Compared to traditional robots, continuum robotic arms have many advantages, including higher maneuverability, lower cost and weight, secure operation and so on, which motivate researchers in this field. Modeling and identifying these systems are very important due to their use in control applications; however, due to the complex nonlinear nature and presence of uncertainties, achieving an appropriate model is a great challenge. In this paper, after evaluating the repeatability of the system, which influences the model identification, the NARX model is presented and neural network is employed for developing the model. The model is validated by the experimental results. Then, contolling the end-effector position of the system using the identified model is performed.


A method and an apparatus for organizing media files in a database. Embodiments of the present invention provides a method to associate artwork to a media file. A plurality of first data artwork images is provided. A plurality of second data is generated based on the first data, each second data identifiers for the artwork images corresponding to a different first data of the plurality of first data. A plurality of third data media files is provided and each third data has at least one attribute and a reference field for storing a corresponding second data. Each third data is identified in the database by the at least one attribute and the reference field. And, a plurality of fourth data album titles each associated with a subset of the plurality of third data is provided.


Subject. This article analyzes the performance of the innovative development of Russia's regions.
Objectives. The article aims to develop an original classification of principles and mechanisms to stimulate innovation development of the regions.
Methods. For the study, we used statistical inquiry techniques, and the methods of classification, rating, and graphic visualization. The efficiency of innovation was assessed as the ratio of the volume of innovative products produced in the region to the amount of costs of technological innovation.
Results. The article identifies regions, districts and industries that are leaders in terms of the volume of innovation products shipped, innovation and distribution of funding, as well as areas that require certain measures to support innovation development.
Conclusions. To intensify innovation processes in industrial regions, comprehensive incentives at all levels of government are needed, taking into account the balance of interests of the stakeholders.


OBJECTIVE: To observe the short-term curative effect of chemotherapy(chiefly treated with oxaliplatin) combined with 3D-conformed radiotherapy(3DCRT) in treating advanced local rectal cancer.METHODS:Sixty-six patients with advanced rectal cancer were randomly divided into the trial group and the control group:the control group received radiotherapy alone;the trial group received 3DCRT with concurrent chemotherapy for 2 weeks (chemotherapy dosage regimen:on day 1:Oxaliplatin 100mg·m-2 iv gtt;from day 1 to day 5:5-FU 500mg·m-2 iv gtt and folinic acid 200mg iv gtt.Total radiation dose was 60~65GY.).RESULTS: The responsive rates of the trial group and the control group were 58.3% and 36.7%,respectively(P0.05),and the time for the progression of disease were 33 weeks and 20 weeks,respectively.CONCLUSION:Chemotherapy combined with 3D-conformed radiotherapy has satisfactory short-term curative effect in the treatment of advanced local rectal cancer,and it can be tolerated by the majority of patients.


Since the initial findings of the Framingham and other longitudinal studies, clinicians are well aware of the risk factors for the development of coronary artery disease: age, male gender, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, smoking, hypertension, and family history of myocardial infarction.1 It has become routine for physicians to identify these risk factors in patients presenting to the emergency department with signs and symptoms of acute cardiac ischemia. Moreover, emergency department clinicians are using the presence or absence of these "classic" risk factors in addition to clinical presentation and electrocardiographic (ECG) findings to make decisions regarding the ultimate disposition of these patients. In this manner, many clinicians routinely consider patients without coronary risk factors at low risk for acute coronary syndromes even when they present with chest pain.

But Selker et al have shown that using a patient's coronary risk factors in the emergency department setting does not improve a physician's ability to diagnose acute ischemia.2 The confusion about the use of risk factors stems from a misinterpretation of their predictive value. The classical coronary risk factors have been repeatedly shown to increase the risk of ischemic heart disease in patients followed over many years. But in the acute setting, physicians need to obtain patient data that will predict the risk of acute cardiac ischemia and—even more importantly—the risk of adverse events during that particular encounter. Factors that predict the development of ischemic heart disease over years, rather than acute events, are not helpful in the emergency department or acute care setting, and they may be seriously misleading.

By obtaining clinical data and reports of classical coronary risk factors, Selker et al performed a prospective study to determine whether the presence of the classical coronary risk factors increases the likelihood of acute cardiac ischemia beyond that expected from clinical presentation and ECG findings. Over 5,000 patients were enrolled, and logistic regression was used to calculate the relative risk of each coronary risk factor in predicting acute ischemia. They found that in men presenting to the emergency department with signs and symptoms of acute ischemia, the relative risk of cardiac ischemia for each classic risk factor was as follows: hypertension 1.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7-1.0), diabetes 2.4 (95% CI, 1.2-4.8), cigarette smoking 1.5 (95% CI, 1.0-2.4), and family history of myocardial infarction at younger than 50 years 1.5 (95% CI, 0.7-2.8).

In contrast, the relative risk of acute ischemia in patients complaining of chest pain was 12.1 (95% CI, 5.3-27.6), and in those with ischemic ECG changes it was 8.7 (95% CI, 5.0-14.8). The 1.5- to 2-fold relative risk of acute ischemia found in patients with diabetes and family history is extremely small in comparison. The study also found that in women, none of the classic risk factors increased the relative risk of acute ischemia beyond that of the history and ECG findings.

Goldman et al studied 10,000 patients with acute chest pain to identify possible clinical predictors of the development of major complications.3 These factors included older age, male gender, pain similar to prior myocardial infarction, systolic blood pressure less than 110 mm Hg, and initial ECG changes.


Exact knowledge of the attitude is a fundamental factor in steering vehicles. This paper proposes a novel MEMS azimuth-level detector, which is a combination of MEMS accelerometers and MEMS magnetometers, which takes advantage of the solid-state configuration, small size (<62/spl times/40/spl times/14 mm), lightweight (<18 g), high reliability, low power consumption (<300 mW), rapid start-up, and relatively low cost. Using silicon surface micromachining technology, we integrate a dual-axis accelerometer and a single-axis accelerometer rather than a three-axis accelerometer to make up an orthogonal placement. The accelerometers detect the three orthogonal components of the gravity, by which the vehicle tilt including pitch and roll can be derived. Otherwise a dual-axis magnetometer and a single-axis magnetometer, which are also assembled as an orthogonal placement to measure the three components of the Earth's magnetic field, form a compass on the basis of the tilt information. The calculation method of the three attitude angles is introduced. By virtue of adopting an absolute measurement of "cosines matrix conversion" instead of the conventional relative integral measurement, the system exhibits an excellent long-term performance. However, there are various error sources existing in the measurement, the nonorthogonal assembling error being dominant. We analyze the representative features of this error, establish a mathematical model for it, and successfully compensate this error via arithmetic. The results of testing indicate that our azimuth-level detector can measure the freewill attitude in three-dimensional space, the measurement accuracy has achieved /spl plusmn/0.5(deg) for tilt and /spl plusmn/0.7(deg) for azimuth. It is expected that this novel miniature attitude detector will be adopted in many fields, and is especially favorable for miniature vehicles.


(57) Abstract: The present invention provides an injector for use injecting extend the type of medical treatment and / or syringe and therewith an improved conducive containing the liquid medium. In some embodiments, the syringe and injector, the use of other materials never are used use or current of the high-pressure syringe and injector designs syringe material at higher pressures than previously achievable to enable. In one embodiment, the syringe has a cylindrical body elongated having first and second sets of mounting flange, removably syringe in a desired position relative to the front wall of the injector housing to attach Ryokumi surrounds at least equal arc length approximately 180 ° of the rear circumference of the summing unit. Such an injector used in the syringe comprises a retainer on the housing and the front wall having a front wall, the retainer is first set of flanges for mounting on the syringe, removably second set in cooperation with a syringe to the injector attached to. Plunger system used for injector actuation syringe of the present invention, even injector driving and dynamic wedge seal to improve the sealing interlocking between flange cover and the syringe barrel, at any plunger position of the syringe extends from the posterior surface of the plunger having a gripping member which is resilient to allow interlocking with interlocking release the plunger from the means. Furthermore the plunger system includes a control pesticide savings chips push the injection liquid from the syringe tip.


T HE development, use, and conservation of energy resources are indispensable to the physical progress of mankind. The high degree of correlation between the per capita use of energy and per capita production of the nations of the world is ample proof of this statement. No country, state, or region in the world today can prosper unless it assures itself of an energy supply which is adequate for current uses, can be expanded for future needs, and is low in cost and will continue to be low in cost in future years. If men continue to increase their


Through comparing with the two normal universities' teaching practice, the essay tries to analyze the virtue and limitation of the teacher-training curriculum of normal university about teaching objects, course offered, teaching tactics etc, and reflects the present situation in teacher-training education.


By investigating the first novella of the Decameron from the perspective of the sacred this article questions the notion of realism as privileged key to the interpretation of Boccaccio's style, poetics, and even philosophy in his major work. Although with different nuances of definition, realism remains by and large the trait scholarship emblematically associate with the Decameron as testifying to the emergence of mercantile culture and bourgeois mentality. Realism as verisimilar representation of historical reality tends to be associated with the character of modernity of Boccaccio's masterpiece. In this paper I propose a different approach and suggest an alternative notion of realism in terms of the effects on reality of the literary artifice. This notion encompasses the verisimile as well as the marvelous and identifies a mode of realism coherent to the moral instances of the Decameron.


The invention relates to a method and a device for supplying reducing agent or reducing agent precursor to the exhaust system of a mobile internal combustion engine. Such methods and devices are preferably used for exhaust systems of internal combustion engines with high Stickstoffoxidverbindungsemissionen. In the inventive method, a time of addition is first determined. Subsequently, an exhaust gas parameter is determined determined by means of which a state of adding the reducing agent. Then, the reducing agent is treated when the addition condition does not match the bevorratetem state. Recently, the addition of the reducing agent to the exhaust system. The process steps are carried out several times repeated. The method allows a supply of reducing agent to an exhaust system, in the appropriate respectively for the exhaust gas temperature state, so that a complete conversion of the reducing agent and thus a selective catalytic reduction is ensured. In addition, the inventive method and exhaust system according to the invention reduce the time required for reaction of the reducing agent quantity of electrical energy.


Based on the flow forecast study of Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger line,according to the operation characteristics of the passenger line and its affection for channel passenger transport,the traditional four-stage forecast method was improved.Using the gray model instead of the original gravity model,the volume was divided into direct traffic flow and induced traffic flow and was forecasted respectively,which makes forecast be closer with the fact passenger flow of the aim years of the passenger line.The forecast results are significant reference for the operation of the passenger line and the further construction of the Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger line.


Using double-cladding structure we enhanced the coupling efficiency and power of pump light,greatly decreased power density of pump light in fiber core,naturally suppressed the bleaching phenomenon.The high absorbable power ratio (pump efficiency) can also be kept by means of offset double cladding structure.Both theoretical analysis and experimental result confirm the feasibility and advantage of this structure.The coupling efficiency of 80 % and pump power dencity of 3.2 W/cm 2 were obtained.


Objective: To investigate the immune function changes and its significance in hepatitis patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites before and after fresh frozen plasma transfusion.Methods: 86 hepatitis patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites were randomly divided into general treatment group and fresh frozen plasma transfusion group.Serum IgG,IgM,IgA and complement C3,C4 level were detected and T cell subsets in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry in both group before and after treatment.Results: The Serum IgG,IgM,IgA level were signifcantly increased and complement C3,C4 level were signifcantly decreased in hepatitis patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites compared with control subjects.After treatment,The Serum IgG,IgM,IgA level were signifcantly decreased and complement C3,C4 level were signifcantly increased in general treatment group and fresh frozen plasma transfusion group.There was no statistical difference of Serum IgG,IgM,IgA level after treatment between both groups.But the complement C3,C4 level after treatment in plasma transfusion group were higher than those in general treatment group.Peripheral blood CD3,CD4 and CD4/CD8 ratio were also signifcantly decreased and CD8 was signifcantly increased in hepatitis patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites.After treatment,The CD3,CD4 and CD4/CD8 ratio were signifcantly increased and CD8 was signifcantly decreased in general treatment group and fresh frozen plasma transfusion group.The CD3,CD4 and CD4/CD8 ratio after treatment in plasma transfusion group were significantly higher than those in general treatment group.Conclusion: Fresh frozen plasma transfusion can improve the cellular and humoral immune function in hepatitis patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites.


Objective To investigate the effects of epidural dexamethasone on the postoperative analgesia induced by epidural neostigmine and morphine and on its complications.?Methods Sixty patients (ASA scaleⅠ~Ⅱ) undergoing abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to group N and group ND. Group N was given 1 mg neostigmine and 1 mg morphine in 10-ml saline via epidural catheter 30 min before the end of operation, Group ND was given equal volume saline solution containing 5 mg dexamethasone in addition to equal contents of neostigmine and morphine. At 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h after operation, the score of pain and incidences of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), urinary retention and bradycardia, were recorded.?Results The scores of pain 4 h, 8 h, 12 h and 24 h after operation showed no significant differences between the two groupsa, but at 48h after operation, the difference was significant, with the scores being 3.6±1.5 in group ND and 5.2±2.1 in group N. The incidence of PONV in group ND was significantly lower than in group N in the whole postoperative course.?Conclusion Epidural administration of dexamethasone can significantly strengthen the analgesic effect and decrease the incidence of PONV of neostigmine and morphine.


Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is the most frequently identified genetic cause of mental retardation, having an incidence ranging from approximately 1 :600 to 1 :lo00 live births.' In 1959, LejeuneZ demonstrated that patients with Down syndrome have an additional chromosome 21. Primary trisomy 21 occurs in about 95% of the cases of Down syndrome; other chromosomal abnormalities resulting in triplication of the chromosome 21 include the Robertsonian translocations D;21 or G;21.3 Down syndrome is usually the result of meiotic nondisjunction (see Polani4 and Hassold and Jacobss for reviews), and the effect of maternal age is well established.' About 70% of the nondisjunction events occur in the maternal first meiotic division and 10% in each of the other meiotic divisions, namely, maternal second, and paternal first and ~econd.~. '


One of the aspects that affect the quality of apples is the fruit russeting, therefore the objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of fruit ...


The authors presented the concepts of co-projective modules and co-injective modules related to the hereditary torsion theory and proved some equivalent conditions of these two types of modules,revealed the duality of these two types of modules,gave the concepts of co-semisimple rings and left co-hereditary rings by means of co-projective module related to the hereditary torsion theory and studied the structure of these two types of rings.


James' fiction crosses many of the artificially imposed borders and often deals explicitly with social changes and their consequences, for example, the emerging role and power of women in society. James was among the first American writers to introduce feministic issues into his works. This paper explores the theme of feminism in "The Turn of the Screw", "The Jolly Corner" and The Bostonians emphasizing that in the latter James raises the problem of possibility for women of their simultaneous self-realization in family, at work, and in social life. This is still one of the most burning issues in feministic writing thus making James relevant in the 21st century. Analysing The Bostianians and shorter works by Henry James, the paper demonstrates that the writer pays a lot of attention to the issues of female personal freedom and self-realization determined by the loyalty to the institution of marriage. James depicts the growing tendency of alienation and misunderstanding between men and women, underlined in his short works and The Bostonians.


Optical reflectivity studies on free-standing liquid crystal films above the bulk smectic temperature range have revealed different melting phenomena. Our measurements are performed on tilted smectic phases (smectic C*, smectic C) using optical microscopy in polarized light in order to visualize the changes of the film structure. We observe the formation of twodimensional defect structures from string-like lines in very thick (about 1000 layers) as well as in thin (about 20 layers) films. In thick films these structures nucleate around the temperature of the bulk smectic-cholesteric phase transition, while in thin films the formation of the defects occurs well above this temperature and just before the thinning transitions. In thick and intermediate thickness films, cholesteric or nematic droplets and a 'quasi-smectic' structure are observed. The films exhibiting the 'quasi-smectic' structure definitely exist at higher temperatures than the smectic films with the same thickness.


SYNOPSIS

Metal replica films for microscopical examination may be rapidly detached from surfaces by briefly exposing the preparations to the action of ultrasonic radiation.


Sensor networks that utilises wireless technology can be broken down into many smaller fields, one of it is known as Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN). Its inception is the product of advanced progress made in sensor networks that utilises wireless technology. Immense progress
 amassed in terms of technology has culminated in the creation of user-friendly technology that could be worn and minute-sized electronic parts. Consequently, this area of study has achieved huge interest prevalently as the result of its wide and diverse range of implementations, especially
 in the medical sector that deals with wellbeing and care. Current day scenario observes the existence of minute sensors that are enabled to be posited on the human anatomy for purposes of documentation on an assortment of physical constants to reciprocate appropriate responses. Hence, it forms
 a perceptive and vigilant scheme that can provide a prompt notification towards acute and complex health incidences, and can be utilised for diagnostic purposes to treat diseases. In view of the topic being of broad and current interest, the objective of this study is engaged in the presentation
 of a multiplex component of cutting-edge WBASN. This involves the transmission structures, applications in WBASN, programming core, concerns on security, and routing conventions that is adept in its use of energy. We endeavour to encapsulate the most up-to-date progress and expounded on the
 scientific mechanics of radio that is available that is related to this kind of network. Prospective perspectives and problems will be deliberated pertaining this aspect.


The Atlantic Geoscience Centre sediment transport model (SEDTRANS92) is an ANSI standard FORTRAN-77 numerical model that has been under development for the last 9 years. For given input data of wave, current, and seabed conditions, SEDTRANS92 applies combined wavexurrent bottom boundary layer theories to derive enhanced bottom shear stresses. Then it calculates sediment transport rates for a given grain size using one of seven algorithms: Engelund and Hansen, total load equation; Einstein-Brown, bedload equation; Bagnold, total load equation; Yalin, bedload equation; Ackers and White, total load equation; Smith, suspended load method; and the cohesive sediment transport algorithm of Amos and Greenberg. This model adopts new advances of bottom boundary layer theory and recently available field measurements of sediment transport rates on the Scotian Shelf. The model gives reasonable predictions compared to the field measurements. Kev Words: Combined wave-current flows. Shelf sediment transport, FORTRAN code, Computer si&lation, Predictions and field data.


There is a unique diversity and density of land-based marine predators breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia, operating at a wide variety of spatial and temporal scales. These provide exceptional opportunities for bio-logging studies, the objectives of which have been to investigate trophic interactions in ecosystem contexts (including applications in fish- eries and environmental management and conservation). Associated data from studies on feeding ecology, reproductive performance and population dynamics provide valuable con- textual information for bio-logging analyses. An associated ship-based offshore marine sci- ence programme also provides vital information about the local and regional biological and physical environment, which is both complex and highly variable. Further developments of our bio-logging studies at South Georgia face a number of important challenges. These include: • acquiring samples large enough for statistical analysis; • replicating study sites and/or populations in order to characterize population and species behaviour; • collecting simultaneous data from multiple sensors or devices in order to interpret foraging behaviour; • acquiring key collateral data on prey and environment at appropriate spatial and temporal scales to understand foraging dynamics in context. We illustrate approaches to address some of these challenges from recent studies of the South Georgia marine ecosystem.


Objective: To provide anatomical basis for the way of isolatin g small sapheonus vein to repair injuried popliteal artery. Methods: Small saphe onus veins and popliteal arteries on 50 sides of adult cadaveric lower extremiti es were observed and measured. Results: Small sapheonus vein and popliteal arter y had steady anatomic relationship. The average diameters of popliteal artery we re 6.6±0.9 mm at the original segment, 5.9 ±1.0 mm at the middle segment, 4.9 ±0.9 mm at the branch part. While the average diameters of small sapheonus vein were 3.1±0.1mm at the areas of the entrance, 2.9±0.1 mm at the middle segment and the external malleolus part. The appearance of rate was low in the communic ating branches of small sapheonus vein and popliteal artery. Conclusion: Both sm all sapheonus vein and popliteal artery system have a constant anatomical positi on and their diameters were similar. Removing a segment of small sapheonus vein to repair the injuried popliteal artery is possible.


H. W. Brooks (by letter): Mr. Penniman's paper is of intense interest to many designers now working on new plant construction. There is, however, a vast field for application for heat-balancing devices in plants designed prior to the last three to five years as there are undoubtedly enormous losses taking place in many of these older plants owing to lack of proper heat balance. In private consulting practise last year the writer encountered a very interesting problem of this character in the plant of the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad Co. at Batavia, Ill., where a dual-drive exciter set of 300kw. capacity was finally designed in cooperation with the manufacturer. The steam end consisted of a 200 lb. pressure, 150-deg. superheat, non-condensing, direct-connected turbine of the impulse type, while the electric drive end consisted of a three-phase, 25-cycle, 2300-volt, phase-wound, induction motor, both machines being directconnected to the 300 kw. generator mounted between them and functioning at 750 rev. per min.


With the dawn of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) the relevance of System-on-Chips equipped with run-time configurable, application-specific macrocells increases as numerous tasks has to be taken over from the microprocessors in order to cope with the real-time requirements typical of CPS applications. One of the largest challenges of macrocell design is to conform to the demand for increasing computation capacities while keeping the development effort low to handle time-to-market requirements and reduce design cost. This article presents a novel method for creating RTL models of SoCs' reusable macrocells. The proposed method is based on a novel modeling language (AMDL) offering a reduced design time while making the microarchitectural details fully accessible for the designer to ensure the required level of optimization. Beside the formal definitions of the language's semantic elements, the results of design efficiency investigations, moreover, a comparison of AMDL and the similar solutions are also presented.


Abstract : A new concept of immersion suit, the nearly dry suit, was recently developed to overcome the main limitations of the wet and dry suits. The main new feature of the suit is the adjustable seals that can be closed before or upon entry in water. The purpose of the present study was to test the new suit at sea against a standard dry suit. Seven male subjects were immersed for over one hour in 3 deg water in the Atlantic ocean. Three conditions were tested during which the subjects were wearing a dry suit (DRY), a nearly dry suit with the seals closed (NEAR-DRY-C) or a nearly dry suit with the seals opened upon entry in water (NEAR-DRY-O). The thermal resistance of the suit, measured from the skin heat loss data and the temperature difference between the skin and the outside surface of the suits, were 0.95 +/- 0.14, 0.69 +/- 0.13 and 0.58 +/- 0.09 Clo for DRY, NEAR-DRY-C and NEAR-DRY-O conditions, respectively, with the thermal resistance being significantly lower (p <- 0.05) for the NEAR-DRY conditions. The decrease in insulation for the NEAR-DRY-O condition was attributed to a significantly larger water leakage through the seals (1.37 +/- 0.29 L) as compared to the other conditions (DRY: 0.41 +/- 0.20 L; NEAR-DRY-C: 0.35 +/- 0.28 L). It was concluded that the nearly dry suit concept, while maintaining a greater comfort when the seals were opened before immersion, successfully limited the water leakage into the suit to a level observed with a dry suit when the seals were closed upon entry in water. The thermal insulation provided by the nearly dry suit when closed is not inferior to 0.75 Clo, the recommended insulation to obtain adequate thermal protection in cold water. During immersion in the open mode, the nearly dry suit can decrease the survival time by a factor a two.


Background: Febrile seizures (FSs) are the most common neurological disorder observed in the pediatric age group. In pediatric practice, seizures account for 1% of all emergency visits. They are usually defined as seizures occurring after 1 month of age associated with a febrile illness not caused by an infection of the central nervous system, without previous neonatal seizures or a previous unprovoked seizure, and not meeting the criteria for other acute symptomatic seizures. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study is to analyze the clinical and epidemiological spectrum in children with a first attack of acute seizure disorder and its prevalence rates of various etiologies. Materials and Methods: A total of 127 children presenting with FSs to the emergency department were evaluated at a tertiary teaching hospital of Kerala between October 2015 and September 2017. Demographic details, clinical findings, laboratory investigations, computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan brain studies, diagnoses, and hospital course were compared between FSs and patients with AFSs. These variables were also compared between patients with simple and complex FSs and among different age groups. Observations and Results: Among 127 patients, 80 children presented with FSs (62.99%) and the remaining children with AFSs 47 (37%). 68/80 children (85%) presenting with FSs were aged below 6 years. The type of seizures was generalized tonic/ clonic seizures in 49/80 of the febrile group (61.25%). The etiologies observed were electrolyte imbalance and hypoglycemia. CT scan was done in 45/127 (35.43%) children and found to be abnormal in 15/45 children (35.55%). Similarly, MRI scan was done in 18/127 (14.17%) children and found to be abnormal in 9/18 children (50%). Conclusion: Primary care pediatricians should evaluate children presenting to the ED with a first seizure for age, coexistence of fever, seizure type, associated symptoms, and history of head injury. Routine investigations of electrolytes, blood sugar, and emergency brain imaging studies should be arranged based on detailed history taking and thorough physical examinations but should not be performed routinely.


The biological agent cetuximab specifically inhibits the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) function. Cetuximab is licensed for treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma, as it enhances the efficacy of cytostatic therapy. Acneiform drug eruptions are common side effects. We report two patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma, who developed a severe acneiform drug eruption on the face and upper part of the body during the treatment with cetuximab. Triple therapy consisting of systemic isotretinoin, topical nadifloxacin and topical corticosteroid produced rapid improvement with moderate cheilitis the only side effect. We conclude that triple therapy is an effective treatment for patients with severe acneiform drug eruptions caused by cetuximab.


Ferromagnetic superconductors are superconducting at low temperatures, but below a certain temperature they become ferromagnetic and the super¬ conductivity breaks down.In an intermediate State coexistence of super¬ conductivity and ferromagnetism is observed.We use a generalized Ginz¬ burg Landau mean field model to describe the superconductivity,the magnetization and their mutual competition. There is an electromagnetic and an exchange interaction between super¬ conductivity and magnetization.The electromagnetic interaction is due to the magnetic field of the ordered magnetic moments which is large enough to destroy superconductivity.Coexistence of superconductivity and magnetization becomes only possible through spatial structure.Only the electro¬ magnetic interaction can be included consistently in the mean field model.The exchange interaction is treated approximately. The electromagnetic interaction has a very nonlocal character and can give rise to very complicated structures.Most theorists have only considered spatial structure in either the magnetization or the supercon¬ ductivity but not in both together.We examine new structures which combine topological structure in both superconductivity and magnetization. They are developed from instabilities of simpler structures as they cannot be found directly.The magnetic anisotropy of the material becomes important.We treat easy axis and easy plane anisotropy separately. To solve the Ginzburg Landau equations is very difficult and numerically instable.Instead.we use for each structure its symmetries to characterize the order parameters and directly search for the minimum of the free energy.This is numerically stable and well defined.We obtain structures which are distinct minima of the free energy. A new alternating vortex lattice structure for materials with easy plane magnetic anisotropy such as ErRh.B. has especially interesting properties.One component of the magnetization is periodically devided into large opposite domains.Each domain contains one row of vortex lines or antivortex lines with opposite polarity.The magnetization does not vanish in the Bloch walls.instead there is a magnetization which is


Abstract : Basic lunar and tidal data for Point Mugu, San Nicolas Island and the Barking Sands area during 1993 are provided. The data presented are: (1) Tidal data; (2) times of moonrise and moonset; (3) times of lunar phases; and (4) times of sunrise and sunset.... Barking Sands, Hawaii, San Nicolas Island, CA, Point Mugu, CA, Tide Tables.


The present paper deals with the study of the peculiarities of linguistic reference of abstract nouns in the modern German language, the reference being realized with the help of the article. The authors aim at describing the peculiarities of the realization of the category of article determination with abstract nouns as well as at explaining the uncharacteristic occurrences of the article use determined by the relative transposition of abstract nouns into the semantic group of class nouns. The analysis of the use of abstract nouns with the definite, indefinite, and zero articles has allowed the authors to prove that the specificity of the correlation is determined by the abstraction degree of semantic and formal characteristics of abstract nouns as well as by the mental images the person has while making use of abstract nouns in a particular act of communication.


There is a growing debate on the electronic commerce modes of deliveries, the core issue of the two-year moratorium and the extension of similar treatment of all digitisable products. Looking for similarity to Doha Round sectoral proposals, wherein also tariff elimination was at the core of negotiation. Therefore, this working paper seeks to provide answers for some pertinent questions that would help to bring clarity in further negotiations. One of the principal questions is the extent to which the elimination of tariff would influence trade in digitisable products. We have explored this question using imports data of WTO membership and non-WTO members. Further, extending the analysis, we are also looking at implications for WTO member countries of the possible impact of electronic commerce on the traditional means of distribution of physical goods (WTO, 1998). The following questions: What is the global trend of digitisable products trade and the implication for Trade Negotiations, and Secondly, what is the extent of revenue losses across the WTO grouping?

One major challenge is there are no mechanism to capture the fast vanishing commerce (trade) which is flowing through the internet and wires. It is established beyond doubt that a significant amount of commerce has shifted in the context of 30 digitisable products. The official data as recorded by the established practice is unable to account for and therefore is largely made available by private consultant firms. Some other challenges that would discussed are increasing necessity to built-in legitimate and official mechanisms that capture trade and data flows, at two levels custom-ports and at the micro-level capturing the financial flows of firms/merchant banks/transaction banks. The study would explore the possibility of expansion in the digitization across the manufacturing sector with the application of 3D printers and other enabling legislation. Further, the study clearly establishes that the developing and the LDCs are turned into prime markets for expansion of digitisable products exported by developed and other emerging markets. The developed countries and other emerging markets had the least impacts in terms of revenue losses based on the evidence in 2017.


We present the implementation of a high-resolution Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) from Xilinx Virtex-5 family. The design of the TDC is based on a counter and interpolator method. Dedicated carry-in lines in CARRY4 blocks of the Virtex-5 FPGA are utilized for time interpolation, which realizes the fine time measurement within a system clock period. Simulation results show that the delay from CIN to COUT in CARRY4 block is as large as 104 ps. Thus we subdivide the delay cell into finer taps for a higher resolution. Considering the inhomogeneous delay cells, multiple strategies are applied to perform the calibration and to enhance the TDC resolution. Meanwhile, we also apply Place and Route (PAR) constraints to fit our TDC requirements. Finally, a total of 16 TDC channels with a timing performance of about 15 ps RMS are implemented in one FPGA.


ABSTRACT Online courses heavily relying on programming skills tend to be difficult and time-consuming for students, who may get frustrated when stuck in an assignment. Obviously, this may increase drop-out rate and decrease academic performance as well as students' satisfaction with the course and the institution in general. In this context, we propose a notification, recommendation and monitoring system which is integrated into an automatic assessment tool with the aim to enhance the learning process in virtual classrooms. In particular, notifications, recommendations and visualization reports are used to show the activity, progress and performance of all students. The system is implemented in a distributed computing course in an online university. A quantitative analysis method used to collect and analyze data of students' perceptions regarding the system showed that: (1) notifications helped students organize their time and encourage them to work more effectively; (2) recommendations allowed students to receive useful and timely scaffolding for coping with their problems and completing their assignment; and (3) visualization reports provided valuable insights toward monitoring the learning process. Moreover, the analysis of correlations showed that the reception of recommendations and the visualization reports is related to encourage students to do more executions and to start earlier the assignments. Finally, this study seeks to contribute to online teachers' endeavor to enhance students' engagement, performance and learning in the field of programming (and not only).


Visual Relation Detection (VRD) aims to detect relationships between objects for image understanding. Most existing VRD methods rely on thousands of training samples of each relationship to achieve satisfactory performance. Some recent papers tackle this problem by few-shot learning with elaborately designed pipelines and pre-trained word vectors. However, the performance of existing few-shot VRD models is severely hampered by the poor generalization capability, as they struggle to handle the vast semantic diversity of visual relationships. Nonetheless, humans have the ability to learn new relationships with just few examples based on their knowledge. Inspired by this, we devise a knowledge-augmented, few-shot VRD framework leveraging both textual knowledge and visual relation knowledge to improve the generalization ability of few-shot VRD. The textual knowledge and visual relation knowledge are acquired from a pre-trained language model and an automatically constructed visual relation knowledge graph, respectively. We extensively validate the effectiveness of our framework. Experiments conducted on three benchmarks from the commonly used Visual Genome dataset show that our performance surpasses existing state-of-the-art models with a large improvement.


A circuit (2) for controlling a capacitor (1) of capacity controllable polarization, comprising at least one terminal (21) for receiving a digital setpoint depending on the desired value for the capacity, a circuit (4) for determining a drift in the capacitance to a nominal value, and a circuit (50) for applying a correction (CORR) to said digital setpoint, according to the determined drift.


The article reveals the role of innovations in the system of sales management and substantiates the need for their management. The state of innovation activity in Ukraine is analyzed. The main factors that significantly influenced the decision of enterprises to develop and implement innovative projects or hindered the implementation of innovative activities are indicated. It is emphasized that the activity of creating and implementing marketing innovations affects the productivity of the enterprise, and its ability to enter new national and foreign markets. The study substantiates the criteria for choosing commercial and marketing innovations with further improvement of their typology.


Both stress response of Generalized Fractional Element (GFE) Zener model under sinusoidal strain load and strain response of GFE Poynting-Thomson model under sinusoidal stress load are given by the use of discreteization method for solving the inverse Laplace transform and Laplace transform formula of generalized Mittag-Leffler function.


Carotid stenosis after radiotherapy has been recognized as a complication of external irradiation to the head and neck resulting from treatment for cancer. However, myoclonus is seldom found. We report on a 33-year-old man diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) cT1N1M0. He had undergone concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CCRT) with Cetuximab (Erbitux) and curative radiotherapy (RT) with a dose of 7000cGy in 33 fractions. He developed a myoclonic jerk in the left neck 2.5 years after CCRT. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) revealed roughly 60% stenosis of the left proximal internal carotid artery. He did not receive any invasive intervention for carotid stenosis and the neck myoclonus was well controlled by an annual local Botox injection for 3 years.


A 3-dimentional modeling for a certain chemical factory was conducted by using Microstation software. With consideration on the important influence factors such as outside wind direction, wind speed, and different positions of ignition source, the gaseous leakage process of the poisonous, flammable and explosive vinyl chloride from the relief valve of storage tank, and the leakage, evaporation, diffusion and explosion process of the liquid vinyl chloride from the pipeline of the storage tank bottom were simulated with the software FLACS of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The simulation results show that, for the spherical tank of liquefied gases vinyl chloride at room temperature, the leakage of vinyl chloride from the relief valve of storage tank will not cause fire and explosion; but for a given liquid leakage of vinyl chloride from the pipeline, the gas cloud caused by evaporation and diffusion of vinyl chloride may cause an explosion. If there is a weak constraint condition, the explosion shock wave will be rather feeble. This study can provide precise foundation for the risk analysis, safety plan, emergency recovery and accident investigation of chemical enterprises.


This paper focuses on analytical studies of the primary user (PU) traffic classification problem. colorblack{Observing} that the gamma distribution can represent positively skewed data and exponential distribution (popular in communication networks performance analysis literature) it is considered here as the PU traffic descriptor. We investigate two PU traffic classifiers utilizing perfectly measured PU activity (busy) and inactivity (idle) periods: (i) maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) and (ii) multi-hypothesis sequential probability ratio test classifier (MSPRTC). Then, relaxing the assumption on perfect period measurement, we consider a PU traffic observation through channel sampling. For a special case of negligible probability of PU state change in between two samplings, we propose a minimum variance PU busy/idle period length estimator. Later, relaxing the assumption of the complete knowledge of the parameters of the PU period length distribution, we propose two PU traffic classification schemes: (i) estimate-then-classify (ETC), and (ii) average likelihood function (ALF) classifiers considering time domain fluctuation of the PU traffic parameters. Numerical results show that both MLC and MSPRTC are sensitive to the periods measurement errors when the distance among distribution hypotheses is small, and to the distribution parameter estimation errors when the distance among hypotheses is large. For PU traffic parameters with a partial prior knowledge of the distribution, the ETC outperforms ALF when the distance among hypotheses is small, while the opposite holds when the distance is large.


The COVID-19 pandemic has led many governments to impose restrictive measures that have contributed to a decline in the demand for goods and services, leading to an economic crisis. This study proves a novelty that implies a rise in the capitalization of renewable energy companies during the coronavirus pandemic. The study is based on the hypothesis that, at a time of economic crisis, the prospect of investing in clean energy has increased, through the need to protect the environment and ensure clean air. The analysis provided additional results that there is an inverse relationship between two economic indicators of firms, namely, the percentage change in profitability and capitalization of firms between 2020 and 2021. Analysis of data from companies included in TRBC Industry Name Renewable Fuels provided numerical results that show an average increase in firms' capitalization of 86%. The study uses analysis techniques such as covariance and correlation. The results show an increase in capitalization of renewable energy companies by 150%, while there is a decrease in income by 2%. However, the capitalization of fossil fuel companies has increased, with an average growth rate of 35%. This situation in the fossil energy market is that company revenues fell by 32% while capitalization increased by 35%. It proves a bubble in the non-renewable energy market. This paper suggests that the period of coronavirus infection has seen a slowdown in economic growth in many countries around the world, but a switch to renewable energy will help improve the quality of life of the population and ensure economic growth.


The research is, to start using material which is Sustainable, because of this many environmental questions has come in front. One of them is become indivisible part of human's life that is plastic. We humans are using plastic from water-bottle to till product and other industrial uses. Because, many plastics are so durable and do not corrode, but they create considerable disposal problems. For the following research "Cow Dung" Products and Sustainability, is the material used and is studied on all its potential. There are many reasons behind selecting the material, from all the other organic and recyclable materials. In comparisons of other material like wood, metal and glass. "Cow dung" is easy to recycle, affordable and lightweight also. We could make product as well as three- dimensional structures using it. "Cow dung" has its own limitations, but we should understand the nature of material and decide how and where we should use it. We can help farmers in India financially by using cow dung. And employment can be provided to the youth in rural areas.


This thesis deals with the dynamics of a thin liquid film falling down a heated plate. The heating yields surface tension gradients that induce thermocapillary stresses on the free surface, thus affecting the stability and the evolution of the film. Accounting for the coherence of the flow due to viscosity, two main approaches that reduce the dimensionality of the original problem are usually considered depending on the flow rate (as measured by the Reynolds number): the `long wave' asymptotic expansion for small Reynolds numbers and the `integral boundary layer' approximation for moderate Reynolds numbers. The former suffers from singularities and the latter from incorrectness of the instability threshold for the occurrence of hydrodynamic waves. Thus, the aim of this thesis is twofold: in a first part, we define quantitatively the validity of the `long wave' evolution equation (Benney equation) for the film thickness h including the thermocapillary effect; and in a second part, we improve the `integral boundary layer' approach by combining a gradient expansion to a weighted residual method. In the first part, we further investigate the Benney equation in its validity domain in the case of periodically inhomogeneous heating in the streamwise direction. It induces steady-state deformations of the free surface with increased transfer rate in regions where the film is thinner, and also in average. The inhomogeneities of the heating also modify the nature of travelling wave solutions at moderate temperature gradients and allows for suppressing wave motion at larger ones.Moreover, large temperature gradients (for instance positive ones) in the streamwise direction produce large local film thickening that may in turn become unstable with respect to transverse disturbances such that the flow may organize in rivulet-like structures. The mechanism of such instability is elucidated via an energy analysis. The main features of the rivulet pattern are described experimentally and recovered by direct numerical simulations.In the second part, various models are obtained, which are valid for larger Reynolds numbers than the Benney equation and account for second-order viscous and inertial effects. We then elaborate a strategy to select the optimal model in terms of linear stability properties and existence of nonlinear solutions (solitary waves), for the widest possible range of parameters. This model -- called reduced model -- is a system of three coupled evolution equations for the local film thickness h, the local flow rate q and the surface temperature Ts. Solutions of this model indicate that the interaction of the hydrodynamic and thermocapillary modes is non-trivial, especially in the region of large-amplitude solitary waves.Finally, the three-dimensional evolution of the solutions of the reduced model in the presence of periodic forcing and noise compares favourably with available experimental data in isothermal conditions and with direct numerical simulations in non-isothermal conditions.------------------------------------------------Cette these analyse la dynamique d'un film mince s'ecoulant le long d'une paroi chauffee. Le chauffage cree des gradients de tension superficielle qui induisent des tensions thermocapillaires a la surface libre, alterant ainsi la stabilite et l'evolution du film. Grâce a la coherence de l'ecoulement assuree par la viscosite, deux approches permettant de reduire la dimensionnalite du probleme original sont habituellement considerees suivant le debit (mesure par le nombre de Reynolds): l'approximation asymptotique dite `longues ondes' pour les faibles nombres de Reynolds et l'approximation `integrale couche limite' pour les nombres de Reynolds moderes. Cependant, la premiere approximation souffre de singularites et la derniere de predictions imprecises du seuil de stabilite des ondes hydrodynamiques a la surface du film. Le but de cette these est donc double: dans une premiere partie, il s'agit de determiner, de maniere quantitative, la validite de l'equation d'evolution `longues ondes' (ou equation de Benney) pour l'epaisseur du film h, en y incluant l'effet thermocapillaire; et dans une seconde partie, il s'agit d'ameliorer l'approche `integrale couche limite' en combinant un developpement en gradients avec une methode aux residus ponderes.Dans la premiere partie, nous etudions l'equation de Benney, dans son domaine de validite, dans le cas d'un chauffage inhomogene et periodique dans la direction de l'ecoulement. Cela induit des deformations permanentes de la surface libre avec un accroissement du transfert de chaleur dans les regions ou le film est plus mince, mais aussi en moyenne. Un chauffage inhomogene modifie egalement la nature des solutions d'ondes progressives pour des gradients de temperatures moderes et conduit meme a leur suppression pour des gradients de temperatures plus importants. De plus, ceux-ci, lorsqu'ils sont par exemple positifs le long de l'ecoulement, produisent des epaississements localises du film qui peuvent a leur tour devenir instables par rapport a des perturbations suivant la direction transverse a l'ecoulement. Ce dernier s'organise alors sous forme d'une structure en rivulets. Le mecanisme de cette instabilite est elucide via une analyse energetique des perturbations. Les principales caracteristiques des structures en rivulets sont decrites experimentalement et retrouvees par l'intermediaire de simulations numeriques. Dans la seconde partie, nous derivons une famille de modeles valables pour des nombres de Reynolds plus grands que l'equation de Benney, qui prennent en compte les effets visqueux et inertiels du second ordre. Nous elaborons ensuite une strategie pour selectionner le modele optimal en fonction de ses proprietes de stabilite lineaire et de l'existence de solutions non-lineaires (ondes solitaires), et ce pour la gamme de parametres la plus large possible. Ce modele -- appele modele reduit -- est un systeme de trois equations d'evolution couplees pour l'epaisseur locale de film h, le debit local q et la temperature de surface Ts. Les solutions de ce modele indiquent que l'interaction des modes hydrodynamiques et thermocapillaires n'est pas triviale, specialement dans le domaine des ondes solitaires de grande amplitude. Finalement, l'evolution tri-dimensionnelle des solutions du modele reduit en presence d'un forcage periodique ou d'un bruit se compare favorablement aux donnees experimentales disponibles en conditions isothermes, ainsi qu'aux simulations numeriques directes en conditions non-isothermes


Many disorders of vision and hearing are concomitant with the growing elderly demographic, and conditions of the eyes, ears, nose, and throat are often associated with other health states. Whilst ophthalmic and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) interventions are largely the domain of distinct clinical specialisms, general adult nurses are likely to encounter people with eyes and ENT conditions across all care settings. This chapter outlines key facts about eye and vision disorders and ENT conditions which are likely to be useful to the general nurse. These include an overview of common conditions, investigations, and treatments. The chapter also includes short sections of key facts related to ophthalmic and ENT surgery. Important nursing considerations for decision-making and practice are outlined, and an overview of frequently prescribed medications is presented in a summary table.


Erratum Correction to: Kapil D. Sethi, Ramon Rodriguez and Babajide Olayinka. Satisfaction with botulinum toxin treatment: a cross-sectional survey of patients with cervical dystonia. JME 2012. 15(3):419–423. The authors have been made aware of an error in the 'Current injection cycle' section in the Results and in Table 2, both on page 421, there is a numerical error in the number of patients who were 'Somewhat satisfied' and 'Very satisfied' at the peak effect of therapy. The numbers should be 23 (22.5%) and 79 (77.5%), respectively.


Smartphones are changing the cultural influences on children's development. In part five of her six-part series, Dr Stephanie Thornton considers the links between smartphone use and anti-social behaviour


Big data are usually identified by the "3V model": Volume, Velocity and Variety. Volume means that the large volume of data. Speed refers the rate of production of these data, the rate of capture and analysis. Variety deals with structured, semi-structured and unstructured data types. Nowadays, medical images are also big data with all of these models. Traditional relational database management systems, which are widely used today, do not have this big data processing capacity with different data types. For this reason, NoSQL database management systems have been developed. Relational database management systems are still dominant in the database market and the use of NoSQL DBMS platforms is also increasing. MongoDB, the most widely used document-based NoSQL, is an open source database management system. With these advantages, MongoDB is a powerful, flexible and scalable general purpose database. According to DbEngines research, MongoDB ranks fifth among all DBMSs and NoSQL ranks first among DBMSs. MongoDB is not schema-based and every document is stored in BSON format. In this way, an object is a group of unordered name / value pairs. Since there is no table structure defined in MongoDB, any document in BSON format can be added. In addition, MongoDB supports a distributed environment and can be deployed in various forms. The largest default file size that can be loaded into MongoDB is 16 MB. However, some files, such as medical images, can have larger file sizes than this size. For such cases, the built-in GridFS function in MongoDB is used. GridFS is a feature used to store files of variable size in MongoDB. It is an advantageous feature to occupy files that has large size in MongoDB database, not a data format. The large files have been divided into smaller chunks, 256 KB, by GridFS. These small parts are stored in a collection called fs.chunks. When sections have been written, the metadata of the file h stored in a single document in fs.files as another collection. In addition, MongoDB supports distributed architecture. With this distributed method, the data is partitioned between the available machines. In this case, larger or stronger machines are needed and more data can be stored with less powerful machines. Normally larger or stronger machines are needed, but in this case more data can be stored with less powerful machines. At the same time, MongoDB also provides automatic load balancing. MongoDB is one of the alternatives as a new generation data base system frequently used in applications developed today. Easily managed by type, relationship and table independent features, distributed data minimizes data loss in disaster situations. It is frequently preferred with its performance in large data sets.


IN GERMANY Shakespeare is at least as fully integrated into theatre, literature, and literary criticism as he is in the English-speaking world.' But the German indebtedness was in great part repaid by the frequently unacknowledged and yet almost equally pervasive influence of their Romantics on both the literature and the criticism of our times. Merely to mention Coleridge, Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold should be enough to remind us that there are ample reasons for interesting ourselves in how, when, and why Shakespeare became the great central stimulus of Germany's Second Golden Age. An authority on the literary situation in Germany observes: "Until the middle of the eighteenth century, the old imperial race of Middle Europe knew only two sources of poetical art from abroad: the ancients, and France. Latin and Greek authors were introduced by our clergy and our schools, French authors by our nobility and better-class citizens." 2 It is significant that Shakespeare was not known until the middle of the eighteenth century, and that the French literature which he supplanted had had the support of the upper echelons of society. The tardy appearance of Shakespeare on the German scene may seem surprising, but it can be historically supported. Valiant efforts


The dysbiosis of oral cavity is observed in children with malocclusions. Preventive measures to avoid the occurrence of the diseases of teeth hard tissues and periodontal tissues should be taken. Suggested and implemented by us medical-preventive complex, which includes "Tooth-Mousse", "Osteovit" and "Pektodent" application affects homeostasis and reduces the degree of the dysbiosis of oral cavity.


The necessary shift from fossil fuels to regenerative sources imposes a great challenge for future power transmission. A large, meshed HVDC-Grid is proposed by several experts as the best and most efficient solution. For meshed DC-Grids, however, new and essential requirements - especially regarding availability and reliability - have to be researched very thoroughly. Fast and reliable handling of DC-faults must be ensured without disturbing the energy flow in the whole grid. The following paper deals with the key components (Modular Multilevel Converters and DC-Breakers) in large meshed HVDC-Grids. A comparison between suitable submodule topologies with DC-fault handling abilities is presented alongside with a new topology for a hybrid DC-Breaker.


The National Lunch School Program (PNAE) is one of the most relevant government programs, due to the expressive amount of resources available to fund it and the number of people who benefit from it. Until 2015, approximately R$ 5.7 billion were passed on to the Program. Many Brazilian counties, especially those in the state of Sao Paulo, are under investigation for the corruption scheme known as the "Mafia da Merenda". Two of the four counties that will be analyzed in this study are being investigated. These evidences point to the need for better control and monitoring of the Program. The main objective of the study was to discuss if there are aspects of the accountability process that should be incorporated in the rendering of accounts of the PNAE so that it is able to enable effective communication with society. Therefore, the data collection related to the rendering of accounts and inspection of the statements and execution of the program of four counties in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, between the years 2011 and 2015, was carried out on FNDE website and through the Sistema Eletronico de Informacao ao Cidadao (e-SIC), a citizens watchdog site. A detailed comparison between the information obtained in both sites served as a map to determine the data. The study concluded that its accountability needs improvement, since the data available lacks depth of information or are inaccurate and does not provide clear data to support accountability. Keywords: Accountability. Public management. Education. PNAE.


For both common people and those in the audio industry, audio effects are mostly described and illustrated for their acoustical effect. For the professionals in the field, audio effects can also be categorized from a technical point of view, and described as mathematical functions. The main criteria are what type of modulation techniques are used to achieve the effects desired. After an introduction to the basic delay structures a more sophisticated delay based audio effect is presented, the Vibrato with a brief discussion of its differences compared to the Tremolo effect and its relationship with the Chorus effect.


Surgery for Bilateral Atrial Thromboses Detected in a Cancer Patient with Cerebral Infarction Nobuyuki Yamamoto, Masaki Nie, Akihiro Sasahara and Kuniyoshi Ohara(Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ebina General Hospital, Ebina, Japan) A 74-year-old man had been taking warfarin for atrial fibrillation, but warfarin was discontinued due to upper gastrointestinal bleeding. One week later, left hemiplegia occurred, and cranial magnetic resonance imaging revealed multiple cerebral infarctions. Systemic examination revealed thrombi in both atria as well as duodenal cancer. Because all of the thrombi in both atria were larger than 30 mm in diameter, the risk of embolism or sudden death was assumed to be high. Although the use of cardiopulmonary bypass for cancer patients is controversial, bilateral atrial thrombectomy was performed 4 weeks after cerebral infarction onset because reasonable survival duration was expected with surgery for duodenal cancer after thrombectomy and further treatment. The timing of and indications for surgery in this case are discussed. Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 44 : 221-223(2015)


mountain men of the early american west a guide to books antoine clement by alfred jacob miller 1837 this is a guide to the best books about the mountain men of the american west which i know about, dress and equipage of the mountain man 182


This document looks at the trends in the education market, how technology solutions can help address some of the challenges this market faces today, and how Konica Minolta addresses this market with their solutions.


Through an examination of French organicism–one of the models proposed for the nascent science of sociology in the late 19th century–this article argues two main points: that organicism was crucial in the establishment of 'society' as a scientific object; and that the specific characteristics of this new object were retained by later sociology long after the organic analogies and evolutionary views that justified them had been explicitly abandoned. Organicism played a significant role in establishing a strong notion of society as a concrete, real entity–a notion that had a lasting impact on sociological theory and became one of the most important 'categories of thought' of the 20th century.


By combining the Back-Propagation(BP)neural network with conventional proportional Integral Derivative(PID)controller,a new temperature control strategy of the export steam in supercritical electric power plant is put forward.This scheme can effectively overcome the large time delay,inertia of the export steam and the influence of object in varying operational parameters.Thus excellent control quality is obtained.The present paper describes the development and application of neural network based controller to control the temperature of the boiler's export steam.Through simulation in various situations,it validates that the control quality of this control system is apparently superior to the conventional PID control system.


Parameter estimation is a central issue in mathematical modelling of biomedical systems and for the development of patient specific models. The technique of estimating parameters helps in obtaining diagnostic information from computational models of biological systems. However, in most of the biomedical systems, the estimation of model parameters is a challenging task due to the nonlinearity of mathematical models. In this chapter, the method of estimation of nonlinear model parameters from measurements of state variables, using the extended Kalman filter, is extensively explained using an example of the threedimensional model of the HIV/AIDS system.


The characteristics of common mechanical errors and the influence mechanism of each error on the working state of active magnetic bearing (AMB) is analyzed according to AMB with five degrees of freedom. The relationship between machining errors, AMB design parameters and the coil current of radial magnetic bearing is quantitatively analyzed. The results show that machining errors lead to coupling between the radial magnetic bearing and the axial magnetic bearing, increase control difficulty of AMB, add additional interference current to the coil of radial magnetic bearing, decrease carrying capacity of radial magnetic bearing. The results provide a scientific basic for optimizing the AMB design parameter, analyzing the installation error of AMB system and improving the performance of AMB.


Excerpt It is obvious that a complete consideration of this subject cannot be condensed into a paper to which such a short time is allotted, but a discussion of some important debated points will b...


Abstract As digitization progresses, the integration of information and communication technologies in technical systems is constantly increasing. Fascinating value potentials are emerging (e.g. autonomous driving), but also challenges in the system development. The constantly increasing product complexity and degree of networking require a systemic development, which is fulfilled by established approaches of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). To ensure the reliability of tomorrow's systems, an integrative and early consideration of security and safety is additionally required. In order to show the possibility and consequences of failures and attacks, the paper develops a modeling language that links established and partly isolated security and safety approaches within a consistent metamodel. The developer is enabled to synthesize system architectures transparently on an interdisciplinary level and to analyze attack and failure propagation integratively. The approach uncovers synergetic and especially contrasting goals and effects of architectural designs in terms of safety and security in order to make adequate architectural decisions based on trade-off analyses.


Creative Arts Educ Ther (2018) 4(1):38–57
DOI: 10.15212/CAET/2018/4/5

Physical Conversations between the East and West: An Arts Based Inquiry into the Cross-Cultural Emotional Climate during a Time of Political Tensions
东西方的身体对话:一种基于艺术的政治紧张时期跨文化情感环境的探讨
Abstract
This article reviews an arts based project that came to completion in Shanghai during September 2017. During this project, a group of people interested in creative arts therapies from the USA and China used physical storytelling (PS) drawn from both Eastern and Western perspectives to investigate the emotional climate of our contemporary world. In this project, participants introduced stories related to their current life experiences and a small group developed dance improvisations as an initial response to the stories. A larger group then used arts and poetry to express their reflections – leading to the development of metaphors that moved beyond the initial story material to express multiple personal and social aspects not apparent in the initial narrative. As this project was collaborative in nature, several common themes and images emerged. Although initial episodes introduced the theme of individual struggle, this expanded into a metaphorical exploration of general human struggle with larger social and natural forces. The final episode included movement, arts and fairy tale images that suggested a developing creative partnership between the East and West.
摘要
本文回顾了2017年9月在上海完成的基于艺术的科研项目。在这个项目中,一群对美国和中国的创造性艺术治疗感兴趣的人使用东西方视角的身体故事(PS)来调查我们当代世界的情感环境。在这个项目中,参与者介绍了与他们当前生活经历相关的故事,一个小组开展了舞蹈即兴创作作为故事的初步回应。然后一个较大的团体使用艺术和诗歌来表达他们的反思 – 导致隐喻的发展超越了最初的故事材料,表达了在初始叙事中不明显的多个个人和社会面向。由于该项目本质上是协作性的,因此出现了几个共同的主题和意象。虽然最初的剧集引入了个人斗争的主题,但这些扩展为对具有更大社会和自然力量的一般性人类斗争的隐喻探索。最后一个环节包括了动作、艺术和童话意象,表明东西方之间正在发展创造性的伙伴关系。
关键词: 基于艺术的研究, 身体故事, 舞蹈/动作治疗, 创造性艺术治疗, 跨文化探究


ABSTRACT Objectives Decline in language and cognitive functioning often deprives people living with moderate-to-severe dementia of self-reporting their quality of life (QoL) on the written and verbal formats of questionnaires. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of pictorial tools as an alternative method for enabling people living with dementia to self-report their QoL. Methods PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and EMBASE were searched. Primary research studies reporting on information elicitation from people living with dementia through pictures were deemed eligible. Six studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality of the studies was evaluated through Downs and Black checklist. Data was extracted according to population, intervention, comparator, and outcomes (PICO) and results were summarized and supplemented by narrative synthesis. Results Compared to usual communication methods, pictorial tools were found to have a superior effect on comprehension of conversations and decision-making abilities, minimal effect on preference consistency, and an undeterminable effect on discourse features. Conclusions There is consistent evidence that pictures enhance comprehension and might facilitate decision-making abilities. Clinical Implications QoL information can be elicited more effectively through pictorial tools. Future studies warrant development of pictorial versions of standardized QoL tools which will assist the inclusion of people living with severe dementia.


Comparative study the yield of tar,nicotine,water,carbon monoxide,ammonia and phenol in mainstream smoke of different cigarettes under two smoking methods,ISO method and Health Canada method.The yield of tar,nicotine,water,carbon monoxide,ammonia and phenol in mainstream smoke under Health Canada method is the higher than them under ISO method.With the increase of filter ventilation rate,the increasing amplitude of the tar,nicotine,water,carbon monoxide,ammonia and phenol in the mainstream smoke is increasing under Health Canada method.It is found that the rates of increase of water in mainstream smoke under Health Canada method are greater than the other five components.


Over the past forty years, many different types of DNA structures in the genome of living organisms have been classified as "junk DNA", i.e., non-functional genetic units that are thought to be traces of a long and protracted evolution. Gradually, however, it is becoming apparent that these genetic regions perform important functions (pseudogenes, introns, etc.). A similar case that recently has become known are DNA sequences with a frequently repeating structural known as the isochores. The finding that isochores are genetic elements that store the information for the correct spatial arrangement of DNA in the cell nucleus


We use the w-function and the Stein identity to give a result on the binomial approximation to the beta-binomial distribution in terms of the total variation distance between the beta-binomial and binomial distributions and its upper bound. Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 60F05


A method for adaptively cancelling interference from a constant envelope target signal is presented. The method is useful, even when some of the interfering signals are also constant envelope. The adaptive algorithm distinguishes between target signal and interference on the basis of signal amplitude and envelope shape. The amplitude of the target signal must be approximately known or measurable.


BACKGROUND
 The use of HIV self-test (HST) kits is commonplace in key sexually active populations. The direct secondary distribution of HST kits (DSDHK) is effective in improving the uptake of HIV self-testing. However, there are concerns about various limitations of DSDHK, including limited geographic location, payment problems, and face-to-face interaction.

 OBJECTIVE
 We evaluated the feasibility and characteristics of the indirect secondary distribution of HST kits (ISDHK) via WeChat (distributing HST application links and follow-up HST kits to partners) among men who have sex with men (MSM).

 METHODS
 From October 2017 to September 2019, an HIV self-testing (HIVST) recruitment advertisement was disseminated on the WeChat social media platform to invite MSM to apply for HST kits (referred to as "index participants" [Ips]). All of the MSM participants were encouraged to distribute the HST application link to their friends and sexual partners (referred to as "Alters") through their social networks. All Alters were further encouraged to continue to distribute the HST application link. All participants paid a deposit (USD 7), refundable upon completion of the questionnaire and uploading of the test result via an online survey system.

 RESULTS
 2,263 MSM met the criteria and successfully applied for HST. Of these, 1,816 participants returned their HST test results, including 1,422 (88.3%) IPs and 394 (21.7%) Alters. Compared with the IPs, the Alters practiced more condomless anal intercourse (CAI), a higher proportion of them never previously had an HIV test, and they had a greater willingness to distribute HST kits to sexual partners (all p < 0.05). After controlling for age, education, and income, the Alters had a greater proportion of MSM who had never tested for HIV before (aOR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.00–1.68), were more willing to distribute the HST application link (aOR = 1.71, 95% CI 1.21–2.40), had a lower number of sexual partners (aOR = 0.71, 95% CI 0.57–0.90), and were less likely to search for sexual partners via online means (aOR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.60–1.02). In comparison, the rates of reactive HST results, conducting HIV confirmatory tests, HIV seropositivity, and initiation of HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) were similar for IPs and Alters.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The ISDHK mode of distributing HST application links via social media is feasible among the MSM population. The ISDHK mode should be used to supplement the DSDHK mode in order to enable a greater proportion of the MSM population to know their HIV infection status.


A 1%NaCl一tolerant cell line has been selected from tobacco callus(Nicotiana ristica L. cv Gansu Yellow一flower)by stepwise increases in NaCl concentration in the medium. Resistance showed stability through 3 generations in the absence of NaCl. In the presence of 1%NaCl,the selected cell line(S_1)had higher water content but lower os- motic potenial,less free proline,sucrose and reducing sugars content than the nonselected cell line(S_0).The selected cell line responded to salt stress(1%NaCl)by accumulating markedly more Put and deducing the rate of ethylene evolution than did the nonselected cell line,Which im- plied that the cells were bound for salt一adaptation through the selecting procedure. The NaCl一selected cell line(S_1)grew better under both Na_2SO_4 and mannitol stress than the nonselected cell line(S_0),but the susceptity to the low temperature(0一1℃)was reverse. 10 ̄(-5) M ABA stimuiated the growth of the nonselected cell line in the medium with 171 mM NaCl or 85.5 mM Na_2SO_4,but exhibited no such effect on S_1 and S_0grown on the nonionic osmotic solutes(342 mN mannitol or 342 mM sucrose).These results suggest that ABA is involved in adaptation of cells to salt,and is not effective in promiting adaptation to water deficits elicited by nonionic osmotic solutes.


SOVIET economic policy in the few years since Stalin's death has been characterized by flamboyance and ferment. In an attempt to free economic growth from the bottleneck of stagnation in agriculture, Khrushchev has sponsored some extravagant gambles in corn-growing and in expansion of the sown acreage. Policy toward the consumer has gone through two complete reversals: the regime at first experimented with offering the population an improvement in the standard of living, but is now once again asserting that abundance in the future requires austerity today. Perhaps the most startling innovation of all emerged in the past year when the regime began to develop a program of foreign economic assistance as a weapon in its economic competition with the capitalist part of the world. Because of their spectacular nature, these shifts of policy have attracted considerable attention in the West and have been commented on at length. Aware diat the Soviet Union is expanding her economic power at a more rapid rate than are the capitalist countries, Western students of the Soviet economy have sought in these policy changes-some clue as to whether its rate of growth is likely to decline or to be maintained in the future. The early indications of a rise in standards of living that would cause a reduced growth of heavy industry and so a decline in investment and in the rate of growth have now been dispelled. The inability of Soviet agriculture to provide an expanding food supply for a growing work force certainly appears to be a real threat to industrial growth, and with die failure of Khrushchev's gambles, this threat remains. Thus the evidence as to the over-all effect of these changes on the rate of expansion of die Soviet economy is still inconclusive.


The paper reviews the case from practical experience with estimation of effi-ciency and safety of liraglutide (victose) in patient after kidney transplantation with diabetes mellitus type II and chronic viral hepatitis C administered immune-suppressive therapy (Prograf, Myfortic, and Prednisolone). During the first visit, against the insulin therapy the doctors have managed to compensate diabetes and normalise transaminases. The episodes of hy-poglycaemia and excessive weight remained. Liraglutide allowed decreasing the glycated haemoglobin con-tent by 19 %, removing the episodes of hypoglycaemia, and regulating the body mass index. The 9-month case follow-up did not reveal increasing levels of transaminases and creatinine. The content of Prograf in blood serum remained stable.


Establishing eye contact with the target agent plays a central role both in human-human and human-robot communications. However, it is not so easy task for the robot to meet eye contact with a particular human. Especially, when the robot and the target human are facing each other initially or the target human is intensely involved his/her task. In this paper, we proposed a conceptual model of eye contact for social robots consisting of three parts: attracting attention, establishing gaze crossing, and displaying gaze awareness. Evaluation experiments with 36 participants reveal the effectiveness of the proposed model in three viewing situations (near peripheral field of view, far peripheral field of view, and out of field of view).


A scale to measure attitudes toward work adjustment of the blind was developed and administered to 400 subjects. Blindness of the case presented, the relative social status of the occupation held, and the amount of public contact required in the course of the occupation were manipulated in case studies rated by the subjects. Half the subjects were requested to give their own opinions in the ratings; the others were asked to give their best guess of the opinions of most other people. Differences between the ratings of male and female subjects were also investigated. Non-blind cases were rated more favorably in terms of work adjustment than were blind cases, at the .05 level of significance. The relative social status of the occupation held proved significant at the .001 level—the higher the level of the occupation, the more favorably was the work adjustment considered. There is reason to speculate that differences due to some of the other variables manipulated may have been masked by a generally favorable view of the raters toward all the cases.


The myxoid liposarcoma, a rare form of spermatic cord liposarcoma, is a neoplasia of adult men which arise from adipose tissue, with a slow and subdolous growth, showing good prognosis and low incidence of local or distant recurrence. The case came at our attention is the sixteenth described in literature. Orchifunicolectomy is the gold standard therapy, although in some cases in which this kind of surgery is not radical, adjuvant inguinal or retroperithoneal and pelvic nodes radiotherapy should be taken in consideration.


.................................................................................................................... xvi CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Biology of Tabanidae .................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Taxonomy .................................................................................................................. 2 1.2.2 Morphology of adult flies ........................................................................................... 4 1.2.3 Reproduction ............................................................................................................. 6 1.2.4 Behaviour ................................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Economic, medical and veterinary importance of Tabanidae ..................................... 9 1.3.1 Tabanids as plant pollinators .................................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Tabanids as vectors of pathogens ............................................................................ 9 1.4 Justification of the study ............................................................................................. 10 1.4.2 Diseases of interest in the current study ................................................................ 11 18.104.22.168 Babesiosis ............................................................................................................ 11 22.214.171.124 Besnoitiosis........................................................................................................... 11 184.108.40.206 Theileriosis............................................................................................................ 12 184.108.40.206 Trypanosomiasis .................................................................................................. 13 220.127.116.11 Symbiotic associations in haematophagous insects ........................................... 14 1.7 Aims and objectives.................................................................................................... 16 1.7.1 Aims ......................................................................................................................... 16


Abstract A natural topology on the set of germs of holomorphic functions on a compact subset $K$ of a Fréchet space is the locally convex inductive limit topology of the spaces $\mathcal{O}(\sOm)$ endowed with the compact open topology; here $\sOm$ is any open subset containing $K$. Mujica gave a description of this space as the inductive limit of a suitable sequence of compact subsets. He used a set of intricate semi-norms for this. We give a projective characterization of this space, using simpler semi-norms, whose form is similar to the one used in the Whitney Extension Theorem for $C_\infty$ functions. They are quite natural in a framework where extensions are involved. We also give a simple proof that this topology is strictly stronger than the topology of the projective limit of the non-quasi-analytic spaces. AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 46A13; 46F15


It is well known that intraday returns tend to reverse the following intraday period, conditional on excess buying pressure on the bid or ask side. This suggests that liquidity providers "overreact" to order imbalance (OIB) by initially altering quotes so much that a negative autocorrelation is seen in mid-price returns. We investigate under which circumstances this behavior is most common. Specifically, it seems the tick size augments "OIB-reversal". However, if the tick size is binding for much of the trading day, it has the opposite effect of censoring such reversals. In addition, if market liquidity is high, the reversal becomes more frequent.


Rosenthal-Kloepfer syndrome is a very rare disorder characterized by acromegaloid features, furrowed skin on scalp and face and corneal leukomas. Here we are presenting this rare syndrome in a man who presented with bilateral corneal leukoma, cutis verticis gyrate and acromegaloid features.


Shortly after the discovery of insulin in extracts of the degenerated pancreas of the dog, Banting and Best 1 extracted other tissues by the same procedure as that used for the pancreas. Extracts of the liver, spleen, thymus and thyroid glands were prepared. The administration of the extracts of liver and spleen to diabetic dogs produced no appreciable effect on the blood sugar level of the animals. The extracts of thyroid and thymus caused distinct but transient lowerings of the blood sugar. Several of their collaborators have made unsuccessful attempts to prepare insulin from other tissues, such as the spleen and the liver. The increased yields which were obtained from pancreatic tissue in December, 1922, by a modification of the procedure previously used, made it seem advisable to us to reinvestigate this matter. We have been able to prepare active extracts from the submaxillary, thymus and thyroid glands and from


The subject of a distributed RFID system with proximity-range read/write devices (RWD) is considered in this paper. Possible work scenarios were presented in the scope of industrial implementations and were then tested in a dedicated laboratory set. The development system is based on a high-frequency RWD integrated with a Wi-Fi microcontroller unit to create an Internet of things connected with a server (for data exchanging, user interface, etc.) via a wireless local area network. In practical applications, in order to increase the interrogation zone (IZ), there is a tendency to use one RWD with significant output power equipped with a multiplexer for managing several antennas located in the operational space. Such a solution is often economically unprofitable and even impossible to implement, especially in the case of the need to create the large IZ. Responding to market demand, the authors propose a distributed system developed on the basis of several cheap RFID reader modules and a few freely available hardware/software tools. They created the fully functional RFID platform and confirmed its usefulness in static and dynamic systems of object identification.


The Geotechnics Group at Graz University of Technology, which includes the Institutes of Soil Mechanics and Engineering, Rock Mechanics and Tunnelling, and Applied Geo-sciences, held the 22nd "Christian Veder Kolloquium" on 12th and 13th April 2007 on the topic of "Measures to control water in geotechnics".


The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons for the lack of focus groups in Jordan by conducting a focus group with twenty four Academics from Jordanian Universities. Focus groups are commonly used for academic purposes and taught at colleges and universities. The outcome of focus groups for marketing, especially in the tourism industry, is a beneficial learning tool. Focus groups, however, are rarely used for a number of reasons. This research tool is foreign to university students, and unless they study abroad, they are not exposed to a wide range of research and education tools. There are barriers that exist with focus groups. These barriers include: government and educational funding, cultural limitations, personal expectations, teaching materials and resources. Following this research, the recommendations are to have focus groups implemented in Jordanian school systems and to conduct focus group training sessions, encourage students to use them as a research tool and explain the link between focus groups and the hospitality industry. By limiting curriculums in Jordanian education systems, students will not have the proper knowledge or skills once they graduate to compete with markets outside of Jordan. Recommendations are discussed based on the author's research findings.


Research into the influence of a lactation phase on milk production and number of somatic cells involved 30 sheep of the Travnik breed, all of equivalent age and physical development and in the second lactation. Milk quantity was determined on the basis of individual measurements of morning and evening milkings. The number of somatic cells was established in 221 samples. In the course of the 235-day lactation period the sheep produced an average of 137 litres or 593 ml/day of milk. Stage of lactation was found to have a significant influence on both overall quantity of milk (P<0.05)and on the number of somatic cells (P<0.01). At the beginning of the lactation period the number of somatic cells in milk reached its peak (1.57x106/ml). The lowest daily production of milk (480 ml), and the lowest number of somatic cells (0.26x106/ml) was established at the end of the lactation period.


The present study aims to explore SRIs practices based on Maqasid Shariah and Maslahah's points of view. A qualitative method via content analysis document was advocated to address the link between all concepts. The analysis revealed that SRIs, Maqasid Shariah and Maslahah share similar aims and goals to promote better environmental practices and social and governance issues. Thus, the paper concludes that the concept of SRIs does not contradict Maqasid Shariah and Maslahah in Islamic perspectives. However, a few criteria in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concept that govern the SRIs practices like promoting human rights, freedom of expression, and censorship need further clarification to align with Shariah principles. The paper can enlighten the reader, especially in terms of the capabilities of SRIs practices (which is from West philosophy) to suit Maqasid Shariah and Maslahah in Islamic perspectives.JEL Classification: G2, G4, I13, N2How to Cite:Wahab, M. Z. H., & Naim, A. M. (2021). The Reviews on Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRIs) Practices According to Maqasid Shariah and Maslahah Perspectives. Etikonomi, 20(2), xx – xx. https://doi.org/10.15408/etk.v20i2.18053.


BACKGROUND Sclerotherapy of telangiectasias and reticular leg veins can be unpleasant and painful for some patients. OBJECTIVE To determine pain level with two different sclerotherapy techniques in a prospective randomized trial. METHODS Patients with symmetrical telangiectasias and reticular veins on both legs (C1A or SEPASPN1) were randomized to the standard (successive injections of chromated glycerin mixed with one‐third lidocaine‐epinephrine 1%) or two‐step technique (first treating only reticular veins with a single injection at the base of each cluster of telangiectasias and then successively injecting all remaining telangiectasias a few minutes later. Pain was assessed using a 100‐point visual analogue scale (0 = no pain, 100 = maximum pain). RESULTS Data from 53 consecutive patients could be evaluated. The two‐step technique was significantly less painful (28.2) than the standard technique (40.6, p < .001). CONCLUSION The two‐step technique with chromated glycerin mixed with one‐third lidocaine‐epinephrine 1% significantly reduces sclerotherapy pain. This may be a useful technique for patients who are particularly sensitive or afraid of sclerotherapy.


The performance of new asphalt concrete overlays is often jeopardized by existing cracks in the pavement to be rehabilitated. These existing cracks propagate, or reflect, through the new asphalt concrete to the surface of the new overlay. Once reflection cracks appear on the surface of the new pavement, water and debris can enter the pavement structure affecting pavement strength and reducing the life of the overlay. Therefore, reducing the rate at which these reflection cracks propagate to the surface of the pavement is desirable. The research reported in this paper studied the effectiveness of two new reflection crack attenuation techniques. One technique is a grid reinforcing system, the other, a polymer modified asphalt-rich interlayer system. Each system included a control section where no reflective crack attenuation treatment was used. Performance of the two systems was evaluated for six years by measuring cracking semi-annually and comparing this to the cracking present before rehabilitation. After six years significant differences in performance between the controls and the attenuation systems have appeared. Results of this research provide new information regarding tools that may help extend the life of asphalt overlays placed on cracked substrate pavements.