Part-time Medicine IT WAS 8 AM ON TUESDAY MORNING AND I LISTENED TO MY telephone messages in my office. "This is Sharon S.," the first message played, "calling on Thursday. I think I'm having a urinary infection. Please call me back." "It's Sharon S.," the next message played, "calling on Friday. I'm having a lot of burning when I urinate and wonder if I should be on antibiotics." With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I quickly dialed Sharon's number and unfortunately got an answering machine. I apologized for not getting her message sooner, explaining that the clinic was closed for a federal holiday on Thursday, and that Fridays and Mondays were the days that I didn't work at the clinic. All of these were true statements, but as I recounted them before Sharon's answering machine they sounded pathetic. I didn't hear back from Sharon and felt worse. Although I later learned that she'd obtained appropriate treatment from her university health services, I still felt terrible. If Sharon had been less educated or didn't speak English or was homebound, an untreated urinary tract infection could have progressed to pyelonephritis, even sepsis. Even though my voice mail greeting clearly states which days I'm not in the clinic and that I won't be getting messages on those days and provides the phone number required for immediate attention, it is not uncommon to find messages with real urgency when I return to the office several days later. It is at these times that being a part-time physician feels as if I'm somehow shirking the Hippocratic Oath. I'm not there for my patients all the time like a physician should. During my "on" days, I work furiously like my colleagues, seeing all of my patients, squeezing in anyone who calls or shows up, supervising residents and students, following up ontest results, returningphonecalls, fillingoutmedical forms, writing letters for disability, housing, school, and work. But on my "off" days, I am officially off. I don't go to the hospital, don't check my voice mail, though I do carry my beeper for emergencies. If my patients need medical attention on those days, they have to be seen in our walk-in clinic, or go to the emergency department if it is after hours or on weekends. When this happens, I feel terribly guilty about being a part-timer, but I sometimes wonder whether this guilt is misplaced. Is there anything inherently wrong with working in medicine part-time? Between 10% and 20% of physicians define themselves as "part-time," and pediatrics leads the pack for specialties conducive to part-time work. Patient trust and satisfaction with part-time physicians appear to be similar to that with full-time physicians. Part-time physicians report less burnout, higher satisfaction, and a greater sense of control than full-time physicians. The small studies that have been done on clinical outcomes suggest that part-time physicians achieve outcomes comparable to those of their full-time counterparts, and might even be more efficient. But, not surprisingly, part-time academic physicians fall behind their full-time colleagues in terms of promotion and tenure. Academic physicians view part-time faculty members as less committed, though they concede that parttimers ought to be considered for promotion and even given extra time, if needed, to achieve tenure. Conventional wisdom has it that most physicians choose part-time work so that they can balance work with family, and that these physicians are women. The statistics largely support this. But should part-time medicine be solely viewed as the hodgepodge mess that is left over when women cut their hours to have children? Perhaps part-time medicine is its own entity. Could the part-time physician be seen as another type of clinician—laboring alongside hospitalists, intensivists, pulmonologists, and nephrologists? Unlike most of my part-time colleagues, I did not become a part-time physician as a result of children. My career "choice" came about with more bureaucratic banality—a New York City budget crisis that caused a hiring freeze just as I was poised to begin my academic career. When the freeze unfroze, there was only a parttime spot available. Working part time had never once crossed my mind when I had envisioned my career, but there it was: a three-day-a-week offer, nothing else. I was single, unemployed, fresh out of residency, with 14 years worth of student loans coming due. I did the only pragmatic thing and snapped it up, hoping that maybe a fulltime position would open up later. What happened next was entirely unplanned and unexpected. With two days available each week, I suddenly had time to devote to my other interests in life—ones that had been decisively extirpated by medical training. I began reading literature—not the medical kind—and was finally able to pursue that nagging desire to write down some of the memorable experiences in medical school and residency. I didn't plan to become a writer, but having those two days away from medicine allowed me to take writing classes and invest serious energy into this effort. Some time later, the much-coveted full-time position became available. Due to the inequities of how part-timers are


The first part of this research investigates and compares VEGA launcher vehicle aerothermodynamics during a nominal ascent trajectory simulated by means of Direct Simulation Monte Carlo and hypersonic local panel methods. In the second part of the work, the coupled aerothermal-structural simulation of the ascent phase up to 250s was performed, studying the heat transfer between the payload fairing and a dummy payload. The results have shown a good match among the aerothermal fluxes estimated by the different methodologies, and that an optimal theoretical fairing separation time can be found by minimizing the aerothermal fluxes incident on the payload.


The invention provides application of IL-17 in improving a mesenchymal stem cell immunity inhibition function, and particularly provides application of interleukin-17, derivative of interleukin-17 or agonist in preparing preparations or reagent boxes. The application can be used for improving an immunity inhibition function of mesenchymal stem cells, expression of immune suppression factors in the mesenchymal stem cells by improving expression of the immune suppression factors in a class, stability of mRNA of the immune inhibition factors is enhanced, expression level of RNA binding protein AUF1 is lowered, proliferation of T cells is inhibited, and the application includes treating hepatitis or liver injury.


Zebrafish a new sustainable vertebrate model established at DTU Food to study immunotoxicology Animal models are important tools in our combat against diseases as well as in screening for adverse effects of chemicals. As a supplement to the rodent models, which have been around for decades, the zebrafish provides new possibilities. The zebrafish have several practical characteristics, which enable new research possibilities: Small in size, Short life cycle and generation time, Good reproduction in captivity, External fertilization, Transparent embryos, Rapid embryonic development, Several transgenic strains e.g. with fluorescent cell types. We use zebrafish and carp as vertebrate models to investigate the immune system and adverse immunotoxicological effects of chemical substances. At DTU Food we have just invested in a State-of-the-art zebrafish facility with fully automated control of water parameters. We are currently working with the influence of chemicals on the allograft reaction (tissue transplants from one individual to another of the same species) in skin, where e measure angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels) and expression of involved genes. The process of angiogenesis has proven to be a promising screening model, as angiogenesis can be followed by non-invasive imaging techniques and abrogates the need for time and cost consuming biochemical assays in a screening setup.


Combinatorial optimization offers a rigorous but powerful approach to user interface design problems, defining problems mathematically such that they can be algorithmically solved. Design is defined as algorithmic combination of design decisions to obtain an optimal solution defined by an objective function. There are strong rationale for this method. First, core concepts such as 'design task', 'design objective', and 'optimal design' become explicit and actionable. Second, solutions work well in practice, even for some problems traditionally out of reach of manual solutions. The method can assist in the generation, refinement, and adaptation of design. However, mathematical expression of HCI problems has been challenging and curbed applications. This chapter introduces combinatorial optimisation from user interface design point of view, and addresses two core challenges: 1) mathematical definition of design problems and 2) expression of evaluative knowledge such as design heuristics and predictive models of interaction.


Guaranteed cost control problems for discrete-time systems with uncertainties and time delays are addressed in this paper. The delays may simultaneously appear not only in the state, but in control input and measurement output. Also, parametric uncertainties may exist in all system matrices of the systems considered in this paper. First, a new linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based approach is developed to construct dynamic guaranteed cost controllers for delay systems without uncertainties. Then this result is extended to discrete-time delay systems with uncertainties in linear fractional form in all system matrices. The solvability of these robust control problems for uncertain delay systems can be reduced to that for certain auxiliary systems without uncertainty. Numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness of our approach.


Although global mortality from measles is falling, a study inPLoS Medicine found that children in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad face unacceptably high mortality from measles, a largely preventable disease.


From the research of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the historical world the problem of relationship between history and theory was still undone. Our view of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is neither too great nor too beautiful. While we didn't see its objective disadvantage. Luo ErGang who has studied the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom all his life and achieved a lot remarks. But there are still a lot of errors in the problems of the relationship between history and theory. There is a close relationship between the background of the society and political weather. So it' s not anybody's action. Now we can discuss the problem of the relationship between history and theory which had inflenced our whole historical world.


Children are commonly considered "therapeutic orphans" because the majority of medicines on the market have not been studied in the pediatric population, nor have been approved by regulatory authorities for use in c ildren. or ears, t e lac of information on safet , efficac and dosing of pediatric drugs, as well as the lack of child-appropriate formulations, resulted in the unsatisfactory treatment of pediatric patients [1]. Among others, the lack of children tailored formulations has a huge impact. Ad hoc formulations are necessary in order to deliver the right dose also assuring the right level of absorption, plasma concentration, metabolism and drug excretion. It also would remove the need to manipulate medicines, e.g. splitting tablets that are designed for adults into smaller fractions that provide the appropriate dose for children or using untested solutions of the existing forms. So far, healthcare professionals had no therapeutic alternatives and often use off label medicinal products in children, with the associated risks of inefficac or increased adverse reactions. T is use is particularl ig in case of 'off-patent' drugs (perhaps as much as 70%) but encompasses innovative drugs as ell. T e pediatric off label use" specificall includes all pediatric uses of a marketed drug not detailed in the Summary of Product Characteristics, with particular reference to therapeutic indication, appropriate strength (dosage by age), pharmaceutical form, route of administration. It is a widespread phenomenon in all the countries and in many therapeutic areas [2-4], and it has become an important issue for the safeguard of children's health.


I. IntroductionIn July 2014, the Mayor of Warsaw fired highly regarded Polish OB/GYN Bogdan Chazan from his position as director of Holy Family Hospital for refusing to perform an abortion on a baby with serious fetal abnormalities.1 Dr. Chazan also had not referred the woman to a willing abortion provider, as he was not her primary doctor;2 instead, he referred the woman to a hospice for palliative care for her child.3 Donald Tusk, then-Prime Minister of Poland and current President of the European Council, weighed in and said that doctors should forgo their consciences so that patients may be sure that doctors will perform all legal procedures,4 ignoring the fact that conscientious objection is protected in Polish law5 and that over 3,000 Polish doctors and medical students have publicly indicated their opposition to participating in abortion and other reproductive health services.6Poland has been pressured regularly by united Nations human rights bodies to regulate health-care providers' exercise of conscientious objection in the provision of abortion. Four bodies that monitor international human rights treaties-the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;7 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;8 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;9 and the Convention Against Torture10-have told Poland that it must structure its system of conscientious objection so that women have access to exercise their "right" to abortion, including referral to other doctors willing and able to provide abortions.11Anand Grover, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health from 2008 to 2014, visited Poland and identified, as he understood the situation, the problem of the exercise of conscientious objection in abortion cases as a conflict between the right to conscience and the right to health: "Healthcare providers' conscientious objection to involvement in certain health-related procedures is grounded in the right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought. However, the exercise of conscientious objection should not entail interference with sexual and reproductive health rights, which are fundamental."12As a solution to the burden placed on women seeking an abortion by a health-care provider who refuses to provide an abortion on the grounds of conscience, Grover identified providers' "responsibility to treat an individual whose life or health is immediately affected, and otherwise to refer the patient to another provider who will perform the required procedure."13 In addition, he suggested that Poland record or register conscientious objectors.14The case of Chazan in Poland is not isolated.15 The threat to the conscience rights of health-care providers is present around the world. For example, two midwives in Sweden, Linda Steen and Ellinor Grimmark, were denied employment because of their conscientious objections to participating in abortions.16 Mary Doogan and Connie Wood, senior midwives in Scotland, were told that as labor ward coordinators they would be required to coordinate staff for the performance of abortions, and therefore they brought a legal challenge to determine whether they would be obligated to participate.17 How UN entities have addressed conscientious objection in Poland is thus important for more than just Chazan's case.Further, the UN's treatment of Poland illustrates the broader treatment by UN entities of the exercise of conscientious objection in the health-care field. This article examines how health-care providers' right to conscientious objection, grounded in the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, is treated by the United Nations when it comes into conflict with women's so-called right to abortion, which is grounded in the right to health.Various United Nations entities, including human rights treaty bodies, special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, and global policy-setting agencies, treat conscientious objection18 as a nominal right that must be limited in practice, even though the conflicting "right to abortion" is not enumerated or even mentioned in international human rights treaties. …


Calculated results are presented for ultrasonic wave propagation in fiber‐reinforced composite material containing voids, where the fiber reinforcement is unidirectional. Both elastically isotropic and anisotropic fibers are considered. The propagation direction is taken as normal to the fiber length and expressions are obtained for the longitudinal‐ and shear‐wave velocities as a function of composite void and fiber volume fraction. The results exhibit reasonable behavior and a comparison of calculated data and such experimental data as are available shows fair agreement.


Introduction: With the increasing number of cases related to Diabetes Mellitus (DM), glycemic control through laboratory methods or rapid tests is essential. Objective: To analyze the correlation of three glucose determination methodologies (Glucometer, laboratory analysis and with point of care artificial intelligence equipment). Method: Blood samples from the digital pulp and venous blood from the antecubital fossa were collected from 20 volunteers of different ages and sex. Blood glucose measurements were determined by the 3 methodologies mentioned above. Result: Spearmans correlation analysis carried out between all types of tests shows that there is a strong and statistically significant positive correlation, indicating the compatibility of results regardless of the method applied. Conclusion: The methodologies are correlated, however, the average values?? obtained by artificial intelligence were 40% higher, which can impact the clinical interpretation of results.


This research aims to create critical thinking about innovation in the pesantren system. This research is a descriptive study using a qualitative approach to investigate social change, Pesantren's perception of modernity by finding information from documents or research findings related to Pesantren and its challenges in modernity. Of course the number of pesantren integrated with public schools or vice versa continues to increase. Pesantren-based Schools nationally began to be declared in 2008 with 25 members and at the end of 2015 recorded an increase to 302. This proves that critical thoughts, attitudes that are innovative, adaptive, and accommodate the development of pesantren must continue to be developed so that pesantren develop. always relevant and able to respond to social changes that are so fast and unexpected. The results of this study indicate that pesantren have the ability to adapt to the development of more times and occur so quickly. The pesantren has demonstrated its ability in the era of modernity and difficulties, so that it does not only use religious and religious sources of knowledge in Islam but also "local geniuses" of Indonesia.


At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Beginning of the Min Dynasty,great changes on the traditional transportation pattern in Yunnan have taken place after the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the Gejiu-Bisezhai-Shiping Railway were built.However,it is important to see that although the two railways were built,the traditional land carrying and the partial water transportation did not and impossible to come to an end.They still played an important role.At the same time when locomotive transportation developed past in the modernization process,traditional human power and animal power transportation,especially MaBang(horse caravan) transportation,get new development in a sense.Therefore,the transportation pattern in Yunnan at that period of time was characterized by using the above transportation methods at the same time,which forms an important and unique link of the transportation history of Yunnan province.


Herein, we present the recent development in viscosity measurement by squeeze flow method. We applied this technique to investigate to fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) systems including, polypropylene-based glass mat thermoplastic (PP-GMT), and thermosetting sheet molding compound (SMC). The effects of compression rate, temperature and curing time are systematically studied. In both cases, the squeeze flow data deviate from simple power law model, and is analyzed by the approach proposed by Laun et al (J. Rheol. 1992, 36, 743) [1]. The results demonstrate the promising potential of viscosity measurement by squeeze flow method, and great relevance to industrially important process such as compression molding. The measured rheological material properties are then used in process simulation to obtain optimal process conditions of compression molding.


Numerical simulation on the liquid-solid two-phase flow behavior within a liquid-solid loop reactor was carried out by the CFD approach. A mathematical model has been developed with the two-fluid model and the kinetic theory of dense gas for the solid phase. The calculated results reasonably explained the liquid and solid flow mechanism in the liquid-solid loop reactor and the accordance with experimental results has validated the accuracy and applicability of the model.


With the start of T-DMB service, diverse multimedia broadcasting services became available in the high-speed mobile environment. In addition to high-quality digital radio (audio) and television (video), diverse data services, such as Dynamic Label Segment (DLS), JPEG Slideshow (SLS), Broadcast Web Site (BWS), Traffic and Travel Information (TTI), interactive service using Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS), and Visual Radio, are being serviced. Currently, there is an increase in demand in the market for T-DMB monitoring system that can support all the data service available. In this paper, we present T-DMB monitoring systems that can simultaneously decode 6 services of different format within the two ensemble, through suitable algorithms and multi-thread techniques.


An important aspect of mechanical reliability of LCD panels is to understand and quantify their response to impact loading. This paper studies the behavior of 17″ modules impacted by a spherical ball traveling at a speed of up to ∼1 m/sec. At this velocity, the deformation response of the module system is significantly different from that during quasi‐static loading. In view of much shorter duration of impact test, the LCD panels can sustain relatively large loads without any measurable slow crack growth. The test data show that the dynamic strength of these panels, estimated from fracture mirror, is significantly higher than their quasi‐static strength. With higher strength and immeasurable slow crack growth the LCD panels should not experience cumulative damage during multiple impact loading implying that their mechanical reliability under such loading is excellent.


BACKGROUND
 Health practitioners across the globe are rapidly adopting social and mobile media in their professional practices. However, this appropriation carries considerable risks and requires the development of digital professionalism.

 OBJECTIVE
 The objective of this study was to examine the potential of an interactive scenario-based mobile learning tutorial for the training of social and mobile media guidelines and compare it to the standard route of distributing and studying paper-based guidelines.

 METHODS
 To do so, an experiment was conducted in which 71 Zambian nurses were randomized into two groups. Participants in the first group (n=27) worked through a simple, smartphone-based tutorial with authentic text scenarios and reflective prompts and questions that drew on newly developed social and mobile media guidelines for Zambian nurses and midwives. In the second group (n=31), the nurses studied the paper guideline directly, which is the standard way of guideline dissemination in Zambia and elsewhere. Post-intervention surveys were used to measure nurses' knowledge of professional social media use, the perceived ease of use and usefulness of the respective instructive materials.

 RESULTS
 The results show that nurses' knowledge about the professional use of social and mobile media (P=.021**) and the perceived usefulness of the learning materials (P=.203*) were higher in the scenario-based mobile learning group - as compared to the paper study group. No differences were found regarding the ease of use. Linear regression analysis suggests that, in the scenario-based mobile group, knowledge outcomes and perceived usefulness and ease of use were not influenced by age, work area and gender. The qualitative analysis from two focus groups (n=13) affirmed and further explained these findings, suggesting how the authenticity of the scenarios, prompts and questions triggered reflective practice.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The findings provide tentative evidence that the use of scenario-based mobile learning is a simple and viable learning method that can increase awareness and knowledge of digital professionalism. In view of the technical challenges that many health professionals in low-income countries still experience in accessing internet-based content on their phones, these tutorials should be only used in addition to the circulation of guidelines.


The author reviews the performance data of three gas turbine units installed in his company's two Portland cement plants. A brief backgrround of the plants' earlier power sources is given, including the reasons for conversion to gas turbine power. The considerable economic advantages of the changeover to gas turbine are stressed and the regenerator investment recovery is outlined. Figures show a detailed layout of each plant.Copyright © 1967 by ASME


This paper describes the design of a delta-sigma (Δ-Σ) based Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) for a TETRA-2 transmitter along with the on-chip analog filtering to meet adjacent channel specifications. The proposed design meets the adjacent channel requirements with a margin of over 10 dB which is adequate to cater for hardware implementation. As the design specifications are in process of being finalised for TETRA-2, this paper will provide a valuable reference for designers involved with development of TETRA-2 radio equipment.


The present study has been conducted development of AHU type of GHP Slim to applied New Refrigerant R410A. The effects of unit on the heat transfer distributions and pressure drop, stress of unit with assembly sturcture in parts are simulated CFD and 3D modeling, structure analysis. Engineering Sample is producted to advantage of basic datas and simulation results. The present study is conducted cooling & Heating capacity, static pressure, sound, power consumption and CO₂ consentration control of unit for Calorimeter.


The aim of space object recognition is to judge whether an observed object or a new one exist or not. In conventional methods, an initial orbit is often calculated with the observed data, and then is compared with the orbit elements of existing object. This paper presents a new algorithm based on threshold estimating. The orbit of an object to be recognized is compared with the pre-calculated observable track of the existing object, and the range of identification can be reduced fundamentally. Then the aim can be achieved by making use of recognition threshold in a small range. The result of computation indicates that this method can improve the efficiency of recognition, satisfy the real-time request, and increase the dependability of recognition.


Water quality models are helpful for rationalizing water quality management. Their success depends largely on how well they are calibrated. The automatic calibration of models usually outperforms traditional trial-and-error process. In this study, a real- coded genetic algorithm (GA) was combined with the Nelder-Mead simplex (NMS) algorithm to form a hybrid approach, GA-NMS. It was employed to calibrate simulated vertical profiles of temperature and concentration of chlorophyll a by CE-QUAL-W2 to measured values in Lake Maumelle, USA. A set of parameter values that had the lowest objective function value was obtained in hundreds of objective function evaluations. It produces reasonable agreement between measurements and simulations. This application demonstrated that the approach can be used in the automatic calibration of water quality models.


Data warehouse (DW) refers to a system architecture rather than a software product or application, and it is used to improve Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. However, the rate of its successful implementation is still low and most firms report failure to leverage the system for their goals. This paper provided a discussion of the results of the model based on Information System (IS) Success Model, particularly the relationship between quality factors and the net benefits obtained from the data warehouse system. Independent variables were selected to gauge service quality and relationship quality service, while the dependent variable measured the net benefits obtained from the system. The paper provided a background on data warehouse and successful implementation of data warehouse, as well as a description of the research model and proposed hypotheses inclusive of the affective factors. It provided a deep insight into the data warehouse success factors with the use of data warehouse success model that ultimately provided informed inferences for decision making regarding successful data warehousing implementation.


The advantageous business cycle conditions prevailing in the global economy in the years 1926– 1929 have affected Poland as well, where they were evident for a somewhat shorter time. The economic recovery caused the expansion of the domestic market for industrial goods, thanks to the improved situation in agriculture, increased employment, expanded inflow of foreign capital, and finally increased investments (both private and public. There was an increase in both the number of industrial plants and in the number of employed, which was, however; unevenly distributed among various branches. It should be underlined, that production growth recorded in the discussed period was higher than the simultaneous increase in the number of production plants – resulting in expanding production per one plant. The structure of industrial employment has also changed. In case of certain branches (such as mining, metallurgy and textiles) the share of employment in total industrial employment declined. The declining employment observed in mining and in metallurgy sector was paralleled by growing number of workers engaged in the manufacturing sector. However, instead of narrowing, the disproportions in the industrialization of individual regions of the country actually widened. The most advanced level of development could be observed in the main industrial centers of Upper Silesia and in central provinces of the country. On the other, hand the industrialization processes did not arrive to the most backward areas of Eastern Poland. The government's industrial policy pursued in the analyzed period was basically a liberal one, but in the view of the level of the country's economic development, weakness of private capital and of the national security reasons Polish government could not withdraw from direct participation in economic life and the actual role of the state was expanding.


The subjects were the national double, mixed double and single premium badminton players, Cheng Wen-Hsing, Chien Yu-Hsun, and Chien Yu-Hsin. After attending competitions appointed by International Badminton Federation (IBF) for a year (May 2003 to April 2004) for world ranking, results are as following: (1) Jian Yo-Shiou obtains the opportunity to participate as male single at the 2004 Olympics, ranked 34th in the world, 1254 points. (2) Cheng Wen-Shin obtains the opportunity to participate as female doubles at the 2004 Olympics, ranked 9th in the world, 2320.45 points. (3) Cheng Wen-Shin obtains the opportunity to participate as mixed doubles at the 2004 Olympics, ranked 1 8th in the world, 1833 points. (4) Jian Yo-Shun ranked 28th in the world, 1484.33 points, only 0.33 points short in participating the 2004 Olympic. In conclusion, this study achieved three goals: obtain 75% of the country's Olympics participation, this proves to be a successful case sample.


At a ceremony in the Executive Chambers of the Capitol Building in Albany. Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller signed into law the retirement contribution bill V> increase the take home pay of State employees who are members of the Retirement System. Seen with him at the ceremony are, from left, Joseph F. Feily, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, which developed the plan; Dr. T. Norman Hurd, Director of the Budget, and Harry W. Albright, Jr., counsel to the Employees Association.


Ideological schisms in Indian micro-finance have often been interpreted at the level of practice through the adoption of different delivery models including the community empowering Self-Help Group (SHG) model and the financially efficient Joint Liability Group (JLG) model. While the SHG is a saving-led slow growth model and unique to India, JLG is a credit-led fast growth model, loosely based on the Grameen model of Bangladesh. The article describes the two models and strives to develop a comparison between them along several parameters. The paper argues that both models have their advantages depending upon external factors like competition, homogeneity within population, among other factors. Both models live up to their optimum promise when in alignment with organisational features like culture and its strength, leadership etc. Country like India is often afflicted by duality of external factors ranging from socially driven and stratified social structures in rural areas to the financially-driven urban poor population. It is this duality that necessitates the existence of both the models, matching to the diversity of target population and characteristics of the implementing microfinance organisation.


e18323Background: Many studies have shown that patients with cancer are at higher risk of financial difficulty than those without cancer. Given the rising cost of cancer therapy it is important to study the financial distress associated with cancer care. Therefore, we assessed patient reported financial toxicity at a large tertiary academic cancer institute. Methods: From July 2014 to August 2014, we asked 300 patients at the Stanford Cancer Center to participate in an 11-item questionnaire about costs incurred with cancer care. We calculated patient-reported financial toxicity using the COST score, validated at the University of Chicago (scores range from 0-44 with higher values indicating higher financial burden). We obtained demographic information including sex (male or female), education level (high school or less, associates/bachelors degree, or masters/professional degree), race (white or non-white) and annual household income ( $100,000) and used multivariable logi...


A decentralized supply chain with a single manufacture and some retailers is considered. The manufacture sets the wholesale price and then each retailer determines its retail price that the demand depends on. Based on this supply chain, the pricing decision problem with Stackelberg type game is reformulated as a bilevel programming model. A chaos search algorithm is presented. Moreover, the condition of cooperation among supply chain members is studied. The results show that although the decentralized system optimization cannot be achieved, the profit of supply chain member can be maximized and therefore the equilibrium price is stationary. A numerical example confirms the results.


This article proposes a numerical solution approach and Field Programmable Gate Array implementation of a delayed fractional-order system. The proposed method is amenable to a sufficiently efficient hardware realization. The system's numerical solution and hardware realization have two requirements. First, the delay terms are implemented by employing LookUp Tables to keep the already required delayed samples in the dynamical equations. Second, the fractional derivative is numerically approximated using Grünwald-Letnikov approximation with a memory window size, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, according to the short memory principle such that it balances between accuracy and efficiency. Bifurcation diagrams and spectral entropy validate the chaotic behaviour of the system for commensurate and incommensurate orders. Additionally, the dynamic behaviour of the system is studied versus the delay parameter, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\tau $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, and the window size, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The system is realized on Nexys 4 Artix-7 FPGA XC7A100T with throughput 1.2 Gbit/s and hardware resources utilization 15% from the total LookUp Tables and 4% from the slice registers. Oscilloscope experimental results verify the numerical solution of the delayed fractional-order system. The amenability to digital hardware realization, which is experimentally validated in this article, is added to the system's advantages and encourages its utilization in future digital applications such as chaos control and synchronization and chaos-based communication applications.


ABSTRACT Heavy metals have been shown to be strong inhibitors of nitrification in wastewater treatment plants. In this research, the effects of cadmium, copper, and mercury on Nitrosomonas europaea were studied in quasi-steady-state batch reactors. When cells were exposed to 1 μM CdCl2, 6 μM HgCl2, or 8 μM CuCl2, ammonia oxidation rates were decreased by about 90%. Whole-genome transcriptional and proteomic responses of N. europaea to cadmium were used to identify heavy metal stress response genes. When cells were exposed to 1 μM CdCl2 for 1 h, 66 genes (of the total of 2,460 genes) were upregulated, and 50 genes were downregulated more than twofold. Of these, the mercury resistance genes (merTPCADE) averaged 277-fold upregulation under 1 μM CdCl2, with merA (mercuric reductase) showing 297-fold upregulation. In N. europaea cells exposed to 6 μM HgCl2 or to 8 μM CuCl2, merA showed 250-fold and 1.7-fold upregulation, respectively. Cells showed the ability to recover quickly from Hg2+-related toxic effects, apparently associated with upregulation of the mercury resistance genes and amoA, but no such recovery was evident in Cd2+-exposed cells even though merTPCADE were highly upregulated. We suggest that the upregulation of merA in response to CdCl2 and HgCl2 exposure may provide a means to develop an early-warning indicator for inhibition of nitrification by these metals.


Queens, by definition, embody a historical contradiction between femininity and power. Queen Victoria, whose strength and longevity defined an age, possessed immense cultural as well as political power, even becoming a writer herself. This cultural sovereignty, argues Gail Turley Houston, in the hands of a female monarch troubled writers, especially men, who worked during a reign that viewed women as domestic angels. By exploring a range of representations of the queen by significant Victorian writers, Houston points out the complexity of Victorian constructions of gender, representation, authority and identity. She works to demystify such canonized authors as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Margaret Oliphant by examining the way they encounter Victoria in their writings. The queen's feminine power seems to be at odds with the masculine profession of author, which was also coming to be viewed as a significant representative of the culture. Part of the movement by feminist scholars to recuperate and analyze Queen Victoria's important meanings in 19th-century British culture, this book dissects the anomaly of the queen and her effect on dominant cultural attitudes about gender.


Nanomagnetic logic (NML) is considered as the most promising post CMOS technology to realize system on chip (SoC) applications. In NML, the magnetostatic interactions evolve to a domain orientation, which is viewed as a logical level. The NML is based on the single domain behavior of the dots, and combinational circuits are realized by arranging the dots in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in a plane. Stick diagram in CMOS technology not only provides topographical and mask layer information, but also presents a quick footprint estimation of the designed subsystem. In this paper, ML based full adder circuit is designed in OOMMF, a micromagnetic simulation tool, and stick diagram representation for NML technology is proposed to design higher order digital subsystem.


речевая культура, термины и понятия, разные страны.Th e article represents the conclusions concerning the term «speech culture» and the topical problems connected with the term in various states, proposing a short excursus in the history and giving the analysis of contemporary literature and talks with teachers of Asian and European countries.


It's No Use. For the last six years, since I first got involved with CWISs, I've written dozens of CWIS articles, taught CWIS seminars in every imaginable place, and generally have been a CWIS evangelist to anyone who would listen — and to many who would not. And I haven't been alone in spreading the word on how to do CWISs right. Steve Worona, Judy Hallman, Tim McGovern, Dan Updegrove, and Flossie Stavinsky, to name just a few, have been proudly carrying the CWIS banners too. By now you must have heard — probably several times from several people — why you need a CWIS, how to organize one properly, and what pitfalls to avoid in making one available. What more could one possibly hear about CWISs that hasn't been heard many times over?


London's organisation for older people recommends the Mayor's [Smart City plan](https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/business-and-economy/supporting-londons-sectors/smart-london) should address five key themes for digital inclusion: help in developing skills; training and


For oil and gas exploration and development in the developed sag, progressive exploration and development should be a major tool for improving production and tapping production potentials of the area, in which an accurate and detailed reservoir description will be the key progress. By analyzing the progressive exploration and development reservoir types and basic features, four styles of progressive exploration and development are summarized here. A new classification method of fault block complex degree is put forward. The technical method of progressive exploration and development is expounded by descriptions of the structure, reservoir and traps. The Block Yong No.8, for example, were studied in detail with respect to its reservoir types, horizon calibration, reflection character analysis, structure description flow, seismic and geologic analysis, etc. The important role of coherent and attributive analyses is presented. Several working directions in the high degree exploration and development zone have been pointed out in this study. The increased progressive reserves is up to 2000×10 4 t in the play area each year.


A full-length cDNA clone of yolk ferritin gene was isolated from the cDNA library of Neobenedenia melleni and tentatively named as NmYF, which was the first report of yolk ferritin gene from N. melleni. It was 739bp long and contained a large open reading frame (ORF) encoding a 26.1kDa protein. The NmYF was very similar to yolk ferritin of Paragonimus westermani in the sequence, and formed a small cluster of phylogenetic tree with yolk ferritins of P. wester- mani and Bothriocephalus acheilognathi, while soma ferritins formed another big cluster, showing distinct difference be- tween yolk ferritin and soma ferritin. Furthermore, the prokaryotic expression plasmid pET-22b-NmYF containing the in- tact ORF was constructed and the aim protein was induced by IPTG. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the aim protein could be highly expressed in the expected size. A polyclonal antiserum raised to the aim protein reacted strongly with itself by western blot.


A face recognition system based on wavelet transform is designed under the VC++ platform.Part code of the system involved in decoding image and Daubechies wavelet transform is written by MATLAB and is compiled into VC++ resource code by MATCOM,which can be modified as needed and compiled into DLL for the system to call while running.


The subject of the research is the development of the effective method of modern production systems management. In modern conditions, the "production system" is the resource structure "production, development, retail, recycling". Further we consider this whole chain. Globalization of production chains generates instability of regional territorial systems in social, technical and environmental aspects. The analysis of the concept of "intellectual" is carried out, in science it is a philosophical concept, in business – an advertising label. De facto intelligence is associated with fuzzy search methods in large and fuzzy areas. Typical problems of modern production systems management are given: high dimensionality; significant non-linearities; uncertainties and disturbances of the active environment; holistic system of instrument and non-instrument measurements; survivability problems; the problem of optimal adaptive control of current states and the problem of optimal control of the final state. To solve the problems, the optimal aggregation methodology was chosen, which does not improve existing methods, but removes the existing problems. The proposed solution to these problems is based on the theorem on the isomorphic mapping of the resource structure of the production system into the structure of a binary tree of optimal aggregation – the result of solving a nonlinear programming problem. At the input, we have the "costs, outputs" functions of all elements of the system, their resource connections, and at the output, we have the "optimal equivalent function "costs, outputs" for the entire system. There are no search procedures in the aggregation software module. The analysis of the control, measurement and forecasting structures based on the binary tree of optimal aggregation is performed. Examples of setting and solving new management problems are given. Examples of solving problems of optimizing development strategies using loans, managing work time, and joint management of retail and production are given.


This paper shows the results obtained when evaluating current practices in cultivation processes of nopal. Production of nopal in the borough of Milpa Alta in Mexico City has been based for more than 40 years on the use of high doses of fresh cow manure (up to 600 t ha -1 ). It is necessary to consider the effects that this type of fertilization could have on the environment. In order to compare the effect of different fertilization methods on the production, quality and shelf-life of cladodes, three-year-old cactus plants were fertilized with compost, compost leachate, fresh manure cow and synthetic fertilizer; plants treated with water served as a control. The plants fertilized with compost (leached or solid) tended to a higher yield (g) per plant, although there were no significant statistical differences between treatments. Cladodes produced with solid compost or fresh manure showed a lower pH (4.7) than those produced with water to the soil. Cladodes produced with synthetic fertilizers showed higher shear strength than those produced with manure. Cladodes produced with synthetic fertilizer and compost leachate took more days to show shelf darkening (oxidation) than those produced with soil water. In addition, the use of compost showed a significant impact on cost reduction during the production nopal given a lower cost against manure and synthetic fertilizer.


Let (X, +, —, 0, S, n) be an abelian complete measurable group with > 0. Let /: X —> C be a function. We will show that if A(f) 6 Lp(X x X, C) where


Medusae play an important role in marine ecosystem.The species composition,Quantitative distribution and seasonal variation of Medusae in the Bohai Sea were determined in a discontinuous period from 1959 to 1997.There were totally 41 species,among which were 35 species of Hydrozoa,4 species of Scyphomedusae and 2 species of Ctenophore,respectively.Most species were found in relatively low salinity habitat,only a few in high salinity habitat for a very short time in each sampling year.The seasonal occurrence of jellyfishes showed three peaks in a year. Rathkea octopunctata appeared mainly in the February peak,Phialidium mainly in the June peak, Muggiaea atlantica and Eirene mainly in the October peak.The distribution of Medusae in the Bohai Sea changed seasonally,the highest density patches were found mainly in winter and summer in Laizhou Bay,and was in spring and in the middle autumn in Bohai Bay.The density of Medusae in Liaodong Bay was relatively low in every seasons,comparing with the other areas in the Bohai Sea.


The administration of the traffic control system is a great concern in the metropolitan cities. The traffic control system has become much busier in recent years, traffic congestion is one of the reasons for these key challenges in smart cities. Traditional traffic management systems are not suitable for solving the problem, the mechanism of the congestion control mechanism is needed. This is how there is an intelligent control system. This research document proposes an intelligent system of traffic control based on IOT. This improves the high degree of scalability, replacing the previous traffic signage system with traffic signal control data in real time. To solve these safety protocol concerns, we implement IOT systems based on privacy with intelligence, which analyze the traffic data in real time for the control of traffic signals. We approach the man's data security attack in the center (MITM). And here, the algorithm of the support vector machine (SVM) will be used here for the classification of data on the edge and will be implemented by RASPBERRY PI3 and Scikit to implement the collection of raw traffic data. The sensors are used to distinguish positive or bad data from. The traffic data pattern of the terminal devices based on IOT. The edge router and the fog router will also be used to store traffic information in the cloud and to decide the level of traffic.


We study numerically the dynamics of a beam in a focusing photorefractive nonlinear optical lattice with a longitudinal potential barrier. Such kind of lattice with the refractive index modulation in both transverse and longitudinal directions can be realized by induced optically in photorefractive crystals. Different soliton states are found with different position of the input pulse, which exhibits compression or splitting during transmission. The results also indicate that the intensity of a beam and the transverse modulation frequency of lattice can affect apparently the ability of tunneling. For the same lattice depth, the smaller the transverse frequency of the lattice is and the higher peak intensity the soliton possesses, the easier the soliton tunnels through. However, when we increase the frequency of optical lattice, the optical beam can successfully pass through the barrier for the relatively small value of lattice depth as well. Otherwise, the beam splits into some filaments when the lattice depth is large enough. In addition, we find that beam can exhibit the behavior of oscillation during transmission and the oscillation frequency of spatial soliton is influenced by the biased field.


In the course of building the standardization dike in lower Yellow River,the capability of controlling flood was improved by reinforcing dike with silt.Because of the extra complexity of hydrogeological conditions of dike in Yellow River,it is difficult to obtain infiltration coefficients of soil layers by antitype observation data so that the design width of the silt area difficulties hard to be determined by routine methods of seepage analysis.The influencing factors of project safety are treated as stochastic variables in reliability theory,and disabled probability or reliability can be solved by establishing function so that the project security character can be estimated.Based on stochastic variability of soil parameters of dike considered in Yellow River,the program of seepage reliability is worked out.With the program,the probability of infiltration destroy of stratum soil is analyzed in different distances of slope feet in back-river of dike in Yellow River under the floodwater level of design so that the reasonable design width of the silt area can be confirmed.Analysis of an example shows that the results of the method is consistent with other research results,thus the study can provide a theoretical basis for project design of reinforcing dike with silt in Yellow River.


Summary Background Diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle is a risk factor of cardiovascular complications. The aim of the study was to determine the diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle with the use of echocardiography in the rural population according to coexisting risk factors. Material and methods The study was performed in 178 people (mean age 53.9 ± 13.5), inhabitants of a village of Boguszyce. The diastolic function of left ventricle was assessed by echocardiography, by various parameters including E and A waves, E/A ratio, deceleration time (DT) of E (DTE) and isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT). In the studied population BMI, systolic and diastolic arterial pressures, lipid parameters and ankle/arm index were measured. Results In a model of logistic regression analysis it was revealed that independent risk factors of diastolic left ventricle dysfunction incidence are: age (OR: 1.11; p < 0.01), high BMI (OR: 1.02; p < 0.05), arterial hypertension (OR: 1.61; p < 0.05), low ankle–brachial index (OR: 0.52; p < 0.05) and low HDL cholesterol level (OR: 0.98; p < 0.05).


with worldwide development of multi-national company's communication infrastructure required to increase. As the size of these computer networks increases, it becomes more and more difficult to monitor, control, and secure them. Networks consist of a number of diverse devices, sensors, and gateways which are often spread over large geographical areas. Each of these devices produces log files, which need to be analyzed and monitored to provide network security and satisfy regulations. current information systems are replete with log files, created in multiple places (e.g., network servers, database management systems, user monitoring applications, system services and utilities) for multiple purposes (e.g., maintenance, security issues, traffic analysis, legal requirements, software debugging, customer management, user interface usability studies). Log files in complex systems may quickly grow to huge sizes. Often, they must be kept for long periods of time. For reasons of convenience and storage economy, log files should be compressed. However, most of the available log file compression tools use general-purpose algorithms (e.g., Deflate) which do not take advantage of redundancy specific for log files. Presented paper describes an optimal framework for log-file compression. Keywords— Log file, Cyber Forensic, File compression


Barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) nanoparticles were synthesized at the low temperature of 80°C through a glycothermal reaction using Ba(OH) 2 .8H 2 O and amorphous titanium hydrous gel as precursors and a solution of 1,4-butanediol and water as solvent. This processing method provides a simple low-temperature route for producing BaTiO 3 nanoparticles, which could also be extended to other systems. It is demonstrated that the size of BaTiO 3 particles can be controlled by reaction conditions, such as reaction temperature and various volume ratios of 1,4-butanediol/water.


—The influence of insulin‐induced hypoglycemia upon carbohydrate substrates, amino acids and ammonia in the brain was studied in lightly anaesthetized rats, and the changes observed were related to the blood glucose concentration and to the EEG. Calculations from glucose concentrations in tissue, CSF and blood indicated the presence of appreciable amounts of free intracellular glucose at blood glucose concentrations above 3 μmol/g. When the blood glucose concentration fell below 3 μmol/g, there was no calculated intracellular glucose and decreases in the concentrations of glycogen, G‐6‐P, pyruvate, lactate and of citric acid cycle intermediates were observed. At blood glucose levels of below 1 μmol/g the tissue was virtually depleted of glycogen, G‐6‐P, pyruvate and lactate.


A compact wideband circularly‐polarized (CP) RF identification (RFID) handheld reader antenna based on inverted‐F antennas (IFAs) is proposed. The antenna consists of an upper layer of rotationally symmetric radiation structure and lower layer of feed network. Firstly, the feed network is verified by microwave circuit simulation software. Then the antenna is modeled and simulated with the aid of the full‐wave electromagnetic simulation software. Finally, a prototype is fabricated using FR4 plate and its performance of the proposed antenna is validated. The measured impedance bandwidth of 10 dB and the axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 3 dB are wider than 13%. The peak gain is greater than 2.2 dBic, and the minimum AR is less than 1.1 dB, with the symmetrical and stable radiation patterns. The antenna has the compact size of 60 × 60 × 15 mm3. The proposed antenna can not only meet the requirements of RFID handheld reader applications in universal ultra‐high frequency (UHF) band (840‐960 MHz), but also has the advantages of wideband, small size, lightweight, low cost, and simple structure. Therefore, the design has a good application prospect in the field of Internet of Things.


Ecologization of mythological consciousness of primitive people was based on the ideas of domination of nature over the person, the rudiments of empirical knowledge, the personification of natural phenomena, utilitarian, anthropomorphism, animism. The main purpose of the myth - substantiation and consolidation in human consciousness existing in the objective world of the order, the moral norms, the traditions, and therefore  the regulation of existing relations in society, man's relationship to nature. A sense of unity with the nature - the strongest impulse of mythological thinking. Mythology essentially is ecological.


This qualitative research study aimed to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to the college students? lives in Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College Cervantes Campus, specifically towards their academic survival. It was conducted to produce an action plan in strategizing modes of instructional delivery that will cater on the needs of students for significant learning experiences in this new normal. Findings reveal that students experienced both Personal and Environmental challenges in meeting their subject requirements. Personal challenges include difficulty in adjustments and in comprehension of subject matters as well as their personal struggles. Meanwhile, environmental challenges include time restrictions; and overload requirements per subjects; lack of resources; inconsiderate teachers and poor internet connections. To cope with the challenges, the students employ Internal and External adaptive coping mechanisms. Internal includes keeping their self-motivations and responsibility. External includes seeking assistance from others, finding a suitable place for learning, earning extra income, and clinging on to God. Positively, the students have developed their intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. With themselves, they have developed values solidifying their character besides enhancing their digital and entrepreneurial skills. With others, they have realized the importance of teachers, have spent more time for family, have built genuine relationships, and have deepened their faith. Meanwhile, the students have recognized the extended help by the teachers in terms of digital instructions, adjustments, and moral supports. However, they wished to have limited face to face instructions, online classes, mental health aid, financial assistance and strong internet connectivity.


. The purpose of this paper is to initiate the study of a new kind of asymptotic series expansion for solutions of differential equations containing a parameter. We obtain uniform asymptotic solutions for certain equations of the form


A low angle x‐ray diffraction camera that is coupled to a nanosecond laser‐produced plasma x‐ray source is described. The system includes a grazing incidence toroidal x‐ray collector, a digital, intensified, television based x‐ray detector, and environmentally controlled sample chamber. The camera is designed for use in time‐resolved x‐ray diffraction studies. Preliminary kinetics x‐ray scattering results from the purple membrane of the Halobacterium halobium are presented.


Debates on restructuring of the U.S. electricity industry are often about the degree to which market relationships should replace transactions that formerly took place within regulated, vertically integrated utilities. Markets for the purchase of energy by vertically unintegrated distribution utilities are clearly feasible, but vertical deintegration of existing systems may entail foregoing some operational and reliability benefits that are important in light of electricity's unique characteristics. Research and policy on restructuring have almost totally disregarded a large econometric literature on the savings from vertical integration. At the same time, policy makers have accepted the results of flawed studies that purport to estimate the benefits of switching to a market regime. A review of California's restructuring history shows that vertical integration was viewed primarily as a tool that incumbent utilities might use to perpetuate their market power. The disregard of its benefits led to questionable divestitures that produced superficially competitive market structures, and to the institution of Independent System Operators whose costs have yet to be compared to their benefits.


[Objective] To explore the effects of levonorgestrel on proliferation, gap junction intercellular communication and Cx43, Cx32 expression of stromal and glandular cells in vitro. [Methods] The effects of levonorgestrel (LNG) on the proliferation of endometrial stromal and glandular cells were detected by MTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) method. The scrap loading dye transfer was used to investigate the effects of LNG on GJIC of endometrial stromal and glandular cells. The influence of levonorgestrel (LNG) on Cx43 and Cx32 expression was investigated with a laser scanning confocal microscope. [Results] 5×10-5 mol/L LNG significantly depressed the proliferation of endometrial stromal and glandular cells. The ability of GJIC function was higher in the endometrial stromal cells than that of the glandular cells in vitro. 5×10-5 mol/L LNG leading to greater GJIC after 48h (P0.05). Cx32 expressions in endometrial stromal and glandular cells were significantly higher than Cx43. 5×10-5 mol/L LNG had no effect on Cx expression. [Conclusions] LNG could inhibit the proliferation of endometrial stromal and glandular cells in vitro. The function of LNG′s up-regulation on GJIC of endometrial stromal and glandular cells may be one of mechanisms which invert endometrial hyperplasia. LNG had no effect on Cx expression of endometrial stromal and glandular cells, which indicates Cx expression could not completely reflect GJIC function in vitro.


We assessed the utility of a fixed, 3-section, watchstanding schedule in a small surface combatant of the United States Navy. Sailors on the "5 hrs-daytime/3 hrs-nighttime" or "D5/N3" schedule stood two watches every day, one a 5-hour daytime shift and one a 3-hour nighttime shift. Crewmembers (N = 27) completed a questionnaire while the ship was underway to assess the utility and the crew's acceptance of the D5/N3. Crewmembers reported sleeping 5.6 ± 1.3 hours daily. The average PSQI Global score was 8.3 ± 3.5, with ~81% of the participants identified as "poor sleepers." Approximately 94% of the respondents noted that the D5/N3 was either better (53%) or the same (41%) compared to their previous watch schedule. The predictability of the daily schedule, the ability to plan daily activities, the adequacy of time to complete watch duties, the availability of time for off-watch duties/shipboard-departmental qualifications, and higher alertness/better ability to focus were considered the strengths of the D5/N3. Overall, the D5/N3 has the potential to be a useful alternative to existing 3-section watch standing schedules in terms of crew alertness levels, acceptance by the crewmembers, and workload management when working in a Navy vessel. Because it is a novel schedule, however, more effort should be focused on how to best implement the D5/N3 on a ship, and on the factors that affect its use at sea.


Bases on the concept of man-center,this essay emphasizes the necessity of enhancing stimulating system,fully motivating the students' internal creativity,improving the efficiency of ideological and political work.Ideological and political work demands a stimulating system.Since the stimulating methods varies,stimulating system can't contribute much to ideological and political work unless we master accurate methods and skills.


1. The problem of discontinuous fluid motion past a curved barrier has become one of the classical problems of mechanics. For plane barriers the Schwartz-Christoffel transformation offers a direct method of solution; in the case of curved barriers no direct method of solution has been found. "A quicker start . . . can be made . . . by the simpler process of writing down a likely expression . . . and then investigating the streaming motion implied and the shape of the boundary." In the present paper the procedure is essentially in pursuance of Greenhill's advice, with the important modification that an attempt is made to solve problems that have a bearing on practical applications. Although many types of barriers have been suggested by various writers, very little in the way of actual numerical calculation has been done. Apparently, the only case worked out in detail is that by Brillouin, and this case is somewhat artificial and of little use. Such barriers as the circular and elliptic cylinders—important for the aerodynamics of struts—have not been attempted at all, while application to a barrier like a modern aeroplane wing seems very remote indeed.


The invention provides a video person number information statistics method based on supervised learning. The video person number information statistics method based on the supervised learning includes: firstly, marking regional person numbers for all images in target video, and generating training data, testing data and corresponding regional person number marking data; estimating regional densities in allusion to multiple types of fusion features of the training data, and obtaining regional linear transformation parameters through parameter training; using the regional linear transformation parameters of the training data to estimate the regional densities of regional fusion features of the testing data and figure out estimated values of the regional person numbers; comparing the estimated values of the regional person numbers of the testing data with regional person number true values obtained through the regional person number marking data of the testing data so as to obtain estimation error rate of each region in the testing data; estimating system performance according to the estimation error rate. The video person number information statistics method based on the supervised learning embodies characteristics of different features in the different regions, can improve video person number information statistics accuracy, and improves the defects that error problems are caused by hypothesis which does not conform to a practical situation and computing cost is large in a traditional method.


According to the coordinated development connotations of regional culture and economy, set up index system and used the coordination degree model to measure the coordination development state and process between culture and economy in Hebei Province based on relevant statistical data from 2004 to 2011. The results showed that the development of culture and economy in Hebei province has experienced five stages. The development degree and the growth of cultural industry were the main factors to promote the coordination degree. Finally, made some recommendations based on the results.


Background: Disability is the condition of difficulty in carrying out daily activities normally and in taking part in social life due to problems in parts of the body and the physical system as well as obstacles created by physical, social, cultural environment and by communication. Disability also carries stigma, so disabled people may face layers of discrimination when they are menstruating. The objective of the research is to assess the knowledge and practice regarding menstrual health of disabled women. Method: Descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted among 151 participations. Self-structured questionnaire and face-to-face interview were used as data collection tool and technique respectively. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 20. Descriptive analysis like frequency and percentages were computed and presented in a table. Results: Most of participants knew 26-30 days were the normal menstrual cycle duration (80.13%). Only 31% of participants bath daily during menstruation. About 83% of participants used sanitary pad, 69.54% of participants changed pad twice a day. Maximum number (91.39%) disposed sanitary pad in dustbin. 76.82% of participants learned about menstrual hygiene from parents and friends. Majority of the participants (61.59%), cleaned the genitalia haphazardly 88.08% cleaned with soap and water Most of the respondent 90.06% had taken rest during menstruation. Conclusions: Disabled women were aware about normal duration of menstrual cycle and blood loss. However, improper practices related to menstrual health and hygiene were prevalent among disabled women, it should be timely and rightly approached to prevent and control adverse health conditions that may arise of it. Mother and peer groups could be the best choices of source of information to improve menstrual health and hygiene of differently able women. Keyword: Knowledge, practice, menstrual hygiene and physically disabled Access this article Online Article Info. Quick Response Code Website: How to cite this article in Vancouver Style? www.jkahs.org.np Pokhrel B, Mahat S, Parajuli K, Lama N. Knowledge and Practice Regarding Menstrual Health among Physically Disabled Women in Kathmandu, Nepal. Karnali Academy of Health Sciences 2020;3(1):1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/jkahs.v3i1.28836 Received: 4 January, 2020 Accepted: 10 April, 2020 Published Online: 12 April. 2020 Conflict of Interest: None Source of Support: None Pokhrel et.al. Knowledge & Practice Regarding ..... 2 www.jkhas.org.np JKHAS | VOL. 3 | NO. 1 | ISSUE 7 | JAN-APRIL 2020 INTRODUCTION "Disability is the condition of difficulty in carrying out daily activities normally and in taking part in social life due to problems in parts of the body and the physical system as well as obstacles created by physical, social, cultural environment and by communication".1 Prevailing illiteracy, ignorance, and negative perception on the disability in the society is considered as the punishment of the god for some sin committed in the past life but it is not so. It is a human reality that occurs in all the ages from birth to old age.2 The onset of menstruation is the vital physiological change that occurred in girls during adolescence which is associated with the excessive intake of Junk/Fast Food.3 The prevailing taboos and socio-cultural prohibitions during menstruation are the determinants of adolescent girls being ignorant of scientific knowledge and practices regarding health and hygiene that are causing them to be the victim of adverse health outcomes.4,5 Unhygienic menstrual practices may affect women's health causing vulnerability to RTI, PIDs and other complications.6 So, hygiene related practices of women during menstruation are crucial to health7. According to population census 2011, nearly 2 % of total population of Nepal are disabled and among them 44% of them are female. Among these disabled female, 36 % are physically disabled.5 Obstetrician-gynecologists encounter adolescents with disabilities in their practice. Teenagers with disabilities and their families my face complications in reproductive health issues like puberty, sexuality, and menstruation because of the concerns related to menstrual hygiene, risk of abuse and vulnerability to altered mood.5 In this condition menstruation and disability both are affected by socio-cultural factors. Thus our study will help to find out how disable women are vulnerable to menstrual health problems because of their knowledge and practices. MATERIALS AND METHODS The descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge and practice regarding menstruation health among physically disables women in Disable Rehabilitation Center, Jorpati area of Kathmandu. Sample size was calculated by using the formula (n) = ZZ 2P (1−P) dd2 . Where, n= sample size, P= expected prevalence or proportion, d= allowable error, Z= Z statistic for a level of confidence. Putting p= 0.89 (Prevalence of knowledge regarding menstruation)7, d= 5% = 0.05, Z= 1.96 for 95% confidence interval,1-p= 0.11 in formula the required sample size was 151. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the required sample. The study was conducted from 15 Feb to 15 March 2018. Semistructured questionnaire was the tool and face Pokhrel et.al. Knowledge & Practice Regarding ..... 3 www.jkhas.org.np JKHAS | VOL. 3 | NO. 1 | ISSUE 7 | JAN-APRIL 2020 to face interview was the technique to collect the data. The collected data was entered and analyzed in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive analysis like frequency and percentages were computed and presented in a table. Ethical principles were followed taking written consent from each participant and maintaining confidentiality by using an appropriate code for the identity of each participant.


The computer technology is designed for integrated analysis and interpretation of geological and geophysical data acquired at regional profiles and building a physical-geological model of the Earth\'s crust complying with all geophysical fields. The main element of a technique is independence of processing and interpretation of the data of each method with their subsequent integration in integrated model. The computer technology was applied to processing and interpretation of geophysical data acquired along profiles in the different regions of Russia.


This chapter analyses the origins of the constitutional referendum of June 2006, its significance, the campaign, the result and the implications of the result for Italian politics, arguing that while the referendum ended the idea of a 'grande riforma', or 'great reform' (that is, a comprehensive as opposed to piecemeal reform), both the nature of the campaign and the results left the issue of constitutional reform very much alive. In this respect, the referendum may come to be viewed as a turning point analogous to other noteworthy referenda in the history of the Italian Republic.


Chip-probing is the key process for IC manufacturing to its ensure quality. As the number of tests increases, the test quality and the test yield will be affected because the needles on the probe card of the tester will be contaminated by external objects or worn out. Whether a needle polish of the probe card is required can be determined through real-time monitoring on various detection indicators such as resistivity and yield. However, both resistivity and yield are lagging indicators, and excessively frequent needle polishes will increase the processing time and reduce the test throughput. The so-called Intelligent Factory Automation (iFA) system platform, realized by integrating several intelligent services including Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPM), was proposed to accomplish the goal of Zero-Defect Manufacturing. However, the current remaining useful life (RUL) prediction algorithm in IPM is a univariate time series prediction. The RUL prediction may not be accurate enough if only one variable is adopted to describe the dynamic changes of the time series. A supervisory architecture for chip probing process based on iFA is proposed in this letter. The Multivariate Version of Time Series Prediction (TSPMVA) in this architecture can use the vector autoregression model to improve the accuracy of RUL prediction. Experimental results reveal that the proposed supervisory framework with TSPMVA can not only monitor the tester's health status efficiently but also improve the accuracy of needle's RUL prediction by extracting multiple features.


The presentation, an interim report, will focus on the design, implementation and rationale for a pre-APCS HS curriculum of Interdisciplinary Central-Problem-Based units that model real-world applications. In a typical multi-week unit, students use an existing complex software application to explore a specific problem, e.g. configuring SDSC Biology Workbench to build a phylogenetic (evolutionary) tree for various animal species after determining the degree of homology between protein or DNA sequences obtained from online genomic and protein databases. Students then build a small-scale version of the program - focusing on 1 or 2 algorithms - using Processing, Excel, BYOB or Alice. This approach allows students a glimpse into the inner workings of such programs, and affords them both context and practical potential for their projects. Back-stories from film and literature (e.g. Inherit the Wind) place problems within an historical and social context so that students will understand both their importance and the contribution CS can make to their solution. Unit topics have come from the fields of Astronomy (Galileo's discoveries), Bioinformatics (evolution), Molecular Modeling (DNA double helix), Political Science (women's suffrage/ Florida 2000 Presidential election), Environmental Science, Music (visualization software like Synthesia), and Holocaust Studies (IBM's active hardware and programming support for Hollerith machine technology used in the Nazi extermination programs).


One kind of hydraulic transformer modular port plate belongs to the technical field of hydraulics, characterized in that is formed with two inner teeth of the outer disk sleeved formed with the outer boss inner disc an outer teeth, an outer disc right end surface of the inner pan floor the left end face bonded to the outer discs of the first outer, inner, and a second internally toothed disk with teeth on a ring groove, the annular groove is divided into the first, second, third arcuate groove, the high-pressure oil source through the shell first oil passage of the body, a first hole and a first arcuate slot in communication with the plunger chamber within the disc, the second hole after the second oil passage through the actuator housing, and the inner plate and a second arcuate slot the plunger chamber communicates, the third low-pressure oil source through the oil passage housing, a third hole within the disk, and a third arcuate slot in communication with the piston chamber, an outer disc rotor rotated by a swing motor by a spline, the disc by pin connected to the rear axle housing. The advantage is a simple flow disc structure having a large transformation ratio can effectively reduce vibration and noise, easy to implement servo control with the hydraulic transformer.


For parallel multi-inverters in island microgrid,the difference of equivalent output impedance and line impedance affects greatly on power sharing and circulating current restraining.From power transmission characteristics of parallel inverters,the influence of power sharing among resistive inverters was analyzed in this paper,where the conventional droop control was applied.Based on the analysis of circulating current characteristics of resistive inverters,a robust droop multiple loop control method was proposed,which included the outer power loop and the inner voltage and current loop.In the outer power loop,a robust droop controller is adopted to reduce the effects on accurate power sharing due to the impedance difference.Introducing virtual complex impedance including resistive component and inductive component,the equivalent output impedance of inverters is redesigned as pure resistance.Quasi proportional-resonant(QPR) control is applied to realize zero steady-state errors control of the output voltage with wide bandwidth for parallel inverters,which will reduce further the deviation of output voltage and restrain circulating current.The output voltage feedforward control and the proportional control of the capacitor current are adopted to improve the transient response and current disturbance.The effects on the equivalent output impedance in the different control mode and parameters were


Data on new modifications of supported titanium-magnesium catalysts (TMCs) with improved performance in ethylene polymerization are reported. These catalysts possess a high and stable activity, an enhanced ability to regulate molecular weight of the polymer by hydrogen, a controllable particle size at a narrow particle size distribution, and the ability to produce the polymer with an increased bulk density. Various physicochemical methods were used to obtain data on the chemical composition of novel supports and catalysts, their phase composition and crystal structure as well as the pore structure. The results obtained were used to discuss possible correlations between composition and structure of TMCs and their catalytic properties. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 2545–2558


Daniel Thuo Ndung'u *, Lydia Chepkoech1, Penina Langat2,
Daniel Thuo Ndung'u*,
Department of Business Studies, Presbyterian University, Nakuru, Kenya
Tel. +254(0)724629081, email@example.com
Lydia Chepkoech1
Department of Business Studies, Kabianga University, Kericho, Kenya
Tel. +254(0)726989877, email@example.com
Penina Langat2
Department of Business Studies, Kabianga University, Kericho, Kenya
Tel. +254(0)720040341, firstname.lastname@example.com
ABSTRACT
Despite Government's promotion of Constituency Women Enterprise Scheme activities country wide, there are indications of low uptake of group loans at both the county level and Constituency level. The study sought to find out the determinants of group loans uptake at Women Enterprises Fund in Nakuru West Constituency. Study objectives were; access to information, loan amount and repayment period, lending procedures and policy and financial literacy as the independent variables and uptake of group loans as the dependent variable.
Study population was 620 registered active women groups. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed where cluster sampling, random sampling and purposive sampling were used to determine the sample size. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. SPSS was used to process and analyze the data. Findings were presented inform of frequency distribution tables, means, standard deviation and in form of inferential statics tables. Access to the information, loan amount and repayment period, lending procedures and financial were found to influence uptake of group loans at Women enterprise fund. Lending procedure and policy was found to have the most significant effect on the group loan uptake while financial literacy had least affects loan uptake. Recommendations were that start up loan amounts should be increased as well as the loan repayment period; the management should also come up with suitable leading procedures and policy that are friendly to the women and finally women should be trained on financial literacy so as to increase group loans uptake at the women enterprise fund .The study will be of importance to the management of the women Enterprise Fund and other government funds in aid of policies formulation that will increase the uptake of group loans.

Key words: loan, information, lending, literacy, Constituency, Women.


1Department of Psychological Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 2Teaching Center of Experimental Medicine, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 3Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 4Department of Psychological Medicine, Xiamen Branch, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China Objective: This study aimed to explore the mechanism of venlafaxine in regulating the apoptosis of SHSY-5Y cells induced by hypoxia. Methods: The CoCl2-induced neuronal hypoxia model was established based on SHSY-5Y cells. The morphology and related protein expression of SHSY-5Y cells were detected by qPCR, ELISA and Western blot. Results: Under the condition of hypoxia-induced by CoCl2, the expression of HIF-1α in SHSY-5Y cells was up-regulated and the expression of β-catenin was down-regulated. After adding siRNA targeting HIF-1 α to the culture cell system, down-regulation of β -catenin expression in SHSY-5Y cells was restored. This confirmed the existence of the "hypoxia-HIF -1α-Wnt/β-catenin-depression" axis. Further studies have shown that venlafaxine can alleviate neuronal apoptosis induced by hypoxia by upregulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Conclusion: Venlafaxine regulates apoptosis induced by hypoxia through the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which provides a new theoretical basis for the treatment of depression.


In the US new vaccines are banned until shown to be safe and effective. But the approval process is slow and cautious and no vaccine has yet been approved. The faster but perhaps riskier Russian system produced an approved coronavirus vaccine months more quickly, leaving Americans at risk of dying for months longer than Russians. Our data from two national surveys in September show that a majority of Americans would willingly take the existing Russian vaccine and that a two-to-one majority – rich and poor, young and old, Democrat and Republican alike – believe that they ought to be allowed to do so. We estimate that making the Russian vaccine immediately available would save approximately 40 to 100 American lives each day after the first month and many more subsequently, To put the matter bluntly, current US government policy will kill some 40 to 100 people each day for a considerable period later this year and early next. To put those deaths in context, all American murderers combined kill only 45 people each day – not a record the US government should wish to emulate. There are also implications for the 2020 election; Since feelings about the Russian coronavirus vaccine are strongly favorable, and the benefits of allowing it in the US are large, making it available should be attractive politically. The Republican government has the power to adopt that policy and gain the credit. Alternatively, the Democratic opposition has the opportunity to advocate that policy, and claim the credit.


Theory of Planned Behavior has been used in a number of studies to understand the consumer behavior. Almost all such researches have utilized quantitative methods for research. In this research, an attempt has been made to apply the Theory of Planned Behavior to the counterfeit garment brand purchase using qualitative methods. This research tried to identify the factors that influence consumers to buy or not to buy counterfeit garment brands based on the constructs of Theory of Planned Behavior. Three focus group interviews were conducted for 30 people in a group of ten each. The three groups comprised of respondents from different age groups. The responses were hence analyzed to identify the similarities and differences in the factors of importance while purchasing branded/ counterfeit garments between the three groups of respondents


The rising demand of energy ascertains the necessity of finding alternate sources of energy. As most of the fossils will exhaust shortly, the hunger to explore renewable resources is getting worse. Under these circumstances, the solar energy has recognized as a promising future for sustainable and clean energy. However, the solar cells have not been deployed as much as forecasted due to cost and efficiency concerns. This paper inquisitively investigates the solar cells, belonging to all the three generations, in respect of their recent challenges that limits the development of highly efficient and low-cost cells. By overwhelming these issues, the maximum potential of the solar cells could be obtained.


The paper takes the high-level sports teams of South China University of Technology school for example to study the running patterns of College Athletic Teams through literature review,comparison,questionnaire investigating and interview.The research found that the results of College Athletic Teams are outstanding,whether the employment status or the work performance of students.It also discovered a series of problems of College Athletic Teams.It concluded that the running of College Athletic Teams is necessary and feasible and proposed the running patterns of College Athletic Teams : the national sports administration should implement the sports powerful nation policy of "Combination of Sports and Education",stimulate primary and secondary schools to run sports team and enhance the overall supervision of the running quality of College Athletic Teams.


Abstract Samples of sylvinite, halite and kieserite of the German Zechstein formation have been analyzed for the content of atmospheric components. The gas contents are of the order of 10-3 cm3 NTP/g salt. N2, O2, Ar, CO2, CH4, H2 and sometimes H2S have been analyzed. Obviously, all gases are molecularly dispersed in the crystal lattice and, probably, have been in equilibrium with the corresponding components solved in the solution. On this basis it seems to be possible to obtain quantitative data on the atmospheric composition at the time of the salt formation.


The newly-formed type of economy, namely convention exhibition industry which is the outcome of market economy, has played a more and more important role in national economy and has developed rapidly in middle and big cities of China in recent years. The paper discusses the present status and further developing direction of convention exhibition industry and economy.


Low recoil force technology is a key technology that coordinates three contradictions of gun power, mobility and fire accuracy. Gun recoil force reduction technology mainly include out-of-battery, superlong and tandem superlong recoil,2D recoil, muzzle braking, rarefaction wave gun and electromagnetic rheologic fluid etc.. Out of battery recoil technique has to conform to variable charge, especially to deal with problem such as fire accuracy of first round. Infrared target signature of rarefaction wave gun is too obvious, so it needs to control gun mechanism accurately, and to study relevant technology such as interior ballistics and gun automatic mechanism. In the course of gun design, application program of low recoil force technology was introduced by means of comparison and analysis of various recoil force reduction technology.


Working Memory: A Cognitive Limit to Non-Human Primate Recursive Thinking Prior to Hominid Evolution? Dwight W. Read (email@example.com) Department of Anthropology, UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA Abstract In this paper I explore the possibility that recursion is not part of the cognitive repertoire of non-human primates due to a limitation on the size of working memory in non-human primates such as the chimpanzees. Multiple lines of data imply that chimpanzee working memory may be of size 2. If so, they lack the cognitive capacity for recursive thinking. Implications that change in working memory size during hominid evolution may have had for changes in the basis for constructing social cohesion, and whether the cognitive difference between Homo sapiens and non-human primates is one of degree or kind, are discussed. Keywords: working memory, recursion, primates, hominid evolution Working Memory and Recursion That there are significant differences in the cognitive capacities of Homo sapiens in comparison with modern day non-human primates species is self-evident. Less clear is whether the evolutionary development of the cognitive capacities of modern Homo sapiens derive directly from cognitive capacities already present, though to a lesser degree, in a common ancestor for Pan and for Homo, or instead significant cognitive capacities were introduced subsequent to the speciation event that genetically separated the pongids from the hominids. Claims that the difference is one of degree and not kind have been bolstered by data on both captive and wild primates that have laid to rest, one after the other, assertions such as tool-making, grammatically based means of communication and culture as qualitative differences that make Homo sapiens cognitively unique among the primates. Of these, culture has often been seen as providing the firmest evidence for a qualitative divide, yet even this has been challenged by behavior patterns among chimpanzees whose origin and spread is through non-genetic transmission based upon learning (whether by imitation, emulation or some other means) within a social context – characteristics that some claim are the key aspects of what constitutes cultural phenomena. Though the evidence countering each of the claimed bases for a qualitative difference in cognitive abilities has enriched enormously our understanding of the cognitive capacities of our nearest non-human primate relatives, the debate has been flawed by focusing on the consequences of cognitive capacities and not on the underlying abilities. Data showing tool making and tool use by chimpanzees, for example, do not determine if their cognitive capacities for tool using and making suffice for the more complex tools produced by our hominid ancestors. Evidence to the contrary can be seen in a sequence of increased complexity in tool making during hominid evolution that may reflect qualitative cognitive changes. According to Pigeot (Pigeot, 1991), early hominid stone tools (< 2.5 mya) such as Oldowan choppers are conceptually 1-dimensionsal as they are based on producing a cutting, or chopping, edge on a cobble. The conceptual framework for making stone tools then becomes 2- dimensional around 1.5 mya when the stone tools are conceptualized as having a two dimensional form mapped onto a stone object through flint knapping. Finally, with the introduction of the Upper Paleolithic blade tool industry, tool making conceptually incorporates a third dimension that enables control over the relationship between blade production and volume. Similarly, when language performance is divided into the underlying cognitive and biological capacities invoked by Homo sapiens, the evidence for degree rather than kind is less clear-cut. In a review of language components divided into faculty of language (broad sense) and faculty of language (narrow sense), the components of the former are found to have homologues in animal communication but the latter, with recursion as its primary component, appears to be specific to Homo sapiens (Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch, 2002). While a likely cognitive precursor to recursion, namely implicit rule learning, does occur with at least one non-human primate (cotton-top tamarins) when the rules represent a finite state grammar (Hauser, Weiss, & Marcus, 2002), the same is not true for phrase-structure grammars (Fitch & Hauser, 2004). Thus non-human primates appear to lack recursive reasoning and "little progress has been made in identifying the specific capabilities [underlying recursion] that are lacking in other animals" (Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch, 2002). In this paper I explore the possibility that recursion fails to be part of the cognitive repertoire of non-human primates due to a limitation on the size of working memory in non-human primates such as the chimpanzees. That the size of working memory of chimpanzees is less than the working memory of modern Homo sapiens is evident. Increase in the size of working memory may have had major consequences for hominid evolution (Russell, 1996) and it is possible that the cognitive consequences of a genetic change in the size of working memory is responsible for the profound changes that took place in hominid evolution during the Upper Paleolithic (Coolidge & Wynn, 2005). To see the problem with recursion and a small working memory size, consider the way genealogical tracing is used recursively to compute the members of one's family tree. Genealogical tracing begins by linking two persons – one's


The hematocrit (Hct) effect is considered to be one of the most crucial issues in dried blood spot (DBS) analysis. Since the Hct of a blood sample affects blood viscosity and hence, the volume of blood contained in a fixed-size DBS punch, deviating Hct values can significantly impact DBS-based quantitation. To evaluate the extent of the Hct effect for a given DBS we previously developed a method that allows estimating the Hct of a DBS based on its potassium (K) content 1. Additionally, using caffeine and paraxanthine as model compounds, it was shown that the K content could also be employed to introduce a Hct specific correction factor (utilizing a K-based correction algorithm) which alleviates the Hct effect 2. Although this K-based method yielded good results when applied to patient samples, it also suffered from some practical drawbacks, as it consumed part of the DBS and required additional sample preparation. Therefore, we now developed a non-destructive method, which allows to predict a DBS' Hct using non-contact diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. This way, mere scanning of a DBS suffices to derive its Hct.