The facilitation of economic transactions and friendly investor environment is under-taken through effective performance of financial systems. Mobilization of savings and funding the profitable business opportunities are essential in improving the efficiency of intermediation. The study aims to evaluate the effects of nationalization and privati- zation on Indian banks. Various factors have been considered to examine the effects of privatization and nationalization, including sources of public sector inefficiency, mea- sures of firm performance, econometric issues, and the mode of privatization. The data was collected for the period of 1998 to 2016 from Indian banks. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate the financial reports of the banks selected to evaluate the efficiency of input and output variables. Positive results were observed, con- cerning the efficiency and profitability of banking industry after banks privatization. Performance of private banks has been observed effective and efficient as compared to the public sector banks. Privatization of banks must be increased and maintained to sustain the efficiency of the banks and implement strategies to maintain the assets. Future studies may recruit more appropriate sample size to evaluate the privatization and nationalization effects of Indian banking industry. Greater number of banks will provide more precise results, using data envelopment analysis.


Shallow groundwater responses to rainfall in forested headwaters can be highly variable, but their relative strengths of influences remain poorly understood. We investigated the roles of storms and landscape characteristics on short‐term, shallow groundwater responses to rainfall in forested headwater catchments. We used field observations of shallow groundwater combined with random forest modeling to identify the factors that affect shallow groundwater responses and the relative influences of key response drivers. We found that the rainfall thresholds required for groundwater responses were only met by the largest quartile of events, suggesting that most events contributed to unsaturated soil storage or were lost to evaporation. Significantly higher rainfall thresholds and longer response times for south facing catchments as opposed to north facing catchments highlighted the role of insolation in setting antecedent conditions that influenced the groundwater response. During storms, there were significantly larger increases in water table height in catchments dominated by coniferous forests compared to deciduous forests, indicating that local spatial characteristics of hillslopes could be more important factors for groundwater response than catchment wetness. The random‐forest analysis revealed that total rainfall amount had the greatest influence on most groundwater responses, but the relative influence of topography and local antecedent wetness was more pronounced as events progressed, indicating a shift in hydrological processes during different stages of the groundwater response. These results have implications for our understanding of runoff generation processes, including processes that determine hydrologic connectivity between stream and hillslopes.


Americans today find themselves mired in an era of uncertainty and frustration. The nation's safety net is pulling apart under its own weight; political compromise is viewed as a form of defeat; and our faith in the enduring concept of American exceptionalism appears increasingly outdated. But the American Age may not be ending. In The Vanishing Neighbor, Marc J. Dunkelman identifies an epochal shift in the structure of American life-a shift unnoticed by many. Routines that once put doctors and lawyers in touch with grocers and plumbers-interactions that encouraged debate and cultivated compromise-have changed dramatically since the postwar era. Both technology and the new routines of everyday life connect tight-knit circles and expand the breadth of our social landscapes, but they've sapped the commonplace, incidental interactions that for centuries have built local communities and fostered healthy debate. The disappearance of these once-central relationships-between people who are familiar but not close, or friendly but not intimate-lies at the root of America's economic woes and political gridlock. The institutions that were erected to support what Tocqueville called the "township"-that unique locus of the power of citizens-are failing because they haven't yet been molded to the realities of the new American community. It's time we moved beyond the debate over whether the changes being made to American life are good or bad and focus instead on understanding the tradeoffs. Our cities are less racially segregated than in decades past, but we've become less cognizant of what's happening in the lives of people from different economic backgrounds, education levels, or age groups. Familiar divisions have been replaced by cross-cutting networks-with profound effects for the way we resolve conflicts, spur innovation, and care for those in need. The good news is that the very transformation at the heart of our current anxiety holds the promise of more hope and prosperity than would have been possible under the old order. The Vanishing Neighbor argues persuasively that to win the future we need to adapt yesterday's institutions to the realities of the twenty-first-century American community.


Survey findings on clothing decision making and social participation of U.S. and U.K. rehabilitation clients and the role of clothing in the rehabilitation process of persons with disabilities are discussed. Eight clothing purchase decision variables (CPDV) were rated and ranked according to their importance. Tukey's multiple comparison results confirmed a complex clothing purchase decision-making process for both U.S. and U.K. clients, while ANOVA results indicated a cultural influence on CPDV. Pearson correlation coefficients suggested some empirical relationships between 7 CPDV and the level of participation in 10 social activities. Policy implications of these findings and the role of clothing in the rehabilitation process are presented. Clothing and socialization represent unique and important factors in the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. The goal of rehabilitation is to maximize a client's potential by restoring persons with disabilities to the highest physical, emotional, social, and economic level (Bricker, 1958), and clothing can play an important part in this process. It can enable persons with disabilities to be more successful in their rehabilitation by helping establish a positive self-image (Newton, 1976), and facilitating communication during social interaction (Roach-Higgins & Eicher, 1992). The role of clothing in the socialization of persons with disabilities needs to be emphasized because clothing can help in the socialization phase of their rehabilitation (Yep & Yep, 1976) and leisure activities, which are social in nature, can be used to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities (Beck-Ford & Fox-Smith, 1986). The philosophy of normalization (Wolfensberger, 1972), suggests that persons with disabilities be integrated physically and socially with their peers who are not disabled (Schleien & Ray, 1988). Since appearance is what is presented to others in social situations (Lamb, 1991), normative dress may enhance social participation (Kaiser, Freeman, & Wingate 1985). Appropriate appearance can lead to a positive self-image and greater integration into society during work and social activities (Guthrie, 1992). For many persons with disabilities, participation in leisure pursuits may produce a higher performance level in a variety of activities leading to a more positive self-concept, a gain in social skills, and acceptance by other members of society (Bender, Brannan, & Verhoven, 1984). The physical and functional aspects of integration, however, may be achieved more readily than social integration as suggested by a study of deinstitutionalization in Sweden (Pedlar, 1990). A great deal has been written on the effects of physical attractiveness, i.e., the body, on person perception and social interaction (Berscheid & Walster, 1974; Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986). Positive responses are generated if a person is perceived to be physically attractive, while negative responses are generated if a person is perceived as physically unattractive. Bardock and McAndrew (1985) found that physically attractive and appropriately dressed individuals were more likely to be hired than unattractive and inappropriately dressed individuals, while Lennon (1990) found that individuals who were attractively dressed were judged to be more competent, sociable, and more desirable to work with than those who were unattractively dressed. Appropriate dress was found to affect the decision to hire a person with a physical disability (Ray, 1986). This suggests that clothing selection and coordination may be variables that can be controlled and used as self-determination tools to elicit positive responses in work and social situations for individuals with a disability. Early contributions in the area of clothing for people with disabilities in the United States (U.S.) were made by occupational and physical therapists (Hallenbeck, 1966) in their analyses of the functional aspects of dress. …


OBJECTIVE
To determine the variables associated with prognosis for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) in mechanically ventilated patients.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study with retrospective analysis.

LOCATION
361 Intensive Care Units (ICU) in 20 countries.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
There were included in the study 522 patients who required mechanical ventilation for more than 12 hours due to an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). In order to determine those variables associated with mortality, there was performed a recursive partition analysis in which the following variables were included: demographics, arterial blood gas prior to intubation, complications arising during mechanical ventilation (barotrauma, acute respiratory distress syndrome, ventilator-associated pneumonia, sepsis), organ dysfunction (cardiovascular, renal, liver, coagulation) and duration of ventilatory support.

INTERVENTIONS
None. VARIABLES OF PRIME IMPORTANCE: ICU mortality.

RESULTS
ICU and hospital mortality rates were 22% and 30%, respectively. Variables associated with mortality were cardiovascular dysfunction, renal dysfunction and duration of ventilatory support > 18 days. Median durations were as follows: mechanical ventilatory support, 4 days (P25: 2, P75: 6); weaning from ventilatory support, 2 days (P25: 1, P75: 5); stay in intensive care unit, 8 days (P25: 5, P75: 13); stay in hospital, 17 days (P25: 10, P75: 27).

CONCLUSIONS
Mortality in the studied cohort of patients with AECOPD was associated with cardiovascular dysfunction, renal dysfunction and prolonged mechanical support.


Abstract:China's "one country, two systems" model elaborated in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the 1990 Hong Kong Basic Law promise Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, universal suffrage, human rights and the rule of law. The June 2014 Chinese White Paper on the "one country, two systems" model and the August 2014 NPC Standing Committee decision on democratic development undermined both the rule of law and Hong Kong's democratic development. This essay argues Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" model is broken. A high degree of autonomy and the rule of law can no longer be maintained without democracy.


Understanding the Industrial Revolution is a fresh, new exploration of this economic phenomenon of major importance. It describes theories of economic growth, shows how these can be applied to the revolution and discusses them in the light of modern research. Furthermore, it places the debate surrounding the social effects of industrialisation into the context of economic change during the period. This book includes discussion of: * theories on the supply of capital * role of labour * innovation and entrepreneurship * the significance of transport * the impact of industrialisation on living standards. Each aspect of the Industrial Revolution in Britain is discussed in depth, focusing on the important debates and reviewing the most recent research.


A vocal group of geologists and other scientists are pushing to define a new geological epoch, marked by climatic and environmental change caused by humans. At the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Honolulu, archaeologists argued that it9s high time for their field, which studies humans and their activities over geological time, to have a greater voice in the debate. The archaeologists agreed that human impacts on the Earth are dramatic enough to merit a new epoch name—but they also argued that such an epoch should start thousands of years ago, rather than focusing on a relatively sudden planetwide change.


In recent years, there has been revival of nuclear power generation across the world, which has been referred to as the Nuclear Power Renaissance. In East Asia, not only are there already 90 nuclear power plants operating in Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, but emerging countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand are also pushing ahead with plans to introduce nuclear power generation in the next seven to 13 years. Nuclear power-related policies have been emerging as an issue that should be handled from a panoramic perspective, running from an introductory phase to safety regulations after operation both domestically and worldwide. Under these circumstances, nuclear-related international policy cooperation is rapidly advancing on various levels, including international organizational, sub-global or regional, and bilateral levels. This study reviews the growing shift in favor of introducing nuclear power generation in section one. With a focus on East Asia, section two clarifies the history of Japan's nuclear energy policy and policy cooperation with neighboring countries from the 1950s to the present, as well as the ways in which the region has been affected by international arguments on nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear power safety. Based on the above, the possibility of future policy cooperation in nuclear power generation in East Asia and the role of Japan are considered in section three.


This article provides a series of critical reflections on my recent encounters with the spaces and bodies of tourist Appalachia. As both researcher and returnee, I look back on various qualitative research activities that have brought me back home to the Appalachian tourist destination of Sevier County, Tennessee. In so doing, I also outline (1) the market transformations that have come to shape the present-day Appalachian tourist economy—and the bodies working within it, (2) the ways in which active and symbolic forms of hillbilly embodiment produce not only local identities but the very "tourist gaze" upon which those bodies are often fixed and thus made marketable, and (3) my struggles as a critical qualitative researcher-returnee to come to terms with these corporeal-commercial projections. I end with a discussion on how my researcher-hillbilly body is negotiated, complicated, and [re]made as I return to spaces of my youth.


A classical result of J\o rgensen and Thurston shows that the set of volumes of finite volume complete hyperbolic $3$-manifolds is a well-ordered subset of the real numbers of order type~$\omega^\omega$; moreover, each volume can only be attained by finitely many isometry types of hyperbolic $3$-manifolds. Fujiwara and Sela established a group-theoretic companion of this result: If $\Gamma$ is a non-elementary hyperbolic group, then the set of exponential growth rates of~$\Gamma$ is well-ordered, the order type is at least~$\omega^\omega$, and each growth rate can only be attained by finitely many finite generating sets (up to automorphisms). In this talk, we outline this work of Fujiwara and Sela and discuss related results.


The issues around use of literature in theory construction are often a source of confusion, especially for novice researchers. The very nature of the process of theory construction remains blurred due to lack of consensus among researchers. Novice researchers are often confronted with questions of whether or not a literature review should be conducted when constructing a theory. These questions seeking to justify what a credible methodology is when constructing a theory not only challenge novice researchers but also experienced researchers. This article explores different perspectives regarding the significance of literature review in theory construction. A selective literature review was used to access and interrogate selected arguments from published peer-reviewed work. Narrative analysis was used to analyse selected text. It is concluded that literature plays a pivotal role in theory construction, whether by active review in the case of novice researchers or being sensitised by virtue of discipline interest and prolonged exposure in experienced researchers. However, it is important not to disregard the view that it is not necessary to incorporate literature review in certain specific designs due to assumed influence on the outcome of the new theory.


We present an experimental demonstration of the spectral interference phenomenon, using a spectrally broad white-light source in a Michelson interferometer configuration. We also present a theoretical analysis of the spectral interference law for the general case of amplitude-division interferometers. When a dispersive medium is introduced into one of the arms of the interferometer, the spectral interference pattern changes drastically, with a change in the frequency modulation corresponding to the dispersive nature of the medium. A zero-order fringe appears at a wavelength where the net path difference between the two arms of the interferometer is zero. We relate the thickness of the dispersive medium to the width of the zero-order fringe. From the experimental data over the entire visible region of the spectrum we obtain the refractive index n(λ) and the thickness t of the dispersive medium, calculated to an accuracy of the order of 10−5.


this study sought to promote increased understanding of teachers' personal beliefs and philosophies about teaching and learning and the impact of these beliefs and philosophies on action in the classroom. Subjects were 17 elementary school regular and special education teachers who participated in an inservice course, videotaped themselves teaching before and after the course, and wrote reactions to the videotapes. The inservice workshops were based on socio-constructivist principles concerning the role of interaction and reflection in the learning of teachers. The paper discusses inconsistencies between the teachers' statements about how they felt about the experience and the actions they took in response to the experience. Teachers indicated that the workshops had not constituted a learning experience for them, but they described changes in the way they did things in the classroom as a result of participation. Pre/post-workshop questionnaires revealed changes in the way the teachers conceptualized discussion in the classroom, the importance of interaction, and their understanding of the term "scaffolding." The teachers are characterized as pragmatic skeptics who were concerned about how change would affect their students. Implications for promoting reflection and implementing staff development are discussed. (Contains 55 references.) (JDD) ******************************************************************-4** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************************************


This paper pleas for adopting a differentiated perspective on the current controversy over "Asian Values" and democracy. It presents a comparative analysis of the political systems of Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and depicts these polities as structurally similar cooptative systems which are undemocratic since they keep the given power structure in place by preventing opposition parties from ever being elected. In the light of their particular context, however, a more ambivalent picture emerges. Considering the contingent set of historic, ethnic and socioeconomic circumstances at work in the evolution of these systems, their performance in safeguarding public order and in providing economic prosperity has to be recognized. While an institutional analysis of the "Asian values" discourse can demonstrate the political character of cultural definition and distinction and can likewise avoid an essentialist interpretation, a tentative discussion of the prospects for democratization with emphasis on the emerging middle-classes draws a pessimistic picture for future democratization.


Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a polymer used to restore tissues or regenerate bones. However, its compatibility with human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has not been examined. PHB membranes of random (r-PHB) or aligned (a-PHB) electrospun nanofibers that generate bone and spinal axon scaffolds were combined with human MSCs. The adhesion and proliferation of cells on these membranes were examined. The orientation of cells on PHB membranes was analyzed by confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The MSCs maintained their characteristic properties on the membranes, adhered to the membranes, and preserved their viability. The cell morphology was different when they were grown on differentially designed matrices. Cells expanded on the a-PHB membrane and showed fibroid-like morphology. Conversely, cells interacting with the r-PHB membrane were located homogeneously and demonstrated polygonal morphology. The adhesion and proliferation of human MSCs was higher on the a-PHB membrane than on the randomly oriented one. Fiber orientation influenced the phenotype and biological behavior of human MSCs. This property may be useful in the selection of specifically designed scaffolds for the desired tasks. The results of this preliminary study indicated that PHB membranes designed for bone or nerve tissue engineering are compatible with human MSCs.


A nonlinear guiding center (NLGC) theory for diffusion of charged particles perpendicular to the mean magnetic field was recently proposed. Here, we draw attention to a number of attractive features of this theory: (1) The theory provides a natural mechanism to connect the perpendicular mean free path with the parallel mean free path. In fact, the parallel mean free path is the only particle property required to determine uniquely the perpendicular mean free path. (2) Under a broad range of conditions, the theory predicts that the perpendicular mean free path will be of order one percent or a few percent of the parallel mean free path, in agreement with numerical simulations of particle transport. (3) For conditions representative of the inner heliosphere, the theory predicts values of the perpendicular mean free path in agreement with observational determinations from Jovian electrons and from modeling Ulysses observations of Galactic protons.


The CMS experiment at the LHC is designed to study a wide range of high energy physics phenomena. It employs a large all-silicon tracker within a 3.8 T magnetic solenoid, which in particular allows precise measurements of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) and vertex position.

This tracking detector will be upgraded to coincide with the installation of the High-Luminosity LHC, which will provide a luminosity up to about $7.5 \times 10^{34}\,\mathrm{cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$ to CMS, or 200 collisions per 25 ns bunch crossing. This new tracker must maintain the nominal physics performance in this more challenging environment. Novel tracking modules that utilize closely spaced silicon sensors to discriminate on track $p_\mathrm{T}$ have been developed that will allow the readout of only hits compatible with $p_\mathrm{T}$$>$2-3 GeV tracks to off-detector trigger electronics. This will allow the use of tracking information at the Level-1 trigger of the experiment, a requirement to keep the Level-1 triggering rate below the 750 kHz target, while maintaining physics sensitivity.

This article presents a concept for an all FPGA based track finder using a time-multiplexed architecture. Hardware demonstrators have been assembled to prove the feasibility and capability of such a system. The performance for a variety of physics scenarios is discussed, as well as the proposed scaling of the demonstrators to the final system and new technologies.


This article tracks the engagement of several twentieth-century writers with a line from Aimé Césaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Journal of a Homecoming): "et il est place pour tous au rendez-vous de la conquête" (and there is room for all at the appointed place of conquest; translated by C. L. R. James as "there is a place for all at the rendezvous of victory"). This line came to define an ethics and an aesthetics for the cultural movement that ensued in the wake of the Bandung conference, which brought together heads of state from the third world in pursuit of national independence. In the critical commentaries and artistic engagements with Césaire's work by James, Frantz Fanon, Nadine Gordimer, and Edward Said, a form of internationalism emerged that was sustained by a common investment in this poetic image. These writers weren't bound by an identity of interest, however, but rather by the displacements to which they subjected Césaire's poem through their linguistic, generic, affective, and semantic translations. The essay concludes that Bandung humanism supposed a contingent and revisable understanding of the human and promoted an aesthetic of reworking rather than timeless forms.


Despite its economic significance, competition law still remains fragmented, lacking an international framework allowing for dispute settlement. This, together with the growing importance of non-free-market economies in world trade require us to re-consider and re-evaluate the possibilities of bringing an antitrust suit against a foreign state. If the level playing field on the global marketplace is to be achieved, the possibility of hiding behind the bulwark of state sovereignty should be minimised. States should not be free to act in an anti-competitive way, but at present the legal framework seems ill-equipped to handle such challenges. This paper deals with the defences available in litigation concerning transnational anti-competitive agreements involving or implicating foreign states. Four important legal doctrines are analysed: non-justiciability (political question doctrine), state immunity, act of state doctrine and foreign state compulsion. The paper addresses also the general problem of applicability of competition laws to a foreign state as such. This is a tale about repetitive unsuccessful efforts to sue OPEC and recent attempts in the US to deal with export cartels of Chinese state-owned enterprises.


The Burmese refugee/migrant community on the Thai-Burmese border figures prominently among "refugee diasporas" in the world today. This article describes efforts of Burmese people within this community to provide basic education to their youth in extra-legal migrant schools in the midst of the unwelcoming environment created by the Thai government's refugee policy. It argues that this community needs greater support than it is currently receiving in order to achieve recognition and security given the impossibility of safe and voluntary repatriation to Myanmar in the foreseeable future. The article closes with a number of specific proposals for facilitating the delivery of education to Burmese "migrant" youth in the Burmese community in Thailand through intervention by both state and nonstate actors.


Abstract Governments support clean technologies to advance both environmental goals and national competitiveness. By adopting environmental policies early on, governments are argued to create durable competitive advantages for domestic companies that develop clean technologies for export to late adopters. This paper argues that policy competition between lead and follower markets conditions the ability of governments to create durable competitive advantages in low-carbon technologies. Depending on the complexity of the technology, we observe two patterns of green industrial policy competition. In low-complexity technologies, such as solar photovoltaics, follower markets are likely to adopt policies that support manufacturing capacity to rapidly achieve price advantages from economies of scale, with global supply chains intensifying this competition ("scaling up"). In high-complexity technologies, such as electric vehicles, follower markets are likely to adopt policies that support research and development to develop differentiated high-tech products for export ("innovating up"). We also suggest that new forms of interdependence in policy competition can affect the political sustainability of lead market policies. Competition in scaling-up is more likely to undermine political coalitions in favor of government support for low-carbon technologies, while innovating-up dynamics embed political coalitions that support lead market policies for low-carbon technologies.


Introduction The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) program that provides data on occupational wages. An investigation by Casady, Dorfman, and Wang 1996 (CDW) suggested that the standard 95% confidence intervals (C.I.) for domain means or totals, when based on the standard normal distribution and standard methods of variance estimation, tend to yield less than the actual 95% coverage. The estimation of means or totals within an occupation is a case of domain estimation presented in Cochran (1977, pg. 34) since the observations in the sample falling within a specified occupation are not known prior to sampling. Even though the sample size is large enough to support standard normal estimations, the individual occupations can be represented by a small number of establishments. CDW presented new nonstandard methods that offer an improvement, giving intervals with more accurate coverage, typically at or close to the nominal 95% coverage. These intervals tend to be longer than the standard intervals and depend on the use of a tstatistic having degrees of freedom dependent on the available domain data. The increase in length will vary with domain, and will depend on the particular method for C.I. construction that is used. In Harpenau, Coleman, Lincoln (HCL 1995) this was shown to be true for data from the Occupational Compensation Survey Program (OCSP). We modified this method to make it suitable to the multi-stage design of the NCS. Using NCS data, an artificial sampling frame was created and simulated samples were selected. The standard normal confidence intervals were compared to confidence intervals using the t-distribution with weighted degrees of freedom for estimates of means and quantiles. Coverage properties for confidence intervals using the non-standard approach were found to be superior to the standard normal approach.


The overarching vision of social machines is to facilitate social processes by having computers provide administrative support. We conceive of a social machine as a sociotechnical system (STS): a software-supported system in which autonomous principals such as humans and organizations interact to exchange information and services. Existing approaches for social machines emphasize the technical aspects and inadequately support the meanings of social processes, leaving them informally realized in human interactions. We posit that a fundamental rethinking is needed to incorporate accountability, essential for addressing the openness of the Web and the autonomy of its principals. We introduce Interaction-Oriented Software Engineering (IOSE) as a paradigm expressly suited to capturing the social basis of STSs. Motivated by promoting openness and autonomy, IOSE focuses not on implementation but on social protocols, specifying how social relationships, characterizing the accountability of the concerned parties, progress as they interact. Motivated by providing computational support, IOSE adopts the accountability representation to capture the meaning of a social machine's states and transitions. We demonstrate IOSE via examples drawn from healthcare. We reinterpret the classical software engineering (SE) principles for the STS setting and show how IOSE is better suited than traditional software engineering for supporting social processes. The contribution of this paper is a new paradigm for STSs, evaluated via conceptual analysis.


InAsSb/InAsSbP double heterostructure diode lasers for the spectral range of 3.3 μm grown by liquid phase epitaxy have been investigated. Emission spectra, far–field patterns and wavelength tuning versus current have been studied in the wide current range from threshold value Ith up to 3Ith at the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Controlled by current, wavelength tuning in single–mode lasing has been obtained both towards the shorter wavelengths (up to 4.56 cm−1) and towards the longer wavelengths (up to 0.9 cm−1) at the temperature T = 77 K. Comparison of the emission properties of the lasers, driven by different types of current (short pulse current, sawtooth pulse current and in quasi–continuous–wave (CW) regime) showed the same quantum–mechanical nature of current tuning. The theoretical model of this nonlinear optical phenomenon is proposed. The estimated times of current tuning defined mainly by the photon lifetime in the cavity are ca. 10−9 to 10−12 s.


Divided power systems, such as the United States, the European Union, and the Federal Republic of Germany, confront a common question: whether the central government may "commandeer" its component States, that is, whether the central government may issue binding commands that force its component States to take regulatory action with respect to private parties. This Article explores what may initially appear as a puzzling difference in the answers given. Whereas U.S. constitutional jurisprudence currently prohibits commandeering, the founding charters of the EU and Germany permit such action. This Article responds in part to Justice Breyer's dissent in Printz v. United States, 521 US 898 (1997), in which he seeks to draw on the European experience as an example of how "commandeering" may further the integrity of subnational units of governance and, ultimately, promote individual liberty. Taking up Justice Breyer's comparative inquiry, this Article seeks (1) to illustrate that comparative investigations into foreign constitutional systems may assist in developing a richer understanding of one's own, and (2) to demonstrate that any conclusion derived from such comparisons must be highly attentive to the broader institutional and political context in which the studied phenomenon (such as commandeering) occurs. The piece examines several differences that may account for differing component State preferences regarding commandeering in the various systems (most prominently, the corporate representation of the component State within the central lawmaking bodies, the relative completeness and effectiveness of the central and component State systems, and the prominent alternatives to commandeering). It then illustrates the dynamic of these institutional arrangements by way of the German example, and finally touches upon general considerations regarding the relative merits of the distribution of power in the various systems. The Article concludes that the radically different views regarding commandeering in the various systems may be somewhat less puzzling after the more searching examination of the institutional dynamics presented in this piece.


Higher education is integral to the professionalisation of financial planning in Australia. However, the traditional separation between 'content' and 'practice' in tertiary curriculum does not necessarily equip students with the skills required to apply the content in a professional context. Contexualisation of the financial planning curriculum requires collaboration between higher education institutions and the profession to develop authentic learning environments, such as work-integrated learning (WIL). This paper describes the collaboration by one Australian university to develop a professionally integrated Financial Planning and Accounting degree and provides evidence of its impact from an industry perspective. The results reveal a high level of industry satisfaction with the degree, substantial professional integration, as well as the development of students' professional skills. Students also developed an improved impression of the university, its students and its staff.


In this paper, we present an automated learning environment for developing control policies directly on the hardware of a modular legged robot. This environment facilitates the reinforcement learning process by computing the rewards using a vision-based tracking system and relocating the robot to the initial position using a resetting mechanism. We employ two state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms, Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO) and Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), to train neural network policies for simple rowing and crawling motions. Using the developed environment, we demonstrate both learning algorithms can effectively learn policies for simple locomotion skills on highly stochastic hardware and environments. We further expedite learning by transferring policies learned on a single legged configuration to multi-legged ones.


Summary: The molecular imprinting technique was used for chiral resolution of phenylalanine (Phe). The template was introduced during polymerization and removed after polymerization by leaving imprinted cavities in the polymer matrix correspondence to template. The D-Phe imprinted membrane selectively adsorbed D-Phe, facilitated permeation of D-Phe and rejected L-Phe. These results are evidence of the availability of the chiral environment in the membrane. The membrane was found to be pH sensitive, with 0.30 rejection selectivity, 2.40 adsorption selectivity and 2.03 permselectivity being achieved at pH-2. FT-IR and FE-SEM analyses revealed that the membrane was nano-porous and very thin.


Four species of Gobiidae have at various times been accredited
to Tasmania. It cannot be said, however, that our knowledge of
the members of the family occurring in our waters at present rests
on a very satisfactory footing. In the present paper, the more
precise scope and conclusions of which are summarized in the concluding
paragraph, some notes on the recorded forms are given,
and a new genus is described.
Registration numbers are those of the Queen Victoria Museum,
Launceston.


The amyloid beta peptide (A beta P) is a small fragment of the much larger, broadly distributed amyloid precursor protein (APP). Abundant A beta P deposition in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease suggests that altered APP processing may represent a key pathogenic event. Direct protein structural analyses showed that constitutive processing in human embryonic kidney 293 cells cleaves APP in the interior of the A beta P, thus preventing A beta P deposition. A deficiency of this processing event may ultimately prove to be the etiological event in Alzheimer's disease that gives rise to senile plaque formation.


The massive deployment of Small Cells (SCs) is increasingly being adopted by mobile operators to face the exponentially growing traffic demand. Using the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band in the access and backhaul networks will be key to provide the capacity that meets such demand. However, dimensioning and planning have become complex tasks, because the capacity requirements for mmWave links can significantly vary with the SC location. In this work, we address the problem of SC planning considering the backhaul constraints, assuming that a line-of-sight (LOS) between the nodes is required to reliably support the traffic demand. Such a LOS condition reduces the set of potential site locations. Simulation results show that, under certain conditions, the proposed algorithm is effective in finding solutions and strongly efficient in computational cost when compared to exhaustive search approaches.


Abstract. The potential danger caused by glacier margin lakes and the related risk of glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF) increases constantly due to glaciers retreating in many parts of the world. Reasons for this development are on the one hand the new formation and enlargement of glacier margin lakes due to melt water. On the other hand, retreating and thinning glacier tongues lead to a decrease of the back pressure against the dammed glacier lakes. The paper describes the design of a photogrammetric GLOF monitoring system, based on monoscopic image sequence analysis for automatic detection of water level changes. The presented approach for measuring the water line in an image sequence is based on directional edge detection in LoG-filtered image data. After that, the water level is determined by a transformation of image measurements into object space based on orientation parameters of the camera and a geo-referenced lake basin model. The model can for instance be determined by photogrammetric methods after a GLOF; it may also be determined portion-wise by analysing shore lines at various water levels. Camera orientation parameters are determined by a local GPS-supported photogrammetric network. Comparing the determined water level changes with reference data provided by a water gauge, the precision is estimated in the order of one decimetre. A major challenge is the automatic detection of the water line in image sequences under varying light and visibility conditions. The paper will also discuss promising approaches such as multispectral images as well as a statistical analysis of grey value changes over short image sequences to eliminate disturbing reflections on the rough water surface.


Fuel-economy standards for new vehicles are a primary policy instrument in many countries to reduce the carbon footprint of the transportation sector. These standards have many channels of costs and benefit, impacting sales, composition, vehicle attributes, miles traveled and externalities in the new-car fleet, as well as the composition and size of the used fleet. We develop a tractable analytical framework to examine the welfare effects of fuel-economy standards, and apply it to the recent government proposal to roll back fuel-economy standards. We find that our combined, multi-market vehicle choice model implies that the proposal would increase the size of the vehicle fleet over time, and also generates smaller welfare gains than models with a less rich structure of the vehicle market, such as the one used in the analysis associated with the 2018 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announcement. The disparities across the two models appear to result from the absence of feedback effects in the NPRM analysis. We stress the importance of instead using a multi-market vehicle choice model to provide the most accurate predictions of costs and benefits. We also derive bounds that can serve as a check on the theoretical consistency of such analyses, and that offer insights into the magnitudes of potential errors resulting from imperfect multi-market integration. Antonio M. Bento Sol Price School of Public Policy and Department of Economics University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Mark R. Jacobsen Department of Economics, 0508 University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Christopher R. Knittel MIT Sloan School of Management 100 Main Street, E62-513 Cambridge, MA 02142 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com Arthur A. van Benthem The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania 327 Vance Hall 3733 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 and NBER firstname.lastname@example.com


Abstract. Increase in the number of satellites and the utilization of digital cameras in the aerial photography has spread the use of satellite image and oriented aerial photograph as real or near-real time resolution, accessible, cost effective spatial data. Co-registered images or aerial photos corrected for the height variations and orthogonality (scale) have become an essential input for geographical information systems and spatial decision making due to their integration with the other spatial data. Beyond that, images and photographs compose infrastructure for the other information in usage of spatial data with the help of the access and query facility web providing. Although the issue of the aerial photo ortho-rectification has been solved long ago, the problems related with the storage of huge amount of photos and images, their management, processes, and user accesses have been raised. These subjects concern the multitudinous private and governmental institutes. Some governmental organizations and private companies have gained the technical ability to perform these works in recent times. This situation has lead to significant increase in the amount of aerial photograph taking and processing in one year for whole country. General Command of Mapping has been using digital aerial camera since 2008 for the photograph taking. The total area covered by the satellite images, purchased for different purposes, and the aerial photographs, taken for some revision purposes or demands of governmental and private institutes, has reached up to 200.000 km². It is considered that, colored and high resolution orthophotos of the whole country can be achieved within four years; provided that the annual production would continue similarly without any increase in amount. From the numbers given above, it is clear and inevitable that the orthophoto production procedure must be improved in order to produce orthophotos in the same year just after the photograph takings. Necessary studies about the storage, management and presentation of the huge amounts of orthophoto images to the users must be started immediately. In this study; metadata components of the produced orthophotos compatible with the international standards have been defined, a relational database has been created to keep complete and accurate metadata, and a user interface has been developed to insert the metadata into the database. Through the developed software, some extra time has been saved while creating and querying the metadata.


Performing daily life activities can be more challenging as a result of peripheral neuropathy in the feet and can lead to an increased risk of falls and injuries. Biofeedback, in the form of electrocutaneous stimulation, can be used as a means to transmit information about the force and pressure applied to the feet, and this can help people determine their body position in relation to the ground and the amount of sway movements. The motivation for the present work was to explore whether a wearable electrotactile feedback system (EFS) could improve life quality by supporting people with balance instability as a result of this condition. In this study a wearable EFS was designed to estimate the magnitude of pressure applied to the feet during standing and walking. The study also aimed to determine whether the EFS had an effect on posture control in standing and confidence in walking among individuals suffering from peripheral neuropathy. A wearable EFS has been developed in this work including the hardware design for an electrocutaneous stimulation and a processing unit to compute the sensor data. The EFS uses a sensor system with piezoresitive force sensors that has been developed and tested beforehand. The proposed system considers aspects of safety and portability, as well as meeting individual parameters. The latter one was assured by implementing and testing a novel calibration method for the detection of sensory thresholds and device parameters. A software for magnitude estimation and force and pressure feedback based on the centre of pressure (COP) movement was programmed and a psychophysical transfer function involving sensory thresholds and sensor system variables was implemented. A pilot study with 11 participants was carried out to evaluate the suitability of the EFS for magnitude estimation. Magnitude estimation with the EFS showed high accuracy and sensitivity and it was found that the design proposed in this work is beneficial over other solutions. The upper leg was identified as a suitable location for electrotactile feedback. A proof of concept study was undertaken among 14 individuals suffering with peripheral neuropathy and five controls in a clinical environment, testing the effects of the EFS on balancing and walking in different scenarios. It was shown that, when used by patients with neuropathy, the EFS helped improving posture control in certain scenarios and did not hinder patients during walking. A longer learning period might be necessary so that users can fully benefit from the EFS. The findings of the study contribute to the understanding of electrotactile feedback and are valuable for further developments of wearable EFS to compensate for sensory impairment and improve activities of daily life for people with sensation loss in their feet.


This thesis is a study of a penal experiment in Ireland which involved an innovative architectural design and a new regime aimed at addressing the specific needs of incarcerated female offenders. The underlying intention was to create an environment where women would have a level of autonomy that encouraged them to take greater responsibility for their own lives. The change highlighted the inherent tension between the concept of self-determination and the needs of security and control within a setting of captivity. The focus of the study was to discover how the prisoners coped with their new conditions and how the officers reconciled the conflicting demands of the new regime with their more traditional role of discipline and control. Through a series of observations and interviews over a period of 30 months, the evolution of the experiment was tracked, from an initial period of turmoil and uncertainty created by the move, through a gradual period of adjustment to a state of equilibrium. The study revealed that despite initial setbacks, many of the ideals underlying the philosophy were realised. The main contributing factors included, enlightened and consistent leadership and the continuity of senior staff; an absence of major crises; a willingness to take risks by experimenting with new initiatives; the relative autonomy of the prison and its freedom from political or overly sensational media interference; physical conditions which facilitated informality and fostered amicable relationships among the prisoners and between the prisoners and the staff and the provision of a variety of programmes tailored to individual needs rather than treating the women as a homogeneous group. These findings contrasted with the outcomes of many other penal experiments and provide an encouraging example of how sustained commitment to an ideal can provide some level of success in an otherwise rather bleak picture of incarceration at the beginning of the 21st century.


Lithological heterogeneities in a rock series deformed by the development of a fold-and-thrust belt (FTB) affects the pattern of the resulting structures. We present a series of analogue experiments to determine the effect caused on the deformation pattern of a FTB by the presence of cohesive bodies, like plutons or basement blocks that oppose greater resistance than the host rocks to contractional deformation. The influence of these bodies on the deformation pattern of the FTB was studied by incorporating discordant bodies with different cohesions within a stratified granular sequence with negligible cohesion. We describe two sets of experiments in which the inserted body presents low (Co1) and high (Co2) cohesion respectively. The experiments show a tendency of the structural pattern to curve around the inserted body and to migrate towards the deformation front or the foreland, even when the cohesive body is not exposed. In the first case (Co1) the thrusts cut across the cohesive body, while in the second one (Co2) the cohesive body is not faulted, but transferred towards the deformation front along a basal detachment. Comparison of these results with natural examples at different scales shows a high degree of coincidence in the structural patterns recognized in both cases. Two of the main characteristics of these patterns are the tendency of the thrust faults traces to avoid the cohesive body and adopt the geometry of its distal edge. In order to explain curvatures in natural structural patterns in fold-and-thrust belts, we suggest consider the presence of unexposed bodies with higher strength than their environment.


In my communication I examine the significations of the term πeῖρα, which can be encountered 20 times in the One Hundred Gnostic Chapters, being the key-notion in the closing considerations of four chapters (23, 24, 31, 32). The inherent intention is to show that Diadochus invests this word with an original use: it doesn't have the usual signification of test, trial, temptation, but designates the experience acquired on different stages of climbing onto the spiritual ladder. For Plato (The Republic, Gorgias) and Aristotle (Metaphysics), it was the term ἐμπeιρία which designated the experience gained through the bodily senses, leading to a kind of knowledge acquired by practice. For Diadochus, on the contrary, πeῖρα comes to represent the experience acquired through spiritual senses. It leads to knowledge of the truth, involving the ability to discern between the causes of inner sensations, ability actualized by noetic illumination. This experience accompanies the pilgrimage of the human being towards the perfection of the resemblance to God and can become manifest as initial experience of faith (ch. 23), of immaterial sense (ch. 24), of discernment between the divine and the illusionary consolation (ch. 31, 32, 33), experience of the gnostic or of the theologian (ch. 72), experience of two desolations (ch. 87), experience of God's charity (ch. 91). The scope of my research includes also the analysis of the correlations between experience (πeῖρα) and charity (ἀγάπη), knowledge (γνῶσις) and illumination (φωτισμός).


Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola causes bacterial leaf streak in rice, a destructive disease worldwide. In this study, six putative hypothetical secreted proteins, which were absent in X. oryzae pv. oryzae, were detected from X. oryzae pv. oryzicola strain BLS256. Disruption-based mutagenesis study revealed that one of them, Xoc_15235, named as extracellular polysaccharide and virulence-related gene (epv), was required for the optimal virulence in host rice but not for the induction of a hypersensitive reaction in nonhost tobacco. Sequence analysis revealed that epv was highly conserved in Xanthomonas spp. (except X. oryzae pv. oryzae). In-frame deletion of epv in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola dramatically impaired pathogen virulence and extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) production, one of the important known virulence-associated functions in Xanthomonas spp. Quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction showed that expression of both gumB (a gene encoding exopolysaccharide xanthan biosynthesis export protein) and a known virulence-related gene, pgk (encoding phosphoglycerate kinase), were obviously reduced in the epv-deletion mutant compared with the wild-type strain Rs105. In addition, we observed that epv was positively regulated by both diffusible signal factor and global regulator Clp in X. oryzae pv. oryzicola. Taken together, the novel roles and genetics of epv of X. oryzae pv. oryzicola in the EPS production and virulence were investigated for the first time.


We present the results of a new, comprehensive investigation of the radio spectral index of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant. New data at 74 MHz are combined with data at 327 MHz, 1.5 GHz, and 5 GHz. In contrast to previous claims, little spatial variation in the spectral index is seen. In particular, between 327 MHz and 5 GHz we see no evidence of spectral steepening near the edge of the Nebula, the "jet," or the ionized filaments. The rms limits on any spectral index variations in these regions amount to no more than 0.01. We believe that earlier reports of large steepening were the result of correlator bias and image registration problems. An elongated feature was detected 1' northwest of the pulsar, which may be a continuation of the well-known wisplike structures seen closer to the center of the Nebula. At 74 MHz, we see for the first time evidence of free-free absorption by the thermal material in the Crab Nebula's filaments. Apart from some possible renewed acceleration occurring in the wisps, the dominant accelerator of relativistic electrons in the Crab Nebula is the pulsar itself.


Empirical research has consistently shown that married men have substantially higher wages, on average, than otherwise similar unmarried men. One commonly cited hypothesis to explain this pattern is that marriage allows one spouse to specialize in market production and the other to specialize in home production, enabling the former—usually the husband—to acquire more market-specific human capital and, ultimately, earn higher wages. The authors test this hypothesis using panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households. The data reveal that married men spent virtually the same amount of time on home production as did single men, albeit on different types of housework. Estimates from a fixed effects wage equation indicate that the male marriage wage premium is not substantially affected by controls for home production activities. Household specialization, the authors conclude, does not appear to have been responsible for the marriage premium in this sample.


Problem statement: The exact short transmission line model consists of the resistance and reactance. Most of previous researches study the transient stability of single machine infinite bus with neglecting the resistance of the line. Thus the simulation results may not close to the practical system. With the consideration with the actual short line model, it causes difficulty of deriving the mathematical model. Approach: This study investigates the transient stability of power system with consideration of the exact short transmission line model. The concept of two-port network is applied in this study. The generator, transformer and short transmission line are represented by a two-port. With the combination principles of the series and shunt connection, the mathematical model is achieved in a much simpler way. The proposed method is tested on the sample system and compared on various cases. Results: The first swing of rotor angle curve of the faulted system without the resistance is obviously higher than that of with the resistance whereas the second swing of the faulted system, without the resistance, is slightly less than that of with the resistance. The critical clearing time of the system with the resistance is better than that of with resistance. Conclusion: It was found in this study that the resistance of the transmission line should be included for investigating the transient stability of the power system. The resistance of the line provides the better results of the critical clearing time of the system but it provides the negative effect on damping improvement.


Light triggered thyristors (LTT) have attracted considerable attention because of their high insulation of the main circuit and the control circuit, good trigger characteristics, and high reliability. In this work, we propose and fabricate a high-power LTT with monolithic and direct-triggering structure design, triggered by infrared light with a wavelength of 940 nm. The device structure is simplified, and the step by step drive is changed to direct drive, which further improves the response speed. By improving the cathode metal structure, changing from a large area of cathode metal coverage to an interdigitated cathode structure, thus the light injection window area is increased. A reasonable cathode shorts distribution is choosed for the interdigital cathode structure to ensure [dV/dt] tolerance. The test results show that the forward repetitive peak voltages (VDRM) and reverse repetitive peak voltages (VRRM) of the device are all higher than 900V, the rise-time ($\boldsymbol{T_{rise}}$) is as short as $2.3 \mu\mathrm{s}$, the [dV/dt] tolerance is larger than $1000\ \mathrm{V}/\mu\mathrm{s}$, and the maximum optical trigger power is as low as 7 mW/cm2. This upgraded LTT will be widely used in power electronic circuits because of its excellent characteristics.


INTRODUCTION
A clinician's path to success is a clean root canal system with three dimensional seal. Mechanical instrumentation of root canals alone leaves behind a smear layer covering the dentinal walls. Instrumentation must always be supported by use of irrigants which are considered as an essential prerequisite for root canal debridement.

AIM
The aim of this in vitro study was to compare the efficacy of four irrigating solutions in removing the smear layer in primary root canals after hand instrumentation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total number of 40 human primary incisors were decoronated and split longitudinally. The specimens were divided randomly into four groups (n=10): Group I: 5.25% Sodium Hypochloride (NaOCl), Group II: 6% citric acid solution, Group III: smear clear and Group IV: 0.2% chitosan. Scanning electron microscopic analysis was performed to assess the presence or absence of smear layer at the coronal, middle and the apical portion of each canal. The data was analysed using Stastical Package For Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 Armonk, NY IBM Corp soft ware.

RESULTS
The pictures from the scanning electron microscopy showed that Group II exhibited better efficacy in removing smear layer without altering the normal dentinal structures with lowest mean scores (p<0.001) followed by Group III, Group IV and Group I. The presence of debris was more evident in the apical third rather than in the middle and the coronal part of the root canal.

CONCLUSION
A 6% citric acid removed the smear layer more efficiently than other test irrigants in primary root canals.


This report describes the work undertaken in Task 5.2 of the TRACE project. Human failures are
explained by factors characterizing the state of the system and of their interactions. A grid of factors
which could lead to these human functional failures is given along with a grid of pre-accident driving
situations. In addition to this, an overview is included of the background work undertaken to
establish a methodology for classification of these factors and situations. Factors related to the 'User',
'Vehicle' and 'Environment' are described and classifications for use at a 'descriptive', 'generic' and
'in-depth' level are determined, to allow analysis at different levels of detail of accident data. These
factors and situations will be used along with the Task 5.1 functional failures to help identify typical
failure generating scenarios in Task 5.3, and the subsequent analysis of real world accident data in
other work packages in TRACE. They will also be a useful basis for future improvements in the
collection of accident causation data, avoiding the common over simplification whereby road users
are seen as the main reason for the 'failure' in the accident scenario.


Medusa, the Gorgon who turns those who gaze upon her to stone, is one of the most popular and enduring figures of Greek mythology. Long after many other figures from Greek myth have been forgotten, she continues to live in popular culture. In this fascinating study of the legend of Medusa, Stephen R. Wilk begins by refamiliarizing readers with the story through ancient authors and classical artwork, then looks at the interpretations that have been given of the meaning of the myth through the years. A new and original interpretation of the myth is offered, based upon astronomical phenomena. The use of the gorgoneion, the Face of the Gorgon, on shields and on roofing tiles is examined in light of parallels from around the world, and a unique interpretation of the reality behind the gorgoneion is suggested. Finally, the history of the Gorgon since Classical times is explored, culminating in the modern use of Medusa as a symbol of Female Rage and Female Creativity.


Manifold-based subspace feature extraction methods have recently been deeply studied in data dimensionality reduction. Inspired by PCA Hashing (PCAH), if the Locality Preserving Projection (LPP) is directly used in the hash image retrieval, it is prone to shortcomings such as being inefficient and time-consuming. In order to address these deficiencies, this paper mainly combines Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and manifold subspace feature extraction method LPP, and we present a RLPH framework using random rotation. Among them, PCA processing solves the eigenvalue problem encountered in the calculation of LPP, thereby improving the recognition effect of the algorithm. The PCA projection needs to ensure that the variance of the sample points after projection is as large as possible. However, projections of small variance may produce unnecessary redundancy and noise. Therefore, in the subspace after the PCA projection, we only extract the eigenvectors that contain most of the information at the top of the PCA projections. Then, we utilize a random orthogonal matrix to randomly rotate and shifts the eigenvectors and the reduced-dimensional sample obtained after the top eigenvectors of the PCA projection is subjected to LPP mapping. Random rotation produces many thin projection matrices blocks that are then concatenated into one final projection matrix. Random rotation is a key step in this paper that minimizes the quantization error for codes. The proposed method greatly improves the retrieval efficiency, and extensive experiments demonstrate its effectiveness.


The sensitizing capacity of Centella asiatica (raw extract) and its triterpenic constituents asiaticoside, asiatic acid and madecassic acid has been studied in guinea pigs. The extract itself as well as the 3 acids were found to be very weak sensitizers. Centella asiatica extract is used effectively in the treatment of keloids, leg ulcers, phlebitis, slow‐healing wounds, leprosy, surgical lesions, striae distensae and cellulitis. Athough applied frequently to damaged skin, the risk of acquiring contact sensitivity to this plant or its constituents is low.


Fabrication of Mg1-XZnXFe2O4 (where x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) samples using a conventional technique is reported. Oxides of magnesium, zinc and iron with purity of about 99.99% were mixed with distilled water in a milling machine for 12 hours. They were then filtered and presintered at 1250°C and sintered at 1350°C for 10 h in air. The phase and the crystal structure of the asprepared samples were identified using X-Ray Diffraction analysis (XRD). Hysteresis graph was evaluated using Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) to get the saturation magnetization (emu g−1) and coercivity (G) value. Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was used to observe the surface morphology. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed major peak at plane (3 1 1) of the cubic structure for all the ferrites. The largest value of density achieved was 4.69 gcm−3 which was exhibited by sample with 0.5 mole fraction of zinc content. Highest saturation magnetization value (3.652emu g−1) was obtained for the 0.3 mole fraction of zinc content. A strong correlation between the saturation magnetization and zinc content was observed. We speculate that it is due to the Heisenberg superexchange interaction of magnetic Fe3+ and non-magnetic Zn2+ occupying the tetrahedral sites. The sample was used to induce electromagnetic (EM) waves in high operating frequency (5 MHz).


In recent decades there has been a dramatic transformation around the Pacific Rim. No longer 'the Far East' - that exotic, mysterious land at the distant fringe of Western consciousness - East Asia today commands the attention of the entire world. In East Asia, Arthur Cotterell condenses into a compact, highly readable book an immense amount of historical knowledge, placing this amazing economic development in its proper perspective - an Asian one. Cotterell ranges from the dawn of Chinese civilization to Japan's emergence as the first East Asian nation to develop an industrial economy. And he brings his history up to the present, examining America's setbacks in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Japan's rise as an economic superpower, and the recent histories of countries such as reunited Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. Cotterell goes on to suggest that Japan will eventually be overtaken by its neighbours, concluding that relations between the Chinese and the Japanese will ultimately determine the future of East Asia, although over the coming decades the key Pacific partners remain China and the United States. With spectacular historical perspective, Arthur Cotterell performs an invaluable service to all those who wish to have deeper understanding of our newest, and most competitive, trading partners.


Alloimmunization to antigens of Rh blood group system is of clinical relevance during pregnancy. Despite the use of antenatal anti-D immunoglobulin prophylaxis, some proportion of RhD-negative pregnant women still become immunized. RhD-negative pregnant women with a heterozygous partner can be reassured and managed less intensively if RhD-negative status of the fetus was confirmed. The conventional techniques used for prenatal testing of fetal RhD status are mainly invasive such as chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis and cordocentesis, and carry risk of transplacental hemorrhage and pregnancy loss. The discovery of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal plasma in 1997 has opened up new possibilities for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. With the use of real time polymerase chain reaction technology, circulating fetal DNA has been detected robustly in the plasma of pregnant women, even in the first trimester of pregnancy. Various assays have been developed to confirm the fetal RHD status by targeting the cffDNA using a combination of multiple RHD exons. The commonly used exons are 4, 5, 7, and 10. Common causes leading to discordant results in fetal RHD typing are low fetal DNA concentration due to extraction inefficiency, lack of fetal DNA control, silent maternal RHD alleles, and manual error. False negative results can prove critical in case of alloimmunized pregnancies and hence use of appropriate controls and strict reporting criteria is important to increase the sensitivity of the assay. Owing to the wide genetic variation of the Rh blood group system, the development of fetal genotyping strategies according to ethnic origin of the patients would further increase the sensitivity. Fetal blood group genotyping by noninvasive method is safe, and numerous groups have reported fetal RHD genotyping in D-negative mothers with close to 100% accuracy. Noninvasive fetal RHD typing can be performed in RhD-negative alloimmunized and nonimmunized pregnancies to decide on clinical management and to restrict the anti-D immunoglobulin prophylaxis, respectively. Thus, the introduction of this test for screening all RHD-negative pregnant women is highly desirable.


DEF6 (Differentially Expressed in FDCP 6, also known as IBP and SLAT) is critical for the development of autoimmune disease and cancer. In T cells, DEF6 participates in TCR-mediated signalling determining T helper cell-mediated immune responses. In addition, DEF6 acts as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Rho GTPases facilitating F-actin assembly and stabilisation of the immunological synapse (IS). However, DEF6 is also a component of mRNA processing bodies (P-bodies) linking it to mRNA metabolism. DEF6 and its only relative switch-associated protein-70 (SWAP70) share a common domain structure that is highly conserved from human to trichoplax adhaerens suggesting an ancestral function that is distinct from its role in T cell immunity. To further dissect the structure-function relationship of DEF6, a comprehensive analysis of wild type and mutant DEF6 proteins expressed in either COS7 or Jurkat T cells was conducted. The results demonstrate that DEF6 can adopt multiple conformations that result in different cellular localisations and functions. Post translational modifications such as phosphorylation result in conformational change liberating functional domains that are masked in the native state of DEF6. ITK phosphorylation of Try210/222 liberates the N- terminal end and to a certain extend also the C-terminal coiled coil domain of DEF6 resulting in P-body colocalisation. In fact, the N-terminal 45 amino acids of DEF6 that forms two Ca2+-binding EF hands are sufficient to target P-bodies. The coiled coil domain in conjunction with the N-terminal end is facilitating dimerisation and oligomerisation of DEF6 likely to be essential for GEF activity which was mapped to amino acids 537-590, a region that includes the C-terminal end of the coiled coil domain. Mutant proteins that unleashed the coiled coil domain spontaneously aggregated forming large structures in the cytoplasm. These aggregates trapped proteins such as the P-body component DCP1. In some cases, aggregates appeared to function like prions enforcing conformational change onto wild type as well as mutant DEF6 proteins. Ectopically expressed DEF6 colocalised with F-actin in cell protrusions as well as with P-bodies in resting Jurkat T cells. Upon TCR-mediated activation, wild type and several mutant DEF6 proteins were recruited to the IS. However, while wild type DEF6 localised to the central supramolecular activation cluster (cSMAC), mutant DEF6 with disrupted coiled coil domain were present in the outer ring of IS suggesting that recruitment of DEF6 to the cSMAC depends upon a functional coiled coil domain. In contrast, recruitment to the IS of DEF6 that seemed to be mediated through cellular protrusion contacting the antigen presenting cell was independent of both the N-terminal end and a functional coiled coil domain. Taken together, the data presented provide evidence that DEF6 is more than a GEF linking TCR-mediated signalling with F-actin organisation and control of mRNA metabolism.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating malignancy with poor prognostic outcomes. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the development and progression of carcinogenesis. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of lncRNAs in PDAC. The aim of the current study was to find differentially expressed lncRNAs and related mRNAs in human PDAC tissues and adjacent normal tissues by microarray analysis, and investigate the relationship between lncRNA RP11-263F15.1 levels and the clinicaopathological features of PDAC patients. It was found that 4364 lncRNAs and 4862 related mRNAs were significantly dysregulated in PDAC tissues as compared with adjacent normal tissues with a fold change ≥2.0 (P<0.05). GO and pathway analyses showed that the up-regulated gene profiles were related to several pathways associated with carcinogenesis, while the down-regulated gene profiles were closely correlated with nutrient metabolism. RP11-263F15.1 levels were associated with histologic differentiation (P=0.001). Besides, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that high expression of RP11-263F15.1 was associated with poor outcomes, but multivariate analysis suggested that RP11-263F15.1 was not an independent factor for predicting prognosis of PDAC. In conclusion, these data indicate that differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were involved in the carcinogenesis of PDAC, and RP11-263F15.1 may prove to be a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognostic prediction of PDAC.


Most district general hospital (DGH) paediatricians will have referred critically ill children to a retrieval team at some point in their career. Inter-hospital transport services have developed in response to the centralisation of specialist services such as intensive care, with the aim of ensuring safe and rapid transport of sick children to tertiary centres.1–3 In many parts of the UK, retrievals are undertaken by staff despatched from the receiving intensive care unit (ICU), although dedicated regional transport teams, similar to those in North America and Australia, have also evolved recently for neonatal and paediatric transfers.4–6 Regional transport teams allow concentration of expertise and often serve as a single point of contact for immediate advice, information on an appropriate ICU bed and access to a specialist team.

Clinicians, commissioners and patients justifiably expect specialist services to deliver high quality, cost-effective care. While a number of quality indicators have been proposed for intensive care,7 there is currently no consensus on how the performance of an inter-hospital transport service can be measured. This is likely to be a significant drawback in the future. Ongoing changes in the NHS such as re-organisation of children's emergency services, implementation of the recommendations of the Darzi Next Steps Review, and proliferation of managed clinical networks are all likely to greatly increase the need for safe and efficient patient transfer between ambulatory, secondary and tertiary care settings.8–11 Payment-by-results is also likely to generate greater competition between existing NHS providers and encourage the involvement of independent sector providers in patient transport.12 The absence of agreed key performance indicators or reference values means that transport teams will be unable to measure their own performance over time and commissioners will not be able to compare services or benchmark performance, raising …


Background:
The context of the research presented in this article is the new MBChB curriculum at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that has been running since 2002. This new curriculum is PHC-driven and has an emphasis on the integration of the biological and psychosocial. This context of curriculum reform at UCT can be placed within the wider South African context in which the South African Department of Health has committed to the primary health care (PHC) approach. The aim of this research was to provide an understanding of medical students' attitudes towards the (PHC) approach. The findings presented in this article form part of a broader set of findings for a PhD research study that aimed to qualitatively explore medical students' attitudes towards and perceptions of the PHC. Methods:
A qualitative approach was taken and focus groups and interviews were conducted with second, third and fourth-year medical students from UCT. A total of eighty-two students were purposively selected to participate in this research. A content analytic approach was used to analyse the focus group and interview data.

 Results:
Students have a generally positive attitude towards the PHC approach and were positive about UCT's choice to promote this approach. Some however were concerned about the international relevance and status of their degree, and concerns were also raised about the contrast between the theory and reality of the approach, many labelling PHC as idealistic. Students' responses indicate that attitudes towards the PHC approach are open to change through the course of their academic career and are influenced by a range of factors. Some of these factors were related to the medical school environment, such as the PHC approach itself, how PHC was taught, and the views of other students and staff at UCT. Other factors that were not related to the university included personality, students' background and exposure to health facilities, and clinical exposure outside UCT.

 Conclusions:
These findings raise the question of whether students are able to think and feel positively about the PHC approach but not actually internalise the philosophy of the PHC approach. Students' struggle with the incongruence between what is perceived as the idealistic theory of PHC and the reality of health care in South Africa is also an issue that needs to be acknowledged. These issues are particularly significant in South Africa where a commitment has been made by the South African Department of Health to the PHC approach, and where doctors are set to play a vital role in the implementation and success of this approach.


ABSTRACT
Aim: Disulfiram has rare serious neurotoxicities including optic neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy and basal ganglia lesions. Since the mechanism of these toxicities is not understood, we undertook a lipidomics analysis of the effects of disulfiram on human lymphoblasts. Materials and Methods: Human lymphoblasts were incubated with disulfiram and the cellular lipidome was analyzed by ESI-high resolution mass spectrometry. Results: Disulfiram decreased the levels of a large number of glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and diacylglycerols. Conclusion: Disulfiram has dramatic effects on the levels of structural lipids in human lymphoblasts. These actions may explain the neurotoxicities of this drug in humans.


Abstract The monophyly of the trilobite Order Asaphida has been challenged. The Superfamily Remopleuridioidea was included in the Order Asaphida, based on the ventral median suture and highly bulbous protaspis of the late Furongian–Tremadocian representatives of the group. The remopleuridioid, Haniwa quadrata Kobayashi, 1933 from the Furongian (late Cambrian) Hwajeol Formation of Korea, represents a primitive morphology of the Remopleuridioidea. This trilobite does not have a typical globular morphology of asaphoid protaspis, and the free cheeks remained yoked together during the whole of the development. This supports the previous proposition that the Superfamily Remopleuridioidea should be excluded from the Order Asaphida. In addition, the evolution of a highly globular protaspis of the Ordovician remopleuridioid trilobites from the less bulbous protaspis corroborates the possibility of multiple evolutions of a highly globular protaspis. It can be argued that the possession of a highly globular protaspis does not guarantee the membership of the Order Asaphida, and thus the concept of the Order Asaphida should be emended.


Long-term vegetation dynamics in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico have been intensively studied for over a century, and interpretations of the broad scale drivers of these dynamics are numerous. We now understand that interpretation of spatially heterogeneous change requires a more nuanced, contextualized, and detailed understanding of edaphic features and landscape characteristics. Recently, state and transition models (STMs) have been employed to represent landscape-specific dynamics for each ecological site within a Major Land Resource Area (MLRA). We re-examined data characterizing vegetation across the public lands of the northern Chihuahuan Desert at two points in time, the 1930s and 2005. In this study, our objectives were to (1) develop geospatial data layers of historical and current vegetation states, (2) compare vegetation states between the 1930s and 2005 where the two data layers overlap, and (3) interpret any major vegetation state changes over this ~70 year period within the context of specific ecological sites. It was our hypothesis that ecological dynamics would vary in interpretable ways among ecological sites. Three primary observations are drawn from our results: (1) the bulk of the region was relatively stable during this period, (2) approximately the same amount of area experienced increased grass dominance as experienced increased shrub dominance, and (3) dynamics are strongly influenced by the properties of specific ecological sites. Major vegetation state changes, involving either increased grass dominance or increased shrub dominance, only occurred to any extent in 11 of 18 ecological sites within this study area. More important to management, significant increases in shrubs occurred within only four ecological sites. These sites were sandy, deep sand, shallow sandy, and gravelly sand. All other ecological sites within this region were relatively stable over the ~70 year period between observations. The obvious management implication is the importance of stratifying by ecological site prior to application of shrub control treatments. ____________________________________ In Monaco, T.A. et al. comps. 2011. Proceedings – Threats to Shrubland Ecosystem Integrity; 2010 May 18-20; Logan, UT. Natural Resources and Environmental Issues, Volume XVII. S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Natural Resources Research Library, Logan Utah, USA.


This article draws on a study designed to analyse parental expectations of the Swedish municipal school of arts (hereafter MSA) (in Swedish: kommunal musik- och kulturskola). The study is based on in-depth interviews conducted and informed by grounded theory. Although parental expectations are scarcely uniform, the study reveals a hope that the whole child will be nurtured, both musically and socially. It also transpires that parental expectations vary according to the activities offered by the particular school. The MSAs are administered and financed by the local authorities, and parents therefore expect them to be distinguished not only by their educational ambitions and the range of cultural choices available, but also by their democratic norms and values.


The goal of the area shift measurement is to find the co-ordinates (location) of the searched pattern of one two-dimensional sequence in the second twodimensional sequence. It is supposed that searched pattern is included in the searched sequence in the unknown location. As it was published in [3], it is possible to determine the area shift using either the correlation or difference method. The calculations using the definition equations of the correlation or difference method are very severe. This contribution shows how it is possible to significantly decrease needed amount of the calculation operations when appropriate characteristics of the compared twodimensional sequences are used. The method, which uses histogram comparison, allows eliminating up to 90 % of the searched patterns from the calculations that use the definition equations. The method that uses the comparison of the mean values of the searched pattern segments reaches even better results. It can eliminate up to 99.9 % of the searched patterns. Both new eliminating methods significantly contribute to acceleration of the area shift calculation.


In 1831, when Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837) asked a friend to have a St. Petersburg bookseller "send me Crabbe, Wodsworth [sic], Southey, and Schakspear [sic]" (Shaw, 2:482), he had already read Wordsworth with sympathetic comprehension, for during the previous year he had written a sonnet closely modeled on one of Wordsworth's. Pushkin's three sonnets--four, if the "Elegy" in seven rhymed iambic pentameter couplets is included--were written in 1830. Though not a line-by-line translation of Wordsworth's "Scorn not the sonnet; Critic, you have frowned," one sonnet parallels it throughout, even using the first line as a subtitle. Pushkin first encountered Wordsworth's sonnet in the pirated 1828 Paris edition of his Poetical Works published by the brothers John Anthony and William Galignani, presumably based on the first English collected edition of 1827, in which "Scorn not the Sonnet ..." first appeared. (Pushkin also had in his library the Paris editions in English of, e.g., Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats; Crabbe; Hazlitt; Washington Irving; Thomas Moore; Walter Scott; and Southey [Wolff, 495, 497, 503, 504, 510, 517, 518].) We quote Wordsworth's sonnet here from the Galignani "piracy," which Wordsworth ruefully acknowledged "is printed with admirable accuracy, I have not noticed a single error that I am not myself answerable for" (Moorman, 550 note): Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned. Mindless of its just honours;--with this Key Shakspeare unlocked his heart; the melody Of this small Lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound; A thousand times this Pipe did Tasso sound; Camoens soothed with it an Exile's grief; The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle Leaf Amid the cypress with which Dante crowned His visionary brow: a glow-worm Lamp, It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land To struggle through dark ways; and, when a damp Fell round the path of Milton. in his hand The Thing became a Trumpet; whence he blew Soul-animating strains--alas, too few! (Wordsworth, 119) In 1803, the English Annual Review had dismissed sonnets as "at best ... but stiff difficult trifles, and surely more remote from the simplicity which they often affect than any other class of poems in our language" (Havens, 521-22). In this sonnet Wordsworth refutes such critics, along with Samuel Johnson, who characterized Milton as "a genius" who "never learned the art of doing little things with grace" (Hill, 4:305). Similarly, in 1793, George Steevens rejected the sonnets from his edition of William Shakespeare because, he said, the "strongest act of Parliament that could be framed, would fail to compel readers into their service" (Havens, 480-81). And dismissing the sonnets of Edmund Spenser in 1798, Nathan Drake wrote "the critic will recognise many of the trifling conceits of the Italian, but find little to recompense the trouble of research" (Havens, 481). In "Scorn not the sonnet ..." Wordsworth regards the form as a vehicle for either public or private themes. Milton for him exemplifies the "public" sonneteer, while private themes preoccupy the other poets he lists, all of whom drew solace from the sonnet as either exiles or lovers (or both) (Johnson, 39). His omitting the great French sonnet writers, Du Bellay, Marot, or Ronsard, would be inexplicable except that, as William Hazlitt noted in The Spirit of the Age, Wordsworth "condemns all French writers (as well of poetry as prose) in the lump" (Howe, 11:93). Wordsworth himself, in his sonnet "Great men [Milton and some of his contemporaries] have been among us ...," says, ... France, "tis strange, Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then. No master spirit, no determined road; But equally a want of books and men! (De Selincourt & Darbishire, 3:116-17) Still, in his vindication of the sonnet Wordsworth marshalled a distinguished array of continental poets, Petrarch, Torquato Tasso, Camoes, and Dante, alongside the British Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton, the last revered by Wordsworth as the preeminent creator of sonnets springing from "the strife/That animates the scenes of public life" (Wordsworth, 125). …


We report the tuning of CuFeO2 photoelectrodes by Mg doping and Cu deficiency to demonstrate the effects of carrier concentration on the photoresponse. Carrier type and concentration were quantitatively assessed using the Hall effect on pure, Mg-incorporated, and Cu-deficient pellets (CuFe1−xMgxO2 and Cu1−yFeO2, x = 0, 0.0005, 0.005, 0.02, and y = 0.005, 0.02) over the range of thermodynamic stability achievable using solid-state synthesis. The same samples were used in a photoelectrochemical cell to measure their photoresponse. We find that the material with the lowest p-type carrier concentration and the highest carrier mobility shows the largest photoresponse. Furthermore, we show that increasing the p-type carrier concentration and thus the conductivity to high levels is limited by the delafossite defect chemistry, which changes the majority carrier type from p-type to n-type near the Mg solubility limit (x = 0.05) and at high Cu defect concentrations.


One of the most pressing questions with regard to climate
feedback processes in a warming Arctic is the regionalscale
greenhouse gas release from Arctic permafrost
areas. The Airborne Measurements of Methane Fluxes
(AIRMETH) campaigns are designed to quantitatively and
spatially explicitly address this question. Ground-based
eddy covariance (EC) measurements provide continuous
in-situ observations of the surface-atmosphere exchange of
energy and matter. However, these observations are rare in
the Arctic permafrost zone and site selection is bound by
logistical constraints among others. Consequently, these
observations cover only small areas that are not necessarily
representative of the region of interest. Airborne
measurements can overcome this limitation by covering
distances of hundreds of kilometres over time periods of a
few hours.
During the AIRMETH-2012 and AIRMETH-2013 campaigns
aboard the research aircraft POLAR 5 we measured turbulent
exchange fluxes of energy, methane, and (in 2013)
carbon dioxide along thousands of kilometres covering the
North Slope of Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta, Canada.
Time-frequency (wavelet) analysis, footprint modelling, and
machine learning techniques are used to extract spatially
resolved turbulence statistics and fluxes, spatially resolved
contributions of land cover and biophysical surface properties
to each flux observation, and regionally valid functional
relationships between environmental drivers and observed
fluxes that can explain spatial flux patterns and – if
available in temporal resolution – allow for spatio-temporal
scaling of the observations.
This presentation will focus on 2012 methane fluxes on the
North Slope of Alaska and the relevant processes on the
regional scale.


Natural convection flows around submerged heated cylinders have gained attention in recent years due to their use in many engineering applications such as flow around tubes and rods (as in nuclear reactors and spent fuel cooling ponds). The purpose of this paper is to establish the modelling strategy for simulating natural convection heat transfer and flow around vertically positioned cylinders submerged in a water tank heated with a constant heat flux. The simulations were conducted for cylinders having different diameters which varied from 10 mm to 165 mm. The problem involved flow transition from laminar to turbulent within the boundary layer as the maximum Rayleigh number based on the cylinder length reached a magnitude of the order of 1014. The outcomes of these calculations were validated against published experimental data. The comparisons were made in terms of heat transfer coefficient and Rayleigh number which showed good agreement between predictions and experimental results.
The predicted results showed sensitivity to various eddy viscosity models and the final results were obtained with SST model. Another important point that emerged from the study was that the specification of a suitable evaporation boundary condition at the top (water) surface was very critical. The treatment of evaporation from the top surface is discussed in detail which was also successfully incorporated in the methodology. We believe that the results obtained from our study will be useful for modelling flow in situations where a large number of heated cylinders are involved.


Background We investigated SIRT-1 genetic variant and its association with vitamin D level in Egyptian patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods Seventy Egyptian subjects were enrolled in our study and divided into two groups: RA group (n = 50 patients) and healthy control group (n = 20 subjects). Five milliliter blood sample was withdrawn from each subject followed by laboratory investigation and DNA extraction for SIRT-1 gene polymorphism assessment (rs7895833 A>G, rs7069102 C>G and rs2273773 C>T) and vitamin D level expression. Results There was statistically significant difference between rheumatoid cases and controls with regard to vitamin D level with 88% of cases showing insufficient vitamin D versus all controls showing sufficient level. SIRT-1 different SNPs rs2273773, rs7895833and rs7069102 genotype frequencies were statistically significant in RA compared to control group (P = 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between different genotypes of rs2273773, rs7895833 and rs7069102 with regard to vitamin D level. Conclusion We concluded that there is a strong association between SIRT-1 polymorphism genotyping and RA. Vitamin D level was insufficient in Egyptian patients with RA.