OBJECTIVE
To determine the levels of adiponectin and its subforms before and immediately after delivery to estimate the effect of cessating advanced pregnancy on circulating adiponectin levels.

DESIGN AND METHODS
In a cohort of 37 women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies and 6 women with twin pregnancies, serum adiponectin was measured before caesarean section (CS) in the fasting state, and 24 and 48 h after CS.

RESULTS
Serum adiponectin levels declined within 24 h of delivery from median 8.34 mg/l (range 5.57-20.47) to 6.81 mg/l (4.16-17.39) after 24 h and 6.84 mg/l (3.83-17.42) after 48 h. This corresponded to a relative decrease to 83+/-6 and 81+/-7% of pregnant values after 24 and 48 h respectively (P<0.001, ANOVA). In twin pregnancies, maternal adiponectin levels displayed a decrease that was the same as that displayed by them after birth (P<0.001). High-molecular weight adiponectin constituted 50+/-8% (range 34-68%) of total adiponectin. Absolute changes in adiponectin levels after delivery were most pronounced in this subfraction. The percentage medium-molecular weight adiponectin decreased slightly, but significantly (from 37+/-6 to 35+/-5%, P<0.001), and a similar statistically significant rise was observed in the low-molecular weight fraction (from 13+/-2 to 15+/-3%; P<0.001) within 48 h of delivery.

CONCLUSIONS
Decreases in adiponectin levels occur shortly after delivery, and adiponectin subforms initiate the changes towards the non-pregnant state.


BACKGROUND
The clinical utility of screening biopsies (SBs) at 1 year post-transplantation is still debated, especially for stable kidney graft recipients. Given the heterogeneity in practices between transplantation centres, the objective of this study was to compare graft and patient survival of stable patients according to whether they were followed up in a transplantation centre with or without a policy for having an SB at 1 year post-transplantation.

MATERIALS
From a French multicentre cohort, we studied 1573 kidney recipients who were alive with stable graft function at 1 year post-transplantation, with no acute rejection in their first year post-transplantation.

RESULTS
Using propensity score-based analyses, we did not observe any significant difference in the relative risk for graft failure between patients from centres with a 1-year SB policy and those from other centres [hazard ratio = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.86-1.53]. The corresponding adjusted survival probability at 8 years post-transplantation was 69% (95% CI 61-74%) for patients from centres with a 1-year SB policy versus 74% (95% CI 67-79%) for those from other centres.

CONCLUSION
A 1-year SB policy for stable patients may not lead to therapeutical benefits for improved graft and patient survival. Further studies examining the benefits versus the risks of a 1-year SB policy are warranted to demonstrate the long-term utility of this intervention.


mena and perpetual presence, such as was ascribed by older metaphysicians to \ 'being'; for this last, the Heideggerian will reserve the term Prasenzi This thesis, if true, will be of assistance in the reading of ancient philosophy. Conversely, one may judge its validity by its power to shed light on problems of interpretation. Let us look at the origin of Aristotle's terminology. We shall not find Anwesenheit explicit in him; but we may turn to the closely related problem of the one and the many, which is so. Fundamental to him is the view that there is a Zwiefaltigkeit (? bifurcation, or two-term relationship) in reality. This assumption meets us in a logical dress in the assertion, common to Posterior Analytics ii, ch. i, and Metaph. Z, ch. 17, that a demand for explanation is normally raised in a n Kara TWOS form, 'why is this attribute inherent in that subject ?' It is in Metaph. Z, if anywhere, that Aristotle gives his own explanation of this logical fact. Thus the object of this thesis is to re-trace his thought, using Anwesenheit and other modern concepts, for which neither Greek nor English has an equivalent, as a guiding clue. About much of this I am fundamentally sceptical. That the ancient commentators lacked the courage and independence of mind to analyse the Aristotelian concepts is possibly true. But it is not equally true of their medieval successors, and I do not see how it can possibly be said of nineteenth-century scholars before the rise of the genetic study of Aristotle's system, or twentiethcentury ones after it. I am inclined to think that Heidegger has brought with him not fresh insight, but error, in the form of questionable etymologies and appeals to subjective experience of being. As for ^unefdltigkeit, what Tugendhat, if I have understood him, sets himself to show is that it is not merely one among other important assumptions of Aristotle, but the very foundation of his view of the world and consequently of his ontological analysis. And this does not in my opinion emerge from the discussion ofMetaph. Z which forms the core of this thesis. Admittedly the insistence on the correlation between form and matter and the unquestioning use of a subject-predicate analysis of speech tend in the required direction. But I do not believe it has been shown here that Aristotle is moved by some belief or unacknowledged assumption about this which either distinguishes him from other Greek thinkers, or provides the modern scholar with an indispensable clue to his thought and terminology. This work has points of interest, but they occur where it is in the tradition of older German scholarship and most remote from modern philosophizing.


The possibility of using satellite navigation systems in near-Earth space and degeneracy, taking into account the distance from the Earth is considered. Presented under what conditions it is possible to receive signals from navigation satellites GPS/GLONASS, spacecraft in high orbits.


The invention reprogrammed iPS cells and Charcot with a motor neuron differentiation it-Marie-Tooth disease (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease; CMT) related to a disease, a therapeutic agent screening method, specifically derived from CMT patients Human were prepared differentiated iPS cells station in fibroblasts, the reprogrammed iPS the cells using a motor neuron differentiation in Charcot-Marie-check for the presence of drugs through the screening of the tooth disease drug candidate efficacy possible, by making the self (autologous) motor neurons (moter neurons) through the reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cell production method can be used for patient-specific drug screening and patient-specific treatment.


Purpose: The neural mechanisms that support aphasia recovery are not yet fully understood. Our goal was to evaluate longitudinal changes in naming recovery in participants with posterior cerebral artery (PCA) stroke using a case-by-case analysis. Methods: Using task based and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and detailed language testing, we longitudinally studied the recovery of the naming network in four participants with PCA stroke with naming deficits at the acute (0 week), sub acute (3–5 weeks), and chronic time point (5–7 months) post stroke. Behavioral and imaging analyses (task related and resting state functional connectivity) were carried out to elucidate longitudinal changes in naming recovery. Results: Behavioral and imaging analysis revealed that an improvement in naming accuracy from the acute to the chronic stage was reflected by increased connectivity within and between left and right hemisphere "language" regions. One participant who had persistent moderate naming deficit showed weak and decreasing connectivity longitudinally within and between left and right hemisphere language regions. Conclusions: These findings emphasize a network view of aphasia recovery, and show that the degree of inter- and intra- hemispheric balance between the language-specific regions is necessary for optimal recovery of naming, at least in participants with PCA stroke.


In this paper, the operational capability analysis method of weapon equipment system oriented to multiple information is constructed by establishing the network model of weapons and equipment operations. Through the establishment of weapons and equipment for the effectiveness of network multiinformation model, propose a weighted weapon system entropy method based on the active participation in combat, to solve the weight problem calculation system effectiveness edge, realize the overall operational efficiency of weapon system of comprehensive evaluation and analysis. Finally, taking the effectiveness evaluation of a missile weapon system as an example, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified, and the effectiveness and availability of the method are verified. Keywords—weapon system; multi-information; system effectiveness; comprehensive analysis


Brick masonry is the principal part of the construction industry. This paper presents the result of the expanded wire mesh embedded into the masonry wall panel; expanded mesh (EM) is the inexpensive locally available material on the market. Through the experimental study, the primary affecting parameters recognized, and the methodology of the embedment details established, the preliminary survey was conducted as per the guidelines are given in the ASTM E518. Totally three numbers of control specimen and three numbers of EM embedded specimen are cast, and compressive strength test of masonry prism also evaluated to identify the crack propagation path. The test results turned out to be highly promising, out of plane damage was less in the EM embedded specimen also it was designated the cracks are reduced.


Abstract The abstract nature of grammar makes metalinguistic thinking a challenge for both teachers and students. However, it is suggested writing conferences in which students are encouraged to reflect on grammatical choices and their impact on meaning may be an effective means to develop metalinguistic awareness. This paper draws on cognitive linguistics and mentor texts to investigate what impact a concept-led, dialogic approach to grammar teaching has in the context of student-teacher discussions. By means of writing conferences between a teacher and three Year Five students, the paper explores how students made effective grammatical choices, as a result of metalinguistic dialogue with their teacher. Six concepts, scope, action chains, deixis, attentional windowing, fictive motion, and figure and ground, provided the explicit foci for imagining narrative scenes and appropriate grammatical choices. The findings suggest these concepts may have an enduring effect on students' ability to make independent and creative choices in their writing.


2 Efficacious Response with Low-Dose Indapamide Therapy in the Treatment of Type II Diabetic Patients with Normal Renal Function or Moderate Renal Insufficiency and Moderate Hypertension Madkour, H.; Ali, K.; Nosrati, S.; Massry, S.G. (Los Angeles, Calif.) 6 Evaluation of Superoxide Dismutase Activity in Dialyzed Patients by Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy Nakayama, H. (Saitama/Ibanaki); Akiyama, S. (Saitama); Shiotani, S. (Ibanaki); Gotoh, H. (Saitama); Inagaki, M.; Oguchi, K. (Tokyo)


One of the most interesting directions in theoretical high-energy and condensed-matter physics is understanding dynamical properties of collective states of quantum field theories. The most elementary tool in this quest is retarded equilibrium correlators governing the linear response theory. In this article we examine tensor networks as a way of determining them in a fully ab initio way in a class of (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theories arising as infrared descriptions of quantum Ising chains.We show that, complemented with signal analysis using the Prony method, tensor network calculations for intermediate times provide a powerful way to explore the structure of singularities of the correlator in the complex frequency plane and to make predictions about the thermal response to perturbations in a class of nonintegrable interacting quantum field theories.


Objective To study the therapeutic effectiveness o f Pamidronate disodium for osteolytic lesion induced by mutiple myeloma.Me thod To compare the therapeutic effectiveness of Pamidronate disodium and that of Miacalcic used as control group in 35 patients.Results t he effective rate of Pamidronate disodium for osteolytic lesion induced by mutip le myeloma is significantly higher than that of Miacalcic( P 0 01).Conclusions Better response can be gotten when Pamindronate disodium i s used in reducing the incidence of skeletal events and its complications induce d by the tumor.


Maritime surveillance systems increase the security of ports and ships. The video tracking is an important and challenging component of a surveillance system. Difficulties can arise due to weather conditions, target trajectory and appearance, occlusions, lighting conditions and noise. The tracker locates the vessel frame by frame in real time. This paper proposes the GPU WiSARD Vessel Tracker GWVT, a maritime vessel tracker that uses the WiSARD weightless neural network and implemented on a GPU. The GPU parallel processing feature allows the tracking algorithm to be executed very fast. CUDA easy the implementation of the parallel WiSARD tracker because the network discriminators fit well in the thread and block layout. The implementation of a WiSARD based vessel tracker on a GPU is innovative on literature. The GWVT realizes the vessel tracking at only 1 millisecond allowing other tracking techniques to be executed in parallel to rise the performance. Discounting the kernel function call time from GWVT average tracking time, GWVT becomes 13,95 faster than the CPU tracker version.


Evergreen land coverage is the typical type of landscape in Poyang Lake watershed,accounting for 40.05% of whole landscape.It includes three main types,i.e.evergreen broadleaf forest,evergreen needleleaf forest and evergreen mixed forest.By using multi-temporal SPOT4-VEGETATION sensor data,this paper analyzed the characteristic values of the evergreen land coverage,such as greenness value,crest value,trough value,integral of NDVI(NDVI-I),difference between the maximum and minimum NDVI(NDVI-MM),etc.Both NDVI-I and minimum NDVI vary as "evergreen broadleaf forestneedle and broad-leaved mixed evergreen forestevergreen needleleaf forestneedleleaf and deciduous mixed evergreen forest".The annual NDVI curve in typical evergreen broadleaf forest had no obvious change,while needleleaf and deciduous mixed evergreen forest had a single peak.


Iranian Plateau has been frequently struck by catastrophic earthquakes resulting in the massive loss of life, large masses homeless and disrupting their agricultural and industrial lifelines. Southeast of Iran experienced 8 earthquakes during 30 years from 1981 to 2011. Northwest of Iran experienced historical and instrumental large earthquakes too. On 11 August 2012, a strong earthquake with magnitude Mw 6.4 occurred in AharVarzaghan region, NW of Iran. It followed by another strong earthquake with magnitude Mw 6.2 after 11 minutes. The influence of static stress transfer due to moderate-to-large earthquakes on the occurrence of future earthquakes had been proved by numerous studies. This effect in triggering future events and spatial distribution of aftershocks can be explained by using the Coulomb stress changes theory. We calculated the static Coulomb stress changes for the southeast of Iran due to earthquake sequence from 1981 and for the northwest of Iran due to Ahar-Varzaghan earthquakes. In the southeast of Iran, our calculations showed a positive stress changes due to previous events on the rupture plane of next earthquake and only plane of the Rigan earthquake of 2010 December 20 received negative stress changes. Also, we calculated imparted stress changes on the surrounding active faults and showed that hypocenter of recent Hojedk earthquakes (2017 December 1 and 12) with a moment magnitude of 6.1, 6.2, and 6.1 respectively, received positive stress changes. The imparted stress by the twin AharVarzaghan earthquakes on North Tabriz Fault (NTF) system showed an increase on the eastern part of the NTF near the Bostanabad about 30 km southeast of Tabriz city and northwest part of this fault system. Furthermore our calculation showed positive Coulomb stress changes on the North and South Bozgush faults.


This paper explores how elderly residents' discursive participation is promoted through the local community in one Finnish municipality. It introduces the case of the Elderly People's Forum as an interesting example of a self-initiated, informal participatory forum that has established a role in local governance and continuously inspires the wide discursive participation of elderly residents in public discussions. Drawing on the concept of discursive participation, which includes talk in informal settings about matters of common interest as a measure of civic engagement, I argue that by acknowledging the deliberative potential of self-initiated civil society forums, local governance can enhance residents' ongoing participation and possibilities to exert influence.


A modified electro-acoustic pulse method was used for measuring the space charge distribution and studying the processes of injection, accumulation and release of charges in polyethylene (PE) in a dc electrical field of 70.7 MV/m. A new charge decay phenomenon was observed. It showed that the decay time of volume charges in a sample to which the voltage had been applied for a long period was much shorter than that in another one to which the voltage had been applied for a short time under a same dc stress. For example, the charge decay time in PE was about one day (24 hours) when the application time of electrical field (70.7 x 10 MV/m) was 28.5 hours, and was more than one week (168 hours) when less than 6 hours. Finally, an accumulative model of space charges was proposed and the effect of space charges on pre-breakdown process of solid dielectrics was discussed.


The present invention relates to the use of amphipathic polymers to enhance lateral flow in general for the purpose of reagent mixing on assay devices in particular. More specifically, the invention relates to use of an amphipathic polymer in assay methods including a device for determining the concentration of lipids in blood serum or plasma. The device may take the form of a test strip comprising an application area connected to a test area by means of a flow channel which comprises the amphipathic polymer, the channel may comprise a probe reporter or reagent. Also provided is the use of a stabilising agent comprising a polyquaternium surfactant, Gafquat (RTM). The amphipathic polymer is a polymer possessing hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and may be polyethylene glycol, (PEG).


A biocompatible method for synthesizing of highly disperses gold nanoparticles using Ferulago Angulata leaf extract has been developed. It has been shown that leaf extract acts as reducing and coating agent. Various spectroscopic and electron microscopic techniques were employed for the structural characterization of the prepared nanoparticles. The biosynthesized particles were identified as elemental gold with spherical morphology, narrow size distribution (ranged 9.2–17.5 nm) with high stability. Also, the effect of initial ratio of precursors, temperature and time of reaction on the size and morphology of the nanoparticles was studied in more detail. It was observed that varying these parameters provides an accessible remote control on the size and morphology of nanoparticles. The uniqueness of this procedure lies in its cleanliness using no extra surfactant, reducing agent or any capping agent.


The invention discloses a multi-notch ultra wide band antenna which is simple in structure, small in size, and easy to control and process. The multi-notch ultra wide band antenna comprises a medium substrate, wherein the lower surface of the medium substrate is provided with a metal floor, the upper surface of the medium substrate is provided with a radiation unit and a micro-strip feeder connected with the radiation unit, the upper surface of the medium substrate is provided with an electromagnetic band gap structure formed by a plurality of branches, and the electromagnetic band gap structure is provided with a metal grounding through hole used for grounding. The electromagnetic band gap structure formed by the branches is used to form a notch, the design of a filter is replaced, and design cost and system complexity are reduced, so that the antenna is simple in structure, compact, small, convenient to process, low in cost, easy to produce, good in filtering effect and easy to control. Besides, by means of arrangement of the branches of different numbers, more notch characteristics can be achieved, and the antenna is suitable for being popularized and used in the field of antennas.


The quality of received voice signal plays a major role in case of VoIP communication. This becomes more important under the aegis of IoT, which uses a lot of voice-enabled automation. The quality of the perceived signal depends on different parameters. In this paper, we have tried to evaluate the perceived quality of commonly used VoIP codecs in presence of background Noise at different loudness level. The evaluation of the speech signal was carried out in real scenario with different background signals. Harvard sentences are used as the baseline speech signals. On introduction of background signals at various loudness level, the resultant reference speech signal is packetized and transmitted over network though VoIP phones. The test speech signal is then constructed from the received VoIP packets. Objective speech quality measure, PESQ, is further employed to assess the quality of the test speech signal. Results show that VoIP speech using PCMU and Speex8K codecs are the most consistent in terms of perceived quality performance at different loudness condition.


The work presented below an analysis and design of control system Merchandise Supermarket SA in the province of El Oro. It will begin by identifying the problems and needs of the company to determine functional and non-functional requirements that will have this system . in order to be clear about the processes that must be taken into account. In this paper also estimate the cost of the Software will be made by function points. The different use cases and use case diagram, taking as our ally Unified Process Methodology Language (UML) is also performed. All this for an order to be achieved in handling, entry and exit of goods, both local and main branches.


Objective The cancellous marrow were implanted in the holes of the mandible prosthesis to study whether the cell bone can reach growing stress level under normal human condition. The threshold value of growing stress can combine the prosthesis and mandibular. Method Three types of defection- Central defect, Lateral defect, Hemimandible defect- were simulated in mandibular geometry model, three types of prosthesis were designed accordingly and holes were made in the prosthesis. The cancellous marrow were implanted in those holes and FE software (Ansys8.0) was used to analysis the stress level of cancellous bone. Results Stress level of Cancellous bone in three types of prothesis were studied and the threshold value of growing stress level on cancellous bone was determined. Conclusions The stress of cancellous bone implanted in the prosthesis can reach the bone cell growing level, and this can give guidance in prosthesis design.


An optoelectronic detection system with strong anti-disturbing capability and high SNR,which to be used to pre-amplify the very weak signal from an OCT system,was designed.Based on the PSpice,the performance analysis of the circuit was conducted,and the specifications of the circuit elements were optimized for high SNR and large bandwidth in the design process.The simulation results show that this optimized optoelectronic detection system can not only detect very weak signal accurately,but also give quite high SNR.


A method for a terminal to access a network comprises: a terminal accessing a network and working at a downlink central working frequency; receiving dedicated physical broadcast channel information on the downlink central working frequency, the dedicated physical broadcast channel information comprising information of a downlink dedicated working frequency; and switching to the downlink dedicated working frequency. Embodiments of the present invention also provide corresponding devices, comprising a terminal device and a base station device. By means of the technical solution in the present invention, Machine to Machine-User equipment (M2M-UE) accesses a network of hybrid networking cells normally without affecting normal operation of the Human to Human-User Equipment (H2H-UE). After accessing the network, the M2M-UE works stably, and does not switch the working frequency frequently, thereby ensuring that the working efficiency is maintained above a certain level.


This book analyse the effects of industrial effluents on agriculture in Karur district of Tamilnadu, India.A multistage random sampling method was adopted in the study. A sample size of 120 farmers and 60 from both affected farms and unaffected farms were considered for this study. The study used both primary data (2015-16) and secondary data (1996-2014).The Compound growth rate model revealed that the area under Rice has declined.The diversification indices varied in three periods i.e.,1996-2001 and 2002-2007 and 2008-2013.Herfindal index has increased from 0.246 to 0.332 which indicates that crop diversification is less in the second period (2002-2007) than in the first period (1996-2001).In third period it decreased from 0.332 to 0.293 which indicates that crop diversification is more in the third period (2008-2013).The production function for affected farms shows that there is a 74 per cent of the variation in yield of Rice.The production function for unaffected farms shows that there is a 64 percent of the variation in yield of Rice.


Any organization's most valuable assets include its digital data. Safeguarding these assets raises questions: which assets require security, and what type of security is appropriate? Typical approaches for implicitly securing data include the standard user authentication, access control, integrity checks, non-repudiation, and confidentiality mechanisms at the domain and link layers. The challenge, and emerging requirement, is to attach security measures directly to the data itself. Security policies in this case must be targeted and managed at each element of system-identified data. Why has data-specific security become a requirement? Consider the process of building out systems and systems of systems. How can security be managed when individual elements of data, the communication links, and domain boundaries have different related behaviors? Specifically, how can security be managed when connectivity does not necessitate access to all the data? With today's level of infrastructure and system complexity and the associated risks, making the right design and implementation decisions calls for increased and manageable security – at the data level. In this white paper, learn about system deployment architectures, data models, security approaches, and the methods for more tightly aligning them. Learn how a Secure DDS solution can uniquely introduce fine-grained data security for data in motion. Review the features that make it possible to minimize the leak of information and any subsequent exploitation of data within a system architecture that is more scalable and flexible, and that performs optimally within stringent real-time and deterministic environments. Too often the actual information and data that needs protecting is coupled with communication patterns, link protocols, and local and remote data-structures and storage. Fundamentally, it is the issue of what needs to be shared and distributed in a system verses how. Many existing security solutions and capabilities tackle the how. However, these solutions and capabilities also need to be orthogonally connected to securing the what. An optimal security approach requires a full consideration of system requirements, performance needs, data criticality, link behaviors and properties, availability, and system risk. Since a security technique or process cannot address all issues, security must leverage best practices for any given system. A rigorous and consistent data security methodology requires decoupling the data from the protocol messages and handshakes, storage mechanisms, processes, applications and services. What is the data? Capturing knowledge of the system's information separately from its deployment and distribution requirements is critical for applying security mechanisms to the data. Essentially, a …


This study is devoted to the analysis of the geography of migration of the population of Ukraine over the last decade on the basis of the Global Index of Migrant Integration Policy (MIPEX) and the identification of factors that attract the population of Ukraine to migrate to other countries. According to European Commission statistics since 2014, the number of Ukrainian labor migrants moving to the European Union (EU) has increased significantly. In 2019, Ukrainian citizens received 660,000 residence permits for paid activities in member states – the largest external labor force in the EU. Thus, the dependence of Member States' economies on Ukrainian workers has reached significant levels, as evidenced by the labor shortages observed during the COVID-19 crisis, which forced the EU to close its borders. Emigration reduces the supply of labor and accelerates the growth of wages of workers who remain in the country; one of the problems of concern is the loss of skills – most of Ukrainians work abroad without qualifications or do very simple work. The main benefit for the Ukrainian economy is related to the remittances, equivalent to 8% of GDP. Remittances significantly improve the well-being of migrant families and stimulate domestic demand, increasing the country's GDP. Stable and significant inflow of remittances contributes to a more stable balance of payments, compensation for the constant deficit of trade and investment income. At the same time, there is a risk that migrants will remain permanently resident abroad, which will mean a decrease in the working population in Ukraine. In addition, the impact of emigration and remittances on Ukraine's public finances is ambiguous: remittances increase VAT, excise and customs revenues, while reducing labor supply reduces revenues from labor taxes and social security contributions in Ukraine. Therefore, it is important to understand what factors currently attract the population of Ukraine to other countries. The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is an index that measures the quality of migrant integration policy in 52 countries. The index indicators were developed for a multidimensional view of migrants' opportunities to participate in public life. The index is a tool for evaluating and comparing the actions of governments to promote the integration of migrants in all analyzed countries. The index helps to understand and analyze the factors that contribute to the integration of migrants. The index covers the following areas of integration: labor market mobility; family reunification; access to services in the field of education; participation in political life; obtaining permanent residence; obtaining citizenship; antidiscrimination; access to health services.


Lifshitz and hyperscaling violating geometries, which provide a holographic description of non-relativistic field theories, generically have a singularity in the infrared region of the geometry, where tidal forces for freely falling observers diverge, but there is a special class of hyperscaling violating geometries where this tidal force divergence does not occur. We explicitly construct a smooth extension of the spacetime in this case, and explore the structure of the spacetime. We argue that the extension involves an enlargement of the field theory Hilbert space, as in AdS2. We also consider the behaviour of finite-energy excitations of the spacetime at the horizon, arguing that they will have some divergence there.


Due to the popularity of social networks with geo-tagged activities, so-called location-based social networks (LBSN), a number of methods have been proposed for inƒuence maximization for applications such as word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM), and out-of-home marketing (OOH). It is thus important to analyze and compare these di'erent approaches. In this demonstration, we present a uni€ed system IMaxer that both provides a complete pipeline of state-ofthe-art and novel models and algorithms for inƒuence maximization (IM) as well as allows to evaluate and compare IM techniques for a particular scenario. IMaxer allows to select and transform the required data from raw LBSN datasets. It further provides a uni€ed model that utilizes interactions of nodes in an LBSN, i.e., users and locations, for capturing diverse types of information propagations. On the basis of these interactions, inƒuential nodes can be found and their potential inƒuence can be simulated and visualized using Google Maps and graph visualization APIs. Œus, IMaxer allows users to compare and pick the most suitable IM method in terms of e'ectiveness and cost. ACM Reference format: Muhammad Aamir Saleem, Rohit Kumar, Toon Calders, Xike Xie, and Torben Bach Pedersen. 2017. IMaxer: A Uni€ed System for evaluating Inƒuence Maximization Mechanisms in Location-based Social Networks. In Proceedings of International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, Singapore, November 6 10, 2017 (CIKM'17), 4 pages. DOI: 10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn


Objective
To observe the influence of excimer laser surgery on corneal endothelial cells.

Methods
A total of 434 eyes of 217 persons, who underwent excimer laser surgery in our hospital were collected. Depending on the corneal thickness and degree of myopia, all the cases were divided into 3 groups. They were laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), 148 eyes; sub-bowman keratomileusis(SBK), 146 eyes; and epipolis laser in situ keratomileusis(Epi-LASIK), 140 eyes. The shape and density, average area and number of side, variation coefficient and percentage of heragonal corneal endothelial cells of the central region were observed before the operation and 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and 1 year after operation.

Results
One week after surgery, small part of the central corneal endothelial cells was edematous and irregular hexagonal cells in LASIK and Epi-LASIK group. One week and 1 month postoperatively, the percentage of hexagonal cells in three groups decreased contrasted with that of preoperative and the differences were statistically significant (P 0.05).

Conclusion
Excimer laser surgery for the correction of myopia does not result in lower cell density of central corneal endothelium, but the percentage of hexagonal cells decreases in a short time after the operation, which needs attention in clinic.

Key words:
Microscopy, confocal; Surgery, laser excimer; Endothelial cells, corneal


Too often outmoded bureaucratic rules are imposed by hospitals private doctors or government programs which prevent persons who want sterilization from receiving this service. Until recently in Europe the U.S. and Australia women who wanted to stop having children were subject to the "120 rule" which means the womans age multiplied by the number of living children. This meant a woman with 3 children could not be sterilized until age 40. Sometimes more affluent women got around the problem by having a hysterectomy which is far more hazardous than a simple tubal ligation. Even when doctors in the country are ready to start a sterilization program with foreign aid dollars the diplomats may hinder the effort because they are afraid of international consequences. Private organizations and pioneering physicians must work together to provide sterilization procedures to those who want them. The individuals right to choose must be recognized.


In this study, triblock copolyesters were synthesized via a switchable terpolymerization of mixed monomers of epoxides, phthalic anhydride (PA) and ε-caprolactone (CL) by using cost-effective dual urea/organic base catalysts. Different...


The invention relates to a method and a device for applying an access control system to the protection of video streams in direct mode. The inventive system and the associated method allow the use of an existing Marlin type access control system in an innovative manner based on the execution of two successive operation phases allowing the acquisition of DRM rights then the delivery of content and its decryption.


In the present study, the cuticle-degrading enzymes production potential of five native Beauveria bassiana (TV, OZ, UN, DV and DE) isolates was investigated in the presence of cuticles from Eurygaster integriceps, Ephestia kuehniella and Zophobas morio. Furthermore, histopathology of infected insects by B. bassiana was studied. The level of cuticle degrading enzymes was the highest and lowest for TV (as the most virulent isolate) and DE (as the weakest isolate), respectively. E. integriceps nymphs as the most sensitive host produced the highest level of cuticle degrading enzymes (Pr2, exochitinase, and lipase) while Z. morio as the most resistant host, produced the lowest level of hydrolytic enzymes. According to histopathological study, the fungal isolate could not penetrate into Z. morio cuticle, as no mycelia or hyphae were observed in its tissues after inoculation, while fungal bodies were detected in microscopic slides of the other two insects. Overall, the chemical and topographical structure of insect cuticle had a substantial effect on the virulence of entomopathogenic fungus. Production of enzymes including proteases (especially Pr2), chitinase (N-acetyl-glucosaminidase), and lipases was positively related to virulence of fungus isolates. It can be concluded that not only the hydrolytic activity of B. bassiana isolates, but also host cuticle composition determine the pathogenesis and virulence cascade in fungusinsect interactions.


Total quality management, just-in-time, total preventive management and supply-chain partnership are all seen as modern manufacturing practices. They are often subsumed under umbrella concepts, such as Womack, Jones & Roos's (1990) lean production, Dean & Snell's (1991) integrated manufacturing, and Schonberger's (1986) world class manufacturing. Total quality management (TQM) may itself be one such umbrella concept (Cooney & Sohal, this book). Within social theory they have been viewed as a vital part of the postFordist model, "Toyotaism" in some people's terms (Wood, 1989). The contrast is often drawn between this new approach to management and the excessively rigid Fordist system, which was based on Taylorist principles of job design, with a narrow division of labour, highly functional management and low role demands for the mass of workers. Womack et al. (1990) encouraged the differentiation of lean production from mass production, while TQM has been portrayed by some as a major cultural force—an enterprise lifestyle (McCloskey & Collett, 1993)—which represents a radical change in the way organisations operate. Portrayed in such terms, lean production and TQM became in the late 1980s panaceas for management and the ills of Western economies: the low productivity, poor quality and industrial conflict. Their extension to all fields of industry and commerce was urged. Womack et al. (1990, p. 277), indeed, proclaimed that lean production would become "the standard global production system of the twenty-first century", seemingly taking it for granted that their exhortations would be heeded. Having conceived the management methods of lean production literally as a machine, they effectively turned it into a juggernaut that would eliminate in one fell swoop many, if not all, of the production, organisational and personnel problems associated with post-war Western economies. Prescriptive packages of practices tend to be all-embracing concepts that offer a fresh way of thinking, as well as urgently needed practices. In the case of lean production, the emphasis is on viewing the organisation in the context of its suppliers and customers and in terms of a flow of activities pulled by the customer. The aim is to eliminate all elements of this system that add no value to the customer. Lean production and other such approaches were part of a movement to elevate operational management within the overall concerns of management (Abernathy, Clark & Kantrow, 1984). Prior to this, the over-riding emphasis of


Abstract The paper examines the conditions for isolating the unknown input detection from the effects of the measurements noise in the important family of positional control problems. The study is motivated by the need of improving the homing performance of interceptor missiles against randomly maneuvering targets. The required isolation is possible if, in addition to noisy relative position measurements, noise-free measurement of the line of slight rate or the relative lateral velocity is available. Although with noisy measurement of line of slight rate the isolation of the input is not possible, the detection filter designed for the noise-free case succeeds to provide a satisfactory estimate of target acceleration, which is needed for an improved homing performance.


An ion source is disclosed comprising a nebuliser (1) and a target (10). The nebuliser (1) is arranged and adapted to emit, in use, a stream of analyte droplets which are caused to impact upon the target (10) and to ionise analyte to form a plurality of analyte ions.


Java Ca&La or just JCL is a distributed shared memory reflective lightweight middleware for Java developers

whose main goals are: i) provide a simple deployment strategy, where automatic code registration occurs,

ii) support a collaborative multi-developer cluster environment where applications can interact without explicit

dependencies, iii) execute existing sequential Java code over both multi-core machines and cluster of

multi-core machines without refactorings, enabling the separation of business logic from distribution issues in

the development process, iv) provide a multi-core/multi-computer portable code. This paper describes JCL's

features and architecture; compares and contrasts JCL to other Java based middleware systems, and reports

performance measurements of JCL applications.


Since the early 1990s the European Union has tried to promote democracy, human
rights and the rule of law in its neighbouring countries with varying success. This
paper assesses what influence on democratisation the EMP and ENP have had in
Morocco and Egypt from 1994 to 2010 and attempts to explain why there are
differences. This study uses the external incentive theory by tracing the development
in both countries and then applying Mill's Method of difference in order to find
possible causes. The study finds that the incentives offered by the EU are likely to
influence the level of norm adoption to a certain extent. Another key factor seems to
be economic dependence of the target countries on Europe.


Marsh and Balla (1986) and Marsh, Balla, and McDonald (1988) proposed an index of fit called χ2I2, but McDonald and Marsh (1990) subsequently demonstrated that the index is biased and recommended that it not be used. Bollen (1989) independently proposed Δ2 which is the same as χ2I2 (hereafter referred to as χ2I2‐Δ2), indicating that it adjusts for sample size and degrees of freedom (df). Gerbing and Anderson (1992), apparently based on the assumption that the χ2I2‐Δ2 index is unbiased and appropriately corrects for df (penalizes a lack of parsimony), recommended its use, and the index is routinely presented by major computer programs (e.g., EQS and LISREL 8). However, a more critical evaluation of the χ2I2‐Δ2 index reveals that: (a) it is systematically biased (i.e., its value varies systematically with N) although the size of the bias may be small; (b) the adjustment for df is inappropriate in that it penalizes model parsimony instead of model complexity; and (c) the inappropriate penalty for model parsi...


Electronic soundsourceslike synthesizersand samplers are usually controlled (i.e. played) througha keyboard,which hasproved to be a versatileuser interface. In traditional musical instruments, thesoundsource(e.g.,stringsbeing pluckedor strung,air vibratingin tubes)andthe controlpartform oneindivisible instrument.The form of the instrument,andthereforethe way it is played,is mainlyimposedby thesoundsource. The electronicsoundsourcehowever, doesnot imposeany limitations on the instrumentform. The whole realmof sensorsandactuatorsareat thedesigners'disposal.Thismakesit possibleto devisenew instrumentformsfor this (relatively) new way of producingsound.Around1920,the Russianscientist Leon Theremin invented the instrumentthat bearshis name. It is controlled by waving ones handsnear two antenna' s to control pitch andvolume,and its typical sound can still be found on many recordsin popular music(from theBeachBoys' 'Good Vibrations' to Portishead).


Rapid urban extension in Al-Dawadmi Town, near Al Riyadh, has led to a continuous increase of waste water from houses, industry, and commercial buildings. Because the town has no sewerage network, the waste water has been drained and accumulated in the shallow sedimentary layer that has a shallow bed rock. A continuous rise of the groundwater table has been expected to cause health, environmental, and infrastructural problems. To con- trol the problem, installation of a drainage network has been considered and designed. In this paper, a finite element numerical model, MAWF has been employed to check the effectiveness of the network in lowering the rising groundwater table. It has been checked in a period of fifty years. Two sce- narios have been considered. The first scenario traces the problem assuming no drainage pipes are installed. The second one checks the effect of the drainage network in lowering the groundwater table. The results of the study are pre- sented in the form of contour maps and hydrographs. The results show that the drainage pipes are effective in lowering the water table by a depth of not less than 2.0m and keeping it steady for fifty years despite the increasing recharge rate.


Background: Despite widespread cross-border migration of retirees, little is known about their healthcare seeking behavior in a destination country. This study explores factors related to the use of health services in Thailand by Japanese long-stay retirees.Methods: A survey of Japanese long-stay retirees aged 50 and older was conducted in cooperation with nine Japanese self-help clubs in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Phuket. The dependent variable was receiving medical treatment in Thailand in the previous 12 months. People who did not receive treatment in Thailand were divided into two groups; those who had treatment only in Japan and those who did not have treatment anywhere. Independent variables included i) predisposing factors: age, sex, years lived in Thailand, ii) enabling factors: marital status, adjusted annual household income, and iii) need factors: existence of chronic diseases and health related quality of life. Results: Of 226 eligible participants, 106 (47%) received medical treatment in Thailand, 41 (18%) received treatment only in Japan, and 79 (35%) did not receive treatment in any country in the previous 12 months. Multivariate analysis identified that Japanese retirees who stayed in Thailand for less than five years were less likely to receive treatment in Thailand. Retirees who had no chronic diseases and did not return to Japan tended to not receive treatment anywhere while those who were covered by Japan's national health insurance and stayed in Thailand for shorter periods in the past 12 months were more likely to receive treatment only in Japan. Conclusion: The Thai government's retirement tourism promotion policy should encourage sharing of transparent medical quality and pricing information by medical facilities to facilitate access among foreign retirees, especially of relative newcomers to reliable medical facilities and promote the trust in Thai medical services. As this study indicates medical cost and health insurance coverage is an important factor of one's cross-border health seeking behavior, further studies are required to evaluate the impact of the 2017 and 2019 government policy on mandatory health insurance for retirees on their health seeking behaviors.


Rough sets theory is now becoming a mathematical foundation of soft comput ing. This theory makes use of equivalence relations defined for each set of attributes in any table, and applies the concept like definability of a set, dependency among attributes, reduction of data, rule extraction, etc., to data analysis. In this paper, a problem of knowledge discovering in the form of rules from any table with nondeterministic information is discussed. At first, the rough sets based concept including rule extraction is surveyed, and this concept is extended to new one related to nondeterministic information. Then, a framework of rule extraction from tables with nondeterministic information is proposed, and some algorithms for handling such new concept are presented. Also implemented programs and a real execution of these programs are shown.


The search for new treatments for ocular hypertension and glaucoma, due to the side effects commercial products present, is inviting to look for new strategies apart from the available ones. In this sense the interference RNA technique (RNAi), also known as siRNA to selectively silence beta 2 adrenergic receptors has been investigated. In this sense it has been obtained a reduction in intraocular pressure (IOP), the main factor triggering glaucoma, of 30 ± 5 %, compared to a control (scrambled siRNA). The results were in terms of IOP reduction similar to that obtained with commercial compounds but the duration of the siRNA for the beta 2 adrenoceptor lasted for almost 5 days, compared to the average of 8 hours in the case of the other commercial compounds. No apparent side effects were observed in the ocular structures. In summary, the use of siRNA against the beta 2 adrenergic receptors open a new perspective for the treatment of glaucoma.


The authors present new tools and a complete setup with which the submicron particles, emitted from combustion processes, can be measured and classified according to their chemical nature even in the field. Diesel engines are the predominant source of these particles in the industrialized countries. The setup comprises an exhaust conditioning part including means for precipitation of the coarse particle fraction, dilution, and removal of volatile material. The submicron particles are detected with three different sensors: one for particle number concentration (condensation particle counter, CPC), one for the particle Fuchs-surface, and one that responds specifically to the carbonaceous particles. These sensors possess a short response time so that transients such as those occurring in the free acceleration mode may be observed as well. Experiments on a conventional engine test bench demonstrate the tools. The test results are highly reassuring. Correct handling of the volatile fraction is essential to avoid severe artifacts from gas to particle reactions particularly in exhaust from engines equipped with particle traps.


Summary The insect developmental regulator, juvenile hormone III, or its presumed precursor, farnesol, (10−7 M and 10 −6 M), were added to water in which larval lobsters (Homarus americanus) were allowed to develop. The most reproducible effect observed was a prolonging of the time to metamorphosis (hatching to fourth stage). Only JH III was effective. Morphological parameters such as carapace, antennae, and chelae lengths were also measured after metamorphosis. It was observed that JH III generally decreased carapace length, but increased the lengths of the antennae and chelae. These latter morphological alterations were occasionally also seen with farnesol treatment.


Objective  The aim of the present work was to evaluate the presence of human papillomavirus genotypes in malignant and normal mucosa of the colon and rectum in order to determine if a relationship exists between HPV infection and colon neoplasms.


Psychiatrists often possess much privacy of mental patients,which should be respected carefully,because the safe communication between psychiatrists and patients is significant in curing diseases..But if some dangerous mental patients attempt to attack a third party,do psychiatrists have the duty to inform? do psychiatrists have the duty to testify in criminal proceedings? How to balance between these two points above? The exception principle of dangerous patient in American law just focuses on those questions above.This principle sheds a light on the establishment and development of the privilege of being exempt from testifying in our country.


Coke-oven workers are regularly exposed to coke oven emissions(COE), which consist primarily of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and volatile organic components. This study assessed the exposure of coke-oven workers to COE and PAK The results of th


When a man discovers his infertility, the shock, pain, and sense of failure are enormous. He is emotionally traumatised and grief stricken. One courageous man asked to meet others who were also unable to father a child. He identified the need for men to express their thoughts and feelings.

> One man locked himself away and did not speak to anyone for days

The response to the men's group has been overwhelming. Each group meets for six sessions on Friday afternoons. This time, chosen by the men, is important, as they have to interrupt busy careers and schedules to give themselves an opportunity to meet.

One man had a burning need to talk. The group listened intently and, through the bravado of laughter, the group understood the underlying abject pain. This has become important: to tell, to be listened to, to be heard, to be acknowledged, and to be supported through the grieving process. Another was very quiet. He was encouraged by the group to …


The bituminous fragments in Dengying Formation are described in this paper for the first time,and have been evidently defined as one of the Weng'an paleo-oil reservoirs.The reservoir is in the middle of Dengying Formation,the pores consist mainly of intercrystal,intercrystal dissolved and moldic pores and caves,being a middle-high porosity and high permeability reservoir.Based on an analysis of saturated hydrocarbon chromatography,biomarkers,and carbon isotopic composition of kerogen,the authors hold that the bitumen originated from Niutitang Formation source rock.


We report on a passively mode-locked oscillator based on an erbium-doped dual concentric core fiber combining high normal dispersion and large mode area. This large normal dispersion laser generates long pulses with 30 ps duration and 0.17 nm spectral width at 1530 nm wavelength. The source delivers an average power of 64 mW at a repetition rate of 16 MHz, corresponding to 4 nJ energy. This concept opens up new degrees of freedom in the design of mode-locked fiber lasers.


The selection of material system and manufacturing are introduced in this article.The choose of type of mold,the optimized design of shape of glass fiber woven and assembly of outer skin is discussed in detail.The radome made of the selected material system successfully passed the mechanical and electrical test.


One of the criteria for bio-textiles is the potential for biodegradation. Our goal was to adapt methods for the determination of biodegradation of bio-textiles containing amber particles. We adapted methods EN ISO 11721-1: 2001 and ISO 11721-2: 2003 developed for the study of interaction of cellulose – containing textiles and microorganisms. To determine the changes of fabrics, the mechanical properties and level of biodegradation were examined. Experiments revealing level of biodegradation of bio-textile were carried out at the Institute of Biology, University of Latvia while mechanical properties were tested at the Scientific Laboratory of Mechanics and Bio-textiles of the Institute of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, Riga Technical University. The study was financially supported by the EUREKA project E!11170 "Innovative multifunctional bio-textile, integrated with silica dioxide and succinate development, and its impact on biosystems" (IFSITEX).


Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to study the growth process of dia mond_like carbon (DLC) films synthesized via ion_beam_assisted deposition (IBAD ). The C 2 molecules and Ar ions were selected as deposition and assis tance pr ojectiles, respectively. The influence of the impact energy of Ar as well as the assistance/deposition atomic ratio (Ar/C), on the film structure was investiga ted. The transient mobility and the migration of C adatoms caused by Ar impact were studied. Our results indicate that the impact-induced high recoil energy a nd displacement of deposited C atoms play a leading role in the growth of DLC f ilms. This can be attributed to the incident energy and momentum of assistance Ar. Our results agree well with the experimental observation. Furthermore, it e xplains the growth mechanism partly.


StUARt Andrews (right) has been appointed as veterinary manager for Pfizer Poultry Health for the UK and Ireland. the position is newly created following Pfizer's acquisition of Fort Dodge. Dr Andrews began his career with the State Veterinary Service at Bristol and Penrith, before moving to the Central Veterinary Laboratory in weybridge. He obtained an MSc in immunology from the University of Surrey. In 1990, he joined the research team at Pitman-Moore, becoming involved in research on coccidiosis vaccines for poultry, gaining a PhD from Leeds university in 1999. He has worked for Pfizer since 2004 and, in his research for the company, has worked with pig and poultry vaccines on a european scale. doi: 10.1136/vr.d1004


This study examines how support for the interest of three key stakeholders – customers, employees and government affects the performance of firms in the insurance industry. The study is operationalized using claims expenses as measure for customer satisfaction, wage per employee to measure employee satisfaction, tax payment to measure support for government interest, and net premium income as measure of firm performance. The study performed multivariate regression analysis to test whether stakeholders' satisfaction affects firm performance, using audited financial statement data of quoted 26 insurance firms from 2012 to 2016. Results indicate that customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction are significantly associated with firm performance, while support for government interests is not statistically associated with firm performance. Management of insurance firms should uphold support for employee and customer interests, while regulatory authorities should strengthen mechanisms for prompt validation and settlement of insurance claims.


As players take to the field, eagerly awaiting the siren to kick off the game, there are parents, coaches and volunteers on the sidelines silently hoping that no one gets injured.


The effects of substituent chains on anthracene core, AntPh are analyzed using quantum chemical methods. We start by exploring different metrics for instance, frontier molecular orbitals, electronic structures, reorganization energies, charge transfer integrals and charge transfer rate for AntPh and its derivative compounds AntPh-C8, AntPh-OC8, AntPh-SC8, AntPh-SeC8 and AntPh-TeC8. All estimations are adopted by DFT, TD-DFT and Marcus theories. Our results reveal that AntPh-OC8 is a good electron transporting material among the anthracene derivatives. It shows the lowest energy gap, the smallest electron reorganization energy followed by the largest electron transport rate. We have found AntPh-SC8 to be a bipolar compound with its hole and electron transport rate being nearly similar.


The interface of education, technology, distance education, and change i s very complex. As we examined the arena of distance education, we realized the usefulness of a systems approach as a powerful tool to connect and interrelate people, goals, organizations, and technologies in the educational playing field. 199613) suggests an important model of the educational system as part of society-its larger suprasystem (see Figure 1). Through this model, he showed that education, as a lifelong process, is tied closely to the outputs, objectives, and purposes of other parts of society. This model simply shows several subsystems of the same environment, or suprasystem, in which education resides. Only recently have researchers and developers formed distance education and learning systems While these efforts provide a good baseline for thinking about systems change, an efficient and effective model applicable to distance education needs further exploration. Our purpose i s to present a practical Distance Education Learning (DEL) Systems model. We believe that DEL can be used by private and public education faculty and administrators, organizational and business managersltrainers, and consortium planners alike. DEL provides a learner focused process for the development, delivery, control, evaluation, and feedback of distance education throughout the lifelong learning process. To explain this model, we again turn to Banathy. Banathy (1 995, 1996a) suggested levels of observing an educational system. Based on the three levels, the DEL model can be viewed from these perspectives: system/environment-a large scale bird's-eye picture of the distance education landscape; functions/structure-what the system is and does; and process/behavior-how distance education and learning act in a changing, living social system. The systemslenvironment function of the proposed model situates the distance education system in the context of society. It defines its "relationships, interactions and mutual interdependencies" (Banathy, 1996b, p. 84) with its citizenry, community, state and nation. Additionally, DEL is a part of the international landscape. The functions/structure perspective of our system focuses on a given point in time. It enables us to "(a) describe the goals of the system ...(b) identify the functions ...(required) ... to attain the goals ...(c) select the components ... to carry out the functions, and (d) formulate the relational ... structure of the system" (Banathy, 1996b, p.84). It i s somewhat akin to describing the purpose of one's home, and then detailing the various rooms (subsystems) required to reach the goals selected. The processlbehavior function of the DEL model looks at …


The ionic and electronic conductivities and surface properties of a perovskite-type oxide, Sr0.25Bi0.5FeO3 � d (SBF), are studied using impedance spectroscopy and gas permeation measurements. SBF is a promising cathode material for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and has a good potential to be used as a membrane material for methane conversion. The ionic conductivities and the interfacial resistances are determined from the dependence of oxygen permeation rate on membrane thickness, which are further confirmed from the dependence of oxygen permeation rate on the partial pressure of oxygen. Results suggest that the interfacial resistances limit the oxygen permeation rates in the temperature range studied (700–800 jC) at low partial pressures of oxygen. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


In this paper, we introduce the notion of probabilistic valued measures as a generalization of non-negative measures and construct the corresponding Lp spaces, for distributions p > "0. It is alsoshown that if the distribution p satis es p  "1 then, as in the classical case, these spaces are completeprobabilistic normed spaces.


Aedes aegypti, the main vector of dengue virus, requires a blood meal to produce eggs. Although live animals are still the main blood source for laboratory colonies, many artificial feeders are available. These feeders are also the best method for experimental oral infection of Ae. aegypti with Dengue viruses. However, most of them are expensive or laborious to construct. Based on principle of Rutledge-type feeder, a conventional conical tube, glycerol and Parafilm-M were used to develop a simple in-house feeder device. The blood feeding efficiency of this apparatus was compared to a live blood source, mice, and no significant differences (p = 0.1189) were observed between artificial-fed (51.3% of engorgement) and mice-fed groups (40.6%). Thus, an easy to assemble and cost-effective artificial feeder, designated "Glytube" was developed in this report. This simple and efficient feeding device can be built with common laboratory materials for research on Ae. aegypti.


Here an 80-year-old male patient is reported. The patient presented subcutaneous nodules on his head and face accompanied with pain for more than a month. Physical examination demonstrated the cord-Like subcutaneous nodules in his forehead and bilateral temporal areas. The patient also complained minor tenderness and blurred vision. Hispathological examination was consistent with a giant cell arteritis. His condition was greatly improved after administration of glucocoticoid.


The measurement of serum and urinary estrone sulfate (ES) was evaluated on random single samples for the detection of pregnancy in the Przewalski's horse (PRZ) and Hartmann's mountain zebra (HMZ). Pregnancy was detected by ES analysis of urine or serum in the PRZ and HMZ by at least 8 and 10 months before delivery, respectively. The values of ES in both serum and urine are shown at various stages of gestation. Results indicate urinary ES analysis is a noninvasive early diagnosis for pregnancy in these species.


"One fair day in summer, my casement window being opened towards the south, the sun shining clear, and no wind stirring, I took my book, De Veritate, in my hand, and kneeling on my knees, devoutly said these words:—'O thou eternal God, author of the light which now shines upon me, and Giver of all inward illuminations, I do beseech Thee, of thine infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a sinner ought to make; I am not satisfied enough whether I shall publish this book, De Veritate; if it be for Thy glory, I beseech Thee to give me some sign from heaven; if not, I shall suppress it.' I had no sooner spoken these words, but a loud though yet gentle noise came from the heavens, for it was like nothing on earth, which did so comfort and cheer me, that I took my petition as granted and that I had the sign I demanded, whereupon also I resolved to print my book. And now I sent my book to be printed at Paris … without suffering it to be divulged to others than to such as I thought might be worthy readers of it."


In this contribution, we report on the facile synthesis of hybrid silica nanoparticles grafted with helical poly(phenyl isocyanide)s via both "grafting from" and "grafting to" strategies. First, triethoxysilanyl functionalized alkyne–Pd(II) initiator was anchored onto the surface of bare silica nanoparticles through silanization coupling reaction. Polymerization of phenyl isocyanide using the Pd(II)–anchored silica nanoparticles lead to the formation of hybrid nanoparticles grafted with helical poly(phenyl isocyanide)s. The surface-initiated polymerization was revealed to proceed in a living/controlled chain-growth manner, afforded the hybrid nanoparticles with controlled thickness. 31P NMR analysis indicated the initiation efficiency of the surface-anchored Pd(II) initiators is very high, and almost quantitative. The grafting density was determined to be ∼0.89 nm2/chain based on the thermal gravity analysis (TGA). Polymerization of optically active phenyl isocyanide bearing an l-alanine with a long decyl...


r« .A I:Lunds4e4t,--athletics business" manager, • reported numerous burns arid stains on the-' -By I IN PEIZ , .-.-•^JEwmii Staff: Writerjgpg ••?•• By early Monday afteFnoon, ..,. Jsthe cleaning crews at, Memorial ^ Stadium had the rubbish of 80,000 turf,-and a three to four inch ^spectators of Sunday'sfZZ Top's. hole in the shape of the state of .First Annual Barndance and. Texas carved out of the turf Barbeque swept andbagged, • while Student Government spon sors were busy bagging the ca^t :« Student Government's share at e a itte t e • pr le s of > ; accommodating 30,000 people •'iiriOre than;expected _ : "When you get people standing in the sun three hours before a concert and four hours during a concert, you're going to have j s t t.


Professor of Economics, Ohio State University; and Research Associate, National Bu-reau of Economic Research. This paper was prepared for the Economic Policy Conference,Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, October 20-21, 1994. I would like to thank Mar-garet Mary McConnell for able research assistance, and Allen Berger, Ben Bernanke, AnilKashyap, Nelson Mark, Alan Viard and the participants at the conference for commentsand suggestions. I am grateful to the National Science Foundation and the Federal ReserveBank of Cleveland for ¯nancial and research support.


Debates about female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) have polarized opinion between those who see it as an abuse of women's health and human rights, to be 'eradicated', and those who may or may not oppose the practice, but see a double standard on the part of western campaigners who fail to challenge other unnecessary surgical interventions — such as male circumcision or cosmetic surgery — in their own communities and cultures. This article interrogates these debates about FGM/C in the context of measures to reduce it in the UK over recent decades. It does not suggest that FGM/C is a legitimate practice, seeing it, rather, as an abuse of women's and children's rights that should be combated using a combination of measures. However, it argues that reduction strategies are undermined by inconsistencies in the law and the failure to back up the law with research and education.


This data set contains the papers reviewed in the systematic review "Reasons for Primary Medication Non-Adherence: A Systematic Review and Metric Analysis".


This article presents two dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) computational analysis of rotating detonation combustion (RDC) in annular chambers using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver ANSYS-Fluent V13. The applicability of ANSYS-Fluent to predict the predominant phenomena taking place in the combustion chamber of a rotating detonation combustor is assessed. Simulations are performed for stoichiometric Hydrogen-Air combustion using two different chemical mechanisms. First, a widely used one-step reaction mechanism that uses mass fraction of the reactant as a progress variable, then a reduced chemical mechanism for H2-Air combustion including NOx chemistry was employed. Time dependent 2D and 3D simulations are carried out by solving Euler equations for compressible flows coupled with chemical reactions. Fluent user defined functions (UDF) were constructed and integrated into the commercial CFD solver in order to model the micro nozzle and slot injection system for fuel and oxidizer, respectively. Predicted pressure and temperature fields and detonation wave velocities are compared for the two reaction mechanisms. Curvature effects on the properties of transverse detonation waves are studied by comparing the 2D and 3D simulations. The effects of diffusion terms on RDC phenomena are assessed by solving full Navier-Stokes equations and comparing the results with those from Euler equations. Computational results are compared with experimentally measured pressure data obtained from the literature. Results show that the detonation wave velocity is over predicted in all the simulations. However, good agreement between computational and experimental data for the pressure field and transverse detonation wave structure proves adequate capabilities of ANSYS-Fluent to predict the main physical characteristics of RDC operation. Finally, various improvements for RDC modeling are postulated, particularly for better prediction of wave velocity.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


This study investigated the effects of L1 processing experience on L2 morphological awareness. Preliminary cross-linguistic comparisons indicated that morphological awareness in two typologically distinct languages, Chinese and English, differs in several major ways. Based on the comparisons, three specific hypotheses were formulated: compared with learners with a typologically similar L1 background, Chinese learners of English as an L2 would be less sensitive to intraword structural salience, less efficient in structural analysis, and more adept at integrating word-internal (morphological) and word-external (context) information. These hypotheses were tested empirically with two groups of adult L2 learners of English with contrasting L1 backgrounds (Chinese and Korean). The data demonstrated that virtually no difference existed between the two ESL groups in their intraword structural sensitivity, and that, although Chinese learners were notably slower than Korean learners in performing intraword structural analysis, they were far more efficient in integrating morphological and contextual information during sentence processing. Viewed collectively, these findings seem to suggest that L1 processing experience influences the development of L2 morphological awareness in specific and predictable ways.


The independent metering system used in the combination of traditional cartridge proportional valves employs an excessive number of components, which increases the complexity of the control strategy. To address this problem, a novel independent metering system based on pilot hydraulic control was developed. Following the pressure and flow requirements, the structure and valve body size of the two spools were designed. The effect of the parameter change in the control valve on the dynamic response characteristics of the main spool was investigated by simulation. A control strategy was developed based on load force direction prediction and two-chamber pressure switching to verify the feasibility of working mode switching during load direction change. As indicated by the results, compared with the mode switching control strategy of the traditional independent metering system, the proposed control strategy could effectively reduce the number of mode switching and ensure the continuity of the actuator operation. Compared with the traditional load-sensitive valve control system, the proposed pilot-controlled independent metering system achieved an average energy-saving efficiency of 47.27%. This study provides technical reference for the low energy consumption, high efficiency, and sustainable development of hydraulic systems.


This study distinguished constructive (e.g. planning/problem-solving) and unconstructive (e.g. worry) processing in expressive essays and their impact on depressive symptoms, healthcare visits, and physical symptoms. Affect labeling, achievement orientation, and insight utilization were examined as mediators. Essays from 43 medical students were coded; mediators were identified through linguistic text analysis. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and 3 months. Constructive processing predicted declining depressive symptoms (β = −.33, p < .05) and healthcare visits (β = −.61, p < .01). Unconstructive processing predicted increasing healthcare visits (β = .42, p < .05). Higher affect labeling mediated the effect of constructive processing, and lower achievement orientation mediated the effect of unconstructive processing.


Jel Classification M40, M14, N20, C10, C12. Abstract Sustainability is rapidly moving from an abstract concept to a measurable state of dynamic human-ecological systems. The large number of economic, social, and environmental indicators currently available provides a view of system sustainability. In this respect, sets of sustainability indicators and aggregation of these indicators into indices are increasingly used to make policy decisions. The indices offer companies the opportunity to compare their sustainability performances on both local and global level. With the indices, provide companies an instrument for evaluating their performance and consequently adopting new targets or furthering their performance while allowing them to develop their risk management abilities for corporate transparency, accountability and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to discuss conceptual requirements for Sustainability Indices and with using Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) analyze the differences and the relationship of DJSI Emerging Markets with DJSI Developed Markets in which North America and Europe is chosen.


1. Three groups of six castrated male cattle aged 6,18 and 36 months and three corresponding groups of sheep received in turn three diets consisting of high-quality dried grass (A), low-quality grass (B) or 60% of B with 40% barley (C). For one-half of each 6-week period the grass was eaten in the long form (L) and for the other half, it was ground and pelleted (P). 2. Pelleting increased intake by 45% in sheep, from 56·8 to 82·4 g dry matter per kg W-75 per day, but only by 11% in cattle, from 81·8 to 90·7. The increase was greater for diet B (44%) than for A (19%) or C (15%), and greater for the youngest animals (38%) than for the middle-aged (17%) or oldest (20%). 3. Dry-matter digestibility was reduced by pelleting from 67·2% to 58·6% in sheep and from 69·9% to 56·9% in cattle. The reduction was greater for diets A (71·2% to 56·1%) and B (65·7% to 54·1%) than for diet C (68·7% to 63·2%). 4. A hypothesis based on the importance of particle size of digesta leaving the rumen provides a possible explanation ofthese interactions between form of roughage on the one hand, and species and age of animal or diet composition on the other.


The author describes how demand relationships as expressed by ideas, graphs, theoretical and empirical models can be understood more completely by intermediate level students by having students create demand tutorials to teach demand relationships to principles students. Students create a theoretical demand model, attempt to estimate their model using actual data, and use their results to create a demand "tutorial" using spreadsheet software. The tutorial shows how a demand curve will shift when variables change. The project allows the students to connect theory and practice and generates a fuller understanding of many fundamental economic principles.


The title of this book is somewhat misleading. It is not an analysis of how the question of race and empire figured specifically in the programmes and campaigns of different British political parties. Rather, it is a masterly survey of the intellectual discourse on racial differences in relation to empire from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the 1960s. In the concluding chapter the author, instead of simply presenting a summing-up, carries his '. reflections to the mid-1980s, discussing Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. The chronological and intellecutal sweep is vast. Dr Rich worked on this


Introduction Technical Construction of a Diffusion Flow and Convergence Theorems The Variational Problem at Infinity The Underlying Variational Space The Classical Periodic Motions Appendix 1: Some Technical Justifications Appendix 2: The Dynamics of a (see symbol) along v (see symbol): Basic Computations Appendix 3: Some Additional Remarks About the Physical Interpretation, Two Mathematical Conjectures Appendix 4: How to Take Care of the Problem of the Small Normals References


FELDMAN, S. SHIRLEY, and NASH, SHARON CHURNIN. Changes in Responsiveness to Babies during Adolescence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 942-949. Interest in babies was assessed in 30 high school seniors (16-17 years old) and 32 college freshmen (18-19 years old) by means of measures which varied from passive perceptual responses to pictures, to more active-instrumental behavioral reactivity to an actual baby in the presence, and finally in the absence of an adult. Trait theory and sociobiology predict stable sex differences across adolescence, whereas role theory anticipates sex differences during early to mid-adolescence which phase out by late adolescence. In line with role theory, there was an absence of sex differences among college students in their responses to pictures of babies and to a live baby. It was the low level of interest exhibited by high school males (e.g., physical contact, touches baby, talks to infant, disinterest in baby) that accounted for the sex differences found among high school students and the age differences apparent among males. Findings were discussed in terms of role demands for males and females at different junctures of adolescence as a function of the development and consolidation of sex-role identity.


Home visit by family doctor is an important part in community health management.By using personal digital assistant(PDA) and through the 3G network communication technology,we directly transmitted the health management services data got by visit into the health records management system of the center,thus the data can be real-timely updated so as to avoid the faults of second input or untimely update of the data.In this way the family doctors can promote their working efficacy greatly and more accurately given health guidance program.By taking advantage of the miniature printer the doctors can also provide their service objects with the individual health education prescriptions and visiting records of this time.It is also helpful to establish the automatic appraisal management system for the family doctors about their information of performance in public health services.


The paper presents the results of a study of core indicators and evaluation criteria of economic security. The sources of negative influence on the economic security of an enterprise are determined. It is proved that the state of economic security of an enterprise should be evaluated on the basis of a definite system of main indicators. They should reflect the industry-specific and conditions of the company. These include: industrial, financial and social indicators. The main approaches to the assessment of economic security, namely the indicator, resource-functional and target-oriented. Offer a level of economic security to determine by comparing the value of reinvested profits and profit margins necessary to ensure the expanded reproduction of capital. In the process of study and analysis of scientific publications is determined that all of the proposed methodology for determining the safety of the enterprise can be divided into two broad groups: those that offer to evaluate the level of economic security for the whole company, mainly using heuristic, expert methods, or to use the same indicators for all components of enterprise security, and those that offer certain components to consider separately ecosecent, and then integrate and reduce the estimates to the end, the final value. Defined the general criterion of economic security of the enterprise - to achieve their main functional goals of economic security.


Chapter I.?Feigned Diseases. Diseases are generally feigned from one of three causes : fear, sharae, or the hope of gain. Thus, the individual ordered on service will pretend being afflicted with various maladies, to escape the performance of military duty;?the mendicant, to avoid labour, and to impose on public or private beneficence;?and the criminal, to prevent the infliction of punishment. The spirit of revenge, and the hope of receiving exorbitant damages, have also induced some to magnify slight ailments into serious and alarming illness. The extent and finish to which the art of feigning diseases is carried,


During a three years study of Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia feeding behaviour, disturbances of the species at stopover sites were recorded during fieldwork. Several sources of disturbances were noted: planes (37% of the cases), humans (observer and management team 21%), raptors (11%), vehicles (10%), hunting activities (4%), boat (2,6%), cattle (2,3%) and others causes (11,1%). The impact of disturbances (time spend in flight) was more important for planes (57%) and shooting (22%) and could lead the birds leaving the reserve. No impact on the feeding behaviour and feeding efficiency of individual disturbed birds could be established suggesting that the impact of disturbance on the energetic budget of studied birds was not important.


The conclusion to Serial Forms looks ahead to the serial European revolutions of 1848. Benedict Anderson argues that 'nationalism lives by making comparisons,' and 1848 was the definitive moment for the international comparison of nationalisms. As Karl Marx noticed at the time, these were revolutions that understood themselves in terms of international communications and evinced a seriality of form that suggested an equivalence of scale and a category identity across Europe and beyond. But without the new international consciousness of interconnectedness already brought about by a serial permeability of texts, ideas, and politics, the multiple revolutions of 1848 would never have happened. Seriality would enable the political struggle of the 1840s and would ultimately create a new theoretical understanding of that struggle too. The irony is that after 1848, this same international revolutionary energy would be recycled into national liberal state apparatuses and major technological state infrastructures.


It is estimated the global cost of cybercrime will grow to US$2 trillion1 by 2019. With more than 6 billion2 devices connected to comprise the Internet of Things the attack surface is growing for cyber fraud, one of the many types of cybercrimes. As more companies digitise the way they conduct business there is more data than ever before available to be stolen and monetised. At the same time, adoption of the internet continues to rapidly increase globally, adding more users for hackers to target. There has also been a sharp increase in the availability and advancement of cyber attack tools online, such as the sale of zero day vulnerabilities, the discovery of which more than doubled in 20153. Such explosive growth in cybercriminal activity demands a new approach to defending against it or companies may be faced with the difficult decision to go out of business if suffering a cyber attack that can cause bankruptcy, either through theft of funds, destruction of data or irreparable damage to reputation. Traditional network defense approaches have been one dimensional, relying on technology as the gate keeper, however the adversary today is not only advanced and persistent but highly adaptable, constantly learning how to overcome defensive measures. As a result organisations must also adapt, using an intelligence led approach to prepare for and defend against such attacks instead of constantly reacting to them.


Combining ability for oil content in linseed was studied in a complete diallel set of eight parents without reciprocals. Combining ability variances indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive type of gene action. Among the parents UD-3 was best general combiner and had high per se value for oil content. Specific effects for oil content were inconsistent and crosses involving better combiners showed low specific effects. Development of biparental progenies at successive generation of hybridization was suggested.


Speaker recognition is the process of identifying a speaker by his/her speech samples. By extracting the speaker-specific features from the speech samples, the recognition task can be done. The formant estimation of speech sample of specific speaker is important for feature extraction in speaker recognition, because the formants are unique and reflect the vocal tract information of a speaker. In the proposed work Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) based formant estimation method is employed as it is more efficient and accurate. The formant frequencies of each speaker are evaluated and stored in the database and test speaker speech sample is also processed in the same way to find the formants and finally they are compared with the formants stored in the database to perform the speaker verification and recognition.


The invention relates to a motor vehicle comprising a front cover bordered by two flanges, said cover being provided with a liner (12) engaging said wings. The main characteristic of a vehicle according to the invention is that the lateral zones (14) of said liner (12) engaging the wings each have a longitudinally oriented inclination relative to the vehicle.


Pica is defined as persistent eating of substances that have no nutritive value for at least one month in a developmentally inappropriate manner and the behavior should not be part of a culturally appropriate action. Although the etiological factors have not been clearly described, several psychiatric conditions including mental retardation, developmental disorders, dementia, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been reported in association with pica 1-3 . In this report, we present a


A new kind of in situ ceramic consolidation molding process was investigated. The process was based on properties of starch swelling in water and gelatinizing with heat. The pure carbon reaction bonded silicon carbide (PCRBSC) ceramic suspension containing about 50% (in volume) solids loading and about 3% (in mass) starch can be cast and molded to various complex_shape parts in water_thermostat. The density and pore size are homogeneously distributed inside the biscuit. The rheology characteristics of starch_carbon powder suspension were studied. Dilation flow of pure starch suspension was observed. The apparent viscosity of starch_carbon powder suspension increased with the augmentation of the starch mass in suspension. The starch amount putting into starch_carbon powder suspension should be limited between 1%-5% (in mass) of the dry material. The pH value of the dispersion system is 7.0 approximately. Mechanism of in situ consolidation molding process with starch and its effects on the structure of biscuit were investigated too.


Using techniques of assessment based on performance, several studies have yielded a significant moderate relationship between reflection-impulsivity and ficld-dependence-independence; for review see Messer (1976). Reflective persons tend to be field-independent and impulsive ones field-dependent. Reflection-impulsivity is typically measured with Matching Familiar Figures, which requires that subjects match to a standard figure one of several alternative figures. The average response time and number of errors are used to define the trait dimension. Field-dependence-independence is typically measured with a form of the Embedded Figures Test, which requires that subjects disembed a simple figure from a complex background within certain time limits. Similar factors underlie performance on both tests: intelligence, hastiness of decisions, concentration span, and effort. Therefore, it is not clear whether the two trait dimensions are conceptually related or whether observed correlations between the two dimensions are artifacts of errors common to both types of tests. The present study addressed this issue. Different methods of assessment were used to measure reflection-impulsivity and field-dependence-independence. Thus, the danger of artifactual correlation was reduced. College students (39 males and 71 females) who were enrolled in introductory psychology courses participted in the research in partial fulfillment of a course requirement. Students completed the Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971) and the Impulsivity scale from the Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1974). The former is a performance measure of field-dependence-independence and the laner is an objective questionnaire with a "true-false" response mode. Both scales have substantial reliability and validiry, as summarized in their respective users' manuals. The instruments were administered to groups of approximately 20 in counterbalanced order. The means (and SDs) for the Group Embedded Figures Test were: males = 9.56 (5.08), females = 9.01 (5.01 ), total = 9.22 (5.02). The means (and SDs) for the Impulsivity scale were: maleso= 10.78 (2.92), females = 10.85 (3.17), total = 10.78 (3.07). Scores on the two tests were not correlated with each other; r 1 . 1 ~ = -.08. This SUPports the possibility that the previously established relationship berween reflection-impulsivity and field-dependenceindependence is a function of shared error variance of rhe tests. More conclusive data than those of the present study might be obtained by using multi-modal assessment of both variables.


Citation: Brisson PA, DeLuca CC, Lemes K, Purkey SC (2018) Cadaver Pylorus Simulates Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis. Int J Surg Res Pract 5:083. doi.org/10.23937/2378-3397/1410083 Accepted: August 06, 2018 ; Published: August 08, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Brisson PA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. International Journal of Surgery Research and Practice Open Access ISSN: 2378-3397


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to establish a deep learning model for segmenting the cervical lymph nodes of oral cancer patients and diagnosing metastatic or non-metastatic lymph nodes from contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) images.

METHODS
CT images of 158 metastatic and 514 non-metastatic lymph nodes were prepared. CT images were assigned to training, validation, and test datasets. The colored images with lymph nodes were prepared together with the original images for the training and validation datasets. Learning was performed for 200 epochs using the neural network U-net. Performance in segmenting lymph nodes and diagnosing metastasis were obtained.

RESULTS
Performance in segmenting metastatic lymph nodes showed recall of 0.742, precision of 0.942, and F1 score of 0.831. The recall of metastatic lymph nodes at level II was 0.875, which was the highest value. The diagnostic performance of identifying metastasis showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.950, which was significantly higher than that of radiologists (0.896).

CONCLUSIONS
A deep learning model was created to automatically segment the cervical lymph nodes of oral squamous cell carcinomas. Segmentation performances should still be improved, but the segmented lymph nodes were more accurately diagnosed for metastases compared with evaluation by humans.


Thank you for reading literature and artifacts. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their chosen readings like this literature and artifacts, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious bugs inside their computer. literature and artifacts is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers spans in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the literature and artifacts is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Spacecraft cryogenic fuel tankage made from superplastic materials is a possible new application for low density aluminum alloys such as Al-Mg-Sc. Examples from this alloy system were examined for cryogenic strength and toughness. Alloys studied were received in the superplastically formable condition, in sheet form. Alloy 2219-T87 sheet was also tested for comparison, since 2219-T8X is currently used in cryogenic tankage. Five compositions of Al-Mg-Sc alloys were tested at 77 and 4 K. Alloys showed the expected increase in strength with decreasing temperature, accompanied by a general slight decrease in elongation and the Kahn tear-yield ratio toughness indicator; however, the strength-tear toughness relationship of this alloy class was as good as or better than that of 2219-T87. Correlations found between the properties, microstructure, and fracture surfaces are discussed. 8 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs.


ABSTRACT Objective: To present a tool that allows estimation of the budget impact of treatments for acute mania in bipolar I disorder from a US healthcare payer perspective. Methods: Using discrete event simulation, the course of individuals is simulated beginning with hospitalization. Discharge depends on symptom level measured by the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS). The treatment effect is determined using time-dependent regression equations derived from trial data, and decision rules obtained from clinical experts. Outcomes include: time to response and symptom resolution; proportion of subjects reaching each outcome; number of adverse events. Costs were obtained from hospital discharge databases, the National Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and RedBook. Different scenarios are examined, each describing the proportion of subjects on the various treatments (lithium, divalproex sodium, olanzapine, risperidone, and quetiapine – monotherapy and in combination with lithium). Analyses are intention-to-treat over 100 days, corresponding to follow-up in mania trials. Despite its flexibility and structural adaptability, the model has some important limitations related to the characteristics of the clinical trials. These include focus on inpatient management of acute mania, use of the YMRS as the model driver, polypharmacy restricted to two-drug regimens, no explicit consideration of titration and dose changes, and relatively short time horizon. Results: Scenarios with a greater proportion of quetiapine users (5% vs. 40% and 100%) result in a smaller impact on the healthcare budget ($6912, $6277, and $5525 per patient, respectively) and improvements in patient outcomes (e.g., 43%, 47%, and 54% responding at day 21; 74%, 77%, and 80% remitting by day 84). Sensitivity analyses showed that the budget impact is influenced by drug prices, discharge criteria and side-effect management. Conclusion: Results suggest that increased use of quetiapine for bipolar mania in the US is economically justified and improves health outcomes. In addition, this model illustrates that discrete event simulation is a useful and versatile tool for budget impact analyses.