Adrenal vein catheterization for blood sampling and phlebography has become a well established clinical method. It was first introduced about two decades ago (MASONI 1957, LEVY & MILLER 1961, BUCHT 1962, BETTE et coll, 1964, BUCHT et coil. 1964, STARER 1%5) and was later modified (MIKAELSSON 1967, REUTER et coll, 1%7) to permit preoperative localization of small hormone-producing adenomas. However, this technique has caused much controversy, due to reported serious complications (STARER, BOOKSTEIN et coll, 1%8, BAYLISS et coll, 1970, J0RGENSEN & STIRIS 1974) and also to the potential difficulties both in its performance and in the evaluation of the results. With the advent of body computed tomography (CT), the initial results seemed to support the view that CT would play an important role in localizing small adenomas (KARSTAEDT et coll, 1978, KOROBKIN et coll, 1979). Increasing experience with CT scanning, however, has shown that this method is inherently limited in localizing small masses (DUNNICK et coll, 1979, EL-SHERIEF et coll, 1982), and therefore adrenal vein catheterization remains as one of the most sensitive available methods in this respect. The present investigation deals with some sources of error in the evaluation of the method, mainly the presence of lower hepatic veins, anatomic variants and incomplete demonstration of the adrenal glands.


Based on the inherently safe engineroom and ESD protected engineroom,this article puts forward the design thought of enhanced safe engineroom,reducing the risk by adopting measures,such as increasing ventilation,strengthening detection and alarm,and using full penetration butt welding joints.With an inland river LNG-fueled ship as the goal,this article has completed the design of enhanced safe engineroom,and puts forward the specific design requirements of this kind of engineroom,such as installing corresponding valves on the gas fuel pipes,conducting gas detection and mechanical ventilation in the engine room and gas valve enclosure,using full penetration butt joints in gas supply piping connections,mounting explosion relief valves on the air inlet manifolds,the exhaust manifolds and the crankcase of the engine,fixing the driving motor of the fans outside the ventilation ducts,grounding the pipes and electrical equipment,thus makes its risk level equal to the inherently safe engineroom.


An ultralight scalar field is a candidate for the dark matter. The ultralight scalar dark matter with mass around 10−23 eV induces oscillations of the pulse arrival time in the sensitive frequency range of the pulsar timing arrays. We search for the ultralight scalar dark matter using the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves 11-year Data Set. We give the 95% confidence upper limit for the signal induced by the ultralight scalar dark matter. In comparison with the published Bayesian upper limits on the amplitude of the ultralight scalar dark matter obtained by Bayesian analysis using the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array 12-year data set (Porayko et al. 2018), we find three times stronger upper limit in the frequency range from 10−8.34 to 10−8.19 Hz which corresponds to the mass range from 9.45×10−24 to 1.34×10−23 eV. In terms of the energy density of the dark matter, we find that the energy density near the Earth is less than 7 GeV/cm3 in the range from 10−8.55 to 10−8.01 Hz (from 5.83×10−24 to 2.02×10−23 eV). The strongest upper limit on the energy density is given by 2 GeV/cm3 at a frequency 10−8.28 Hz (corresponding to a mass 1.09×10−23 eV). We find that the signal of the ultralight scalar dark matter is strongly covariant with the solar system ephemeris effect. Also, we reveal that the model of the solar system ephemeris effect prefers parameters which are contrary to the expectation that noise will be reduced on all pulsars.


Introduction:
Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) therapy attenuates the risk of biliary pain and complications in patients with symptomatic gallstones [1]. However, it is unknown whether UDCA therapy might improve also the gastrointestinal quality of life in patients with "asymptomatic" cholecystolithiasis.

Methods:
Therefore we studied the effect of UDCA treatment in 35 patients [ ♀ = 21; age 36 – 72, av. 56.6; ♂ = 14; age 29 – 78, av. 59,8 ] with "asymptomatic" gall-stones, using the "Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index" (GIQLI) as previously introduced by Eypasch et al. [2] The 36 questions of the GIQLI had to be answered on a 5-digit scale (0;1;2;3;4), so if added up a total score of 144 could be obtained. The questionnaire was answered before and after a four-week treatment with 250 mg UDCA per day, taken in the evening.

Results:
The patients scored 107.0 ± 15.9 (mean ± SD ) points from an attainable maximum of 136* prior UDCA treatment, which increased significantly ( p 100 ( 8.67 ± 6.84 ).

Conclusions:
Our study shows that a "silent gall-stone" is not always as silent as expected, and that furthermore a treatment with low dose UDCA can improve the gastrointestinal quality of life in patients with "asymptomatic" cholecystolithiasis, particularly in patients with an initial GIQLI-score ≤ 100 points.
References: [1] Tomida S. et al. Hepatology 1999; 30: 6-13
[2] British Journal of Surgery 1995; 82: 216-222


The purpose of this study is to investigate how the broken home influence the personality development. in comparison of the personal characters of the child of broken home with those of the child of normal home. The subjects of this study were 111 broken homes children and 183 normal homes children of 5th grade. sampled from elementary schools in Busan. The instrument used in this study was the character inventory prepared by Lee Sang Rho, etc. The result of the personality test was compared according to each variable(as follows) and the mean(M) standard deviation(SD) and T-test were obtained. The result of the analysis are as follows: 1. The child of normal homes is superior in superiority than the child of broken homes 2. The boys of normal homes are superior in sociability than the boys of broken homes, boys of broken homes, but there was no outstanding difference between the girls of normal homes and the girls of broken homes. 3. In the case of extended family, there was no outstanding difference between the child of normal homes and the child of broken homes, but in the case of nuclear family, the child of normal homes is superior in sociability and superiority than the child of broken homes. 4. In the case of only child homes, there was no outstanding difference between the child of normal homes and the child of broken homes, but in the case of sibling child homes, the child of normal homes is superior in sociability and superiority than the child of broken homes.


Abstract The introduction of an acetic acid side chain via enolate alkylation has found widespread application in the synthesis of natural products, especially in the area of fused-ring γ-butyrolactones.1 While the direct approach using α-haloacetic esters as alkylating agents usually yields satisfactory results, the use of an acetic acid equivalent (synthon)2 may sometimes be necessary in order to permit selective manipulations of polyfunctional intermediates. On such occasions, allyl (2-propenyl) or substituted allyl groups have been employed with good success.3 We recently encountered problems with the oxidative cleavage of allyl side chains which prompted us to utilize 2-chloro-2-propenyl as an acetic acid synthon, with excellent results.


ABSTRACT Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disease which involves both defective insulin secretion and peripheral insulin resistance. Despite the availability of other agents for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus gliclazide, is preferred in diabetic therapy because of its selective inhibitory activity towards pancreatic K + -ATP channels, antioxidant property, low incidence of producing severe hypoglycemia and other haemobiological effects. In the present study gliclazide microspheres were prepared using combination of Ethyl cellulose (20 cps), Methocel K4M, Methocel K15M and Eudragit-RSPO by solvent evaporation method. They were evaluated for their microencapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release, and surface morphology, compatibility between drug and polymers and in vivo anti-diabetic study. The microspheres were almost spherical and slightly rough. The encapsulation efficiency was in the range of 68-92%. The drug release was also found to be slow which extended for almost 8 hours. FTIR and DSC analysis indicated the good compatibility between the dug and polymers. In vivo study of the gliclazide microspheres in albino rats demonstrated significant antidiabetic effect of gliclazide. In case of gliclazide microspheres the hypoglycemic effect obtained was for more than 10 hours whereas pure gliclazide produce antidiabetic effect for only 4-5 hours suggesting that microspheres of gliclazide may be a potential candidate for safe and effective controlled drug delivery for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.


Tiling is a well-known loop transformation, which is basically used to expose coarse-grain parallelism and to exploit data reuse at the cache level. However, it can also be used to exploit data reuse at the register level and to improve programs's ILP. Previous work on tiling and also commercial compilers are able to perform tiling for the register level in more than one dimension when the iteration space is rectangular. Non-rectangular iteration spaces are commonly found in linear algebra algorithms or can arise as a result of applying previous transformations such as loop skewing. In this paper we evaluate the technique presented in Jimenez et al. (1996) which is able to perform tiling for the register level in more than one dimension in both rectangular and non-rectangular iteration spaces. We use typical linear algebra algorithms having non-rectangular iteration spaces as benchmarks and compare our proposal against commercial preprocessors able to perform optimizing code transformations such as inner unrolling, outer unrolling and software pipelining. We will also present quantitative data showing the benefits of tiling only for the register level, tiling only for the cache level and tiling for both levels simultaneously. Results measured on a ALPHA 21164 processor show that tiling for both cache and register levels improves upon commercial compilers and preprocessors by factors in the range of 1.3 to 6.3.


ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) offers both opportunities and challenges to Indonesian Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Highly competitive SMEs are likely to exploit opportunities from AEC by expanding their markets and securing raw materials at lower costs. On the contrary, the increasingly intense competition is likely to marginalize less competitive SMEs in their own domestic market. This study aims to analyze the SMEs competitiveness in anticipating AEC. Using 64 SMEs that already export their products or have potentials to export as the sample; this research shows that Indonesian SMEs exhibit a high competitiveness level from the perspective of the production factor, the availability of related and supporting industries factor (especially in relation to the availability of raw and supporting materials), and the demand factor. However, SME owners acknowledge that AEC intensify competition and the government has not provided adequate facilities to improve the SME competitiveness.


Last month the British press made much of a study purporting to show that chronic fatigue syndrome was the single commonest cause of long term absence from school in Britain.1 The authors claimed to have calculated prevalence figures for both pupils (0.07%) and teachers (0.5%) similar to previously reported figures for the general population.2 3 4 Dowsett and Colby make much of "clusters" of cases, defined as three or more cases in a school. The press release distributed by one of the authors states that 39% of cases occurred in such clusters, saying that this "suggests that ME results from an infection." It refers to one cluster extending over several schools in an area where there was "recreational water heavily polluted by sewage." The published paper contains no reference to pollution by sewage or anything else, but only to several cases in "schools near two new towns in a rural environment alongside recreational water."

Unfortunately, the data from this questionnaire survey are heavily overinterpreted. The response rate was only 37% of schools contacted, no attempt was made to define whether non-responders differed from responders, and the local educational authority districts surveyed were chosen on the basis of social and geographical diversity but also "their interest in the project." It is not clear on what …


Artin Presentation Theory, (AP Theory), is a new, direct infusion, via pure braid theory, of discrete group theory, (i.e., symmetry in its purest form), into the theory of {\it smooth} 4-manifolds, (i.e.,$(3+1)$-Quantum Gravity in its purest topological form), thus exhibiting the most basic, rigorous, universal, model-free intrinsic {\it gauge-gravity} duality in a non-infinitesimal, cone-like graded, as holographic as possible, model-independent, non-perturbative, background-independent, parameter-free manner. {\it In AP Theory even smooth topology change becomes gauge-theoretic, setting the stage for a rigorous smooth topological $(3+1)$-QFT of Dynamic Dark Energy.} In this theory, the rigid $\infty$ of the dimension of classical Hilbert space is substituted by the dynamic $\infty$ of the $\infty$ generation at each stage of a cone-like graded subgroup of topology-changing transitions/interactions. As a corollary, the Cosmological Constant problem and the YM Millenium Mass Gap problem, two of the most perplexing main problems of modern physics, become rigorously, intimately mathematically related, by having the same qualitative {\it dynamical} roots. Ultimately our main point is meta-mathematical, as far as modern physics is concerned: due to the discrete group-theoretic conceptual simplicity of the theory, with its group-theoretic 'Planckian membrane/discreteness' starting point, {\it the fact that it is not just a mere mathematical model,} and all its properties above, any other {\it mathematically rigorous} approach has to built on AP Theory and be topologically absorbed and enveloped by it.


Purpose: To evaluate the extent of morphological variability of mesquite in the Penjamo region based on the characteristics with the highest descriptive value. Methodology : A set of 32 mesquite samples was collected from 7 localities in Penjamo Guanajuato. In each sample, 20 qualitative (7) and quantitative (13) morphological characters were analyzed, and the soil type of the collection site was recorded. The data were analyzed by main components (PCA) and clusters (CA). Results : The main component and cluster analyzes differentiated the collections into two groups and five subgroups based on the size of the pod and leaf area. Limitations: "It is necessary to consider biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic factors which can contribute to explain the observed variation. Findings: The length and width of the leaflet, pinna and pod are the main contributors to quantitative variation, while in qualitative characteristics the main source of variation was the position and arrangement of the spines, as well as the presence of flowers. The location and type of soil of the collection site was associated with the qualitative variation of mesquite.


In this paper, single cell adhesion force was measured using a nanofork. The nanofork was used to pick-up a single cell on a line-patterned substrate inside ESEM. The line-patterned substrate was used to provide small gaps between the single cells and the substrate. Therefore, the nanofork could be inserted through these gaps in order to successfully pick-up a single cell. Adhesion force was measured during the cell pick-up process from the deflection of the cantilever beam. The nanofork was fabricated using focused ion beam (FIB) etching process while the line-patterned substrate was fabricated using nanoimprinting technology. As to investigate the effect of contact area on the strength of the adhesion force, two sizes of gap distance of line-patterned substrate were used, i.e. 1 µm and 2 µm. Results showed that cells attached on the 1 µm gap line-patterned substrate required more force to be released as compared to the cells attached on the 2 µm gap line-patterned substrate.


Sesbania rostrata is a stem and root nodulating tropical green manure legume. The bacterium Rhizobium Azorhizobium caulinodans is involved in stem and root nodule formation. A pot culture study was conducted with S. rostrata, S. aculeata (Willd.) poir and S. speciosa during January- April, 1988 to investigate the effect of water logging on plant growth, biomass production, nitrogenase activity was higher than root nodules on 45th, 65th and 85th day after sowing. S. aculeata recorded higher biomass on 45th day after sowing. Chlorophyll content, nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron and manganese were accumulated more in S. rostrata while, S. aculeata and S. speciosa recorded higher organic carbon and phosphorus content with wider C:N ratio.


We examine a hierarchy of ocean models, ranging from simple 2D turbulence simulations to North Atlantic HYCOM output, to determine the effect of Eulerian spatial resolution on the two particle statistics of synthetic drifter trajectories produced by such models. In each case, particle dispersion at large time and space scales is found to be controlled by energetic meso-scale features of the flow which are relatively insensitive to the resolution of finer scale motions. In all cases, time-distance graphs given in terms of computed Finite Scale Lyapunov Exponents show a marked increase in the extent of exponential scaling with increasing spatial smoothing of the velocity field. The limiting value of the FSLE at small separation distances is found to scale remarkably well with the resolution of Eulerian velocity gradients as given by the average of positive Okubo-Weiss parameter values.


In May 1990 the so called state-aided school model was introduced in South Africa. This, in turn, resulted in major organisational and structural changes in schools falling under the ex Department of Education and Culture, Administration, House of Assembly. Literature research indicates that people and structures should never be examined separately, since they are indivisibly and dynamically interlinked Conformity to the institution, its roles and its expectations leads to organisational effectiveness while conformity to individuals, their personalities and their needs, leads to individual efficiency. When such a state of congruence is achieved, the principle of dynamic equilibrium, relative to the management situation is applicable. Against this background an empirical investigation was undertaken in an effort to determine the perceptions of school principals of how the organisational demands ofthe state-aided school influence their professional and personal skills. By the application of a unique formula it was determined that principals have the perception that the managerial demands imposed by the state-aided school model are greater than their managerial skills. The managerial resources of the governing bodies are also inadequate to cope with the managerial needs of principals. This indicates that the individual and the organisation are not responding to one another in a balanced and equivalent way. In order to restore the dynamic interrelationship between individual and organisation a number of practical proposals are suggested. Public schools in the new educational dispensation, introduced by the South African Schools Bill of 1996, may have a great deal to learn from ex state-aided schools regarding the development of a community based system of education and its management. The dynamics of the interaction between the school as organisation and the principal as individual, especially when educational change occurs, is another aspect which needs to be carefull


This work shows a complete list of officers who served in the house of Prince Juan, heir to the Catholic Kings, throughout his life. A number of payroll of them between 1487 and 1495, where they collected their salaries. In addition, there is a division between the level servers. Discusses how to pay wages, explained what the totals and are grouped in sections of the house.


For analysis of electromechanical systems with brushless DC (BLDC) motors and power electronic drives it is essential to have a sufficiently accurate model of the machine. This paper compares the BLDC motors with sinusoidal and trapezoidal back-EMF waveforms and presents an improved detailed model for the 120° BLDC motor-inverter system with trapezoidal back-EMF. The established model is shown to be more accurate in comparison to the typical models that assume sinusoidal back-EMF. The presented studies are based on a typical industrial BLDC and include measurements and simulations using various detailed models developed in two different simulation packages.


A strategy used in companies so that they remain competitive is to reduce waste. In the steel sector, one of these features is to maximize product quality. To achieve a high standard of quality should be obtained minimizing anomalies nonconformities that occur during the process. To achieve these objectives, the use of quality tools and statistical process control is of paramount importance. In order to meet the standards required by customers and reduce waste anomaly analysis reporting tool appears to help identify the root causes of malfunctions and lock the same in order to prevent the recurrence of nonconformities. This paper makes a case study of a steel industry on the efficiency of the methods of fault analysis used by the company, through its Quality Score. Using Quality of Statistical Control tools, we sought to survey the efficiency of analysis methods anomalies through quality index used in the rolling process. He sought also identify the causes of non-efficiency of the methods of analysis of anomalies with the help of quality management tools propose improvements to correct problems. The results of the study indicate no efficient methods of anomalies analysis adopted by the company under study.


A method developed to assess family competition effects (partner effects) in variety trials was applied to the cocoa tree. The study was conducted in a hybrid trial, involving twelve families of 50 trees each planted in a totally randomised single-tree plot design, at a density of 1,667 trees ha-1. The trial was thinned 10 years after planting, at a rate of two out of four rows. Competition was studied with reference to juvenile and adult vegetative vigour, to periodic and cumulative yields (number of pods, potential total pod weight and average weight of one pod), and the yield x vigour ratio or "cropping efficiency" (total pod weight divided by the trunk cross-section). At the end of the trial, after thirteen years of monitoring, competition effects were revealed which explained 8 to 10% of the residual variance after removal of the hybrid and micro-environmental effects. The competition effects, which were detectable by 18 months after planting for vigour, occurred earlier than generally acknowledged. Competition effects for yield increased with age of the plantation and decreased drastically after thinning at 10 years. Under the trial conditions, the families could be classified as "aggressive", "stimulating" or "passive" in relation to their neighbours. Vegetative vigour (trunk cross-sectional area) explained up to 34% of the competition effects affecting vegetative development- total pod production and total pod weight over the period concerned. The partner effects on the production variables could never be explained by any of the production variables themselves, hence it should be possible to select non-aggressive high-yielding families. No significant partner effect was observed for average pod weight. The improvement of the cropping efficiency, and more generally management of vegetative vigour, can follow genetic and plant husbandry pathways and these are considered in the Discussion. The genetic pathway entails the selection of hybrid or clonal material with low vigour and/or the search for dwarfing rootstocks. The plant husbandry pathway involves developing designs and techniques (such as thinning, pruning, etc...), which might decrease the competition effects between trees in a given plot situation. (Resume d'auteur)


The article is concerned with the study of ethnic identity of adolescent Nenets girls as representatives of the indigenous peoples inhabiting the Russian High North. The authors report the findings of empirical research conducted in reliance upon the Ethnic Identity Types approach  developed by G.U. Soldatova and S.V. Ryzhova. The paper describes dynamics in the development of ethnonihilism, ethnic indifference, positive ethnic identity, ethnic egoism, ethno-isolationism, and ethnofanaticism in the Nenets girls during their adolescent years (aged 12 to 15). The article identifies the peculiarities of ethnic identity of the Nenets girls as compared to that of the similar age Russian girls residing in the Arkhangelsk Region of the Russian Federation. The authors define the specifics of the learning environment typical for the adolescent representatives of the High North indigenous peoples.


The aim of the agricultural geneticist is to obtain new varieties of cultivated plants having interesting characteristics. Alongside the conventional methods of hybridation and crossing, there is the technique involving the induction of mutations. Irradiation is one of the ways in which the geneticist can bring about these mutations, and although good practical results have already been obtained by this method, a major effort is now being made in the field of research to secure a further improvement. The author outlines the problems involved and describes the method he has adopted in an attempt to sophisticate this technique. Primarily, the technique is concerned with avoidance of the chimera and irtrasomatic selection in plant irradiation experiments through careful choice of the exact time of irradiation. It is recommended that to obtain mutations generalized throughout the plant, the plant should be irradiated either when the gametes are just distinguishable or before division of the zygote- cell. (auth)


It is an immutable truth that architecture ultimately exists for humans. Similarly, it is a well-known fact that countless architectural concepts derived and evolved to restrain development, to control building projects and to consider environment are eventually for the benefit of humans. Architecture today, however, is in the hands of a few renowned architects even though it is supposed to reflect human beings and times and to work for everyone. Is it too much to say that everyone should have a say in the space used by many? In that respect, we have devised DADL System. Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. The system is an architectural game that stimulates human instincts, has online communities and is easily accessible by Anyone Anytime and Anywhere (3A Rules). DADL System aims to gather users' ideas and develop architecture, which is essentially enabled by the 'Advise' feature. Advise is designed to lead users to think about architecture voluntarily and to guide them to express their ideas. The structure and contents of Advises are very important factors in DADL System. Also, it is divided into two domains, i.e. Web and Mobile, where data exchange is enabled via cloud computing, establishing a base in compliance with the '3A' Rules. The DADL System supports the architecture of everyone without relying on opinions of a few, so as to open the infinitive potential for communication between architecture and humans, which today's architecture should advocate.


Using MEG studies and external pT-TMS in patients with different brain disorders and depending, on the proper functions of the pineal and thymus glands, which are producing the proper antibodies in the blood plasma serum, it is possible to overcome any brain disorder and foreign organisms acting on human brain.


Social network analysis emerged as an important research topic in sociology decades ago, and it has also attracted scientists from various fields of study like psychology, anthropology, geography and economics. In recent years, a significant number of researches has been conducted on using social network analysis to design e-commerce recommender systems. Most of the current recommender systems are designed for B2C e-commerce websites. This paper focuses on building a recommendation algorithm for C2C e-commerce business model by considering special features of C2C e-commerce websites. In this paper, we consider users and their transactions as a network; by this mapping, link prediction technique which is an important task in social network analysis could be used to build the recommender system. The proposed tow-level recommendation algorithm, rather than topology of the network, uses nodes features like: category of items, ratings of users, and reputation of sellers. The results show that the proposed model can be used to predict a portion of future trades between users in a C2C commercial network.


In the past, thyroid surgery has been the most common cause of thyroid storm, but recently, preoperative drugs that create a euthyroid state before surgery have somewhat improved treatment outcomes. Therefore, the anesthesia of such operations is very important.
The aim of this work: to evaluate the possibility of using dexmedetomidine for perioperative correction of metabolism in thyroidectomy under general anesthesia in patients with thyrotoxicosis.
Materials and methods. The study was prospective, not randomized. The study involved 137 patients (53 men, 84 women, aged 21 to 76 years) with thyrotoxicosis, who underwent planned thyroidectomy under general anesthesia, using the inhalation anesthetic sevoflurane and the narcotic analgesic fentanyl, in low-flow artificial lung ventilation. Perioperative monitoring was complemented by the use of indirect calorimetry. The degree of preoperative risk of patients is ASA III-IV. In group I (n=71), situationally, during the operation, with a heart rate of > 90 beats/min, a selective β-blocker esmolol hydrochloride was administered intravenously (25-50 μg×kg-1×min-1) under the control of ECG and hemodynamic parameters until the heart rate normalizes. In group II (n=66) - dexmedetomidine – 0,1 μg×kg-1×h-1.
Results and discussions. The initial metabolic parameters in both groups were high and amounted, respectively, 830±15 cal×min-1×m-2 in group I and 832 ± 13 cal×min-1× m-2 in group II, which exceeded their basal metabolic rate: in group I - by 54,9% and in group II - by 58,5% (p <0.01). At the stage of induction of anesthesia in group I, a depression of the hemodynamic profile was revealed, probably associated with the effect of the introduction of esmolol hydrochloride, which led to a decrease in oxygen transport without metabolic disturbances. At the stages of mobilization and removal of the thyroid gland, manifestations of hyperdynamia and hypermetabolism were observed in both groups. Metabolism at these stages, in group II, respectively, was lower, by 9,3% and 10,1%, than in group I. The degree of metabolic disorder, in group I, was 42,8% ± 2,3 % and 32,6 ± 1,8%, in group II – 31,2 ± 1,6% and 22,3 ± 1,2% (p <0.05). The blood cortisol level in group I was higher than in group II (p <0.05).
Conclusions. Perioperative energy monitoring using indirect calorimetry allows timely detection of metabolic disorders and appropriate pathogenetic correction. The use of dexmedetomidine at a dose of 0.1 μg × kg-1 × h-1 is quite effective as an intravenous adjuvant for general anesthesia during thyroidectomy in patients with thyrotoxicosis.


The developmental period of Tetrastichus howardi (Olliff), a parasitoid of the uzi fly, EXoista bombyeis (Louis) showed a negative correlation with temperature. It decreased from 51.70 ± 0.64 days at 15°C to 12.83 ± 0.10 days at 30°C. Progeny production had a positive correlation with temperature upto 25°C. The upper and lower temperature threshold limits of T. howardi were 30°C and 15°C respectively. At 35°C and 20°C temperatures, the females survived for 4.20 ± 0.27 days and 19.80 ± 1.09 days without food, while the males lived for 3.10 ± 0.41 days and 11.70 ± 0.44 days respectively. At similar temperatures, life span for fed females were 9.20 ± 0.83 days and 30.90 ± 0.74 days and those for fed males 4.40 ± 0.41 days and 25.0 ± 0.70 days respectively.


Sexual incompatibility between common wheat and Italian ryegrass was an obstacle for transferring useful traits from italian ryegrass to wheat. In order to use those desirable genetic resources to improve wheat and to create new cytoplasmic germplasm, the protoplasts of wheat and Italian ryegrass were successfully electrofused and the somatic hybrid plants were regenerated. Examination with 6 restriction enzymes, 13 probes, including 9 mtDNA probes (H454, Pst24, B30, Pro I, 490, B342, pHJ2-7-1, B376, 7), 3 cpDNA probes (pHvc p1, pHvc p5 and pHvc p8) and one nuclear DNA probe—pTA71 (rDNA) in total 73 enzyme/ probe combinations revealed rich polymorphism between the fusion partners. RFLP analysis indicated that approximately 93.4% of the regenerated plants were true somatic hybrids. AFLP analysis implied that the somatic hybrids were highly asymmetric. The RFLP analysis using mt-and cpDNA specific probes also demonstrated the non-coexistence of mitochondria and chloroplasts from the fusion partners in the somatic hybrid cells.


Wireless sensor networks are very broadly used in many applications. Sensor networks still have problems in conveying data from one sensor node to other node. Routing algorithms are developed for wireless sensor networks. In this paper, some of them are discussed. These protocols still have some problems in sensor networks. Ad hoc networks and WSNs are similar to each other as both depend on hop-to-hop routing. So, protocols developed for ad-hoc networks are also used in many sensor applications. But sensor nodes are not much capable for these protocols.These protocols with some changes can be used in sensor networks.In this paper ADSR is discussed, which is developed for WSNs and derived from changes done in DSR, which was developed for MANETs. Moto of this paper is to give an idea that other protocols which were developed for MANETs can be completely used in WSNs, by having angle-based mechanism, as described in ADSR.


As one publicly owned company monopolizes the electricity supply, Korea's power market has been distorted. Firms faced with constraints imposed by a regulatory environment are likely to fail to minimize their production costs subject to market prices. In this paper, we test for allocative efficiency of fuel inputs for the Korean electric power industry over the period of 1990–2015. The potential cost savings and maximum power supply price markdown are calculated by imposing allocative efficiency. The power plants, on average, could have reduced their fuel costs by as much as 22.1% annually. The attainment of allocative efficiency would have enabled the power supply price to be cut by 7.6% annually.


In fifty years of studying the Soviet U n i o n a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l Communism, I have never been able to truly comprehend the negative (even hateful) attitude that the nonCommunist left in the United States and elsewhere has maintained for so many years against the activist antiCommunist left. The vitriol heaped on members of the anti-Communist left who worked or even cooperated with the U.S. government and just as often with democratic governments elsewhere in the politically chaotic years immediately after World War II can still, at this late date, leave me perp lexed . In her s tudy of the relationship that evolved between the Fre e Trade Un ion Commi t t e e (FTUC) of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the early Cold War years, Quenby Olmsted Hughes mercifully and wisely avoids the ''how could those otherwise reliable trade unionists consort with the awful U.S. government'' approach to dealing with Communists. Instead,


AIM: To study the distribution of the sinusoidally time-varying electromagnetic fields in our single measurement channel of magnetic induction tomography (MIT). METHODS: The head was simplified to a two-layer conductive sphere and the single measurement channel of MIT was approximated to an axial symmetric electromagnetic model. The analytical solution of the model was deduced from analysis method of time harmonic electromagnetic field. RESULTS: The distribution features and analytical expressions of our single measurement channel of MIT were obtained. CONCLUSION: The study provides an analytical method for analyzing and calculating the sinusoidally time-varying electromagnetic fields in our system.


In this study, we compared the accuracy of three location estimation methods of an autonomous driving robot for underground mines: an inertial measurement unit with encoder (IMU + encoder) sensors, Light Detecting and Ranging with encoder (LiDAR + encoder) sensors, and IMU with LiDAR and encoder (IMU + LiDAR + encoder) sensors. An accuracy comparison experiment was conducted in an indoor laboratory composed of four sections (X-change, X-Y change, X-Z change, and Y-change sections) that simulated an underground mine. The robot's location was estimated using each of the three location estimation methods as the autonomous driving robot moved, and the results accuracy was analyzed by comparing the estimated location with the robot's actual location. From the results of the indoor experiments, the average estimation error of the IMU + LiDAR + encoder sensors was approximately 0.09 m, that of the IMU + encoder was 0.19 m, and that of the LiDAR + encoder was 0.81 m. In a field experiment, the average error of the IMU + LiDAR + encoder was approximately 0.11 m, that of the IMU + encoder was 0.17 m, and that of the LiDAR + encoder was 0.70 m. In conclusion, the IMU + LiDAR + encoder method, which uses three types of sensors, showed the highest accuracy in estimating the location of autonomous robots in an underground mine.


Two results on interactive proof systems with two-way probabilistic finite-state verifiers are proved. The first is a lower bound on the power of such proof systems if they are not required to halt with high probability on rejected inputs: it is shown that they can accept any recursively enumerable language. The second is an upper bound on the power of interactive proof systems that halt with high probability on all inputs. The proof method for the lower bound also shows that the emptiness problem for one-way probabilistic finite-state machines is undecidable. In the proof of the upper bound some results of independent interest on the rate of convergence of time-varying Markov chains to their halting states are obtained.<<ETX>>


The main objective of the "blue economy" is to ensure environmental sustainability while promoting social inclusion, economic growth and preservation or improvement of livelihoods (UNCTAD 2014, UNDESA 2014). According to the World Bank in Europe, the Blue Economy represents nearly 5.4 million jobs and generates a gross added value of approximately €500 billion per year. Through this paper we emphasized the impact of the blue economy on the labor market.


Wastes from forest and agricultural industry are still insufficiently used. One of the ways of their preprocessing is a pyrolysis process. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the energetic properties of biochar made of walnut shells, forest wood chips and willow chips. The studies were performed according to standards. The moisture contents of the material, the ash contents, the net and gross calorific values were determined. Low moisture and ash content were found in each of the biochar species.  For all tested samples the ash contents were lower than 6% and for forest wood chips it was 1.5% only. The way of processing the biomass in the pyrolysis process significantly increased the calorific value of the raw materials. It was found that the net calorific values of the tested materials were high and reached the amount of 26.58 MJ‧kg -1 for biochar made of walnut shells, 22.29 MJ‧kg -1 for biochar made of forest wood chips and 24.59 MJ‧kg -1 for biochar made of willow chips. Due to the good physical properties of biochar produced from waste and biological materials, it was found that these solid fuels can be used for energy purposes. Keywords: biochar, energy properties, waste streams Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.011


To predict the behavior of air-water two-phase flows in a centrifugal pump impeller, a three-dimensional numerical method is proposed based on a bubbly flow model. If it is assumed that the mixtures are homogeneous bubbly flow containing fine bubbles compared with the characteristic length of the impeller channel, than the equations of motion of the mixtures are represented by those of liquid phase and its velocity is expressed as a potential for the quasi-harmonic equation. The equations are solved by use of the finite element method to obtain the velocities and pressures, and the equation of motion of an air bubble is integrated numerically on this flow field to obtain the void fraction. These calculations are repeated until the solutions converge. The results obtained show good agreement with experiments within the range of bubbly flow regime.


Because of the existing differences between XML data and the traditional relational data,the traditional method of data warehouse ETL is no longer suitable for dealing with XML data.This paper proposes the XETL method which is based on pattern tree and can be applied to transfer and deal with XML data.This paper starts with the research on XETL pattern based on data model and predicate model,and defines the four main transference operations in the XETL process based on the XETL model,,which are attribute selection,null attribute operation,aggregation and attribute renamed.


Digital globalization is a new form of globalization that leads to corresponding changes in the ways of doing business. Digital globalization in the 21st century is mainly driven by new digital technologies and is characterized by the acceleration and increase of data and information flows around the world. In the process of digitizing the economy, global data flows are increasing, and digital platforms allow more countries and small companies to participate. Successful digital transformation is not just the creation of a new company, but also the restructuring of the entire organization through the new use of existing valuable strategic assets. Digitalization is becoming the main one from the point of view of competition – the more innovations and technological improvements a company introduces into its business, the more competitive advantages and opportunities it acquires to respond to dynamically changing challenges. E-commerce is another important aspect of the digital economy and digital globalization. This rapidly evolving form of commerce is changing sales strategies and consumer behavior. In the new realities, enterprises need to quickly change their behavior strategies, adapting to certain development scenarios caused by the coronavirus pandemic.This article is conducted to solve current problems and trends in the development of the wine industry in the context of growing digitalization, which radically changes the essence of business. Based on the analysis of foreign practice and representative data of international statistics, the main digital trends in the viticulture and winemaking sector were identified. The article presents a comparative table of a set of technologies identified by various experts, based on research conducted aimed at expanding knowledge about the most advanced digital trends and technologies in this sector: the Internet of Things, artificial Intelligence, robotics, Electronic label. In the course of the study, the main goals behind the desire for digitalization were considered, the main advantages from the introduction of new tools of the digital economy were highlighted, statistical data on the volume of production in the industry for the period under review, the impact of the digital economy on the competitive environment were shown


Mimosa webworm, Homadaula anisocentra Meyrick, larvae were reared in the laboratory on five honey locust clones: 'Imperial,' 'Moraine,' 'Shademaster,' 'Skyline,' and 'Sunburst.' Larvae fed 'Moraine' had significantly smaller head capsule widths and pupal weights, longer larval development times, and lower adult fecundity. Fecundity was most affected by the cultivar used for rearing. Adult females reared on 'Moraine' foliage produced approximately 44% fewer eggs than did females reared on the other four cultivars. Such reduced fecundity theoretically could affect webworm infestation levels of isolated 'Moraine' trees in urban areas. Larval and pupal mortality were unaffected by cultivar. Although we observed statistically significant detrimental effects from feeding on 'Moraine' foliage, differences were small and may not be biologically significant.


The evolution of social services in American universities has gone through three basic stages.The first stage is from the mid-19th century to early 20th century;when the function of social service has been established by some power,such as,some eminent persons,Pragmatic thought,and classical liberal economic model.The second stage is from the 20th 30's century to the 20th century 80's,when social service functions of the university make its development,which were affected by the Keynesian and federal government policies,The third stage is from 20th century 90's to now,when social service of universities has been made a long-term development in the breadth and depth,which were affected by new technology and globalization.


Over several years, a previously healthy middle-aged man developed seemingly unrelated symptoms that were eventually recognized as attributes of yellow nail syndrome. The rare disease progressed, despite multiple forms of therapy, to become life threatening in severity. With the input and assistance of the patient, his wife tells the story of their personal war against a devastating disease of unknown cause for which there is no scientifically validated, disease-modifying treatment.


In this paper, a finite-time bounded controller is proposed for the straight-line path-following system to steer an underactuated mobile robot (UMR) to move along the predetermined straight-line paths in the presence of systematical uncertainties and external disturbance. The construction of this controller consists of two steps. First of all, a local control law is constructed for the path-following system. The other step is to combine the local finite-time controller with the saturation function to construct a bounded finite-time controller, which ensure the path-following errors converge to origin. Simulation results are given to verify the validity and robustness of the proposed control algorithm.


One of the most recent concerns of foreign language education is intercultural competence, which has been recognized as one of its major objectives due to the increasingly globalized context. Intercultural competence was even incorporated in the National Standards of Teaching Quality for Undergraduate English Majors issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2015. Telecollaboration is argued to be an effective tool to develop students' intercultural competence, especially in the post-epidemic era, in which face-to-face intercultural communication seems increasingly difficult to realize. Based on Chinese scholars' assessment framework, the research aims to explore effective ways to improve English learners' intercultural competence by carrying out an empirical study of intercultural engagement among 30 junior English major students at Hebei Finance University in China. They were paired up with 27 students who majored in graphic design at Ibrahim Sultan Polytechnic in Malaysia and communicated through WeChat on given culture topics for six weeks. Quantitative data was collected through pre- and post-project self-evaluative questionnaires, and analyzed by SPSS paired samples T-test analysis. Qualitative data was collected through reflective journals and post-project interviews and analyzed by content analysis. The results show the telecollaboration project between Chinese and Malaysian students benefited the development of Chinese English majors' intercultural competence.


Short-channel effects play a major role for MOS scaling of gate length down and especially below 0.1μm or even less. In this paper, the detail review of different secondary effects and their solutions for delay & power estimation which are proposed by various researchers in the past decade are presented briefly. Different effects like Gate Direct Tunneling Current (GDTC), Gate-Induced Drain Leakage (GIDL), Band-to-Band Tunneling Currents (BTBT), Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI), Polysilicon-Gate Depletion Effects, Velocity Saturation, Reverse Short Channel Effect (RSCE), Substrate Current Induced Body Effect (SCBE), STI Stress Effect and Bulk Charge Effect etc are clearly explained and also described their solution techniques basically in ultra deep submicron region of CMOS devices. Some simulation & experiments results are taken from different researchers which will be explained, how these effects are related to different MOS model parameters.


At present,the legal nature of the owners committee has not been clearly defined.There is widespread controversy about the civil main qualification or the litigation rights and so on.The owners committee is the self-governing body of owners and does not constitute a corporate or "other organizations".Given its main qualifications,civil presence can not only solve the current problems but also can cause some theoretical and practical difficulties.The fundamental solution lies in reign-related legislation and the introduction of "owners groups".Owners committee must make a corresponding adjustment,which will be clearly defined as the representative organ of the owners groups and law enforcement organs.This confirmation has practical significance and can not be ignored.


Ans: Source coding is required to represent the information in a particular coding format. The objective is to reduce or eliminate redundancy, so that the decoder simply performs the inverse mapping and give the original data output. Huffman code is one of such codes. Channel coding helps in minimizing the effect of channel noise. This can be done by introducing redundancy. Channel coding can effectively be designed if channel characteristics are known. Huffman code is a source code whose average word length is decided by the entropy of the memory less source. Huffman coding algorithm depends on: 1. The probability of source symbols. Lowest probability is assigned 0 and 1. 2. Symbols are listed in order of decreasing probability. 3. The lowest probability are added and to create new symbols. 4. The probabilities added are placed at the heighest point of the same probability. 5. The code is thus generated.


and neck pain, accompanied by photophobia, nausea and retching. This initially led us to consider a diagnosis of inadvertent dural puncture during epidural placement of the SCS leads. However, on examination, he was found to be pyrexial (38.6°C) and hypertensive (blood pressure 176/104 mmHg); nuchal rigidity and Kernig's sign were also evident. Intravenous morphine, tramadol and paracetamol were of limited analgesic benefit. Within 24 hr, however, the pain and fever abated and all neurologic symptoms resolved completely. The patient later revealed that he suffered from intermittent headaches of a similar nature, but had always considered them to be 'migraine attacks'. Case reports have shown recurrent aseptic meningitis, though rare, may occur in FMF.2,3 Interestingly, the meningitis attacks can be precipitated by injection of metaraminol intravenously; indeed, the metaraminol provocative test has been proposed as a specific diagnostic test for FMF and benign recurrent aseptic meningitis (Mollaret's meningitis).3 It therefore appears likely that this patient's meningismus symptoms were triggered by the administration of metaraminol, and we would suggest anesthesiologists remain vigilant to this little-known risk associated with the use of metaraminol in patients with FMF.


Objective To compare the short-term efficacy and main side effects between one-week and two-week schedule of cetuximab plus chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer. Methods 56 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer were enrolled, ECOG physical status 0~2, good liver and renal function, using the RECIST published in 2000 to evaluate the measurable lesions. 30 patients received oneweek schedule of cetuximab plus chemotherapy, cetuximab was administered at an initial dose of 400 mg/m~2 followed by weekly doses of 250 mg/m~2; 26 patients received two -week schedule of cetuximab plus chemotheraphy, cetuximab was administered at an initial dose of 500 mg/m~2 and the same dose was given every two weeks. The termination of the study was patients finishing 8 weeks treatment or disease progress.Results 28 patients were evaluable in one-week schedule group: CR 1, PR 7, SD 11, PD 9, RR was 28.6 %,DCR was 67.9 %. 26 patients were evaluable in two-week schedule: none of CR, PR 8, SD 9, PD 9, RR was 30.8 %, DCR was 65.4 %, and no significant difference was found(P >0.05). Grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ toxicity were rash,nausea, vomiting, neutropenia and reduction of leukemia, no significant difference was found in the two groups (P >0.05). Conclusion The therapeutic effect and safety for metastatic colorectal cancer are similar between one-week and two-week schedule of cetuximab plus chemotherapy.

Key words:
Intestinal neoplasms; Drug therapy; combination; Cetuximab


The Virtual Environment for Sensor Performance Assessment (VESPA) project requires enormous, high-fidelity landscape models to generate synthetic sensor imagery with little to no artificial artifacts. These highfidelity landscapes require a memory footprint substantially larger than a single High Performance Computer's (HPC) compute node's local memory. Processing geometries this size requires distributing the geometry over multiple compute nodes instead of including a full copy in each compute node, the common approach in parallel modeling applications. To process these geometric models in parallel memory on a high-performance computing system, the Geometry Engine component of the VESPA project includes an architecture for partitioning the geometry spatially using Morton codes and MPI (Message Passing Interface) collective communication routines. The methods used for this partitioning process will be addressed in this report. Incorporating this distributed architecture into the Geometry Engine provides the capability to distribute and perform parallel ray casting on landscape geometries over a Terabyte in size. Test case timings demonstrate scalable speedups as the number of processes are increased on an HPC machine. DISCLAIMER: The contents of this report are not to be used for advertising, publication, or promotional purposes. Citation of trade names does not constitute an official endorsement or approval of the use of such commercial products. All product names and trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners. The findings of this report are not to be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. DESTROY THIS REPORT WHEN NO LONGER NEEDED. DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE ORIGINATOR. ERDC/ITL SR-20-3 iii


THE studies which have been made on the occurrence of lead in normal teeth suggest that this element is consistently present in small amounts.'-7 The normal level for whole ashed teeth has been reported to be in the range of 20 to 70 ppm.3 4 Dentin appears to contain approximately 3 times more lead than enamel.3 There have been no studies on the. presence of lead in unerupted teeth or on uptake of lead by teeth. Therefore, it is not known to what extent lead found in teeth has been incorporated during tooth formation or deposited after eruption. The fact that concentrations of lead above normal have been found in the teeth of persons suffering from lead poisoning" 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 demonstrates a posteruptive uptake. Lead determinations in normal teeth of different ages also suggest a posteruptive gain up to the age of about 20, when a fairly constant concentration is reached.3 4 A similar condition apparently exists with regard to lead in bone, in that there appears to be no definite increase with age after a state of equilibrium has been reached between uptake and loss." The significance of the presence of lead in teeth has not been established. It has been suggested that lead may be harmful because caries was found to develop in a cat suffering from lead poisoning.' More significant is the finding that the number of DMF teeth in workers in lead plants was about the same as that in other industrial workers.12 Topical application of lead fluoride has been ineffective in reducing dental caries. Two studies gave negative results'3' 14 and, in a third study, the reduction was no greater than has been observed with sodium fluoride.15 In spite of these negative findings, it is possible that the presence of lead may render the teeth more resistant to acid decalcification. This is suggested by the observation that powdered enamel exposed to lead salts has a decreased solubility.'6-20 However, the solubility-reducing effect of lead needs further investigation because of the contradictory findings which have been reported on intact enamel. Exposure of the enamel surface to lead has been found to produce either good21 or fair22 reduction, or, in the case of our own experiments, negative results.23 Although the evidence of the importance of lead with regard to dental caries is negative, the studies in this field have by no means been exhaustive. The fact that lead normally tends to accumulate in bone and teeth always raises


Abstract—Due to significant popularity of Location-based Services and Multimedia communication over mobile devices, many research has been conducted to extend the features of location tracking and make it cost-effective to users. This paper focuses on the performance of an indoor location tracking system on IPv6 Network Island with multiple real time applications that has location assisted session transfer feature for mobile users. RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) mechanism has been used to locate the moving nodes and calculate the nearest neighbor of each node. The developed location tracking server monitors dynamic and centralized MySQL database management system. SIP (Session Initial Protocols) user agent has been used to deploy intercommunicating of multimedia data such as; video and audio conference, text messaging among the moving nodes and user are able to transfer the multimedia sessions seamlessly to their nearest mobile node which will be determined by the Location Server. This paper discussed seamless performance of SIP during the session transference nodes and the variation of location tracking results on different indoor surroundings. The developed project is cost-effective and precisely conducive for the industries or any indoor organization. The prototype of the project has been successfully developed and has been tested as well. The results show the seamless connectivity of the multimedia application during session switching and the performance of location tracking method on different circumstances in an indoor environment.


Objective: To discuss artificial insemination lie on your back after the surgery time and to obtain ideal pregnancy outcome. Methods: Thisstudy retrospectively analyzed patients undergoing for pure artificial insemination in in Renji Hospital,Shanghai Jiao Tong University School, during 2012-2013. According to different patients after artificial insemination lie low time into three groups,D30min group: 102 cases, D45min groups: 120 cases, D60min groups: 86 cases, comparison of three groups of ages,basal FSH, surgery date intrauterine membrane thickness, statistical analysis of three groups of clinical pregnancy rate, early abortion rate and live-birth rate if there is a difference. Results: Three groups of ages, basal FSH, surgery date intrauterine membrane thickness were of no statistical difference. D30min group, the clinical pregnancy rate was 19.6%, early abortion rate was 5%, the live birth rate was 18.6%. D45min groups, the clinical pregnancy rate was 19.2%, the early abortion rate was 4.3%, the live birth rate was 18.3%. D60min groups,the clinical pregnancy rate was 19.8%, the early abortion rate was 0%,the live birth rate was19.8%. P > 0.05, found no statistical differences. Conclusion: Patients lie long does not increase the clinical pregnancy rate since the implementation of artificial insemination postoperatively. Lying down for 30 minutes enables the patients to achieve ideal artificial insemination pregnancy effect.


Although missionary influence waned in the 1830s, the character of Tahitian life had by then been irrevocably changed. In general, the collection of flora and fauna was probably the weakest link in these voyages. There were related problems as well, in particular in establishing provenance over the collections and artifacts from the expeditions financed by Rumiantsev and in the conservation of the collections. Professor Barratt has compiled a list of the specimens and artifacts that have been documented. His work of potential benefit to every student of the cultures of the South Pacific also suggests that far more remains in Russia to be rediscovered. The Tuamotu Islands and Tahiti is thoroughly researched and well written. The Russians who sailed in the South Seas emerge as skilful sailors, accomplished scientists and very decent men. Their records convey an attitude towards indigenous peoples far more sympathetic than that of many other Europeans. Professor Barratt's work makes their story accessible and entertaining for a wide audience.


The intense urban growth of the Municipality of Queretaro pust great pressure on the geomorphological, hydrological, climatic and ecological processes of the region. In a process of sustainable development, endogenous or internal economic growth should encourage rural areas to offer environmental and productive services for consumption in metropolitan areas, in exchange for services and resources that raise the quality of life of the inhabitants and promote conservation of natural resources. This duality between man-environment, as well as the impact of their interaction, can best be studied in the context of a space defined by a hydrographic basin. Thus, the high ground of the basins serve as supply areas and the low ground as areas of consumption of goods and environmental services. In this environment it is important to preserve wooded and scrub areas which aid in the infiltration of rain water, allow for the replacement and availability of potable water and prevent or reduce the occurrence of floods and alluviuns that can cause the loss of lives and the destruction of infrastructure, as well as interrupting traffic and normal life in the cities. Until now, regulated plans have attempted to preserve these areas so they can comply with their environmental functions and services, but it is evident that economic tendencies and reasons surpass the limits of sustainable urbanization. In this work we analyze the factors that define the ability of this territory to maintain sustainable growth; we review the methodologies on which urban development plans are based, and we apply the multi-criteria method to the case of the Santa Rosa Jauregui micro-basin located in the district bearing the same name. In order to contrast the growth pattern of this area, the results are compared with the model established in the Plan for Ordering and Regulating the Area Adjacent to the City of Queretaro. Results indicate that urban growth cannot be stopped or limited, but with the inclusion of new environmental variables (flood areas, infiltration) to determine capacity, they can provide the city with a new way to integrate its urban structure with the natural environment in which it has always been immersed.


The sparse nature of voluntarily reported drug safety data benefits from a system that consolidates the massive amount of data into a manageable format for analysis. This has been done for Australian drug safety data by the Australian Adverse Drug Reaction Advisory Committee (ADRAC) for reactions using the systems organ class (SOC) ontology. There has long been a need for a similar kind of grouping to apply to drugs in this type of data. In ADRAC, drugs are currently listed by trade-name, where only some of these trade-names were assigned anatomical-therapeutic-chemical classification (ATC) codes. We assigned an ATC code for each ADRAC trade-name and show that this ontology facilitates the detection of drug class / reaction class associations at various levels of specificity. This allows different views of these associations (even very rare ones) and their significance measured for the development of more sensitive signal detection methods. We report that this ATC classification enables both the grouping of association rule approach that is useful for studying rare associations, and the development of an adverse reaction signal detection method.


✓ The authors report the details of the successful treatment of 11 of 12 patients with postoperative cerebrospinal fluid fistulas. Continuous lumbar or ventricular fluid drainage was used.


This research explored the multiple ways of reporting the Hadeeth: "Heal your patients by giving charity", from various sources, in order to make a critical study of the present topic under investigation. Judgeding the degree of its authentication following the approach of modern scholars, meanwhile showing the opinion of the scholars of judging each way of reporting the Hadeeth taking into account those who strengthen the way, and who weaken the ways. This study concluded that the Hadeeth cannot be considered authentic due to the severity of the weakness of the ways of reporting it.In conclusion, this study recommends to stand firmly on the authenticity of those Hadeeths that are controversial in terms of its credibility.


The electrochemical determination of ultra-low concentrations of silver requires reliable, reproducible measurements using sensitive analytical methods. To date, the electrochemical determination of silver in biological buffers and media has not been successful in terms of generating reproducible, reliable results. In this work, ultra-low concentrations of silver (1 nM – 80 nM) were determined using micro and nanoelectrodes of platinum and gold in chloride-free phosphate buffer solution (PB) pH 7.4, using anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV). The micro and nanoelectrodes were fabricated using a Sutter P-2000 laser puller, with physical and electrochemical characterisation revealing flat disk-shaped working areas of 10 – 15 μm (microelectrode) and 10 100 nm (nanoelectrodes) in radius. These dimensions were calculated from steady-state limiting currents and confirmed using FE-SEM. The laser pulled electrodes exhibit excellent electrochemical activity when characterised using ferrocene, without the addition of supporting electrolyte, and reproducible stripping voltammetric profiles for the determination of silver were obtained. Determination of ultra-low concentrations of silver in chloridefree PB provides the scope to explore the mechanism of action of bioinorganic silver-based antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-cancer drugs in cell media for in vitro and, potentially, in vivo analysis.


Water resource is rapidly falling short to meet the needs of the population worldwide. The unjust anthropogenic activities have led countries to water stressed/scarce conditions, higher number of hydrological disasters such as floods, droughts and descending levels of groundwater. Being an alpine region, the trans Himalayan region is among the most susceptible regions of the world to the climate change. In this study, the comparative morphometric assessment was made of the eastern and western regions of the alpine zones of the Himalayas. Morphometry of the river basin is a step towards water resource management which provides baseline statistical data about river water. Both river basins were compared using morphometric parameters and further on the basis of 4th order watersheds. The study revealed significant differences in both the basins where the upper Chenab basin has a comparatively higher water discharge, more powerful geological control and lesser basin lag time. The upper Teesta basin demands more management strategies to cope up with higher soil erosion and floods.


This work identified the main variables that affect product quality in an electro-electronic industry that operates in the industrial center of Manaus. It is an exploratory, quantitative study, whose data were collected with the help of a five-point Likert scale organized questionnaire that used the mean and standard deviation to generate the desired results; The questionnaire was constructed based on three dimensions (production, quality and engineering), each with its analytical dimensions; The population consisted of 11 members of the quality team of this industry. The results showed that quality can be affected by raw material, manager involvement, project quality and validation quality (engineering dimension), adequacy of training, employee awareness, work instructions, welding process replacement, commitment to product quality (quality dimension), working with the right devices, proper tools and proper material handling (production dimension). The conclusion is that these variables may also interfere with the product quality of other organizations in the electro-electronic segment of the Manaus industrial hub.


We present a method of recognizing hand gestures using RGB values, depth value, hand center coordinates, and finger counting data from Microsoft's Kinect for implementing the immersive hand interface to overcome inconvenience using HMD. First, we set the RGB values and depth range to detect the hand. This processing can improve recognition rate. Then, through double labeling, outside labeling, and inside labeling, we detect the hand without noise. Then, we use the distance vector to obtain the hand center. It also removes everything except the hand area, including removal of the wrist. After detection of the hand, we use HNMA (Multi Information-Hippocampus Neuron Modeling Algorithm) to recognize the hand gesture. This algorithm helps to improve the recognize rate. It is difficult to use the interface when using an HMD (Head Mount Display) display machine. This algorithm can make an immersive environment.


In the article unknown notes of V.A. Zhukovsky about the Russian translation of the book Erinnerung an die Lehren von der Sunde, von der Erlosung und von dem Schicksal des Menschen nach dem Tod (1840) by German theologian Julius Martin are considered. The topic of man sinfulness as the most important component in the system of late religious-romantic consciousness of V.A. Zhukovsky is comprehended; and an attempt is made to determine the place of the named composition in the space of the Russian classical author's religious quests. The autographs and marginalia are attributed, dated and commented on basing upon the authentic German environment and the context of the last decade of Zhukovsky's creative life. Books by V.A. Zhukovsky, the Russian Romanticism founder, are still an interesting material keeping on their pages undiscovered aspects of the writer's world view and late creativity. The role of J. Martin's Erinnerung an die Lehren von der Sunde, von der Erlosung und von dem Schicksal des Menschen nach dem Tode in the religious quests of V.A. Zhukovsky is important since, apparently, it is with this book that the journey of the first romanticist into the German ecclesiastical-protreptic literature began. Within this German-language publication there are Zhukovsky's Russian-language pencil notes on separate pages. They can be conditionally divided into six separate theses united by the common theme of the fall. It seems that the conception of sin as a component of V.A. Zhukovsky's late religious-romantic consciousness developed and gained clear forms simultaneously with reading and commenting Erinnerung an die Lehren.von der Sunde, since the poet had a developed approach when dealing with the later works of H. Muller, T. Kliefoth, J. Veit, who were also focused on this motive, and knew exactly what he was interested in. It would be wrong to say that the motive of sin appeared in the later years of V.A. Zhukovsky's creative life. This theme was perfected on different stages of his creative life beginning with the interest of the young poet to J. Milton's Paradise Lost in 1805. In 18081814 the heroes who sinned and received a fair punishment become the center of the following ballads: "Adelstan", "Warwick", "Stormbreaker". In the 1830s the motive of mercy and compassion for sinners sounds clearly (the ballads "Repentance", "Fratricide", "Lenore" and others). In the 1840s Zhukovsky has a very special religious-philosophical approach to the theme of sin developing it in prose and articles from the Thoughts and Observations cycle which is original to Christian philosophy. Undoubtedly, such intensive attention to this notion in the later years may also be explained by personal motives as it occurs in the correspondence with the relatives. The importance of V.A. Zhukovsky's documents in the 1840s-1850s can be hardly overestimated: the material allows to open more new aspects of the way the poet perceived the German world. Later notes, unstudied plans and notebooks raise the question about a complex comprehension of other documents of this period.


In this paper, an image retrieval algorithm using multiple query images is proposed. The algorithm is based on multihistogram intersection techniques. For each query image, a color histogram and a texture histogram are extracted. Then multihistogram intersection is used to measure the similarity between the query images and each image in the database. The ranking in similarity is used to determine the images to be retrieved. This approach can be applied to image retrieval with relevance feedback and to component based image retrieval. Results are provided showing the improvement in precision that is afforded by the multiexample retrieval paradigm.


Recent studies show that national control of K–12 curriculum yields important payoffs in terms of greater curricular coherence and, as a result, higher test performance on international tests such as those used in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. This paper examines the connection between national control of curriculum and curricular consistency and coherence, a variable known to have a positive impact on student test‐score performance. The results of several analyses reveal that national control of curriculum, viewed apart from the most important 'function' associated with such control (i.e. enhanced credibility), makes no contribution to curricular consistency or coherence.


The benefits and costs of investing in finance-specific human capital are affected by subjective attitudes about the expected improvement in consumption from higher quality financial decisions, and the expected psychic costs of making the investment. This study investigates how gender role attitudes of women predict their acquisition of finance-specific human capital. Results indicate that women with the most traditional gender role attitudes are less financially literate than women with non-traditional gender role attitudes and men. Gender role attitudes formed early in life explains some of the difference in financial literacy between men and women observed in prior studies. Multivariate analyses that control for attained human capital suggest that traditional gender role attitudes affect both finance-specific human capital investment and investment in formal education. Women with traditional gender role attitudes are the least knowledgeable and have the lowest confidence in applying their financial knowledge.


Here are Princeton's Warfield Lectures of 1970. Are they hermeneutical fragments or mini-systematics? In the context of "faith seeking understanding," John E. Smith, Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale, proposes creatively interpreting the gospel by using common experiences to aid in understanding theological language. This attempt is founded on a familiar diagnosis of Christianity's current malaise, a re-evalutation of traditional uses of analogy, and an account of experience which relies upon pragmatism and radical empiricism to correct reductionistic views. Of greatest value is Smith's lucid explication of analogy; elsewhere this hastily-laid foundation rests in unstable philosophical and theological subsoil. Nodding to Hegel, Smith realizes his proposal will be judged by how it "works out." Experience must illumine such loci as God, man (sin), Jesus Christ (the atonement), and the church. "Sin" is clarified by reference to a basic misorientation of the self which erupts in flawed relationships. "God" is interpreted in terms of selfhood, i.e. a "center of intention," related to yet distinct from its manifestations. Jesus Christ "atones" by teaching and enacting a self-sacrificial love which overcomes retributive justice. Lastly, comparison and contrast with other human communities shows the church to be where the divine presence as Spirit unifies many selves. Each analogy is insightful and suggestive. But if "the truth is the whole," it must be noted that the analogies do not in fact function in the same way or with equal success for all four doctrines. It is doubtful that they could or should. Unfortunately, scant heed is given to how religious language actually did and does function in the community. Experiential analogies may help Christians understand some of their beliefs, but they do not provide Ariadne's thread for ventures in the labyrinth of systematics.


Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) is widely used for generating high-energy femtosecond pulses. This is most commonly done with a solid-state Ti:Sapphire crystal through a free-space optical path. The high energy density in the crystal and the precise optical path required with the use of bulk optics make it difficult to design a simple system with good stability and beam quality over the environmental conditions typically encountered in the manufacturing environment. A CPA system using fiber architecture reduces the need for precise beam guiding since the light follows the fiber. The pump energy is more evenly distributed along the length of the amplifier fiber, reducing the thermal dissipation that is required (no water chiller is required) and improving the overall efficiency. The fiber architecture also produces a superior quality beam that does not require great care to maintain. IMRA's latest FCPA μJewel uses the inherent advantages of the FCPA architecture, along with extensive engineering, to produce a compact and stable femtosecond fiber laser system. Its high repetition rate and stable performance enables applications that were difficult to achieve previously. This paper will review the general design architecture of the FCPA μJewel and discuss several applications.


Abstract The present paper discusses the types, functions and limitations of the madness narrative, a particular type of text dealing with a popular research topic: mental instability, within the larger contexts of women's autobiographical writing and illness-based writing. The overview aims to provide the theoretical framework necessary for the further analysis of specific madness narratives.


Design coordination is one of the major challenges in the design phase of an Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operation (AECO) project life cycle. Improper design coordination may cause construction errors, reworks, material wastage, additional change orders, time, cost overruns and so on. Hence, it is vital to reduce the design warnings and enhance the design delivery process within the AECO project life cycle. Recently, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is considered as the key tool, technique and process for improving the design delivery process by global AECO industry. Researchers in the past have attempted BIM enabled design warning analysis but less attention was drawn towards proactive intelligence procedures, i.e. on how to re-use the accumulated knowledge for reducing the design coordination issues in upcoming designs. In this research, we undertook a preliminary study on BIM enabled design warning analysis. Design knowledge accumulated in this study can be re-used for reducing the design warnings, design coordination time, reworks in construction, project cost and improve the quality of BIM enabled design delivery process in future projects. Case study considered in this research is the T3A&B terminal of Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport with construction area approximating to 1,060,000 square meters. This study focus on the BIM usage within the T3A terminal design coordination process (Construction timeline: 2012-2016) to improve the T3B terminal design delivery process (construction time: 2016-20). Output from this study can be used for assisting the design teams, i.e. 2D CAD & BIM teams associated with Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport project, to improve their productivity and their organizational BIM implementation.


Abstract Background Malaria is a global health concern. Given increasing global travel and migration, hospitals may struggle to meet immediate malaria treatment needs resulting in serious and potentially fatal outcomes. New Orleans is a mid-size city with a significant immigrant population, large tourism industry, major academic centers with international faculty and many international industries with a diversity of medical systems. Assessing malaria medication accessibility across various clinical settings would address major gaps in treatment capacity and efficacy. Methods Inpatient pharmacy directors and formularies at three New Orleans-area hospitals (an academic medical center, a large safety-net hospital and a community hospital) were queried about their first-line antimalarial agents in stock within the hospital pharmacy, time needed to obtain both IV and PO first-line antimalarial agents, and barriers to expanding the formulary (including cost, number of cases, side effects, and shelf life of medications). The queries were carried out using a medications order system survey. Results First-line IV medications could not be provided in <24 hours at any of hospitals surveyed; however, all provided a form of first-line antimalarial coverage for non-severe malaria. Two of the three hospitals provided oral artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) on their hospital formulary available in <24 hours and all three provided ACTs on their outpatient formularies. All hospitals surveyed could obtain intravenous ACTs from the CDC within 24–48 hours. Barriers identified for availability of oral ACTs and other antimalarials included the number of cases seen (reported by all threehospitals) and cost of medication (reported by one hospital). Conclusion Oral first-line malaria treatments including ACTs could be obtained in the surveyed hospitals within 24–48 hours and all hospitals could obtain IV ACTs from the CDC within 24–48 hours. The main barrier preventing hospitals from providing ACTs and other anti-malarial medications was infrequency of malaria cases; cost was a secondary concern. This information can be used in attempts to educate hospital systems about appropriate and timely malaria treatment, inform policy and procedures, and design systems to track malaria diagnosis and treatment. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


D'Annunzio's uneven reception both within and outside of Italy is partially due to the close association between his work and Italian fascism. Yet his concept of beauty certainly exceeds the narrow confines of that association. His aesthetics is more than a (fascist) aestheticism. In this article we introduce the special issue on D'Annunzio's beauty by articulating the complex, multifaceted role of the aesthetic in D'Annunzio's works and thought. He idealizes art as a refuge against the levelling forces of modern capitalism, bourgeois society, democracy and massification. This positions him in between decadentism and modernism, on the one hand, and between the aestheticism of post-Kantian idealism and a heroic vision of nationalism, on the other. Ever an eclectic thinker and artist, D'Annunzio's legacy remains rich, challenging, prolific: now, a century from the war in which he became a nationalist hero, is an ideal moment to return to the question of how these complex, conflicting elements emerge in D'Annunzio's seductive picture of beauty.


In this article the definition of writing as a means and as an end is analyzed in order to raise some concerns about the teaching of writing at different schools in general. From this definition I question other important issues that ultimately affect our students? writing production. These have to deal with the use of writing in the mother language, writing activities in the textbooks, the realistic nature of the writing tasks, the other language skills input, and the production of texts. The article pretends to raise awareness in the teaching of writing by taking into account what is implied in the writing skill so teachers can be more attentive in the selection of written tasks for their students.


In an earlier paper, the general formulation and results for photon reprocessing (downscattering) that included recoil and Comptonization effects due to divergence of the flow were presented. In a second paper we showed the Monte Carlo (MC) simulated continuum and line spectra. We also provided an analytical description of the simulated continuum spectra using the diffusion approximation. We have simulated the propagation of monochromatic and continuum photons in a bulk outflow from a compact object. Electron scattering of the photons within the expanding flow leads to a decrease of their energy, which is of first order in V/c (where V is the outflow velocity). The downscattering effect of first order in V/c in the diverging flow is explained by semianalytical calculations and confirmed by MC simulations. We conclude that redshifted lines and downscattering bumps are intrinsic properties of the powerful outflows for which the Thomson optical depth is greater than 1. We fitted our model line profiles to the observations using four free parameters, β = V/c, the optical depth of the wind τ, the wind temperature kTe, and the original line photon energy E0. We show how the primary spectrum emitted close to the black hole is modified by reprocessing in the warm wind. In the framework of our wind model, the fluorescent iron line Kα is formed in the partly ionized wind as a result of illumination by central source continuum photons. The demonstrated application of our outflow model to the XMM-Newton observations of MCG -6-30-15 and to the ASCA observations of GRO J1655-40 points out a potential powerful spectral diagnostic for probes of the outflow-central object connection in Galactic and extragalactic black hole sources.


The aim of study was to measure the suitability and energy saving of soil source heat pump. We established a tube group model of underground temperature field in 20 years. Take three typical architecture--tavern, office and hotel buildings for example, used the primary energy ratio--one index about energy-savingas the main target of comparison, then took the technical indicators soil cumulative temperature into account. The result shows that the shopping malls in Beijing is the best grade of the applicability about the soil source heat pumps application, followed by hotel and office building is the worst.


Rolled or arpeggiated chords are notated chords performed by playing the notes sequentially, usually from lowest to highest in pitch. Arpeggiation is a characteristic of musical expression, or expressive timing, in piano performance. However, very few studies have investigated rolled chord performance. In this paper, we investigate two expressive timing properties of piano rolled chords: equivalent onset and onset span. Equivalent onset refers to the hidden onset that can functionally replace the onsets of the notes in a chord; onset span refers to the time interval from the first note onset to the last note onset. We ask two research questions. First, what is the equivalent onset of a rolled chord? Second, are the onset spans of different chords interpreted in the same way? The first question is answered by local tempo estimation while the second question is answered by Analysis of Variance. Also, we contribute a piano duet dataset for rolled chords analysis and other studies on expressive music performance. The dataset contains three pieces of music, each performed multiple times by different pairs of musicians.


It is an open problem to provide a characterization of quasiconformally homogeneous Riemann surfaces. We show that given the current literature, this problem can be broken into four open cases with respect to the topology of the underlying surface. The main result is a characterization in one of the these open cases; in particular, we prove that every quasiconformally homogeneous ladder surface is quasiconformally equivalent to a regular cover of a closed surface (or, in other words, there are no exotic ladder surfaces).


Visual sense is the most important sense for people, and people would use the visual sense most to get the information of the outside world, they would also use it the most to exchange the information in the man-machine system. The efficiency of the man-machine system and the stability of design would rely on the visual sense a lot. The key point of design and its function is how to make the exterior features of design fit the visual sense. Therefore, it's very important and necessary to study the visual sense and exterior features of design to enhance the efficiency of man-machine system, and help the design to express itself by means of the exterior features, and help people to see and understand the design well and quickly. This paper analyses the visual sense and discusses many visual features of design, the study on the clear expression and conciseness of visual information would help designers to get some more ideas of how to design the exterior features.


Based on the research of neural network (NN) computing method of finite element equations for the structure of the discrete model, a complete implementation of the various parts of the computing method is presented. The computation module was described with hardware description language (Verilog HDL) at the RTL level, and functional simulation was executed by Quartus II 11.0 and ModelSim 6.5. Simulation results show that the implementation of neural network computing method based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) can satisfy the requirement of the parallel computing, which could further improve the speed of structural finite element computation, and ensure the speed and accuracy of the computation.


Construction of a new presidential palace on the model of the White House, erection of new
buildings; conversion of the old city of Signaghi into a Disney Land style Potemkin village;
replacement of city centre oriental "bazaars" by Western style shopping malls: Georgia is
under construction. The direct involvement of the public authorities in the landscaped drawing
constitutes a well anchored tradition. Sufficient to remind the statues of Lenin, propaganda
posters, or the folkorisation of the city through the restoration of "Old Tbilisi" in late Soviet
time to understand that issues at stakes in transforming the urban cityscape are not only
economic (real estate speculation, etc..) but also highly political: it aims at erasing the traces of
the Soviet past and at making visible the governmental program of modernization, including
in its rationalist and hygienist dimension, and rapprochement with the West. Space has not to
be understood only in a geographic conception. Pierre Nora reminds that the word « space »
is torn between two poles of meaning, history and geography: in one respect, it refers to a
territory, limited by borders inside which the power is exercised, in another to nature, these two
poles being indissolubly connected in the definition of French national identity2. Numerous
studies have indeed scrutinized the process by which space is invested by the forms of power
and have analysed the link between the appropriation of space and nation building.


The goal of this article is the analysis of military orders war failures in the peninsular Middle Ages, to identify triggers and causes, and draw their impact. In doing so we hope to contribute to a better knowledge of military practices of institutions whose main function was war.


Objective: Recent reports, particularly the Women's Health Initiative, demonstrated that hormone therapy with combined estrogen plus progestin increased the incidence of heart attacks, stroke, blood clots, breast cancer and dementia in women over 65 years old. We investigated the role of synthetic progestins in initiating the adverse events associated with estrogen therapy. Methods: We used a fluorescence imaging technique, which allows video microscopic recordings of blood flow, blood vessel morphology and activities of various blood cells in a live animal. The acute peripheral and cerebrovascular responses were measured following intraperitoneal (5 or 10 mg) or intravenous (10 or 100 μg) administration of progesterone, synthetic progestins (medroxyprogesterone acetate and norethindrone) or estrogens (conjugated equine estrogens and 17β-estradiol). Results: In both peripheral and cerebral vasculature, synthetic progestins caused endothelial disruption, accumulation of monocytes in the vessel wall, platelet activation and clot formation, which are early events in atherosclerosis, inflammation and thrombosis. Natural progesterone or estrogens did not show such toxicity. Conclusions: The risks associated with combined estrogen plus progestin therapy may be a consequence of vascular actions of progestins. Using progestins with minimal vascular toxicity may lead to safer estrogen preparations for menopausal women.


We present a multiple pitch tracking algorithm that is based on direct probabilistic modeling of the spectrogram of the signal. The model is a factorial hidden Markov model whose parameters are learned discriminatively from the Keele pitch database. Our algorithm can track several pitches and determines the number of pitches that are active at any given time. We present simulation results on mixtures of several speech signals and noise, showing the robustness of our approach.


This study investigates possible links between maternal illegal drug use during pregnancy and up to two years before pregnancy with birth weight (BW), and explores the potential role of paternal illegal drug use on low birth weight. A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted that linked four national databases in Taiwan. A total of 1,698 subjects with a criminal record of schedule I or II illegal drug use within two years before pregnancy were enrolled as the drug-exposed group, and 16,980 matched subjects were enrolled as the unexposed group. Multivariate analysis of BW found a decrease of 108.63 g (95% CI: −172.29, −44.96), 79.67 g (95% CI: −116.91, −42.43), and 69.78 g (95% CI: −106.71, −32.84) in newborns whose mothers used illegal drugs only during pregnancy (period I), only within one year before pregnancy (period II), and only within the second year before pregnancy (period III), respectively. Paternal use of illegal drugs before maternal pregnancy was significantly associated with low birth weight. The paternal effect on low birth weight was opposite the maternal effect. The adverse effect of illegal drug use on birth weight existed even if the mother did not use drugs during pregnancy but had ever used drugs during the two years before pregnancy. Paternal factors' contribution to low birth weight persisted, and the decrement of BW was even greater than the maternal effect within one or two years before pregnancy. Maternal and paternal illegal drug use may have a lasting effect on their offspring's birth weight.


Abstract:  Implementing community services can be a very complex process where people end up "not seeing the wood for the trees" and then accepting a compromise nobody wants. Neither agency theory nor stewardship theory is particularly robust when explaining the reality that funders and managers of community health service for older people face in managing contracts. There are particular difficulties with goal divergence between policy directives and implementation practices, which result from goals not being well understood and performance requirements being ambiguously defined and infrequently monitored. This leads to accountability issues for public managers, and raises efficiency and effectiveness issues. This paper provides an interim report on a project developing a management‐control system to provide a process for health planners and funders to use when developing and contracting services. A major focus is inviting stakeholders into a process of communication that ensures that they have shared understandings of where they want to get to, and what has to be done to get there.