years (range 27–62 years). One tumor showed a uniform epithelioid nested morphology, while the other two were composed of monomorphic spindle cells in fascicles with elevated mitotic figures, focal tumor cell necrosis, and lymphovascular invasion. At a median follow‐up of 20 months, two patients developed local recurrence, including one with concomitant distant metastasis, while one patient remained free of disease. All three patients were alive at the last follow‐up. The EPC1::EZH2‐fusion positive ESS presented in a 52‐year‐old female in the uterus, and displayed uniform spindled cells arranged in short fascicles, with focally elevated mitotic activity but without necrosis. The patient remained free of disease 3 months after surgery. All cases were diffusely positive for CD10; four diffusely express estrogen and progesterone receptors. Our study expands the molecular spectrum of EPC1 and PHF1‐related gene fusions in ESS to include additional novel subunits of the PRC2 and/or NuA4/TIP60 complexes. These cases displayed a monomorphic epithelioid or spindled phenotype, spanning low‐grade and high‐grade cytomorphology, all expressing CD10 and commonly ER and PR, and are prone to local and/or distant spread.


It is with great pleasure that we present this special geometry issue of the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin dedicated to Professor Tibor Bisztriczky on occasion of his sixtieth birthday. All articles were prepared by the contributors especially for this collection. This issue presents new results from current investigations in the fields of the combinatorial theory of polytopes, convexity, the theory of packing and covering, and combinatorial geometry, subjects where Professor Bisztriczky made significant contributions and where he is currently engaged in active research. Here we take the opportunity to thank the contributors for submitting their most valuable work and the referees who devoted their efforts and time to make this special volume possible.


This article describes a compact dual‐band chip antenna using folded‐loop metal pattern structure for WLAN/UWB applications.The folded‐loop metal pattern is embedded on the Taconic CER10 substrate to achieve a compact structure and two operating bands of WLAN and UWB. The proposed dual‐band chip antenna occupies a compact area of 6 × 6 mm and shows a low profile of 1 mm when mounted on the system circuit board of the mobile phone, making it suitable for thin mobile phone applications. Details of the proposed design are described and experimental results of the constructed prototype are presented. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:904–910, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25886


Dear Sir, We thankHemminki and coworkers for their interest in our recent findings concerning parental transmissionof type2diabetes [1].Basedontheirandourdata [1, 2], theyconcluded thatpaternal andmaternalhistory of diabetes simply add rather than act multiplicatively to increase risk fordiabetes inoffspring.They do so because in the Swedishmodel, a fully multiplicative model was rejected on statistical grounds. We agree that based on these data, it is very unlikely that paternal and maternal transmission of diabetes act in an entirely multiplicative manner. However, both in theirand inour study, the relative riskpredictedby an additive model (3.7 for their study and 3.4 for our study) is lower than theactually observed risk (4.3 for their study and 3.9 for our study). Earlier findings were also consistent with these results, with relative risksof 3.6 inPima Indiansand5.9FraminghamOffspring predicted by an additive model while actually observed riskswerehigher,with values of3.9and6.1 respectively [3, 4]. Thus, data of all four studies to date are in the same direction, with a higher actually observed risk in subjects with two affected parents thanpredicted byanadditivemodel. Therefore, given that a multiplicative model does not fit the data, acceptance of an additivemodel as sole valid alternative seems an oversimplification, with the truth lying in between both of these extremes. It is important to acknowledge the possibility of nonadditive genetic effects (epistasis or gene–gene interactions) of individual loci playing a role in transmission of risk of type 2 diabetes, because this is considereda source ofmissing heritability in complex diseases, including type 2 diabetes [5]. As many low-penetrance loci may contribute to genetic susceptibility for type2diabetes [6], suchascenariodoesnot seemunrealistic.


An alternative form of investing that has grown steadily during turbulent economic conditionsis the decision to invest in Hedge funds. Hedge funds differ from mutual funds by achievingabsolute returns, meaning that the funds use complex investment strategies in order to achievepositive returns regardless of the performance of the stock market. The hedge fund market hasgrown significantly since the mid-1990s in the Nordic countries. Sweden has dominated thehedge fund scene in terms of pure numbers and is also in a dominant position in terms ofhedge fund assets under management. Despite this growth, Swedish investors generally havea lack of knowledge about hedge funds as an alternative form of investment, which makes itdifficult to assess its advantages and drawbacks.The purpose of the report is to study what hedge fund strategies on the Swedish market areable to generate absolute return over a given period. The purpose is also to compare theperformance of the hedge fund strategies with the performance of the Swedish stock marketover the given period. The strategies have been compared with the Swedish Stock MarketIndex SIXRX which reflects the performance of the Stockholm Stock Exchange, adjusted fordividends.The results show that all the hedge fund strategies had a lower volatility and generated ahigher return relative to risk compared to the Stockholm Stock Exchange, over the givenperiod. However, only three out of five hedge fund strategies managed to generate absolutereturn over the total period.


The aim of this paper is to determine the geographical origin of the Curial's author through a quantitative linguistic analysis of this anonymous work. The study is based on linguistic comparison between the Curial and the Tirant lo Blanc, which share style, subject and chronology. The contrast between both works has helped the assessment and quantification not only of similarities but also of differences and has provided evidences for discussing the hypothetical Valencian origin of the Curial's author. Paraules clau: Historia de la llengua catalana, Dialectologia, Corpus linguistics, Analisis quantitatives Key Words: Historical linguistics, Dialectology, Corpus linguistics, Quantitative Analysis


We empirically investigate the impact of financial crises and nominal exchange rate regime changes on growth dynamics. To that end, we estimate autoregressive models using panel data for 163 countries classified into four income groups during the period 1970–2011. Results suggest that financial crises significantly reduce short-run and long-run growth for high-income and lower-middle-income countries. In the case of the upper-middle-income countries, financial crises inflict a negative and statistically significant impact on short-run growth but only a marginally significant effect on long-run growth, while for lower-income countries they only have a short-run influence. As for the exchange rate regimes, we find that they only positively affect the short-run growth rate for lower-middle-income and low-income countries, not showing any significant impact on long-run growth rates.


Thirty bleeding cases after therapeutic endoscopy for 2916 colorectal lesions were analyzed. The therapeutic endoscopy method, size of lesions, anatomic location, latency between endoscopic therapy and rectal bleeding were recorded for each case. The bleeding rate by hot biopsy was 0.4% (5 lesions), by polypectomy 1.4% (20 lesions) and by endoscopic mucosal resection 1.7% (5 lesions). The bleeding rate was associated with the size of the colorectal polyp. Sessile lesions on the cecum and ascending colon had the highest incidence of bleeding after therapeutic endoscopy. Pedunculated lesions bled more than any other lesions in the rectosigmoid region. A 93% bleeding rate was recognized within the ninth day after therapeutic endoscopy. Endoscopic clipping was the most effective for bleeding after endoscopic resection. None of our cases underwent surgical operation for bleeding after endoscopic resection. Based on these results, we would perform endoscopic clipping to prevent bleeding after removal of any lesion more than 1.0cm in size, such as a sessile lesion on the cecum and ascending colon, or a pedunculated lesion on the rectosigmoid region.


Polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) has been studied in ternary microemulsions which were stabilized by tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) or stearyltrimethylammonium chloride (STAC). The sizes of MMA-swollen polymer particles (Rh) increased continuously during polymerization. This is in contrast to that of the styrene system, where Rh increased very rapidly to a maximum and then decreased continuously towards a constant value. The continuous growth of PMMA particles at 60°C are discussed. The stability of PMMA latexes increased with increasing the hydrophobic chain length of the cationic surfactant used. Traces of the coagulations of PMMA particles in the TTAB system can be seen from TEM. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Plasmon resonances in metal nanoparticle (NP) arrays are tunable. Here, we show that narrowband field enhancement in the arrayed NPs are also tunable and its magnitude is even larger than that of single NPs, due to recycling of the scattering loss. In addition, we disclose the non-monotonous dependence of the field enhancement on the tuning wavelength, and demonstrate anisotropy resonance and field enhancement in the arrayed nanostructures. Their dual resonance characteristics may be applied in designing photoluminescence and lasing devices to enhance both the excitation and photon emission efficiencies.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://iopscience.iop.org/page/copyright


This paper improves the experimental contents according to five modules including network basic experimental network interconnection experiment,server configuration experiments,network security experiment,and comprehensive experiment.It designs the progressive experiment items composed of the basic knowledge verification,basic skills training,integrated application and innovation expansion.And simulation software and virtual machine technology are introduced.Besides this paper extends teaching functions of the open laboratory,and perfects the teaching methods and appraisal method in conformity with it.At the same time,it perfects the experimental teaching system and strengthens construction of teaching recourses to improve the experimental teaching quality.


THE United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia are about the same size In both cases the modern state was formed as a federation or union of a number of smaller states, all of which were originally settled by British immigrants. But there the similarities end.

The migrants moving into what is now the United States found a well-watered land, only 10 percent of which was arid. Much of the land surface was sculptured by the climatic events of the Quaternary period, and most of the soils were relatively young and rich in nutrients. The original inhabitants cultivated several crops, and large herds of bison grazed the grasslands.

British settlers arriving in Australia 200 years later found an ancient land surface of which two-thirds was arid with no permanent rivers. The western half of the continent had remained in the same topographic position for perhaps 400 million years, and only small parts in the southeastern corner were glaciated. The aboriginees had never cultivated the soil, and no modern herbivores existed. British settlement changed the landscape dramatically by introducing the plow and various species of herbivores.

Jenny showed very elegantly that soil at any one place on …


Rationale: Ventricular septal defects are the most common congenital heart defect in children. As this method avoids sternotomy, the post-procedural morbidity is lower. However, transcatheter closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defects are still associated with complications such as arrhythmia (particularly, Atrioventricular Block), device embolization, atrioventricularvalve and/or aortic valves regurgitation, residual shunts. Some complications can be life threatening and require urgent surgical intervention. Patient concerns: An 32-months-old boy was admitted for a significant precordial systolic murmur. The patient underwent transcatheter perimembranous ventricular septal defects closure. 12 months later, Transthoracic echocardiography revealed the device displaced, 4 mm shunt acrocss the ventricular septum and moderate tricuspid regurgitation detected. Diagnosis: According to the echocardiography result, the patient was diagnosed with displacement of the ventricular septal defect occluder and tricuspid regurgitation. Interventions: After the diagnosis, the patient underwent removal of the ventricular septal defect occluder and closure of the perimembranous ventricular septal defect. Outcomes: The post-operative recovery was uneventful. One year post-procedural follow-up transthoracic echocardiography showed there was no residual shunt and no tricuspid regurgitation. Lessons: Transcatheter closure of Ventricular septal defects is an attractive alternative to surgery in simple perimembranous ventricular septal defects. Proper follow-up should be emphasized to the patient.


In present work generalized notion of fuzzy sets is applied to achieve more flexible and intelligent contrast enhancement system for medical images of section of human bain. Applying wavelet transform two images are obtained, one is containing low frequency components (LF) other one is containing high frequency components (HF). LF image is fuzzified by fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM) technique with justified number of clusters to enhance the approximate structure. The HF images, which are highlighting narrow protrusions and other fine details are fuzzified with justified number of clusters also. Vague set approach containing interval based membership function captures the uncertainties between truly affected tumor region and normal tissues. After highlighting the tumors properly, both LF and HF images are transformed back to the original resolution by inverse wavelet transform. The results show that the proposed method can enhance the images more successfully and provide better contrast for visual interpretation.


The desert zone located on the east-northern rim of Qarun lake represents one of the promising desert outskirt of El Fayoum Governorate whether be under demand for agriculture use or to be future planned projects for later on use. That is true, since it is considered a good model for representing many of the landscape features in El Fayoum depression. So, it selected to be identified within the context of physiography, soil classification and land evaluation for specific agriculture land use. This area includes both the continental alluvium of the Nile and desert sediments that were derived from local parent rocks. The physiographic features were identified, using visual interpretation of Landsat data ETM7 (Enhanced Thematic Mapper 7), according the applied physiographic approach, and found to be as the Nile alluvial terraces, desert alluvial terraces, dissected slopes, aeolian plain, pediplain, bajada, cuesta fronts, cuesta summits and wadis. The later landforms whether are almost flat or gently slopping. The relatively high tableland structures were delineated as dissected cuesta of summits and fronts. Forty-five mini pits were located and studied for setting up a characteristic map legend. The differences were represented by nine soil profiles to be fully described and soil samples were selected for laboratory analyses. Soil taxa were categorized according to the Key of Soil Taxonomy (USDA, 2006) till the soil family level into: i) The Aridisols, soil families are a) Typic Haplocalcids, coarse loamy, mixed, hyperthermic in pediplain unit b) Typic Haplogypsids, coarse loamy, mixed, hyperthermic in bajada unit; c) Soils of wadis unit are found in a complex pattern of Typic Haplogypsids, fine loamy, mixed, hyperthermic and d) Typic Calcigypsids, fine loamy, mixed, hyperthermic in the desert alluvial terraces unit. ii) The Vertisols include a) Chromic Gypsitorrets, fine clayey, semectitic, hyperthermic in the Nile alluvial terraces unit. iii) Entisols include a) Lithic Torriorthents, fine loamy, mixed, hyperthermic in cuesta summits unit; b) Typic Torriorthents, coarse loamy, mixed, hyperthermic in cuesta fronts units; c) Typic Torripsamments, siliceous, hyperthermic in aeolian plain unit and d) Lithic Torripsamments, siliceous, hyperthermic in dissected slopes unit. The supreme and subsequent prior potential suitability of sixteen specific corps, i.e., field crops (wheat, barley, maize, cotton and onion), oil crops (sesame and sunflower), fodder crops (alfalfa and sorghum), vegetables (tomato) and fruit trees (banana, citrus, guava, mango, oil palm and olive) to be cultivated in the studied physiographic-soil units was carried out by matching between the parametric approach of land evaluation classes and their crop-physiography adaptations. The obtained data show that the potential suitability classes differed according to the Abdel Aal T.S., et al. Fayoum J. Agric. Res. & Dev., Vol.23, No.2, July, 2009 66 satisfaction conditions between different properties of soils developed on the studied physiographic-soil units and plant requirements. These adaptations can be promising for rather higher output as the major land improvements that are considered for the land qualities of drainage, salinity and sodicity to be achieved when the land considering free of those limitations.


A nonsense song of my youth was about a "swoose," who was half swan and half goose. How often has it sprung to mind as, over twenty years and more, I have watched the junior or, to use a less pejorative term now in vogue, "community" college shuck off its rags and become the swinging Cinderella of American higher education, proud to be the college of "the open door." Many of us who teach in the community college accept the goals it sets for itself and wish it well, even though we blush at times as we read the heady rhetoric and the romanticized statements of "philosophy" issued by the official promoters. The bitter fact is that we are hard put to decide exactly what the institution is, swan or goose, college or high school, technical institute or trade school. The bewilderment of the general public and educators outside the community college is only to be expected. The uninitiated can be thoroughly shaken by a reading of a community college catalog selected at random. Curricula listed range through the conventional liberal arts subjects to the subremedial, the narrowest of the vocational, and the just plain silly. Recently


The NASA mission GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory [1]) inherits its concept from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission to determine the gravity field of the Moon. The Ka-Band Range Rate (KBRR) inter-satellite data allows for a highly accurate estimation of the lunar gravity field on both sides of the Moon [2], which is crucial to improve the understanding of its internal structure and thermal evolution. In this presentation we discuss our latest GRAIL-based lunar gravity fields generated with the Celestial Mechanics Approach [3, 4] using the Bernese Software (BSW, [5]). We provide independent solutions based on an optimal combination of oneand two-way Doppler and KBRR data iterated from the pre-GRAIL SGM150J gravity field. Finally, we compare our solutions for several geodetic parameters to other groups and to Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) and we provide some preliminary results of our analysis. 1. Orbit: data, modeling and parametrization Based on one-way X band and two-way S-band Doppler data, we perform orbit determination by solving six initial orbital elements, dynamical parameters, and stochastic parameters in daily arcs using a leastsquares adjustment. We recently implemented an accurate modeling of non-gravitational forces, including accelerations due to solar and planetary [7] (albedo and IR) radiation pressure, based on the 28-plate macromodel developed by [8] to represent the GRAIL satellites. Empirical and pseudo-stochastic parameters are estimated on top of our dynamical modeling to absorb its deficiencies. We analyze the impact of different parametrizations using either pulses (i.e., instantaneous velocity changes) and piecewise constant accelerations (PCA) on our orbits. Based on these improved orbits, oneand two-way Doppler and KBRR data are then used together with an appropriate weighting for a combined orbit and gravity field determination process. Figure 1: Root Mean Square (RMS) of KBRR residuals using a weighted combination of two-way Doppler and KBRR data, GRGM900C background field and a modeling of non-gravitational forces (solar and lunar radiation pressure) acting on GRAIL satellites. Residuals on most areas are close to the nominal KBRR accuracy of 0.03 μm/s, while correlations with topography are still visible. The sistematic signal at midlatitudes shall be removed by a more accurate evaluation of light/shadow transitions. 2. Gravity field and tidal coefficients solutions We present our latest independent solutions of the lunar gravity field, where KBRR data and Doppler oneway and two-way observations from the primary mission phase (PM, March-May 2012) are used. We present our analysis of an optimal combination of all data types on Normal Equations (NEQ) level. Both solutions based on the recent GRAIL GRGM900C gravity field [6] (as validation of our modeling and parametrization) and on iterations from the SELENE SGM150J gravity field (to check the independence of our solution) are presented. We detail our procedure to gradually enlarge the parameter space while adding EPSC Abstracts Vol. 11, EPSC2017-547, 2017 European Planetary Science Congress 2017 c © Author(s) 2017 EPSC European Planetary Science Congress new data to our gravity field solution. A solution up to d/o 420, comparable to the first GL420 solution [1] by NASA JPL, is achievable with the computational power available on the UBELIX cluster at the University of Bern and with our parallel processing pipeline (based on Intel BLAS/MKL) within the BSW. In addition, we present our latest solution for the Moon tidal Love number k2. We compare all of our results from the PM with the most recent solutions of the lunar gravity field and of other geodetic parameters released by other groups or obtained using other data and techniques (e.g., LLR). 10 -12 10 -11 10 -10 10 -9 10 -8 10 -7 10 -6 10 -5 10 -4 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 D if fe re n c e a n d e rr o r d e g re e a m p lit u d e Degree of spherical harmonics GRGM900C SGM150J a priori SGM150J,1 iter 2 iter 3 iter a priori GRGM900C GL420 Figure 2: Difference degree amplitudes w.r.t. GRGM900C of 1. iterated solutions from SGM150J with progressively enlarged parameter space; 2. a solution based on GRGM900C up to d/o 600; 3. several reference solutions. Figure 3: Free-air gravity anomalies on a 0.5 × 0.5 grid of our d/o 300 iteration from SGM150J (Mollweide projection centered around 270, with the nearside on the right). 3. Summary and Conclusions We present our most recent solutions for the lunar gravity field and tidal coefficient k2, where further improvements have been obtained from the introduction of an accurate modeling of non-gravitational forces, an improved data screening and the optimisation of the parametrisation. We review the impact of different empirical orbit parametrizations and combination of data types on the recovery of lunar geodetic parameters. We show that the lunar gravity field can be recovered with a high quality by adapting the Celestial Mechanics Approach, even when using pre-GRAIL gravity field solutions as a priori. Our latest developments and the experience gained with GRAIL open the way to further research projects in planetary geodesy at AIUB and within ongoing collaborations with other groups.


Labor cases are different from civil cases or commercial cases.There might be unsuitable for labor cases to be judged by civil judges under civil idea and civil model of jurisprudence in Civil Courts.People's Courts of China have been facing with so hard task for that there are so many labor cases which have been growing up quickly.It is successfully that experience that independent courts of labor as a part of national system of justice play an important role in German and France seem to make an example.It could be better if Labor Courts will be permitted to be operated for labor cases only and Judges with proper representatives from employee's organizations and Trade Union hold the labor cases.


Specific assignments of the paramagnetically shifted porphyrin ring proton resonances in the n.m.r. spectrum of iron(III)protoporphyrin IX dicyanide have been made by consideration of the perturbations induced in the spectrum by paramagnetic shift and relaxation probes.


Introduction: Ageing population is increasing rapidly in India, posing many challenges to health care services. One among the challenge is growing malnutrition in elderly. Malnutrition impairs body composition and body function of elderly thereby impairing their quality of life. Hence measures to prevent and treat malnutrition is need of the hour. Malnutrition is multifactorial and hence study to determine various factors associated with malnutrition becomes essential.
Aim and objective: The objective of present study was to assess the nutritional status of elderly and to study the various factors associated with malnutrition.
Materials and methods: Each individual in the study was subjected to a personal interview on demographic detail, living condition, literacy and financial status. Functional status was assessed using Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), depression using Geriatric depression scale (GDS), nutritional status using Mini nutritional assessment (MNA) and caloric intake using 24 hour dietary recall.
Result: A significant association was found between the nutritional status and age group more than 75 years, female gender, illiteracy, living alone without family support, status of being financially and functionally dependent, depression and inadequate caloric intake.
Conclusion: It is essential to perform nutritional assessment as routine out patient procedure for all elderly to detect malnutrition at earliest and intervene early to prevent deleterious effect of malnutrition on elderly. Multi dimensional approach is needed to educate about need of proper nutrition to elders and their caregivers.


Sum-product networks (SPNs) are expressive probabilistic models with a rich set of exact and efficient inference routines. However, in order to guarantee exact inference, they require specific structural constraints, which compli-cate learning SPNs from data. Thereby, most SPN structure learners proposed so far are te-dious to tune, do not scale easily, and are not easily integrated with deep learning frameworks. In this paper, we follow a simple "deep learning" approach, by generating unspecial-ized random structures, scalable to millions of parameters, and subsequently applying GPU-based optimization. Somewhat surprisingly, our models often perform on par with state-of-the-art SPN structure learners and deep neural networks on a diverse range of generative and discriminative scenarios. At the same time, our models yield well-calibrated uncertainties, and stand out among most deep generative and discriminative models in being robust to missing features and being able to detect anomalies.


Demand for Ultra high-Reliability and Low-latency Communication
(URLLC) and Broadband Assured IP Services (BAS) will grow as new
service scenarios like 5G, IoT, AR/VR, Cloud are deployed. As these
new service scenarios will typically rely on shared packet
infrastructure like Internet, methods to ensure URLLC and BAS
performance across the underlying network resources will be required.
This document outlines the motivation and key requirements for URLLC
or BAS connectivity across heterogeneous network domains. It also
outlines the corresponding models and architecture required for
providing orchestrated URLLC or BAS communication.


Background: In bony specimens, elimination of calcium is obtained by a method known as "Decalcification". It is completed through the means of chemical agents such as acids, chelators etc that combine with ions of calcium. Decalcifying agent is used in regular conventional method where the hard tissue is placed at a room temperature (20-25°C) with modifications of the solution at orderly intervals until the final cutoff point is obtained. Usage of microwave oven for the process of decalcification is a new and fast method in contrast to the routine conventional method of decalcification. In this study, an attempt has been made to regulate and compare the conventional procedure of decalcification with decalcification done by microwave oven of hard tissue specimens by using nitric acid of 10% concentration with regards to decalcification speed, conservation of tissue architecture as well as productiveness of staining.
Objectives: The study will made a comparison of Conventional and Microwave Bone Decalcification Methods by using 10% Nitric Acid.
Methodology: This prospective analytical study, will include decalcification of 30 hard tissue specimens by microwave method and conventional method. The results will be compared in terms of decalcification speed, conservation of tissue architecture and staining productiveness. Necessary tests will be applied to analyze the data.
Expected Results: Significant advantages of microwave method are expected over conventional method of decalcification.
Conclusion: The conclusion will be drawn based on careful analysis of the results.


The relevance of the topic of the scientific article is to study the position of countries with transition economies that are members of the European Union in the quality of life ratings presented by leading international rating companies. The research should adhere to the principle that the higher the quality of life of the population, the more developed the country is. The purpose of the research article is to develop a strategy for improving the quality of life of the population in countries with economies in transition. Eurostat data, data from international rating organizations such as Numbeo and InterNations, as well as the method of determining the physical quality of life index of the population, developed by Morris David Morris, were used to study the quality of life in European Union countries. According to the results of the study, the quality of life in the member states of the European Union with transition economies is somewhat different from the general statistical indicators of the quality of life in the economically developed EU countries. The main directions of the strategy to improve the quality of life in countries with economies in transition must be: increase in employment due to the formation and implementation of the mechanism of regulation of employment both urban and rural areas, as well as on the international labour market (will lead to lower unemployment);increasing human capital as a result of eliminating gender inequality in the labor market; improving the safety and professional level of the population's health; solving the problem of migration, in particular refugees who illegally enter the territory of the EU countries; increasing the level of social protection of the population in the framework of developing additional social assistance programs.


The structure of the avocado pericarp wall has been described in respect to its gross morphology (2) and more recently in relationship to the fine structure of the several tissues (6). The mesocarp or edible portion consists primarily of homogeneous parenchymatous tissue in which small oil droplets are the major physical constituents. Scattered through the pericarp are specialized oil cells containing the idioblasts which are characterized by large oil sacs. Cells of the latter are lined with a lipid film of suberin-like material and have prominent plasmodesmata inter-connecting with adjacent cells (6). The branched system of vascular strands which traverses the pericarp from stem to apex also is located in the mesocarp. The oil droplets are found in two distinctive physical conditions and in two types of cells within the pericarp. The small, regular storage parenchyma with an average cell diameter of 60 microns comprise the major storage tissue in which most of the oil occurs as small droplets ranging from 0.5 to 20 or more microns in diameter. These droplets are numerous, and closely packed together, frequently obscuring all other cell constituents. Specialized idioblast cells, somewhat larger in size up to 100 microns in diameter and much fewer in number, are scattered at random through the pericarp parenchyma. These specialized cells contain a prominent large oil droplet consisting of a single spherical mass. The fibrillar structure of these cells has been described previously (6). While the most obvious major storage constituent of the avocado pericarp is oil in great abundance, there remain other particles of protein nature and cytological structures such as nucleus and plastids which become visible only when the oil droplets are removed by appropriate solvents. The nature and behavior of these cytological constituents is of considerable theoretical interest. The stimulation which initiates the development of the pistil or ovary of a flower generally results from the process of pollination, followed by union of the pollen and egg nuclei and the subsequent development of an embryo. The general evidence indicates that fruit set in avocado normally does not occur without the sequence of these


We studied the colonization of cotton by artificial microorganisms in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Revealed the nature of the distribution on cotton of bacteria, cyanobacteria, actinomycetes, fungi and algae. There is a vertical organization of the structure of ecological communities emerging on the wool specifics of formation of colonies and biofilms.


The evolution of dust at redshifts z ≳ 9, and consequently the dust properties, differs greatly from that in the local universe. In contrast to the local universe, core collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the only source of thermally condensed dust. Because of the low initial dust-to-gas mass ratio, grain destruction rates are low, so that CCSNe are net producers of interstellar dust. Galaxies with large initial gas mass or high mass infall rate will therefore have a more rapid net rate of dust production compared to galaxies with lower gas mass, even at the same star formation rate. The dust composition is dominated by silicates, which exhibit a strong rise in the UV opacity near the Lyman break. This "silicate-UV break" may be confused with the Lyman break, resulting in a misidentification of a galaxy's photometric redshift. In this Letter we demonstrate these effects by analyzing the spectral energy distribution of MACS1149-JD, a lensed galaxy at z = 9.6. A potential 2 mm counterpart of MACS1149-JD has been identified with GISMO. While additional observations are required to corroborate this identification, we use this possible association to illustrate the physical processes and the observational effects of dust in the very high-redshift universe.


This experiment was about the ability of waste alumina to remove fluoride that exist in industrial wastewater.The effects of the diameter and dosage of alumina,pH,adsorption time and the initial fluorine concentration on the adsorption properties were studied.The results showed that if the dosage of alumina constant,the adsorption capacity of alumina increases with smaller the diameter and higher the fluoride concentration of waste water.And the highest removal capacities were achieved at pH range 4 to 6 while the dosage of alumina was 5‰ and adsorption time was 30 min.the adsorption isotherm of alumina at different temperatures was made and they obey Freundlich Equation that had already be proved.Through this experiment we got the conclusion that the highest removal capacities were achieved while the diameter was between 1.0 to 3.2 mm and the dosage of alumina was 5‰,the pH range 4 to 6,adsorption time was 30min and temperature was 20 ℃.


2561 Background: Nifurtimox is a nitroheterocyclic compound that has been shown to exert its cytotoxic effect specifically by generating free radicals. The objectives of this study were to test the safety and pharmacokinetic profile of nifurtimox in children with relapsed/refractory neuroblastoma when given alone and in combination with cyclophosphamide and topotecan. Methods: Eligibility criteria included patients <21 years old with relapsed neuroblastoma and measurable disease. Nifurtimox dosing began at 20mg/kg/day orally (3 patients/cohort) and escalated by 10mg/kg/day per cohort until 2/6 patients in a cohort experienced dose limiting toxicities (DLT). Patients received nifurtimox for 21 days (cycle 1), followed by 3 cycles in combination with cyclophosphamide and topotecan. Pharmacokinetic analysis was done on Day 1 and 4 of cycle 1 (nifurtimox alone) and of cycle 2 (nifurtimox with cyclophosphamide and topotecan). DLT was defined as any CTC grade 4 toxicity, grade 3 neurotoxicity, or grade 2 toxici...


Capital inflows in the Czech Republic, as measured by the surplus in the capital account of the balance of payments (BoP), amounted to 8.5 percent of GDP in 1993 and 5.8 percent of GDP in 1994. In recent years, several countries have experienced surges in capital inflows; for example, Chile in 1990, 10.6 percent of GDP; Mexico in 1992, 7.6 percent of GDP; Thailand in 1991, 12.6 percent of GDP; Spain in 1987, 3.8 percent of GDP (see Schadler et al. 1993). As in these countries, in the Czech Republic the magnitude of capital inflows raises concerns about their destabilizing effects. While, in principle, capital inflows can finance economic growth and investment, they are often associated with an increase in domestic demand and consumption, putting pressure on prices. Credit expansion afforded by foreign capital causes increases in monetary aggregates, making monetary policy


This study investigates the impact of different independent factors on birth weight of infant. The Demographic and Health Survey of Pakistan (PDHS) 2014 data are used for empirical analysis. Binomial Logit Regression is employed for analysis. The analysis revealed the significant relationship of birth weight with mother's education; Mother's working status, wealth index of family, gender of child, Place of residence, age of mother at first birth with birth weight of infant. The analysis also revealed that birth-interval, birth order and institutional place of delivery reduce the birth weight children. The male children are more likely to be suffering of low birth weight as compare to female children. As far as mother's education level, her employment and wealth status increases the risk of low birth weight decreases. It has important policy implications that at least mother's education should be part of the education policy of Pakistan. The proper medical facilities should be provided at rural areas to decrease the risk of low birth weight and child mortality as well. From the policy perspective the education on birth order and birth interval should be arranged for awareness of parents. For the long-run the socioeconomic status of the household expressed by wealth index is needed.


Preface Introduction 1 Encounters with International Trade Standards: China and the WTO 2 Performance of International Trade Standards I: Contract Law in China 3 Performance of International Trade Standards II: Property Law in China 4 Encounters with International Human Rights Standards 5 Treaty Performance on Human Rights: Sustainability and Social Justice Conclusion Appendices Notes Index


out-right for his alma mater; he can best repay her by living-a life that ;Will reflect credit upon her, by so carrying himself as a citizerl' that m~n shan see that the years spent in training him have not been wasted. The educated man is entitled to no special privilege, save the inestimable privilege of trying to show that his education enables him to take the lead.,Ml striving to guide his fellows aright in the difficult task which is set to us' of the twentieth centurv, The problems before us to-day are very complex, and are widelv different' from those which the men of Washington's generation had to face; but we can overcome them surely, and we can overcome' them only, if we approach them in the spirit which Washington and Washington's great supporters brought-to bear upon the problems of their day-the spirit of sanity and of courage, the spirit which combines hard common sense with the loftiest idealism. ... ~ ... HARVARD COLLEGE SALARIES.


In article dependence of competitiveness on a stage of life cycle of the organization is considered. The author proves necessity of use of the project approach for management of competitiveness of the organization.


In order to achieve a fundamental evaluation of durability on the 'engineering level', an extensive investigation of the microstructure on the 'materials science level' should be carried out. Many researchers have been developing microstructure models in order to predict the transport properties and durability properties of concrete. These models are based on, among other things, experimentally gathered knowledge on the hydration of cement, pore structure, porosity and the formation of the microstructure. Collecting full data on the microstructure of cement paste, mortar and concrete is not an easy talk since until now, not one single test method is available to achieve a complete and accurate picture of the real situation.
With the introduction of X-ray computed tomography in the study of cementitious materials it became possible to provide a direct 3D reconstruction of the studied material which could be very useful for modelling transport and durability properties. At present the resolution of the reconstruction by X-ray CT is still restricted to a few micrometers, depending on the sample size and the specifications of the equipment used to make the X-ray measurements. However, in spite of these limitations this technique can provide interesting information on different aspects. In this paper some examples of applications will be given : crack formation, study of voids, degradation by means of acid/sulphate attack, ....


vention of these diseases is a problem of national importance. The leaders of the medical profession realised long ago the magnitude of the mischief that is done to the future citizens of the country; and their teaching has long been based on sound lines. This teaching has for years been accepted and acted upon by all the better sort of practitioners; but it is to be admitted with regret and shame that there are still many doctors whoso remissness and neglect


In this study, it was aimed to determine the competencies of Social Studies and Science Teachers
in using Web 2.0 tools. For this purpose, scanning design, one of the quantitative research methods,
was used in the research. The data obtained in the research were collected with the "Web 2.0 Tools
Usage Competency Scale" developed by Çelik (2020). The study group of the research consists of
83 Social Studies and 77 Science Teachers working in private institutions affiliated to MEB in
different provinces in the 2021-2022 academic year. The analysis of this research was done by
analyzing the answers given to the "WAKYÖ" Scale of Competency in Using Web 2.0 Tools with
the IBM SPSS 26 Package program. The findings were analyzed with descriptive analysis, t-test,
one-way analysis of variance, tukey and benferonni tests, and the significance of the data was
evaluated at the 0.05 significance level. In line with the findings, while the competencies of Social
Studies and Science teachers' use of Web 2.0 tools differ significantly according to the variables of
gender, institution, whether they have received training on Web 2.0, education level
(undergraduate, graduate) and tenure, there is a significant difference according to the branch
variable. found not to show.


The photos clinched the relationship, made it real," says Bailey. "The children almost felt they were face to face." And for many of them, photography itself became a road to self-discovery. Bailey came to the idea while working as projects organizer for The Photographers' Gallery in London. After the Richard Atkins Primary School in Brixton, London, expressed interest, she found three committed partners— the DRIK Photo Library in Dhaka, the Shootback Project in Nairobi, and the J Team Youth Center in Cape Town. Each exchange was unique. To begin with, there were the vastly different cultural, social and economic realities faced by each group. Many of the children outside London struggled with poverty, homelessness or horrific pollution. "In London the children talk about Nintendos," says Bailey. "In Nairobi they talk about extreme hardships, and ways of overcoming them." Camera skills varied, from the enthusiastic (London and Cape Town) to the budding professional (Nairobi and Dhaka). Whatever their skills, the personalities and concerns of the children blazed through the What's the fastest way of cutting through barriers of


ii Acknowledgements iii Chapter 1 1 Research Questions 11 Definition of Terms 11 Chapter 2 15 History of PTSD 16 Diagnosis of PTSD in the DSM 19 Symptoms of PTSD 23 The Impact of Stressful Life Events on PTSD symptomology 29 The Impact of Stressful Life Events within Specific Populations 33 Comorbidity of PTSD symptomology 36 Sub-threshold PTSD 38 Treatment of Sub-threshold PTSD 41 Coping Mechanisms 43 Conclusion 47 Chapter 3 48 Participants 48


Summary:  Purpose: Hormonal changes occur in epilepsy because of seizures themselves and of antiepileptic drug (AED) effects on steroid production, binding, and metabolism. Conversely, steroids may influence neuron activity and excitability by acting as neuroactive steroids. This cross‐sectional observational study aimed to evaluating cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels in female epilepsy patients with different disease severity, as assessed by a seizure frequency score (SFS).