THIOCYANATES have been used in the treatment of hypertension since 1903. The replacement of thiocyanate by newer agents useful in hypertension has resulted in a lack of familiarity with this method of treatment and with the toxicity of the thiocyanate ion. Toxic psychosis caused by thiocyanate overdosage may be misinterpreted as a symptom of hypertensive or cerebral vascular disease. The following case is reported to illustrate the fact that thiocyanate psychosis may still occur and to confirm a previous report of the success of extracorporeal hemodialysis in its treatment. Report of a Case A 68-year-old woman entered the State University of Iowa Hospitals on Sept. 21, 1960. Relatives stated that she had been in excellent mental and physical health until about 6 weeks before when she had consulted her physician because of a minor injury to the leg. She was found to have a blood pressure of 230/115 mm. Hg.


Throughout, the 21th century, the Thai economy has been reforming in every aspect to comply with a technological disruption. In accordance with this disruption, the Thai government has actively delivered several modern technological policies and structural changes in public administration. In the business sector, all business organizations are required to transform their ordinary enterprise management so as to exploit a benefit of the technology stream and maintain their resilience. Our study examines an actual reaction, specifically a use intention of an agricultural business, toward enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology that is the potential transformation to enhance their ordinary management basis. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is the main theory, along with three critical factors of ERP study: government support (GOV), business process-reengineering (BPR) and training (TRA). These are deployed as key indicators to predict intention characteristics of the agricultural enterprise. The questionnaire survey is used to capture quantitative study of the rice mill industry, which is a representative of the agricultural industry. In addition, those survey results are evaluated with the path analysis under the structural equation modeling technique. The study reveals that three critical factors and two factors from the TAM have both positive direct and indirect relationships to the possibility of the agricultural organization to deploy ERP into use. In terms of managerial implication and policy recommendation, the BPR is determined as the key parameter to fulfill the intention of ERP adoption.


This is the first book to offer a comprehensive review of current research in the psychology of sports coaching. It provides detailed, critical appraisals of the key psychological concepts behind the practice of sports coaching and engages with contemporary debates in this field. Organised around three main themes, it discusses factors affecting the coaching environment; methods for enhancing coach performance; and how to put theory into practice through coaching work.

Written by an international team of researchers and practitioners at the cutting edge of psychology and coaching, each chapter introduces a key concept, defines key terms, provides a comprehensive literature review, and considers implications for future research and applied practice. Encompassing the latest developments in the field, it addresses topics such as:

the theory behind effective coaching
creating performance environments
promoting psychological well-being
developing resilience through coaching
transformational leadership and the role of the coach.

The Psychology of Sports Coaching: Research and Practice is an indispensable resource for sport psychologists and sports coaches, and is essential reading for all students and academics researching sport psychology.


2015 has seen a 65-year-old German mother with 13 children expecting quadruplets, a media storm over the testing of new reproductive techniques on actual human pregnancies, and the autobiography of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown. In such a year, it seems pertinent for the Consumer Correspondent column to explore the issue of not being able to have a child.

This is not the first such exploration. It was in 2008 that this column first interviewed three women whose fertility was in question.1 Kate had become perimenopausal at the age of 36 years. Jane, in her mid-20s, had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, making it uncertain that she could conceive. Maria had been told that her heart condition meant she would be unwise to give birth.

The 2008 article concluded that none of these women felt fully supported in facing their situation. Information was scarce, support for their attempts to be fully involved in their diagnosis was even scarcer and, in particular, acknowledgement of their emotions was almost non-existent. I ended the 2008 article by suggesting that health professionals might find those judgments "hard to hear … but necessary".

Have things improved, especially around acknowledgement that infertility is an emotional issue and needs support? In search of answers, I have looked beyond the medical profession to the media for indications of increased awareness, public opinion for evidence of greater sympathy, and private and public health sectors to see whether more help is now available. I also returned to the original interviewees to see what the intervening years have been like for them; none has since had children and for two the issue remains unresolved. I also contacted two women for whom infertility has been an issue more recently: Harriet (who decided not to undergo fertility treatment) and Felicity [whose …


The present study aims at identifying the levels of job satisfaction and stability for a sample number of Aqaba Ports Corporation's (280) employees. The sample was selected using the method of stratified random sampling technique, and it depends upon the descriptive analysis theoretically and practically. The study derives its importance from the significant role of the Corporation in developing Jordan economy. It also shows that there is a strong relationship between the work environment, direct boss, the employee's skill usage and the level of job satisfaction and stability. Nevertheless, the relationship appears to be adverse between the superior administration, incentives and the level of job satisfaction and stability. The study recommends the necessity of providing incentives, improving work environment and enhancing the relationship between the administration and its subordinates.


Seven cultivars were planted at different locations and dates to obtain estimates of genotypic and environmental variability. The characters tested were found to be significantly affected by both location and planting date. The β carotene and ascorbic acid were found to be heritable to an appreciable degree, and are suspected to be under multigenic control. β carotene was significantly and negatively correlated with colour while the ascorbic acid contents were significantly and positively correlated with the reducing sugars of the seven cultivars.


Part of a Special Issue on the New Legal History, this article compares the expansion of rights, institutional changes and judicial empowerment in the EU with that of nineteenth century American legal practices.


Recently, a great amount of interest has been shown in the field of modeling and controlling hybrid systems. One of the efficient and common methods in this area utilizes the mixed logicaldynamical (MLD) systems in the modeling. In this method, the system constraints are transformed into mixed-integer inequalities by defining some logic statements. In this paper, a system containing three tanks is modeled as a nonlinear switched system by using the MLD framework. Comparing the model size of the three-tank system with that of a two-tank system, it is deduced that the number of binary variables, the size of the system and its complexity tremendously increases with the number of tanks, which makes the control of the system more difficult. Therefore, methods should be found which result in fewer mixed-integer inequalities. Keywords—Hybrid systems, mixed-integer inequalities, mixed logical dynamical systems, multi-tank system.


Memory errors continue to compromise the security of today's systems. Recent efforts to automatically synthesize exploits for stack-based buffer overflows promise to help assess a vulnerability's severity more quickly and alleviate the burden of manual reasoning. However, generation of heap exploits has been out of scope for such methods thus far. In this paper, we investigate the problem of automatically generating heap exploits, which, in addition to finding the vulnerability, requires intricate interaction with the heap manager. We identify the challenges involved in automatically finding the right parameters and interaction sequences for such attacks, which have traditionally required manual analysis. To tackle these challenges, we present a modular approach that is designed to minimize the assumptions made about the heap manager used by the target application. Our prototype system is able to find exploit primitives in six binary implementations of Windows and UNIX-based heap managers and applies these to successfully exploit two real-world applications.


The application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in different Lithuanian and global education contexts has been analyzed for several decades. Scientific works present insights on how the ICT might be applied not only in the general education context, but also among specific training subjects. Specialized ICT means are being used in teaching music: sound and image technologies, special software for music training, self-studying, and composing. Therefore, besides the ICT, the concept of the music computer technologies is used. The music computer technologies (hereinafter MCT) is a multi-purpose electronic computer equipment with the installed software for music composition, editing, and other music-related activities as well as training. It is the tools used for listening to music, performing, creating it or otherwise used practically which open new possibilities for teachers and students of participation in the creative musical activity. Scientific works exploring the specifics of the MCT application in the music education process indicate that display software and sound reconstruction equipment help to know the global music culture in an imaginative, interesting, and integrated way, the composition software provides all students with the possibility to try themselves in music creation. Although the significance of the MCT application in the music education process is recognized, still organization of music creational activities using the MCT as well as the recognition of musical creativity raise many challenges to educators. The Planning and organization of the educational process, selection of education contents and methods, and the character of the evaluation system depend on the teacher's ability to recognize a creative pupil, what music creativity manifestation he / she attributes to the pupil. However, there is still a lack of the research that would reveal the peculiarities of the development of senior class pupils' musical creativity and MCT application in the practice of musical education. Therefore, planning the empirical investigation, the essential issues were raised: how musical creativity of senior class pupils using the MCT is recognized, how teachers of music plan and organize the MCT process of the development of senior class pupils' musical creativity. Object of the research – senior pupils' musical creativity and its development by using musical computer technologies (MCT). Purpose of the research – to reveal the peculiarities of senior pupils' musical creativity and its development by using the MCT on the basis of teachers' experience. Methods of the research – analysis of scientific literature, interview with teachers of music. Methodology of the research. The interview with 10 teachers of music made during the research should be attributed to the type of half-structured, otherwise called directional, interview. The questions to the teachers of music were divided into two groups. The first group helped to find out how music teachers recognize the creativity of senior class pupils. The teachers were inquired what features they base on to recognize the musical creativity of the pupils using the MCT. The second group questions helped to find out how teachers plan and organize the process of the development of senior pupils' musical creativity by using the MCT. Summation of the research results. The musical creativity of senior class pupils using the MCT is recognized according to the process and result of music creation. Pupils' musical creativity expression in the process of music creation is related to the character of their musical and MCT work experience as well as to their involvement into musical creational activity. The musical and MCT work experience facilitates the process of creation, and the musical creation by the pupils who acquire it is typical of an unconventional form of the piece, variety of musical instruments applied, untraditional music style, and individual means of expression. The products of the pupils who acquire less experience are based on models provided by the musical software and samples of music encountered in various social contexts. The following features characterize pupils' musical creativity expression according to the result of music creation: an idea of the piece and originality of its implementation ways, the completeness and unconventionality of the music form, the variety of music style selection, expediency of musical expression means, and their inter-tune. The informants understand the process of musical creativity development as an individualized, consistent and purposeful process. The teachers refer to the fact what knowledge students are short of (language of music, composing technique, MCT), encourage them to share their knowledge, experience, to discuss issues, and to search for solutions. The pupils who have experience in music analysis and MCT application are provided with the conditions to form their music targets on their own, the freedom to decide what and how they want to create. The teacher becomes a consultant, assistant who renders special musical or creation technique-related knowledge. Evaluating the pupils' creation process and its results, an idiographic perspective is predominant, when an individual advancement and efforts of a student are being discussed. While evaluating, special attention is paid to group discussions, analysis and evaluation of one'sown music compositions and those of classmates.


In this report we describe and present experimental results from correction of the accelerator optics during acceleration and preparation for collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL. Past experiences with beam optics correction at RHIC have concentrated on measurements and corrections at store beam energies. While well-corrected store beam optics is desirable for maximizing beam and polarization lifetime, well-corrected beam optics during the ramp is also desirable for example to reduce the strength of depolarizing resonances. With optics measurements on the ramp at every 2 or 4 seconds, corrections were computed for several fixed points on the ramp using a well-tested weighted Singular Value Decomposition algorithm. Successful implementation of correction on the second part of the ramp (rotator ramp), together with some observations on the first part of the ramp (the energy ramp) will be presented.


Light extraction efficiency (LEE) in AlGaN deep ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is investigated using finite-difference time-domain simulations. For flip-chip LED structures, LEE is obtained to be <;10% due to strong UV light absorption in the p-GaN layer. In addition, LEE of transverse-magnetic (TM) modes is found to be more than ten times smaller than that of transverse-electric (TE) modes, which explains the decreasing behavior of external quantum efficiency of UV LEDs with decreasing wavelengths.


Since its inception in the 1920s attempts to manage the microbiological safety and quality of foods relied almost entirely on the retrospective-analytical strategy, borrowed from food chemistry. Whereas it was effective in that instance, it failed completely limited significance of negative test results due to the sporadic and erratic character of the colonization of most processed foods and the almost perennial state of flux of the microbial community structure of the majority of foods. Pioneers in public health in the United States, United Kingdom and France emphasized that the lack of management of microbial risks in foods, as demonstrated by the steadily increasing incidence and variety of food-transmitted infections and intoxications, called for a different strategy, i.e. one striving for containment by intervention. A forward control approach including a processing-for-safety step applied to raw materials of animal origin, as succesfully adopted in the dairy industry, was explicitly recommended. The expert recommendations were not to a marked extent heeded until the space age. As no microbiological risks could be tolerated when feeding astronauts, Bauman introduced the now generally accepted HACCP approach: hazard analysis enabling subsequent control of critical practices. that maxim was soon extended to the entire food processing and catering industries, whereby the need for longitudinal extension -from the farm gate to the consumer's plates was advocated. After the HACCP strategy had culminated in numerous textbooks and course manuals, some scientists felt that the once sanctified monitoring could henceforth be abandoned. Following this swinging of the pendulum in the opposite direction would, however, introduce a novel risk. The option: to monitor or not to monitor should definitively be answered in an affirmative way. In spite of meticolous adherence to HACCP-based good practices occasional human, instrumental or operational hiatuses can and will occur. In order to allow their rapid identification and rectification, rational monitoring of line and final product samples remains a pressing need. As a rule, reliance can be placed upon the use of accurately quantified tests for marker organisms, whose taxonomic, physiological and ecological properties are similar to pathogens of common occurrence although they are far more abundant in the raw foods acting as the source of contamination of finished products. Strict adherence to previously adopted analytical precautions is also henceforth called for. This includes: 1) expertly elaborated testing of culture media, before use, for productivity and selectivity; 2) carefully designed resuscitation procedures to be applied to the injured population fractions, encountered in processed foods; 3) assessment of attainable, maintainable and adequate protection affording reference ranges (standards); and 4) education and recredentialling of laboratory staff through short courses through by professional tutors methods should be as simple as reliability allows, so as to enable as many samples to be examined as statistical considerations dictate.


Though dental hand-skill training is one of the most important subjects in dental education, the entire training period has tended to decrease due to limited class schedules. Therefore, the improvement of dental hand-skill training is an essential issue in dental education. In such a case, virtual reality (VR) dental hand-skill training is considered one of the useful candidates for this purpose, because students can use
the system at their convenience without having a trainer. To date, numbers of VR dental hand-skill training systems have been introduced.VR dental training system has characteristics that reproduce a mixed reality, including visual, sound and tactile
sensations.Though these properties efficiently contributed to raising skills when training dental students, there still remain problems to be solved, such as the inaccuracy of tactile feeling when cutting the virtual tooth, in the VR training system.
The constructed model introduced in this lecture could be a promising tool for acquiring dental hand skills in a virtual learning system.


The Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) product suite currently contains 12 products, including leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, fraction of green vegetation coverage, gross primary production, broadband albedo, broadband longwave emissivity, downward shortwave radiation and photosynthetically active radiation, land surface temperature, downward and upwelling thermal radiation, all-wave net radiation, and evapotranspiration. These products are generated from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite data. Their unique features include long-term temporal coverage (many from 1981 to the present), high spatial resolutions of the surface radiation products (1 km and 0.05°), spatial continuities without missing pixels, and high quality and accuracy based on extensive validation using in situ measurements and intercomparisons with other existing satellite products. Moreover, the GLASS products are based on robust algorithms that have been published in peer-reviewed literature. Herein, we provide an overview of the algorithm development, product characteristics, and some preliminary applications of these products. We also describe the next steps, such as improving the existing GLASS products, generating more climate data records (CDRs), broadening product dissemination, and fostering their wider utilization. The GLASS products are freely available to the public.


The relationship between the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and exchangeable sodium ratio (ESR) in a Solonetzic soil association of the Black soil zone of East-Central Alberta was examined. Highly significant correlations between ESR and SAR were determined for the A and B horizons of this soil association, although the regression equations were different for each horizon. The slope of the regression line indicated that Na was adsorbed three times more strongly, relative to Ca, in the B horizon than in the A horizon. The difference in adsorption was attributed to differences in soil properties, particularly clay and organic matter content, between the two horizons. Equations to calculate exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) from SAR were also determined for the two horizons studied. To relate the soluble Na levels to exchangeable Na in the Duagh-Malmo soil association, appropriate equations should be used for each horizon. Also, data showed that an SAR of 3 in the B horizon corresponds to an exchangeable C...


We perform numerical experiments to investigate the influence of inelastic neutrino reactions with light nuclei on the standing accretion shock instability. The time evolutions of shock waves are calculated with a simple light-bulb approximation for the neutrino transport and a multi-nuclei equation of state. The neutrino absorptions and inelastic interactions with deuterons, tritons, helions and alpha particles are taken into account in the hydrodynamical simulations in addition to the ordinary charged-current interactions with nucleons. Axial symmetry is assumed but no equatorial symmetry is imposed. We show that the heating rates of deuterons reach as high as ∼ 10% of those of nucleons around the bottom of the gain region. On the other hands, alpha particles heat the matter near the shock wave, which is important when the shock wave expands and density and temperature of matter become low. It is also found that the models with heating by light nuclei have different evolutions from those without it in non-linear evolution phase. The matter in the gain region has various densities and temperatures and there appear regions that are locally rich in deuterons and alpha particles. These results indicate that the inelastic reactions of light nuclei, especially deuterons, should be incorporated in the simulations of core-collapse supernovae.


Knowledge of the forces acting on the drive train of a machine is important for testing and Design for Reliability. In the case of angle grinders, these forces arise primarily at the contact between the workpiece and the grinding disc. Previous state-of-the-art approaches can determine the dynamic tool forces. Thereby it remains unclear whether the dynamic tool forces also correspond to the dynamic forces on the drive train since the dynamic force transmission via a grinding disc is not taken into account. Therefore, this article shows an approach to how the transmission behavior of a tool can be modeled by transfer functions to calculate the load on the drive train from the tool forces. It is shown that transfer functions for constant operating points can be generated by a test rig in three force directions and that these transfer functions can be merged for different grinding discs. It is also shown that the load of the drive train differs from the load from the tool forces. This means that the transmission behavior of tools such as grinding discs must be taken into account when testing and Design for Reliability. With the chosen approach, a solution is shown how the load on a drive train can be determined via transfer functions of a grinding disc from tool forces.


Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have been extremely successful in various application domains. Adversarial image synthesis has drawn increasing attention and made tremendous progress in recent years because of its wide range of applications in many computer vision and image processing problems. Among the many applications of GAN, image synthesis is the most well-studied one, and research in this area has already demonstrated the great potential of using GAN in image synthesis. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy of methods used in image synthesis, review different models for text-toimage synthesis and image-to-image translation, and discuss some evaluation metrics as well as possible future research directions in image synthesis with GAN.


Western influence on the Middle East is a theme that deservedly attracts attention of many scientists from various fields of study. Many theories with regard to the modern political history of the region have been produced and discussed. One of the authors that came out with an influential concept was Edward Said. In his critique of Orientalism (Orientalism, 1978), Said focuses on Western conceptions of the Middle East and its outcomes. The book became worldwide famous for its direct assault on Western society and its imperial politics. An influential attitude is taken by another prominent scientist, Bernard Lewis, who represents an opposition to Said´s opinion. This survey is geared towards presenting the work of Baghdad-born British historian Elie Kedourie, who maintains with regard to given topic very interesting position as well. In the course of his career Kedourie mainly focused on modern Middle Eastern history, with a consideration to British political influence in the region. Kedourie tried to analyse factors which brought Ottoman Empire to decline and Middle Eastern region to general long-lasting crisis. In his writings Kedourie questioned the matter of suitability of Ottoman reforms based on European examples. He also occupied himself in detail with the issue of McMahon-Husayn correspondence and its interpretations, as well as with the Sykes-Picot agreement. He polemised with official viewpoints of British establishment and, usually with criticism, he assessed measures of British foreign politics. His revolutionary interpretations are believed to have changed the scientific approach of the view on modern history of the Middle Eastern countries.


Observers can rapidly perform a variety of visual tasks such as categorizing a scene as open, as outdoor, or as a beach. Although we know that different tasks are typically associated with systematic differences in behavioral responses, to date, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Here, we implemented a single integrated paradigm that links perceptual processes with categorization processes. Using a large image database of natural scenes, we trained machine-learning classifiers to derive quantitative measures of task-specific perceptual discriminability based on the distance between individual images and different categorization boundaries. We showed that the resulting discriminability measure accurately predicts variations in behavioral responses across categorization tasks and stimulus sets. We further used the model to design an experiment, which challenged previous interpretations of the so-called "superordinate advantage." Overall, our study suggests that observed differences in behavioral responses across rapid categorization tasks reflect natural variations in perceptual discriminability.


The opossum genome sequence furnishes a critical comparator for examining the evolutionary histories of vertebrate genomes in general, and provides the most appropriate outgroup sequence for establishing the relative antiquity or novelty of genetic features among the major lineages of eutherian ('placental') mammals. Comparative analyses using the opossum genome have already provided a wealth of evidence regarding the importance of noncoding elements in the evolution of mammalian genomes, the role of transposable elements in driving genomic innovation, and the relationships between recombination rate, nucleotide composition, and the genomic distributions of repetitive elements. This article summarizes key features of the opossum genome and discusses their implications for better understanding the varied processes that contribute to genome evolution and how changes in structural organization, complexity, and molecular functions of mammalian (and other) genomes can lead to differences in gene regulation, expression, and action among and within species.

Key concepts:

Because the pace of evolutionary change varies for different classes of genomic elements, the power of comparative genomic analysis is dependent on the availability of genomic data from organisms occupying key phylogenetic positions that enable comparisons of both slow and fast evolving genomic features.

Metatherian (marsupial) and eutherian (placental) mammals are each other's closest relatives. During divergence from their common ancestor they evolved distinctive morphologic, physiologic, and genetic variations on the elemental mammalian patterns. These distinctions hold great potential for examining relationships between the molecular structures of mammalian genomes and the functional attributes of their components.

Representing the Metatheria, the opossum genome furnishes a crucial reference for examining the evolutionary histories of vertebrate genomes in general, and provides the most appropriate outgroup sequence for establishing ancestral versus derived polarity for genomic and genetic features among the major lineages of eutherian mammals.

The opossum genome sequence has provided new evidence regarding the importance of noncoding elements in the evolution of mammalian genomes, the role of transposable elements in driving genomic innovation, and the relationships between recombination rate, nucleotide composition, and the genomic distributions of repetitive elements.

The opossum genome is comprised of eight very large autosomes and a sex chromosome (X or Y), and exhibits extremely low levels of meiotic recombination relative to other mammalian genomes examined.

The opossum genome exhibits the lowest levels of G and C nucleotides known among sequenced amniotes.

At least 52% of the opossum genome is composed of interspersed repeat family elements—the highest level known from sequenced amniotes.

Low recombination rate may contribute to the unusual nucleotide composition and the high levels of interspersed repeat elements in the opossum genome.

The protein-coding gene complement of the opossum genome is very similar to that of eutherian mammals and other vertebrates.

Conserved noncoding genomic elements (CNEs) show high levels of novelty between opossum and eutherian genomes and strong lineage specificity among eutherian clades. This finding strengthens the idea that in mammalian evolution alterations in the repertoires of noncoding elements that regulate protein-coding gene function may be more important than changes in the structures or numbers of protein-coding genes.

The opossum genome has provided new evidence regarding the structure of the ancestral eutherian karyotype and the evolution of genomic imprinting. It also furnishes new tools to study the evolution and function of the mammalian immune system and the phenomenon of X-chromosome inactivation.

Keywords:

comparative genomics;
marsupials;
genome evolution;
recombination;
phylogeny


Programs of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) encompass a range of issues and disciplines, all related to motor carrier safety and security. FMCSA's Office of Analysis, Research and Technology defines a "research program" as any systematic study directed toward fuller scientific discovery, knowledge, or understanding that will improve safety, and reduce the number and severity of commercial motor vehicle crashes. Similarly, a "technology program" is a program that adopts, develops, tests, and/or deploys innovative driver and/or vehicle best safety practices and technologies that will improve safety and reduce the number and severity of commercial motor vehicle crashes. An "analysis program" is defined as economic and environmental analyses done for the agency's rulemakings, as well as program effectiveness studies, state-reported data quality initiatives, and special crash and other motor carrier safety performance-related analyses. A "large truck" is any truck with a Gross Vehicle Weight rating or Gross Combination Weight rating of 10,001 pounds or greater.


The application of self tuning controllers as power system stabilizers in power system is considered. This paper presents an application of discrete self tuning controllers based on pole placement for damping electromechanical oscillations of power system. Controller design is mainly based on a discrete model using the delta operator δ which converges to a continuous model with decreased sampling period rather than the more usual shift operator. Simulation studies performed on a single-machine infinite-bus power system are presented. Results clearly show the benefits of the proposed adaptive controller for stability enhancement of power system especially where there is large change in operating point.


A new example of a structurally characterized conjugated bis-guanidinate (CBG) supported zinc(I) dimer, i.e., LZnZnL (3) (L = {(ArNH)(ArN)-CN-C(NAr)(NHAr)}; Ar = 2,6-Et2-C6H3) with a Zn-Zn bond is reported. Moreover, homoleptic (3) and heteroleptic (Cp*ZnZnL, 2, (Cp* = 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethyl cyclopentadienide)) zinc(I) dimers are used as precatalysts in the dehydroborylation of a wide array of terminal alkynes. Furthermore, the active catalyst, CBG zinc acetylide (LZn-CC-Ph-4-Me)2, (5), is isolated which is confirmed by X-ray crystal structure analysis. A series of stoichiometric experiments have been performed to propose a plausible reaction mechanism.


Young persons tied to wheelchairs increasingly report fears and inhibitions in romantic attachments, irrespective of whether they are paraplegic or not. More frequently they complain about being gaped at and being pitied by healthy persons more than they would like. Being tied to the wheelchair had a significant relation to these results, but not gender, age and illness variables. A high demand for psychosocial counselling during rehabilitation is deduced from these results, in particular also for young people without paraplegia.


The behavior of focus samples central to the multiple-look model of Trabasso and Bower (1968) is examined by three methods. First, exact probabilities of success conditional upon a certain brief history of stimulation are determined. Second, possible states of the organism during the experiment are defined and a transition matrix for those states determined, permitting prediction over all possible numbers of trials. Third, Fisher's generalizations and corrections of the Trabasso and Bower focus sample theory are examined. A general solution for the conditional probability of success is derived from Fisher's equation for the probability of n successes between any two errors. One very strong implication of the theory is given in Section 5.


The Ohmic conductance and current through two quantum dots in series is investigated for the case of incoherent tunnelling. A generalised master equation is employed to include the discrete nature of the energy levels. Regions of negative differential conductance can occur in the I-V characteristics. Transport is dominated by matching energy levels, even when they do not occur at the charge degeneracy points.


We obtain generalized common fixed point theorems for a sequence of fuzzy mappings, which is a generalization of the result of Lee and Cho [6].


A rapid growth of documents available on the Internet, digital libraries, medical documents, news wires and other scientific document corpuses has motivated the researchers to propose many text mining techniques that help users to quickly retrieve trace and summarize the information in an effective way. Topic detection is one such technique which discovers precise, meaningful and concise labels for the formulated static document clusters. This technique helps the user to navigate and retrieve the needed information quickly and efficiently. Topic updation is the process of identifying and renewing the discovered labels whenever the document clusters are updated dynamically. This paper focuses on topic updation model based on Testor theory. The proposed work is experimented using 20newsgroup and scientific literature data set. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm exhibit better performance, compared to the existing algorithms for topic detection.


Received Oct 14, 2020 Revised Jun 1, 2021 Accepted Jun 11, 2021 The aim of this project was to detect and locate the single ground failure lines that occurs in medium voltage (MV) networks on the transmission lines (TL). Compared with anther faults, single line-to-ground (SLG) is the most frequent. The neural network (NN) algorithm was advanced in order to discover and locate SLG faults. The network is simulated through simulated numerous defects at various locations, as well as changing earth resistance from (or 100 Ω) to TL to gather all of the data. In the electromagnetic transients' program (EMTP) program software, the existing fault have been measured. In addition, the waves were evaluated by utilize MATLAP's fastfourier-transform to calculate the waves of top three of them, On the MV network are fifty hundred faults are simulated all data in the neural network at MATLAB were trained and examined to improve the NN algorithm according to this data. Comparing all the simulated location faults that have been applied with those all locations detected in the NN algorithm, the overall error between them has been found to be very low and not to exceed 0.7. The Simulink circuit was created from this algorithm and checked in order to predict each failure could occur in the future in the MV network.


In January 1840, Samuel Holberry a Sheffield Chartist, was committed to trial at Sheffield Assizes for seditious conspiracy. A critical examination of the evidence presented at the committal hearing and subsequent Assize trial demonstrates that the court process was entirely one-sided. The quality of the evidence used to secure a conviction was, at the very least, suspect, and the prosecution appear to have withheld evidence that could have vindicated Holberry. An in-depth analysis of the case seeks to lay bare the workings of the coercive and judicial powers of the nineteenth century state.


This research aims to analyze the factors that influence the profitability of
Islamic insurance companies in Indonesia. This study used firm size, volume of
capital, asset tangibility, premium growth, and liquidity as independent variables
and return on assets as the dependent variable.
The number of samples in this research were 24 Islamic insurance
companies that were determined by purposive sampling method. This study used
secondary data from the financial statements of sharia insurance companies
registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in 2014-2017. The
analytical method used in this study is multiple linear regression analysis where
previously performed classical assumption that includes normality test,
multicollinearity test, autocorrelation test, and heteroscedasticity test.
The results of this research showed that firm size and volume of capital have
a positive and significant effect on return on assets. Tangibility assets have a
negative and significant effect on return on assets. Premium growth and liquidity
have a positive and insignificant effect on return on assets.


We studied families of discrete dynamical systems obtained by using iteration functions given by weighted power mean in order to understand the role of hyperrapid convergence in nonlinear maps. Our interest resides in concepts related to the velocity of convergence. We introduce new concepts regarding the time of convergence and we provide an ordering of these families according to their dependence on parameters.


Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a maladaptive response to chronic pressure overload and an important risk factor sudden death in patients with heart failure. Previous studies show that LVH is a risk factor for systolic heart failure. It's interesting to examine whether Isolated Systolic Hypertension (ISH) in the presence of LVH contribute to clinical outcome. Objective: The aims of this study to examined association of ISH with cardiovascular outcomes and to examined associations of ISH and LVH in Heart failure registry patient Methods: A total of 120 subject's were collected from Saiful Anwar Heart Failure Registry from January 2017 to December 2017. All participants were individually interviewed with a structured questionnaire for collecting baseline characteristic. Subject were classified into 2 group of hypertension (ISH and Systolic Diastolic Hypertension (SDH)). ISH based on the criteria of SBP ≥ 140 and DBP < 90 mmHg and SDH based on SBP ≥ 140 and DBP ≥ 90 mmHg. The EF and volumes were measured with 2D-biplane Simpson's method by measured as a standart manner Results: ISH commonly found among older hypertensive patients than SDH (Mean age 61,23 ± 11,2 yo vs 53,52 ± 11,1 yo, respectively, p < 0,04). LVH was more prevalence among ISH than SDH. No difference in clinical outcome such as in hospital mortality, Rehospitalization, and Lengt of stay were observed in both groups. Complication of hypertension was similar in both groups such as stroke, Myocardial Infarct, and Chronic Kidney Disease. Intrestingly, no difference also observe in compliance to the drug between ISH and SDH. We also examined subgroup analysis of subject's with ISH. There was no statistically significant difference in clinical outcome between ISH with LVH and ISH without LVH. Conclusion: In this study, we suggest that ISH more common in older patient with HF than SDH but had similar associations with cardiovascular mortality and rehospitalization. ISH was associated with a higher prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy than SDH.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to validate Eclipse Electron Monte Carlo (Algorithm for routine clinical uses.

METHODS
The PTW inhomogeneity phantom (T40037) with different combination of heterogeneous slabs has been CT-scanned with Philips Brilliance 16 slice scanner. The phantom contains blocks of Rando Alderson materials mimicking lung, Polystyrene (Tissue), PTFE (Bone) and PMAA. The phantom has 30×30×2.5 cm base plate with 2cm recesses to insert inhomogeneity. The detector systems used in this study are diode, tlds and Gafchromic EBT2 films. The diode and tlds were included in CT scans. The CT sets are transferred to Eclipse treatment planning system. Several plans have been created with Eclipse Monte Carlo (EMC) algorithm 11.0.21. Measurements have been carried out in Varian TrueBeam machine for energy from 6-22mev.

RESULTS
The measured and calculated doses agreed very well for tissue like media. The agreement was reasonably okay for the presence of lung inhomogeneity. The point dose agreement was within 3.5% and Gamma passing rate at 3%/3mm was greater than 93% except for 6Mev(85%). The disagreement can reach as high as 10% in the presence of bone inhomogeneity. This is due to eclipse reporting dose to the medium as opposed to the dose to the water as in conventional calculation engines.

CONCLUSION
Care must be taken when using Varian Eclipse EMC algorithm for dose calculation for routine clinical uses. The algorithm dose not report dose to water in which most of the clinical experiences are based on rather it just reports dose to medium directly. In the presence of inhomogeneity such as bone, the dose discrepancy can be as high as 10% or even more depending on the location of normalization point or volume. As Radiation oncology as an empirical science, care must be taken before using EMC reported monitor units for clinical uses.


The ECG (Electrocardiogram) signal represents electrical activity of heart and is recorded for monitoring and diagnostic purpose. These signals are corrupted by artifacts during acquisition and transmission predominantly by high frequency noise due to power line interference, electrode movements, etc. Addition of these noise change the amplitude and shape of the ECG signal which affect accurate analysis and hence need to be removed for better clinical evaluation. In this paper, ECG signal taken from MIT -BIH database is first denoised using Total Variation Denoising (TVD); using Majorization minimization (MM) optimization technique. ECG signals generate massive volume of digital data, so they need to be suitably compressed for efficient transmission and storage. Hence, for efficient compression the signal is segmented into various sections using Bottom-Up approach. The individual sections are then approximated using Chebyshev polynomials of suitable orders. The performance of the approximation technique is measured by computing the Maximum Absolute Error, the Compression Ratio, Root Mean Square Error, Percent Root Mean Square Difference and Percent Root Mean Square Difference Normalized. The results are also compared with other techniques as reported in the literature, where significant improvements in all the performance metrics are observed.


Abstract The present paper sets out to investigate whether the conservative or upper RP accent of selected elderly speakers, namely three of the Mitford sisters, all members of the English aristocracy, manifests change or diachronic stability and uniformity over time. The typical conservative RP features looked for were: the LOT-CLOTH split, absence of the CURE-FORCE merger, SQUARE vowel realised as diphthong /εə/, SMOOTHING, KIT vowel in unstressed ending syllables and TRAP vowel realised as /æ/ instead of /a/. The procedure of the study consisted in the identification of the presence or absence of these specific features in the speech of three selected speakers in recordings made over, at least, a 15-year time span. The individuals studied were: Lady Mosley (née Diana Freeman-Mitford), Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford and Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford). The results of these comparisons suggest that elderly upper RP speakers are not highly influenced by changes in pronunciation taking place around them and mostly maintain the preferred pronunciation of their youth. In some cases, however, a general uncertainty amongst speakers of the accent, here detected in the presence of the CURE-FORCE merger, does affect the speech of individuals over the course of time.


If money multipliers are stable, there is a relationship between the controllable variable - base money (B) - and intermediate targets such as M1, M2, and M3. These intermediate targets have a long-term and stable relationship with the final target, the price level. If potential output, money demand, and velocity are predictable, a strategy of monetary targeting can be successful in the period before Slovenia joins the European Monetary Union. This article examines the stability of money multipliers and transmission mechanisms from money to prices for Slovenia. It concludes that these are sufficiently stable to make monetary targeting a feasible monetary policy for Slovenia. ments between tolar and foreign currency deposits that are included in it. The target annual growth rate of aggregate M3 in 1997 was 14–22 percent, and 18–26 percent in 1998. In 1998, aggregate M3 increased by 22.2 percent, only 2.2 percentage points above the lower limit. The target for 1999 was an annual increase of M3 by 16–24 percent and for 2000, 12–18 percent (Bilten BS). We will test stability of the relationship between monetary and real aggregates in Slovenia. Such stability is the prerequisite for effective monetary policy, including a policy of inflation targeting. The Transmission of Monetary Impulses Tobe successful, monetary policy must include an accurate assessment


We have measured low-temperature size-selective photoluminescence excitation spectra of high-quality InP quantum dots prepared by collodial chemistry. A set of samples with mean emission energies in the range from 1.9 to 2.2 eV was investigated. All samples have a size distribution of about 10{percent}, resulting in an inhomogeneously broadened photoluminescence lineshape. Due to the finite size distribution, spectra were collected at different detection wavelengths to reveal the energies of the excited excitonic states. The size dependence of the quantization energies of InP nanoparticles was determined by measuring photoluminescence excitation at different detection energies within one sample. Up to eight excited-state transitions in a set of seven samples were observed, as the estimated quantum dot size was scanned from 1.8 to 4.0 nm. A comparison of the observed peaks with a six-band {bold k}{center_dot}{bold p} calculation is given. In contrast to the successful interpretation in the case of CdSe, no agreement between the calculated and the observed excited-state energies is achieved. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}


The aim of this study was to analyze antioxidant activity, total phenolics, and vitamin C content in unripe and ripe jujube cultivar and to investigate correlation between antioxidant and chemical constituents including total phenolics and vitamin C. The antioxidant activity was measured by the DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity, and reducing power. Although, the weight, diameter and soluble solids of Zyziphus jujuba fruit were increased with the progress of ripening, antioxidant activity and total phenolics were decrease during ripening. The highest free-radical scavenging activity (at 2.5 ㎎/㎖) and reducing power (at 1 ㎎/㎖) in fruit were 81.75% (Bokjo, unripe) and 0.80 (Mudeung, unripe), respectively. The highest total phenolic content in unripe fruit of Mudeung was 62.50 ㎍/g. A linear correlation (r=0.911) was shown between DPPH radical scavenging activity and total phenolic content.


This work revolves around the two following questions: Given a convex body $C\subset\mathbb{R}^d$, a positive integer $k$ and a finite set $S\subset\mathbb{R}^d$ (or a finite Borel measure $\mu$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$), how many homothets of $C$ are required to cover $S$ if no homothet is allowed to cover more than $k$ points of $S$ (or have measure larger than $k$)? How many homothets of $C$ can be packed if each of them must cover at least $k$ points of $S$ (or have measure at least $k$)? We prove that, so long as $S$ is not too degenerate, the answer to both questions is $\Theta_d(\frac{|S|}{k})$, where the hidden constant is independent of $d$. This is optimal up to a multiplicative constant. Analogous results hold in the case of measures. Then we introduce a generalization of the standard covering and packing densities of a convex body $C$ to Borel measure spaces in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and, using the aforementioned bounds, we show that they are bounded from above and below, respectively, by functions of $d$. As an intermediate result, we give a simple proof the existence of weak $\epsilon$-nets of size $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon})$ for the range space induced by all homothets of $C$. Following some recent work in discrete geometry, we investigate the case $d=k=2$ in greater detail. We also provide polynomial time algorithms for constructing a packing/covering exhibiting the $\Theta_d(\frac{|S|}{k})$ bound mentioned above in the case that $C$ is an Euclidean ball. Finally, it is shown that if $C$ is a square then it is NP-hard to decide whether $S$ can be covered using $\frac{|S|}{4}$ squares containing $4$ points each.


Stigma has been noted as a major obstacle of mental health service use among African Americans. The present study investigated whether mental health stigma and self-concealment were uniquely associated with attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services in African American college students. Data of 163 African Americans (n Female = 127; 78% female) were used for present analyses. Results revealed that both mental health stigma and self-concealment were uniquely associated with help-seeking attitudes after controlling for gender, age, and previous experience of seeking professional psychological services.


The intense competition imposed by the current global market, forces companies to implement lean manufacturing techniques. Major progress has already been made in this field and factories continue to reduce costs and lead times. Within this context, the crucial impact of logistics on production efficiency renders the design and planning of the supply chain a key factor in the reduction of costs and the maximisation of product availability. The logistics of an assembly workshop are usually specified empirically, which often generates an overestimation of its needs. Therefore, the current study focuses on these needs and introduces the ACW (assignment of components in warehouses) method for optimising the assignment of components to storage areas. This original method is based on a successive resolution of cost assessments, shortest path problems and generalised assignment problems. It takes into account congestions in the network of aisles that appear during the loading/unloading stages of material handling. A case study of Renault's Flins factory is detailed to validate the proposed method.


The Social Internet of Things (SIoT) now penetrates our daily lives. As a strategy to alleviate the escalation of resource congestion, collaborative edge computing (CEC) has become a new paradigm for solving the needs of the Internet of Things (IoT). CEC can provide computing, storage, and network connection resources for remote devices. Because the edge network is closer to the connected devices, it involves a large amount of users' privacy. This also makes edge networks face more and more security issues, such as Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, unauthorized access, packet sniffing, and man-in-the-middle attacks. To combat these issues and enhance the security of edge networks, we propose a deep learning-based intrusion detection algorithm. Based on the generative adversarial network (GAN), we designed a powerful intrusion detection method. Our intrusion detection method includes three phases. First, we use the feature selection module to process the collaborative edge network traffic. Second, a deep learning architecture based on GAN is designed for intrusion detection aiming at a single attack. Finally, we propose a new intrusion detection model by combining several intrusion detection models that aim at a single attack. Intrusion detection aiming at multiple attacks is realized through the designed GAN-based deep learning architecture. Besides, we provide a comprehensive evaluation to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We propose in this paper a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based digital image watermarking technique. For embedding process, we consider the watermark signal as a binary sequence which is embedded to the high (HL and HH) frequency band of the blue channel. For detecting process, the correlation between the high frequency band DWT coefficients of the watermarked image and the watermark signal is compared with the predefined threshold to determine whether the watermark is present or not. The experimental results show that the method is comparatively robust to several attacks such as rotation, scaling, JPEG compression, cropping, and multiple watermarking.


NCCPA, in collaboration with NBME, has begun an investigation that may lead to the development of standards for measuring continued competence. In 1981, the 1980 Primary Care Physician's Assistants Certification Examination was administered as a recertification examination to 1,166 PAs who were originally certified in 1975. The scores were standardized by using the standardization constants for the 1980 Certification Examination reference group. There was a difference between the performance of the certification examinees and the performance of the recertification examinees, with recertification examinees doing less well on all sections than the certification examinees. Correlations calculated between recertificants' performance on their original certification examination and their performance on the recertification examination showed a positive relationship between the two examinations. Their performance on a variety of biographical variables was also analyzed, and the only variable that significantly changed their performance was their current employment status. The validity of the test for making judgments about the competence of experienced practitioners was not addressed by the current study and is a crucial question in evaluating the test as a recertification instrument.


Rational drug use is a function of prescription practices having medical, social, and economic implications. A household level cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prescribing practices and extent of rational therapy in the rural area of 24 pgs (s) South district. Following multistage stratified random sampling, 250 households were selected for the study from 24 pgs South, West Bengal, India. Medical care received by morbid persons was noted as per prescription details, wherever available. The results indicate that of the total of 485 morbid episodes, 302 were treated at some healthcare facility and prescriptions were available for 137 (45.36%) only. Injection use was seen in 9.49% of the prescriptions. In all, 29.20% prescriptions contained at least one antibiotic. This observation was more or less the same among the private and public practitioners (34%). The average number of drugs found was 3.153 per prescription. Overall 63.51% prescriptions were found to be irrational. The prescribing practices and use of drugs have been found to be truly unsatisfactory.


This study was carried out in 13 fishing operations in the inner harbor area of Sinop, from September through November of 2004. Trammel nets were used, which has 32 mm mesh size and target fish species of the fishing gear is red mullet (Mullus barbatus) in the study. Three net groups were used in the experiments, without selvedge (A0) for the control net, multifilament with selvedge (A1) and monofilament with selvedge (A2) respectively. 65.3% Osteichthyes fish (696 individuals), 16.8% Mollusca (179 individuals), 16.4% was Arthropoda (175 individuals) and 1.5% was Chondrichthyes fish (16 individuals) of catch obtained from the operations were form. A total 124 individuals as the target species (red mullet), 398 individuals as bycatch species, and 544 individuals as discarded species were captured sea trials. Catch ratio of A0, A1 and A2 nets were determined 51.88%, 21.58% and 26.55% respectively. 48.38% of the target species, 30.40% of the bycatches and 57.53% of the discarded catch were caught by the A0 net. 25.81% of the target species, 45.23% of the bycatches, and 18.57% of the discard catch were caught with A1 net. 25.81% of the target species, 24.37% of the bycatch and 24.37% of the discarded catch were caught by the A2 net. The results showed that the use of selvedge (guarding net) on trammel nets in the Black Sea coastal fisheries caused a slight decrease in target fish catch, but significantly decreased the amount of discarded catch.


A novel reactor characterized by the addition and internal loop of carrier was developed and its performance was examined with synthetic domestic wastewater. The internal loop was achieved by injecting air through a gas aerator located at the reactor bottom, the aim was to produce aerobic and anoxic area in the reactor and bring about the nitrification and denitrification in a single reactor. The CODi¼ŒNH4 +-N and TN removal efficiency in the reactor and the biomass change on the carrier were investigated, COD removal efficiency of 80% was achieved in three weeks after the initiation of the reactor, the biomass on the carrier peaked 7.27kg/m3 after 55 days. The reactor had a steady COD removal efficiency with an average removal rate of 80% at the influent COD range of 200-600mg/L, or at the COD volumetric load of 0.71-2.16 kgCOD/m3.d; the maximum removal of NH4 +-N and TN were 97.7% and 52.5%. The test results showed the novel reactor effectively removed TN and COD in domestic wastewater, it can realized the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) process by adjusting the macro-environment and the stratification of bioflim in a microscopic scale in the reactor


We developed a latent curing, low outgassing wafer level underfill (WLUF) material and applied fast temperature ramping to achieve 100% electrically and metallurgically good flip chip solder joints. Also, void formation within the underfill material during the bonding process was minimized. Subsequently, these voids were virtually eliminated during a post cure process of the WLUF material which uses pulsed amplitude pressure. A WLUF with 60% (weight) filler was applied by spin coating onto a wafer with Pb-free solder bumps. Following B-stage curing at 90°C, the thickness was measured to be 20 microns over the solder bump height. In the B-staged state, this WLUF is stable at room temperature for several weeks. After the wafer was diced into chips, a chip was aligned and joined to a substrate with an optimized heating and cooling cycle. This WLUF assembly process has been evaluated using a flip chip test vehicle with 150 micron pitch and 3,300 area array solder bumps. The chip bumps were SnAg solder and the pre-solder on the substrate was SnAgCu. The size of the test chip was 9 × 13 mm and the test substrate was 42.5 × 42.5 mm. The test chip and substrate were designed to allow both two and four wire contact resistance measurements of the electrical interconnect structures. We successfully demonstrated 100% electrically and metallurgically good Pb-free joints. Voids inside the WLUF after flip chip bonding were decreased significantly using the pulsed amplitude pressure, post cure process. Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) analysis showed nearly void-free underfill bonding. After JEDEC level three preconditioning, environmental stress testing was completed and included 1000 deep thermal cycles of −55 to 125°C; 1000 hrs at 85C/85% temperature and humidity; and 1000 hrs of 150°C high temperature storage. Contact resistance measurements were made at time zero, after preconditioning and every 250 cycles or hours of environmental stress. The contact resistance measurements were stable on all parts. Detailed material and process development, and reliability test results are described in this paper.


The project to divert the flow of the Arno occupied Leonardo da Vinci's mind during the troubled years of 1503-1504, as he was commissioned by the city of Florence to investigate its feasibility, and to study its military consequences in the war against Pisa. Aside from the "Leonardian" aspects of the project (such as the dream of mastering the power of nature, or the fascination for spirals and waves, etc.), this article sets out to cast some light on its historical and political context. Indeed, the reading of the verbali gathered together in the Consulte e Pratiche della Republica fiorentina authorizes us to see Leonardo from a different perspective, and to ask some interesting questions: how does the idea of diverting the river echo the imagination of the men of his time ? What were the real aims of the city in hiring Leonardo: to use his genius, or only his name and reputation as Borgia's military engineer? And how, finally, does the Leonardian project match Piero Soderini's political vision of Florence's country planning ?


A hidden concrete column was built at the core of the T-shaped joints composed of plaster- concrete compound panels in order to study their earthquake resistant behavior. In this paper, earthquake resistance tests were performed on two types of composite T-shaped joints, six samples in total, in which the horizontal steel bars were embedded and not embedded in their core, to analyze the mechanical deformation, cracking, hysteretic behavior, ductility, and stiffness degeneration of the composite T-shaped joints as well as their energy dissipation properties such as damping coefficient, energy dissipation coefficient, and power ratio coefficient. The two types of composite joints composed of interior and exterior compound walls were found to have good mechanical properties. A comparison of the various indicators for the two types of T-shaped joints revealed that embedding the horizontal steel bars embedded in the web and flange of the T-shaped joints in their core can help improve the earthquake resistance and energy dissipation properties of the composite T-shaped joints.


The IVIC syndrome derives its name from the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientìficas, where it was described by Arias et al. [Am J Med Genet 6:25-59, 1980]. We report on several individuals in a family with the IVIC syndrome, the second described in the literature. In this family there are 3 affected individuals in 2 generations. This observation shows that the IVIC syndrome is not a private syndrome, and confirms that it is due to an autosomal dominant mutation.


The involvement of mitochondrial dysfunction in various pathophysiological conditions, developed in experimental and clinical situations, is widely documented. Nevertheless, real time monitoring of mitochondrial function In-vivo is very rare. The pressing question is how the mitochondria of intact tissues behave under In-vivo conditions as compared to isolated mitochondria that had been described by Chance and Williams over 50 years ago. This subject has been recently discussed in detail (Mayevsky and Rogatsky 2007). We reviewed the subject of evaluating mitochondrial function by monitoring NADH fluorescence together with microcirculatory blood flow, Hemoglobin oxygenation and tissue reflectance. These 4 parameters represent the vitality of the tissue and could be monitored in vivo, using optical spectroscopy, in animal models as well as in clinical practice. It is a well known physiological hypothesis that, under emergency conditions, the sympathetic nervous system will give preference to the most vital organs in the body, namely the brain, heart and adrenal glands. The less vital organs, such as the skin, GI-tract, and Urethral wall, will become hypoperfused and their mitochondrial activity will be inhibited. The monitoring of the less vital organs may reveal critical tissue conditions that may manifest an early phase of body deterioration. The aim of the current presentation is to review the experimental and preliminary clinical results accumulated using a new integrated medical device – the "CritiView" which enabled, for the first time, monitoring 4 parameters from the tissue using a single optical probe. The CritiView is a computerized optical device that integrates hardware and software in order to provide real time information on tissue vitality. In preliminary clinical testing, we used a 3-way Foley catheter that includes a bundle of optical fibers enabling the monitoring of the 4 parameters, representing the vitality of the urethral wall (a less vital organ).We found that the exposure of patients to metabolic imbalances in the operation room led to changes in tissue blood flow and inhibition of mitochondrial function in the urethral wall. In conclusion, the new device "CritiView" could provide reliable, real time data on mitochondrial function and tissue vitality in experimental animals as well as in patients.


Objectives: Cytokines and chemokines potentially modulate postoperative immune response. Association of circulating cytokines and chemokines with postoperative infectious complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy was evaluated. Methods: Plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL) 6, IL-10, IL-8, macrophage chemoattractant protein 1, heat shock protein 70, and amylase, as well as amylase levels in peritoneal exudative fluid, were measured perioperatively in 60 consecutive patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy. Results: Of the 60 patients, 27 patients had surgical site infection (SSI), including peritoneal infection in all, intra-abdominal abscess in 14, and radiologically visualized pancreatic leakage in 6. Postoperative plasma levels of IL-6, IL-8, and macrophage chemoattractant protein 1, as well as peritoneal amylase levels, were significantly higher in patients with SSI than in those without SSI (P < 0.05). Nonpancreatic cancer as a histopathologic diagnosis, high pancreatic juice flow, and increased levels of IL-6 and IL-8 were independently associated with SSI (P < 0.05) in multiple logistic regression analysis. Plasma levels of IL-6 and IL-10 among patients with SSI were significantly higher in those with pancreatic leakage than in those without leakage. Conclusions: These results suggest that, in addition to pancreatic exocrine function, IL-6 and IL-8 are associated with postoperative SSI, including pancreatic leakage after pancreaticoduodenectomy.


In this paper we study the equation , where q(x) = O(e−δ|x|), δ > 0, and . Assuming that u(x) satisfies impedance boundary conditions on xn = 0, we prove that the scattering amplitude at fixed energy determines the potential function q(x).


Micro and small enterprises development is a universally proven strategy against poverty notwithstanding, enterprises' failure. Using a qualitative design, this study investigated experiences of unsuccessful micro and small enterprise cooperatives at Bahir Dar City Administration, North West Ethiopia. In-depth interview, observation, and field notes were used to collect primary data. The findings revealed that micro and small enterprise cooperatives' failure involve these phases: pre-formation, formation, operation, pre-collapse, and collapse where some concerns at early stage pass in to the next, accumulate with emerging challenges and result in group deformation. Hence, awareness creation program on group formation in collective owned micro and small enterprises; training on business management strategies which could be in form of expansion, products/market differentiation and formation of alliances; and prompt support of stakeholders to micro and small enterprises are suggested to enhance success stories of micro and small enterprise cooperatives. Keywords: Micro and small enterprises, collapse, grounded theory, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia


In a service-oriented architecture systems communicate by exchanging messages. Message passing provides for robust and loosely coupled interaction but it also provides less structure than traditional RPC models, which are based on a fairly rigid request-response interaction style. Instead, messages exchanged over time between a set of parties can form a multitude of conversations. An expressive contract between communicating parties should define a coordination protocol that describes which conversations are legal. Such a protocol can be expressed in different ways, for example through choreography or public endpoint process definitions. The purpose of conversations patterns is to document common forms of conversations in the design pattern format, highlighting design trade-offs and popular implementations.

As part of the Dagstuhl Seminar 06291 on The Role of Business Processes in Service Oriented Architectures in July 2006 we held a Workshop on Conversation Patterns. In this paper, we report on the results of this workshop.


SIRS, We read with great interest the systematic review by Czuber-Dochan et al. about factors associated with, and management of, fatigue in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This article highlights a growing interest for patient-reported outcomes, such as fatigue, in IBD. Fatigue was reported to affect 41–48% of patients in remission, and 86% of those with active disease. Interestingly, in contrast to other chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (920 articles) and multiple sclerosis (1449 articles), only 195 articles were published so far on PubMed regarding fatigue and IBD. Fatigue became a major concern in IBD patients in both clinical trials and clinical practice. However, factors associated with fatigue in IBD were poorly known. Czuber-Dochan et al. identified some physical, psychological and social factors that may contribute to the development or severity of this patient-reported outcome in IBD, including disease activity, number of relapses, anaemia, quality of life, depression, anxiety, unemployment and financial difficulties. Importantly, only the FACIT-F tool, that was originally developed in oncology patients with anaemia, has been validated for assessing fatigue in IBD. 4 In conclusion, we believe that fatigue should always be evaluated in clinical practice and become a major secondary endpoint in IBD clinical trials, even though treatment of this patient-reported outcome remains a challenge in 2013. The identification of factors associated with fatigue in IBD may allow the development of targeted strategies with the final aim of improving patients' quality of life.


Study Design A series of 10 patients surgically treated with prevascular or retrovascular extraoral retropharyngeal approach to the upper cervical spine is examined. Objectives In orthopedic surgery, retropharyngeal approach may replace the transoral surgery, obviating the risks of infection and the uncomfortable postoperative course of cases in which median labiomandibular glossotomy was used to accomplish complex bone reconstruction. Summary of the Background Data The transoral approach is reported in literature as the classical anterior access to the upper cervical spine that provides direct exposure for anterior decompression of the spinal cord. The risks, the surgical limits, and the postoperative difficulties of transmucosal access suggest the use of an anterior extraoral retropharyngeal approach in orthopedic surgery. Methods The series includes four neoplastic lesions (osteoma, aneurismal bone cyst, giant cell tumor, solitary metastasis), three retropharyngeal ossifications resulting from diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, and a single case of os odontoideum, craniocervical malformation, and postlaminectomy kyphosis. Results At follow‐up evaluation, all patients achieved a satisfactory outcome, with good clinical and radiographic results; nasotracheal intubation obviated the need for tracheostomy. The wide surgical exposure allowed reconstruction with iliac strut bone grafts and internal fixation in six patients, avoiding the need of a halo device. The only complications were four instances of transient palsies of the marginal mandibular branch of the facial nerve. Conclusions In the anterior surgery of the upper cervical spine, the prevascular approach allows a wide surgical exposure, with visualization similar to that obtained with median labiomandibular glossotomy. The retrovascular approach is indicated in selected cases, such as tumor adjacent to the vertebral artery and C1‐C2 arthrodesis with bilateral transarticular screws according to Barbour.


We have studied classical and quantum solutions of (2+1)-dimensional Einstein gravity theory. Quantum theory is defined through the local conserved angular momentum and mass operators in the case of spherically symmetric spacetime. The de Broglie–Bohm interpretation is applied to the wavefunction and we derive the differential equations for the metric. By solving these equations, we obtain the quantum effect for the metric and compare them with the classical metric. In particular, the quantum effect on the metric for the closed de Sitter universe is estimated quantitatively.


Objectives: The effects of inflammatory and degenerative arthritis on carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are not well known. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess whether rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) increase the risk of CTS. Method: Literature searches were conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate until January 2015. Twenty-three (five cohort, 10 case control, and eight cross sectional) studies qualified for the meta-analyses. A random-effects meta-analysis was used and heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed. Results: Both RA and OA were associated with CTS. Pooled unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) were 1.91 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.33–2.75, I2 = 55.2%, nine studies, n = 10 688] for arthritis (either inflammatory or degenerative), 2.91 (95% CI 2.33–3.62, I2 = 22.3%, 11 studies, n = 74 730) for RA, and 2.13 (95% CI 1.65–2.76, I2 = 39.2%, five studies, n = 20 574) for OA of any joint. Pooled confounder-adjusted ORs were 1.96 (95% CI 1.21–3.18, I2 = 73.1%, six studies, n = 11 542) for arthritis, 1.96 (95% CI 1.57–2.44, I2 = 32.2%, eight studies, n = 72 212) for RA, and 1.87 (95% CI 1.64–2.13, I2 = 0%, two studies, n = 19 480) for OA. There was no evidence of publication bias, and excluding cross-sectional studies or studies appraised as having a high risk of selection bias did not change the magnitude of the associations. Conclusions: The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that both RA and OA increase the risk of CTS. Further prospective studies on the effect of wrist OA on CTS are needed.


Design the formula of UV waterless offset ink, through changing the content of padding, different ink samples that with different rheological properties were made. Proof with the IGT printability tester, and the printing qualities of inks were tested. The influence of rheological properties on the printing quality of ink was analysis. The results show that the rheological properties influence the printing quality directly. The higher the viscosity of ink is, the bigger the thixotropy is, and the smaller the fluidity is. The solid density, gloss, ink-transfer rates and dot gain of the printed matter decrease with the increase of ink's yield value.


Background/Objective: Skin fibrosis is the result of aberrant processes leading to abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the dermis. In healthy skin, keratinocytes participate to maintain skin homeostasis by actively crosstalking with fibroblasts. Within the wide spectrum of fibrotic skin disorders, relatively little attention has been devoted to the role of keratinocytes for their capacity to participate to skin fibrosis. This systematic review aims at summarizing the available knowledge on the reciprocal interplay of keratinocytes with fibroblasts and their soluble mediators in physiological states, mostly wound healing, and conditions associated with skin fibrosis. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search on PubMed to identify in vitro and ex vivo human studies investigating the keratinocyte characteristics and their interplay with fibroblasts in physiological conditions and within fibrotic skin disorders including hypertrophic scars, keloids, and systemic sclerosis. Studies were selected according to pre-specified eligibility criteria. Data on study methods, models, stimuli and outcomes were retrieved and summarized according to pre-specified criteria. Results: Among the 6,271 abstracts retrieved, 73 articles were included, of which 14 were specifically dealing with fibrotic skin pathologies. Fifty-six studies investigated how keratinocyte may affect fibroblast responses in terms of ECM-related genes or protein production, phenotype modification, and cytokine production. Most studies in both physiological conditions and fibrosis demonstrated that keratinocytes stimulate fibroblasts through the production of interleukin 1, inducing keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) and metalloproteinases in the fibroblasts. When the potential of keratinocytes to modulate collagen synthesis by healthy fibroblasts was explored, the results were controversial. Nevertheless, studies investigating keratinocytes from fibrotic skin, including keloids, hypertrophic scar, and scleroderma, suggested their potential involvement in enhancing ECM deposition. Twenty-three papers investigated keratinocyte proliferation differentiation and production of soluble mediators in response to interactions with fibroblasts. Most studies showed that fibroblasts modulate keratinocyte viability, proliferation, and differentiation. The production of KGF by fibroblast was identified as key for these functions. Conclusions: This review condenses evidence for the active interaction between keratinocytes and fibroblasts in maintaining skin homeostasis and the altered homeostatic interplay between keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts in scleroderma and scleroderma-like disorders.


The task of modern creativity in advertising is to find fresh, interestprovoking ways of conveying meaningful information realistically and on the reader"s own terms. As Nilsen says, "in many ways, advertisers are today"s pop culture poets. They value the power and the flexibility of the English language just as much as do their literary colleagues on college campuses and writing colonies." 2 Though their purpose is different they employ many of the same literary techniques as do the most skilled literary writers. The various linguistic techniques employed in advertisements help to achieve the first aim of advertising-to catch the attention of the reader. The copywriter widens and deepens the potentialities of the language in several ways. The language in advertising is adapted to/for a well defined social purpose. A number of factors motivate a copywriter to write the advertisements in one way rather than another: the medium for which the advertisement is designed, the type of audience for which it is intended etc. Such predispositions vary according to the type of advertising.


Deminsys is the world's fastest multi sensor / multi channel FBG interrogator, identifies one till four channels with
typically 8 sensors per channel. The system is especially developed for the interrogation of signals up to 19,3 kHz for
each sensor and the sample frequency is independent of the number of sensors. By having multiple sensors per fibre you
can create a very compact network of sensors. Due to its revolutionary (light weight, compact and solid state) design,
Deminsys seems to fit perfectly into (research) programs for aerospace, medic & life science, maritime, industrial, crash
test and all other fast detection applications.
Technobis Fibre Technologies (TFT) and NLR made a first test flight with the Deminsys optical fibre measurement
system using the NLR test aircraft on October 24th 2008. This flight was a first step in the further development of the
current system in order to make it suitable for operation on-board an aircraft and bring it from TRL3 towards TRL5, a
functional model for aerospace applications.


Though vasculitic diseases have been claimed to be associated with anti-endothelial cells antibodies (AECA), there is a widespread awareness of the limitations of the tests currently in use. Our objective was therefore to establish clones, in the hope that some of them would express disease-specific membrane autoantigens. Two EC lines and 7 clones were estab lished by fusing human umbilical vein EC with epithelial A549/8 cells, and cloning by limit ing dilution. An additional clone was derived from the EA.hy 926 cell line. All clones carried EC markers, such as thrombomoduline (TM) and platelet-EC adhesion molecule 1 but differed from each other, depending on whether they expressed HLA class II antigen, LFA-1, thrombospondin receptor or von Willebrand factor (vWf) antigen. Clones were also characterized by their ability to release tissue plasminogen activator, interleukin 6, TM and vWf. This panel is meant to distinguish reactivities of AECA.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Radiotherapy is a critical component in the definitive treatment of locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC), and while concurrent platinum-based chemoradiation is the standard approach, improvements have been minimal. Molecularly-targeted therapy to further enhance radiation effects beyond platinum-sensitization is needed to further improve radiotherapy efficacy. A systematic approach needs to be developed that can rapidly identify novel drugs that can be combined to enhance radiation effects. However, current approaches using traditional clonogenic survival assay (tCSA) and colorimetric assays are inadequate for high throughput drug screens to identify novel radiation sensitizers. To enable screens adapted for radiation drug screening, we have developed a method which we coin the High Throughput Clonogenic Survival Assay (HCSA) that allows rapid screening of drug libraries to identify potent radiation sensitizers. As a proof-of-principle, we used the Kras mutated lung cancer cell line H460, and validated the hits using traditional assays. Drugs at various concentrations or vehicle were added to cells seeded overnight in 96 well plates at low densities, and after 6 hours, plates were irradiated at various doses. After incubation, colonies were stained and imaged on the INCell 6000® (GE Health), and colony count determined using the INCell Developer image analysis software. Drug screens were done using a Custom Clinical Collection of 150 compounds. We compared the HCSA method to tCSA and found that HCSA recapitulates a similar cell survival curve and survival fraction at 2 Gy (SF2) values for several cancer cell types. Drug screens identified several compounds that were cytotoxic to the KRAS mutant H460 cells alone at 1 µM (inhibitors to Src/Abl, IGF1R, ROCK1, AKT, PI3K, c-MET) and at low nM concentrations (HSP90 and HDAC inhibitors). Multiple drugs of the same class were found to be radiation sensitizers and levels of potency seemed to reflect the clinical relevance of these drugs. For instance, several late generation PARP inhibitors were found to be good sensitizers in the HCSA, but the ones that have not made it into clinical development, or in the case of BSI-201, was proven to not even be a PARP inhibitor, do not come out in the screen. We also discovered that several inhibitors of pathways downstream of activated mutant KRAS (PI3K, AKT, mTOR, and MEK1/2) sensitized H460 cells to radiation, which is biologically relevant for this Kras mutant cell line. We believe these results demonstrate the promise of HCSA as a high throughput drug screening platform to identify novel radiation sensitizers. This will greatly expedite the discovery of novel targets and drugs for clinical translation to enhance the effects of radiotherapy in lung cancer.

Citation Format: Steven H. Lin, Hui Liu, Yawei Qiao, Uma Giri, Jing Zhang, Clifford Stephan, Mary Sobieski, John V. Heymach, Stephen S. Yoo. High content clonogenic survival assay for drug library screening identifies potent radiation sensitizers for non-small cell lung cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4898. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4898


Aerosols and clouds provide the largest uncertainty in the atmospheric radiation budget. The main focus of this thesis was to investigate the ability of organic compounds in aerosol particles to form clouds, and more specifically those emitted by living organisms. The cloud forming properties of the highly water-soluble methyltetrols and polyols, which are compounds produced by plants and fungi that are common in aerosol, were studied. All compounds and their salt mixtures have a moderate potential to serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). They are thus not likely to have a significant global impact on cloudiness. The potential presence of surfactants released by microorganisms was investigated for aerosols sampled at different locations. Very low surface tension values were measured for these aerosol extracts (30 mN/m), which implies that these aerosols have good CCN properties and indicate the presence of biosurfactants. Their occurrence in aerosols still needs to be confirmed directly by chemical identification. Reactions of organic compounds in sulfate salt solutions exposed to UV-light were studied and found to produce surface active compounds. Thus, mixed sulfate/organic aerosol could have more favourable CCN properties after exposure to light than when kept in the dark. The surface active compounds were proposed to be long-chained organosulfates with hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts, similar to other amphiphilic surfactants. Mixtures of salt and strong surfactants formed by bacteria were studied using two different techniques for determining their CCN properties. There were inconsistencies between the two methods which could be accounted for by surface partitioning. The studied mixtures were determined to be good potential CCN material in both techniques. All these aspects require further investigation, but if the impact of strong biogenic surfactants on cloud formation is confirmed, a new link between living organisms and climate would be identified.


We demonstrate that a time-varying delay in nonlinear systems leads to a rich variety of dynamical behaviour, which cannot be observed in systems with constant delay. We show that the effect of the delay variation is similar to the Doppler effect with self-feedback. We distinguish between the non-resonant and the resonant Doppler effect corresponding to the dichotomy between conservative delays and dissipative delays. The non-resonant Doppler effect leads to a quasi-periodic frequency modulation of the signal, but the qualitative properties of the solution are the same as for constant delays. By contrast, the resonant Doppler effect leads to fundamentally different solutions characterized by low- and high-frequency phases with a clear separation between them. This is equivalent to time-multiplexed dynamics and can be used to design systems with well-defined multistable solutions or temporal switching between different chaotic and periodic dynamics. We systematically study chaotic dynamics in systems with large dissipative delay, which we call generalized laminar chaos. We derive a criterion for the occurrence of different orders of generalized laminar chaos, where the order is related to the dimension of the chaotic attractor. The recently found laminar chaos with constant plateaus in the low-frequency phases is the zeroth-order case with a very low dimension compared to the known high dimension of turbulent chaos in systems with conservative delay. This article is part of the theme issue 'Nonlinear dynamics of delay systems'.


http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-7368 AbsTRACT The subject of the research is the relationship between the amount of fiscal equalization grants and the length of transport routes in the regions. The study aims to test the hypothesis that the current formula for intergovernmental equalization creates disincentives for developing the road network in the regions. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that equalizing interterritorial inequality and regional infrastructural development are the most important goals regional policy, whose instruments should not contradict. The current formula for distributing fiscal equalization grants contains a negative relationship between the length of transport routes in the regions and the amount of the transfer. That is, with an increase in the length of roads, the amount of grants to regions with initially low transport accessibility decreases. The author used the method of simulation modeling to quantify the reduction in grants to regions with low transport accessibility in the case of an increase in the length of roads in 2020 and to assess the potential impact of this decrease on the policy of regional authorities. As a result , the author revealed that while maintaining the current dynamics of road construction, an increase in the length of transport routes will lead to a decrease in the volume of grants to regions within 1%, which is insignificant regarding incentives. However, with an increase in the road network of hard-to-reach regions by one and a half times or more, this decrease may become critical. The work provides the estimate of the minimum additional fiscal revenue required to compensate for the lost income of the region with an increase in the length of transport routes. A further study may provide more details on the impact of the road industry development on the own revenues of regional budgets.


In the syndrome of hypokalemic alkalosis, aldosteronism, elevated plasma renin and normal blood pressure, the juxtaglomerular apparatus shows hypertrophy and hyperplasia of all elements. Renal handling of sodium is abnormal: despite excessive delivery of proximal fluid to distal sites so that potassium secretion is excessive, free water formation is subnormal. The syndrome is frequently familial, but no inherited case is known. In erythrocytes low sodium efflux coefficient and high sodium concentration may serve as "markers" for the syndrome. In two cases, products of consanguineous relations, autosomal recessive inheritance is suggested.


Borges has a rare ability to put wild ideas into detective stories with a unique reporting style. At least that is the impression that we got from reading his short stories. In particular, one of his short stories is worth noting: Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius . The story told us about a mysterious country called Uqbar, apparently in an unofficial reprint of Encyclopedia Britannica . It also tells about Tlon, a mysterious planet, created purely by imaginative minds. While this story clearly criticizes the Berkeleyan view and may be not related to our daily reality, a reinterpretation of this story leads us to a long-standing discourse in the philosophy of science: To what extent does the entirety of modern physics follow such a Berkeley-antirealism tendency? This paper intends to bring this subject to our attention. We will also briefly discuss antirealism in certain trends in theoretical physics and cosmology.


Walter Benjamin and Rem Koolhaas developed two significant investigations, which explored the culture of Paris and New York through the analysis of their architectural artifacts. Their research projects successfully construct, from a few meaningful components of the built environment, an understanding of the overall city and its society. The objective of this paper is to address the similarities between the research carried out at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the work of these two acclaimed writers. Our group aims to select urban icons, from different moments and areas in Rio de Janeiro, to be studied in order to understand the city evolution in the XX Century. The distinguished Ministry of Education building is the investigation's prototype, analyzed thorough several 3D models and other digital techniques. We conclude that a thorough study of Benjamin's and Koolhaas' work should be considered a primary support for the interrogation of our own investigation.


In the present work, the assessment of the freshwater appropriation for the future energy production by using forest residues will be discussed. Reference has been made to the methodology known as Water Footprint Assessment. The main objectives are related to the analysis of the appropriation of freshwater, by dividing the water volumes related to each component of an hypothetical small supply chain and by separating both the internal and external shares, with respect to the preset boundaries. Those ones are the limits of the Monte Olia public forest, which is located in the Northern side of Sardinia Island (Italy). This assessment of the freshwater appropriation is a valid tool in the wood-energy supply chain design, in the view of a more sustainable local water management.


Abstract Background First identified in 2014, fibroadipose vascular anomaly (FAVA) is a very rare type of venous and lymphatic malformation. Marked by tough fibrofatty tissue in the extremities overtaking portions of the muscles, it is associated with constant pain and contracture of the affected extremity. There is a paucity of literature, and no guidelines on treatment procedure are available. This case highlights the role of hybrid treatment with primary ethanol percutaneous ethanol embolization and additional surgery for radicality in excision of FAVA lesions. Case summary A 9-year-old girl with FAVA underwent the hybrid treatment. The achievements of complete excision, clinical response, and patient satisfaction in long-term follow-up were assessed. Following the hybrid treatment, the patient experienced significant improvement in pain. Concurrent symptoms of physical limitation, leg swelling, and skin hyperesthesia also improved. The clinical benefit, supported by postoperative physiotherapy, was well stabilized at 6-month follow-up, resulting in complete patient satisfaction at 12- and 36-month follow-ups. No major complications were encountered. Conclusion Ethanol embolization plus surgery is a safe, effective, and long-term hybrid treatment of symptomatic FAVA lesions.