INTRODUCTION
In 1994, the Canadian urology residency training programs designed the "Canadian Urology Fair"--a single-site (Toronto, Ont.), 1-day fair to conduct the personal interview portion of the residency selection process. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the success of the Urology Fair in achieving its original goals of decreasing the financial burden and minimizing time away from medical training for applicants and faculty.

METHODS
Both candidates and Canadian urology training programs were surveyed regarding the financial and academic costs (days absent) of attending the 2001 Urology Fair. Data from the 2001 Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) was used to compare the financial and academic costs of attending personal interviews incurred by candidates declaring urology as their first-choice discipline to candidates interviewing with other surgical specialties throughout Canada.

RESULTS
Financial costs incurred by candidates to attend the Urology Fair (mean Can dollar 367) were significantly lower than candidates' estimated costs of attending on-site interviews at the individual programs (mean Can dollar 2065). The financial costs of attending personal interviews by CaRMS applicants declaring urology as their first-choice discipline (mean Can dollar 2002) were significantly lower than the costs incurred by applicants interviewing with other surgical disciplines (mean Can dollar 2744). Financial costs to urology programs attending the fair (mean Can dollar 1931) were not significantly greater than the programs' estimated costs of conducting on-site interviews at their respective program locations (mean Can dollar 1825). Days absent from medical school to attend interviews were significantly lower among CaRMS applicants declaring urology as their first-choice discipline (3 d) compared with applicants who interviewed with other surgical specialties (9.1 d).

CONCLUSION
The Canadian Urology Fair represents an innovative and efficient method for residency programs to conduct the personal interview portion of the residency selection process and should serve as a model for making the interview process less expensive and time-consuming for both candidates and faculty.


Introduction Benign and malignant lesions of the pancreas located at the body and tail of the pancreas are managed by the standard procedure of distal pancreatectomy (DP). The mortality associated with this procedure is reported as less than 5% in high-volume centers. The major proportion of morbidity is comprised of pancreatic fistula with a reported incidence of 5% to 60%. The most considered risk factors associated with pancreatic fistula formation are soft pancreatic texture, diameter of the pancreatic duct <3 mm, intraoperative blood loss >1000 ml and surgical techniques. Among all these factors, the modifiable factor is the surgical technique. Several surgical techniques have been developed and modified for closure of the pancreatic remnant in the recent past in order to minimize the risk of pancreatic fistula and other complications. The main objective of the study is to analyze the factors associated with formation of pancreatic fistula after distal pancreatectomy. Patients and Methods We performed a single-center retrospective study at Aga Khan University Hospital from January 2004 till December 2015. The perioperative and postoperative data of 131 patients who underwent pancreatic resection were recorded by using ICD 9 coding. 45 patients underwent distal pancreatectomy, out of which 38 were included in the study based on inclusion criteria. Variables were grouped into demographics, indications, operative details, and postoperative course. Statistical analysis software (SPSS) was used for analysis. Quantitative variables were presented as mean with standard deviation or median with interquartile range depending on the distribution of data. Study endpoints for the risk factor analysis were surgical morbidity and development of pancreatic fistula. Univariate logistic regressions were performed associated with study endpoints. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results Postoperative pancreatic fistula was the most common perioperative morbidity. The significant associated risk factor for pancreatic fistula was multivisceral resection as compared to spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy (P value 0.039). However, the technique of stump closure when opted for suture techniques was seen to be associated with a higher occurrence of postoperative pancreatic fistula. The mortality rate was 2.6%. Conclusion Postoperative pancreatic fistula is the most common complication seen after distal pancreatectomy in our series. Multivisceral resection is associated with a high incidence of pancreatic fistula and is a statistical significant predictor of pancreatic fistula.


Introduction Fine motor alignment of the two eyes is necessary for appropriate binocular experience, yet in adults it appears that binocular processes are responsible for fine motor alignment. There is substantial evidence that infants start to respond to binocular retinal disparity (a primary cue for motor alignment) at 3-5 months of age. However, rudimentary eye alignment is possible from birth and matures with age. How does eye alignment develop in the absence of adult-like binocular processes? Here we investigate the sensitivity of vergence eye movements in 5-10 week old humans to a target moving in depth, while addressing the possible influence of accommodation. Methods Infants (5-10 weeks) and adult controls viewed a naturalistic movie stimulus on a screen that moved sinusoidally in depth at three different amplitudes (1.0, 0.5 and 0.25 MA) at 0.1 Hz. A photorefractor measured horizontal eye position and refractive status at 25 Hz. FFTs provided the amplitude spectra of both vergence and accommodation responses for comparison with the stimulus spectrum. Signal plus noise : noise ratios (SNRs) were calculated by dividing the response at the stimulus frequency by the mean of the adjacent frequencies. Results Vergence SNRs were significantly different from 1 (signal + noise equals noise) at even the smallest amplitudes tested (mean SNR = 2.10; p =0.03). suggesting that infants of 5-10 weeks could generate a vergence response to a full cue stimulus moving in depth at 0.25 MA (~30 minutes of disparity) Accommodation responses were only significant for the two larger amplitudes (mean SNRs = 2.84, 1.47; p = 0.04, 0.03). Adult SNRs were all significant for accommodation and vergence (p < 0.002). Discussion Infants make vergence responses to 0.25 MA stimulus movements at least one month prior to the documented onset of disparity sensitivity. Implications for development of eye alignment will be discussed. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


In choosing a glide path strategy for asset allocation over their working lives, retirement savers face a trade-off between the higher expected wealth provided by strategies that maintain or increase equity holdings over time and the greater potential security offered from shifting into more conservative assets. We quantify this trade-off with an expected utility framework for our simulated distribution of target-date wealth accumulations under a variety of life cycle, fixed and contrarian glide path strategies. We find justification for the life cycle strategy for savers with very reasonable amounts of risk aversion, and we also provide guidance about utility-maximizing glide paths.


This case report describes a unique long-term functional recovery process to promote successful community reintegration for a woman with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare autoimmune disease. Her main symptoms were very limited mobility and depressive symptoms due to the unknown cause of and cure for the illness. Holistic occupational strategies helped the client stabilize her emotional state, create a safe home environment, improve a communication method, increase physical activity, and promote social participation. Participation in a fall prevention clinical trial lowered her risk of falling; at 9 mo, she reached 75% of the maximum Social Integration score; at 13 mo, she reached near-normal level for activities of daily living (ADLs) and her fastest time for the Timed Up and Go test; and at 2 yr, she achieved a 100% score in instrumental ADLs. For community integration of clients with GBS, a comprehensive strategic self-management approach should be prescribed for long-term recovery.


Abstract Field studies were conducted at two North Carolina locations to determine the effect of interference between pale smartweed and cotton on plant growth and productivity. Pale smartweed remained shorter than cotton until at least 70 d after cotton planting. However, pale smartweed grew over twice as tall as cotton and produced considerable dry biomass by cotton harvest. Pale smartweed biomass per plant was not affected by weed density up to 3.5 plants m−1 of row when grown with cotton. Cotton competition reduced pale smartweed dry biomass per plant at least 400%. The relationship between pale smartweed and cotton percent yield loss was described by the rectangular hyperbola model with the asymptote (coefficient a) constrained to 100% maximum yield loss. The estimated coefficient i (yield loss per unit density as density approaches zero) was 29 ± 4 and 23 ± 4 in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Pale smartweed achene production was also described by the hyperbolic function. Estimated achene production of smartweed at 1 plant m−1 cotton row was 63,000 and 25,000 achenes m−2 in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Nomenclature: Pale smartweed, Polygonum lapathifolium var. lapathifolium L. POLPE; cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. 'Stoneville BXN 47'.


This study was developed in order to arrive at a set of interrelated concepts and empirical ways of measuring social-ecological resilience that are concretely applicable for policy, as well as for developing intervening programs for social change. The outcome of this research is a set of empirical indicators to measure the concept of social-ecological resilience. The measurement model is developed and applied to U.S. Caribbean and Pacific small island communities and U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastal counties (n=229), but is intended to be applicable across different types of communities with minor adjustments for the specific context.

The first phase of this research resulted in a conceptual framework for the social ecological system and the property of resilience. Next, multiple methodological approaches to indicator construction were applied and directly compared. An iterative methodology was selected and applied to arrive at seven composite indicators of social-ecological resilience: Land cover and use, Waste accumulation and treatment, Housing adequacy, Economic security, Access to support services, Education, and Population diversity. Upon construction, the indicators were applied with two distinct samples of communities. Finally, the indicators were used to construct a community typology to account for the different strengths and weaknesses of small island and coastal communities as assessed by the indicators of social-ecological resilience.

Communities with high scores on social dimensions of resilience have a greater likelihood of having low scores on ecological dimensions. This finding adds evidence to the notion that social and ecological systems are oppositional, but also provides a counterpoint – there are communities that manage to score well in both areas. While societal development and ecological condition may operate with a firm tension, communities are navigating the tension and finding ways to successfully maintain characteristics of resilience. This research is a necessary first step to investigating how some communities are able to balance their social-ecological system while others are not. Ultimately, the measurement of resilience can provide communities of island and coastal states with a way of evaluating their ability to implement, adapt, and/or support policies for change.


Growth at 42 degrees C is advocated to differentiate species of the fluorescent pseudomonas group as well as to differentiate other nonfermentative bacteria. Methodologies vary in the performance of the test, resulting in differing and often discrepant results between investigators. During this evaluation, the test was performed by inoculating 3 ml of Trypticase soy broth with a loopful of an overnight broth culture. Growth in the 42 degrees C tube was judged as heavy or slight after 24 and 48 h incubation at 41.5 +/- 0.5 degrees C. Pseudomonas aeruginosa grew abundantly after overnight incubation, whereas 16 of 74 isolates of P. putida (22%) showed slight turbidity in the broth after 24 or 48 h which could not be regarded as an inoculum effect. Trypticase soy agar was used in conjunction with Trypticase soy broth, with the growth again judged as heavy or slight. Growth of P. putida on slants was still seen in some cases (6%) although the number of strains showing growth had declined. Triphenyltetrazolium chloride was added to Trypticase soy broth (0.005%) as a color indicator of growth. Strains of P. putida, although showing visible evidence of growth, gave no color change when compared with the 35 degrees C control. The constancy in test results using nonfermentative bacteria is not only method dependent but also strain dependent. Although the test for growth at 42 degrees C is important as a taxonomic tool when used under controlled conditions, other tests such as acetamide are preferred as a substitute for use in the clinical laboratory.


An analysis of the scattering effect of a thin dielectric ring on an electromagnetic field is developed under two assumptions: the incident field is the free space field of the source, and the scattered field tends asymptotically to zero as the radial thickness of the ring approaches zero. When an integral equation of Barrar and Dolph, derived directly from Maxwell's equations, is employed, a formal expansion of the field in powers of the thickness is obtained, and then it is proved that the linear approximation obtained from it is indeed asymptotically equal to the total field. The sufficiency of this approximation is justified by experimental evidence. The far-zone pattern function of the ring is next obtained, and the resulting formulas are applied to the situation where the incident field is generated by a dipole antenna coaxial with the ring for which experimental comparisons are possible.


This investigation focuses on the development of modifications to the Collaborative Optimization (CO) approach to multidisciplinary systems design, that will provide solution capabilities for multiobjective problems. The primary goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview and development of mathematically rigorous optimization strategies for Multiobjective Collaborative Optimization (MOCO). Collaborative Optimization strategies provide design optimization capabilities to discipline designers within a multidisciplinary design environment. To date these CO strategies have primarily been applied to system design problems which have a single objective function. Recent investigations involving multidisciplinary design simulators have reported success in applying CO to multiobjective system design problems. In this research three MultiObjective Collaborative Optimization (MOCO) strategies are developed, reviewed and implemented in a comparative study. The goal of this effort is to provide an in depth comparison of different MOCO strategies available to system designers. Each of the three strategies makes use of parameter sensitivities within multilevel solution strategies. In implementation studies, each of the three MOCO strategies is effective in solving a multiobjective multidisciplinary systems design problem. Results indicate that these MOCO strategies require an accurate estimation of parameter sensitivities for successful implementation. In each of the three MOCO strategies these parameter sensitivities are obtained using post-optimality analysis techniques.


Main symptoms found in patients with same diseases as for example COVID-19 is febrile The infrared thermography (IRT) represents a fast measurement in case of screening in public places One of the limitations of IRT is the resolution of sensor, which has close connection with the distance between camera and ROI To maximize the effectivity of resolution of the camera is to reduce the distance from the object The aim of presented study showed the possibility how to protect the camera or medical staff that operates the device against potential infection or contamination from the person with infection Two protective foils of different thickness (40 μm;9 μm) were tested as a barrier between the IRT and the ROI (black body model and human face) Even though the results have shown that the transparent foils decrease linearly the measured value of the temperature, it can be used as a protective barrier between IRT and the object if an appropriate recalculation is done during analysis of IRT images Results are acceptable in the case of 9μm foil especially The authors see this possibility as a minor concession from IRT standards but as a great help in health protection The transparent foil can be used as protective barrier of the infrared camera


In recent years there has been a growing interest in support, guidance, and orientation programs-collectively known as induction-for beginning elementary and secondary teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. This study examines whether such supports have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The study alsofocuses on different types and components of induction, including mentoring programs, collective group activities, and the provision of extra resources and reduced workloads. The results indicate that beginning teachers who were provided with multiple supports, were less likely to move to other schools and less likely to leave the teaching occupation altogether after their first year. Some forms of assistance and support, however, did not appear to increase beginners' retention.


This paper proposes a dual-time-scale, day-to-day dynamic traffic assignment model that takes into account variable message signs (VMS) and its interactions with drivers' travel choices and adaptive learning processes. The within-day dynamic is captured by a dynamic network loading problem with en route update of path choices influenced by the VMS; the day-to-day dynamic is captured by a simultaneous route-and-departure-time adjustment process that employs bounded user rationality. Moreover, we describe the evolution of the VMS compliance rate by modeling drivers' learning processes. We endogenize traffic dynamics, route and departure time choices, travel delays, and VMS compliance, and thereby captur their interactions and interdependencies in a holistic manner. A case study in the west end of Glasgow is carried out to understand the impact of VMS has on road congestion and route choices in both the short and long run. Our main findings include an adverse effect of the VMS on the network performance in the long run (the 'rebound' effect), and existence of an equilibrium state where both traffic and VMS compliance are stabilized.


Direct seeding of valley oak (Quercus lobata Nee [Fagaceae]), commonly used in restoration in the Central Valley of California, may be preferable to using container stock, at least in nonirrigated sites and where acorn predation can be controlled. In a stratified random experiment we tested initial growth and survival of oaks either: 1) outplanted as acorns; 2) outplanted as 3-mo-old container seedlings; 3) outplanted as 3-mo-old container seedlings that had been transplanted into larger containers 6 wk before outplanting; and 4) outplanted as 1-y-old container seedlings (commercial stock). We subjected each of these to 3 different irrigation regimes: 1) none; 2) drip; or 3) overhead. Half of the irrigated oaks were watered for 1 y, and half for 2 y. In nonirrigated plots, oaks grown from acorns that survived initial seed predation survived significantly better than oaks planted from containers. Across stock type (acorns, plants of different ages, and different sizes of containers), initial differences in plant height remained after 18 mo of growth, but growth rates were similar. Oaks grown in containers usually had more branched and more distorted root systems but all stock types successfully produced deep roots. Irrigated plants grew faster than nonirrigated plants. Plants weaned from irrigation during their second year grew as well thereafter as those that were never irrigated.


Hand and composite tissue allotransplantation (CTA) holds great potential for reconstructive surgery but its development is currently limited by the side effects of the immunosuppressive drugs. Induction of specific tolerance, a situation where the recipient does not mount an immune response against the allograft but remains fully immunocompetent, holds exciting promise. Generation of mixed hematopoietic chimerism by infusing the recipient with donor bone marrow cells has been shown to induce tolerance without chronic immunosuppression. Genetic matching of the donor and the recipient is another option for transplanting composite tissues with only an initial course of immunosuppression. Experiments demonstrated long-term survival of musculoskeletal allografts between MHC-matched miniature swine. Finally, new immunosuppressive agents with a more targeted action will reduce side effects and may prevent the development of chronic rejection. Skin-specific immunosuppression is particularly useful for limb transplants since skin, regarded as the most antigenic component, is easily accessible to topical or irradiation therapies.


Vatican City, January 6, 2010 A Conference for the Year of the Priest Propose to focus on some topics connected to the spirit of the liturgy and reflect on them with you; indeed, I intend to broach a subject which would require me to say I much. Not only because it is a demanding and complex task to talk about the spirit of the liturgy, but also because many important works treating this subject have already been written by authors of unquestionably high caliber in theology and the liturgy. I'm thinking of two people in particular among the many: Romano Guardini and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. One the other hand, it is now all the more necessary to speak about the spirit of the liturgy, especially for us members of the sacred priesthood. Moreover, there is an urgent need to reaffirm the "authentic" spirit of the liturgy, such as it is present in the uninterrupted tradition of the church, and attested, in continuity with the past, in the most recent magisterial teachings: starting from the Second Vatican Council up to the present pontificate. I purposefully used the word continuity, a word very dear to our present Holy Father. He has made it the only authoritative criterion whereby one can correctly interpret the life of the church, and more specifically, the conciliar documents, including all the proposed reforms contained in them. How could it be any different? Can one truly speak of a church of the past and a church of the future as if some historical break in the body of the church had occurred? Could anyone say that the Bride of Christ had lived without the assistance of the Holy Spirit in a particular period of the past, so that its memory should be erased, purposefully forgotten? Nevertheless at times it seems that some individuals are truly partisan to a way of thinking that is justly and properly defined as an ideology, or rather a preconceived notion applied to the history of the church which has nothing to do with the true faith. An example of the fruit produced by that misleading ideology is the recurrent distinction between the preconciliar and the post conciliar church. Such a manner of speaking can be legitimate, but only on condition that two churches are not understood by it: one, the preconciliar church, that has nothing more to say or to give because it has been surpassed, and a second, the post conciliar church, a new reality born from the council and, by its presumed spirit, not in continuity with its past. This manner of speaking and more so of thinking must not be our own. Apart from being incorrect, it is already superseded and outdated, perhaps understandable from a historical point of view, but nonetheless connected to a season in the church's life by now concluded. Does what we have discussed so far with respect to "continuity" have anything to do with the topic we have been asked to treat in this lecture? Yes, absolutely. The authentic spirit of the liturgy does not abide when it is not approached with serenity, leaving aside all polemics with respect to the recent or remote past. The liturgy cannot and must not be an opportunity for conflict between those who find good only in that which came before us, and those who, on the contrary, almost always find wrong in what came before. The only disposition which permits us to attain the authentic spirit of the liturgy, with joy and true spiritual relish, is to regard both the present and the past liturgy of the church as one patrimony in continuous development. A spirit, accordingly, which we must receive from the church and is not a fruit of our own making. A spirit, I add, which leads to what is essential in the liturgy, or, more precisely, to prayer inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, in whom Christ continues to become present for us today, to burst forth into our lives. Truly, the spirit of the liturgy is the liturgy of the Holy Spirit. I will not pretend to plumb the depths of the proposed subject matter, nor to treat all the different aspects necessary for a panoramic and comprehensive understanding of the question. …


The work of Don DeLillo and Philip Roth has been characterized as a turn to writing novels about lateness in a style that for both authors tends toward "less and less." Their work manifests a relationship between lateness and style that departs both from canonical accounts of late style and from Theodor W. Adorno's and Edward Said's theories of late style as ironic anachronism. By conveying in prose style the relative decline and the contingent reduction that for Roth and DeLillo define lateness as a temporality, their novels find in lessness a motivated style for lateness. Furthermore, by reproducing in style the features of a particular historical temporality, their work suggests a method for reading the historicity of temporality through literary style.


Objective : The objective of this paper is to identify some crucial factors influencing family businesses in China, Nigeria and Poland through a prism of the competitive advantage theory as well as company values. Research Design & Methods : The empirical research results were employed: findings from a survey on competitive advantage, from a study of Family Enterprises' (FEs) survival in Nigeria, from interviews conducted with the owners of Polish FEs, from a survey with Polish consumers, and from interviews conducted with FEs' managers in China. International desk research was carried out as well. Findings: Major attributes of FEs which can support their competitive advantage created on the market were identified. The significance of family enterprises in contemporary economies of China, Nigeria and Poland was examined. Implications & Recommendations: The success of FEs and their important nature mean that more research is needed to understand their development for the future. A holistic and cross-cultural approach is required. As the consumers' attitudes towards FEs in the three countries differ ignificantly, a unified survey which can be adjusted for the cultural requirements of each country is recommended. Contribution & Value Added: While comparing FEs in the three countries, some crucial factors which influence their functioning were discovered. Despite of identified obstacles in performance of FEs, there are some sources of CA highlighted and divided into similarities, differences and autonomous features by the authors.


The conclusion of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Buenos Aires ministerial conference (10-13 December 2017) was immediately celebrated and derided in equal measure. For its supporters, Buenos Aires opened the way toward negotiations in e-commerce, investment facilitation for development, and measures designed to help micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs). For its detractors, the meeting underscored the gridlock that continues to blight the WTO's negotiating function and underlined the organisation's declining credibility as a mechanism for governing global trade. In this paper we provide one of the first full length critical evaluations of the Buenos Aires conference and its outcome. In so doing, we offer answers to three questions. What accounts for such dramatically different assessments of the meeting's outcome? How should the outcome be interpreted? What is its significance for the future of the WTO and the multilateral trading system? We argue that the meeting's outcome was indeed significant. It has consolidated the process of reconfiguring the WTO's negotiating function; and it enables members to tackle more effectively a range of pressing economic and social issues as well as to navigate blockers and blockages in the negotiations. However, it also poses challenges for the WTO's poorest constituents.


Paul Grice distinguishes between natural meaning and non-natural meaning, where the first notion is especially connected to something's being a natural sign and the second to communication. It is argued that some of the arguments against the distinction being exhaustive are based on a misinterpretation of Grice, but also that the distinction cannot be exhaustive if one takes into account both the criterion of factivity and the connection to communication. If one makes a distinction between natural and non-natural communication, then there are different types of natural communication to be distinguished: goal-directed communication, intentional communication and open intentional communication. Given the empirical evidence, the behavior of chimpanzees and of human infants may be described as goal-directed communication, but there are also important differences between the communicative behavior of the two.


Action recognition via WiFi has caught intense attention recently because of its ubiquity, low cost, and privacy-preserving. Observing Channel State Information (CSI, a fine-grained information computed from the received WiFi signal) resemblance to texture, we transform the received CSI into images, extract features with vision-based methods and train SVM classifiers for action recognition. Our experiments show that regarding CSI as images achieves an accuracy above 85%. Our contributions include:, · To our best knowledge, we are the first to investigate the feasibility of processing CSI by vision-based methods with extendable learning-based framework. · We regard CSI of each Tx-Rx pair as a channel and investigate early and late fusion of multi-channels. · We could know where and what action user performs with location-awareness classification.


BACKGROUND
The widespread use of AAS for non-medical purposes is more than often becoming the cause of secondary hypogonadism. The study of the formation of the negative attitude towards the use of AAS among the gym visitors is quite relevant.

AIMS
To identify the frequency of the formation of a motivated refusal to continue taking androgenic anabolic steroids among men who voluntarily declared their use.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study included 44 men, all users of AAS. There has been estimated the effectiveness of the clinical examination: how ready they were to disclose information about the use of AAS (drugs, doses, regimens, duration) or how much they were aware of the mechanisms of action of AAS and their effects on the body. The participants were also asked to evaluate their psychological and emotional state (on the scale Index of life satisfaction, Hamiltons depression, aggressiveness). The experience of our informational lectures on the topic Risks of using AAS prior to the selection of volunteers for research, anonymous surveys and interviews with potential participants in the clinical trial, the clinical work itself with the selected volunteers, the characteristic features of a medical history and tests that we identified were compared with clinical recommendations for hypogonadism diagnostic (domestic and foreign).

RESULTS
More than 105 gym visitors responded positively to a motivated offer (free medical consultation and laboratory tests) to participate in a clinical study. Based on the results of the individual interview, 54 men (51.4%) who indicated the use of AAS signed an informed consent. 44 volunteers (41.9%) completed all stages of the study. Among them, 32 participants (72.7%) were aware of the mechanisms of action and side effects of AAS. 21 volunteers (47.7%) filled in the scales. The index of life satisfaction was determined as high, equal to 34 [29; 38] points; the index of aggressiveness was higher than the generally accepted standard and composed 27 [25; 29] points, the level of depression corresponded to a mild depressive disorder, equal to 9 [3; 12] points. Over the use of AAS 22.7% (n = 10) of the examined noted an increase in aggressiveness, which they themselves associated with the use of steroids. The clinical symptoms of hypogonadism (decreased libido, erectile dysfunction) after the cancellation of AAS were indicated by 25% (n = 11) of the volunteers and that was one of the reasons they continued to use anabolics. 31.8% (n = 14) of the participants were ready to completely stop using the steroids.

CONCLUSIONS
Individual informational interviews aimed at providing knowledge about the negative effects of steroids on the body motivated the desire to stop using them amongst 31.8% of AAS users. The obtained data points out to a developed AAS addiction which requires the involvement of psychiatrists to get rid of it.


American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, first published in 1991, makes an original contribution to a subject of great interest to specialists and students of international relations and international political economy - the extent and nature of America as an international power and a hegemonic state up until the end of the 1980s. In examining the role of the USA in the post-war world order, Stephen Gill challenges arguments concerning the relative decline of American hegemony. He maintains that instead of equating hegemony with the dominance of one state over other states, one should redefine the question of hegemony in terms of the relationship between economic, military, cultural and political forces. Gill also develops a concept of transnational hegemony - the rise in the power of internationally mobile capital.


The main inputs for forward seismic modeling are the P- and S-wave velocity and density. A common problem is poor quality or absence of sonic, dipole, and density logs. It is important to reconstruct these curves from reliable measurements, such as resistivity. In an early attempt, Faust empirically relates the velocity and resistivity to the geologic age, depth, and lithology. This relation links the sonic velocity to the depth and formation factor (resistivity) and does not have any apparent physical basis because the velocity depends on the elasticity of a material while the resistivity describes its electrical charge transport capability. The observed link is most likely due to the dependence of both material properties on porosity. We analyze this link by using recent rock physics transforms between the velocity, porosity, and mineralogy, with existing empirical and theoretical resistivity-porosity models. We also use a number of high-quality data sets to verify the results. We find that Faust's equation is applicable to consolidated cemented sandstones with low clay content and porosity between 5 and 20%. It should not be used in shale or unconsolidated and/or uncemented rock. We derive a family of new resistivity-velocity equations appropriate for various textures of clastic sediment.


In thís paper the influence of the shape of the lead time demand distribution is studied for a specific inventory model whích is described in a preceding paper by Heuts and van Lieshout [4]. This continuous review inventory model uses as lead time demand distribution a Schmeiser Deutsch distribution (S-D distribution) [9]. In a previous paper [4] an algorithm was given to solve the decision problem. In the literature attention is given to the following problem: what information on the demand during the lead time is necessary and sufficient to obtain "good" decisions. Using a(s,S) policy; Naddor [8] concluded that the specific form of the lead time demand distribution is negligible, and that only its first two moments are essential. For a simple (s,q) control system Fortuin [3] comes to the same conclusion. Bo[h authors analysed the case with known lead times and with given demand distributions from the class of two parameter distributions. So in fact their results are obvious, as the lead time demand distributions resulting from their suppositions are all nearly symmetric. We shall demonstrate that the skewness of the lead time demand distribution in our inventory model is also an important measure, which should be taken into account, as the cost differences with regard to the case where thís skewness measure is not used, can be considerable.


Objectives
To observe the changes in PEFR with advancing pregnancy and to obtain set of normal values for healthy Pakistani woman.
Subjects and Methods
This study was conducted in department of physiology Ziauddin University. One hundred and nine subjects were included in the study. They were divided into group A (non pregnant), B (post partum) and C (pregnant). Group C further divided into I, II and III according to the trimester of pregnancy. Subjects with any respiratory disorder were excluded from the study. After elaborated instructions and explanation of procedure PEFR were recorded by using Wrights peak expiratory flow meter in sitting and standing positions. Out of five readings only one reading were selected as best.
Results
There was no any statistically significant difference seen in relation to age, weight, height and BMI in all groups. The PEFR was significantly reduced in females of 1st trimester and 3rd trimester, both in sitting and standing position when compared with controls and no significant reduction was seen in all trimesters of pregnancy, when compared with each other.
Conclusion
Peak expiratory flow rate was decreased in pregnant females both in sitting and standing positions. This may be due to poor socioeconomic status, abnormal nutritional hobbits and weakness of respiratory muscles in advancing pregnancy. (Rawal Med J 2012;37:242=245).


Quantity-based regulation with banking allows regulated firms to shift obligations across time in response to periods of unexpectedly high or low marginal costs. Despite its wide prevalence in existing and proposed emission trading programs, banking has received limited attention in past welfare analyses of policy choice under uncertainty. We address this gap with a model of banking behavior that captures two key constraints: uncertainty about the future from the firm's perspective and a limit on negative bank values (e.g. borrowing). We show conditions where banking provisions reduce price volatility and lower expected costs compared to quantity policies without banking. For plausible parameter values related to U.S. climate change policy, we find that bankable quantities produce behavior quite similar to price policies for about two decades and, during this period, improve welfare by about a $1 billion per year over fixed quantities.


Soil salinity severely threatens land use capability and crop yields worldwide. An analysis of the molecular mechanisms of salt tolerance in halophytes will contribute to the development of salt-tolerant crops. In this study, a combination of physiological characteristics and iTRAQ-based proteomic approaches was conducted to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the salt response of suspension cell cultures of halophytic Halogeton glomeratus. These cells showed halophytic growth responses comparable to those of the whole plant. In total, 97 up-regulated proteins and 192 down-regulated proteins were identified as common to both 200 and 400 mM NaCl concentration treatments. Such salinity responsive proteins were mainly involved in energy, carbohydrate metabolism, stress defense, protein metabolism, signal transduction, cell growth, and cytoskeleton metabolism. Effective regulatory protein expression related to energy, stress defense, and carbohydrate metabolism play important roles in the salt-tolerance of H. glomeratus suspension cell cultures. However, known proteins regulating Na+ efflux from the cytoplasm and its compartmentalization into the vacuole did not change significantly under salinity stress suggesting our existing knowledge concerning Na+ extrusion and compartmentalization in halophytes needs to be evaluated further. Such data are discussed in the context of our current understandings of the mechanisms involved in the salinity response of the halophyte, H. glomeratus.


Reducing prediction delay for streaming end-to-end ASR models with minimal performance regression is a challenging problem. Constrained alignment is a well-known existing approach that penalizes predicted word boundaries using external low-latency acoustic models. On the contrary, recently proposed FastEmit is a sequence-level delay regularization scheme encouraging vocabulary tokens over blanks without any reference alignments. Although all these schemes are successful in reducing delay, ASR word error rate (WER) often severely degrades after applying these delay constraining schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel delay constraining method, named self alignment. Self alignment does not require external alignment models. Instead, it utilizes Viterbi forced-alignments from the trained model to find the lower latency alignment direction. From LibriSpeech evaluation, self alignment outperformed existing schemes: 25% and 56% less delay compared to FastEmit and constrained alignment at the similar word error rate. For Voice Search evaluation,12% and 25% delay reductions were achieved compared to FastEmit and constrained alignment with more than 2% WER improvements.


We explored the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee creativity (EC), and investigated how employees' perceptions of CSR and EC interact with perceived organizational support. Data from 278 bank employees in Malawi were analyzed using partial least squares regression. We found that employees' perceptions of CSR were positively related to EC, and that this relationship was mediated by employee engagement. In addition, the moderating effect results showed that when perceived organizational support was high, employees' perceptions of CSR strengthened their work engagement, which then improved EC. These findings indicate that CSR is an important strategic tool in shaping EC. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


Administration of additional estrogen reduced the latent period for mammary tumor induction following the implantation of estrone pellets, subcutaneously, in rats, but did not alter the course of established tumors. Testosterone, progesterone, or growth hormone increased the latent period and caused temporary regression of the established tumors. Oophorectomy, adrenalectomy, and hypophysectomy likewise affected tumor induction and tumor growth. Latent periods were prolonged, and a temporary reduction in tumor size occurred after oophorectomy or adrenalectomy. No mammary tumors developed in animals that were hypophysectomized before implantation of the estrone pellets, and permanent regression of tumors resulted when the operation was carried out after tumors had appeared.


PURPOSE
To investigate which knee and probe position best identifies knee inflammation and to determine a cut-off level for abnormal synovial effusion.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
18 experienced sonographers (all rheumatologists) performed ultrasound examinations of the knee joint in patients with knee symptoms and in healthy controls. Each sonographer performed longitudinal suprapatellar ultrasound scans using 9 different configurations at each knee: Midline, parapatallar lateral and parapatellar medial from midline in neutral position (0°) with and without quadriceps muscle contraction and in 30° flexion of the knee. The presence of synovial effusion (SE), the effusion measured in millimeters and the presence of synovial hypertrophy (SH) was noted.

RESULTS
A total of 298 knees of 149 subjects (129 patients and 20 controls) were examined. The detection of SH is more sensitive and specific than the detection of SE, independently of the knee and probe position, for the final diagnosis of abnormality. The detection of both synovial hypertrophy and effusion in the knee in neutral position (0°) with quadriceps contraction and with the probe in the midline position, are the best independent predictors for knee abnormalities. Knee effusion > 3.2 mm measured with the probe in the lateral aspect of the knee is the best diagnostic characteristics for predicting pathological SE.

CONCLUSION
The best combination for detecting SH and SE is obtained by placing the probe in the midline position with the knee in 0° with quadriceps contraction. A cut-off value for pathological effusion may be obtained in the lateral aspect of the knee.


Sara Nović's Girl at War, a realist novel concerned with Ana Jurić's journey through the Yugoslavian civil war, and Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, a magical realist novel detailing the lives of Nadia and Saeed during a civil war, are two different takes on one's life within a warzone. While Nović explores identities and borders within the history of the former Yugoslavia, Hamid brings modern issues, including violence, surveillance, and borders, into a hypothetical world. Nović and Hamid highlight hypocrisies within peace organizations, as well as a lack of accountability for abuses committed against citizens living within warzones. Rather than alleviating devastation within conflicting areas, peace organizations appear to add to the violence. With an established exploration into the globalization present in Hamid's Exit West and nationalism in Nović's Girl at War, we can expand and investigate the portrayal of third-party peace organizations, such as the United Nations, independent agents, and others. While observing these organizations' tactics, often concerning the guarding of borders and their supposedly protective measures within countries, one can examine them as bodies that self-govern, gatekeep safety, and bypass borders, all of which are distinguishing characteristics of imperialist tendencies vis-à-vis the control and authority they have exerted within foreign states.


In order to develop a bone-filling material with osteoinductive potential, a composite micorspheres of collagen molecules and biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) was prepared by utilizing emulsion polymerization and the intrinsic self-assembly of collagen. The prepared microspheres were analyzed by granularity test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectra (IR) and enzymatic digestion experiment. The results showed that the collagen matrix of fibrils was reconstituted in the droplets, and the native triple-helix structure of collagen was still maintained. The study provides an effective way to prepare microspheres of collagen and BCP composite.


Background Many refugees resettled in Western countries struggle to attain a level of psychological well-being. Heavily burdened by pre- and post-migration stressors, refugees are at considerable risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The accumulation of stressors is also what makes them, in the eyes of many clinicians, complex and difficult to treat. Although trauma-focused treatment, such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy (EMDR), is recommended as first-line treatment for adults who suffer from PTSD, in refugees this recommendation is often contended. Instead, clinicians are advised to focus on psychosocial stabilisation as direct trauma-focused treatment is feared to be ineffective and even harmful. The contradictions between the two approaches have been subject of recent debate. Aims An eye for complexity contributes to a clarification of this debate by presenting the outcomes of several studies with refugees. The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to an improvement of mental health care offered to treatment-seeking refugees. To this end, the thesis addresses three main research questions: What is the safety and efficacy of EMDR compared to that of stabilisation in traumatised asylum seekers and refugees? What is the applicability of the complex PTSD construct to refugees? Can traumatised asylum seekers and refugees be safely and effectively treated with trauma-focused therapy? Method These questions are answered through six studies: a systematic review of treatment outcome studies of EMDR in refugees; a pilot study of EMDR (11 sessions) versus stabilisation (11 sessions) with 20 traumatised refugees treated at a specialised institute; a randomised controlled trial of EMDR (12 hours) versus stabilisation (12 hours) in 72 refugees who suffer from PTSD; a multilevel analysis of the trial data to identify predictors for treatment response in refugees; a naturalistic study comparing the effectiveness of treatment as usual in refugees and non-refugees; and a systematic review of the prevalence of complex PTSD in refugee populations. Results In this thesis it is shown that although the acceptability, safety and efficacy of EMDR with refugees are matters of interest, very little research in this area has been done. A pilot study showed EMDR to be safe and efficacious enough with treatment-seeking refugees to warrant the conduct of a full randomised controlled trial. Consequently, in a randomised controlled trial both EMDR and stabilisation were shown to be safe and limitedly efficacious with refugees who suffer from PTSD. Two predictor studies showed that treatment-response in refugee participants appears related to depressive symptom severity and diagnosis as well as PTSD symptom severity at intake. Finally, prevalence of complex PTSD in refugees was shown to be relatively low. Conclusions Refugees may be safely treated with a short course of EMDR (9 sessions), but efficacy may be limited. Treatment response may be hampered by depressive symptoms. The construct of complex PTSD may only limitedly apply to traumatised refugees. Current research supports a recommendation of trauma-focused rather than phase-based treatment in refugees who seek treatment for PTSD, including asylum seekers.


Background: This study evaluates the outcomes of an Internet-at-home intervention experiment that intended to decrease loneliness among chronically ill and physically handicapped older adults through introducing them to the use of an electronic communication facility. Method: To determine the effectiveness of the experiment in terms of reducing loneliness, 15 older adults were interviewed three times: shortly before the start, two years later and immediately after termination of the experiment, while their loneliness scores at zero and post-measurement were compared with those of a control group. Results: Both the participants and the control persons experienced a reduction in loneliness over time. However, the reduction was only significant for the intervention participants. Moreover, the changes in loneliness were significantly greater among the participants compared to the control persons. When looking more in detail, the effect of the experiment was only significant regarding emotional loneliness and among the highest educated. Findings of the qualitative research enabled us to understand the mechanisms through which the intervention helped alleviate loneliness. E-mail was found to facilitate social contact. Furthermore, the computer and Internet were often used to pass the time, taking people's minds off their loneliness. Unexpectedly, the intervention also improved people's self-confidence. Conclusion: The decline in loneliness is likely to be greater if persons under more favorable circumstances are selected and if more social functions of the Internet are used.


BACKGROUND
Very early discharge from hospital is an element of Ontario midwifery care. Our aim in the present study was to describe the frequency of very early hospital discharge for newborns in Ontario midwifery care over time.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study, including all midwife-attended singleton term cephalic newborns delivered by spontaneous vaginal birth at Ontario hospitals between April 2003 and February 2017. Our primary outcome was very early hospital discharge (< 6 h after birth) for newborns. Secondary outcomes were pediatric consultation before hospital discharge, phototherapy before hospital discharge and readmission for treatment of jaundice. We used generalized linear mixed models to estimate the relation between maternal, neonatal and hospital factors and very early discharge, while accounting for clustering by hospital.

RESULTS
The study cohort included 101 852 newborns born at 89 hospitals. Between 2003/04 and 2016/17, the unadjusted rate of very early discharge decreased from 34.3% to 30.7%. This trend was not significant after adjustment for covariates (odds ratio 1.0, 95% confidence interval 0.99-1.0). Unadjusted rates of pediatric consultation, phototherapy and readmission for jaundice all rose slightly over the study period. Hospital-specific risk-adjusted frequencies of very early discharge ranged from 5% (n = 1479) to 83% (n = 3459) across the 75 Ontario hospitals with at least 100 newborns included in the study cohort.

INTERPRETATION
Hospital-level factors contributed to the observed decrease in crude rates of very early discharge for midwifery clients. Wide variation in these rates across Ontario hospitals points to room for improvement to make more efficient use of health care resources by promoting optimal levels of very early discharge.


Knowledge of the electronic structures of local functional sites of proteins sheds light into their fundamental mechanisms of enzymatic reaction and processes related to electronic state. Although the dynamic effects due to solvent or membrane molecules surrounding the protein are indispensable for an accurate analysis, in current methods they have been approximated by a continuum model with polarized material, where a phenomenological and unreliable parameter, the dielectric constant, is always required. We have developed a new algorithm to reproduce an average field due to the solvent and membrane molecules, which are calculated from the long trajectory of a classical molecular dynamics simulation for a membrane protein-solvent system, by several thousands of pseudo-charges and dipoles on a closed surface surrounding a target quantum mechanical (QM) region. Since the dynamic effects are represented only by "static" pseudo-charges and dipoles, the QM calculation is necessarily done only once. We applied this algorithm to the photosynthetic reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides with explicit all-atomic models of the solvent and membrane molecules. It is possible that the electronic structures of its ground state and excited state can be calculated with those microscopic "reaction field" effects.


The second most common neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson's disease (PD), is caused by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra leading to impaired motor control. Genetic analyses have revealed recessively and dominantly inherited mutations in the so-called PARK genes that cause symptoms reminiscent of those of PD. Mutations in the FBXO7 gene (PARK15) have been linked to several families presenting with Parkinsonian-Pyramidal Syndrome, but its precise role in neurons remains unknown. Proteasomal dysfunction has previously been linked to PD. Owing to the previously published finding that FBXO7 interacts with the proteasomal modulator PI31, I investigated the role of FBXO7 in proteasomal regulation and found in loss-of-function experiments that FBXO7 promotes proteasome activity. To model the PARK15 syndrome in mice, we generated a conventional FBXO7 knockout mouse line. With behavioral experiments, I showed that these mice present early onset motor defects and premature death. As FBXO7 is ubiquitously expressed in the brain, we dissected the pyramidal and Parkinsonian phenotype using a conditional knockout strategy. I found that loss of FBXO7 in pyramidal forebrain neurons caused severe motor deficits reminiscent of the pyramidal symptoms seen in PARK15 patients, in addition to stereotypic behavior. I could show that the glutamatergic transporter level was downregulated in the striatum of these mice, along with an increase in dopamine. On the other hand, loss of FBXO7 in murine catecholaminergic neurons lead to a progressive loss of fine motor control with reduced ambulation in the end stage, which can be interpreted as a Parkinsonian phenotype. This was accompanied by a significant decrease of striatal dopamine, without neuronal loss. Taken together, this study shows FBXO7 as a regulator of the 26S proteasome and characterizes novel mouse models for investigation of Parkinsonian-Pyramidal Syndrome. Parts of this work was published after the thesis defense in EMBO Journal as "Loss of FBXO7 (PARK15) results in reduced proteasome activity and models a parkinsonism-like phenotype in mice." Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This is a short book, "intended to meet the needs of the factory medical officer with no specialized knowledge of dermatology," and to "provide those in formal dermatological training with a useful introduction to the subject." It consists of 13 chapters written by ten contributors who are all from the United Kingdom. The first chapter covers descriptive epidemiology, regulations of work-related illness, and rights and benefits of sick workers in the United Kingdom. The investigation and prevention of industrial dermatitis are discussed in chapters 2 and 3; constitutional skin disease and errors in diagnosis are discussed in chapters 4 and 5. The remaining chapters cover specific industrial skin diseases, protective gloves and barrier creams, causes of persistence of industrial dermatitis, and principles of dermatitis litigation. The book contains no photographs or illustrations. Three chapters are especially informative and well written: the chapter written by D. Burrows on prevention of industrial


Architectures and Circuit Techniques for High-Performance Field-Programmable CMOS Software Defined Radios Jianxun Zhu Next-generation wireless communication systems put more stringent performance requirements on the wireless RF receiver circuits. Sensitivity, linearity, bandwidth and power consumption are some of the most important specifications that often face tightly coupled tradeoffs between them. To increase the data throughput, a large number of fragmented spectrums are being introduced to the wireless communication standards. Carrier aggregation technology needs concurrent communication across several non-contiguous frequency bands, which results in a rapidly growing number of band combinations. Supporting all the frequency bands and their aggregation combinations increases the complexity of the RF receivers. Highly flexible software defined radio (SDR) is a promising technology to address these applications scenarios with lower complexity by relaxing the specifications of the RF filters or eliminating them. However, there are still many technology challenges with both the receiver architecture and the circuit implementations. The performance requirements of the receivers can also vary across different application scenario and RF environments. Field-programmable dynamic performance tradeoff can potentially reduce the power consumption of the receiver. In this dissertation, we address the performance enhancement challenges in the wideband SDRs by innovations at both the circuit building block level and the receiver architecture level. A series of research projects are conducted to push the state-of-the-art performance envelope and add features such as field-programmable performance tradeoff and concurrent reception. The projects originate from the concept of thermal noise canceling techniques and further enhance the RF performance and add features for more capable SDR receivers. Four generations of prototype LNA or receiver chips are designed, and each of them pushes at least one aspect of the RF performance such as bandwidth, linearity, and NF. A noise-canceling distributed LNA breaks the tradeoff between NF and RF bandwidth by introducing microwave circuit techniques from the distributed amplifiers. The LNA architecture uniquely provides ultra high bandwidth and low NF at low frequencies. A family of fieldprogrammable LNA realized field-programmable performance tradeoff with current-reuse programmable transconductance cells. Interferer-reflecting loops can be applied around the LNAs to improve their input linearity by rejecting the out-of-band interferers with a wideband low input impedance. A low noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) that operates in class-AB-C is invented to can handle rail-to-rail out-of-band blocker without saturation. Class-AB and class-C transconductors form a composite amplifier to increase the linear range of the input voltage. A new antenna interface named frequency-translational quadrature-hybrid (FTQH) breaks the input impedance matching requirement of the LNAs by introducing quadrature hybrid couplers to the CMOS RFIC design. The FTQH receiver achieves wideband sub-1dB NF and supports scalable massive frequency-agile concurrent reception.


The intramuscular administration of the injectable suspension betamethasone sodium phosphate (BSP) and betamethasone dipropionate (BD) has immediate therapeutic activity due to solubilized BSP and prolonged activity resulting from the slow release of BD micro-crystals. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a dissolution method for BD in intramuscular injectable suspensions with detection by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Five commercial products presented a distribution of particle sizes, ranging between 7.43 and 40.25 μm as measured by laser diffraction. It was also found that particle sizes differed between batches of the same product. The different products were tested using the paddle apparatus, with stirring speeds of 25 and 50 rpm in 300 mL of phosphate buffer; simulated body fluid, muscle fluid, and synovial fluid were used as biorelevant dissolution media at 37 ± 0.5°C. It was verified that not only does average particle size affect the dissolution rate, but also the mode and the polydispersity index of the particles. Discriminatory power was obtained using the in vitro dissolution method with 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer pH 7.4 containing 0.1% sodium lauryl sulfate and a stirring speed of 50 rpm. The HPLC-method is linear, precise, selective, and accurate for the quantification of BSP and BD in dissolution profile testing. This dissolution method can be utilized as a method to control the quality of these injectable suspensions.


The Close of the Second Punic War. By H. E. BUTLER. Pp. 1-182. Clarendon Press. 3s. 6d. net. This is Livy, Books 29 and 30, partly in the original and partly in translation, on the same lines as the same editor's Jugurtha. These books, not very commonly read, tell the moving story of the downfall of Carthage, and are Livy at his best. The proportioning of original text to translation in the present edition is judicious. The editor's name vouches for the scholarship of the translation and notes. The introduction, partly historical and partly literary, gives just what is wanted in reasonable compass, and includes a brilliant little character sketch of the elder Scipio.


Most traditional recommender systems lack accuracy in the case where data used in the recommendation process is sparse. This study addresses the sparsity problem and aims to get rid of it by means of a content-boosted collaborative filtering approach applied to a web-based movie recommendation system. The main motivation is to investigate whether further success can be obtained by combining 'local and global user similarity' and 'effective missing data prediction' approaches, which were previously introduced and proved to be successful separately. The present work improves these approaches by taking the content information of the movies into account during the item similarity calculations. The comparison of the proposed approach with the original methods was carried out using mean absolute error, and more accurate predictions were achieved.


Author-X is a Java-based system that addresses the security issues of access control and policy design for XML document administration. Author-X supports the specification of policies at varying granularity levels and the specification of user credentials as a way to enforce access control. Access control is available according to both push and pull document distribution policies, and document updates are distributed through a combination of hash functions and digital signature techniques. The Author-X approach to distributed updates allows a user to verify a document's integrity without contacting the document server.


The increasing complexity and volume of the information needed to support flight test missions has led to a need to expand the capability of current test data management systems. While the abilities currently exist to collect and manage calibration and telemetry information in an automated fashion, new requirements have emerged to link this data with other systems and to expand the functions and devices supported. Coordinating and directing the overall flow of information required for a successful flight test is a very big task. It calls for a view into flight test planning and scheduling activities, test objectives and methods, and the requirements for viewing and processing the test data in real-time and postflight. To meet this challenge, the Automated Test Data Management System (ATDMS) is being developed at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Edwards AFB, California. This paper describes the critical information and interfaces that the ATDMS will manage to bring cohesion to the management of flight test support data.


Background: Achilles tendinopathy is a debilitating overuse injury characterized by pain, altered Achilles tendon structure, and impaired functional performance. Evaluating tendon structure as part of the physical examination may help establish a well-defined prognosis. However, the usefulness of measuring tendon structure for developing a prognosis has been questioned since structural abnormalities can exist without symptoms. Purpose: To determine whether initial measures of tendon morphology and mechanical properties were associated with patient-reported symptoms and calf muscle endurance at baseline, 6-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up by prospectively following a cohort of individuals with Achilles tendinopathy. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 2. Methods: A total of 59 participants with midportion or insertional Achilles tendinopathy completed an initial assessment and follow-up assessments at 6 months and 1 year. At the initial assessment, patient-reported symptoms, calf muscle endurance, and Achilles tendon thickening were evaluated, and Achilles tendon mechanical properties were estimated. At the 6-month and 1-year follow-up assessments, patient-reported symptoms and calf muscle endurance were reevaluated. Results: Greater Achilles tendon thickening at the initial assessment was consistently associated with worse patient-reported symptoms and calf muscle endurance at each assessment. Changes in symptoms over the year were moderated by the initial shear modulus of the tendon, with a lower shear modulus associated with less improvement in symptoms. Lower viscosity at the initial assessment was also associated with worse calf muscle endurance at each assessment. Conclusion: Measures of tendon morphology and mechanical properties appear to be associated with patient-reported symptoms and calf muscle function for patients with Achilles tendinopathy.


In spite of the current upsurge of interest in the field of rural
church music in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
there is surprisingly little exhaustive material dealing with one
particular area of the country. Research from the early part of this
century covers the West Country and Sussex, and the concensus has
always been that these areas were the strongest in the tradition of
local psalmody. This dissertation attempts to redress the balance by
considering the choir-band in the Eastern Counties (the East Midlands,
East Anglia and Mid-Anglia). The county of Northamptonshire is given
particular consideration, and may be considered to be a 'typical'
English county; this may show that this genre of music is very much
more widespread than was formerly thought.
The thesis describes the state of the late eighteenth-century Church,
and discusses the role of music in the service, the situation of the
choir-band and methods of payment. Examples of local psalmody in
Northamptonshire are given, and the instrumentation of the choir-bands
is studied, by reference to sources such as churchwardens' account
books. Conclusions are drawn about instrumental trends, dispersion and
influence. The lasting significance of the choir-band movement is also
considered.


Many different types of allergic reactions developing at the site of tattoos have been recorded. Many pigments or dyes have been used in tattooing the different colors into the skin. The most commonly reported reactions have been sensitivity reactions due to mercury. Cinnabar which is red mercuric sulfide, also known as vermilion or Chinese red, is almost always used to produce the red color of tattoos. It is a brilliant red powder which is insoluble in water and dilute acids and is prepared by a process of sublimation of sulfur and mercury. Cadmium selenide (cadmium red) and sienna (ferric hydrate) are also used for red colors. Different authors1-5have attempted to categorize the various types of tattoo reactions. Fundamentally, they have been grouped into 5 different types of reaction. The first reaction to be considered is the acute constant inflammatory reaction associated with physical tissue injury. This usually subsides


This thesis showed that the business model of an ESCO – under certain conditions – can operate profitable. This is especially because of the assumption that the local DSO is willing to pay for provided flexibility. Using this flexibility, grid reinforcements can be postponed. The business model of the ESCO can easily be applied on other regions with bottlenecks, shortages or similar problems. Operating in more than one region will generate economies of scale. In the following a short overview about the thesis will be given. Every chapter will be revised and discussed how it contributed to the results as well as possible obstacles and results will be worked out. Chapter 2 gave an overview about the electricity supply chain and what is important when implementing a new player on the market. Chapter 3 dealt with smart grids including DSM potential, smart homes and already existing new players on the energy market. Chapter 4, e-mobility, considered positive and negative aspects of EV and their integration into the grid; a special focus was on the battery. Chapter 5, micro-CHP, gave an overview about the wide and complicating flied of CHP technologies and their possibilities for DSM. A short calculation revealed that CO2 reductions of micro-CHP systems are at least questionable. From an environmental point of few, CHP plants should generally run on biofuels. Subsequently, after the information about the supply chain and smart grids as well as the new technologies EV and CHP also an introduction into business models has been given in chapter 6. A wide range of definitions, models and frameworks is known from the literature. Especially the business model canvas was introduced due to the fact that it is the most widely used model and especially in entrepreneur circles very common. Therefore it was used to generate the business model of the ESCO and helped especially during the creativity process. Chapter 7 described the results of the modulation in the casestudy region Floro. The influences of micro-CHP, energy savings, DSM and EV on the energy demand were presented and discussed. Challenges accrued from collecting data, building up the model and to replace missing data by smart and reasonable assumptions. Most assumptions refer to similar projects and models and were chosen conservatively. Increasing demand and fluctuating energy demand stress the grid. A need for DSM or a grid reinforcement was identified. A business model of an ESCO that fits the requirements of the test region was developed in chapter 8. The market situation, competitors, the unique selling proposition, the customer benefits and the finance plan were worked out. Chapter 9, the ESCO in practice, used the simulation results of chapter 7 and compard the revenue streams of EV, mico-CHP and DSM with the corresponding costs of ICT, charging station, smart meter, DSM and micro-CHP. The cost side was represented very detailed to identify synergies. The ESCO generated synergies when its customers installed more than one technology. This influenced the selling offer. Offers that just contained DSM were basically unprofitable. The more technology a customer installed the higher the savings for him or her and the higher the profits for the ESCO. The practicability of an ESCO in the German context was identified as critical due to missing DSO payments. More elaborate optimization models might use the variations of the German spot price in order to generate enough profit.


Abstract The scalability of a parallel algorithm on a parallel architecture is a measure of its capacity to effectively utilize an increasing number of processors. Scalability analysis may be used to select the best algorithm-architecture combination for a problem under different constraints on the growth of the problem size and the number of processors. It may be used to predict the performance of a parallel algorithm and a parallel architecture for a large number of processors from the known performance on fewer processors. For a fixed problem size, it may be used to determine the optimal number of processors to be used and the maximum possible speedup that can be obtained. The objectives of this paper are to critically assess the state of the art in the theory of scalability analysis, and to motivate further research on the development of new and more comprehensive analytical tools to study the scalability of parallel algorithms and architectures. We survey a number of techniques and formalisms that have been developed for studying scalability issues, and discuss their interrelationships. For example, we derive an important relationship between time-constrained scaling and the isoefficiency function. We point out some of the weaknesses of the existing schemes for measuring scalability, and discuss possible ways of extending them.


A sodium Europium Double Tungstate (NaEuW) red phosphor was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method and characterized by powder XRD, FTIR, UV-DRS, FESEM and photoluminescent measurements. The influence of different doses of high energy electron beam (EB) irradiation on the structural, morphology and fluorescence properties of NaEuW crystallizing in the I41/a space group was investigated for the first time in comparison with non-irradiated NaEuW. Different doses of high energy EB irradiation resulted in a systematic shift in the diffraction peaks towards lower 2θ, indicating unit cell volume expansion. Interestingly, phase purity was retained even at a higher EB dose, signifying the structural stability of the NaEuW red phosphor. An insight into the FESEM micrographs shows improved crystallinity and agglomeration upon EB irradiation. The resultant NaEuW phosphor emits bright red color under UV excitation of wavelength 396 nm and the intensity was significantly varied for different doses of EB irradiation. At an optimum dose of 20 KGy, a very high color purity was obtained from the calculated CIE-X and Y of the CIE chromaticity diagram of the irradiated NaEuW samples. Additionally, the CIE-X and CIE-Y coordinates of the irradiated material are observed to be closer to the commercially available red phosphor Y2O3S:Eu3+. Hence, this work could present a potentially new strategy to improve the fluorescence properties of phase pure NaEuW via EB irradiation.


The paper uses paradata on response time, cognitive effort and questionnaire order from a large Dutch internet panel survey to study the association between reporting process and reported happiness. We find that slower responses and higher self-stated cognitive effort are associated with lower reported happiness, potentially, because they proxy for momentary mood. Moreover, in multivariate happiness equations, these factors moderate the estimated effect of income on happiness, while no interaction effects are found for other socio-economic determinants of happiness. Our findings have implications for the interpretation of relative marginal effects in economic happiness equations.


This practical guide to cost studies of buildings has been updated and revised throughout for the 6th edition. New developments in RICS New Rules of Measurement (NRM) are incorporated throughout the book, in addition to new material on e-business, the internet, social media, building information modelling, sustainability, building resilience and carbon estimating. This trusted and easy to use guide to the cost management role: Focuses on the importance of costs of constructing projects during the different phases of the construction process Features learning outcomes and self-assessment questions for each chapter Addresses the requirements of international readers From introductory data on the construction industry and the history of construction economics, to recommended methods for cost analysis and post-contract cost control, Cost Studies of Buildings is an ideal companion for anyone learning about cost management.


BACKGROUND
Hematogenous metastasis occurs when cancer cells released from the primary site enter blood vessels and are transported to distant organs, where they attach and proliferate. Angiogenesis is essential for tumor growth and metastasis and depends on the production of angiogenic factors by tumor cells.

METHODS
We analyzed data on 1184 Japanese adult men and women with gastric cancer with respect to the relation between vascular invasion and the potential for tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. All these patients were treated from 1976 to 1995 in the Department of Surgery II, Kyushu University. In 300 patients, the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and p53 protein in tumor tissues was examined by using an immunohistochemical staining method or Northern blotting or both. Intratumoral microvessels were stained with anti-CD31 monoclonal antibody.

RESULTS
Vascular invasion was evident in 254 patients (21.5%), and in these patients lymphatic invasion was more frequent and the rate of lymph node metastasis was higher in relation to the extent of vascular invasion. The positive findings were directly related to the depth of invasion and the presence of lymph node and liver metastasis. Tumor invasive and metastatic rates increased in relation to the extent of vascular invasion. Expressions of VEGF and p53 protein were higher and microvessel density was more prominent in tumor tissues in relation to the extent of vascular invasion. A close relation between VEGF and p53 protein expressions was also noted in tumors that showed vascular invasion. The expression of VEGF is one of the independent risk factors for vascular invasion. The postoperative outcome was poorer in patients with vascular invasion in relation to the extent of vascular invasion.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that gastric cancers with characteristics of vascular invasion have greater intratumoral angiogenesis and that VEGF and p53 overexpression is associated with intratumoral angiogenesis and metastases to distant organs.


This paper deals with the composition of system-level specifications, and more generally a multi-formalisms codesign methodology in the context of AEROSPATIALE Aircraft avionics systems. The methodology is based on a unified system model, named SOLAR, which is used to compose three specification languages: ActivityCharts/StateCharts, SDL, and SAO. The model serves the rest of codesign tasks. Multi-formalisms composition principles are illustrated on an avionics system that is part of AIRBUS A340 on-board systems family. Results and perspectives are also outlined.


Relationship Conflict in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises: The Role of Goal Interdependence by LIAO Yi Master of Philosophy This study empirically examines the dynamics and conditions of relationship conflict between supervisors and employees in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises. It proposes that relationship conflict has significant effects on leadership in Chinese SOEs, specifically, it threatens leader-member relationships, lowers the possibility of open-minded discussion, influences leadership effectiveness and prevents future collaboration. This study uses Deutsch's (1973) theory of goal interdependence to understand relationship conflict between supervisors and employees. Specifically, it proposes that three types of goal interdependence affect the experience of relationship conflict and its outcomes. Cooperative goals compare to competitive and independent goals can help reduce relationship conflict between supervisors and employees and in turn lead to quality relationships, open-minded discussions, leader effectiveness, and confidence in future collaboration. A total of 103 face-to-face interviews were conducted in Nanjing and Guangzhou in mainland China, with all the participants from Chinese State-Owned Enterprises. Participants were asked to describe a specific incident in which they engaged in relationship conflict with their supervisors. Details of the incidents including the setting, what occurred, the reasons, and the consequences were also recorded during the interview. Participants also rated specific questions on 7-point Likert-type scale based on the recalled incidents. Results of structural equation modeling and other analyses support the hypotheses and provide statistical evidence to the proposed theoretical model that goal interdependence affects relationship conflict that influence several leadership constructs, named leader-member relationship, open-minded discussion, leadership effectiveness, and future collaboration. The model and the findings also help to broaden understanding of dynamics of relationship conflict and suggest ways it can be alleviated in order to strengthen organizational leadership.


In consumer contracting, the ritual of documentation and provision of terms is essentially vestigial, at least as a form of deal-making communication between the parties. This paper starts with a thought experiment: what would it look like to have contracts but no standard terms? Most scholarly and political approaches to the mismatch of contract law and consumer contracting have focused on the information problem in consumer contracting — the difficulty of the required cognitive processing — and thus the proposed solutions have focused on how to make terms more salient or easier to assimilate. I argue that the focus on salience is not only futile but misleading. Promulgating a policy by contract lends it social or moral legitimacy, as well as a presumption of legal legitimacy. I report the results of an experimental questionnaire study designed to assess how the form of a policy — i.e., provided in standard terms or available in a non-contractual document, affects consumer behavior when there is a plausible complaint against the drafter. Subjects reported that company policies embedded in contracts were more likely to be legally enforceable, judged those policies as more fair, and reported that they would be less likely to challenge such those policies in court. Furthermore, subjects appeared to grant all but the most clearly non-contractual documents the status of contract, with all of its legal, moral, and social baggage. In the final section of the paper I consider the doctrines of assent and unconscionability in light of these results.


electronic way, information security is becoming more important in data storage and transmission. Because of widely using images in industrial process, it is important to protect the confidential image data from unauthorized access. In this paper, we analyzed current image encryption algorithms and compression is added for two of them (Mirror-like image encryption and Visual Cryptography). Implementations of these two algorithms have been realized for experimental purposes. The results of analysis are given in this paper.


Summary The Milanino is an Italian chicken breed included in a conservation project run by the University of Milan. It is characterized by good fertility, heavy body weights, high adaptation ability to adverse climate conditions, and disease resistance. Because of these characteristics, the Milanino could represent an important genetic resource for alternative production systems. This research was aimed at studying the effect of bird density on growth and slaughter performance, as well as stress response in Milanino chickens kept in outdoor pens. One hundred and sixty Milanino chickens were randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups kept at different densities (2 m2/bird and 8 m2/bird) and were slaughtered at 185 days of age. Growth and slaughter performance and stress condition were recorded. The interaction bird density * sex * age significantly affected body weight and an opposite trend was found between females and males: heavier females were found in the high-density group, while heavier males were found in the low-density group. Bird density did not affect carcass weight data. The stress marker (H/L ratio) was significantly higher in birds kept at the higher density (2 m2/bird). In conclusion, the Milanino provided satisfactory growth performance with different rearing density but the lower density, 8 m2/bird, should be preferred to minimize welfare problems for male birds.


Available-To-Promise (ATP) function is an important tool in supply chain management to enhance the responsiveness of order promising and the reliability of order fulfillment. ATP models provide responses to customer order enquiries, based on resource availability, allowing the user to determine whether they should accept the order. Currently, many of the ATP models available adopt a deterministic approach and do not address uncertainties in the manufacturing environment. In this paper, a fuzzy mathematical programming model is proposed to address the problem of order-promising under an environment of supply uncertainty. The model aims to minimize the cost of rejecting orders, failing to meet promised orders and inventory holding cost of the finished products and supply materials. In addition to order promising, the model also performs order-fulfillment and provides a master production schedule of each product and material requirement planning of each supply material over the given planning horizon. To solve the fuzzy mathematical model, an approach based on possibility and necessity theory is applied.


In order to improve the scientificity of sports action analysis, this paper constructs a sports action analysis model based on machine learning based on the greedy algorithm and the bat algorithm. According to the structural characteristics of the model, the structure of the model is reflected in the form of face order, that is, the face neighborhood structure. Moreover, this paper judges the degree of similarity between model faces through the pros and cons of the order and applies it to the structural similarity matrix between models. In addition, this paper establishes corresponding mathematical models for the shape and structure of the model and constructs the shape similarity matrix, the surface neighborhood structure similarity matrix, and the structure similarity matrix between the source model and the target model. Finally, this paper designs and implements CAD model retrieval methods based on greedy algorithm and bat algorithm and designs experiments to compare the performance of the algorithm proposed in this paper with traditional algorithms. The result of the experiment shows that the algorithm proposed in this paper has obvious advantages in sports action analysis compared with the traditional algorithm.


Inflammation is as a beneficial response to injury; on the other hand, inflammation is accounted as complex immune systems of the host against agents biologic, chemical and physical. Chronic inflammation that was produced by genetic mutations, autoimmune diseases and environments factors can increase risk of cancer. Epidemiologic studies have shown more than 25% of dead cause of cancer was inflammation. Although, today it is believed that inflammation is part of the non-specific immune response that occurs in reaction to any type of bodily injury and that the basic signs of inflammation can be explained by pain, increased blood flow, red and swelling. Acute inflammation can be produced in which under normal conditions is considered as immune reaction, if it converted to chronic inflammation can be led to cancer, CVD, lung and nervous diseases. The aim of the present minireview was to examine the evidence about inflammation and its correlation with cancer.


Apricots are a unique commodity in that they are used in four ways: for fresh markets and for canning, freezing, and drying. This article formulates a model of the demand system for this commodity and presents FIML and 2SLS estimates of the simultaneous components of the system. The empirical findings include estimates of price flexibilities and elasticities and equations that predict prices and allocations among product forms, given the annual production.


Affective computing is a branch of artificial intelligence that aims at processing and interpreting emotions. In this study, we implemented sensors/actuators into a stuffed toy mammoth, which allows the toy to have an affective and cognitive basis to its communication. The goal is for therapists to use this as a tool during their therapy sessions that work with patients with mood disorders. The toy detects emotion and provides a dialogue that would guide a session aimed at working with emotional regulation and perception. These technical capabilities are possible by employing IBM Watson's services, implemented into a Raspberry Pi Zero. In this paper, we delve into its evaluation with neurotypical adolescents, a panel of experts, and other professionals. The evaluation aims were to perform a technical and application validation for use in therapy sessions. The results of the evaluations are generally positive, with an 87% accuracy for emotion recognition, and an average usability score of 77.5 for experts (n = 5), and 64.35 for professionals (n = 23). We add to that information some of the issues encountered, its effects on applicability, and future work to be done.


Classification is the most important method to determine type of crop contained in a region for agricultural planning. There are two types of the classification. First is pixel based and the other is object based classification method. While pixel based classification methods are based on the information in each pixel, object based classification method is based on objects or image objects that formed by the combination of information from a set of similar pixels. Multispectral image contains a higher degree of spectral resolution than a panchromatic image. Panchromatic image have a higher spatial resolution than a multispectral image. Pan sharpening is a process of merging high spatial resolution panchromatic and high spectral resolution multispectral imagery to create a single high resolution color image. The aim of the study was to compare the potential classification accuracy provided by pan sharpened image. In this study, SPOT 5 image was used dated April 2013. 5m panchromatic image and 10m multispectral image are pan sharpened. Four different classification methods were investigated: maximum likelihood, decision tree, support vector machine at the pixel level and object based classification methods. SPOT 5 pan sharpened image was used to classification sun flowers and corn in a study site located at Kadirli region on Osmaniye in Turkey. The effects of pan sharpened image on classification results were also examined. Accuracy assessment showed that the object based classification resulted in the better overall accuracy values than the others. The results that indicate that these classification methods can be used for identifying sun flower and corn and estimating crop areas.


Attempts to improve survival following curative surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer are reviewed. Most of these approaches have been designed to stimulate the resistance of lung cancer patients in a non-specific fashion. Living bacteria or products of dead bacteria have been given as adjunctive treatment. Various routes have been used; oral, intradermal, subdermal, or intrapleural, with either BCG or Corynebacterium parvum. No reproducible benefit has been observed. Levamisole has not been proven to be useful. Trials have yet to be completed to confirm the use of thymosin fraction V for small cell carcinoma in improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy. A pilot trial using specific active immunotherapy is described. Prolongation of survival four years after closure of the trial in those patients immunized, compared with non-immunized patients, has prompted two further clinical trials. A small trial has confirmed the effectiveness of specific immunotherapy as adjunctive therapy for squamous cell carcinoma. A large multicenter trial in Canada and the United States should be completed and open to analysis in 1984 and may shed light on the role of tumor-associated antigens in stimulating specific resistance to lung cancer.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
Contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) has a well established place in the characterization of focal liver lesions (FLL). The aim of this paper was to evaluate the usefulness of CEUS in the assessment of liver hemangiomas.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
We included in a prospective study all the CEUS examinations performed during a 13 months period for the evaluation of de novo FLL, using a Siemens Acuson S2000™ Ultrasound System, following an intravenous bolus of 2.4 ml SonoVue® CEUS was considered conclusive for hemangioma if a typical pattern was present following contrast (centripetal fill in during the arterial phase, hyperenhanced lesion during venous and late phases).

RESULTS
During September 2009 - October 2010, 413 CEUS examinations were performed in our department for the evaluation of de novo FLL. Out of the 413 cases, based on standard ultrasound, 43 were suspected hemangiomas, 125 were uncharacteristic lesions and 245 were suspected for other types of lesions (metastases, focal nodular hyperplasias, hepatocellular carcinomas etc). Out of the 413 de novo FLL, 64 cases (15.5%) were diagnosed as hemangiomas by CEUS (typical CEUS pattern). MRI diagnosed 7 additional hemangiomas in inconclusive CEUS cases, so 90.1% (64/71) of the hemangiomas were diagnosed by CEUS alone. Out of the 125 uncharacteristic lesions on standard ultrasound, 29 cases were diagnosed after CEUS as hemangiomas. Thus, CEUS diagnosed additional 40.8% (29/71) hemangiomas as compared to standard ultrasound, without the need of more expensive imaging methods.

CONCLUSION
CEUS is a reliable method for the diagnosis of hemangiomas, also allowing a precise characterization of FLL. This method diagnosed additional 40% hemangiomas in comparison with standard ultrasound (for atypical ultrasound hemangiomas) and finally, CEUS diagnosed correctly 90% of this type of lesions, all with typical enhancement pattern according to the EFSUMB guidelines.