The colonial experience in Africa left deep corporeal and psychic scars. The anti-colonial struggle involved bloody armed conflicts which left many dead and many more physically and psychologically maimed. Writers as diverse as Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ousmane Sembene, and Shimmer Chinodya have variously addressed the cultural, material, racial, class, psychological, and ideological aspects of this unprecedented history. And literary critics have equally responded by examining African literary texts from cultural, Marxist, colonial, and post-colonial angles. However, given the traumatic experience of the struggle for independence, not much has been done by way of applying trauma theory to the study of African literary texts to illuminate Africa's violent encounter with the racist imperialism of Europe. Employing the insights of Cathy Caruth, the essay analyses trauma's characteristic double infliction of a wound on the individual in Chinodya's anti-colonial novel Harvest of Thorns . The traumatic memories of the liberation war testify to the physical and psychic wounds inflicted on the individual and the community.


Combination of medium-sized building blocks comprises a new strategy for the synthesis of artificial receptor molecules. These building blocks should have relatively rigid structures to which functional groups can be attached, such as calix[4]- and -[6]arenes, resorcin[4]arenes, porphyrins, and cyclodextrins. Combination of a (3- cyclodextrin with a calix[4]arene moiety resulted in water soluble receptor molecules. Large multifunctional receptors have been prepared by the covalent combination of two calix[4]arenes and one Zn-tetraarylporphyrin. The controlled conformation of p-tert-butylcalix[6]arenes which are alternately substituted with methoxy groups, was used to synthesize a cryptocalix[6]arene consisting of a calix[6]arene and a cyclotriveratrylene unit. A new type of diastereoisomerism (carceroisomerism) was found during the synthesis of carceplexes constructed from one calix[4]arene and one resorcin[4]arene. In a (2+2)-mode of coupling, the combination of calix[4]arenes and resorcin[4]arenes gave a large rigid receptor molecule of nanosize dimensions (ho/and). The combination of two calix[4]arenes with one resorcin[4)arene resulted in three different compounds (endo-endo, endo-exo, and exo-exo) with large hydrophobic surfaces to which steroids can be complexed.


We present the synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles of targeted morphology in a continuous process via visible light-mediated aqueous RAFT polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). A trithiocarbonate-derived poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) macroRAFT was activated in the presence of hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) at 37 °C under blue light irradiation (460 nm), leading to the formation of PEG-b-P(HPMA) nanoparticles. The method is attractive in its simplicity—spheres, worms, and vesicles can easily be obtained in a continuous fashion with higher control in comparison to conventional batch procedures. This allows for more accurate production of particle morphologies and scalable synthesis of these nano-objects. The versatility of this process was demonstrated by the in situ encapsulation of an active compound.


Current generation QWIP detectors, although very cost effective, have relatively narrow spectral range and low quantum efficiencies. Tactical operation is generally limited to a single spectral band. These limitations arise from the design approach and restrict applications to those that can tolerate these performance limitations. Using recent device design improvements, a novel material, and special processing approaches, High Quantum Efficiency Dual Band C-QWIP detectors are currently being developed. These are expected to overcome traditional limitations in the QWIP design approach and deliver extremely high performance. In the first phase of the program, single color LWIR and VLWIR C-QWIP FPAs in large (1024x1024) format will be demonstrated with targeted peak quantum efficiency of 35%, and correspondingly high BLIP operating temperatures. In the next phase of the program, the team will continue to improve QE towards 50% with conversion efficiency of 75%, and demonstrate dual band MW/LW FPAs. The detector gain will be optimized for operation in either low background or high background applications. These goals will be accomplished using highly producible/low cost materials and processes. System considerations include ROIC well capacity, noise performance, as optics configuration and other concerns will be addressed. A robust design for high performance in a variety of applications will be shown. This work is being performed by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and L-3 Cincinnati Electronics (CE), with funding provided by the Missile Defense Agency.


Perception and pain thresholds were measured in 88 randomly selected diabetic patients and in 58 nondiabetic subjects. The technique consists of applying a sinusoidal voltage of 1592 Hz, using a voltage-current convertor and a phase-sensitive detector. Three parameters are thus elevated: resistive current, capacitive current, and voltage across the electrodes. An analysis of the electroperception thresholds based on the clinical data shows that diabetic patients are an inhomogeneous group, some without clinical neuropathy, some with painful neuropathy, and some with painless neuropathy, with each group having distinct electrophysiological parameters.<<ETX>>


Luis von Ahn, a Guatemala native, has been affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University since 2003. He earned his MS and PhD degrees there in Computer Science and after a one-year postdoc joined the faculty. During his academic career, he received substantial funding from the National Science Foundation (including a career award), as well as a MacArthur "Genius" award. In addition, he has received recognition from both professional societies and the media....


Harrogate Borough Council's Turkish Baths and Health Spa have once again taken a top spa industry award. For the second year running they have been ...


This thesis analysis the main factors for ensure the strength and the service time of large balling drum shell,including the characteristics of structure,crutial technology,welding procedures of shells,split joint of shell,bevel of end side and machining of locating holes.By taking these factors into account,the internal defects of weldings on shell will be avoided and stress after welded will be released.


Analysing Powers df Hydrogen and Helium-4 for Protons at Intermediate Energies An absolute c a l i b r a t i o n of the analysing powers of hydrogen and helium-4 has been performed at 24° and 15° lab, respectively, for protons between 200 and 520 MeV with a t y p i c a l uncertainty of ±2%. In a double scattering experiment, the TRIUMF polarized proton beam was scattered, f i r s t at 15° on a l i q u i d helium target, then a second time at 24° on a polyethylene target. The method combines the advantages of the very high analysing power of helium and the small difference i n incident energies on both scatters. The analysing power of helium-4 was measured to be 0.964 ± .012, 0.792 ± .011 and 0.476 ± .018 at energies of 222, 325 and 518 MeV, respectively. The analysing power of hydrogen was found to be 0.294 ± 0.003, 0.354 ± 0.005 and 0.412 + 0.013 at proton energies of 205, 308 and 499 MeV, respectively. This represents a great improvement over previous p-p data which was not known to better than ±6%, and so w i l l permit a more accurate determination of nucleon-nucleon phase s h i f t s .


The Chotikov deposit lies in the southern limb of the northern part of the limnic Plzeň Basin. It contains coal seams of Westphalian (W C-DJ to Stephanian age. The Lower Grey Formation (the Kladno FormationJ comprises the basal Radnice Member (W CJ with the Plzell, Radnice and Lubna Groups of Coal Seams, and the Nytany Member (W DJ represented by the Nyfany Group of Coal Seams as well as by the relatively insignificant Touskov, Chotikov and Nevrell Groups of Coal Seams. The Lower Red Formation (the Tynec Formation J is sterile, with the exception of negligible cases. The Upper Grey Formation (the Slany Formation] contains the Kounov Group of COlli Seams (compare the lithostratigraphic scheme in tab. 1 ). Tab.1 Scheme of the lithostratigraphic division of the Plzell basin in the Chotlkov deposit area (northern part of the basin )1 1) Modified according to V. Havlena and J. Pesek (1975J: .Litostratigraficke cleněni středoceskeho karbonu". - Přiroda 11, ZPCM Plzeň, 81 pp. The main coal reserves are represented by the coal seams of the Radnice Member, resting unconformably on the Proterozoic, and this especially in the case of the zone of the Lubnii Group of Coal Seams. The aim of this communication is to present a basic survey of the micro petrographic structure of the coal seams of this part of the basin and of their chemicaltechnological properties. Special attention has been paid to the investigation of coalification. The author thanks the menagement of the national enterprise GEOINDUSTRIA, Prague, for all its moral and financial support In the publication of this study. Thanks are also due to Ing. I. CHvATAL of the Klement Gottwald Metallurgical Works (NHKG) in Ostrava-Kuncice for the reflectance measurements and their presentation in histograms. Without his help this paper could not have been realized. The author also thanks V. PRIBYL, technologist of the national enterprise GEOINDUSTRIA, Prague, for the technological data concerning the coals of the Chotikov deposit.


Abstract Interpretation of ice-core records in terms of changes in atmospheric concentrations requires understanding of the various parameters within air–snow transfer functions. the dry-deposition velocity is one of these parameters, dependent on local meteorological conditions and thereby also affected by climate changes. We have determined aerosol dry-deposition velocities by measurements of aerosol particle-number concentration and the vertical wind component with an eddy-covariance system close to the Swedish and Finnish research stations Wasa and Aboa in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Measurements were performed over a smooth, snow-covered area and over moderately rough, rocky ground during 4 and 19 days, respectively, in January 2000. the median dry-deposition velocity determined 5.25 mabove the surface was 0.33 and 0.80 cm s–1, respectively. the large difference between the two sites was mainly due to the stratification of the surface boundary layer, the surface albedo and the surface roughness height. the dry-deposition number fluxes were dominated by the particle-size modes defined as ultrafine and Aitken, withmean diameters around 14 and 42 nm, respectively. A larger dry-deposition velocity, owing to stronger Brownian diffusion, for the smaller ultrafine mode was verified by the measurements.


E-Logistics applies the concepts of logistics electronically to those aspects of business conducted via the Internet. E-fulfillment can be defined as the integration of people, processes and technology to ensure customer satisfaction before, during and after the online buying experience. These activities are the most critical for successful electronic commerce. E-businesses can utilize various methods for handling these functions, including performing them in-house, outsourcing to a third-party logistics provider (3PL), or drop-shipping—each having distinct pros and cons. The key to a successful outsourcing relationship includes understanding the process, specifying objectives, establishing internal procedures for evaluating performance against objectives, and deploying systems that help to manage the function effectively.


In order to clarify uniaxial stress effects on a green excitonic series in Cu2O, we measured temperature dependence of wavelength modulated (WM) absorption spectra of a Cu2O thin film sandwiched by MgO plates. In these spectra, excitonic resonances of 2P∼4P states are clearly observed even at 180 K. From these resonance spectral structures at each temperature, it is found that the band gap of the green series shifts to lower energy side than that of bulk crystals and the red shift becomes obvious with cooling down to 7 K. These results indicate that the trapping potential for the green excitons is formed by the uniaxial stress due to a lattice mismatch between the Cu2O and MgO (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Aluminum-lithium (Al-Li) alloys are promising to replace traditional high-strength aluminum alloys in aerospace and military industries due to their low density, high specific strength, and excellent corrosion resistance. However, there is little research focused on the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of Al-Li alloys due to their poor weldability and high crack susceptibility. In this study, the feasibility of the Al-Li alloy fabricated by LPBF was investigated. The effect of the processing parameters on the densification and crack formation behavior was studied. Finally, after optimizing the processing parameters, crack-free and nearly fully dense 2195 Al-Li alloy 3Dprinted samples were obtained. A relative density of 99.92% and a microhardness of 89.1 HV were achieved.


I have only once seen witchcraft on its path. I had been sitting late in my hut writing notes. About midnight, before retiring, I took a spear and went for my usual nocturnal stroll. I was walking in the garden at the back of my hut, amongst banana trees, when I noticed a bright light passing at the back of my servants' huts towards the homestead of a man called Tupoi. As this seemed worth investigation I followed its passage until a grass screen obscured the view. I ran quickly through my hut to the other side in order to see where the light was going to, but did not regain sight of it. I knew that only one man, a member of my household, had a lamp that might have given off so bright a light, but next morning he told me that he had neither been out late at night nor had he used his lamp. There did not lack ready informants to tell me that what I had seen was witchcraft. Shortly afterwards, on the same morning, an old relative of Tupoi and an inmate of his homestead died. This event fully explained the light I had seen. I never discovered its real origin, which was possibly a handful of grass lit by some one on his way to defecate, but the coincidence of the direction along which the light moved and the subsequent death accorded well with Zande ideas (Evans-Pritchard 1937: 34).


Abstract In recent years, there have been more and more researches on the dielectric properties of carbon-based composites, and its dielectric tunability is a hot research topic. In this paper, epoxy resin/carbon fiber/phenolic residual carbon (EP/CF/C) was prepared by high-temperature sintering, vacuum liquid phase impregnation and hot-press curing methods. The AC conduction behavior, dielectric properties and impedance properties of composites with different CF/C compression ratios (1, 1.5, 2) are studied. With the increase of CF/C compression ratio, the negative dielectric properties of composites are getting stronger and stronger. The results show that when the CF/C compression ratio is 1, the composites occur percolation phenomenon and dielectric constant is negative. When the CF/C compression ratio is 2, the absolute value of the negative dielectric coefficient of the EP/CF/C composite reaches 9.8 × 104, and the conductivity reaches 0.54 S/cm. In addition, impedance analysis has further confirmed that the inductance properties lead to the negative dielectric properties of the material. The adjustable negative dielectric properties of EP/CF/C composites can provide some suggestions for the field of electromagnetic shielding and capacitors.


With new state assessments kicking into full swing across the country, schools are seeing more and more parents wanting to opt out their children. Determining whether states allow assessment opt-outs can be complex and is constantly evolving. In some states the answer is clear: State policies either allow or prohibit state assessment opt-outs, or state departments of education issue clear guidance that opt-outs are not allowed.


We construct a connected subspace M of the euclidean plane R2 containing two points A and B such that, for every pair of points {P, Q} of M\{A, B}, the three real numbers d(A, P), d(P, Q) and d(Q, B) are not the same. This solves a question posed by Väisälä.


ABSTRACT:Pilocytic Astrocytomas (PA) treatment and prognosis is variable depending on location. ¹H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is used to characterize tumor metabolism providing additional information to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) evaluation assessing the therapy response. This study was designed to evaluate brain metabolic changes that result from Temozolomide (TMZ) administration on pediatric PA using MRS. Twenty children with PA were studied. We performed MRI and MRS pretreatment and after 12 months of therapy on a 3.0 Tesla scanner in order to monitor the chemotherapy response to 5-day treatment with oral TMZ              (200 mg/mt² x day) given every 28 days for 12 cycles. Multivoxel Proton Spectroscopic Imaging was performed using a Point Resolved Spectroscopy sequence (PRESS). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to the results in order to evaluate the possible statistical differences. Pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction test were assessed in order to verify the differences among ratio means.    It was observed a significant decrease in Cho/Cr ratio (p<0.05) and a significant increase in NAA/Cr ratio (p<0.05) while TMZ therapy was taking place. These results are linked with tumor size reduction   (r = 0.95, p< 0.05) detected by MRI. Results show MRS can detect early tumor reaction to therapy prior to MRI. Therefore, MRS could provide a useful tool to monitor the answer of pediatric PA to TMZ. The link between metabolic markers changes due to TMZ treatment assessed by MRS and the tumor volume reduction may also provide a fertile ground to develop a TMZ-based therapy for pediatric PA and to predict its efficacy to improve PA's response to treatment.


Cancer prevention and early detection have the greatest potential for reducing incidence, suffering, and death from cancer of any modality we have available. HPV and HBV vaccination, as well as exposure avoidance (e.g., smoking cessation) are well documented to reduce cancer risks. Approaches such as mammography, colonoscopy and low-dose CT screening clearly provide mortality reductions. While these tools are effective, they are under-used and thus their potential for cancer reduction is sub-optimal. The field is also at a critical phase of development: we have substantial mechanistic understanding of cancer and novel technologies that provide new opportunities for prevention and early detection. We must consider a series of factors in order for effective translation and implementation of this knowledge to occur. Multisector involvement of academia, business, policymakers, biotech, community members, and others are required to build a common language and pathways from discovery to implementation. Diverse data and input from end used communities are required to ensure that these novel approaches do not induce or exacerbate disparities and can benefit all populations equitably. Increased compliance with existing population-based tools that are known to minimize cancer mortality must be improved, while new "precision" methods are developed and implemented. The field has the opportunity to disrupt the landscape of state of cancer by developing and implementing mechanism-based tools and technologies that will be used in novel prevention and early detection strategies.
 Citation Format: Timothy Rebbeck. Optimizing the public's health through prevention and early detection (precision and otherwise). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Precision Prevention, Early Detection, and Interception of Cancer; 2022 Nov 17-19; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2023;16(1 Suppl): Abstract nr IA002.


The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme-A inhibitors or statins have been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with coronary artery disease or those at increased risk of coronary artery disease (Table). Consequently, statin therapy has become the cornerstone treatment in primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease for almost every patient category. However, the case for the use of statin therapy in the most advanced stage of the cardiovascular disease continuum, namely patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) has been disputed. Until recently, we simply lacked data …


Abstract Experimental log (RM) values were determined for a series of pharmacologically active quinazolines. Statistically significant linear relationships were found between log k' and log P, log k and Hansch's parameter. The retention indices (Rl) of these compounds were measured, and a statistically significant linear relationship was also found between log P and RI. The resolution factors and selectivity were determined for some pairs of the tested compounds. The relationship between the structure and δ log k was interpreted. The best linear relationship was found at 60% methanol and water for G18 and C8 columns.


TERAHERTZ PHOTONIC CRYSTAL MICROFLUIDIC SENSORS By Laura Cecilia Acosta Silveira Challenges associated with meeting needs in the pharmaceutical industry, environment monitoring and food safety are in the interrogation of small volumes of samples with high sensitivity and specificity. The use of terahertz (THz) sensors is of significant interest due to its rich spectral content. The key focus of this research is to demonstrate THz microfluidic sensors for use in continuous flow monitoring that provide high sensitivity while using small volumes of samples. In order to achieve high sensitivity, photonic crystal (PC) based structures operating at the THz spectral region, are examined. One dimension (1D) PC devices are designed for continuous flow characterization of liquids and vapors. The same type of structure is then slightly altered with a defect layer and its effect is studied. For further improvement of the sensing capabilities a 3D PC sensor is also designed and examined. The devices are built using alternating high and low permittivity materials with characteristics (material properties and thicknesses) that regulate the THz wave through transmission. When the air region is filled with a higher permittivity sample such as a liquid or vapor, the THz wave transmission through the PC is altered. In contrast to conventional sample holders, the use of PC enhances the change in transmitted signal due to the sample being loaded into the air gaps in the PC. This sensing configuration allows for high sensitivity while using a small volume of samples. A material characterization method is developed for 1D PC based sensor in order to extract the corresponding samples dielectric properties. Details of design, fabrication and characterization of photonic crystal terahertz microfluidic sensors are presented in this thesis.


Ad hoc data exchange, e.g., by sending email attachments, leads to multiple copies or versions of a document at dispersed nodes in a network. However, their relationships such as is-a-version-of are lost. The relationships between a single document's existing versions together with the versions themselves form a so-called document flow, which allows to trace where a document originated and how it was distributed from node to node. The paper proposes an ontological, machine-processable framework for semantically describing and thus revealing document flows. The presented approach provides a light-weight communication infrastructure for information exchange and collaboration that is based on distributed versioning of documents and offers flexible document annotation mechanisms. After describing our infrastructure model, we present the implemented prototype and discuss a range of application scenarios for traceable document flows (TDFs).


. We report the lattice strain and polarization of the BaTiO 3 -CaTiO 3 solid solution. We found that the lattice strain evaluated by the tetragonality of the tetragonal phase at room temperature is nearly independent on the composition within the limit of the solid solution. In association with this variation, the saturation polarization remains nearly unchanged. Such invariant lattice strain associated with the ionic displacement in ferroelectrics is considered to be responsible for the nearly compositional independence of the polarization and the observed ferroelectric Curie temperature. Its relatively stable polarization compared with that of pure BaTiO 3 is very interesting for technological applications, such as in ferroelectric memory.


This study investigated the perception of English language teachers concerning digital pedagogy in teaching oral English in Ekiti state government Colleges. The underpinning objective encompasses a survey of teachers' perception concerning digital instructional style. This study is descriptive research of the survey type. The population of the study consisted of 78 English language teachers in Ekiti state Government Colleges. Using multistage sampling procedure, four government colleges were randomly selected comprising forty English language teachers from the four Ekiti state government colleges. Questionnaires were administered on the sample of the study. Descriptive statistics was used in analysing data. The findings of this study revealed that 65% of the teachers could distinguish between digital and conventional pedagogy while 65% experienced no significant challenges with digital pedagogy during oral English lessons. Furthermore, majority of the English language teachers admitted that students feel bored when taught oral English with charts. These findings explicate the need to sustain digital pedagogy for teaching oral English. It was recommended that English language teachers should be retrained and trained in digital skills for teaching oral English in government colleges in Ekiti state.


In terms of soil formation, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, earthworms are considered as most important soil biota. Organic amendments usually enhance the earthworm abundance. Rice and wheat crop fields treated with different nitrogen in main plots and rice straw incorporation levels in sub-plots were selected from experimental area of Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana to explore the diversity and abundance of earthworms. At all residue levels, population density of earthworms showed their maximum number in the month of July and August in rice fields while in wheat crop fields maximum number was recorded in March. Seasonal density showed maximum abundance in rainy season > summer season > winter season. Earthworm count per m 2 was more in rice fields as compared to wheat fields and among various treatments abundance was maximum at maximum nitrogen level @ 150 Kg N/ha and also at maximum rice straw incorporation level @ 10 t/ha. Overall two species of earthworms belonging to family MegascolecidaeLampito mauritii and Metaphire posthuma were found. Higher values of physico-chemical parameters (pH, EC, OC, potassium and phosphorus, dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphate activity and micronutrients) were recorded in earthworm cast soil as compared to bulk soil. Interaction of both the treatments (nitrogen levels and rice straw incorporation) was found to be non-significant at all physico-chemical parameters of soil as well as on soil temperature and moisture content. Rice straw incorporation improves soil fertility and betters the physical and chemical properties of soil resulting in increased earthworm abundance.


This paper deals with some existence and Ulam stability results for Hilfer and HilferHadamard type fractional random differential equations in Fréchet spaces. A random fixed point theorem is applied to prove the existence of random solutions. Also it is shown that the solutions to our problems are generalized Ulam-Hyers-Rassias stable.


Background: Finasteride is being used to treat recurrent hematuria due to BPH. Androgen has an essential role in the production of angiogenic factors such as VEGF. Vessel density & VEGF decreases after finasteride treatment and thus improve haematospermia.
Objective: To test the efficacy of finasteride to control refractory idiopathic hematospermia for which conservative treatment has failed.
Methodology: This Prospective placebo-controlled study was carried out from July 2019 to June 2022 with 48 patients of hematospermia presented to the outpatient department of NIKDU. Twenty-two patients had refractory hematospermia of idiopathic nature. They were randomized into two equal groups, 11 patients in each group. One group received 5 mg finasteride daily for 3 months, and the other group received placebo. Patients were followed up with semen analysis and TRUS for 3 consecutive months and after 1 year.
Result: In the finasteride-treated group, remission of hematospermia occurred in 5 patients (45%) within 1 month. Patients continued treatment for 3 months without the recurrence of hematospermia. After stopping finasteride treatment, hematospermia recurred in 3 out of 9 patients 12 months later. Two cases were not improved, but a significant decrease in frequency & amount of bleeding was observed in semen analysis. In the placebo-treated group, cessation of hematospermia occurred in 3 cases (27%) versus 9 (81%) in the finasteride group (P = 0.03) after 3 months of treatment.
Conclusion: Three months of treatment with finasteride for refractory idiopathic hematospermia significantly cures hematospermia with no undesirable side effects.
Bangladesh J. Urol. 2022; 25(1): 33-66


In this Epilogue, which is based on a series of interviews with 38 British
 and Dutch cradle communists who participated in an oral history project
 about communist family life, participants consider their childhood,
 value their upbringing, but also discuss their adulthood and how they
 implemented their political upbringing in their adult life. It focuses in
 particular on participants' feelings and thoughts surrounding the collapse
 of communism in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet
 Union.


Excess force generation during myocardial contraction represents a cardinal feature of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

 To evaluate the anatomical, functional and prognostic correlates of left ventricular (LV) force in HCM.

 We prospectively recruited a consecutive sample of 408 HCM patients with LV ejection fraction (EF) >50%, referred for baseline transthoracic echocardiography in 2 primary HCM centers in Hungary and Italy between 1999 and 2021. LV force was calculated as LV outflow tract gradient+systolic blood pressure/LV end-systolic volume. Patients were followed for a median of 107 months (IQ range, 58–158 months), the study endpoint was all-cause mortality.

 Mean LV force was 6.0±4.6 mm Hg/ml. Receiver-operating characteristic analysis identified 7.5 mm Hg/ml the best cut-off value to predict mortality. LV force >7.5 mm Hg/ml was present in 86 patients (21%), more frequently in women (58 vs 27%, p<0.0001), more often in patients with diabetes (16 vs 6%, p=0.003), beta-blocker (81 vs 58%, p<0.0001), calcium channel-blocker (19 vs 9%, p=0.012) and diuretic therapy (19 vs 8%, p=0.004), compared to patients with LV force ≤7.5 mm Hg/ml. Patients with excess LV force had more advanced NYHA class (1.8±0.7 vs 1.4±0.7, p=0.0001), greater left atrial diameter [(LAd), 46.7±6.6 vs 43.0±7.2 mm, <0.0001], LV maximal wall thickness (23.2±5.5 vs 21.6±5.5 mm p=0.01), LV EF (74.6±6.4 vs 67.0±6.8%, <0.0001), mitral regurgitation grade (1.2±0.7 vs 0.7±0.7, p<0.0001) and E/e' (10.3±5.0 vs 7.8±5.0, p=0.005). During follow-up 43 deaths occurred. All-cause death was more frequent in patients with excess LV force (21 vs 8%, p<0.0001). At multivariable Cox regression analysis, excess LV force was an independent predictor of mortality (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.14–7.26, p=0.025) independent of age (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.05, p=0.022) and LAd (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02–1.14, p=0.005).

 LV force with a threshold of 7.5 mm Hg/ml, independently predicts adverse outcome in patients with HCM and preserved systolic function. Excess LV force generation is associated with female sex, diabetes, NYHA class, medications, LAd, LV wall thickness, EF, mitral regurgitation grade and E/e'.

 Type of funding sources: None.


Based on the summary of preliminary researches and in combination with the latest progress of the Coalbed methane(CBM) exploration and development in Sanjiao Area of Ordos Basin,the CBM exploration and development in the region were analyzed.Studies indicated that there were rich CBM resources and high exploration and development potential,it had the features of stable and simple structure,proper burial depth,thicker coal seam,high gas content and better hydrological conditions;according to the geological conditions such as sedimentary environment,coalbed reservoir characteristics and so on,it could be divided into two sets of CBM reservoir vertically: Coal-bed Reservoir 3/4/5 of Shanxi Formation and Coalbed Reservoir 8/9 of Taiyuan Formation.Preliminary assessment of CBM resource at 1000 m shallow coalbed reservoirs is more than 1000×108m3.It belongs to a large CBM field with medium-shallow depth,middle-high abundance.CBM production test shows that CBM in the area has a good recoverability,good prospects for CBM development.It is one of the most potential areas for CBM exploration and development.


The Eastern Mediterranean region is said to host five percent of the world's known natural gas reserves. That stimulates tension when coupled with the aspirations of some states to claim these resources and control their transport to the markets. The claims of Greece and the Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus (GASC), which has always acted as if it were the sole representative of the island, seem to be extreme, given the relevant the rules of international law. In order to achieve its aspirations over Libya, France has recently intervened in regional developments on the side of Greece. Turkey has declared that its continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean extends up to 28° E longitude and that the western boundary of the Turkish continental shelf to the west of this longitude shall be drawn through equitable agreements with all concerned states. Turkey has also taken certain preventive measures to protect its rights and interests by making particular references to the relevant rules of international law. The present commentary examines the real motivations behind the acts of all sides and reviews their justifications with reference to international law, with particular reference to Turkey's actions


The axial vibration fault has occurred in operation of the pulverized coal exhausters equipped for boilers of 2×360 MW units.It is discovered in disassembiling repair that the looseness in fit between the inner sleeve of bearing no2 and the shaft neck appeared in operation is the cause leading to vibration fault,resulting in rubbing between the shaft neck and the raised soulder of shaft due to abrasion of inner sleeve of the bearing and main shaft.After replacing the whole set of rotary shaft and bearings,the vibration fault has been eliminated,the vibration of bearings in operation of the exhauster being in a good situation.


Abstract In the late 15th century, a monumental brass was laid in the church at Etchingham (East Sussex) to the memory of two never-married women, Elizabeth Etchingham, who died in 1452, and Agnes Oxenbridge, who died in 1480. This article investigates the possible social meanings of their brass, with a particular eye to Alan Bray's recent interpretations of other funeral monuments dedicated to same-sex couples.


The study of prehistoric living-floors is a comparatively new endeavour in Australia (e.g. see comments in Shawcross and Kaye 1980:120; Mardaga-Campbell and Campbell 1985:105). This is doubtless because most excavations in this country so far have generally been rather small or narrow soundings. In rockshelters especially, large excavations extending to more than 50% of the site are very rare (e.g. Yarrar Shelter, Flood 1970), but a few open-air excavations have uncovered a much larger proportion of site areas (e.g. 100% at Sundown 1, Ranson 1980). However, these excavations were not aimed at the detection and full recording of living-floors. Usually, the norm has been soundings aimed at establishing chronological sequences for various human adaptations and cultural change rather than variations in patterns of behaviour within given sites for specific occupation episodes. In order to find comparative information on living-floors in the Australasian region, one has to turn to recent ethnoarchaeological studies (e.g. Gorecki 1985 at Kuk, Papua New Guinea), even though in terms of data most of these are not directly relevant to the study of living-floors left by Aboriginal Australians. Unfortunately, ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological observations on Aboriginal living-floors and/or activity areas at living sites have only rarely been published (e.g. Hale and Tindale 1933; Gould 1971; Hynes and Chase 1982; Meehan 1982:112-18; Spurling and Hayden 1984). This paper is in part a preliminary report on the early stages of my study of prehistoric living-floors in North Queensland. The project described here aims essentially at investigating various methods of recognising, recovering and analysing Aboriginal living-floors in specific rockshelter conditions (e.g. Pillar and Walkunder Arch Caves, near Chillagoe). It should be pointed out that although the excavation and analysis of living-floors generally involve total or near-total removal of the archaeological layers which contain them, as well as any layers overlying them, I certainly do not advocate this to be carried out systematically and indiscriminantly at all sites in Australia or elsewhere. At this stage, a major part of my research at Pillar Cave is based on extensive area excavations using precise coordinate recording techniques and on a 'palaeoethnographic' analysis (cf. Leroi-Gourhan and Brezillon 1972; Van Noten 1978) of the possible remains of living-floors. It should also be pointed out that the present account does not attempt to present a synthesis on theoretical and methodological aspects of living-floor archaeology. However, as research on living-floors in North Queensland, and indeed in Australia, is still at a pioneering stage, it is advocated that quantitative methods of spatial analysis be tested on fully stratigraphically controlled and rigorously provenanced samples (see also opinions expressed by Johnson 1984:76; Kroll and Isaac 1984:21). The efficiency of statistical methods of spatial analysis also needs to be tested in those specific rockshelter conditions where there appears to be a strong chance of finding living-floors. Furthermore, and as pointed out by Johnson (1984:77), statistical spatial analyses deal with 'discrete' artefacts 'which can be counted as individuals' rather than with generally unquantifiable structures such as hearths, postholes, conjoin networks, orientation of individual specimens, etc.. Statistical methods of spatial analysis will therefore be considered as complementary rather than alternative methods to more 'traditional' archaeological methods such as three-dimensional recording.


Replacement of the superior vena cava has been the object of intensive and immaginative work in both the experimental and clinical fields. The results reported in the literature, however, are, in the great majority of instances, discouraging. Homologous and heterologous aortic grafts, 1,13,16,20 arterial homografts, 14,15 caval homografts, 6 and pericardial tubes 21 were used with variable success. Better results were obtained with simple 12 or specia l2,19 atriocaval anastomoses, but these techniques are not suitable for the replacement of long segments of the superior vena cava, as in the case of invasion of the vessel by tumor. With the advent of plastic vessel substitutes, new enthusiasm arose, but it soon was clear that the answer to the problem had not yet been obtained. Nylon, Ivalon, Orlon, Dacron, Teflon, silicone rubber, and Lucite were the materials used in various studies, but the results were almost uniformly poor. 7-10,15,17 Only occasional


Thickness dependence of ferroelectric and structural properties of BaTiO 3 thin films were investigated. Stoichiometric BaTiO 3 thin films were prepared by off-axis rf magnetron sputtering on polycrystalline Pt substrates at 700°C. Film thickness range was 2,100–20,000A. Room temperature permittivity, frequency dependence of permittivity, and D-E hysteresis loops were measured and lattice parameters were determined as a function of the film thickness. It has been found that these properties had the strong dependence on film thickness, which was mainly due to grain sizes of BaTiO 3 thin films. The main cause of thickness dependence of dielectric properties was thought to be crystallinity and stresses of thin films which is resulted from changes in grain sizes.


Administrative permission means the procedural act of administrative organs establishing the conditions or standards for the administrative counterpart to have certain rights or freedom,upon their application and after examination according to law.Administrative permission is a sort of procedural power.Apart from the functions common to all administrative powers,administrative permission has some distinctive functions.Like other systems,administrative permission cannot get away with the dialectic law to have both advantages and disadvantages.The growth of market and social mechanism,the administration and technical competence as well as the administrative concepts could all have influence on the full play of the functions of administrative permission system.Administrative permission is "a necessary vice".The history indicates that,development of administrative permission system at home and abroad all experiences negation of negation.China should take the opportunity of implementing the Law of Administrative Permission to carry on the deepening reform on administrative permission system.


In this paper,we set up the mathematical model of spherical and cylindro-conical helix based on the geometrical principle of equal helix angle curve.With the machining principle of conical ball-end milling,we get the motion equation of three axis: horizontal and vertical axis of the milling machine's workbench,angular displacement of the dividing head.After the numerical rebuilding of an universal milling machine(type: X62W),we finish the milling machining process of this kind of cutters in this machine,the feasibility of this method is proved.


This paper takes a close look at the properties of Hungarian relative clauses that occur in the left periphery of the main clause, preceding a (pro)nominal associate. It will be shown that these left-peripheral relative clauses differ in many ways from relative clauses dislocated on the right periphery, as well as from relative clauses embedded under a (pro)nominal head. To capture the precise syntax of these left-peripheral clauses, these will be compared to ordinary left-dislocated items, with which they have some properties in common. Despite the surface similarities between the two, however, there are a few decisive aspects of behaviour, most notably, distributional properties and connectivity effects, which argue against taking left-peripheral relatives as cases of clausal left-dislocates in Hungarian. Instead, one is led to consider these as correlative clauses, on the basis of the properties they share with wellestablished correlatives in languages like Hindi.


An infrared free electron laser light source (IRFEL) is being constructed at National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, which could be used in the study of far infrared detection, light dissociation and light excitation. The accelerator of IRFEL deliver an average current 300 mA electron beam at 15~60 MeV, the energy spread is less than 240 keV, and the emittance is less than 30 mm*mrad. IRFEL is consisted of two optical resonator system, which could create 2.5~50 um, 40~200um infrared laser respectively. The design of IRFEL RF system is introduced, the recent progress of prebuncher, buncher, frequency distribution, accelerator and DLLRF system are also present in this paper. INTRODUCTION RF system is main part of IRFEL linac, which is used to compress and accelerate the electron beam. The IRFEL linac is composed of prebuncher, buncher and two accelerating sections. The prebuncher is a single resonant cavity, and the buncher is a 1-meter travelling wave accelerating construct. The accelerating section is 2-meter constant gradient travelling wave accelerators. The pulse length of electron beam is 1 ns from the electron gun, and the charge quantity is 1.5 nC. At the end of linac, the pulse length is compressed to 10 ps, and the beam energy reaches 60 MeV. The layout of IRFEL RF system is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Layout of IRFEL RF system. DESIGN OF IRFEL RF SYSTEM Each section is fed by Toshiba E3729 klystron, which could offer 35 MW output power. The power for prebuncher is much less than buncher and accelerating section, so a 10 kW solid state amplifier is used as the power supply for prebuncher. The output of first klystron is divided into two-branch, one provides 8 MW for buncher, the other branch is 20 MW, which supplies power for the first accelerating section. According to this design, the energy of electron gain 30 MeV, by passing each accelerating section.476 MHz reference signal is produced by Keysight N5181B source. The frequency convertor system creates several signals, such as the clock signal, local signal, IF signal and excitation signal. The digital down conversion and acquisition is achieved by digital low level system. It also completes the complex feedback calculation, in order to maintain amplitude and phase in high stability. Prebuncher and Accelerator The prebuncher is a standing wave resonant cavity. Due to the high current, the beam loading effect is quite strongly. For purpose of reducing beam loading effect, lower Q factor and shunt impedance R is designed. Therefore stainless steel is used as cavity material. The simulation result of electric field in the cavity is obtained using CST code, as shown in Fig. 2. The cavity resonant frequency is 476.0031MHz, Q factor is approximately 3000, and shunt impedance is 440 kΩ. The dimension parameter of prebuncher is list in Table 1. Figure 2: Simulation of E-field distribution in prebuncher. Accelerator


On the basis of published materials and previously unpublished archival sources, the author makes an attempt to reveal general level of professional, including legal and juridical, training and qualifications of law enforcement and justice officials in Novonikolaevskaya province during their inception as a system.


In the present work, electrical structural and surface morphology of tin oxide thin films prepared using simple conventional method known as (CTO) was carried out. The obtained result insures the formation of Nano crystalline SnO2 films as a tetragonal structure. The atomic force microscope results show that film roughness depended on oxidation temperature. Minimum electrical resistivity found to be about (5.35 x 10 -5 Ω.cm) at (300°C) oxidation temperature.


Graduates' and Students' Dance—Friday 26th June Another highly successful evening of dancing was held in the Lecture Theatre at Hamilton Place. The photograph shows some of the dancers enjoying themselves during the evening. It was most unfortunate that liquid refreshment ran out before the demand for it ceased but it is hoped this will not recur. The section was honoured with the presence of the President, Mr. H. H. Gardner and Mrs. Gardner, and Miss Rigby, Sections' Secretary.


In the aging society, understanding the influence of hepatocyte age on hepatocyte donation may inform efforts to expand alternative cell sources to mitigate liver donor shortage. A combination of the molecules Y27632, A‐83‐01, and CHIR99021 has been used to reprogram rodent young hepatocytes into chemically induced liver progenitor (CLiP) cells; however, whether it could also reprogram aged hepatocytes has not yet been elucidated.


Bacteriochlorin derivatives are tetrapyrrolic macrocycles that differ from porphyrins and chlorins only in the reduced state of the β-pyrrolic positions. These differences are sufficient to modify the electronic spectra of the bacteriochlorins, obtaining an adequate Q-band >730 nm compared to porphyrins (last Q-band around 630 nm) and chlorins (last Q-band around 650 nm). 1 Compounds with absorption bands greater than 700 nm have been suggested as better photosensitizers to be applied in photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments, since they have strong absorption of penetrating light (>700 nm). PDT is a very innovative technique for the treatment of skin cancer, several malignant tumors, viral, bacterial and dermatological diseases. In this work, we present studies on the extraction and synthesis of new photosensitizers based on natural models such as chlorophyll a (1) (Scheme 1).


Intrachoroidal cavitation (ICC) is a morphological feature outlined by optical coherence tomography and is characterized by presence of a hyporeflective space beneath the unaltered retinal pigment epithelium. It can be peripapillary or macular in location. Macular ICCs are reported in both myopic and non-myopic eyes. We report a case of full thickness macular hole with retinal incarceration into the macular ICC in a patient with pathological myopia. The term "Peripapillary sink hole" has been described in the literature. We propose the use of term "Macular sink hole" for our case owing to similar findings in the macula.


24 species of thrips inhabiting the leguminous plants have been reported. Key for nine genera of the subfamily Thripinae is provided along with species specific details of 24 species. A brief note on the biology of Megalurothrips peculiaris Bagnall is added in which the duration of its life cycle from egg to adult emergence is 18.4 and 21.1 days, respectively on Dolichos lablab L., and the weed Vicia tetrasperma (L) Moench.


This paper presents a method for the visual quantification of cerebral arteries, known as the Circle of Willis (CoW). It is an arterial structure with the responsibility of supplying the brain with blood, however, dysfunctions can lead to strokes. The diagnosis of such a time‐critical/urgent event depends on the expertise of radiologists and the applied software tools. They use basic display methods of the volumetric data without any support of advanced image processing and visualization techniques. The goal of this paper is to present an automated method for the standardized description of cerebral arteries in stroke patients in order to provide an overview of the CoW's configuration. This novel representation provides visual indications of problematic areas as well as straightforward comparisons between multiple patients. Additionally, we offer a pipeline for extracting the CoW from Time‐of‐Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography (TOF‐MRA) data sets together with an enumeration technique for labelling the arterial segments by detecting the main supplying arteries of the CoW. We evaluated the feasibility of our visual quantification approach in a study of 63 TOF‐MRA data sets and compared our findings to those of three radiologists. The obtained results demonstrate that our proposed techniques are effective in detecting the arteries and visually capturing the overall configuration of the CoW.


The compressor of claim 1, the fluid pockets and the non-orbiting scroll and which forms a second fluid pocket - and includes orbiting scroll. The first port and the second port is a non-orbiting scroll is disposed within each other and are spaced apart in the radial direction. The first port is in communication with the first fluid pocket at the first radial position, the second port is in communication with a second fluid pocket at a second radial position. Blocking device is movable between a first position allowing communication between a first position and a port with a fluid supply source to block the communication between the port and the fluid source. A first fluid pocket, and a second fluid pocket has a first pressure and second pressure, respectively. Wherein the first pressure and the second one of the pressure, the first fluid pockets and a second fluid of the first pressure at least one of the pocket through the second at least one of the first port and the second port after the fluid source and the communication and 2 may represent a disproportionate change in pressure than the other of the pressure. The unbalanced pressure change is the orbiting scroll non-pressed against the orbiting scroll.


The new ionic iridium complexes, [Ir(bpy)2(CN)2]− and [Ir(dtbbpy)2(CN)2]+, were prepared and their luminescence properties were investigated, where bpy, dtbbpy and CN represent 2,2′-dipyridyl, 4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-dipyridyl and cyanide, respectively. We expected that introduction of the electron-withdrawing nonchromophoric ligand, -CN, to an Ir complex might effectively lower the HOMO level and lead to the blue-shifted emission compared to [Ir(bpy)3]3+. The main ligand with a sterically bulky group was also considered to orient the binding between the main ligand and iridium center and to improve the solubility. Thus, the new ionic complex, [Ir(dtbbpy)2(CN)2]+, was synthesized and its properties was compared with the other complex, [Ir(bpy)2(CN)2]−. The maximum PL peak of [Ir(dtbbpy)2(CN)2]+ appeared at 491 nm, which was hypsochromically shifted, compared with 528 and 566 nm of [Ir(bpy)3]3+ and [Ir(bpy)2(CN)2]−, respectively. Investigation of their electrochemical properties led us to inferring that the cyanide ligand could effectively modulate the HOMO level of its iridium complex for the blue emission. Also, the introduction of the bulky alkyl group in the main ligand might effectively cause direct bindings between both Ns of biphenyl and the iridium center, which also might result in the relative blue-shifted emission in comparison with PL peak of [Ir(bpy)2(CN)2]− in which biphenyl was C- and N-bound to the Ir center.


Motivation: Specific functions of ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules are often associated with different motifs in the RNA structure. The key feature that forms such an RNA motif is the combination of sequence and structure properties. In this article, we introduce a new RNA sequence–structure comparison method which maintains exact matching substructures. Existing common substructures are treated as whole unit while variability is allowed between such structural motifs. Based on a fast detectable set of overlapping and crossing substructure matches for two nested RNA secondary structures, our method ExpaRNA (exact pattern of alignment of RNA) computes the longest collinear sequence of substructures common to two RNAs in O(H·nm) time and O(nm) space, where H ≪ n·m for real RNA structures. Applied to different RNAs, our method correctly identifies sequence–structure similarities between two RNAs. Results: We have compared ExpaRNA with two other alignment methods that work with given RNA structures, namely RNAforester and RNA_align. The results are in good agreement, but can be obtained in a fraction of running time, in particular for larger RNAs. We have also used ExpaRNA to speed up state-of-the-art Sankoff-style alignment tools like LocARNA, and observe a tradeoff between quality and speed. However, we get a speedup of 4.25 even in the highest quality setting, where the quality of the produced alignment is comparable to that of LocARNA alone. Availability: The presented algorithm is implemented in the program ExpaRNA, which is available from our website (http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software). Contact: {email@example.com,email@example.com} Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


This paper is a preface to the proceedings of the XXXIII International Conference on Equations of State for Matter, which was held in Elbrus and Tegenekli, in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic of the Russian Federation, from March 1 to 6, 2018.


---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract The tribological quantities of bearing material were evaluated for automobile industries, machinery parts and for other industrial applications. It is well known fact that in combustion engines connecting rod connects the piston to the crankshaft. The connecting rod bearing is used for the purpose to form a low friction, well lubricated surface between connecting rod and crankshaft. The bearings of connecting rod are manufactured by using non-ferrous metals like brass, gunmetal, bronze etc. This study describes the effect of different working load and speed on the tribological properties of brass. The tribological quantities (coefficient of friction and wear rate) of brass were measured on "Pin-OnDisk" tribotester.


We reveal a generic mechanism of generating sign-alternating intersite interactions mediated by strongly correlated lattice bosons. The ground-state phase diagram of the two-component hard-core Bose–Hubbard model on a square lattice at half-integer filling factor for each component, obtained by worm algorithm Monte Carlo simulations, is strongly modified by these interactions and features the solid+superfluid (SF) phase for strong asymmetry between the hopping amplitudes. The new phase is a direct consequence of the effective nearest-neighbor repulsion between 'heavy' atoms mediated by the 'light' SF component. Due to their sign-alternating character, mediated interactions lead to a rich variety of yet to be discovered quantum phases.


Based on the background of the research, the research problem is "How is the form of children directive speech act of PAUD Terpadu Sulawesi Permata Bangsa Tondo Palu?. This research aims at describing the use of directive speech act form of children of PAUD Terpadu Sulawesi Permata Bangsa Tondo Palu. The data were obtained from children speech act with teacher and during their learning process either in the classroom or in outside. The method employed was descriptive qualitative. The data collections were recording and observation. The subject was children of TK B and TK A PAUD Terpadu Sulawesi Permata Bangsa Tondo Palu. The technique data analysis was interactive model. The analysis covered four stages, namely: (1) data collection, (2) data reduction, (3) data displaying and (4) verification/drawing conclusion. the research results reveal that children directive speech act form of PAUD Terpadu Sulawesi Permata Bangsa Tondo Palu consists of (1) imperative form, (2) request form, (3) prohibition form, (4) statement form, (5) question form and (6) refusal form.


This paper presents an approach to apply L1 adaptive control for output regulation in the presence of nonlinear uncertainty in underactuated hybrid systems with application to bipedal walking. The reference model is generated by control Lyapunov function based quadratic program (CLFQP) controller and is nonlinear. We evaluate our proposed control design on a model of RABBIT, a five-link planar bipedal robot. The result is the exponential stability of the robot with an unchanged rate of convergence under different levels of model uncertainty.


The formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has been widely studied in the presence of dry seed particles at low relative humidity (RH). At higher RH, seed particles can exist as dry or wet particles. Here, we investigated the formation of SOA from the photooxidation of toluene using an oxidation flow reactor under a range of OH exposures on initially wet or dry ammonium sulfate (AS) seed particles at an RH of 68 %. At an OH exposure of 4.66 × 10 10  molecules cm  -3  s, the ratio of the SOA yield on wet AS seeds to that on dry AS seeds was 1.31 ± 0.02. However, this ratio decreased to 1.01 ± 0.01 at an OH exposure of 5.28 × 10 11  molecules cm  -3  s. The decrease in the ratios of SOA yields as the increase of OH exposure may be due to the early deliquescence of initially dry AS seeds after coated by highly oxidized toluene-derived SOA. SOA formation lowered the deliquescence RH of AS and resulted in the uptake of water by both AS and SOA. Hence the initially dry AS seeds contained aerosol liquid water (ALW) soon after a large fraction of SOA formed and the SOA yield and ALW approached those of the initially wet AS seeds as OH exposure and ALW increased. However, a higher oxidation state of the SOA on initially wet AS seeds than that on dry AS seeds was observed at all levels of OH exposure. The difference in mass fractions of m/z  29, 43 and 44 of SOA mass spectra indicated that SOA formed on initially wet seeds may be enriched in earlier-generation products containing carbonyl functional groups at low OH exposures and later-generation products containing acidic functional groups at high exposures. Our results suggest that AS dry seeds soon turn to at least partially deliquesced particles during SOA formation and more studies on the interplay of SOA formation and ALW are warranted.


The requirements which information systems must meet to be effective in the 1990s are determined, and the limitations of present day information systems are discussed. The advantages of object-oriented databases and artificial intelligence techniques are explored as viable methodologies for meeting these requirements.


Objective To determine whether dependent and self-critical personality traits are associated with specific types of life events and whether these traits change with pharmacotherapy. Method Overall, 142 depressed outpatients completing 8 weeks of fluoxetine treatment were administered the Life Experiences Survey (LES) at baseline and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) at baseline and endpoint. Results The DAS dependency subscale, but not the self-criticism subscale, showed significant correlations with life events regardless of congruency. Baseline HDRS scores were positively correlated with both DAS subscales and total score. The DAS subscales, the total DAS score, and the HDRS all improved significantly with treatment. Conclusions These results confirm a growing body of research that has found an association between sociotropic or dependent personality traits and life events.


"Proteins aren't simply distributed evenly and independently of one another across the cell's surface; instead, they're organized into molecular communities. In these communities, proteins often work together to fulfill cellular functions," explains Bernd Wollscheid, Professor at ETH Zurich's Institute of Translational Medicine. Together with a large interdisciplinary team that includes further researchers from ETH Zurich and other institutions, Wollscheid's doctoral student Maik Müller has now developed a technology that can be used to discover the organization of cell surface molecules.


This paper provides the development and field validation of the following microgrid components: a 1 kW wind turbine generator, 2.5 kW solar panel, 5 kW vanadium redox battery (VRB), and a 2 kW fuel cell with hydrogen storage.


Post‐project appraisals (PPAs) are systematic assessments of built restoration projects, which provide feedback on performance of restoration approaches to improve future restoration efforts. Unfortunately, most restoration projects are not subject to systematic assessment because of lack of institutional arrangements to sustain long‐term evaluation and the orientation of most funding agencies towards project implementation rather than "studies." As semester‐long courses on river restoration increasingly appear in university curricula at the graduate and advanced undergraduate level, independent student research projects for such courses can provide a mechanism for building a database of PPAs (and components thereof) and providing the students with a powerful learning experience. In two UC Berkeley courses, we require independent student projects involving original field research, peer review of first drafts, instructor (and often outside) review of second drafts, and presentation of results to a public symposium. Since 1995, the revised, final papers have been added to the University of California library, where they constitute one of the largest collections of restoration‐related studies currently available for any region: over 300 restoration‐related studies, of which 80 are PPAs or components thereof. Since 2003, the papers have been posted on‐line, with 40,000 full text downloads through 2010. Some term projects have directly influenced river restoration programs, inducing changes in salmon habitat enhancement project design, documenting failure of projects based on inappropriate restoration approaches, and contributing to systematic assessments of step‐pool and compound channel designs in urban areas. Student evaluations cite the term projects as valuable learning experiences.


Peritoneal dialysis (PD) removes waste products from blood when the kidney is malfunctioned. Since there is no clear criterion for PD recommendation for patients with kidney disease, existing machine learning models (ML), which rely on credible decision criterion, are ineffective in making PD eligibility decisions, especially when the correlated traits or indicators (patterns) inherent in the PD data are diverse and subtle. Furthermore, the lack of interpretable transparency in traditional ML also weakens the credibility of the decision they produce. Hence, an in-depth knowledge of the patients' characteristics is needed to render a clearer picture of the decision-making process and model to detect the rare PD eligibility cases. In this paper, we extend our previous work (Attribute-Value-Association Discovery and Disentanglement (ADD)), to an extended ADD for PD data analysis (PD-ADD) to overcome these problems. We show that PD-ADD is able to discover association patterns of patient profiles and symptoms to reveal PD characteristics and detect eligible rare cases. Experimental results show that PDADD is much superior to existing unsupervised clustering (with accuracy of 89.87% vs 73.37% of K-Means). It also enables straightforward interpretation of the underlying relations of patient characteristics in an unsupervised setting.


The aim of this research is to examine the effect of perceived diversity climate on general satisfaction of university students.  The research was done with relational survey model. 273 students having education in Dicle University Ziya Gokalp Faculty of Education and Faculty of Thelogy constituted the working group. Research data were collected with 'diversity climate' and 'general satisfaction' scales. Data were analyzed by setting up structural equation modeling. It has been seen that goodness of fit indexes of set model are among the range standart value. In the research, It has been determined that perceived diversity climate has effected the general satisfactions of university students positively and significantly. It is also confirmed that perceived diversity climate has explained the general satisfaction of university students in a significant level.  In accordance with these results it can be said that it is important for the universities aiming to increase the general satisfaction of students to produce qualified policies related to student diversity.


This bechelor work discusses about analysis of accounting statements and its state ability for management of company. A result of it is financial analysis of production food company. In this work are made thorough analysis of financial indices, its results are commented.


Starting from a localized description of molecular wavefunctions, approximate descriptions of chemical groups are obtained. The degree of conservation of these representations is verified over a fairly large number of compounds by using different tests, from which it is seen that the influence of intramolecular interactions is strong enough to necessitate the inclusion of these effects in the description of molecular systems in terms of transferable models of groups. Further analyses demonstrate that intragroup interactions can be approximated, to a good degree of precision, by classical interactions only. The usefulness of a zeroth order representation of a group in terms of nonorthogonal transferable models of localized orbitals, coupled to an evaluation of classical intragroup interactions, is discussed, and a simple computational method for the evaluation of the changes in reaction barriers due to substitution of chemical groups in a given molecular framework is briefly outlined.


We study surface morphology, crystalline structure, and electrical and optical properties of the ultrathin NixSi1-x (x = 0 1) films formed by pulsed laser deposition on silica-glass substrates. It is shown that the parameters of NixSi1-x films meet (at least, partially) the requirements for materials of the metal gates in advanced CMOS devices.


Purpose : Measure successfulness of retrieving tittle/embedded IVC filters with a rigid endovascular forceps along with a traditional snare in a local community hospital. Technique : The technique is demonstrated among 18 patients from an inner city community hospital. Retrieval attempts were performed via right internal jugular vein access. A 5 French sheath was placed, through which a guidewire and catheter were placed below the filter and a cavogram performed. After the present of an IVC was confirmed, a 10 French sheath was placed through the existing access and an 18-30mm snare device was used to grasp the filters. The snare device was exchanged for a 12 French 40 cm sheath after several unsuccessful attempts to grasp the filter hook. An endovascular forceps was then advanced through the sheath and repositioned the filter hook more centrally in the IVC. The forceps was removed and then an snare device was used again to engage the hook of the filter.  The 12 French sheath was advanced over the filter while maintaining the traction with the snare and both sheath and filter were removed successfully. Conclusion : Recruiting endovascular forceps technique in combination with a traditional snare can be used safely to retrieve tilted/embedded IVC Filter in a community based hospital.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the degree of participation in leisure activity, organizational identification and organizational commitment with the emphasis on bicycle riding club members. A total of 265 respondents were selected using the purposive sampling method. From the statistical analyses, three meaningful results were extracted. First, there were differences in the degree of bicycle riding participation, organizational identification and organizational commitment on the basis of individual background characteristics. Second, the age and the monthly income of riding club participants partly influenced the degree of bicycle riding participation, organizational identification and organizational commitment. Third, the degree of bicycle riding participation directly or indirectly had influences on organizational commitment mediated by organizational identification. As a result, we found the fact that beside the degree of bicycle riding participation, the age and the monthly income of riding club participants also have influences on organizational identification and organizational commitment.


During the transition to a competitive electricity market, when a consumer does not select an electricity provider, who provides service to the customer and at what price? An auction for this "standard offer service" is a market-based way to assign the service responsibility and to determine its price. We explore the design issues in establishing rules for such an auction.


Summary form only given. In addition to single event upsets during read and write operations, like many other digital devices with internal state machines and operating modes, NAND flash devices are also susceptible to single event functional interrupts (SEFI). Due to the increasing complexity of device architectures, the ability detect and characterize the SEFI events is emerging as the primary challenge in SEE testing. At JPL we have developed testing algorithms and hardware which specifically addresses this issue. We have taken SEFI and read/write upset data on devices which is presented here


Leukemia cells accumulate DNA damage but altered DNA repair mechanisms protect them from apoptosis. We showed here that formaldehyde generated by serine/one-carbon cycle metabolism contributed to accumulation of toxic DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) in leukemia cells, especially in driver clones harboring oncogenic tyrosine kinases [OTKs: FLT3(ITD), JAK2(V617F), BCR/ABL1]. To counteract this effect, OTKs enhanced the expression of DNA polymerase theta (POLq) by ERK1/2 serine/threonine kinase-dependent inhibition of c-CBL E3 ligase-mediated ubiquitination of POLq and its proteasomal degradation. Overexpression of POLq in OTK-positive cells resulted in efficient repair of DPC-containing DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by POLq-mediated end-joining (TMEJ). Transforming activity of OTKs and other leukemia-inducing oncogenes, especially of those causing inhibition of BRCA1/2 -mediated homologous recombination (HR) with and without concomitant inhibition of DNA-PK -dependent non-homologous end-joining (D-NHEJ), was abrogated in Polq-/- murine bone marrow cells. Genetic and pharmacological targeting of POLq polymerase and helicase activities revealed that both activities are promising targets in leukemia cells. Moreover, OTK inhibitor or DPC-inducing drug etoposide enhanced anti-leukemia effect of POLq inhibitor (POLqi) in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, we demonstrated that POLq plays an essential role in protecting leukemia cells from metabolically induced toxic DNA lesions triggered by formaldehyde and that it can be targeted to achieve therapeutic effect.


A liberal arts education for Christians is about finding God's truth; therefore, Christian students need to be educated in a broad range of subjects, including music. While a music appreciation course is thought to be about gaining knowledge of music, some music scholars have pointed out that a music curriculum should involve students in experiencing the essence of music through doing. This article discusses God's invitation for us to music and the value of music in a liberal arts education. In addition, it looks at the integration of a praxial approach (referred to here as musicing) in a music appreciation course.


Background: Sexual dysfunction in chronic renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis is common. It is demonstrated that the zinc level is significantly lower in the hemodialysis patients. Objective: In this clinical trial, we investigate the effect of zinc supplement therapy on the serum levels of sexual hormones in hemodialysis male patients. Patients and methods: We carried out a clinical trial study including 100 of our male patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin, and zinc plasma level were measured in all of the patients. The patients received zinc supplement (zinc sulfate, 250 mg/day) for 6 weeks, and sex hormones and zinc plasma level were checked again. Results: Serum level of FSH and prolactin did not have any significant changes before and after intervention, but serum level of testosterone, LH, and zinc increased significantly. Discussion: These results suggest that although zinc administration did not have a definite effect on hemodialysis patients with sexual dysfunction, it can cause increase in the serum level of sex hormones which may improve the sexual function of the patients in some aspects.


Cyber-physical systems (CPS) like production facilities, medical devices, and modern cars play an increasingly significant role in the economic context but also in every-day life; catchphrases like "Industry 4.0" and "Mobility of the Future" are on everybody's mind. Manufacturers and operators of such systems are highly interested in investigating and ensuring the safety and reliability of their systems. The security researchers of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology's research field "Dependable Systems Engineering" (DSE) deal with the challenge of increasing the safety and reliability of cyber-physical systems since many years. The team actively engages interesting problems in both, the scientific - and production domains together with key industry partners. In this way, they not only drive scientific progress in their field of study but also keep their eyes on the practical applicability of their solutions. With this goal in mind, the DSE's researchers and engineers develop tools and methodologies to address questions regarding Safe and Secure Co-Engineering. Examples include safe and secure reference architectures; methods for model-based analysis of safety-critical systems; automated test case generation; and real-time monitoring of complex systems. The group's experts also contribute to the development of industry standards, e.g., ISO26262.


Water quality indices that describe the status of water are commonly used in freshwater vulnerability assessment. The design of river water quality monitoring programs has always been a complex process and despite the numerous methodologies employed by experts, there is still no generally accepted, holistic and practical approach to support all the phases and elements related. Here, a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based multicriteria decision analysis approach was adopted so as to contribute to the design of the national network for monitoring of water quality parameters in Greece that will additionally fulfill the urgent needs for an operational, real-time monitoring of the water resources. During this cost-effective and easily applied procedure the high priority areas were defined by taking into consideration the most important conditioning factors that impose pressures on rivers and the special conditions that increase the need for monitoring locally. The areas of increased need for automatic monitoring of water quality parameters are highlighted and the output map is validated. The sites in high priority areas are proposed for the installation of automatic monitoring stations and the installation and maintenance budget is presented. Finally, the proposed network is contrasted with the current automatic monitoring network in Greece.


Immunomodulatory therapy for ocular inflammatory disease can be potent and effective, but physicians should be patient while awaiting results—and watch carefully for complications.


Based on experiments in kittens where the spinal cord was sectioned at various levels, and the retrograde cellular changes studied in the red nucleus, Pompeiano and Brodal ('57) have shown that a clearcut somatotopical principle exists in the organization of the rubro-spinal tract. The ventral part of the nucleus projects to the lumbar, the dorsal part to the cervical region of the cord. In addition the part intermediate to what may be called the "fore-" and "hindlimb" regions, respectively, sends its fibers to the thoracic region of the spinal cord. Physiological observations by Pompeiano ('57) are in agreement with these anatomical findings. The present study was prompted by these observations which raised the question whether, like the rubro-spinal, also the cortico-rubral projection system in the cat is somatotopically organized. As will be seen, this indeed turned out to be the case. A perusal of the relevant literature shows that the existence of a direct corticorubral projection system has been a matter of dispute and controversy. While the presence of such a tract has been denied by Lewandowsky ('04), Cajal ('11) and Verhaart and Kennard ('40), other authors have produced evidence for its existence in animals and man (Dkjerine et Dkjerine, 1895; Ddjerine, '01; von Monakow, '09-'10; Archambault, '1 4-2 5 ; Minkow ski, '23-'24 ; Hirasawa and Kariya, '36; Levin, '36; Mettler, '47; Kanki and Ban, '52). Some of the authors mentioned studied the secondary atrophy in the red nucleus following cortical lesions, while others used the Marchi method in order to trace the degenerating myelinated nerve fibers. However, only studies where the axon itself is impregnated can be used in order to study the exact site of termination of degenerating cortico-rubral fibers and to visualize unmyelinated fibers, possibly present. As far as we know, no such systematical investigations have been undertaken, although a few authors have observed cortico-rubral fibers in silver impregnated sections. Thus Szentggothai and Rajkovits ('SS), in a paper on the corticofugal connections in the cat in a footnote mention that they could trace degenerating fibers to the red nuclei. Pearce ('59) made similar findings.


Referring to the primary lesion of syphilis, Osler 1 states that "in about one fourth of the cases it is multiple." Contrary to this opinion, a perusal of the literature of the past ten years reveals but one complete case report of multiple chancre. Zeisler 2 describes in detail the case of a young colored woman who presented two separate lesions situated on the lower lip, both of equal duration. Each presented the typical appearance of a chancre, and each was proved so to be by dark-field examination of the expressed secretion. The same author mentions recalling having seen a case of double chancre of the cheek. Because of the paucity of reported cases of multiple chancre, I have deemed a case recently coming under my observation as being worthy of complete description. The case is of special interest not only because it presents two separate chancres but also because


In spite of their importance as standard candles in cosmology and as major major sites of nucleosynthesis in the universe, the kinds of progenitor systems that lead to Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) remains a subject of considerable debate in the literature. This is true even for the case of Tycho's supernova (SN) that exploded in 1572, although it has been deeply studied both observationally and theoretically. Analyzing X-ray data of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) obtained with Chandra in 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2015, we discover that the expansion before 2007 was substantially faster than radio measurements reported in the past decades and then rapidly decelerated during the last ∼15 yr. The result is well explained if the shock waves recently hit a wall of dense gas surrounding the SNR. In fact, such a gas structure is expected in the so-called single-degenerate scenario, in which the progenitor is a binary system consisting of a white dwarf and a stellar companion, whereas it is not generally predicted by a competing scenario, the double-degenerate scenario, which has a binary of two white dwarfs as the progenitor. Our result thus favors the former scenario. This work also demonstrates a novel technique to probe gas environments surrounding SNRs and thus disentangle the two progenitor scenarios for SNe Ia.


Set-based reachability analysis computes all possible states a system may attain, and in this sense provides knowledge about the system with a completeness, or coverage, that a finite number of simulation runs can not deliver. Due to its inherent complexity, the application of reachability analysis has been limited so far to simple systems, both in the continuous and the hybrid domain. In this paper we present recent advances that, in combination, significantly improve this applicability, and allow us to find better balance between computational cost and accuracy. The presentation covers, in a unified manner, a variety of methods handling increasingly complex types of continuous dynamics (constant derivative, linear, nonlinear). The improvements include new geometrical objects for representing sets, new approximation schemes, and more flexible combinations of graph-search algorithm and partition refinement. We report briefly some preliminary experiments that have enabled the analysis of systems previously beyond reach.


We investigate two approaches to non-minimally coupled gravity theories which present linear inflation as attractor solution: a) the scalar-tensor theory approach, where we look for a scalar-tensor theory that would restore results of linear inflation in the strong coupling limit for a non-minimal coupling to gravity of the form of f(φ)R/2; b) the particle physics approach, where we motivate the form of the Jordan frame potential by loop corrections to the inflaton field. In both cases the Jordan frame potentials are modifications of the induced gravity inflationary scenario, but instead of the Starobinsky attractor they lead to linear inflation in the strong coupling limit.


The Taganga bay supports a strong anthropogenic pressure that threatens the communities and marine ecosystems established in this sector, especially organisms sensible to environmental changes and contamination like the echinoderms. In this study, the structure of the Phylum Echinodermata community in shallows waters of Taganga bay was determined, with the purpose of establishing a base line for monitoring the human activities impact on the marine fauna of this tourist sector. For the survey of the main species of this phylum, field trips were organized from January to September of 2006, identifying the existing species of echinoderms in the area by visual census and manual collects. The samplings were taken in the intermareal zone up to a depths of <10m; the 283 specimens collected were identified in the laboratory of CIZEM at the Magdalena University following the corresponding keys for each class and genus. A systematic list is presented for this locality that includes 18 species of echinoderms distributed in five classes and twelve, being the Class Echinoidea and Ophiuroidea the best represented in terms of richness with seven and six species respectively, as well as of relative abundance.


ABSTRACT MB/BacT, BACTEC 460 TB, and Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium were evaluated in parallel for recovery of mycobacteria from 3,700 continuous clinical specimens in a routine laboratory. Mycobacteria were identified from 123 (3.3%) specimens. The recovery rates for all mycobacteria by the different systems were 91.0, 73.0, and 53.6% for BACTEC 460 TB, MB/BacT, and LJ medium, respectively. The recovery rates for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex were 97.1, 80.2, and 67.6%, respectively. The lack of sensitivity of the MB/BacT system was more pronounced with smear-negative specimens and resulted in a failure to detect three patients with infectious tuberculosis.


One of the main stages of integrated systems construction for protecting information resources is risk assessment. Often, specialists of the companies to increase the efficiency of information security pay attention to the choice of adequate tools of information security risks assessment that will meet the relevant requirements. Nowadays there is a wide range of such tools. For their rational choice, a variety of risk assessment tools have been investigated to determine the set of necessary comparative characteristics. According to the mentioned means, taking into account the known analytical-synthetic tuple model of risk characteristics, a tuple is formed, which makes it possible due to the certain parameters, to unify the process of comparative analysis of such means. This will enhance the effectiveness of the choice implementation to solve the corresponding tasks of information security.


This note shows that the use of a Monte Carlo method reduces the extreme difficulty of the reliability analysis by sacrificing some degree of accuracy. The result for a redundant cable system indicates that even the reliability of redundant systems should also be based on the probability of noncomponent failure.


One of the important issues in producing composite materials with natural fibres is the modification of the surface of the fibres to enhance adhesion and interfacial bonding with polymer matrix. In this report, the effect of alkalization on the mechanical properties, thermal stability and surface morphology of banana stem fibres is examined. The results show that treatment with sodium hydroxide modified the surface of the fibre, attenuating IR absorption intensities at 1733cm -1 corresponding to reduction of C=O groups, at 1514cm -1 and between 3000 and 2850cm -1 associated with reduction/removal of low molecular weight constituents of the fibres. It was found that alkali-treatment improved both tensile and flexural strengths, and the thermal stability of the fibres. Nigerian Journal of Chemical Research Vol. 11 2006: pp. 36-42


The main goal of this revision article is (1) to convey a general vision and discussion about mindfulness meditations and its clinical practical value in oncology and (2) to report, in detail – assessing critically the existing research data, as well as the emergent one about mindfulness meditation – an intervention to people with cancer disease. In addition, it wishes to bring up the hypothesis of a program of health promotion and stress reduction, based on mindfulness, exploring its effects in terms of biologic and psychosocial variables. Foreign studies refer significant levels of change on psychosocial items of assessment, in the different moments of assessment. In that way, the intervention has relative theoretical support, even though this theoretical basis needs empirical refinement. It's hoped that the eventual application of the intervention here described will allow to work the factors taken as beneficial to promote a better adjustment to the oncologic disease, rising proactively the actions of the individual has an informed intervenient of its process of progressive adaptation to the disease.


Aims and Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a novel ultra-performance liquid chromatographic method for estimation of darunavir in a bulk and tablet dosage form. Materials and Methods: The chromatographic separation was achieved using DIKMA Endoversil (2.1 mm x 50 mm, 1.7 µm) column. A mixture of 40% buffer (0.1% octa sulfonic acid) and 60% acetonitrile was used as a mobile phase with the isocratic elution mode and eluent was monitored at 281nm using UV detector. The method was continued and validated in accordance with International Conference on Harmonization Guidelines. Validation study revealed the specificity and reliability of the method. Results: In this method, darunavir was eluted with retention time of 0.516 min. Calibration curve plots were found linear over the concentration ranges 10–50 μg/mL for darunavir. Limit of detection was 0.02 μg/mL and limit of quantification was found 0.07 μg/mL. The present method was also found stable in force degradation study. Conclusion: The empirical evidences of all the study results revealed the suitability of the estimation of darunavir in bulk and tablet dosage form without any interference from the excipients.


To optimize the mechanochemical assisted extraction of purple lilac glucoside from ManyprickleAcanthopanax, water, ethyl alcohol, methanol heat reflux and mechanochemical assisted extraction werecompared and HPLC was used to assay the content of purple lilac glucoside. The result showed that the optimumextraction condition is mechanochemical assisted extraction. Purple lilac glucoside was classified, but also othereffectives were separated effectively, thereby minimize the interference of other active ingredients. The productquality is stable, environment- friendly and provide the extraction method of purple lilac glucoside fromManyprickle Acanthopanax.


The real practice in the recognizing individuals as qualified investors in one of the largest credit organizations – PJSC NB TRUST is considered in this article from the position of a doctrinal interpretation of one of the most difficult categories of civil law – the circumvention of the law. Considering the principles of the qualification laid down by the "spirit of the law" from the perspective of applying the formula: investor- an investor is a qualified investor, the author shows the inconsistency of the existing practice in the recognizing individuals as qualified investors, when ordinary investors using the mechanism of the formal compliance with the law – "letters of the law" were recognized as qualified as investors.


Black and white plastic cylindrical traps with diameters of 7.6-20.3 cm and a cone-shaped trap with a base diameter of 45.7 cm were tested in three forest stands for their efficiency in monitoring emergence of pear thrips, Taeniothrips inconsequens (Uzel), from soil. The total number of thrips and thrips per square centimeter collected in black and white traps of the same diameter did not differ significantly. The mean number of thrips collected per trap (catches from black and white traps combined) ranged from 1.1 ± 0.28 to 46.8 ± 20.75, and significantly more were collected in the 15.2-,20.3-, and 45.7-cm traps than in the 7.6- and 10.2-cm traps. Significantly more thrips per square centimeter were caught in the 15.2-cm trap than in the 7.6- and 45.7-cm traps, except in one stand with a very low thrips population, where thrips catches among trap types did not differ significantly. The 7.6-cm trap was the least expensive to construct and required less time for monitoring than the other plastic traps.


Compression of digital audio signals has become increasingly more important with the advent of fast and inexpensive microprocessors and DSPs. Several compression schemes were developed. Most of them adopt the MDCT/IMDCT. This paper presents a FPGA implementation of a fast MDCT algorithm. An investigation of different approaches of implementation and usage of standard embedded FPGA elements for specific digital signal processing has been carried out. The two designs presented in this paper are suitable for real-time applications of multi-channel audio digital signal processing


We thank Dr Rogers and Dr Gyawali for their editorial1 on our study.2 We agree that careful manual review of tracings following rigorous rules is warranted to identify reflux events and postreflux swallowinduced peristaltic waves (PSPWs), representing the main weakness related to PSPW use in clinical practice.3 However, this is balanced by many potential advantages that should be considered. In multicentre cohort studies, PSPW index evaluation combined with the assessment of mean nocturnal baseline impedance (MNBI) accurately separated gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients from healthy controls4 and from functional heartburn cases5 significantly more efficiently than acid exposure time (AET). Since the number of reflux events is scarcely affected by proton pump inhibitor (PPIs), PSPW index can represent chemical clearance even in patients evaluated on therapy, and allowed identification of mechanisms of PPI refractoriness in GERD.6 On PPI, weakly acidic refluxes overwhelm acid refluxes and persistent abnormal AET is detected in a minority of GERD patients failing therapy, whereas lack of improvement of PSPW index distinguishes PPIrefractory from PPIresponsive refluxrelated heartburn.6 Notably, chemical clearance is also impaired in eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) as shown by lower PSPW index values in EoE patients than in matched healthy controls, and significant improvement of PSPW index on therapy characterises PPIresponsive EoE7 suggesting some pathogenic role of reflux. PSPWs are associated with considerable pH increments (∆pH) in GERD, revealing swallows of bicarbonatecontaining saliva in response to the oesophagosalivary reflex elicited by reflux events8: such increments are significantly higher in PPIresponsive than in PPIrefractory GERD, showing that the oesophagosalivary reflex is a major defence reaction against reflux. In the present study,2 we found PSPWassociated ∆pH values significantly higher in PPIresponsive than in PPIrefractory EoE patients, very similar to those detected in matched GERD cases. Notably, higher MNBI gradient between distal and mid oesophagus (∆MNBI) showed more severe distal mucosal damage in PPIresponsive EoE, confirming the pathogenic role of reflux. AET was higher than normal in a minority of cases only, confirming our previous findings7 and confuting the hypothesis of direct antiinflammatory action of PPIs: indeed, PPIs are prodrugs requiring an acidic environment to be activated. We agree with Dr Rogers and Dr Gyawali that our findings suggest that PPIresponsive and PPIrefractory EoE could be regarded as different phenotypes of one disease. AET is currently regarded as the cardinal reflux parameter. However, there are problems with commercial software. Up to half of pH drops contributing to AET calculation may not be due to impedancedetected refluxes.9 Large variability of AET in healthy controls as measured with impedancepH commercial software has recently been reported,10 with values considerably divergent from one system to another and also from those proposed by the Lyon conference. These issues raise uncertainty about interpretation of AET values in clinical practice. Reliable software for automated estimate of new impedancepH parameters and accurate calculation of refluxassociated AET would be welcome. Nonetheless, the new manually calculated impedancepH parameters we have introduced, namely PSPW index, MNBI, ∆MNBI and PSPWassociated ∆pH, have provided valuable answers to relevant clinical and pathophysiological questions.