Abstract Background: Successful administration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) requires full adherence to the regimen by the patient. The introduction of ART needs a well-functioning health system with adequately trained health professionals, laboratory support, a constant supply of drugs and social systems to assist with patients' adherence and to prevent future treatment failure. Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore and describe the challenges experienced by nongovernmental organisations with regard to the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy. Design:A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study was conducted to determine the challenges experienced by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) with regard to the roll-out of ART in KwaZulu-Natal. Nine participants were included purposefully from the NGOs that participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. Open coding for analysis was used. Results: The findings revealed four themes: challenges relating to sustainability, adherence, health infrastructure and behaviour. Conclusion: The results indicate a need for multisectoral collaboration in the roll-out of ART to ensure a concerted, comprehensive and sustainable programme.


Background and Objective: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and polymorphous low grade adenocarcinoma (PLGA) originate from ductal and myoepithelial salivary gland cells. They have a similar histologic appearance, but with different clinical behavior, treatment and prognosis. CD117 is a tyrosine kinase that is expressed by melanocytes, mastocytes and germinal cells. Our knowledge about its expression in both mentioned tumors is controversial. Evaluation of the accuracy of CD117 in histopathologic differentiation of ACC and PLGA. Materials and Methods: The study protocol was descriptive-analytical. The histopathologic records of ACC and PLGA tumors were obtained from pathology Dept., Cancer Institute and Central pathology Dept. of Imam Khomini hospital. 15 ACC and 5 PLGA were entered the study. The formalin–fixed paraffinized blocks were examined immunohistochemically for CD117 expression. The mean LI for ACC and PLGA tumors were obtained. t test was used for statistical analysis. p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The LI mean was 71.20 ± 27.45 and 35.37±36.43 in ACC and PLGA groups respectively. The CD117 expression was statistically significant (p= 0.031). The Cut-off point = 73 with 80% sensitivity and 53% specificity was proper. Conclusion: CD117 is a significant immunohistochemical marker for histopathologic differentiation of ACC from PLGA.


We present a concept of "active material" with variable acoustic properties, being constituted of an electroacoustic transducer which acoustic impedance can be changed by an active mean. Among the different ways to obtain variable acoustic properties on an electroacoustic trans-ducer's voicing face is the shunting of the transducer's electrical input. With such shunt de-vices, the acoustic impedance that the transducer's membrane presents to the acoustic field comprises an acoustic equivalent of the electrical load that can take many values within a specified range. The shunt strategy can either be a passive, with a simple resistor for instance, or active, by way of a negative resistance circuit including at least one operational amplifier. The advantage of the active mean is that it should theoretically allow obtaining very high val-ues of acoustic impedances, in other words to even obtain perfect isolating acoustic material. Though, the use of the operational amplifier presents many drawbacks such as operational in-stability, high sensitivity to adjustments, and inefficient electrical energy transfer in the elec-tronic circuit. Moreover, when it comes to absorbing/reflecting very high sound pressure lev-els, these devices are pushed towards their functional limits. In order to counteract the afore-mentioned problems, a switching amplifier has been designed for the negative impedance dis-posal. The present work will describe the design of such a switching amplifier for enhanced stability and performances of the active material concept. Theoretical considerations will be compared to experimental (acoustical and electrical) assessments of a prototype, highlighting the main advantages and drawbacks of such disposals, and leading to concluding remarks on general behaviour and possible means of enhancements.


Fungi play key roles in carbon (C) dynamics of ecosystems: saprotrophs decompose organic material and return C in the nutrient cycle, and mycorrhizal species support plants that accumulate C through photosynthesis. The identities and functions of extremophile fungi present after fire can influence C dynamics, particularly because plant-fungal relationships are often species-specific. However, little is known about the function and distribution of fungi that survive fires. We aim to assess the distribution of heat-resistant soil fungi across burned stands of boreal forest in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and understand their functions in relation to decomposition and tree seedling growth. We cultured and identified fungi from heat-treated soils and linked sequences from known taxa with high throughput sequencing fungal data (Illumina MiSeq, ITS1) from soils collected in 47 plots. We assessed functions under controlled conditions by inoculating litter and seedlings with heat-resistant fungi to assess decomposition and effects on seedling growth, respectively, for black spruce (Picea mariana), birch (Betula papyrifera), and jack pine (Pinus banksiana). We also measured litter decomposition rates and seedling densities in the field without inoculation. We isolated seven taxa of heat-resistant fungi and found their relative abundances were not associated with environmental or fire characteristics. Under controlled conditions, Fayodia gracilipes and Penicillium arenicola decomposed birch, but no taxa decomposed black spruce litter significantly more than the control treatment. Seedlings showed reduced biomass and/or mortality when inoculated with at least one of the fungal taxa. Penicillium turbatum reduced growth and/or caused mortality of all three species of seedlings. In the field, birch litter decomposed faster in stands with greater pre-fire proportion of black spruce, while black spruce litter decomposed faster in stands experiencing longer fire-free intervals. Densities of seedlings that had germinated since fire were positively associated with ectomycorrhizal richness while there were fewer conifer seedlings with greater heat-resistant fungal abundance. Overall, our study suggests that extremophile fungi present after fires have multiple functions and may have unexpected negative effects on forest functioning and regeneration. In particular, heat-resistant fungi after fires may promote shifts away from conifer dominance that are observed in these boreal forests.


OBJECTIVE--To examine the relation between general practitioners' knowledge about their patients and the use of resources in consultations. DESIGN--A cross sectional evaluation of consultations. SETTING AND SUBJECTS--A representative sample of 133 Norwegian general practitioners were each asked to record 30 consecutive consultations. 131 did so, and of 3990 possible registrations, 3918 (98%) were evaluated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--The influence, as assessed by the doctor, of accumulated knowledge on the use of laboratory tests, expectant management, prescriptions, sickness certification, referrals, and time spent in the consultation. RESULTS--Accumulated knowledge was a substantial factor in saving time, especially in consultations with children, the elderly, patients with psychosocial problems, and those with chronic diseases. It also influenced the overall use of laboratory tests, expectant management, sickness certification, and referrals, and to a lesser degree the use of medication. CONCLUSION--The findings imply strong but complex associations between accumulated knowledge and the use of resources in the consultation.


The article is devoted to the analysis and evaluation of the potential of the electric structure of Russian regions. The authors introduce the category of the "potential of electric infrastructure†understood as the integrated indicator characterizing the regional power infrastructure. The authors assess the potential of electric infrastructure on the basis of the proposed methodology and the developed indicators: "the ratio of electricity tariff†, "coefficient of technological connection†, "integral coefficient of electric infrastructure potential.†The article presents the results of testing the developed method on the example of the analysis and evaluation of the characteristics of electric power infrastructure of Russian regions. The result of testing was the construction of a rating of regions by the level of electric infrastructure potential. On the basis of the calculated parameters of electric infrastructure potential, we developed a map and a matrix of indicators of the potential of electric infrastructure of Russian regions. This allowed to classify Russian regions to several groups. The practical value of the map and matrix of the potential of electric infrastructure of Russian regions is the possibility to conduct the comparative assessment of the characteristics of the electric infrastructure of the territorial units and enables more informed management and decision-making concerning the choice of the most effective industrial investment. In addition, based on the developed indicators of electric infrastructure potential, the authors propose the improvement of the existing methods for the evaluation of investment potential of Russian regions. Previous research on the investment potential of regions does not take in account the characteristics of the potential of elecrtic infrastructure. The obtained results are of a theoretical and practical importance and can be used for the energy efficiency management of territorial units as well as for the analysis of the potential of electric infrastructure of possible industrial investments with the aim of increasing it.


The COVID-19 is an exponentially growing disease that has intentioned nations to use technologies to detect the coronavirus infection. Several nations are working greatly to fight against COVID-19. Many nations have been using a range of devices to combat the pandemic, seeking information about growth, monitoring as well as the leaking the confidential information of the residents. This research aims to assist infected people online using the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain technologies through smart devices. IoT-based healthcare devices gather useful information, provide additional insight through symptoms and behaviors, allow remote monitoring, and simply give people better self - determination and healthcare. Blockchain allows the secure transfer of patient health information, regulates the medical distribution network. A four-layer architecture is proposed using IoT and Blockchain to detect and prevent individuals to be COVID 19. This research provides a framework for patients with COVID-19 infectious disease and recognizes health issues and diagnoses online. Smart devices such as smartphones can install any mobile apps such as Aarogya Setu, Tawakkalna, and so on. These applications can track COVID-19 patients properly. The installation of mobile apps on smart devices focuses to reduce the time and cost and increase the performance of the infectious patient's condition. A four-layer architecture is proposed using IoT and Blockchain technologies. Many research works focus on investigating, analyzing, and highlighting the affected individuals through guiding the COVID-19 infection. Eventually, various mobile apps are recognized and addressed in this paper.


The question whether the nucleobases can be synthesized in interstellar space is of fundamental significance in considerations of the origin of life. Adenine is formally the HCN pentamer, and experiments have demonstrated that adenine is formed under certain conditions by HCN pentamerization in gas, liquid, and condensed phases. Most mechanistic proposals invoke the intermediacy of the HCN tetramer AICN (4), and it is thought that adenine synthesis is completed by addition of the 5(th) HCN to 4 to form amidine 5 and subsequent pyrimidine cyclization. In this context, we have been studying the mechanism for prebiotic pyrimidine-ring formation of monocyclic HCN-pentamers with ab initio electronic structure theory. The calculations model gas phase chemistry, and the results primarily inform discussions of adenine synthesis in interstellar space. Purine formation requires tautomerization of 5 to the conjugated amidine 6 (via hydrogen-tunneling, thermally with H(+) -catalysis, or by photolysis) or to keteneimine 7 (by photolysis). It was found that 5-(N'-formamidinyl)-1H-imidazole-4-carbonitrile (6) can serve as a substrate for proton-catalyzed purine formation under photolytic conditions and N-(4-(iminomethylene)-1H-imidazol-5(4H)-ylidene)formamidine (7) can serve as a substrate for uncatalyzed purine formation under photolytic conditions. The absence of any sizeable activation barrier for the cyclization of 7 to the (Z)-imino form of 9H-adenine (Z)-2 is quite remarkable, and it is this feature that allows for the formation of the purine skeleton from 7 without any further activation.


Title of Document: THE REGULATION OF B CELL ACTIVATION BY MEMBRANE DAMAGE AND ANTIGEN DENSITY Heather E. Miller, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Dr. Wenxia Song, Associate Professor, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics Antibodies generated by B cells neutralize pathogens and pathogen-secreted toxins and flag them for immune clearance. Antibody responses are initiated via binding of cognate antigen to B-cell receptors (BCR). This induces BCR aggregation in lipid rafts, promoting BCR signaling and internalization of antigen for processing and presentation to T helper cells, which is essential for generating high affinity and longlasting antibody responses. The ability of an immunogen to activate BCR signaling and internalization is necessary for efficient vaccines. To capture these immunogens, B cells circulate and migrate through blood and lymphoid tissues. During circulation, the plasma membrane of B cells may be damaged by mechanical forces and membrane-perforating toxins. The impact of plasma membrane damage on B-cell activation is unknown. The first part of this thesis investigated the mechanism of plasma membrane repair in B cells and the effects of repair on BCR activation. My research reveals that B cells rapidly repair membrane wounds provoked by streptolysin O, a pore forming bacterial toxin. Similar to the mechanism reported for fibroblasts and muscle cells, B cells repair by Ca triggered lysosome exocytosis, which releases acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) to the plasma membrane to induce endocytosis of damaged membrane. Different from previous reports, ASM induces direct endocytosis of lipid rafts in the absence of the membrane invaginating lipid raft protein, caveolin. Importantly, it was discovered that BCR activation interferes with plasma membrane repair, while wounding inhibits BCR signaling and internalization by segregating BCRs from lipid rafts. These data suggest that plasma membrane repair and B cell activation interfere with one another due to competition for lipid rafts. The second part of my thesis established and characterized a membrane-bound antigen system where all antigenic molecules are optimally oriented for BCR binding. Using the new system, we investigated the role of the density and valency of membrane-bound antigen on BCR activation. The results show that increases in the density but not valency of antigen on membranes significantly enhance the magnitudes of the early events of BCR activation, including BCR self-clustering, cell spreading on antigen-presenting surface, and protein tyrosine phosphorylation. The enhanced signaling is correlated with greater actin dynamics required for BCR aggregation, B-cell spreading and signaling. These results indicate that this model antigen will benefit quantitative studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying BCR activation, and also suggest that manipulations of molecular configuration and density can be applied to enhance the immunogenicity of vaccines. THE REGULATION OF B CELL ACTIVATION BY MEMBRANE DAMAGE AND ANTIGEN DENSITY


In the three years since Bishop and Button purchased Verengo in a leveraged buyout (LBO), the company had gone through dramatic changes. Initially a residential windows and insulation firm, after the economic recession of 2008 the company switched gears and began offering solar installations to local residential customers. Aided by favorable regulatory changes and a consumer financing partnership, Verengo's solar business took off and became the company's primary focus. By the end of 2010, Verengo had grown to $27 million in revenue and was the largest solar integrator in Southern California. In December 2010, Verengo raised $9.7 million in growth equity funding and was considering its options for future growth. Eager to expand to markets outside of Southern California, Bishop and Button knew that they had to carefully assess the firm's many opportunities and tightly manage its growth.Learning Objective: To show how entrepreneurs can acquire scalable business early in their careers.


In water distribution network calibration of quality models, bulk and wall decay coefficients are considered to be the adjustable parameters. The bulk decay coefficient is usually gained by using a laboratory bottle test method, but the wall decay coefficient is calibrated with field data of residual chlorine at nodes. This paper aims to present a method to adjust the wall decay coefficients of pipes. A metamodelling approach is developed by the combination of an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm and an artificial neural network (ANN) with the EPANET simulator. The proposed method is applied on a two-loop test example and real water distribution network. Results showed that the proposed method can increase the speed of solution 58 times more rapidly than the simple method in the two-loop network. In the real network, the classification based on the average flow velocity produced the best results among all categories, and the classification based on material, diameter, and age of pipes produced the best results among the physical criteria. Also, comparison of results between the measured and calculated data for testing data showed an average error of 3.85% and the calibration model gave good performance.


Service firms increasingly need to rely on other attributes than traditional quality and performance of their service employees to become and stay truly competitive. Strong brands are essential for differentiation in today's marketplace and it becomes naturally important to align the customer contact employees with the company brand to ensure consistency in all communication externally. For a service firm employee to fully enact the brand and display on brand behavior outwards it is pivotal to make them truly committed to the brand and organization. Internal branding processes have been shown to be an enabler of employee commitment to the organizational brand. While internal branding is stated to have a connection to commitment, the concept as such is according to Meyer & Allen (1991) constituted by three dimensions, normative, affective and continuance commitment. The bulk of the existing research has so far focused on internal branding and commitment as a single construct and not these dimensions. Much of this research is in addition limited to a few service sectors.The aim of this study was to determine the components of internal branding in order to clarify the relationship between internal branding and brand commitment of customer contact employees. The empirical investigation was conducted in the retail sector from the perspective of the customer contact employee by the use of a self-completion questionnaire measuring the affective commitment of the employees and the presence of the internal branding activities. The conceptual model for the study shows hypothesized positive relationships between the four internal branding activities and affective commitment. However, while all internal branding activities were significantly present, only three of these were found to have a significant positive relationship to affective commitment, excluding internal communication.The conclusions of this study gives managers of customer contact employee's insights about how to enable affective commitment through the use of internal branding. Our results show that brand oriented training, recruitment and leadership all have a significant impact on affective commitment of customer contact employees. Although they had similar Beta values, brand oriented leadership showed a slightly higher predicting power indicating that leadership can play a greater role regarding the affective commitment of customer contact employees.


Fifty years after the publication of The Feminine Mystique, have women really exchanged purity and maternity to become desiring machines inspired only by variations of sex, shopping and masochism - all coloured a brilliant neuro-pink? In this volume, fifty women young and old - writers, politicians, actors, scientists, mothers - reflect on the shades that inspired them and what being woman means to them today. Contributors include: Tahmima Anam, Joan Bakewell, Bidisha, Lydia Cacho, Shami Chakrabarti, Lennie Goodings, Linda Grant, Natalie Haynes, Siri Hustvedt, Jude Kelly, Kathy Lette, Kate Mosse, Bee Rowlatt, Elif Shafak, Ahdaf Soueif, Shirley Thompson, Natasha Walter, Jeanette Winterson - alongside the three editors.


The unexpected global rise of intolerant nationalism at the end of the twentieth century has received much attention, and yet intolerance also manifests itself in more subtle ways, even in nations such as Canada, with its mythologized history of tolerance and its official policies of multiculturalism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with white Canadians and government bureaucrats, as well as an in-depth analysis of national identity and its construction, Mackey explores ideas of racial and cultural difference, multiculturalism, and pluralism. She argues that official policies and attitudes of multicultural 'tolerance' for 'others' reinforce the dominant Anglo-Canadian culture by abducting the cultures of minority groups, pressing them into the service of nation-building without promoting genuine respect or autonomy. The book also contributes to an understanding of how official 'multicultural tolerance' has contributed to the rise of the new right in recent years. Mapping the contradictions and ambiguities in the cultural politics of Canadian identity, The House of Difference opens up new understandings of the operations of 'tolerance' and western liberalism in a supposedly post-colonial era.


Although several studies provide evidence that FBI-1 is an important gene regulator in colorectal cancer (CRC), it is noteworthy that, to our knowledge, no analysis of the correlation between FBI-1 expression and prognosis in CRC has been reported. Using real-time RT-PCR, we detected FBI-1 mRNA in 161 CRC patients (primary tumor, along with the corresponding normal mucosa), 36 liver metastases, and analyzed the relationship of its expression with clinicopathological features. Colon cancer cell lines were used to study FBI-1 function. Our study found that FBI-1 was significant up-regulated in tumor tissue (2.621 ± 0.157) compared with the corresponding normal mucosa (1.620 ± 0.165, P < 0.0001). FBI-1 in normal mucosa was a prognostic factor (P = 0.039, RR 0.431, 95% CI 0.194-0.958), independent of gender, age, stage, and differentiation. High levels of FBI-1 mRNA were related with good survival. Patients with complications had a higher primary tumor FBI-1 expression than those without complications (3.400 ± 0.332 vs. 2.516 ± 0.241, P = 0.032). Suppression of FBI-1 in colon cancer cell lines could repress proliferation of cancer cells. In conclusion, FBI-1 mRNA is overexpressed in CRC, and takes part in the development of CRC. FBI-1 mRNA in normal mucosa is an independent prognostic factor. Our findings give further support to the concept of "field cancerization", and hint that when we study a biomarker, we should not only focus on the tumor tissue but also the corresponding normal mucosa.


This article describes Alice Munro's thoughts about the relation between woman and marriage, as reflected in three short stories, 1) "Floating Bridge", 2) "Nettles", 3) "What is Remembered", in short stories collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001). In this research, the writer uses feminist theory, namely the gynocriticism proposed by Elaine Showalter. The analysis focuses on the psychoanalytic model to explain the psychology of women who are involved in the marriage but have an affair, as reflected in three main female characters in these stories, they are Jinny, the Narrator, and Meriel. The analysis concludes that, first, the social rules about marriage give a big psychological pressure to the main female characters. Secondly, woman needs an escape for having self indulgence which, in this case, is the affair that can help them forget the problems  temporarily. Thirdly, after getting married, family becomes the most important element in a  woman's life. It is proved by the main female characters stop having an affair because they do not want to destroy their family. Key words: wife, pressure, escape, affair, gynocriticism.


Completely revised, this 6th edition of The Wills Eye Manual: Office And Emergency Room Diagnosis And Treatment Of Eye Disease is the perfect guide for all clinicians who treat eye disorders. Written in a concise outline format, this easy-to-read, pocket-sized reference is perfect for diagnosis and management of hundreds of ocular conditions. From symptom to treatment it covers every ocular disorder likely to be encountered in an office, emergency room, or hospital setting. Yet even though it's small enough to fit in a pocket, this book provides the most accurate and current information on over 200 ophthalmic conditions. It even includes the results of some of the most recent major clinical trials - including those related to the care of patients with macular degeneration and retinal vein occlusion. New to the sixth edition: chapters thoroughly updated and streamlined to make room for new and expanded topics; recent major clinical trials data included on care of patients with macular degeneration and retinal vein occlusion; updates in the management of orbital fractures, eyelid lacerations, strabismus, amblyopia, and ocular malignancies; new high definition photographs of external, anterior segment, and posterior segment disease processes; and imaging modalities updated, especially optical coherence tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and ultrasound biomicroscopy.


A model incorporating noise and pump depletion in a Brillouin amplifier (BA) predicts a fundamental limitation on attainable pump-to-signal-ratio extraction efficiency. Experimental data supporting this model are also presented. In spite of the limitation, an experimental technique is shown that results in a factor-of-7 increase in extraction efficiency. We accomplish this by noise suppressing and subsequently double passing a BA. We report an overall power efficiency of 37% and phase-conjugate amplification of 3.75 × 1010 for a signal input power near the noise level. This performance, which is the best to our knowledge recorded to date, is accomplished without requiring additional input energy.


The prime aim of this set of studies was to test the disposition to play (playfulness) in adults in its relation with various measures of personality but also ability (self-estimated but also psychometrically measured ingenuity). Study 1 (n = 180) shows that adults playfulness relates primarily to extraversion, lower conscientiousness, and higher endorsements of culture; joy of being laughed at (gelotophilia) and agreeableness were also predictive in a regression analysis; Study 2 (n = 264) shows that playfulness relates primarily to a high expectation of intrinsic and a low expectation of extrinsic goals as well as greater intrinsic and lower extrinsic importance of goals (for expressive and fun-variants of playfulness); Study 3 (n = 212) shows that playfulness relates to greater selfperception of one's degree of ingenuity and psychometric ingenuity correlated primarily with greater spontaneous and creative variants of playfulness (in about the same range for origence and fluidity of the productions). Overall, the findings were in line with the expectations and could stimulate further studies of playfulness in adults.


Paleoclimate proxy data suggest that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) was shallower at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) than its preindustrial (PI) depth. Previous studies have suggested that this shoaling necessarily accompanies Antarctic sea ice expansion at the LGM. Here the influence of Southern Ocean surface forcing on the AMOC depth is investigated using ocean‐only simulations from a state‐of‐the‐art climate model with surface forcing specified from the output of previous coupled PI and LGM simulations. In contrast to previous expectations, we find that applying LGM surface forcing in the Southern Ocean and PI surface forcing elsewhere causes the AMOC to shoal only about half as much as when LGM surface forcing is applied globally. We show that this occurs because diapycnal mixing renders the Southern Ocean overturning circulation more diabatic than previously assumed, which diminishes the influence of Southern Ocean surface buoyancy forcing on the depth of the AMOC.


Various authors on cybersecurity have compared cyberspace to the high seas and suggested that states should contract privateers, in the form of private corporations or individuals, in order to bolster their defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace. This conceptual paper explores the high seas-cyberspace analogy and evaluates the extent to which it can strategically inform the battle against cybercrime. It is argued that the historical battle against piracy, characterized by its emphasis on legal frameworks, the removal of market support structures, and states' use of privateers, offers limited lessons with regard to cybercrime. The analogy suggests that strategies against cybercrime should stress the usefulness of existing legal structures and earmark additional resources for them, while also prioritizing the establishing of specialized cybercrime courts and the hiring of former cybercriminals. Moreover, the comparison between piracy and cybercrime suggests that cybercrime should be treated as a socio-economic problem, while the historical use of privateers can be reimagined as cyber-privateering to potentially construct a new model of cyberdeterrence.


PURPOSE
The use of computed tomography (CT) based intraoperative navigation has greatly improved surgery in many specialties. In this study, the precision of the SMN system (Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) for navigated drilling and following implant placement in the maxilla was evaluated. This study should demonstrate the suitability of navigation systems for computer-assisted implantation in the maxilla to avoid perforation of the maxillary sinus.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sixty target drillings were carried out on 10 standardized polyurethane milling models after CT scanning. The models were produced with cranial open maxillary sinuses. The CT scans were performed with a slice distance of 1 mm. Then the CT data were transferred to the workstation of the SMN system and registration of the reference markers (fiducials) for superposition of the native and CT model was done. Referencing of the model was performed with the aid of a drilling tool. This drilling tool was used for later navigation-assisted drilling into the maxilla. The target of drilling was the maxillary sinus floor. The aim was to come as near as possible without perforation. The distance from the bottom of the drilling holes to the maxillary sinus floor was measured after sectioning of the model. In another 10 models, implants were placed after performing 60 navigated drilling holes.

RESULTS
In the first part of the study, an average drilling depth of 6.97 mm and a mean distance to the sinus floor of 0.11 mm (standard deviation = 0.2) was found. In 13 specimens, the inferior border of the sinus was perforated. In the second part of the study, a perforation of the sinus floor by the implants was seen in 47 cases. The mean distance to the maxillary sinus was 0.25 mm (standard deviation = 0.2).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
High precision of CT-based navigation for controlled preimplant drilling was seen, but a high incidence of penetrations into the maxillary sinus was caused by the subsequent implant placement.


Problem definition: Firms providing products and services to low-income base of the pyramid (BOP) customers are increasingly utilizing independent contractor agents rather than employees in their distribution models. We empirically investigate the best way to help agents perform better. Academic/practical relevance: BOP customers represent one-third of the world's economy but make five United States dollars or less daily. Providing goods and services to these customers is difficult for traditional firms because most retail activity occurs at small-scale independent outlets. Improving agent performance can help firms reach customers in this environment. We enhance the literature on agent-based models in BOP settings, decision making, technology in developing economies, and field experiments. Methodology: In partnership with a Tanzanian mobile money operator, we perform a randomized, controlled trial with 4,771 agents to examine how differing types of guidance, and whether in-person training is offered, impact agents' inventory management. Mobile money is a platform whereby firms in developing economies provide financial services to customers via cell phones. Mobile money agents service customer withdrawals and deposits as branchless banking outlets. Every day, they decide how much money to stock to service customers' transactions, from which they earn commissions. Results: We find that those agents given only explicit recommendations (as opposed to summary statistics or both) who were invited to in-person training (as opposed to simply received an automated notification) improve their performance. Agents in other treatments showed no statistically significant change. The effect is concentrated in agents who never replenished their money at a bank and whose money inventory levels were low in the pretreatment period. Managerial implications: We show empirically how firms can better manage agents, thereby improving the value proposition of serving BOP customers. We show the utility of segmentation based on agent heterogeneity. This can improve firm performance, agent profits, and customer service.


Abstract Late Mississippian and earliest Pennsylvanian trilobite faunas of North America are dominated by the Paladin and Kaskia clades. Phylogenetic analysis of middle Carboniferous species of these clades demonstrates the close ancestral relationship between these groups. The Kaskia clade consists of eight species: K. chesterensis Weller, 1936, K. osagensis (Cisne, 1967), K. longispina (Strong, 1872), K. wilsoni (Walter, 1924), K. genevievensis (Walter, 1924), K. rosei (Cisne, 1967), K. gersnai n. sp., and K. rollinsi n. sp. Kaskia Weller, 1936 ranges from late Osagean to middle Chesterian (early Visean-early Serpukhovian) and is restricted to cyclothemic shelf and nearshore deposits. Species of Kaskia appear to have evolved in areas of shallow water and high environmental stress. The Paladin clade consists of 12 species including previously named species P. morrowensis (Mather, 1915), P. girtyianus Hahn and Hahn, 1970, P. rarus Whittington, 1954, P. helmsensis Whittington, 1954, and P. moorei (Branson, 1937). New species belonging to this clade are Paladin moorefieldensis n. sp., P. pleisiomorphus n. sp., P. imoensis n. sp., P. mangeri n. sp., and P. wapanukaensis n. sp. This group ranges from the early Chesterian to early Morrowan (late Visean-late Bashkirian). Species of Paladin appear to be confined to outer shelf shelf-edge and off-shelf facies where presumably deeper water environments existed. This is manifested in their paleogeographic distribution, which is paleoenvironmentally controlled.


E2F is a cellular DNA-binding factor. Its binding activity is changed within adenovirus-infected cells so that it binds cooperatively to pairs of properly spaced and oriented E2F recognition sites. In the work described in this report, the conversion to cooperative binding was shown to require the adenovirus E4 17-kilodalton (kDa) polypeptide. Mutant viruses carrying alterations within the E4 17-kDa coding region failed to generate the infection-specific, cooperatively binding form of E2F. It was possible to alter E2F from uninfected cells so that it bound cooperatively by incubation with a partially purified fraction obtained from infected cells. The E4 17-kDa protein copurified with this activity and was also found to be present in a complex containing E2F. Consistent with its ability to alter the binding of E2F to its recognition sites within the E2 promoter, the E4 17-kDa polypeptide contributed to maximal expression of E2 mRNAs in some cell types. Its ability to enhance E2 transcription did not require expression of the E1A transactivator protein. These results are consistent with a model which proposes that the E4 17-kDa polypeptide binds to the cellular E2F factor, altering its binding behavior and thereby enhancing its ability to stimulate transcription.


We report new short‐wave infrared (SWIR) column retrievals of atmospheric methane (XCH4) from the Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and compare observed spatial and temporal variations with correlative ground‐based measurements from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and with the global 3‐D GEOS‐Chem chemistry transport model. GOSAT XCH4 retrievals are compared with daily TCCON observations at six sites between April 2009 and July 2010 (Bialystok, Park Falls, Lamont, Orleans, Darwin and Wollongong). GOSAT reproduces the site‐dependent seasonal cycles as observed by TCCON with correlations typically between 0.5 and 0.7 with an estimated single‐sounding precision between 0.4–0.8%. We find a latitudinal‐dependent difference between the XCH4 retrievals from GOSAT and TCCON which ranges from 17.9 ppb at the most northerly site (Bialystok) to −14.6 ppb at the site with the lowest latitude (Darwin). We estimate that the mean smoothing error difference included in the GOSAT to TCCON comparisons can account for 15.7 to 17.4 ppb for the northerly sites and for 1.1 ppb at the lowest latitude site. The GOSAT XCH4 retrievals agree well with the GEOS‐Chem model on annual (August 2009 – July 2010) and monthly timescales, capturing over 80% of the zonal variability. Differences between model and observed XCH4 are found over key source regions such as Southeast Asia and central Africa which will be further investigated using a formal inverse model analysis.


Background: The tooth extraction process will always cause tissue damage, both hard tissue and soft tissue such as bleeding, pain, edema, and hard tissue such as loss of alveolar ridge volume after extraction. Substitutes for biological components have developed in increasing alveolar bone volume by using bone grafts. Chitosan can be used as an option. Addition of collagen membrane to post-extraction wounds can increase and protect the formation of initial blood clots to the root surface. Collagen membrane is a type of resorb able membrane that is often used. The function of this collagen membrane is increasing and maintaining blood clots and acting as scaffold for cell adhesion and growth. Purpose: To determine whether the use of collagen membranes does not slow down the chitosan adsorption speed of 150-355 μm in group O blood or not. Methods:There were chitosan samples measuring 150-355 μm were divided into two groups, namely control group, 7 samples for chitosan with gauze and 7 samples of the treatment group for chitosan with collagen membrane. Dip it in 75 ml of blood. Measurements of group O blood adsorption velocity in each group were seen for 10 minutes. Result: The result was analyzed statistically by using Mann-Whitney test with level of significance lower than 0.05 (Sig<0.05). There was significant difference between the control group and the treated group. Conclusion: There is a slowing of adsorption rate of blood type O on chitosan with membrane collagen.


The last years have seen an immense increase in high-throughput and high-resolution technologies for experimental observation as well as high-performance techniques to simulate molecular systems at a microscopic level, resulting in vast and ever-increasing amounts of high-dimensional data. However, experiments provide only a partial view of macromolecular processes and are limited in their temporal and spatial resolution. On the other hand, atomistic simulations are still not able to sample the conformation space of large complexes, thus leaving significant gaps in our ability to study molecular processes at a biologically relevant scale. We present our efforts to bridge these gaps, by exploiting the available data and using state-of-the-art machine-learning methods to design optimal coarse models for complex macromolecular systems. We show that it is possible to define simplified molecular models to reproduce the essential information contained both in microscopic simulation and experimental measurements.


The main focus of this thesis is on the aromaticity of the ground state and electronically excited states of π-conjugated molecules and polymers, as well as how aromaticity is connected to their properties.The electronic structures of polybenzenoid hydrocarbons (PBHs) were explored through density functional theory (DFT) calculations and the π-component of the electron localization function (ELFπ). The study revealed how the π-electronic structure is influenced by the fusion of double bonds or benzene rings to the PBHs. We also demonstrated that the π-electrons of benzene extend to accommodate as much aromaticity as possible when bond length distorted. The aromatic chameleon property displayed by fulvenes, isobenzofulvenes, fulvalenes, bis(fulvene)s, and polyfulvenes were investigated using DFT calculations. The tria-, penta-, and heptafulvenes were shown to possess ionization energies and electron affinities which can be tuned extensively by substitution, some of which even outperform TTF and TCNQ, the prototypical electron donor and acceptor, respectively. The singlet-triplet energy gap of pentafulvenes can be tuned extensively by substitution to the point that the triplet state is lower than the singlet state and thus becomes the ground state. The ELFπ of isobenzofulvene shows that the benzene ring in an electronically excited state can be more aromatic than the corresponding ring in the ground state. We have shown that the 6-ring of [5.6.7]quinarene is influenced by a Huckel aromatic resonance structure with 4n+2 π-electrons in the excited quintet state. The bis(fulvene)s which are composed of a donor type heptafulvene and an acceptor type pentafulvene, retain the basic donor-acceptor properties of the two fragments and could function as compact donor-acceptor dyads. A few of the designed polyfulvenes were found to have band gaps below 1 eV at the PBC-B3LYP/6-31G(d) level.Various 2,7-disubstituted fluorenones and dibenzofulvenes were synthesized and their excited state properties were investigated by absorption spectroscopy and time-dependent DFT calculations. It was found that the 1A → 1B transition of ππ* character can be tuned by substitution in the 2,7-positions. The 2,7-bis(N,N-dimethyl) derivatives of fluorenone and dibenzofulvene displayed low energy transitions at 2.18 and 1.61 eV, respectively, in toluene.


Private shopping is one of the concepts that serve as a members-only online shopping platform with deep discounts and well-known brands. The aim of this paper is to determine whether consumers' need for uniqueness and innovativeness as a personal trait and price discount orientation affect consumer attitudes toward private shopping and their purchase decision or not. Research results revealed that need for uniqueness and innovativeness affect positive attitudes towards private shopping positively. However price discount orientation is a foremost factor that both effect attitude positively and also directly explain shopping behavior.


One of the lessons from the global financial crisis is that systemic risk to the financial system can arise from outside the regular banking system, in so-called 'shadow banking'. This article reviews post-crisis international and domestic trends in shadow banking, and regulatory efforts to better understand and address potential risks that may arise. In Australia, systemic risks arising from shadow banking appear limited given its relatively small size and minimal links to the banking system, but it remains an area for regulators to monitor and better understand.


The purpose of this study was to utilize copy testing to focus on the persuasiveness of radio advertising. The persuasive effects of radio advertising have not been widely studied. This study utilized copy testing to determine the effects of a limited offer in a radio advertisement by examining persuasion, intention to act, and memorability through recall. Using past research such as Miller and Marks' "Mental Imagery and Sound Effects in Radio Commercials" (Miller & Marks, 1992) five questions were raised regarding the persuasive effects of a limited offer in radio advertising copy. Subjects were 80 undergraduate communication students.. Half the students heard an advertisement with a limited offer, and half heard the advertisement without a limited offer. Immediately afterward, subjects completed a set of questions and rated their answers using Likert scales. They wrote for two minutes about their thoughts of the advertisement. The results of the scales were analyzed using t-tests to make group comparisons, determine feelings about the product being advertised outside of the particular advertisement, and to answer the research questions. A two-minute writing was used for further qualitative analysis. There were no statistically significant differences found, but some interesting data were discovered and discussed.


The Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM), in the Canary Islands (Spain), was one of the candidates to host the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and is the site of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the largest optical infrared facility to date. Sky transparency is a key parameter as it defines the quality of the photometry to be acquired in the astronomical observations. We present a study of the atmosphere extinction at the ORM, carried out after analysis of a database spanning more than 20 yr, to our knowledge, the longest and most complete and homogeneous in situ database available for any observatory. It is based on photometric measurements in the V band and r′ band (transformed to the V-band extinction coefficient kV) using the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope (CMT). Clear seasonal variations that repeat yearly are observed. The median value of kV is 0.13 mag airmass-1; the mean value has a maximum in the summer months (June-September), corresponding to the season with maximum frequency of nights affected by dust or cirrus (∼29% in summer, but only ∼13% during the rest of the year). Two volcanic eruptions took place during the database baseline, which has enabled the study of the impact of volcanoes on the global atmosphere extinction. For the 5 yr of available information, we have estimated the average monthly weather downtime from the CMT data log, obtaining a result (20.7%) in reasonable agreement with earlier studies. The main conclusion of our study is that there is no significant evidence from the CMT data for any secular changes in kV over the 20 yr database baseline.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the leading causes of death in rural India. Every year more than 3 million Indian citizens die from CVD [1]. The proposed Wearable Wireless Cardiac Monitoring (WiCard) system, aims to bring home state-of-the-art health care for people living in rural Indian villages, where thousands of death occur each year due to lack of experts and facilities. The architecture involves remote monitoring of the ECG by specialized health professionals via a heterogeneous wireless network. This paper discusses the development of a six lead custom hardware for transmitting data to a Smartphone or a compatible device via a Bluetooth. The data received by the mobile devices will be further processed and transmitted to a central repository located in a specialized hospital. The main disadvantage of wearable cardiac monitoring system is the introduction of Motion Induced Artifacts (MIA), which could mimic a cardiac event. A context aware architecture is proposed here to relate physical activity and physiological signals of the user, with the help of accelerometer sensors. The portion of ECG where the MIA has detected will be tagged and sent to the central repository. Classifications of physical movements are done using statistics based classifiers, which are computationally low cost. The results show that the developed algorithm is capable of classifying the user activity with an accuracy of 94%. The developed hardware achieved a power reduction of 10 %.


Diverting Asperger Deficit Placement of Asperger syndrome within the family of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has always been a bit uneasy; although people with Asperger syndrome do exhibit the core impairments in social interaction and communication that are characteristic of ASD, they nevertheless perform well on tests that are thought to assess the ability to mentalize or to possess Theory of Mind skills. One of the classic tests of mentalizing ability is the false-belief task, in which subjects must be able to represent their own beliefs (true) and another's beliefs, which are false because they have not been given complete information, such as not having seen the transfer of a piece of candy from one drawer to another. People with Asperger syndrome succeed at the verbal form of the false-belief task, yet Senju et al. (p. 883, published online 16 July) show that this is owing entirely to their having learned how to cope with an existing and still demonstrable deficit in an implicit version of the false-belief task. That is, the core impairment is present, but conscious and explicit learning allows them to compensate. Asperger syndrome individuals do not pass a nonverbal false-belief test. Adults with Asperger syndrome can understand mental states such as desires and beliefs (mentalizing) when explicitly prompted to do so, despite having impairments in social communication. We directly tested the hypothesis that such individuals nevertheless fail to mentalize spontaneously. To this end, we used an eye-tracking task that has revealed the spontaneous ability to mentalize in typically developing infants. We showed that, like infants, neurotypical adults' (n = 17 participants) eye movements anticipated an actor's behavior on the basis of her false belief. This was not the case for individuals with Asperger syndrome (n = 19). Thus, these individuals do not attribute mental states spontaneously, but they may be able to do so in explicit tasks through compensatory learning.


Natural language often exhibits inherent hierarchical structure ingrained with complex syntax and semantics. However, most state-of-the-art deep generative models learn embeddings only in Euclidean vector space, without accounting for this structural property of language. In this paper, we investigate text generation in a hyperbolic latent space to learn continuous hierarchical representations. An Adversarial Poincare Variational Autoencoder (APo-VAE) is presented, where both the prior and variational posterior of latent variables are defined over a Poincare ball via wrapped normal distributions. By adopting the primal-dual formulation of Kullback-Leibler divergence, an adversarial learning procedure is introduced to empower robust model training. Extensive experiments in language modeling, unaligned style transfer, and dialog-response generation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed APo-VAE model over VAEs in Euclidean latent space, thanks to its superb capabilities in capturing latent language hierarchies in hyperbolic space.


The present study examined whether heritage speakers (HSs) of European Portuguese (EP) who were born or moved to a German-speaking country before the age of eight years were perceived as native speakers of EP. In particular, this study intended to determine whether a change of linguistic environment, length of residence in a migrant context, length of residence in the country of origin before migration and after remigration, and age at return could predict the degree of (non)native accent in the heritage language. Thirty native Portuguese speakers assessed the global accent of 20 Portuguese-German bilinguals, five Portuguese monolinguals and five highly proficient German speakers of Portuguese as a second language (L2). The group of HSs comprised 17 speakers who returned to Portugal. The results revealed that listeners perceived a strong global foreign accent in the speech of the L2 learners, while the monolingual Portuguese speakers were clearly perceived as being native speakers of EP. The HSs' ratings were considerably closer to the monolingual average ratings, but they showed more variation, indicating that their accent may bear non-native traces. Further analyses showed that the age at which the HSs emigrated was the only significant predictor, while length of residence in the host country and in Portugal were less predictive.


With the availability of large-scale, comprehensive, and general-purpose vision-language (VL) datasets such as MSCOCO, vision-language pre-training (VLP) has become an active area of research and proven to be effective for various VL tasks such as visual-question answering. However, studies on VLP in the medical domain have so far been scanty. To provide a comprehensive perspective on VLP for medical VL tasks, we conduct a thorough experimental analysis to study key factors that may affect the performance of VLP with a unified vision-language Transformer. To allow making sound and quick pre-training decisions, we propose RadioGraphy Captions (RGC), a high-quality, multi-modality radiographic dataset containing 18,434 image-caption pairs collected from an open-access online database MedPix. RGC can be used as a pre-training dataset or a new benchmark for medical report generation and medical image-text retrieval. By utilizing RGC and other available datasets for pre-training, we develop several key insights that can guide future medical VLP research and new strong baselines for various medical VL tasks.


This study is about discoveries of the religious factor and its influence towards purchase intention of organic food in Malaysia. Each religion teaches its followers to consume healthy food in their daily lives. Organic food is commonly known for its healthier content without the use of pesticides, herbicides, inorganic fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones. To a certain extent organic food is directly related to Halal, a preconditioned to the Muslim to consume certain permitted foods and preparation. Organic chicken for instance is different from the ordinary chicken as the breeding and growth require the 'natural way' technique rather than the use of substance, vaccine and chemical to reduce the chicken maturity age. This is also subject to the use of unsafe and non-halal vaccine that is unhygienic and unsafe to consume. Furthermore, it also incorporates element of respects to the animal welfare which is consistent with the Shariah requirements. However, not every consumer view such circumstances as important though being encouraged by their religion to consume such food in a way promoted by the organic foods. The research aims to identify the religious factor and its impact towards the customer purchase intention in Malaysia. The findings of the study indicated that religious factor was found to have less impact on customer purchase intention of organic food. This is because the consumers could be looking on other vast factors such as perceived value and health consciousness in deciding to purchase organic food products. The consumers may be leaving the responsibility to the respective government enforcement agencies, local authorities and religious departments to look on both organic conventional foods produced and served in the country. They may also perceive that the existing conventional foods are perfectly matched with organic food and the consumers are fully confident that the foods are prepared in a way permitted by their religion. The result has shown some differences with the previous literature which described that religious factor plays one of the most influential roles in shaping food choice in certain countries of the world. To date, there have been very minimal studies conducted by taking into consideration the organic food especially to the consumers in Malaysia. Hence, this study is expected to provide understanding to both the industry players as well as academicians on the factors that influence Malaysian customer purchase intention towards organic food products as such phenomena might be different from one country to another. Future research should focus on the similar study of religious factor affecting customer purchase intention towards organic food products with the extended scope to all states in Peninsular Malaysia as well as in Sabah and Sarawak. By doing this, hopefully we can get a clearer picture on the tested existing and new variables which can be further examined. Eventually, a comparison can be made between the findings so that such constructible findings and conclusions can be made to the study.


Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) are important instruments for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. CEPA provides the link from science and ecology to people's social and economic reality. It supplies the oil for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and deals with the processes that motivate and mobilize individual and collective action. It comprises a range of social instruments including information exchange, dialogue, education, and marketing. The toolkit has been developed by the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is meant for CBD focal points and those responsible for the implementation of National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAP). The toolkit offers information to update knowledge and skills with fact sheets, checklists and practical examples from all over the world.


Problems in determining the volumetric parameters by echocardiography, essentially similar to the problemsare associated with the restoration of the full form of the heart. The researchers always hampered by difficulty the visualization parts of the heart, and above all the ventricles, arising from the specific features carrying out ultrasonic research. Therefore, echocardiography is no single approach to the calculation of volume indicators heart cavities. The article reveals the determination of the volume of the cavities of the heart ventricles by echocardiography, which is important in cardiology. Paper focuses on the left ventricle of the heart, which has the most correct and most accessible form of visualization. Corresponding to each segment of the ventricular cavity volume is determined by calculating the approximate cubature formula for Simpson. Then, summing up all the calculated amounts, we finally obtain the formula for determining the volume of the cavity of the ventricles of the heart. It states that this method is more accurate and reliable than other existing methods.


If the point of view is adopted that in calculations of real-world phenomena we almost invariably have significant uncertainty in the numerical values of our parameters, then, in these calculations, numerical quantities should be replaced by probability distributions and mathematical operations between these quantities should be replaced by analogous operations between probability distributions. Also, practical calculations one way or another always require discretization or truncation. Combining these two thoughts leads to a numerical approach to probabilistic calculations having great simplicity, power, and elegance. The philosophy and technique of this approach is described, some pitfalls are pointed out, and an application to seismic risk assessment is outlined.


Although the Vietnam conflict ended two decades ago, a fierce cultural war over how its literature is to be perceived continues to be waged. Warring Fictions accuses American critics of twenty years of whitewash and reminds us that Vietnam was not just an American anguish and its fiction a rock-and-roll acid trip. From the blind patriotism of The Green Berets to the postmodern hip of Dispatches this book brings history and politics back to the Vietnam War novel. It is a brilliant case study of canon formation and of the role commercial and academic literary institutions have played in assessing Vietnam War fiction; it exposes their complicity in the writing of recent American history and rebukes academic literary culture that speciously purports a radical calling for itself. Beyond an aca-demic audience, this book will challenge all who are piqued by studies of the war and of Vietnam War fiction. And it raises important questions about the interlocking interests and ideologies of literary culture, the publishing industry, the mass media, and the academy. With its exemplary command of actual history and its well-documented investigation of the Vietnam fiction canon, this book throws a probing light on a literary culture whose tastes and attitudes have helped enforce a conservative interpretation of the war. In extraordinary readings of The Quiet American, The Ugly American, The Prisoners of Quai Dong, The Laotian Fragments, Dispatches, The Things They Carried, and In Country, Warring Fictions provides a radical historical perspective on the fiction that emerged from the Vietnam War. Jim Neilson is an instructor in the department of arts and sciences at Trident Technical College.


Analogous to the Motorists roadmap that shows the roads, directions and distances to a destination of a given region [1]. A roadmap in this context is a detailed guideline that answers the "why-what-how" questions and lay out the required actions, the "to-do's." towards adoption of e-payments in the government of Kenya. For Over a decade, the government of Kenya grappled with the idea of implementing a national payment gateway through which all payments for government services, levies, duties, and fines were to be electronically made. For a long period industry players and policy makers in government had unsuccessfully developed varied strategies of achieving a cashless government payment system. These efforts have failed to yield due to lack of a comprehensive roadmap that addressed pertinent issues that had to be dealt with for e-payments in government to be fully adopted. This research was done by conducting a survey study on the government of Kenya on the adoption of e-payments. A random sample of the research population was drawn from ICT and Finance employees of 262 state corporations, 19 Ministries, and 47 counties to which a questionnaire was administered to gain an understanding and information on why there had been low uptake of e-payments in the government of Kenya. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using descriptive statistical techniques. The results from this analysis have been used to propose a roadmap for the adoption of e-payments in the government of Kenya and any other similar setting. General Terms ICT, Payment systems, Government, payment gateway


Savage River Mine consists of a number of large open-cut workings in NW Tasmania, based
on a group of magnetite lenses irregularly distributed within marble, schist and metabasic
rocks of the Bowry Formation, Arthur Metamorphic Complex. The ore bodies strike NNE
within host rocks that have a near vertical N-S striking schistosity.
Historically, the open-cuts have been subjected to small- to large-scale rock failure controlled
by the geology and the groundwater regime. The majority of magnetite extraction since 2009
has been from North Pit, the largest and deepest of the open-cuts in the lease area. This
research includes geotechnical engineering principles and techniques, and structural geology.
The aim is to test whether any advantages can be found by correlating the results from these
two fields. The project developed a structural model of three major fault bounded
assemblages in North Pit and used this as a basis for predicting the geotechnical performance
of future open pit designs. Historical failures have been used to inform the analysis of rock
stability in North Pit. The nature of brittle and ductile movement on faults within North Pit
was studied using the geotechnical data and conventional structural geology data.
Unfavourably orientated brittle features controlling pit wall stability have been identified,
geographically located and described. Structure infill has a major impact on pit wall failure
with hematite filled structures behaving as a release surface for the majority of recent failures.
The terminology of such features in the geotechnical and geological fields has been discussed.
Magnetism in the area and the safety issues involved in accessing pit faces has made
conventional geotechnical and geological mapping techniques difficult. Therefore, research
into alternative mapping methods e.g. photogrammetry, has been carried out. There was
extensive use of drill core logging. The use of the geotechnical database to retrieve geological
conclusions has been attempted and vice versa. Two large-scale brittle faults bound the three rock assemblages in North Pit; the Eastern
Contact Fault (ECF) and the Magnesite Fault. The highest grade ore is located immediately W
of the near vertical N-S striking ECF. This causes inherent mining problems due to pit wall
steepness and rock quality in the area directly affecting pit wall stability. A quartz, dolomite,
talc and graphite rich damage zone is associated with the ECF, ranging from 7 m to 61 m
wide along strike. The characteristics and extent of damage is discussed using structural,
geological and geotechnical methods and data. Although more difficult to constrain, a zone of
similar lithology is present 30 m W of the Magnesite Fault. It is vital that mine planning takes
the nature and extent of the damage zone into account when planning the future expansion of
North Pit.
Pit mapping indicates the presence of two generations of mylonite at the Savage River Mine;
one showing a dip-slip, west-block-up movement regime and the other a strike-slip, sinistral
movement regime. The foliation orientation is similar for both generations of mylonite (i.e.
steeply dipping, N striking), however the older mylonites (Middle Cambrian) have a subhorizontal
stretching lineation. These mylonites contain biotite, and locally preserve
hornblende and Na-Ca amphiboles typical of high P/T metamorphic rocks in Tasmania (e.g.
ferrowinchite). Monazite dating indicates the dip slip mylonites either formed or were
reactivated during the Devonian. The high P/T minerals were not found in these more
widespread Devonian mylonite zones (low greenschist facies mineral assemblages). Neither
of the suites of mylonitic rocks are recorded in the geotechnical database of the mine and the
inability to recognise these rocks is a significant issue for the mine geology. Although the
strike-slip samples show a stronger mylonitic fabric and includes the presence of
ultramylonite, shear sense could also be determined within the dip-slip samples. It is likely
that both generations are mylonites were active at low metamorphic grade.


"This book offers an account of the life of Shibusawa Eiichi, who may be considered the first 'internationalist' in modern Japan, written by his great grandson Masahide and published in 1970 under the title, Taiheiyo ni kakeru hashi (Building Bridges Over the Pacific). Japan had a tortuous relationship with internationalism between 1840, when Shibusawa was born, and 1931, the year the nation invaded Manchuria and when he passed away. The key to understanding Shibusawa's thoughts against the background of this history, the author shows, lies in the concept of 'people's diplomacy,' namely an approach to international relations through non-governmental connections. Such connections entail more transnational than international relations. In that sense, Shibusawa was more a transnationalist than an internationalist thinker. Internationalism presupposes the prior existence of sovereign states among which they cooperate to establish a peaceful order. The best examples are the League of Nations and the United Nations. Transnationalism, in contrast, goes beyond the framework of sovereign nations and promotes connections among individuals and non-governmental organizations. It could be called "globalism" in the sense that transnationalism aims at building bridges across the globe apart from independent nation-states. In that sense Shibusawa was a pioneering globalist. It was only in the 1990s that expressions like globalism and globalization came to be widely used. This was more than sixty years after Shibusawa Eiichi's death, which suggests how pioneering his thoughts were." [Akira Iriye]


With the diffusion of social network sites and applications, social media have become one of the most popular Internet (communication) services. Most of the information exchange that occurs on these social networking sites is not only personal information or entertainment, but also new ways to stimulate citizen engagement in politics because of the fast flowing of videos and news reports. They are incorporating more political issues and public affairs into these social media platforms. The 'Umbrella Movement', which triggered global attention, is a typical case that illustrates the importance of social media in the social movement. During the entire 2014 campaign, social media and social media platforms played a key role in providing students a new way to obtain immediate information from different perspectives and allowing some student leaders to announce strategies or directions to other students or participants in the movement. In an era when students' time and attention are increasingly directed towards social media and social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, these platforms allow students to obtain political information without needing the intermediate role of mass media. Reactions, feedback and conversations generated online are stimulating and facilitate social participation.


If you listen to climate scientists — and despite the relentless campaign to discredit their work, you should — it is long past time to do something about emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. If we continue with business as usual, they say, we are facing a rise in global temperatures that will be little short of apocalyptic. And to avoid that apocalypse, we have to wean our economy from the use of fossil fuels, coal above all. But is it possible to make drastic cuts in greenhousegas emissions without destroying our economy? Like the debate over climate change itself, the debate over climate economics looks very different from the inside than it often does in popular media. The casual reader might have the impression that there are real doubts about whether emissions can be reduced without inflicting severe damage on the economy. In fact, once you filter out the noise generated by special-interest groups, you discover that there is widespread agreement among environmental economists that a market-based program to deal with the threat of climate change — one that limits carbon emissions by putting a price on them — can achieve large results at modest, though not trivial, cost. There is, however, much less agreement on how fast we should move, whether major conservation efforts should start almost immediately or be gradually


The thesis analyses the hydrodynamic induced by an array of Wave energy Converters (WECs), under an experimental and numerical point of view. WECs can be considered an innovative solution able to contribute to the green energy supply and –at the same time– to protect the rear coastal area under marine spatial planning considerations. This research activity essentially rises due to this combined concept.
The WEC under exam is a floating device belonging to the Wave Activated Bodies (WAB) class.
Experimental data were performed at Aalborg University in different scales and layouts, and the performance of the models was analysed under a variety of irregular wave attacks.
The numerical simulations performed with the codes MIKE 21 BW and ANSYS-AQWA. Experimental results were also used to calibrate the numerical parameters and/or to directly been compared to numerical results, in order to extend the experimental database.
Results of the research activity are summarized in terms of device performance and guidelines for a future wave farm installation. The device length should be "tuned" based on the local climate conditions. The wave transmission behind the devices is pretty high, suggesting that the tested layout should be considered as a module of a wave farm installation. Indications on the minimum inter-distance among the devices are provided. Furthermore, a CALM mooring system leads to lower wave transmission and also larger power production than a spread mooring. The two numerical codes have different potentialities. The hydrodynamics around single and multiple devices is obtained with MIKE 21 BW, while wave loads and motions for a single moored device are derived from ANSYS-AQWA.
Combining the experimental and numerical it is suggested –for both coastal protection and energy production– to adopt a staggered layout, which will maximise the devices density and minimize the marine space required for the installation.


This article describes and evaluates a web-based coaching program designed to support teachers in implementing Common Core–aligned math instruction. Web-based coaching programs can be operated at relatively lower costs, are scalable, and make it more feasible to pair teachers with coaches who have expertise in their content area and grade level. Results from our randomized field trial document sizable and sustained effects on both teachers' ability to analyze instruction and on their instructional practice, as measured by the Mathematical Quality of Instruction instrument and student surveys. However, these improvements in instruction did not result in corresponding increases in math test scores as measured by state standardized tests or interim assessments. We discuss several possible explanations for this pattern of results.


Effective use of capital in the design of light rail rights-of-way, track, stations, signal systems, vehicles, and maintenance facilities is a pressing need; wider understanding of this need is vital if light rail is to be seriously considered as a mass transit mode. The anticipated decreased availability of federal capital funds underscores the need to achieve greater results with state and local tax dollars. The TRB Committee on Light Rail Transit decided that there was need for another LRT conference and that it should be structured around the theme of cost-effectiveness. This volume contains many papers that were solicited by the TRB Committee on Light Rail Transit to address specific topics from a particular perspective. Other papers were received in response to a general call for papers on the fairly narrow conference theme. The result is a well-structured coverage of the cost-effectiveness aspects of LRT design, including systems, construction, operation, and vehicles. (Author)


Author(s): Fishkin, Shelley Fisher | Abstract: The Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS) seeks to broaden the interdisciplinary study of American cultures in a transnational context. In her 2004 presidential address to the American Studies Association, Shelley Fisher Fishkin noted the growing recognition that understanding the United States requires looking beyond and across national borders. This "transnational turn" has emphasized the multidirectional flows of peoples, ideas, and goods, and in the process has thrown into question the "naturalness" of political, geographical, and epistemological boundaries. JTAS functions as an open-access forum for Americanists in the global academic community, where scholars are increasingly interrogating borders both within and outside the nation and focusing instead on the multiple intersections and exchanges that flow across those borders. Sponsored by UC Santa Barbara's American Cultures and Global Contexts Center and Stanford University's Program in American Studies, JTAS is hosted on the eScholarship Repository, which is part of the eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library.


The trace fossil Macaronichnus is reported for the first time from low-latitude, tropical settings based on its occurrence in nearshore deposits in the Upper Oligocene–Lower Miocene Naricual Formation and in the Middle to Upper Miocene Urumaco Formation in northern Venezuela. Macaronichnus is an intrastratal trace fossil attributed to the deposit-feeding of worms in high-energy, sandy shallow-marine environments. The majority of its occurrences are from Mesozoic to Cenozoic high- to intermediate-latitude shorelines. The opheliid polychaetes Ophelia limacina and Euzonus mucronata make structures identical to those described from the fossil record in modern intertidal and shallow subtidal sediments of northwestern United States, western Canada, and Japan. Macaronichnus shows a geographical and environmental distribution in the fossil record similar to that of its modern producers and has been proposed as an indicator of high to intermediate latitudes. Accordingly, its presence in the Neogene of Venezuela is highly anomalous and seems to challenge its paleoclimatic value. However, this occurrence may be related to seasonal coastal upwelling of nutrient-rich cold waters. Such oceanographic conditions were prevalent in the northern coast of South America, at least from the Late Oligocene to the Early Pliocene prior to the final closure of the strait of Panama. This study underscores the value of Macaronichnus because its presence in the tropics may indicate upwelling conditions, providing high-resolution information in paleoceanographic reconstructions.


Probabilistic record linkage implies that there is some level of uncertainty related to the classification of pairs as links or non-links vis-à-vis their true match status. As record linkage is usually performed as a preliminary step to developing statistical estimates, the question then is how does this linkage uncertainty propagate to them? In this paper, we develop an approach to estimate the impact of linkage uncertainty on derived estimates by using a re-sampling approach. For each iteration of the re-sampling, pairs are classified as links or non-links by Monte-Carlo assignment to model estimated true match probabilities. By looking at the range of estimates produced in a series of re-samples, we can estimate the distribution of derived statistics under the prevailing incidence of linkage uncertainty. For this analysis we use the results of linking the 2014 National Hospital Care Survey to the National Death Index performed at the National Center for Health Statistics. We assess the precision of hospital-level death rate estimates.


The recent expansion of protected areas and oil palm plantations in Jambi (Sumatra), Indonesia, has been notably disruptive. This article investigates the scalar dimensions of land conflicts within a privately managed conservation area. We built on qualitative research focusing on struggles related to the formation of two informal settlements within the conservation area. Results indicate that, especially in the context of rapid rescaling (e.g., decentralization), new power constellations emerge, thereby altering preexisting property relations. We argue that competing scales of meaning and regulation are structuring the ability of actors to access land and, consequently, reflect tensions between structure and agency.


Computer grids typically combine computational resources of diverse types, such as storage, processing and scientific instruments, spread across different administrative domains. As a result, computer grids are a complex and diversified execution environment, which exhibit high variation of resource availability and node instability, among other problems. This paper presents a model for dynamic interceptors and its use in InteGrade, an opportunistic grid middleware. The use of interceptors aims to provide dynamic adaptation capabilities to InteGrade through its underlying communications middleware, contributing to make InteGrade able to deal with the highly variable execution environment of opportunistic grids. The aim is to show that existing dynamic adaptation capabilities, a common feature of modern distributed systems middleware, can be used to provide a significant level of flexibility to grid computing middleware, mostly displacing the need to (re-)implement specific adaptation mechanisms for the latter kind of middleware.


The increasing desire to adopt more electric equipment and activation in aerospace, marine and land vehicle applications is placing demanding requirements on the specifications of medium-power power converters that are currently difficult to meet. The need to design high-efficiency power conversion systems by choosing between many new power-stage topologies and power-semiconductor device alternatives is very challenging for electronic engineers. The work will focus on a method of accessing converter power stage power loss and efficiency, which may be adopted to compare the performance of the different device types and power conversion topologies. Improvements in fast switching power devices have led to an increased interest in voltage source inverters (VSI) employing pulse width modulation control (PWM) to synthesize variable-voltage and variable-frequency three-phase AC waveforms. Control methods, which generate the necessary PWM patterns and their performance, have been discussed extensively in literature. PWM Modulation methods have been a major research area in power electronics for over three decades and continue to attract considerable attention and interest. The huge amount of material published generally does not include extensive analysis and testing of software tools for accessing the power-conversion efficiency of PWM waveform synthesis methods. The most popular waveform synthesis methods identified are sinusoidal PWM and space vector PWM. This thesis introduced and deals with space vector modulation method since it is being favoured because of its advantage of less switching loss, wide linear modulation range and lower harmonic distortion. A Matlab/Simulink model is presented to implement SVPWM for three-phase VSI. The model gives an insight into the space vector PWM, and power losses calculation. This project will focus on develop power losses modelling to give more accurate analysis of inverter design hence increase system efficiency.


Efficient and reliable assessments of cognitive treatment effects are essential for the comparative evaluation of procognitive effects of pharmacologic therapies. Yet, no studies have addressed the sensitivity and efficiency with which neurocognitive batteries evaluate cognitive abilities before and after treatment. Participants were primarily first episode schizophrenia patients who completed baseline (n = 367) and 12-week (n = 219) assessments with the BACS (Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia) and CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness) neuropsychological batteries in a clinical trial comparing olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that performance on both batteries was characterized by a single factor of generalized cognitive deficit for both baseline performance and cognitive change after treatment. Both batteries estimated similar levels of change following treatment, although the BACS battery required half the administration time. Because a unitary factor characterized baseline cognitive abilities in early psychosis as well as cognitive change after treatment with atypical antipsychotic medications, short batteries such as the BACS may efficiently provide sufficient assessment of procognitive treatment effects with antipsychotic medications. Assessment of cognitive effects of adjunctive therapies targeting specific cognitive domains or impairments may require more extensive testing of the domains targeted to maximize sensitivity for detecting specific predicted cognitive outcomes. (JINS, 2008, 14, 209–221.)Presented in part at the annual International Neuropsychology Society meeting in Portland, OR, February 2007; and the 2007 International Congress for Schizophrenia Research in Colorado Springs, CO.


Transcription is a tightly controlled process that involves the recruitment and prost-translational modification of DNA-associated protein complexes, which can be mapped to the genome using high-throughput experimental assays. An accurate annotation of genomic elements such as transcription units or cis-regulatory elements such as promoters or enhancers is crucial for the use and interpretation of data generated by these assays. Thus, integrative genomic data analysis of high-throughput assays with hidden Markov models (HMMs) has become a popular tool for genome annotation. However, current algorithms are limited by unrealistic data distribution assumptions and variance models. Moreover, they are not able to assign forward or reverse direction to states or properly integrate strand-specific (e.g., RNA expression) with non-strand-specific (e.g., ChIP) data, which is essential to characterize directed processes such as transcription. In this thesis new HMM-based methods are proposed to overcome these limitations. These include (i) bidirectional HMMs (bdHMMs) which integrate strand-specific with non-strand-specific data to infer directed genomic states de novo and (ii) GenoSTAN (Genomic STate ANnotation), a HMM using discrete probability distributions to model count data, for genome annotation from Next-Generation-Sequencing data. Both approaches are made available in the R/Bioconductor package STAN (STate ANnotation) which provides an efficient implementation that can be run on large genomes such as human. STAN is used to derive new and improved annotations of transcription in yeast and human and to generate a map of promoters and enhancers in 127 human cell types and tissues.Integration of transcription factor binding and RNA expression data in yeast recovers the majority of transcribed loci, reveals gene-specific variations in the yeast transcription cycle, identifies 32 new transcribed loci, a regulated initiation-elongation transition, the absence of elongation factors Ctk1 and Paf1 from a class of genes, a distinct transcription mechanism for highly expressed genes and novel DNA sequence motifs associated with transcription termination.Moreover, promoters and enhancers are predicted in 127 human cell types and tissues are mapped by integrating sequencing data from the ENCODE and Roadmap Epigenomics projects, today's largest compendium of chromatin assays. Promoters and enhancers are identified with consistently higher accuracy and show significantly higher enrichment of complex trait-associated genetic variants than current annotations. Investigation of binding of 101 transcription factors in human K562 cells reveals common and distinctive TF binding properties of enhancers and promoters.Application of STAN to transient transcriptome sequencing (TT-Seq) data in human K562 cells recovers stable mRNAs, long intergenic non-coding RNAs, and additionally maps over 10,000 transient RNAs, including enhancer RNAs, antisense RNAs, and promoter-associated RNAs. Further analyses reveal that transient RNAs such as enhancer RNAs are short and lack U1 motifs and secondary structure. Taken together, the annotations inferred in this thesis gave new insights into transcription and its regulation and will be an important resource for future research in genomics. STAN is a valuable tool to create such annotations also in other organisms and as more data becomes available improve the existing ones.


In this paper, we present a novel program synthesis approach that is inspired by symbolic testing. We symbolically execute an unknown template program and constrain the program's behavior over each executed path. As more paths are explored the space of candidate programs narrows until only the valid ones remain. Instead of randomly picking paths, we find that is possible and more efficient to direct path exploration over the unknown template program using a novel technique that parameterizes the symbolic executor by the remaining candidate solutions. We call this approach Pathbased Inductive Synthesis (PINS). We apply PINS to the problem of automatic program inversion. The specification for inversion is implicit as the combination of the original program and the inverse is the identity transform. We observe that an inverse is typically related to the original program and so the space of possible inverses can be inferred by automatically mining the original program for expressions, predicates, and control flow. Using PINS, we show we can synthesize inverses for compressors (e.g., LZ77), packers (e.g., UUEncode), and arithmetic transformers (e.g., image rotations). PINS synthesizes these inverses in a median time of 40 seconds and an average time of 293 seconds, demonstrating the viability of our testing-inspired synthesis approach.


Kunduz: What remains? Intervention, violence and Social Order in Afghanistan Abstract: This article investigates interdependencies between intervening powers and local dynamics in Afghanistan in general and with a focus on the Kunduz region between 2001 and 2015. Using the concept of "Social Order" the authors analyse how understandings of contexts and self-understandings of intervening forces as well as their practices influenced the dynamic of local conflict and led to international repercussions. The intervention in Afghanistan can be seen as an outstanding case to study the change from liberal peace to policing. This change, as it seems currently, is concomitant with shifts in war strategies and international politics.


The intestinal microflora has an important impact on life and has important implications for
health in every human being. Probiotics are life micro-organisms that might have, after
consumption in specific quantities, an impact on human health. The mechanisms by which probiotics
confer their health effects in general terms will be discussed. Specific reports on the probiotics
Bifidobacterium animalis and Lactobacillus paracasei consistently contain statements that both shortterm
and long-term feeding of these probiotics to children aged 1-3 years, infants aged 0-12
months, and even to pre-term infants is not associated with differences in growth, stooling/
defecation patterns, behavioural aspects or history of illness compared to control groups. With
regard to beneficial clinical effects with probiotics in general, the consistent and world-wide
emergence of data that indicate beneficial clinical effects of some probiotic strains like Bifidobacterium
animalis and Lactobacillus paracasei in infants and children cannot be ignored. Especially their potential
benefit in preventing or ameliorating gastrointestinal inflammation and diarrhoea appears to be
a realistic notion. First, inflammatory effects should translate into enhanced immunity,
diminishment of existing unresponsive inflammation and correction of existing immunological
defects. Second, enzymatic activities of probiotic bacteria might correct functional deficits induced
by infectious diseases. Although it is unclear what the relevance is at this moment in time, some
probiotics strains clearly show immune modulating effects in infants.


Attribution of Antarctic ozone recovery to the Montreal protocol requires evidence that (1) Antarctic chlorine levels are declining and (2) there is a reduction in ozone depletion in response to a chlorine decline. We use Aura Microwave Limb Sounder measurements of O3, HCl, and N2O to demonstrate that inorganic chlorine (Cly) from 2013 to 2016 was 223 ± 93 parts per trillion lower in the Antarctic lower stratosphere than from 2004 to 2007 and that column ozone depletion declined in response. The mean Cly decline rate, ~0.8%/yr, agrees with the expected rate based on chlorofluorocarbon lifetimes. N2O measurements are crucial for identifying changes in stratospheric Cly loading independent of dynamical variability. From 2005 to 2016, the ozone depletion and Cly time series show matching periods of decline, stability, and increase. The observed sensitivity of O3 depletion to changing Cly agrees with the sensitivity simulated by the Global Modeling Initiative chemistry transport model integrated with Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications 2 meteorology.


This article describes the findings of a research project which examined the views and practice of social workers undertaking assessments in one local authority following the implementation of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990. While the assessors expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the new system of care management, overall they appeared to be taking the new culture on board. Managers were consistently more enthusiastic than practitioners. Both groups saw needs-led assessment, user choice and keeping users in their own homes as central objectives of care management. The shadowing of ten community care assessments allowed the degree to which these objectives were realized in practice to be explored. Users' experience of the new culture was also studied. The user-practitioner transactions observed suggest that those users who were able to articulate their own needs forcefully were most likely to be able to exercise choice. It is argued that the new culture of community care embodies 'consumer choice' rather than 'user choice'.


Acute Renal Failure following cardio-pulmonary bypass carries a high mortality. It has been shown that hemofiltration improves cardiac function during and after cardiopulmonary bypass by removal of myocardial depressant substances and/or cytokines. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficiency of HV-CVVH with a highly permeable filter, started early in patients with acute renal failure following heart surgery. 36 cardio-surgical patients (mean age 67) were included. Most of the patients were suffering from acute renal failure as a consequence of a low-output syndrome after cardiac surgery. We used cellulose triacetate membrane, surface area 1.9 m2, cutoff 50.000 D. An ultrafiltrate flow was 50-80 ml/min. Parameters of renal function, changes in inotropic support, arterial blood pressure, pulmonary gas exchange (PO2/FiO2, ratio) before and after hemofiltration treatment, were retrospectively analyzed. Values of serum creatinine levels, serum urea levels and doses of dopamine, noradrenaline, enoximone, as well as, values of positive and expiratory pressure and the PaO2/FiO2 ratio before the first, and after or at the end of the last run of HV-CVVH, were compared by the paired t-test. We observed a low incidence of complications related to hemofiltration. Hemofiltration normalized serum urea and creatinine levels within 24 hours. The need for inotropic support after HV-CVVH was lower than before. The PaO2/FiO2 ratio was significantly higher after HV-CVVH than before. In the 29 patients in whom renal function was recovered, the median time of recovery was 96 hours and in 86% of these patients the function recovered within 10 days. Hospital mortality was 30.3%. High volume continuous veno-venous hemofiltration is a safe and effective treatment in post cardiac surgery patients. HV-CVVH seems to improve the cardiac and respiratory functions.