SOME interesting observations of what the modern pediatrician does with his time appear elsewhere in this issue. We believe the results could be applied, with minor variations, to the work of almost any practitioner located in the vicinity of a university teaching center. Where large university hospital staffs are not nearby to support the men in practice, more of their time is probably spent "with children who . . . require their special talents." But even then, is the amount of time so spent as great as the pediatrician would like? And, whether a university clinic is near or not, would many practioners today be able to devote much more than the mere 15 minutes which Dr. C. "although rushed," devoted to "a child with an emotional problem?"


In recent years, attacks on network environments continue to rapidly advance and are increasingly intelligent. Accordingly, it is evident that there are limitations in existing signature-based intrusion detection systems. In particular, for novel attacks such as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), signature patterns have problems with poor generalization performance. Furthermore, in a network environment, attack samples are rarely collected compared to normal samples, creating the problem of imbalanced data. Anomaly detection using an autoencoder has been widely studied in this environment, and learning is through semi-supervised learning methods to overcome these problems. This approach is based on the assumption that reconstruction errors for samples that are not used for training will be large, but an autoencoder is often over-generalized and this assumption is often broken. In this paper, we propose a network intrusion detection method using a memory-augmented deep auto-encoder (MemAE) that can solve the over-generalization problem of autoencoders. The MemAE model is trained to reconstruct the input of an abnormal sample that is close to a normal sample, which solves the generalization problem for such abnormal samples. Experiments were conducted on the NSL-KDD, UNSW-NB15, and CICIDS 2017 datasets, and it was confirmed that the proposed method is better than other one-class models.


The hydropower industry of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) is weakened by the absence of flow control structures. Due to the extremely weak flow control of the mountain rivers utilized by hydropower structures, the total production and economic effect of the operating power units is rather low. This circumstance determines the highest seasonal variability of the annual flow — compared to summer months, the capacity of power plants is reduced in winter by almost 5–6 times. It is obvious that it is almost impossible to utilize the entire capacity of river flows. At the same time, it is unacceptable when no more than 20% of the flow capacity is actually used, which leads to extremely low efficiency of expensive power units. The objective of this research is to study the engineering and economical feasibility of controlling the flow of mountain rivers of KBR, to study the possibility of creating an optimal water pressure by constructing water storage facilities, to assess mountain-valley landscapes and select specific cross-sections for the construction of priority flow control facilities. To achieve this objective, the following tasks were solved: - study the conditions of water flow control for glacier-fed mountain rivers; - formulate preliminary flow control schemes within the selected cross-sections; - assess natural properties of watercourses and their relevance for the construction of flow control facilities; search high-mountain lakes suitable for river flow accumulation in the first approximation; - substantiate a suitable sequence of construction of flow control facilities; - assess the approaches to seasonal and long-term water flow rate forecasting as an essential condition for optimizing the operation of hydropower units.


Electromyography is a bio-signal which is applied in various fields of study such as motor control, neuromuscular physiology, movement disorders, postural control, human ma-chine/robot interaction and so on. Processing of these bio-signals is the essential fact during each application and there still can be seen many challenges among researchers in this area. This paper is focused on the comparison between the classification performances by using different well known feature extraction methods on facial EMGs. Totally ten facial gestures namely smil-ing with both side of lips, smiling with left side of lips, smiling with right side of lips, opening the mouth like saying 'a' in apple word, clenching the molar teeth, gesturing 'notch' by raising the eyebrows, frowning, closing the both eyes, closing the right eye and closing the left eye are recorded from 6 participants through 3 bi-polar recording channels. In the first step, the signals are filtered to get prepared for better processing. Then, time-domain feature extraction methods INT, MAV, MAVS, RMS, VAR, and WL are applied to signals. Finally, the features are classified by Fuzzy C-Means in order to achieve the recognition accuracy and evaluate the performance of each feature extraction method. This work is carried out by revealing that, RMS gives the most probability amplitude approximation in a steady power and non-tiring contraction when the sig-nal is modeled as Gaussian random process. In contrary, WL proved its weakness in estimating the value of facial EMGs.


With the modality system in systemic-functional grammar as the theoretical framework,this paper adopts quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyze the distribution of ways of expressing modality,its orientation and the distribution of finite model verbs,as the major realization of modality system and its values in Obama's inaugural address in order to explore the interpersonal function of modality system in his address and the explanation for the distribution can also be found as well.


Introduction: Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the major and emergent causes of mortality and morbidity around the world. The tranexamic acid has been raised since years ago as a therapeutic intervention. Therefore, prize of exact and timely treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of systemic tranexamic acid on the possible consequences of upper gastrointestinal bleeding such as need for blood transfusion, admission in intensive care unit (ICU), surgery to control bleeding or eventually short-term mortality. Materials and Methods: This double-blind randomized clinical trial included 88 patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding in a referral academic gastrointestinal center. Patients with symptoms of upper gastrointestinal bleeding referred to the emergency department were randomly divided into two groups: intervention group (n=45) who treated with tranexamic acid in addition to receive standard therapy for upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and control group (n=43) treated with standard therapy for upper gastrointestinal bleeding and placebo (distilled water). Results: Administration of tranexamic acid along with the standard therapy for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the intervention group caused reduction in mortality and recurrent bleeding compared to the control group. There is no difference between two groups in need for surgery, hemotransfusion and ICU admission. Conclusion: Due to the beneficial effects of tranexamic acid administration on reducing mortality and bleeding recurrence in patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding, added this drug to the standard therapy may have a favorable potential for upper gastrointestinal bleeding.


Abstract This study examined heterosexism among 409 Illinois school social workers. Heterosexism was found to be negatively correlated with "education about" and "positive contacts with" gay and lesbian individuals and positively correlated with "religiosity." Most respondents showed some level of heterosexism with a few having very high levels. Only 15% were non-heterosexist. Respondents reported receiving little or no education about sexual minorities in their social work training. Most indicated that the training received was not adequate preparation for working with gay and lesbian individuals. Amount of education received increased with each of CSWE's educational mandates about sexual minorities but had no significant effect on heterosexism.


The impedance of GaAs p-i-n diodes under forward bias is modeled using the two-dimensional simulation program PISCES. A parallel equivalent circuit gives almost constant resistance and capacitance over a wide range of frequencies. The intrinsic turn-off switching time of the diode, neglecting contact resistance, is determined by the sweep out time of the carriers, not by the carrier lifetime, unless this is very short. The diode current is recombination dominated at low forward bias. At higher applied voltages, this current becomes diffusion dominated if not masked by high injection conditions. >


In the era of media convergence, the rapid development of communication technology has given birth to a variety of media forms and communication channels. Various information platforms integrate multiple channels such as communication, network, content and receiving terminals to provide huge amounts of news information for audiences and users. These contents are complicated, and the speed of successive information dissemination is extremely fast, so there is a phenomenon that some news information is attracting attention at the beginning, and then the effectiveness of dissemination gradually decreases. Only by deeply studying the phenomenon of diminishing effectiveness of hot news dissemination, and exploring its formation mechanism, can we put forward solutions to better avoid the possibility of its emergence, and more effectively meet the audience's in-depth needs for news information.


Yemen is currently suffering from a shortage of electricity. 41% of population do not have access to the public electricity grid and rural areas are particularly badly affected. Solar panels can be a highly applicable and more environmentally solution as Yemen is a rich country in solar energy. This paper presents a stand-alone photovoltaic SAPV system design using the PVsyst 7.2 software to supply the required energy to a typical house of rural areas in Yemen. The application of PV systems is particularly promising for areas with lower levels of electrification. The geographical location, solar irradiation, load requirements, and various types of power losses are determined. The results and graphs obtained the optimum size of SAPV system configuration. The total amount of electrical energy generated by PV array that supplied to the load and the various types of power losses are determined.


Self-regulation skills are an important predictor of school readiness and early school achievement. Research identifies that experiences of early stress in disadvantaged households can affect young children's brain architecture, often manifested in poor self-regulatory functioning. Although there are documented benefits of coordinated movement activities to improve self-regulation, few interventions have focused exclusively on music and rhythmic activities. This study explores the effectiveness of a preschool intervention, delivered across 8 weeks, which focused on coordinated rhythmic movement with music to improve self-regulation and executive function. The study involved 113 children across three preschools in disadvantaged communities. The intervention group received 16 sessions of a rhythm and movement program over 8 weeks, whereas the control group undertook the usual preschool program. Executive functions were directly assessed, and teachers reported on children's self-regulation before and after the intervention. Path analyses found positive intervention effects for emotional regulation reported by teachers and, for boys, on the measure of shifting in the executive function assessment. Teacher-reported cognitive and behavioral regulation also improved in one research site. These early findings suggest that a rhythm and movement intervention has the potential to support the development of self-regulation skills in preschool; however, further research is required.


Poster: "ECR 2018 / C-0978 / Clinical significance of unusual congenital malformations of portal, pulmonary and systemic veins in every day emergency room practice" by: "M. Ratkovic; Belgrade/RS"


... racial theory should have been rooted in the experiences of the first peoples who experienced racialization, but that was not the case... Even when Latin American and Caribbean writers have written about race, they have relied mostly on American or European theorizations. We would be in a better explanatory position today to understand not only race in the world system, but even developments in the United States and Europe, if we were to go back and ... 'begin at the beginning'. [r]ooting our racial theory on the historical experiences of the oldest racial regimes in the world. (79)


A-SBR was applied to treat coking-plant wastewater in this paper. Its possibility was discussed and some optimal operation parameters were obtained. As a result, high efficiency was achieved on removing of the organic matter and ammonia nitrogen so that the total removal rates of CODcr and NH_3-N were up to 87.8% and 64.9% respectively.


The method and logic of structured, focused comparison is simple and straightforward. The method is /I structured" in that the researcher writes general questions that reflect the research objective and that these questions are asked of each case under study to guide and standardize data collection, thereby making systematic comparison and cumulation of the findings of the cases possible. The method is /I focused" in that it deals only with certain aspects of the historical cases examined. The requirements for structure and focus apply equally to individual cases since they may later be joined by additional cases. The method was devised to study historical experience in ways that would yield useful generic knowledge of important foreign policy problems. The particular challenge was to analyze phenomena such as deter-rence in ways that would draw the explanations of each case of a particular phenomenon into a broader, more complex theory. The aim was to discourage decision-makers from relying on a single historical analogy in dealing with a new case.!


The Heidelberg Retina Flowmeter is a combination of Doppler flowmetry and laser scanning technology. It is new non-invasive method performing a high definition topography of perfused microvessels of the retina and optic nerve head with simultaneous evaluation of blood flow. Recent studies prove significant decrease of optic nerve head blood flow and juxtapapillary blood flow in primary open angle glaucoma.


Abstract Objective: To evaluate quality of life (QoL) of the patients with gynecologic cancers in Dr. Sardjito Hospital - Yogyakarta using the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer- Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (EORTC QLQ-c30). Method: A hundred women with gynecologic cancers were included in a cross-sectional study of quality of life. They aged between 28 and 72 years and were receiving their treatment at the gynecologic cancer department, Dr. Sardjito Hospital from January to March 2009. Interview was done by doctors to avoid bias at one week after the last treatment. Indonesian language version of EORTC QLQ-c30 was used with permission of EORTC organization in order to evaluate the global health status, five functional scales, and symptom scales items. Characteristics and QoL datas were described in median, maximum and minimum after they were linearly transferred to 1 - 100%. Additional internal consistency test was done using Cronbach's α coefficient. Result: The mean age of the participants was 49.02 years (SD 9.57). Most of them suffered from advanced stages of cervical cancer on their first visits (67%). The highest scores were obtained from the cognitive function domain (100%) followed by the emotional function (83%). Whilst, the lowest score appeared in the role functioning and the global QoL (both were scored 66.67%). The highest intensities of symptoms complained by the patients were sleep disturbance and loss of appetite (both were 33.33%). Finally, almost all patients complained about their financial problems (83.34%). Additional analysis of the acceptable level showed that all aspects were reliable under any circumstances except the social functioning aspect. Conclusion: The EORTC QLQ-c30 questionnaires showed to be useful in assessing QoL patients in Dr. Sardjito Hospital. It can address the patient problems in details to give physician another best approach of treating gynecologic cancer patients, not only the number of overall survival which is usually unbearable to be corrected on advanced stages patients. [Indones J Obstet Gynecol 2011; 35-3: 135-8] Keywords: gynecologic cancer, Quality of Life, EORTC QLQc30


In teaching the concepts of sampling theory and survey methodology, in the author's experience, the concept of pseudo-populations has the potential to substantially improve the students' understanding. The rationale behind the Horvitz-Thompson estimator, for instance, can be explained by the generation of a pseudo-population estimating the original population with respect to the total of a study variable by replicating the values observed in the sample by a factor that reflects both the sampling and estimation process. The estimator of a total of a study variable in the original population then is nothing else but the total of the replications of the study variable in the pseudo-population. Further ideas such as ratio or regression estimation can be illustrated in the same way. The difference in their efficiency can be explained by a different composition of the pseudo-population with respect to the variable of interest. This approach may really help to communicate a better understanding of such techniques often not intuitively comprehensible for all students. The concept can be successfully applied to various other techniques in this field such as probability and non-probability sampling methods, the capture-recapture strategy, small area estimation, two-phase sampling, weighting adjustment and data imputation, the finite population bootstrap and many more.


N-Nitrosodiphenylamine (NDPA) is selected as a model compound to reveal the specific adsorption and catalytic function of zeolites in the removal of carcinogenic nitrosamines from the environment. The bulky NDPA molecule is indeed adsorbed in the zeolite KA having a small aperture, by insertion of the –N–NO group into the channel and involving a specific interaction between the nitrosamine and the zeolite. Degradation of NDPA at room temperature on zeolite is reported for the first time, revealing the potential applicability of zeolites to eliminate nitrosamines under mild conditions. The acidity of zeolite is the key factor determining its ability to degrade NDPA and, among the zeolites evaluated, Hβ is the most effective catalyst with an activity much higher than that of other zeolites at ambient temperature.


A field study was conducted at Maiduguri and Lassa Northern and Guinea Savanna during 2013 cropping season to evaluate the use of mahogany ( Khaya senegalensis ) Leaf powders in comparison to carbufuran, and the varietal effect of of okra cultivars in the Management of plant parasitic nematode on okra Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench). Split plot design was employed in which four okra cultivars ( Alau, Utonkon, Eklemson, and Lady's finger) were in the main plot while the sub plot consisted of three treatments;  Mahogany leaf Powder, applied at 1 ton /ha, Carbufuran, 3G 2.0 kg a.i and Control).The 7 treatment were replicated three times. Initial and final soil nematode population was determined using percentage change. Ducan Mutiple Range Test was also used to compare the treatment means (DMRT 0.05). Data was analyze using ANOVA Statistic 8.The result showed that, all the tested okra cultivars were slightly resistance to nematode genera identified. Under Utonkon, soil population of Helicotylenchus was suppressed by 87.3 %, Hoplolaimus by 51.0 %, each of the cultivars suppressed soil population of Longidorus by more than 50 %.  Application of mahogany leaf powder at 1 ton/ha and carbufuran applied at 2.0 kg a.i /ha each reduces soil nematode population by more than 50 %. There was significant difference on root knot gall among cultivars in Maiduguri and Lassa, except combined data. Significant reduction in number of gall per root system among cultivars was obtained with Alau (90.33 %), and Utonkon (90.25 %) in Lassa. Highest number of gall was recorded from Eklemson in both Locations and combined data. Application of mahogany leaf powder each at 1 ton/ha, and carbufuran applied at 2.0 kg a.i / ha, significantly  suppressed galling of okra roots in both locations and the combined data as compared with the control. Highest (92.58) reduction in number of galls per root system was obtained with Carbufuran in Lassa. Utonkon had the tallest plant height of (70.98) cm in Lassa followed by Eklemsom (60.70cm) in Maiduguri. Lady's finger had the tallest plant height of (71.95) cm in the combined analysis. Shortest plants were recorded from Alau (55.32cm) in Maiduguri and Eklemson (60.57cm) in Lassa. Lady's finger recorded the highest shoot weight in both locations while Eklemson recorded the lowest shoot weight in both locations. Alau had the highest root length (15.59cm) at Lassa. The result further showed that mahogany leaf powder each applied at 1ton / ha and carbufuran applied at 2.0 kg a.i / ha significantly increased okra root length ranging from 14.07 cm to 16.14 cm in comparison to non- amended (control) plot in Maiduguri. Alau produces the highest yield (11.45 t/ha). Lowest yield was obtained from Utonkon (9.02 t/ha). At Lassa, highest yield was obtained in Lady's finger. Amended plot with  mahogany leaf powder each at 1ton / ha or  Carbofuran applied at 2.0 kg a.i / ha, significantly produced higher fruit yield than the non-amended plot control plot in Maiduguri, Lassa and combined data. It is evident from the studies that use of plant leaf powder (Mahogany) could be recommended for farmers. Keywords: Mahogany, okra, cabofuran and nematodes


Objective To study the effects of Betaloc on sTNFR-Ⅱin patients with chronic heart failure. Methods We measured the serum level of sTNFR-Ⅱin 26 cases of control group and the different levels in 60 patients with chronic heart failure before and after treatment with routine drugs or Betaloc. Results The serum levels of sTNFR-Ⅱin patients with CHF were significantly higher than those of the control group[(8.93±4.13)μg/L vs (2.34±0.76)μg/L,P0.05]. After 4 weeks treatment, the serum levels of sTNFR-Ⅱin patients with CHF were significantly decreased both in routine group and Betaloc group[(8.85±5.12)μg/L vs(4.38±1.76)μg/L,(9.04±4.76)μg/L vs (4.67±2.15)μg/L, P0.05]. Compared with the routine group, these was not a significant reduction of the serum level of sTNFR-Ⅱ in Betaloc group after treatment[(4.38±1.76)μg/L vs (4.67±2.15)μg/L,P0.05]. Conclusion The serum level of sTNFR-Ⅱin patients with CHF was significantly high, the treatment of Betaloc could not reduce effectly the serum level of sTNFR-Ⅱin patients with Chronic heart failure.


Purpose
To characterize the speech fluency profile of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Methods
Study participants were 40 individuals of both genders aged 40 to 80 years divided into 2 groups: Research Group - RG (20 individuals with diagnosis of Parkinson's disease) and Control Group - CG (20 individuals with no communication or neurological disorders). For all of the participants, three speech samples involving different tasks were collected: monologue, individual reading, and automatic speech.

Results
The RG presented a significant larger number of speech disruptions, both stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies, and higher percentage of speech discontinuity in the monologue and individual reading tasks compared with the CG. Both groups presented reduced number of speech disruptions (stuttering-like and typical dysfluencies) in the automatic speech task; the groups presented similar performance in this task. Regarding speech rate, individuals in the RG presented lower number of words and syllables per minute compared with those in the CG in all speech tasks.

Conclusion
Participants of the RG presented altered parameters of speech fluency compared with those of the CG; however, this change in fluency cannot be considered a stuttering disorder.


Simple Summary Honey bees play an invaluable role in ecosystem stability and global food security. Recently, much attention has been directed toward the safety of pesticides to bees. Flupyradifurone (FPF) is a new butenolide insecticide and is considered friendly to honey bee fitness according to risk assessment procedures. Although no significant side-effects on bee colony strength parameters at FPF field-realistic concentration, laboratory experiments have demonstrated that FPF has multiple negative effects on the behavior of individual honey bees. The information suggested that FPF is posing potential risks to honey bees. In this study, we found that the survival rate of bees exposed to FPF was statistically significantly reduced, whereas there were no negative effects on larvae development nor foraging activity. In addition, immune- and detoxification-related genes were upregulated in exposed foragers and newly emerged bees, suggesting that more important synergistic and behavioral effects that can affect colony fitness should be explored in the future. Abstract Flupyradifurone (FPF) is a novel systemic nAChR agonist that interferes with signal transduction in the central nervous system of sucking pests. Despite claims that FPF is potentially "bee-safe" by risk assessments, laboratory data have suggested that FPF has multiple sub-lethal effects on individual honey bees. Our study aimed to expand the studies to the effects of field-realistic concentration of FPF. We found a statistically significant decrease in the survival rate of honey bees exposed to FPF, whereas there were no significantly negative effects on larvae development durations nor foraging activity. In addition, we found that the exposed foragers showed significantly higher expression of ApidNT, CYP9Q2, CYP9Q3, and AmInR-2 compared to the CK group (control group), but no alteration in the gene expression was observed in larvae. The exposed newly emerged bees showed significantly higher expression of Defensin and ApidNT. These results indicate that the chronic exposure to the field-realistic concentration of FPF has negligible effects, but more important synergistic and behavioral effects that can affect colony fitness should be explored in the future, considering the wide use of FPF on crops pollinated and visited by honey bees.


Every surface bundle with genus g fiber has a canonical Heegaard splitting of genus 2g + 1. In this paper, we discuss the topological indices of such Heegaard surfaces and prove the canonical Heega...


Abstract Social behavior of customers receives a sideline in social media, and the focus appears to be persistent on lead, conversions, and engagement. The psychology of customers is a significant element in the study of social media adoption. Maslow's theory on the hierarchy of needs describes the urge for strong desires after the individual's lower level is satisfied. The study attempts to examine and map the linkages of the Maslow Hierarchy with Social Media Adoption. The study is quantitative and descriptive. The responses from the sample size of 287 were collected using structured a questionnaire. EFA was performed to identify and map the items relating to each level of the hierarchy. CFA was conducted to find the goodness of fit. The findings suggest that the theory of Maslow's fits well with the proposed social media adoption model. The results revealed that social media adoption follows Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. The study may be carried out for scale development for evaluating intentions and reasons for social media usage. The companies can make use of the suggested model in the study for launching their various marketing campaigns.


During the last fifty years, the Canary Islands have experienced a radical change in terms of foreign mobility flows. On the strength of the tourist boom that took place during the 1960s and 70s, the Islands changed their traditional emigratory role into an immigratory one. Over the last few years, these migration flows have reached their peak with over 61,000 new foreign residents registered. This development has led to this Ultraperipheral Region having the second highest rate of resident foreigners in Spain. This latest migratory stage has been characterized by the large number of irregular immigrants who have arrived from underdeveloped countries such as Morocco, Colombia and Mauritania. Doubtlessly linked to this process, there has been a notable increase in the female population living in the Canary Islands. These female immigrants are replacing native women in unskilled and badly paid jobs. Given this situation, a gender study may contribute to the development of a plural, multi-ethnic and intercultural way of living that will neutralize the dangers of discrimination and racism in the Canary Islands.


The phosphonic acid 1,3,5-benzenetri(phosphonic acid) (BTP; 1,3,5-[(OH)2PO]3-C6H3) can act as both a hydrogen bond donor and acceptor. BTP was reacted with two organic bases, 2,2'-bipyridine and 4,4'-bipyridine, in a 1:1 molar ratio. The bis-deprotonation and tris-deprotonation trigger the formation of self-complementary 3D hydrogen bonding architectures. Layers of the 2,2'-bipyridine compound are formed through hydrogen bonding of the phosphonic acid groups existing in the dianionic motif {1,3-[(OH)PO2]2-5-[PO(OH)2]-C6H3}2-. The ratio of BTP to 2,2'-bipyridine is 1:1.5, with two of the phosphonic acid protons being transferred to the nitrogen atoms, leaving a negatively charged oxygen and a proton on each of the phosphonic acid groups. Discrete dimers are formed by three very short PO−H···O−P type hydrogen bonds (2.45−2.48 A) and one short PO−H···OP hydrogen bond at 2.56 A interconnecting all dimers into extended layers in the bc plane. The protonated bipyridyls penetrated into the layers by formation of...


The Australian government's post 1984 motor vehicle plan puts into place mechanisms which attempt to complement market forces and government objectives. If successful, this plan, developed by industry and government will ensure that the Australian automotive industry is better placed to cope with the dynamics of the 1990's.


Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam and an annual worship carried out by Muslims around the world who have the istito'ah/ability (material, physical and scientific) to visit and carry out several worship activities in several places in Saudi Arabia or we often hear by the name of the season of Hajj or the month of Zulhijah. The current Hajj problems, coupled with the problems that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic, were handled by a system for delegating the portion of the Hajj which has become a benchmark for performance at the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion of North Sumatra Province. This research was conducted using qualitative research methods. The results showed that the performance of the administrative service bureaucracy for the delegation of portions of regular pilgrims at the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion of North Sumatra Province had met the service standards in accordance with the performance theory by Pollit & Bouckaert used in this study.


The design of spread footings is a field widely explored in structural engineering being the flexure and shear design verified by the use of codes. The objective of this paper consists in a comparative study of spread footing design between the Brazilian's code, Eurocode and American's code. The methodology considered an analytical analysis with three different examples in the flexure and shear design of the spread footings with different loads and footing height. The results show that the American's code presented the minimum required value of reinforcement rates in all examples and also was the only code that verified the punching and shear effect for all studied cases. In Eurocode flexure design, the results show that in the most examples, the reinforcement rate is higher than that considered by the other codes. The Brazilian code presented an inconsistency in the verification of the punching effect for one of the studied examples, requiring, therefore, a review and a modification of the code.


The aim of the present study was to provides an epidemiologic investigation of the seroprevalence of antibodies to sarcocystis in sheep and goat population in New-Valley Governorate (Egypt).Where sarcocystis is on of the important disease agent of sheep and goats and known to be transmiatted to human. By means of the enzyme –linked immunosorbant assay (ELIZA),blood serum antibody of sarcocystis were analyzid in 330 sheep and 210 goats originated from 9 settlement in New-Valley Governorate,where in sheep215 samples(65.15%) were positive while in goats the seropositive samples were 108 (51.4%),this percentage differed according to the region.The highest percentage appeared in EL-Dakla,EL-Farafra and EL-Kharga on the fallow in both sheep and goats while in relation to sex the highest percentage was in females than males but in rlation to age we found the highest percentage in adult than young in both sheep and goats.Finally we can conculoded that ELIZA test is an efficient diagnostic test for sarcocystis and also we can say the high seroprevalance of sarcocystis in sheep and goats indicated the importance of sarcocystis in public healthy through consumption of under cooked meat of these animals.Microscopic examination revealed ahigh percentage of infection when compared by ELIZA test as infection in sheep was totally(88%) while in goatsarrivedto(75%). asenestivity cystozoites senestivity and specificity for purfied soluble from cyst wall,cystozoites


The low loss window and zero chromatic dispersion at 1.3 pm wavelength in optical fibres has made the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) as sources a practical solution in multimode telecommunication systems. The microlensed surface emitting LED (SLED) has become an established device in commercial systems operating at 34 Mb/s over repeater distances of up to 10.5 kml. However, the drive for higher data rates (140 Mb/s) and longer repeater distances requires narrower spectral linewidths and higher coupled powers than can be achieved with SLEDs, thus provid-ing the impetus for the development of the Edge Emitting LED (ELED) as a higher output power device. The stimulated emission in the plane of the junction (that contributes to radiance saturation in SLEDs2) can enhance both coupled power and switching speed in the ELED structure. The linewidth of this device is inherently narrower due to self absorption. We have previously reported3 a superluminescent device utilising a deep diffused structure capable of very high launch powers (340 μW into 0.2 NA 50 p core fibre at 250 mA) and fast switching (2.2-2.6ns TR and TF). However, a penalty for placing too much reliance on stimulated emission can be an unacceptable temperature derating of some device performance parameters.


A blu-ray disc (BD) / DVD compatible optical slim pickup for video camera drives has been developed. In order to achieve both BD / DVD compatibility and the compact size, a dual objective lens method, collimator lens actuation for spherical aberration compensation, and shared front monitor (FM) were newly developed.


This paper deals with a class of second-order differential equations with a slowly varying bifurcation parameter. The parameter slowly varies through a critical value corresponding to a transition from a stable equilibrium to one of the two stable branches of an intersecting parabolic curve. The local transition behaviour is described by the second Painleve transcendent. In this study we predict which branch will be followed after passage of the bifurcation point given the initial state. For that purpose, use is made of averaging methods and of asymptotic matching techniques connecting local solutions valid before, during, and after the transition.


Bakground and Objectives:Retinoic acid (RA-deprived cultures of normal human tracheobronchial epithelial (NHTBE cells became squamous metaplastic, failed to produce mucin and instead secreted or released large amounts of lysozyme (LZ. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the relationship between RA-deficiency induced squamous metaplasia and increased LZ as a function of time. Materials and Method:The change of lysozyme protein and lysozyme mRNA was investigated over time in cultures using passage-2 normal human tracheobronchial epithelial (NHTBEcells and passage-2 normal human keratinocytes (NHK. The amount of lysozyme and mucin was measured with dot blot, message of lysozyme with RT-PCR, and cornifin mRNA with Northern blot. Results:Lysozyme message levels were consistently higher in RA- sufficient than RA-deficient cultures. Intracellular and extracellular LZ increased to a peak on the day 16 and thereafter decreased in the RA-deficient cultures. LZ gene expression in the RA-deficient cultures was barely detectable on the day 7 but was clearly expressed between days 10 and 14 , but thereafter message levels decreased markedly. On day 12, large numbers of cells began to exfoliate in the RA-deficient cultures. Extracellular LZ appeared simultaneously at the apical surface, presumably released from the exfoliated cells, which contained high concentrations of LZ. Intracellular LZ levels were more than 11 fold less in NHK cells compared to NHTBE cells. Conclusion:This study suggests that cellular accumulation of lysozyme protein is a unique feature of metaplastic squamous differentiation. Further studies are needed to find out what mechanisms are involved. (Korean J Otolaryngol 1998;42(12 : 39-46


Recent reports have identified bulk defects such as oxygen vacancies as key players in visible-light photoactive TiO2. This would imply greater visible light absorption rates may be possible provided effective defect engineering can be achieved. To further this we have developed methods to simulate vacancy formation in bulk TiO2 using ab initio techniques. Initial results of these methods show an entropic reduction in the free energy of vacancy formation of 2.3 eV over a range of 266 K. The use of this result is illustrated by a 'toy' mass-action kinetics model which offers insight into vacancy concentration, rate constants, and enthalpy of reaction.


We propose a dynamic insurance network model that allows to deal with reinsurance default contagion risks with a particular aim of capturing cascading effects at the time of defaults. We capture these effects by finding an equilibrium allocation of settlements which can be found as the unique optimal solution of an optimization problem. This equilibrium allocation recognizes the correlation among the risk factors, the contractual obligations, which are assumed to follow popular contracts in the insurance industry (such as stop-loss), and the interconnections of the insurance-reinsurance network. We are able to obtain an asymptotic description of the most likely ways in which the default of a specific group of insurers can occur, by means of solving a multidimensional Knapsack integer programming problem. Finally, we propose a class of strongly efficient estimators (in a precise large deviations sense) for computing the expected loss of the network conditioning on the failure of a specific set of companies.


: Wireless Sensor network (WSN) is a quickly rising area for research and development. WSN can be seen in various fields like environmental monitoring, battle field surveillance, border security surveillance, motion tracking etc. A main issue of research in WSN is to arrange the sensors with different capabilities like power, sensing range, communication range in wireless network and route the sensed data from the sensors to a sink with dynamism. Clustering is a key technique used to lengthen the network lifetime by decreasing the energy utilization. In clustered WSN, Routing the sensory data to the sink without obstacle is impossible. So eliminating the obstacle in the routing area is essential. In this paper, grouping the sensors into clusters by energy efficient heterogeneous clustering, that often selects the cluster head from the cluster. Cluster head is selected with respect to the nodes residual energy and other parameters like transmission range and number of transmissions. In this work the connectivity is concentrated by Route identification technique with the help of shortest path algorithm to reach the sink among obstacles. Connectivity is considered as a measure of Quality of Service. We show that the proposed system reduces the energy utilization, average hop count and packet delay of heterogeneous WSN.


This paper presents the initial findings of a research project that is seeking to understand the bereavement experiences of people such as parents, grandparents and siblings, who are close to those who die through illicit drug use. It is argued that the deaths of these individuals are qualitatively different from those related to other substances such as alcohol or nicotine, for example. The reasons for this include the often unexpected nature of the deaths and the young age at which they tend to occur. These deaths result from an activity that is illegal and is regarded as deviant or carries social censure. The deaths under consideration occur in a context that might be poorly understood by those close to the user. The death itself might reveal a relative or friend as drug user for the first time. Drug users also have a 'spoiled identity' that can be attached to the bereaved. There are, moreover, few guides to the practitioner as to the difficulties that the bereaved may experience.


This paper examines the difficulty subjects experience in communicating with natural language (NL) speech re cognizers in real telephone services. We show that pr oviding an NL interface is not sufficient for creating a comfortable experience for untrained users, and that customer confusion is a key challenge in building NLbased services. We examine three recent NL trials from both the technology perspective and the human perspective and show where improvements must be made before NL services can be broadly deployed.


Introduction: Abdominal tuberculosis is not uncommon in daily medical practice. This study was done focusing variable presentations of abdominal tuberculosis
Material and methods: Data of consecutive patients diagnosed as abdominal tuberculosis were analyzed. Their epidemiological features, presentations, laboratory findings, and response to therapy were analysed.
Result: Total 69 cases (male 43, 62.3%,and female 26, 37.7%), age ranging from 15 to 85 years (mean 36.23) were enrolled. Rural (55, 79.7%), poor (49,71%) and housewives (24, 34.8%) and people of 21-30 years age group (27, 39.1%) were more affected. Diagnosis was based on combinations of clinical, laboratory findings and therapeutic response. In this series 30 (43.5%), 23 (33.4%) and 12 (17.3%) were diagnosed as intestinal, peritoneal and disseminated tuberculosis respectively. Of them68 patients recovered with treatment. Five patients developed intestinal obstruction and one developed hepatitis and lost from follow up.
Conclusion: Diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis is by combinations of clinical findings, without gold standard method. In our series intestinal tuberculosis and peritoneal tuberculosis were common clinical types with weight loss and abdominal pain as common clinical symptoms. And outcome of Treatment of TB was excellent
J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2019; 37(1): 25-29


The anti-corrosion property of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) makes the concrete produced with marine wastes (waste brine after desalination) and resources (seawater and sea sand) a promising green structural material which can be a sustainable solution to fresh water and river sand scarcity in marine and offshore construction. To evaluate the feasibility of using waste and marine resources in concrete, this study investigated the mechanical properties and durability of brine-sea sand concrete (BSC) and seawater-sea sand concrete (SSC) with three different water-to-cement ratios and compared them to the corresponding ordinary concrete (OC). The results demonstrated that the increased salinity had a minor effect on the 28-day compressive strength, but a significant effect on the large-size capillary pore structure. The semi-quantitative analysis of the concrete phase based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that BSC and SSC had larger mass fractions of the amorphous phase (mainly C-S-H), ettringite and gypsum during hydration. At last, the comprehensive performance of three different concrete mixtures was evaluated by five indexes (workability, alkali environment, compressive strength, carbonization resistance, and sulfate resistance). The results show that it is feasible to use brine/seawater and sea sand to replace freshwater and river sand for marine structural concrete reinforced with FRP.


Triangular norms are associative operations which represent conjunctions in fuzzy
logic. They were also studied in the context of probabilistic metric spaces. It is known
that each continuous Archimedean triangular norm can be determined by additive
and multiplicative generators. However, ¯nding a generator of a given triangular norm
may be a di±cult task. The geometry of the generator does not seem to re°ect the
properties of the triangular norm in an intuitive way. We show that this need not be
the case for a large class of triangular norms which allow to reconstruct the generators
from partial derivatives of triangular norms. This class is broad enough to cover all
continuous Archimedean triangular norms which we found in the literature.


It is a method and a device for grouping articles (12) is disclosed. The articles are after another in at least one regular row (18) in the horizontal direction (16) conveyed and means of at least three, cooperating respectively in alternating pairs of clamping strips (36, 38, 40), of which at the same time two in pair-wise interaction on both longitudinal sides of the regular row (18) of the article (12) to attack, and split laterally in the conveying lanes (26, 28, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62) displaced. A central clamping bar (36) each acting on each shift operation an article group (24) with one of the outer clamping strips (38, 40) and forms with this a clamping bar pair (42, 44) for temporary lateral fixation of the contacted article group (24) and which have a lateral displacement to the left or right in the respective conveying passage (26, 28, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62).


Our study uses accounting for income tax uncertainty (FIN 48) to examine how rules intended to increase uniformity affect relevance. By requiring all firms to follow the same recognition and measurement process, the FASB intended FIN 48 to improve the relevance of income tax accounting. However, practitioners argue that reserves reported under FIN 48 lack relevance because they reflect liabilities that will never be paid to taxing authorities. Consistent with these concerns, we estimate that only 24 cents of every dollar of reserves is paid in cash. Moreover, contrary to the FASB's intention, we find no evidence that FIN 48 increased the relevance of income tax expense, but rather decreased relevance among firms for which FIN 48 is most restrictive. Finally, we find no evidence that investors identify firms for which reserves overstate future cash outflows and incorporate this into their valuations. Our results suggest uniform accounting rules can adversely affect the relevance of accounting information.


It introduces the conception of the business process modeling and the essential method of the weapon maintenance equipment business process modeling. It explains the procedure of the weapon maintenance equipment business process modeling based on organization structure, business process and business information. At last, it put forwards the business model optimizing methods. Keywords-business process; modeling; weapon maintenance equipment


Introduction PART 1: HUMAN CONTEXT Human nature The catastrophe of cancer What helps people with cancer? Quality of life Summary References PART 2: PERSONAL CONTEXT Changed lives Expectation about illness Shock of diagnosis Denial and avoidance Delays to diagnosis "Why me?" - the meaning of cancer Coping with treatment Relationship with healthcare team Practical concerns Relationship with family and friends Impact on self Hope The body Existential beliefs Ending treatment Living with uncertainty References PART 3: OTHER PEOPLE What is social support and why is it important? Family context Partner relationship Caring References PART 4: SOCIAL CONTEXT Background and introduction Social class Gender Homeless people Defining 'homelessness' Ethnicity Defining 'race', 'culture', and 'ethnicity' Ethnicity and giving support: communication, advocacy, and interpreters An interpreter An advocate Refugees and asylum seekers Conclusion References PART 5: CLINICAL CONTEXT General practice Diagnosis Surgery Radiotherapy Chemotherapy and hormone therapy Common treatment difficulties Rehabilitation Recurrence Palliative care Bereavement care References PART 6: COMMUNICATION Communication and ethics Information Staff-patient relationship Patient-centred communication Eliciting concerns Specific communication issues Professional issues in communication References PART 7: PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT Part 1 Stress and burnout in healthcare professionals Cancer professionals Preventing burnout and reducing stress Part 2 User-involvement Voluntary support Complementary therapy and alternative medicine References APPENDICES 1. Common self report questionnaires 2. Managing the stress of cancer - a psychosocial guide for people with cancer


The effects of contextual fear‐learning on hippocampal synaptic excitability were investigated by means of high frequency tetanic stimulation (HFS) in rat brain slices (hippocampal CA1 region), prepared at different intervals (immediately, 24 h or 7 days) after a one‐trial contextual fear conditioning paradigm session. In the latter, rats that had previously received aversive electrical footshocks in the experimental apparatus exhibited freezing (the conditioned response) when placed again in the same apparatus (retrieval test). It was shown that contextual fear‐learning affects the hippocampal synaptic response. In fact, the HFS produced a decrease in the amplitude of short‐term (STP) and long‐term potentiation (LTP) when compared to control 'naïve' subject values. This decrease in STP amplitude could be observed only in slices prepared immediately after the training session. A decrease in the amplitude of long‐term but not short‐term potentiation was also observed at 24 h. At 7 days, no decreases in amplitude were observed. These modifications may be thought of as specifically associated with the learning process as they were not recorded in brain preparations from 'shock‐only' rats (i.e. those that received the same number of aversive stimuli of equal intensity as the conditioned group but with the shocks compressed temporally so that the shocked subjects could not associate nociceptive stimulation and surroundings – no conditioned freezing during retention testing). In 'exploration' preparations (brain slices from rats having only freely explored the experimental apparatus without receiving any adverse stimulation) a decrease in LTP amplitude was recorded only immediately after the training session, and STP was never modified. The synaptic response modifications do not appear to be due to presynaptic events, as they are not associated with paired‐pulse facilitation curve (PPF) modifications. The present results show that contextual fear conditioning and exploration of a novel environment (i) reduce the ability to induce synaptic plasticity; (ii) differentially influence STP and LTP and that (iii) the persistence of synaptic modifications depends on an animal's prior experience.


of its promulgation was aimed not primarily at the restored Bourbons of France and Spain but at Russia, and that Thomas Jefferson, who never set foot in Russia, was "the first American Ambassador" to St. Petersburg. On pages 51 and 52 the suggestion is made that if Roosevelt had not encouraged Britain and France to get into the Second World War and that if the Western powers had simply ignored Hitler, Hitler would have invaded Russia, both Germany and Russia would be weaker today, and not only America but also Britain and France would stand secure and strong in a safe world. We are led to believe that Russia is dominant in Eastern Europe and the Balkans merely because of Yalta rather than because her position, along with American primacy in Greece, Italy, Western Europe, and Japan, represents the actual power situation in the world today, reflecting geography, armed might, and the collapse in 1918 and 1945 of traditional "balancers." There is a perfunctory account of the Marshall Plan and NATO, and a grudging admission that these measures have been effective, although Chamberlin leaves the impression that the best promise of European strength lies in the free enterprise systems of Switzerland, Belgium, and West Germany. According to Chamberlin, Russia secured "complete political domination of China" mainly because of the ineptitude (or worse) of American foreign policy. Chamberlin fails to tell us that the middle way was indigenously weak in China and that not a single leading American, not even General Wedemeyer, proposed sending American armed forces to try to save Chiang Kai-shek during the critical years from 1946 to 1949. More important than hindsight and retroactive judgments on China policy would be constructive suggestions of social policies and military measures designed to save Indochina from the Communists, but Chamberlin, who saves his ammunition for the "ifs" of history after they are safely past, conveniently ignores this.—WILLIAM G.


This paper describes the current condition of the maintenance system and maintenance management system in one of the petrochemical subsidiaries in Iran. It also assess approaches in both side of maintenance aspects such as the human resources and the technical issues in KIMIA Co by means of a questionnaire and concludes practical recommendations to help the company to reach to the reasonable performance for the future excellence in the maintenance organization. Such as: • Development of training in the organization of the maintenance contractors • Improve the work order system • Improve the spare parts supply chain management system • Development of the knowledge management culture in the maintenance organization


(73) Assignee: Chevron U.S.A. Inc., San Ramon, CA ge R 1929 R t (US) 6,841,063 B2 1/2005 Elomari 6,855,838 B2 2/2005 Haas et al. (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 6,965,044 B1 1 1/2005 Hammond et al. patent is extended or adjusted under 35 2004f0074760 A1* 4, 2004 Portnoff et al. ........ 204,157.15 U.S.C. 154(b) by 609 days. 2009006961.0 A1 3/2009 Roberts et al. ................ 585/24


A thin-walled membranous capsule is adhered onto a rigid substrate by surface forces. In the presence of excessive osmotic pressure, the capsule will detach from the substrate due to membrane stretching. A simple energy balance is proposed to describe the adhesion mechanics.


This research takes,at random,126 students from two colleges and tries to manipulate their mind while taking physical exercises under the guide of stage change model.The data before and after the experiment are analyzed with the Questionnaire for Social Adaptation by Professor Zouhong from Beijing Normal University,concerning their self-approval,self-disturbing,social inclination,personal isolation,efficiency,disobedience,positive treatment and frustration.The research studies,on the basis of the above empirical research,college students' status quo,mental factors and trends of physical exercises,which is meant to show the importance of physical exercises to college students' social adaptation and to serve the overall improvement of college students' physical health.


Electrochemical behavior of L-Trp on single-wall carbon nanotube(SWCNT)modified glassy carbon electrode(GCE)was investigated by cyclic voltammetry(CV)and Linear Sweep Voltammetry(LSV)in this paper.It was studied through investigation of the effect of the buffer solution,pH,scanning rate etc.Electrochemical ressults show that L-Trp electrochemical behaviors exhibit an irreversible redox process.L-Trp produces an irreversible oxidation peak at 0.703V(Vs.SCE)in an Ammonium acetate buffer solution of pH =5.0.The peak potential is much lower than that at a bare GCE.The peak current is proportional to the concentration of L-Trp in the range of 5.0×10-6-1.0×10-4 mol/L with a detection limit of 1.0×10-7mol/L by means of Linear Sweep Voltammetry at the SWCNT modified electrode.Its linear correlation coefficient is 0.9984.and a direct electroanalytical method for determining.L-Trp was established.


The catalyst for the articles in this special issue was a workshop on "Spatial Modeling in Fisheries Economics" sponsored by the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office (NOAA Fisheries) in October of 2002. The workshop evolved from discussions amongst fishery managers and scientists on the need to think more critically about the objectives and effects of spatial management of marine fisheries. These discussions are in response to the provisions in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act on the identification and protection of essential fish habitat (EFH) and Executive Order 13158, which calls for the development of a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the United States. The focus of the workshop was on the role that economists can play in designing and evaluating the cost effectiveness and efficiency of such policies and the methodologies needed for this task. In many ways, the executive order on MPAs is symbolic of changes underway in ocean governance. First, in response to a growing body of evidence, management has begun to move away from a paradigm where fishermen and fish stocks are treated as if they are uniformly distributed across a featureless socioeconomic and ecological seascape to one that recognizes and responds to policy relevant spatial


As the number of cars increases and large cities become more and more crowded, noise reduction becomes more and more important. The decrease of the fuel consumption and the increase of power to the same cylindrical capacity are always current topics. This paper's aim is to bring a contribution to solving these problems. The proposed solution consists in the use of ceramic materials in the design of the combustion chamber.


Novel polymer–silver hybrid core–shell nanoparticles (SNSs) which showed long term bacteriostatic, photohyperthermia induced bactericidal and triggered Ag+ release abilities were reported. Both gram-negative (GN) and gram-positive (GP) bacteria can be effectively killed by photothermolysis therapy. The Ag+ release triggered by illumination provides a sustained release of Ag+, which offers long term antibacterial ability under normal conditions.


The incorporation of nitrogen in the low percentage range is investigated in a different III–V compound matrix. The materials are grown by molecular-beam epitaxy with a nitrogen radio-frequency plasma source. For equivalent growth conditions, the same rate of N incorporation is found for GaAsN and GaInAsN. However, this N incorporation rate is significantly enhanced in the GaAsSbN alloy. These observations support a discussion on the reactive nitrogen species.


Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) is an advanced control technique that often relies on computationally demanding optimization and integration algorithms. This paper proposes and investigates a heterogeneous hardware implementation of an NMPC controller based on an interior point algorithm. The proposed implementation provides flexibility of splitting the workload between a general-purpose CPU with a fixed architecture and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to trade off contradicting design objectives, namely performance and computational resource usage. A new way of exploiting the structure of the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) matrix yields significant memory savings, which is crucial for reconfigurable hardware. For the considered case study, a 10x memory savings compared to existing approaches and a 10x speedup over a software implementation are reported. The proposed implementation can be tested from Matlab using a new release of the Protoip software tool, which is another contribution of the paper. Protoip abstracts many low-level details of heterogeneous hardware programming and allows quick prototyping and processor-in-the-loop verification of heterogeneous ha dware impl mentations.


Abstract. A new approach to automating droplet freezing assays is demonstrated by comparing the ice-nucleating efficiency of a K-feldspar glass and a crystal with the same bulk composition. The method uses a pyroelectric polymer PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) as a thermal sensor. PVDF is highly sensitive, cheap, and readily available in a variety of sizes. As a droplet freezes latent heat is released, which is detected by the sensor. Each event is correlated with the temperature at which it occurred. The sensor has been used to detect microlitre volume droplets of water freezing, from which frozen proportion curves and nucleation rates can be quickly and automatically calculated. Our method shows glassy K-feldspar to be a poor nucleator compared to the crystalline form.


Objective To identify the P.mirabilis strain isolated from infant rhesus monkeys in the period of artificial feeding,and provide useful data for detection and identification of the bacteria in laboratory rhesus monkeys.Methods P.mirabilis strains isolated from infant rhesus monkeys were identified by cultural characteristics,colony morphology,staining,motility and biochemical test and serological test.Meanwhile,antibiotic sensitivity,virulence and toxin tests were conducted.Results The results of cultural characteristics,colony morphology,staining,biochemical and serological tests showed that the isolate was a strain of P.mirabilis.Effective therapeutic drugs were screened by antibiotic sensitivity test,and the disease was effectively controlled.Virulence tests showed that it is a highly pathogenic strain to mice.Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that P.mirabilis isolated from infant monkeys is the pathogenic agent leading to their diarrhea and death.This bacteria strain is a conditional pathogen,which may cause some potential harm to researchers and laboratory rhesus monkeys.Although laboratory rhesus monkeys are allowed to be P.mirabilis carriers in our country,it is worth to pay high attention to the serious consequence of P.mirabilis infection,and it should be considered as an important issue.


This year (2008) sees the celebration of 60 years of bird ringing in South Africa. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the past, current and future role ringing has, is and will play in ornithological studies in Africa. Historically, bird ringing played a major role in our understanding of bird migration. Indeed, the roots of bird ringing globally came from a desire Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen had to find out where "his" birds went to. He first started ringing Common Starlings in 1890 in Viborg, Denmark (see Preus 2001 for a summary of his life). Africa played a major role in the first few years, with a White Stork being recovered in Himeville in 1909 (Underhill et al. 1999), one of the first records of intercontinental, cross hemisphere migrations ever conclusively documented by science. Apart from migration studies, ringing became a useful tool in studying longevity, and other life history traits such as morphological variation between species and sexes, patterns of breeding and moulting, and in establishing presence/absence data, particularly in forest species. The increased use of tracking technology (radio, satellite, cell phone, geo-loggers, etc.) and the advent of stable isotope analysis (and its application to bird studies) has led to some people perceiving that the age of ringing is coming to an end. Indeed, in some circles it is seen as an irrelevant activity not worthy of funding or future investment. This paper aims to address such misconceptions, by examining the growing role ringing is playing in ornithological research today. We review the current use of ringing, by providing examples from the global literature to show that ringing is still an essential research tool for the modern day ornithologist.


Preference learning refers to learning the preferences for a collection of alternatives based on observed or revealed preference information, which are usually represented in the form of an order relation. Some of the existing preference learning methods are parametric in nature, and such methods are faster to train but less expressive. To address this issue, we map the preference learning onto the graph structure, introduce the concept of graph neural networks (GNNs), and propose a two-stage preference learning method based on GNNs, which consists of preference relation prediction stage and object preference ranking stage. The first stage is used to judge the preferences between pairs of objects, the second stage is used to correct the inconsistent preference information of the first stage and rank all objects. In Stage 1, we turn the prediction problem into an edge classification problem on the graph, design a multilayer perceptron (MLP) model to extract edge features, and mine preference information with the help of GNNs. In Stage 2, we construct a comparator neural network structure that takes pairwise preference information as input and generates a score for each object as output. The ranking of the object scores determines the objects' preference order. Experiments conducted on preference learning datasets have shown that our method achieves significant performance improvements over existing preference learning methods when evaluated in the context of preference service.


The mine foundation and support for the whole mine protection,safety protection,is the most crucial.While in the mine after the completion of the quality control,is also very important.In order to strengthen mine safety,for ground support protection and quality control has become the primary problem.This paper mainly discusses how to mine the foundation supporting protection and quality control.


The purpose of this project is to allow students to use their (developing) skills of poetic explication and close reading, combined with research and analysis, to discover and establish a solid case for a poet they will nominate as the next American Poet Laureate. Working in groups of 3-4, students will identify a published, living American poet who has not yet been designated a laureate. The project demands a wide array of skills as the students research bibliographic information on the poet: read and analyze the poet's body of work and select one central poem to represent that poet; amass their materials into a cogent group presentation and, if desired, individually or collectively write an essay in which they present their analysis and justifications. The English Team at IMSA presents this at the end of the sophomore year American Literature sequence, but it could be given where most appropriate for a specific class. Common Core Standards: SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. SL.9-10.2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source. W.11-12.1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. W.11-12.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. W.11-12.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes.


To enhance the small cruise vehicle in the complex environment under the ice autonomous obstacle avoidance ability, the artificial potential field algorithm was improved in this paper. Firstly, the idea and principle of the traditional artificial potential field obstacle avoidance algorithm as well as its existing defects such as local minimum are analyzed. Then the local minimum defect of the traditional artificial potential field method is solved by optimizing the repulsive potential field function and adjusting the repulsive force component's direction on the coordinate axis. Then, the improved artificial potential field obstacle avoidance algorithm is simulated by using MATLAB software. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm can make the cruiser safely and accurately sail to the target position without falling into the local minimum value, which proves that the improved artificial potential field obstacle avoidance algorithm can work safely and stably.


A horn antenna is disclosed having a built-in circular polarizer and a cross polarization attenuator. A square-apertured horn antenna has a plurality of pairs of conductive fins disposed along opposite edges of the horn interior. The individual fins are separated from each other by approximately one-fourth wavelength. The fins are at a 45 degree angle to that linear wave and react with that linear wave by imparting a circular rotation to that wave as the wave propagates past each pair of fins. A stepped attenuator is mounted in the input section to the horn antenna perpendicular to the linear input wave. The attenuator substantially absorbs cross-polarized signals whether reflected from the aperture of the horn or provided by the incoming signal.


& WE SPEAK OF viruses, though not the ones that infect computers. Believe it or not, this follows a long tradition in economics. Two centuries ago, T. Malthus first made his grim predictions about death from resource shortages. Economics has been known as the dismal science ever since. Grim is the mood of the day. This is a painful moment for many stockholders, managers, and personnel. Many readers may not have had to think about this topic since the financial panic of 2008, or maybe even the dot-com bust. Dismal as this topic is, let us understand how the pandemic could cause so much economic damage, and why it may take so long to recover. I will keep it basic and focus on the economics of this situation for the technology economy.


Groundwater is commonly perceived as an important natural resource. For instance, more than one million people who live in Kumamoto City and the surrounding areas, including Mashiki Town, owes drinking water supplies to the groundwater that is recharged in a volcanic watershed, Aso Caldera 18 km by 25 km across. Notably, Aso Caldera is situated 40 to 60 km away from Shimabara Bay to the east, having altitudes of 400 to 500 m. The precipitation there amounts to 3000 mm or so per annum, maintaining the rich groundwater resources. The description up to this point, however, is only half a story regarding volcano-related legacies. When coming to the site response to earthquake shaking (not directly related to volcanic activities herein), volcano-derived thick deposits of sediment can be a threat. The surveys conducted by the author (and other researchers) immediately following the Kumamoto earthquake reveal that the way in which Mashiki Town suffered from the quake varied in extent from one district to another, suggesting the importance of subsoil and groundwater conditions. Specifically, the damage in the form of the collapse of wooden houses concentrated in a district where layered deposits of volcanic soil extended from the ground surface to considerable depths. In contrast, the damage to wooden houses in Douen and Fukuhara areas remained minimal, even though the shaking-related fault(s) appeared in the ground surface with a permanent displacement being more than 1 m. It is likely that the thickness of the volcanic sediment or proximity to the basement rock exerted an influence on the linkage between the seismic amplification and structural resilience of wooden houses. The hydrogeologic features of the most severely damaged district of Mashiki Town may be summarized as follows. First, the site is situated on a gently sloping terrace, facing south, that was formed approximately 90000 years B.P. as being a consequence (non-welded style) of the Aso-4 pyroclastic flow. Second, the site is so favorable in groundwater supply and storage, keeping the groundwater level high. Third, the underground flow system of the site's upper areas terminates in a form to enhance fluvial processes such as gully erosion and scarp sliding, thereby facilitating continued deposition of volcanic soil in the lower areas. Fourth, the sediment deposited in this manner over a prolonged period of time has transformed it into a "structured soil" that can support its self weight on a sloping terrain unless the skeleton structure of it is broken down due to mechanical disturbances such as earthquake shaking. What is the lesson learnt from the soil-related, severe hazard with Mashiki Town? It is important to recognize that pyroclastic flow deposits of non-welded style, which are relatively common in this country, are leaky in some cases but are not so in other cases. In order to promote preparedness for future earthquakes, it is advisable to explore groundwater environments as well in such settings in light of the Mashiki-Town case discussed in this paper.


Conducting polypyrrole modified electrodes incorporated with alizarin red S were prepared by electropolymerization under different solvent systems. Mixtures of water and a non-aqueous solvent (either acetonitrile or ethylene glycol) were employed. Electroanalysis of copper(II) species was performed voltammetrically. The effects of solvent system on the performance of the electrodes were evaluated in terms of the normalized current, alizarin red S coverage, polymerization charge and the ligand-to-metal ratio for copper analysis. Experimental results showed that the water content in the solvent mixture had strong influence on the electroanalytical performance of the polypyrrole film. Polypyrrole modified electrodes prepared from acetonitrile with high water content and ethylene glycol with large amount of water functioned poorly while sensitive and reproducible results were obtained by introducing small amount of water into the solvent system. The morphology of the polypyrrole films was examined and it seemed that there was direct correlation between the film morphology and the electroanalytical behavior for copper(II) determination. The polypyrrole films changed from smooth surface to nodular form as the water content in the preparation solvent mixtures increased. It was proposed that the solvent composition affected the electroanalytical behavior by influencing the morphology of polypyrrole modified electrodes obtained.


This article aims to analyze how Agatha Christie's character Hercule Poirot is feminized through several aspects, namely his appearance and character, his age and recurring cat symbolism. All the aspects and their examples were collected from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories employing close reading as a method. By the use of several academic papers focused mainly on the topic of gender stereotypes in connection to the presented examples from Agatha Christie's works, the central argument is that the character of the male detective Hercule Poirot is strongly feminized. Although this theory is already widely accepted, this article focuses on its less frequently discussed aspects, namely cat symbolism and age-related feminization.


A review of the Savannah River Site production reactor systems was initiated in 1980 and led to implementation of the Reactor Materials Program in 1984 to assess reactor safety and reactor service life. The program evaluated performance of the reactor tanks, primary coolant piping, and thermal shields, components of welded construction that were fabricated from Type 304 stainless steel. The structural integrity analysis of the primary coolant system has shown that the pressure boundary is not susceptible to gross rupture, including a double ended guillotine break or equivalent large area bank. Residual service life is potentially limited by two material degradation modes, irradiation damage and intergranular stress corrosion cracking. Analysis of the structural integrity of the tanks and piping has shown that continued safe operation of the reactors for several additional decades is not limited by the material performance of the primary coolant system. Although irradiation damage has not degraded material behavior to an unacceptable level, past experience has revealed serious difficulties with repair welding on irradiated stainless steel. Stress corrosion can be mitigated by newly identified limits on impurity concentrations in the coolant water and by stress mitigation of weld residual stresses. Work continues in several areas: the effectsmore » of helium on mechanical behavior of irradiated stainless steel; improved weld methods for piping and the reactor tanks; and a surveillance program to track irradiation effects on the tank walls.« less


The superconducting state of the filled skutterudite alloy series Pr$_{1-x}$La$_{x}$Pt$_{4}$Ge$_{12}$ has been systematically studied by specific heat, zero-field muon spin relaxation ($\mu$SR), and superconducting critical field measurements. An additional inhomogeneous local magnetic field, indicative of broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS), is observed in the superconducting states of the alloys. For $x \lesssim 0.5$ the broken-TRS phase sets in below a temperature $T_m$ distinctly lower than the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$. For $x \gtrsim 0.5$ $T_m \approx T_c$. The local field strength decreases as $x \to 1$, where LaPt$_{4}$Ge$_{12}$ is characterized by conventional pairing. The lower critical field $H_{c1}(T)$ of PrPt$_{4}$Ge$_{12}$ shows the onset of a second quadratic temperature region below $T_q \sim T_m$. Upper critical field $H_{c2}(T)$ measurements suggest multiband superconductivity, and point gap nodes are consistent with the specific heat data. In Pr$_{1-x}$La$_{x}$Pt$_{4}$Ge$_{12}$ only a single specific heat discontinuity is observed at $T_c$, in contrast to the second jump seen in PrOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ below $T_c$. These results suggest that superconductivity in PrPt$_{4}$Ge$_{12}$ is characterized by a complex order parameter.


Abstract Traditionally, agreements between labour unions and employers' associations have been a rare instrument of work environment regulation. However, they appear to be becoming more significant. There is a growing tendency in Denmark to integrate agreements and legislation. One of the reasons for this development is the higher priority given to the psychosocial work environment. This area is generally difficult to regulate, even by the reflexive form of work environment legislation currently in use, as its character makes it difficult to set fixed norms that can be measured objectively. In addition, the prevention of psychosocial strains requires changes in the organisation of work and management of human resources. Both areas are normally controlled by management and to some extent influenced by collective agreements relating to the wage system and working hours. Deregulation and EU legislation also put the labour unions and employers' associations under pressure, forcing them to look for new roles. A stronger role in work environment regulation could be a possibility. Agreements between the social partners about the work environment may introduce new dynamics if they result in a greater commitment to improvement on the parts of both the social partners and the companies. Strong co-operation between the work environment authorities and the social partners seems to be necessary. However, achievement of such co-operation is far from straightforward. On the one hand, employers may find the work environment requirements too strict; on the other, union members may find them exactly the opposite.


Background: Despite relatively few reports of residential case clusters of COVID-19, building-wide compulsory testing notices on residential apartment blocks are frequently applied in Hong Kong with the aim of identifying cases and reducing transmission. Methods: We aimed to describe the frequency of residential case clusters and the efficiency of compulsory testing notices in identifying cases. The residences of locally infected COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong were grouped to quantify the number of cases per residence. Buildings targeted in compulsory testing notices were matched with the residence of cases to estimate the number of cases identified. Results: We found that most of the residential buildings (4246/7688, 55.2%) with a confirmed COVID-19 case had only one reported case. In the fourth and the fifth epidemic wave in Hong Kong, we estimated that compulsory testing notices detected 29 cases (95% confidence interval: 26, 32) and 46 cases (44, 48) from every 100 buildings tested (each with hundreds of residents), respectively. Approximately 13% of the daily reported cases were identified through compulsory testing notices. Conclusions: Compulsory testing notices can be an essential method when attempting to maintain local elimination (zero covid) and most impactful early in an epidemic when the benefit remains of stemming a new wave. Compulsory testing therefore appears to be a relatively inefficient control measure in response to sustained community transmission in the community.


Al-doped LiMn2O4 nanotubes have been synthesized using β-MnO2 nanotubes as self-templates. Singe-crystalline structure of the Al-doped spinel was verified by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction techniques. Galvanostatic charge/discharge tests indicate that the Al-doped single-crystalline spinel nanotube delivers a discharge capacity of 110 mAh g–1 at 0.1C rate and retains about 80% of its initial capacity after 200 cycles at 5C rate at 55 °C, indicating superior elevated-temperature cycling performance at a high current rate. Furthermore, high crystallinity, single-crystalline nature, and tubular morphology can be well preserved after aging tests for 30 days at 55 °C, revealing their good structural stability.


Introduction Reed canary grass, Phalaris arundinacea L., is native in temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere (Hult6n & Fries1986), and grown as a fodder crop in some areas. Recently P. arundinaceahas achieved attention as a crop having potential for bioenergy and fibre production (Landstrdm et al. 1996, Sandstrrim 1996). Barnes (1927) described a new gall midge species, Mayetiola phalaris, on the basis of adults reared from P. arundinacea in Germany by Blunck. Tomaszewski (1931) identified larvae feeding on stems of P. arundinacea as MayetioLa phalaris, but Ertel (1975) found that this was wrong. She noticed, on the basis of Blunck's original material of Mayetiola phalaris, that the mature larva of this species has only one anterior lobe on the spatula, whereas the larva described by Tomaszewski has two lobes. In 1996 in an experimental field of P. arundinacea at Vojakkala in northern Sweden (65" 52' N: 24" 05' E) lodging of the crop was observed. At the points of stem breakage gall midge larvae were found beneath the leaf sheaths. These larvae, when mature, have a bilobed spatula and are perhaps conspecific with those erroneously identified as Mayetiola phalaris by Tomaszewski. They belong to the tribe Oligotrophini and represent a new species of a new genus. E.S. is responsible for text dealing with structural taxonomy of the midge, and the remaining text is written by S.H.


Abstract The radiation-induced polymerization of glass-forming systems containing vinyl monomers was investigated. Irradiation below the secondorder transition temperature (Tg) of the systems causes no in-source polymerization but does cause a very rapid postpolymerization in the course of heating above Tg. Differential thermal analysis was carried out to estimate Tg and to follow the postpolymerization.


The study on charge transfer complexes of 1,3,5 - trinitrobenzene with substituted phenolate anions (substituents CH3O - , CH3 - , Cl - ) was carried out using ab initio calculation at HF/ 3 - 21G basis set level (G94W package) . The entire charge transfer complex was taken as a hyper -molecule in the calculation. The regularities of the stability, the charge transfer and the geometrie configuration of the complexes were investigated .The cumulation results show that the donor center 0 atom in subsituted phenolate anions points to C atom between any two nitro groups in trinitrobenzene along a dip angle during forming the complexes. The stabilities of the complexes regularly decrease according to the order of substituents CH3O - , CH3 - , Cl in substitued phenolate anions, it agrees with the experimental results satisfactorily. The calculation results also show that there is an obvious charge transfering in the process of forming the series of complexes, and the stabilities of the complexes are related to the quantities of the charge transfering.


This experiment investigated self-location by 26 visually impaired children using a large layout of landmarks, through which the children walked each of a number of routes holding a tactile map that was aligned or rotated relative to the layout. The children pointed to their position on the map as they walked along a route. On the majority of trials, the children correctly traced the route they walked and worked out their position on the map. Although the type of route (those with unique, clear landmarks versus those with nonunique, ambiguous landmarks) and the use of a strategy affected performance, the alignment of maps did not.


Traditional operative treatments for symptomatic fibroids — hysterectomy and myomectomy — involve considerable morbidity. Although morbidity is reduced with endoscopic surgery, this technique is not widely available, and has limitations. Embolisation of the pelvic vasculature is not a new procedure, having been used to treat postpartum and postsurgical bleeding for 20 years. It has only recently been used to treat symptomatic fibroids. Uterine artery embolisation can produce a mean reduction of 29%‐51% in uterine volume at the time of the three‐month review, with longer follow‐up showing continued shrinkage and no regrowth. The range of shrinkage is highly variable, which needs to be explained to all potential candidates. Symptomatic relief is a more certain outcome, with relief of pelvic pressure symptoms in 91%‐96% of women. There is a small risk of complications requiring hysterectomy, and the long‐term effect on ovarian function is unknown.


(1929). THE POLAR EQUAL AREA: A NEW PROJECTION FOR THE WORLD MAP. Annals of the Association of American Geographers: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 157-161.


Over the past two decades, medical laboratory instrumentation has undergone a major transformation in terms of its functionality, sophistication, and degree of automation. A common complaint among laboratory professionals using these instruments has been that laboratory noise levels have increased, and that certain instruments are especially noisy. The goal for this project was to establish an instrument noise criterion that would serve as a standard for the company's future generations of instruments. The ideal standard in this context would eliminate or greatly reduce customer complaints due to noise without significantly increasing development and manufacturing costs. After surveying various noise criteria and after preliminary investigatory studies, a variation of balanced noised criteria curves (NCB), proposed by Beranek (1989), was adopted as the basis for the standard. The current presentation will provide: (1) a description of the adopted noise criteria, (2) practical considerations for use in the...


Bacterial infection can result in sepsis; a toxic immune response by the body. Although the rate of mortality due to sepsis has fallen within the UK, overall rates remain higher than in Europe. Early detection of sepsis has been linked to elevated successful outcomes. This work focuses on the use of a Random Under Sample (RUS) Boosted Tree for classifying sepsis from intensive care unit databases.Full training set (40,336 subjects) achieved sensitivity and specificity of 53.4% and 83.6% respectively (AUC:77.79%) with 5 fold cross-validation. In the unofficial phase of the challenge the model achieved a normalized utility score of 0.267. The model did not achieve a score on the full test set (team name B-Secur).The results show that the model is capable of detecting sepsis in patients. However, there is more work to be done in order to improve performance. Future work will investigate the use of fixed time windows rather than individual hourly measurements to increase prediction performance.


Perphenylcarbamoylated β‐cyclodextrin bonded‐silica particles (5 μm) were packed into 75‐μm fused‐silica capillaries, and used for the enantiomer separation of neutral and basic solutes by pressure‐assisted capillary electrochromatography. Triethylammonium acetate and phosphate buffer were employed as the BGEs. A cathodic EOF was observed with these two BGEs. Seven chiral analytes were successfully resolved into their enantiomers under optimized conditions, and five of them could be baseline‐separated within 12 min due to their high electrophoretic mobility. Better results were achieved with phosphate buffer as the BGE. The effects of organic content and pH on the enantioseparation were also investigated.


Worse, as a lesbian, I found myself confronted with a society that seemed to see only one social issue at a time. This meant I could talk about poverty and class but not about sexuality and gender identity. I know that everything I have ever written is only a small part of what needs to be written. -Dorothy Allison, "Foreword," in Amber Hollibaugh's My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home


Path planning is one of the core research fields of the handling robot, which has the characteristics of complexity and constraint. Ant colony algorithm is a search algorithm developed in recent years, which has good performance and development potential in solving many complex problems. In this paper, ant colony algorithm and workspace modeling are used to determine the optimal path for the global path search algorithm of the handling robot. The results of spatial modeling and software simulation show that the ant colony algorithm has advantages in the path planning of the handling robot. This path planning algorithm can provide the corresponding solutions for the search path problem of the complex robot.


The aim of this study is to determine the main areas of the state regulation of the internal forced migration in Ukraine. It is underlined that prevention of displacement and protection of IDPs and other affected population within its own country are the responsibility of state authorities. The number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine in 2014–2018 is analysed. The study of trends in the number of IDPs was carried out on the example of Pokrovsk town. Key feature of the forced migration processes in both Pokrovsk and Ukraine is explored and defined. It is the tendency to stabilization of the percentage of various migrants' categories during the whole period of armed conflict. Characteristics of the statistical assessment of internally displaced persons in Ukraine are generalized. Its drawbacks and consequences are formulated. Impact of the forced migration on the internal situation in the country is identified. Based on SWOT-analysis, possibilities, significant threats, strengths and weaknesses for determining the comparative advantages and obstacles of the state regulations for internal forced migration processes are established. The objects and priority areas for the state regulation of internal forced migration processes are described. The economic and social-psychological adaptation as the main directions of the state regulation of internal forced migration is reviewed.


Background/Aims Members of a social network can influence screening behavior, but it is unclear whether people are willing to share colon cancer screening experiences by email as a means of promoting screening in friends and family. Methods We conducted interviews with 140 people ages 40–70 years in 3 states (Massachusetts, Hawaii, Georgia) to assess their willingness to encourage colorectal cancer screening among friends and family by sharing their own screening experiences. Preferred mode of message transmission (spoken, postcard or email), message characteristics, and projected number of email or postcard recipients per respondent were ascertained. The participants were asked to estimate the impact of their message on their friends or family with regard to willingness to discuss colon cancer screening with a healthcare provider. They were also asked to assess how they would feel receiving such a message. Results 84% of all respondents indicated willingness to pass along a self-edited message in which senders stated that they had completed a colonoscopy and encouraged colon-cancer screening in friends and family over age 50. Among those who report having had colonoscopies, 83% indicated willingness to transmit a message, with 60% indicating they would send emails. Respondents who self- identified as being sources of health information for friends or family were more willing to transmit messages (89.7% willing vs 65.5%; p<0.05). 116 respondents reported willingness to send out an estimated total of 577 postcards or 993 emails. 69% of all respondents thought that receiving such a message themselves would make them more likely to discuss colon cancer screening with a healthcare provider and 64% thought it would make friends and family more likely to have such a discussion. Discussion The majority of interviewees who had completed colonoscopies were willing to share their screening experiences with friends and family through a self-edited email; close to two-thirds thought such an email would influence recipients. Further work is necessary to explore the impact of such an intervention.


Alternative treatments for gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, of which irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ranks as one of the most common functional GI disorders, are needed because the current medical treatments have deleterious side effects and do not significantly improve quality of life (QOL). Furthermore, symptoms relapse and disease incidence have risen, underscoring its complex nature and substantial burden on the economy, hospitals, patients, and families. This chapter will discuss how an osteopathic approach embraces the concept of the biopsychosocial model, which allows a multipronged strategy for treating chronic pain conditions, using IBS as a model of chronic pain, poor QOL, and disability, and how the understanding of pain neurophysiology can further aid this approach as a viable treatment option for long-term patient satisfaction and improvement in QOL.


Accidental ingestion of dental materials and instruments during the routine dental procedures especially in young children can occur at any time. The aim of this case report was to highlight on the recognition and management of such condition immediately for the prevention of any adverse complications. A 3-year-old male child accidentally swallowed a round diamond bur that popped out of the air-rotor handpiece during access cavity preparation on 65. There were no signs of airway obstruction and immediate postero-anterior view of chest and abdomen showed the presence of bur in the gastrointestinal tract which got eliminated in stool on the fourth day, uneventfully.


Inappropriate slag foaming is the main cause of splashing in basic oxygen furnace (BOF). Through the physical modeling, the effects of slag–metal reaction rate, viscosity of slag, slag–metal interface tension, and lance height on the slag foaming are investigated, and further analyzed the relation between the extent of BOF slag foaming and splashing. Consequently, two patterns of overflowing splashing and eruptive splashing and their critical conditions are summarized. The experimental results indicate that gas released by slag–metal reaction is primarily responsible for slag foaming in BOF, and the maximum height of foamed slag increases with increasing reaction rate of slag–metal. Moreover, an increase in dynamic viscosity of slag prevents the foam structure transforming from spherical foam to polyhedral foam, and thus improves the maximum foaming ability of slag and the stability of foam structure. With decreasing slag–metal interface tension, the slag–metal emulsification and the stability of foam structure are promoted. Finally, it is concluded that overflowing splashing occurs under the conditions of the higher dynamic viscosity of slag and the larger gas generation amount; whereas, eruptive splashing occurs under the conditions of the lower dynamic viscosity of slag and the higher gas generation rate.