Typical automotive software development involves a broad spectrum of development environments and this leads to friction loss, unnecessary efforts and inconsistencies discovered later in the development process. In this paper we advocate that language engineering technologies can be used for the interface definition and code generation in order to glue artifacts and to support the work within such heterogeneous development environments. For our implementation we used the domain specific language stack mbeddr based on the Meta Programming System (MPS) from JetBrains. We show our preliminary experience with our method gained during the work on a component-based, distributed advanced driver assistant system. The system has to be realized for both the automotive specific prototyping framework ADTF in combination with MATLAB/Simulink and the AUTOSAR RTE middleware. With the help of the proposed approach, we were able to generate large redundant parts of the software system including different interface representations with only small modifications of the existing architecture.


Eponymy is defined as the way to name a discovery from the name of the person who discovered it. This practice well established in science. There is evidence that when an author has been eponymized, the author's original publications will be cited without bibliographic reference. Merton defined this as "obliteration by incorporation". The author's original publications will experience "delayed recognition", not achieving recognition in terms of citations until a few years after their original publication. While this phenomenon has been the subject of a renewal interest in scientometrics, there are few analyses of eponymy in science, and none explored the linked between eponymy and delayed recognition. Through the analysis of "cancer research" field, we identified a case study related to Otto Warburg Nobel Prize pioneering work on the role of metabolism in cancer, today named "Warburg effect". Our results demonstrate that "Warburg effect" as concept suffered from delayed recognition in terms of citation, and that delayed recognition of Warburg's publication is not due to a phenomenon of "obliteration by incorporation". In a general way, our results imply that delayed recognition phenomena should be extended to scientific concept and not limited to a single or a bundle of publications.


A simple method for the synthesis of indeno-[1,2-b]-quinoline-9,11-(6H,10H)-dione derivatives and 7,7-dimethyl-10-aryl-7,8-dihydro-5H-indeno[1,2-b]quinoline-9,11(6H,10H)-diones through the reaction of aromatic aldehydes, indan-1,3-dione, dimedone, and p-toluidine/ammonium acetate in the presence of heterogeneous CuO supported on a zeolite-Y catalyst has been investigated in ethanol under reflux conditions. By this method, the reaction time has been reduced, giving an excellent yield of the product. The catalyst was prepared by a hydrothermal method followed by a wet impregnation method. The catalyst had shown Brønsted acid sites and Lewis acid sites. The used catalyst could be actively recycled with a marginal decrease in yield up to five recycles. The prepared catalyst was characterized by FT-IR, pyridine FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDS, XPS, TEM, and BET surface area analysis. The synthesized compounds were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and GC-MS spectroscopy.


It is reported for that H/sub 2/ plasma followed by O/sub 2/ plasma is more effective for passivating grain boundary states in polysilicon thin film. Polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFTs) made after H/sub 2//O/sub 2/ plasma treatment can exhibit a turn-on threshold voltage of -0.1 V, a subthreshold swing of 0.154 V/decade, an ON/OFF current ratio I/sub on//I/sub off/ over 1*10/sup 8/, and an electron mobility of 40.2 cm/sup 2//V-s.<<ETX>>


Dictionaries of terms and phrases (e.g. common person or organization names) are integral to information extraction systems that extract structured information from unstructured text. Using noisy or unrefined dictionaries may lead to many incorrect results even when highly precise and sophisticated extraction rules are used. In general, the results of the system are dependent on dictionary entries in arbitrary complex ways, and removal of a set of entries can remove both correct and incorrect results. Further, any such refinement critically requires laborious manual labeling of the results.
 In this paper, we study the dictionary refinement problem and address the above challenges. Using provenance of the outputs in terms of the dictionary entries, we formalize an optimization problem of maximizing the quality of the system with respect to the refined dictionaries, study complexity of this problem, and give efficient algorithms. We also propose solutions to address incomplete labeling of the results where we estimate the missing labels assuming a statistical model. We conclude with a detailed experimental evaluation using several real-world extractors and competition datasets to validate our solutions. Beyond information extraction, our provenance-based techniques and solutions may find applications in view-maintenance in general relational settings.


One of the problems relating to genetic algorithm performance is how it is influenced by population size. In this paper, the authors propose a small population error-tolerant genetic algorithm to solve traveling salesman problems. The population size is fixed to random selection for representation, cycle crossover random scramble sublist mutation in all the authors' experiments. Two famous TSP heuristics are incorporated as local search, i.e., nearest neighbor heuristic and two-optimal heuristic. Very impressive computational results are obtained in the authors' experiments. The authors use regular grid city problems with city number 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144 and 400. The authors also use Oliver 30, Eilon 50, Eilon 75 and Padberg 532 from the literature. The authors found the optimal solution for all regular grid city problems and Oliver 30, Eilon 50 and Eilon 75 problems in less than 1 minute execution time on PC-486. For Padberg 532 problem, we find a 2.2% near-optimal solution in less then 50 minutes.


The smoothness of acceleration and deceleration process is a serious problem in valve control system with high inertia load, especially in the hydraulic systems in construction machines.
 In this paper, a meter-in and meter-out independent regulating method, in which the two sides of actuator are controlled by a meter-in valve and a meter-out valve respectively, is put forward, in one hand, the meter-out valve could control the actuator's outlet pressure to avoid the ultra-high outlet pressure when actuator decelerates or brakes suddenly. On the other hand, the dynamic damping ratio of valve control system could be raised through calculated flow feedback control algorithm.
 Secondly, a grading control algorithm in dynamic process of high inertia load is adopted. When the actuator's velocity is far from its command value, the actuator's inlet and outlet pressure are controlled. After the velocity error decrease to a threshold, a state feedback control algorithm based on parameters on line estimating is employed to realize both its velocity accuracy and the smoothness of dynamic process.
 Experiments show that the actuator's velocity could increase or decrease to its command value accurately, smoothly and rapidly after the above method and algorithm are applied.


UNBINDING OF ABETA PEPTIDES FROM AMYLOID FIBRILS: EXPLICIT SOLVENT MOLECULAR DYNAMICS STUDY Pamela Haradhan Mishra, M.S. George Mason University, 2008 Thesis Director: Dr. Dmitri Klimov We used all-atom molecular dynamics to investigate the unbinding of Alzheimer's Abeta peptides from amyloid fibrils. The peptide unbinding is driven by temperature-induced structural fluctuations and is thought of as an elementary step in the molecular recycling occurring between fibrillized and soluble Abeta species. Several conclusions can be drawn from our data. Early unbinding stages can be observed on the 100 ns timescale, although complete dissociation is likely to occur on much longer timescale. The unbinding pathway starts with fraying of -strands from Abeta fibril. We predict that most peptide-fibril interactions will be initially lost by the N-terminal of Abeta peptide. This unbinding scenario can be modified by the specific location of dissociating peptide on the fibril edge. Our simulations provide new molecular details on the process of amyloidogenesis linked to Alzheimer's disease.


The paper argues that there is a hazard to avoid when offering a moral justification: the hazard of relying on what I call extrinsic reasons. Extrinsic reasons count in favor of performing an action and yet are not reasons for which one can directly perform that action. They are rather reasons for acting upon oneself to make it the case that one performs the action of which they count in favor. Acting upon yourself in this way is the alienation of the paper's title. I argue that, when extrinsic reasons are relied upon in the justification offered by a moral theory, this form of alienation threatens the coherence of the agent. The upshot is that, in offering moral justifications, moral theory must be extremely attentive to the ordinary motivations of the actions it hopes to justify. In addition to the 27 pages of main text, there are an additional 16 or so pages of appendix, providing an interpretation of Williams' criticisms of moral theories according to which those criticisms are continuous with the argument of the main text. (The appendix may provide some background for those unfamiliar with the discussion.)


Compressed sensing (CS) samples signals at a much lower rate than the Nyquist rate if they are sparse in some basis. In this paper, the CS methodology is applied to sinusoidally modeled audio signals. As this model is sparse by definition in the frequency domain (being equal to the sum of a small number of sinusoids), we investigate whether CS can be used to encode audio signals at low bitrates. In contrast to encoding the sinusoidal parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase) as current state-of-the-art methods do, we propose encoding few randomly selected samples of the time-domain description of the sinusoidal component (per signal segment). The potential of applying compressed sensing both to single-channel and multi-channel audio coding is examined. The listening test results are encouraging, indicating that the proposed approach can achieve comparable performance to that of state-of-the-art methods. Given that CS can lead to novel coding systems where the sampling and compression operations are combined into one low-complexity step, the proposed methodology can be considered as an important step towards applying the CS framework to audio coding applications.


Conventional contracts are one of the road maintenance contracts based on the number of jobs measured and paid at an agreed level for different work items or referred to as unit price contracts. Meanwhile, performance-based road maintenance determines the minimum conditions of roads, bridges, and traffic assets that must be fulfilled by contractors. National road maintenance in several developed countries has successfully used integrated contracts, performance-based contracts. This is followed by the developing countries that previously had problems with the quality of national roads in which they were unable to provide the desired level of service. This performance contract prioritizes products and it is up to the contractor how to achieve this. Therefore, the choice of design, application of technology, innovation, process, and management are all determined by the contractors. This allocates higher risks to contractors compared to traditional contracts. But at the same time, it opens opportunities to increase margins where increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of design, process, technology, and management can reduce costs to achieve established standard performance. This study uses simulations to obtain the duration of fair and optimal contracts for the government and contractor. Duration 5-7 years is determined a duration that can provide benefits for both parties.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma of the gastrointestinal tract, usually arising from the interstitial cells of Cajal or similar cells in the outer wall of the gastrointestinal tract.1,2 Most GISTs have an activating mutation in KIT or platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα). Tumor size, mitotic rate, and anatomic site are the most common pathological features used to risk stratify GIST tumors.3-10 It is important to note when using such risk calculators that preoperative imatinib before determining tumor characteristics (such as mitoses per 50 high-power fields [hpf]) often changes the relevant parameters so that the same risk calculations may not apply. Tumors with a mitotic rate ≤5 mitoses per 50 hpf and a size ≤5 cm in greatest dimension have a lower recurrence rate after resection than tumors with a mitotic rate >5 mitoses per 50 hpf and a size >10 cm, and larger tumors can have a recurrence rate of up to 86%.11,12 Findings from a large observational study have suggested that the prognosis of gastric GIST in Korea and Japan may be more favorable compared with that in Western countries.13 The primary treatment of a localized primary GIST is surgical excision, but a cure is limited by recurrence.14,15 Imatinib is useful in the treatment of metastatic or recurrent GIST, and adjuvant treatment with imatinib after surgery has been shown to improve progression-free and overall survival in some cases.3,16-18 Responses to adjuvant imatinib depend on tumor sensitivity to the drug and the risk of recurrence. Drug sensitivity is largely dependent on the presence of mutations in KIT or PDGFRα.3,18 Recurrence risk is highly dependent on tumor size, tumor site, tumor rupture, and mitotic index.1,3,5,6,8,9,18,19 Findings on the use of gene expression patterns to predict recurrence risk have also been reported.20-27 However, recurrence risk is poorly understood for categories in which there are few cases with known outcomes, such as very small gastric GIST with a high mitotic index. For example, few cases of gastric GIST have been reported with a tumor size ≤2 cm, a mitotic rate >5 mitoses per 50 hpf, and adequate clinical follow-up. In such cases, it is difficult to assess the risk of recurrence.6 We report here the long-term outcome of a patient with a 1.8-cm gastric GIST with a mitotic index of 36 mitoses per 50 hpf and a KIT exon 11 mutation.


Abstract Human thinking is heterogeneous, and among its different forms, thinking in dyadic oppositions is associated with the concept of themata. Gerald Holton characterises themata as elements that lie beneath the structure and development of physical theories as well as of non-scientific thinking. Themata have different uses, such as a thematic concept, or a thematic component of the concept; a methodological (or epistemological) thema; and a propositional thema. Serge Moscovici has placed the concept of themata in the heart of his theory of social representations which is based on 'natural thinking' and on forms of daily knowing, including common sense. In this article I shall explore some features of thematic concepts and of methodological themata in scientific theories and in common sense. More specifically, I shall refer to the significance of the methodological (or epistemological) thema the Self and Other(s) in common-sense thinking and in social practices.


This study aims to observe which part of a sentence has more influence on the recognition of its pattern. A list consisting 27 sentences, each containing 4 intonation patterns (declarative, rising interrogative, falling interrogative and suspended), was recorded by a male native speaker of European Spanish. In this pilot study, 9 sentences were chosen from this list and were modulated by a computer software. A subject, another male native speaker of Peninsular Spanish, listened to a list of 108 sentences (=9 sentences x 4 intonation patterns x 3 different modified parts) recorded on a cassette tape. The results indicate a possibility that (i) the subject can perceive with high accuracy declarative or rising interrogative intonation, but (ii) he needs more prosodic information in the identification of falling interrogative or suspension.


Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is clearly the most controversial figure in recent Turkish political history. His preponderance in political life is remarkable even by Turkish standards. Because Erdoğan is so powerful and has effectively weakened most internal checks on his power, any attempt to explain Turkey's recent foreign policy outcomes will be seriously lacking without considering his leadership impact. The purpose of this study is to investigate Erdoğan's worldview and leadership style, and evaluate their impact on his government's policy processes and outputs. To do that, we employ the Leadership Trait Analysis technique to construct the leadership profile of Erdoğan through content analysis of his verbal records while in office. We contend here that our understanding of AKP-era Turkey is enhanced if we offer a systematic and rigorous account of Erdoğan's personality, and that he presents a clear example of the importance of taking individual-level variables seriously in foreign policy analysis.


ABSTRACT Ever since Richard Taruskin pointed to Steve Reich's use of survivor testimony in hailing the composer's Different Trains (1988) as 'the only adequate musical response … to the Holocaust', composers of Western art music have embraced musicalised testimony as a form of truthful sonic witnessing to historical conflict. This persistent connection between music and testimony often is framed as documenting memories of trauma, yet this interpretation does not address the reciprocal relationships between the presumed truths of sound and its aesthetic presentation in music. Driven by Hannah Arendt's claim that 'factual truths are never compellingly true', in this essay I trace the interpenetration of documentary sound and music as conveying a compelling reality or truth. This is followed by examples of testimonial witnesses in works by Philip Miller and Mary Kouyoumdjian. Finally, I reflect on the roles that testimonial music might play in imparting such compelling truths in connection with societal conflict.


Objective: to understand the perceptions of nurses specializing in nephrology regarding the skills needed to care for people with acute kidney injury. Method: qualitative study carried out with six nephrology nurses, using the focus group as a technique and the guiding question "Talk about your perceptions regarding the skills needed by nurses who care for people with acute renal failure". Audios were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and submitted to content analysis. Results: three categories emerged: pathophysiological knowledge of Acute Kidney Injury as a prevention and care strategy in pre-dialysis; operationalization and management of machines during dialysis therapy and difficulties in operationalizing care with transference of the responsibility to provide care for nursing technicians. Conclusion: knowledge about pathophysiology of acute kidney injury, skill in handling machines, intervention in complications, accurate analysis of exams, care with nutritional aspects and handling of catheters are the main skills required for operational care. However, the fragility of the legislation to this public makes it difficult to operate care safely.


A deep mid- and far-infrared survey in the extended Groth strip (EGS) area gives 3.6 to 8 μm flux densities or upper limits for 253 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). The LBGs are a diverse population but with properties correlated with luminosity. The LBGs show a factor of 30 range in indicated stellar mass and a factor of 10 range in apparent dust content relative to stellar mass. About 5% of LBGs are luminous at all wavelengths, with powerful emission at rest 6 μm. In the rest 0.9 to 2 μm spectral range these galaxies have stellar spectral slopes with no sign of an AGN power-law component, suggesting that their emission is mainly powered by intensive star formation. Galaxies in this luminous population share the infrared properties of cold Submillimeter Common-User Bolometric Array (SCUBA) sources: both are massive and dusty starburst galaxies at 2 < z < 3; their stellar mass is larger than 1011 M☉. We suggest that these galaxies are the progenitors of present-day giant elliptical galaxies, with a substantial fraction of their stars already formed at z ≈ 3.


The goal of this article is to analyze the impact of tax incentives on research and development and compare its effectiveness to direct government support of research and development. The analysis is based on regression analysis, which compares effect of tax incentives for research and development and direct government support (as percentage of GDP) in 28 countries of OECD in 2013 on innovative effectiveness of these countries measured by number of registered triadic patent families per billion GDP in the same year. Results suggest that tax incentives are more effective form of research and development support than direct government funding. Research also revealed interesting case of Switzerland's research and development performance backed by almost none government support, which should be subject to future study.


In this paper, we describe a security problem of IPsec. And we propose a solution for this problem. The problem is a fragility of IPsec Gateway which is used in tunnel mode. The role of IPsec Gateway is encrypting or decrypting IPsec packets. Because of the role of IPsec Gateway, IPsec Gateway suffers overhead for decrypting numerous packets. Adversaries can easily attack IPsec Gateway using a DDoS attack. To solve this problem, we propose the "Priority based Random Packet Drop" method. In this method, the white list which is a list of normal users is created. After that, according to the frequency of uses, the method marks priorities of random drops to the white list. If anomalous traffic appeared, this method will drop many packets which consist of anomalous traffic. In simple experiment, we show our solution is proper to defend IPsec Gateway. For this experiment, we use empirical backbone traffic which includes DoS attacks.


Tobacco use among girls is increasing at an accelerating pace, with adverse effects for their own health and that of their potential offspring. In order to test, through structural equation modeling techniques, an explanatory model of smoking intention in young girls, we applied a validated instrument to 386 female students at state and private secondary schools. The model considered the effect of six protective and risk factors on smoking intention, as well as the relationship between them. These variables were obtained from a multiple regression analysis which included a total of 25. The results indicated that having friends who smoke cigarettes constitutes the main influence on smoking intention in young girls. Parents play a fundamental protective role, since, on supervising their daughters activities and prohibiting smoking at home, the girls smoking intention is decreased, presence of friends who smoke is controlled, and rebellious behavior is moderated, and this influences the girls beliefs about the benefits of smoking. Believing that tobacco is really addictive is also a protective cognitive factor for such girls. Proposals are discussed for applying the findings to prevention programs addressing smoking in young girls, and in which parents are included.


Six cases of thromboembolic complications in patients being treated with plaster cast immobilization for a variety of injuries to the lower extremity were encountered over a four month period on an Air Force orthopaedic service. These injuries, consisting of three ruptures of the tendo achillis, two fractures of the tibia, and a sub-talar dislocation of the foot, resulted in one death from pulmonary emboli and three other serious complications of pulmonary emboli. The literature on thromboembolic complications following lower extremity injuries (including information of pathogenesis, clinical characteristics and epidemiology of venous thromboembolism and the hazards of lowere extremity cast immobilization in an individual susceptible to his complication) suggests that prophylaxis against thrombosis should be instituted in high risk individuals who must undergo case immobilization for injuries to the lower extremity.


After a review of the known description of time-variant channels by means of system and correlation functions, a consistent extension of this description to directional time-variant channels is described. This extension allows a clear distinction between time- and space-variant effects in directional mobile radio channels. The major intention of the described directional extension however is the derivation of a statistical modeling approach for small-scale fading effects in time-variant wideband directional channels, which can be regarded as a consistent extension of the well established Rayleigh or Rice-fading approach for nondirectional time-variant narrowband channels. The approach, which is based on the time and aperture-variant transfer function, appears to be preferable to the frequently used statistical modeling of the time-variant angle-resolved impulse response for several reasons. The major advantage is that the approach can cope with the demand for a great number of superimposing components as the basis for statistical modeling. The correlation between adjacent values is proposed to be achieved by filtering with appropriate directional scattering functions. The description of the modeling approach, as done in the present paper, is intended to be general and universal; for the application on certain channel types statistical distribution functions and parameters to be used with the approach can readily be determined from appropriate measurements.


It is well-known that cellular automata can be characterized as the set of translation-invariant continuous functions over a compact metric space; this point of view makes it easy to extend their definition from grids to Cayley graphs. Cayley graphs have a number of useful features: the ability to graphically represent finitely generated group elements and their relations; to name all vertices relative to an origin; and the fact that they have a well-defined notion of translation. We propose a notion of graphs, which preserves or generalizes these features. Whereas Cayley graphs are very regular, generalized Cayley graphs are arbitrary, although of a bounded degree. We extend cellular automata theory to these arbitrary, bounded degree, time-varying graphs. The obtained notion of cellular automata is stable under composition and under inversion.


This article proposes a laser-induced surface displacement detection instrument for measuring the viscosity of liquid. The features of this instrument can obtain the absolute value of time-resolved surface displacement with an adjusted-free and non-calibration. The constitution method of our proposed apparatus and its trial prototype are shown, and experimental results are demonstrated. Finally, our proposed scheme that estimates liquid viscosity is described briefly.


Abstract Objective. Although endoscopic papillary large balloon dilation (EPLBD) with limited endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) showed excellent outcomes for treatment of large bile duct stones, hemorrhage and recurrence of stones are problematic complications. Recent studies suggest that EPLBD alone is safe and effective for removal of large bile duct stones. This study aimed to determine the therapeutic outcomes and safety of EPLBD, compared with ES, for removal of large bile duct stones. Material and methods. Eighty-three patients above 45 years of age with bile duct stones >1 cm in diameter were randomized to EPLBD and ES groups for removal of common bile duct stones from September 2010 to August 2011. Prophylactic gabexate mesilate was given to all patients. Results. Baseline characteristics were not significantly different, except diabetes and gallbladder stones between the EPLBD group (n = 40) and ES group (n = 43). The overall complete stone removal rate in each group was 97.5% (39/40) and 95.3% (41/43), respectively (p = 0.600). Requirement of mechanical lithotripsy was not significantly different between the EPLBD and ES group (10% vs. 21%, p = 0.171). Complete ductal clearance in one session was achieved in 82.4% and 81.4% of cases in each group, respectively (p = 0.577). There were no differences in complication rates between the EPLBD and ES group; pancreatitis, 5.0% vs. 7.0%; hemorrhage, 10.0% vs. 16.3%; acute cholangitis, 5.0% vs. 2.3%, and perforation, 2.5% vs. 0%. Conclusions. The therapeutic outcomes and complications of EPLBD for removal of large bile duct stones are comparable to those of ES.


Introduction/Background In the light of the growing number of (intense) treatment options for advanced stage ovarian cancer (OC) patients, while survival is still poor, the patient association indicated an increased need for a tool to improve shared-decision-making (SDM) by patients and their clinicians. The Dutch working party on gynaecologic oncology initiated the development of an evidence based online decision aid (DA) to support SDM. The aim of this study was to develop the DA. Methodology A four-stage development method was followed: 1: Identifying patients' (N=43) and professionals' (N=22) needs by questionnaires and in-depth patient interviews (N=12). 2: Face-to-face meetings with a multidisciplinary team were organized including representatives of the patient association. 3: Development of the DA using International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) and Dutch Guidelines. 4: Usability testing with OC patients and professionals. Results Both patients and clinicians supported the need for reliable information that include all available treatment options in the Netherlands. Although the majority of patients were very satisfied about the process of information provision, 90% indicated that no choice in treatment options was offered. Based on study findings and discussions during the meetings, a consultation sheet and a DA were developed. The sheet, presented during first consultations, contains a summary of all treatment options, including intraperitoneal (IP)-chemotherapy and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), and a login code for the online DA. The online part, which can be used at home, consists of information about disease and treatment options, questions about quality of life and treatment preferences, and ends in a summary which patient and clinician can discuss during the next consultation. Conclusion A DA was developed in cooperation with patients and professionals to support SDM for advanced stage OC patients and their clinicians. Acceptance was gained among all stakeholders involved. The DA is currently under assessment in a multicenter implementation trial. Disclosure Ir. Regina The is the managing director of ZorgKeuzeLab B.V. Delft.


We study the determinants of employment and wages in the public sector, using a new set of panel data for 34 LDCs and 21 OECD countries from 1972-1992, by estimating equations suggested by an efficiency wage model. We find that government employment is positively associated with the relaxation of resource constraints (the revenue-to-GDP ratio and foreign financing in the case of developing countries and GDP per capita in the case of OECD countries), urbanization, the level of education, and certain countercyclical pressures for government hiring (the real effective exchange rate for developing countries and private employment for OECD countries). Certain measures of government wages are positively associated with government revenues and negatively associated with the level of education, government debt, and countercyclical pressures.


Background Strength-duration (SD) curve, rheobase and chronaxie parameters provide insights about the interdependence between stimulus strength and stimulus duration (or pulse width), and the neural activation dynamics such as the membrane time constant, which are useful for diagnostics and therapeutic applications. The existing SD curve estimation methods are based on open-loop uniform and/or random selection of the pulse widths. Objective To develop a method for closed-loop estimation of the SD curve. Method In the proposed method, after the selection of each pulse width through Fisher information matrix (FIM) optimization, the corresponding motor threshold (MT) is computed, the SD curve estimation is updated, and the process continues until satisfaction of a stopping rule based on the successive convergence of the SD curve parameters. The results are compared with various uniform methods where pulse widths are chosen in ascending, descending and random orders, and with methods with two and all non-uniform random pulse widths. Results 160 simulation cases were run. The FIM method satisfied the stopping rule in 144 runs, and estimated the rheobase (chronaxie in parenthesis) with an average absolute relative error (ARE) of 1.73% (2.46%), with an average of 82 samples. At this point, methods with two and all random pulse widths, and uniform methods with descending, ascending and random orders led to 5.66% (20.27%), 2.15% (4.51%), 8.57% (54.96%), 3.52% (5.45%), and 2.19% (4.40%) AREs, which are greater than that achieved through the FIM method. In all 160 runs, The FIM method has chosen the minimum and maximum pulse widths as the optimal pulse widths. Conclusions The SD curve is identifiable by acquiring the SD data from the minimum and maximum pulse widths achieved through the FIM optimization. The SD data at random or uniform pulse widths from only the vertical area or lower plateau of the curve might not result in satisfactory estimation. Significance This paper provides insights about pulse widths selection in closed-loop and open-loop SD curve estimation methods.


Background Ramadan fasting is a major challenge for exercising Muslims especially in warm seasons. There is some evidence to indicate that Ramadan fasting causes higher subjective ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) in fasting Muslims. The mechanisms of this phenomenon are not known exactly. The role of respiratory muscle strength in this regard has not been studied yet. Objectives The aim of this study was investigation of the effects of Ramadan fasting on respiratory muscle strength. Patients and Methods In a before-after study, from 35 fasting, apparently healthy, male adults who had fasted from the beginning of Ramadan, maximal inspiratory muscle pressure (MIP) and peak inspiratory flow (PIF) were measured in the last week of Ramadan month in summer. At the time of test, there was not any sleep problem in participants and all of them had good cooperation. Three months later, after exclusion of incompatible persons mainly because of change in their physical activity level, smoking behavior or drug consumption, the measurements were repeated in 12 individuals. Results Weight, MIP and PIF data had normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test). There was a significant increase in MIP (mean 8.3 cm H2O with 95% confidence interval of 2.2 - 14.3) and PIF (mean 0.55 lit/s with 95% confidence interval of 0.02 - 1.07) and weight (mean 3.4 Kg with 95% confidence interval of 2.2 - 4.5) after Ramadan (Paired t test with P < 0.05). When weight difference was used as a covariate in repeated measure ANOVA test, there was no further significant difference between MIP and PIF measurements. Conclusions Ramadan fasting may cause reduction of respiratory muscle strength through reduction of body weight.


This paper challenges the view held by the UK Government that the introduction of the English Baccalaureate will lead to an improvement in educational outcomes in secondary education. Evidence is presented to show that this new qualification is biased against disadvantaged pupils from low-income families, pupils with special needs, and pupils who have little inclination to study a foreign language. Furthermore, the English Baccalaureate is deeply flawed when used as a school performance indicator and should not be included in the School Performance Tables.


The continued growth of the cities is causing an increase of the amount of surface to illuminate. However, this rise into lighting brings some unintended consequences such as increased of energy consumption or the light pollution. To make these effects less intrusive as possible some councils have chosen to perform a part-night lighting in some areas. Nonetheless, this kind of shutdown may cause serious problems which we intend to highlight in this paper. Keywords—Energy saving, part-night lighting, switch off, vial security.


R.K Narayan was the keen observer of the 20th century society, this is the reason, and we can see the different elements of social norms in his writings. His psychological phenomena can be seen in his works and writings because through his writings he has incarnation of true meaning of Indian life and Indian culture. Narayan himself bears many problems so that he was deep rooted with his writings. We can see the great coordination of his hand and mind whatever he has written totally related to his experience. The objectives of this paper are to analysis the R.K Narayans social philosophy and his childhood impact over his writings. Swami and Friends was the first book which based on his childhood incidents or it is semi autobiographical novel. It was very famous episode in Malgudi Days tv serial. Through his novels one can know about the real situation of women, in the novel The Guide Narayan portraits the picture of women through the character of Rosie. She is the character who fights between the traditional norms and liberation. Narayans women were shy, they feel guilt if they protest in favor of theirs rights.


Mitochondrial energy insufficiency is strongly associated with oocyte activation disorders. Ca2+, especially that in the mitochondrial matrix, plays a pivotal role in mitochondrial energy supplementation, but the underlying mechanisms are still only poorly understood. An encoded mitochondrial matrix Ca2+ probe (Mt-GCaMP6s) was introduced to observe mitochondrial Ca2+ ([Ca2+]m) dynamic changes during oocyte maturation and activation. We found that active mitochondria surrounding the nucleus showed a higher [Ca2+]m than those distributed in the cortex during oocyte maturation. During oocyte partheno-activation, the patterns of Ca2+ dynamic changes were synchronous in the cytoplasm and mitochondria. Such higher concentration of mitochondrial matrix Ca2+ was closely related to the distribution of mitochondrial calcium uptake (MICU) protein. We further showed that higher [Ca2+]m mitochondria around the chromosomes in oocytes might have a potential role in stimulating mitochondrial energy for calmodulin-responsive oocyte spindle formation, while synchronizing Ca2+ functions in the cytoplasm and nuclear area are important for oocyte activation.


Background: Trans-esophageal aortic blood flow occlusion (TEABO) is an emerging technology undergoing laboratory research that offers a strategy for temporary hemorrhage control. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anatomical relationship between the esophagus and descending thoracic aorta in two breeds of swine to support a porcine model for future TEABO investigations. Methods: Thoracoabdominal computed tomography scans were compared in Hanford miniature swine and Yorkshire swine. Measurements were taken at the five vertebral levels proximal to the gastroesophageal junction. Data collected included the distance between the center of the esophagus and the center of the descending aorta, the angle between the vertebral column, descending aorta, and esophagus, and the length the thoracic esophagus travels anteriorly to the descending aorta. Results: Ten Hanford swine and ten Yorkshire swine were compared. In Hanford swine, the distal thoracic esophagus travels anteriorly to the descending aorta for a mean distance of 11.5 ± 2.3 cm. In Yorkshire swine, the thoracic esophagus travels to the right of the descending aorta. The mean angle between the vertebral body, descending aorta, and esophagus was 79.6 to 97.8 degrees higher in Hanfords compared with Yorkshires (P < 0.0001 at all five vertebral levels compared). The mean distance between the esophagus and descending aorta was 0.2 cm to 0.6 cm higher in Hanfords compared with Yorkshires with a significant difference found at only two vertebral levels (P = 0.01 and P = 0.02). Conclusions: Hanford miniature swine possess an aorto-esophageal relationship comparable to humans and should be the preferred animal model for TEABO studies.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To explore perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about breast cancer and its screening among Emirati national women in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.

DESIGN
A qualitative study using focus group methods.

SETTING
Primary healthcare centers and a community-based women's association in the United Arab Emirates.

SAMPLE
41 women, aged 25-45 years.

METHODS
Four 90-minute focus group discussions exploring perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices regarding breast cancer were audiotaped, transcribed, translated, and analyzed.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Social and cultural themes related to breast cancer and its screening.

FINDINGS
Focus group methodology worked well in this setting. The women's perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding cancer and screening, together with aspects of the healthcare system and social milieu, appeared to strongly influence the women's preventive practices. Some of these factors had an encouraging effect on the women's practices, and others had a deterring effect. The encouraging factors included feelings of susceptibility, high levels of knowledge in some women, attitudes and beliefs about personal responsibility for health, and a supportive social milieu. Deterring factors included anxiety and fear leading to denial; lack of knowledge about cancer and the screening program; fear, embarrassment, and mistrust of health care; and belief in predestination.

CONCLUSIONS
Health planners and healthcare providers must capitalize on encouraging factors and minimize deterring factors to optimize breast cancer screening practices among these women.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Identifying and accounting for the factors that encourage or deter women in their breast cancer screening practices will help to optimize screening programs.


Abstract This paper discusses the assessment methodology of geologic probabilities of success of drillable prospects determined by petroleum exploration geologists. The commonly accepted industry standard assessment methods suggest the probability evaluation of key components of oil and gas accumulation: source rock, reservoir, seal rock and trap, and migration and timing. On the assumption that the risked events resulting in the assembly of the key components are geologically and eventalgebraically independent, the geological probability is computed as the product of the probabilities of each. Without challenging the overall correctness of the approach, this study argues that the presumed independency does not always apply. For these cases, probability evaluation of the actually and truly independent geologic and hydrodynamic processes is advised.


A simple computational scheme for estimating the electrostatic potential about molecular models of moderate size is given. The large amount of calculations required for the evaluation of the hypersurface lends itself to treatment by high speed, unconventional computing machines. The essence of these calculations lies in Coulombic interactions that are computed between hypothetical proton test probes positioned in a gridded region surrounding the model and the partial electrostatic charges (CNDO/2) of each atom in the model. A specific scientific application is discussed which involves the recognition of amino acids and nucleotide bases. Three different evaluations of the potential hypersurface within the context of this approach were made. The first was performed on a VAX 11/780 which is a general purpose machine widely used in the scientific community; the second was performed using a pipelined Vector Processor, the FPS AP‐120B; and the third by a processor array, the ILLIAC‐IV. A comparison of the architectures and processing speeds of each class of machines is made. The computing power observed is consistent with the design and purpose of each machine. Also discussed are methods for displaying the vast amount of data that result from such calculations. It is determined that computer graphics offers an effective means for extracting information from large amounts of data. Finally, the scientific value of the calculations are briefly discussed. If caution is applied to interpreting the results, then the electrostatic potential (EP) mappings can be useful in identifying sites of potential chemical interactions.


Home Economics education strengthens families as the primary source of support and nurturing for individuals in a rapidly changing society, leading to sustainable lifestyles for individuals and families. Educational programmes designed for moulding public psychology towards this end are of considerable relevance within developing countries including Pakistan. This study was conducted to find out whether students of Home Economics colleges were sensitized to the concept of Sustainable Development (SD) through their own curriculum. A survey questionnaire on reported behaviours towards SD was administered to students across six Home Economics colleges in Punjab. The collected data were analysed statistically, using SPSS software (version 15). The findings confirmed that Home Economics college students showed favourable behaviours towards SD. There was no significant difference between the Mean values of SD behaviour among students of different colleges. Therefore, the study suggests that Home Economics curriculum can be a useful tool for moulding public behaviours and promoting sustainable development lifestyles in Pakistan.


Preface: The year 1989 is a traumatic time to conclude a centennial university
history in Australia. The disappearance of the binary divide in higher
education, the establishment of a unified national system, and pressure
on many institutions to amalgamate, are intended to transform the
parameters of academic life. The University of Tasmania will receive
no centennial honeymoon. A history can, however, place the problems
of the day in a longer perspective. Political expediency may delay,
but not destroy, the long-term progress of a productive institution.
In assessing the achievement of the University of Tasmania little
more than a cross-section of excellence can be provided. Many worthy
and innovative projects must still be sought in Departmental research
reports and specialist publications. Similarly, it is impossible to give
adequate recognition to all those who have made this work, with all
its imperfections, feasible. The extensive research of Alison Alexander
provided an indispensable basis on which to build a narrative and
enabled the book to proceed despite teaching and administrative
commitments, plus overseas research obligations. Shirley King, the
University Archivist, naturally bore the brunt of the pursuit of sources.
J.B. Polya, Roy Chappell, Les Wood, John Bremner and Linda
Weidenhofer provided collections of private papers and other items
of interest. Michael Roe kept a watchful eye on the early drafts of
the book; David Kearney, Ross Skinner, and Tim Jetson read the whole
script on various occasions. Kati Thomson assisted in many ways. Dan
Sprod as general editor exercised the meticulous attention to consistency
and style characteristic of all his productions. Jim Cardno, Eric Guiler
and Bruce Scott provided valuable advice on various sections. Etta
Donaldson and Lyn Rainbird gave typing and correcting relief for
a work originally composed on Tandy computers. The numerous
colleagues, friends and acquaintances who supplied information,
formally or informally, have been partly recognised in the bibliography.
Hilary Webster's extensive taped and summarised interviews with
University identities have helped to flesh out the skeletal framework
of official minutes. Fred Koolhof has assisted with the photography.
Finally, I again pay tribute to my wife, Marianne, for constant assistance
and heroic willingness to read and correct innumerable printouts.


Background Smoking has been shown to be a significant risk factor for developing rheumatoid arthritis; however its impact on disease activity has conflicting evidence. Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the effect of smoking on disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods Data from the Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative (OBRI), a clinical registry of RA patients followed in routine care, were examined. All patients whose smoking status was reported at baseline were included in the study. Patients were divided into three groups based on their smoking status: Never, Past and Current smokers. The demographic, clinical laboratory and therapeutic features were compared according to their smoking habits. Physician reported disease activity measures such as tender joint counts (TJC), swollen joint counts (SJC), disease activity score 28 joints (DAS28), clinical disease activity index (CDAI) and patient reported disease activity score of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity index (RADAI) were considered as the outcomes. Differences between the groups were compared using chi-square test for categorical parameters, or analysis of variance (ANOVA) for continuous parameters. Multivariable analysis was performed for each outcome to assess the impact of smoking on disease activity when adjusted for potential confounders including patient demographics and rheumatoid factor (RF). When there was an overall difference in an outcome according to smoking status, Tukey-adjusted pair wise comparisons were made between groups. Results A total of 2,090 patients with a mean (SD) age 57.3 (12.9) years were included in the study and 77% were females. There were 343 (16.4%) current smokers (men-22.1% and women-14.8%), 812 (38.9%) past smokers (men-50.5% and women 35.5%) and 935 (44.7%) never smokers (men-27.4% and women-49.7%) in the cohort. A significantly higher proportion of RF positives were found in current smokers (76.7%) compared to past (70.9%) and never smokers (64.5%), p=0.0003. More DMARDS and less biologics were used at baseline in smokers; however it was not statistically significant. Current cigarette smokers found to have significantly higher mean TJC (7.4 vs. 6.3, p<0.001), SJC (7.1 VS. 6.4, p<0.001), CDAI (24.3 vs. 21.5, p<0.001), and RADAI (4.5 vs. 3.7, p<0.001) than non-smokers, after adjusting for patient sex, age and RF. There was no difference in DAS28 scores between the groups. Conclusions Smokers have worse disease activity outcomes than non-smokers among RA patients, after adjusting for measured confounders. Disclosure of Interest : None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3765


We propose a new method of changing the spectrum shape to improve the axial resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT). Theoretical analysis shows that certain spectral shaping can shorten the coherence length. Comparisons of the simulation and experimental measurements of spectral shape and axial resolution of OCT are given, showing that the axial resolution of OCT is enhanced by a factor of 1.4.


Thirty-five patients were operated in the acute phase of mitral valve endocarditis between 1986 and 1991. The surgical indications were hemodynamic (22), echocardiographic (9), embolic (2) and infectious (2). There were pre-existing valve lesions in 45% of cases. The causal organism was identified in 90% of cases: streptococcus (19), staphylococcus (9) and Gram negative bacilli (4). Preoperative antibiotic therapy was prescribed for an average of 18 days. The aortic valve was infected in 9 patients and tricuspid valve in 1 patient. The mitral lesions were: abscess (11), vegetations (11), perforations (16), and ruptured chordae tendinae (22). All patients underwent Carpentier's mitral valvuloplasty. The operative mortality was 5.7% (2 patients). Early reoperation was required in 1 case. Follow-up was possible in 96% of cases for an average of 23 months. No recurrences of endocarditis were observed. One patient was reoperated and 3 died. All the others were in Classes I and II of the NYHA. None had significant mitral regurgitation or stenosis. These results show that mitral valvuloplasty is possible in the acute phase of endocarditis in 90% of cases. The mortality and morbidity are low and long-term results are stable.


We analyze a new dataset on workers' career paths to examine whether private equity (PE) investments can have positive spillover effects on workers. We study leveraged buyouts in the context of recent information technology (IT) diffusion, and find evidence supporting the argument that many employees of companies acquired by PE investors gain transferable, IT-complementary human capital. Our estimates indicate that these workers experience increases in both long-run employability and wages relative to what they would have realized in the absence of PE investment. The findings underscore PE's role in mitigating the effects of workforce skill obsolescence resulting from technological change.


Wireless and mobile communications, as well as the Internet have already got worldwide deployment and are still developing at a rapid pace. Services provided by wireless communications have extended from the simple voice service to multimedia services. It is envisaged that in the next generation wireless networks, heterogeneous wireless access technologies will coexist forming integrated networks, which support multiple services with a high level of quality. A wide range of access technologies make it possible for end users to choose the best available access network to meet the requirements of each type of communication service any time and any where. The evolution of communication services and network technologies creates new business opportunities for communication service providers. For a communication service provider, a central task is to provide satisfying communication services in order to maximize the network revenue. In case multiple services coexist in heterogeneous wireless networks, it is essential to have efficient resource management algorithms to allocate the traffic of various types of services to different types of access networks. Moreover, pricing is also crucial for the business success of a service provider, and it has an influence on the perceived quality of communication services and user traffic demand. An optimal pricing scheme may maximize the network revenue and also have a positive influence on the network performance. Therefore, the successful operation of communication business relies not only on high-level technical performances, but also on proper mechanisms to price communication services. This thesis presents the optimization of bearer service allocation and pricing in heterogeneous networks. The design of the efficient bearer service allocation algorithm aims to improve the combined capacity and performances of different types of bearer services, as well as to reduce the network overhead. First, the performances of real-time traffic and non real-time elastic data traffic in a wireless network are examined and compared using both analytical and simulation approaches. Obtained results provide a valuable input for the derivation of the allocation algorithm. The allocation algorithm is composed of two parts, the capacity-based bearer service allocation, which aims to maximize the combined network capacity, and the performancebased bearer service allocation, which aims to improve the performances of bearer services. A pricing scheme is proposed to maximize the network revenue, which has certain novelties. The pricing scheme is designed for multiple services in heterogeneous networks, and it considers the different efficiency of networks in supporting bearer services. In addition, the influence of the network performance on the network revenue is analysed using numerical examples. This thesis provides some initial results in the area of the optimization of performance and pricing for heterogeneous wireless networks, and may serve as a basis for the research in this area in the future.


Vestibular afferents display linear responses over a range of amplitudes and frequencies, but comparable data for central vestibular neurons are lacking. To examine the effect of stimulus frequency and magnitude on the response sensitivity and linearity of non-eye movement central vestibular neurons, we recorded from the vestibular nuclei in awake rhesus macaques during sinusoidal yaw rotation at frequencies between 0.1 and 2 Hz and between 7.5 and 210 degrees/s peak velocity. The dynamics of the neurons' responses across frequencies, while holding peak velocity constant, was consistent with previous studies. However, as the peak velocity was varied, while holding the frequency constant, neurons demonstrated lower sensitivities with increasing peak velocity, even at the lowest peak velocities tested. With increasing peak velocity, the proportion of neurons that silenced during a portion of the response increased. However, the decrease in sensitivity of these neurons with higher peak velocities of rotation was not due to increased silencing during the inhibitory portion of the cycle. Rather the neurons displayed peak firing rates that did not increase in proportion to head velocity as the peak velocity of rotation increased. These data suggest that, unlike vestibular afferents, the central vestibular neurons without eye movement sensitivity examined in this study do not follow linear systems principles even at low velocities.


This paper presents the recent achievements in a project on micromachined millimeter-wave near-field medical sensors, in particular for skin cancer diagnosis. Micromachining enables sensor probes which achieve both high sensitivity and high lateral resolution through a drastically miniaturized probe tip. Two different design strategies are investigated: a broad-band, non-resonating, tapered dielectric-rod probe, and a resonance slot sensor. For probe characterization micromachined silicon test and calibration samples with tailor-made permittivity were fabricated. Characterization of fabricated prototypes show that the tapered probe can clearly and reproducibly distinguish silicon test samples of permittivity corresponding to healthy and cancerous skin tissue at 100 GHz. For the resonance slot probe the simulated response to materials of different permittivity is shown. Furthermore, the paper presents the design of phantom materials for probe evaluation on soft-matter dielectrics.


The early experiences of dogs showing signs of avoidance behaviour or aggression were compared with those of dogs from the same clinical population that did not show such behaviour. The occurrence of each behavioural sign was tested for its association with the dog's maternal environment, the environment it experienced between three and six months of age, and the age at which it had been acquired. Non-domestic maternal environments, and a lack of experience of urban environments between three and six months of age, were both significantly associated with aggression towards unfamiliar people and avoidance behaviour. Aggression during a veterinary examination was more likely in dogs from non-domestic maternal environments. There was no significant association with either environment for aggression towards familiar people, or towards dogs.


The Komi Republic is a region with a low population density. The radiology service in the republic is provided by121 general radiologists and 78 ultrasound diagnosis specialists. Thus, the staffing level of radiologists and ultrasound specialists is significantly lower comparing to the rest of the Russian Federation. Structure of radiology examsin Republic almost coincides with the rest of the Russian Federation: the first place take ultrasound examinations —53,2% (Russia — 56,8%), the second place takes plane film radiology — 40,8% (Russia — 39%), the third — computed tomography — 5% (Russia – 3,3%), magnetic resonance imaging is in fourth place — 1% (Russia – 0,9%).The optimal modes of low-dose computed tomography of the chest are identified with an average effective dose of0,575±0,160 millisievert (mSv) with minimal loss of quality. Digital mammography, ultrasound elastography andintroduction of the Bi-RADS scale, as well as digital fluorography and introduction of low-dose computed tomography of the chest to the annual preventive examination of the population at risk of lung cancer are considered as priority areas in improving the quality of early cancer diagnosis among the population of the republic. The radiologicalsociety of Komi Republic was created with 61% (123) radiologists as members. Respectively, the main objectives forthe radiology in the Republic of Komi for 2018–2019 are: increased availability of perfusion methods of acute andchronic cerebral ischemia diagnosis, implementation of the pilot project «Low-dose computed tomography organs ofthe chest», increasing the availability of magnetic resonance tomography in pediatric practice, implementation anddevelopment of telemedicine technologies in the Komi Republic and continuous advanced training of radiologists,development and improving the activities of the Komi Republican Radiological society.


Functional imaging of head-fixed, awake, behaving mice using two-photon imaging of fluorescent activity reporters has become a powerful tool in the studying the function of the brain. Motion artefacts are an inevitable problem during such experiments and are routinely corrected for in x and y dimensions. However, axial (z) shifts of several microns can also occur, leading to intensity fluctuations in structures such as synapses that are small compared to the axial point-spread function of the microscope. Here we present a simple strategy to correct z-motion artefacts arising over the course of a time-series experiment in a single optical plane. Displacement in z was calculated using dye-filled blood vessels as an anatomical marker, providing high contrast images and accuracy to within ∼0.1 µm. The axial profiles of ROIs corresponding to synapses were described using a Moffat function and this "ROI-spread function" used to correct activity traces on an ROI-by-ROI basis. We demonstrate the accuracy and utility of the procedures in simulation experiments using fluorescent beads and then apply them to correcting measurements of synaptic activity in populations of vasoactive-intestinal peptide (VIP) interneurons expressing the synaptic reporter SyGCaMP6f. Correction of z-motion artefacts had a substantial impact on the apparent correlation between synaptic activity and running speed, demonstrating the importance of correcting for these artefacts for the interpretation of in vivo imaging experiments in awake mice. Summary of Key Points Motion artefacts associated with motor behaviour are an inevitable problem of multiphoton imaging in awake behaving animals, particularly imaging synapses. Correction of axial motion usually requires volumetric imaging resulting in slower rates of acquisition. We describe a method that is easy to implement to correct z-motion artefacts that allows population imaging of synaptic activity while scanning a single plane in a standard multiphoton microscope. The method uses a reference volume acquired in two colour channels – an activity reporter and an anatomical marker of blood vessels. The procedure estimates the z-displacement in every frame and applies an intensity correction in which the z point-spread function for each synapse is modelled as a Moffat function. We demonstrate that the method allows synaptic calcium activity signals to be collected from populations of synaptic boutons in mouse primary visual cortex during locomotion.


Large full-ship engineering analyses and simulations are performed today in various disciplines. Such analysis models are almost always "hand crafted" by skilled and experienced analysts. There is a need to improve upon the time, cost, and skill mix required to create such large-scale ship models. In order to perform a full-ship computational analysis, the engineering analyst must have or create an analysis-ready model. Following current work practices, a computer-aided design (CAD) database of the vessel is created, primarily for design disclosure and manufacturing rather than for analysis. Consequently, the model may not be suitable or easily modified to create an analysis-ready model. Several thousand man hours are required to obtain data and prepare a model that is usable for analyses. Furthermore, solely expanding use of modeling and simulation tools, without accompanying changes in the model generation approach, will not deliver significant savings. Model generation is a complex effort and often is the major cost of full-ship analysis. The authors present a summary of several National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) efforts that support ship design and analysis automation from the early concept to the detailed stages. These unique approaches focus on supporting multilevel modeling fidelity within a flexible design environment at the earliest stages of ship concept formulation by implementing a more computer-aided engineering (CAE) centric approach, in which data is captured at the beginning of the ship design cycle, thus having the most cost-effective impact as ship design progresses through the ship's life cycle.


Novel iron(II) complex bearing pyridine-bridged bis(1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene) ligand was synthesized. During many attempts to obtain the compounds, we found generation of dicationic homoleptic iron(II) complex with two tridentate ligands. Analogous monocationic complex with only one tridentate ligand, which is an unstable intermediary complex during formation of the dicationic complex was detected. Structural identification of the homoleptic dicationic product revealed that octahedral geometry stabilized the iron complex and also π-stacking interaction exists between these two tridentate ligands.


All the rocky planets in our Solar System, including the Earth, initially formed much hotter than their surroundings and have since been cooling to space for billions of years. The resulting heat released from planetary interiors powers convective flow in the mantle. The mantle is often the most voluminous and/or stiffest part of a planet, and therefore acts as the bottleneck for heat transport, thus dictating the rate at which a planet cools. Mantle flow drives geological activity that modifies planetary surfaces through processes such as volcanism, orogenesis, and rifting. On Earth, the major convective currents in the mantle are identified as hot upwellings like mantle plumes, cold sinking slabs and the motion of tectonic plates at the surface. On other terrestrial planets in our Solar System, mantle flow is mostly concealed beneath a rocky surface that remains stagnant for relatively long periods of time. Even though such planetary surfaces do not participate in convective circulation, they deform in response to the underlying mantle currents, forming geological features such as coronae, volcanic lava flows and wrinkle ridges. Moreover, the exchange of material between the interior and surface, for example through melting and volcanism, is a consequence of mantle circulation, and continuously modifies the composition of the mantle and the overlying crust. Mantle convection governs the geological activity and the thermal and chemical evolution of terrestrial planets, and understanding the physical processes of convection helps us reconstruct histories of planets over billions of years after their formation.


In a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, every machine plays the role of client and server at the same time. In P2P system, one of the most important issues is trust management. P2P systems rely on other peers to accomplish the tasks. Peers need to trust each other for successful operation of the system. While communicating in between peers trust formation is very important to take service from the unknown resource. In this paper we study four trust models based on various approaches such as by policies, by reputation etc. Currently most of models for trust management are based on reputation. There are many models which works under above mentioned approaches out of these we have studied Eigen trust, SORT, Global Trust model and NICE. We have also compared four trust models in P2P systems. The comparison is based on the benefits and their properties.


To meet the small size, low power consumption, low cost and increasingly high speed and precision requirements of the navigation system, an embedded navigation computer system based on dual DSPs was designed. The system consists of a TMS320C6713B DSP and a TMS320F2812 DSP of TI Inc. as dual-core. The C6713B is used to process the navigation computation and data rapid fusion task, while the F2812 performs in the role of a control center to complete the control tasks. And a dual port RAM is used to achieve double-DSP communication. The system use a CPLD to generate the synchronization signals, count the pulses generated by the gyros and the V/F conversion circuit, sample other digital input signal and decode control signal. In field experiments results show that the system can completely fulfill the computational speed and precision requirement of the navigation system.


Contrast is the visual difference from we can distinguish the object  from its  background and the other objects. For better human interpretation of images and higher perceptual quality, contrast enhancement becomes active research topic since early days of digital image processing. In this paper, some low contrast images are addressed which results the poor visual effect. In the low contrast images, the various objects cannot be distinguished clearly. Some image contrast enhancement techniques for low contrast images are reviewed. This technique gives better result than other techniques and their PSNR value is high & MSE is low. The experimental results show that the proposed enhancement method gives better results. This paper proposed an algorithm that can improve the contrast of the images and preserve the details of the image.


It is known that the electric field pattern at high latitudes depends on the polarity of the Y component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF BY ) and season. In this study, we investigate the seasonal and BY dependences in the inner magnetosphere using the perigee (4<L<10) Clus- ter data taken from low magnetic latitudes. The data con- sist of both components of the electric field perpendicular to the magnetic field, obtained by the electron drift instrument (EDI), which is based on a newly developed technique, well suited for measurement of the electric fields in the inner mag- netosphere. These data are sorted by the polarities of IMF BZ and BY , and by seasons or hemispheres. It is demonstrated from our statistics that the electric fields in the inner mag- netosphere depend on these quantities. The following three points are inferred: 1) The electric fields exhibit some dif- ferences statistically between Cluster locations at the North- ern and Southern Hemispheres with the same dipole L and magnetic local time (MLT) values and during the same IMF conditions. These differences in the electric fields might re- sult from hemispherical differences in magnetic field geom- etry and/or those in field-aligned potential difference. 2) The IMFBY and seasonal dependence of the dawnside and dusk- side electric fields at 4 <L<10 is consistent with that seen in the polar convection cell. In addition, it is possible that these dependences are affected by the ionospheric conduc- tivity and the field-aligned current. 3) The nightside electric field in the inner magnetosphere measured by Cluster is often similar to that in the magnetotail lobe. In the future, it will be necessary to incorporate these dependencies on IMF BY and season into a realistic model of the inner magnetospheric convection electric field.


The number of cases of Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) in the ongoing outbreak is still on the rise with a cumulative total of 2954222 cases has been reported till date. Owing to the reported rise in the number of cases and a rapid rise in the number of affected nations in the last week, the World Health Organization has declared very high global risk of spread of the infection. Amidst these circumstances, we all have to play our part and the ensure that the potential risk of acquiring the infection is minimized. In conclusion, the global risk assessment of COVID-19 has been redefined as very high and thus in the battle against the disease the need of the hour is to interrupt the chain of transmission, which will essentially require strengthening of early detection, isolation, surveillance, treatment and contact tracing activities.


In a previous series of Thomson scattering (TS) experiments on an extreme ultraviolet producing vacuum arc discharge in tin vapor, background radiation emitted by the plasma was found to make measurements impossible for all parts of the discharge except the prepinch phase. To reduce the level of recorded background radiation, we have built a setup for time and space resolved subnanosecond TS. Results obtained with this new setup are presented for experiments on previously inaccessible parts of the discharge--the ignition phase, pinch phase, and decay phase. For the first two, measurements have been performed at different heights in the plasma. Electron densities for the pinch phase have been derived. For the decay phase, the electron densities confirm previous Stark broadening data. From the overall results, a more complete picture of the plasma evolution can be formed.


Every issue of Education Inquiry publishes peer-reviewed articles in one, two or three different sections. In our Open section, articles are sent in by authors as part of regular journal submissions and published after a blind review process. In our Thematic section, articles may reflect the theme of a conference or workshop and are published after a blind review process. We also have an Invited section featuring articles by researchers invited by Education Inquiry to shed light on a specific theme or for a specific purpose and they are also published after a review process. This issue of Education Inquiry contains both a Thematic section and an Open section, bringing a total of 11 articles.


This article describes the preclinical pharmacology and pharmacokinetics (PK) of hexadecyl-treprostinil (C16TR), a prodrug of treprostinil (TRE), formulated in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) for inhalation as a pulmonary vasodilator. C16TR showed no activity (>10 µM) in receptor binding and enzyme inhibition assays, including binding to prostaglandin E2 receptor 2, prostaglandin D2 receptor 1, prostaglandin I2 receptor, and prostaglandin E2 receptor 4; TRE potently bound to each of these prostanoid receptors. C16TR had no effect (up to 200 nM) on platelet aggregation induced by ADP in rat blood. In hypoxia-challenged rats, inhaled C16TR-LNP produced dose-dependent (0.06–6 µg/kg), sustained pulmonary vasodilation over 3 hours; inhaled TRE (6 µg/kg) was active at earlier times but lost its effect by 3 hours. Single- and multiple-dose PK studies of inhaled C16TR-LNP in rats showed proportionate dose-dependent increases in TRE Cmax and area under the curve (AUC) for both plasma and lung; similar results were observed for dog plasma levels in single-dose PK studies. In both species, inhaled C16TR-LNP yielded prolonged plasma TRE levels and a lower plasma TRE Cmax compared with inhaled TRE. Inhaled C16TR-LNP was well tolerated in rats and dogs; TRE-related side effects included cough, respiratory tract irritation, and emesis and were seen only after high inhaled doses of C16TR-LNP in dogs. In guinea pigs, inhaled TRE (30 µg/ml) consistently produced cough, but C16TR-LNP (30 µg/ml) elicited no effect. These results demonstrate that C16TR-LNP provides long-acting pulmonary vasodilation, is well tolerated in animal studies, and may necessitate less frequent dosing than inhaled TRE with possibly fewer side effects.


Land use change is a key process due to its direct effects on the identity and structure of vegetation. In semi-arid Argentinean Chaco, there is scarse information about the consequences of vegetation changes on processes related to nutrient cycling (e.g., decomposition). In this work, we analyse if changes in local climatic conditions due to changes in vegetation structure, related to different land use types, affect decomposition pattern of two common materials. We found that land use change has a clear impact on vegetation cover, but this impact is not reflected into a consistent change in local decomposition environment. Specifically, we found that more intensive land use types were related to a decrease in vegetation cover and height and also to less litter quantity. These changes were associated with lower soil C and N. However, changes in vegetation structure were not related with changes of local climatic conditions, despite the differences of climatic conditions between vegetal configurations. Decomposition of common materials was faster in vegetal configurations with lower vegetation cover and air temperature. These results suggest that land use change has an evident impact on vegetation cover, but this impact is not transferred on changes of local decomposition environment. In future studies is important to evaluate the contribution of abiotic deterioration processes (photodegradation and physical fragmentation) on decomposition and nutrient cycling. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.18.104.22.168.434


Surgical treatment of urinary incontinence using synthetic slings is one of the most frequently used procedures in modern urogynecology. The availability of almost identical surgical sets manufactured by different companies can at times significantly hamper the choice of a synthetic sling for a particular patient. This article presents a brief overview of the literature on the efficacy and safety of sub-urethral synthetic slings registered in the Russian market.


: Hair transplantation for male pattern baldness has been done on many patients by dermatologists and plastic surgeons during the past 20 years. In selected cases, hair transplantation has been successful for adequate replacement of hair in bald areas of the scalp. In most cases, the punch graft technique alone is used. However, in selected cases, especially in younger individuals desiring a dense growth in the frontal area, the strip graft in conjunction with punch grafts can be used. When the strip graft operation is properly executed, the results are very gratifying. My most impressive results have been with those who have had the strip graft operation combined with the punch graft method (Figs. 13 and 14). The strip graft, like the punch graft, has proved to be extremely versatile. It can be transplanted in any conceivable direction and in any area of the scalp. It may be twisted into any desired shape so as to conform to any recipient site. It can also be made short or long and may be cut into smaller strips or even into small square grafts. If careful attention is paid to the simple steps of the operation discussed in this article, a surgeon will usually be rewarded with a good take of the strip graft.


ABSTRACT In 2006, the medical course of the Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of PUC-SP (FCMS of PUC-SP) completely restructured its curriculum and pedagogical project and began to use active teaching/learning methods, centered on problem-based learning. There is often some resistance on the part of the teachers in relation to the changes, depending on the consequences for their daily practice. However, the participation of the teachers and their commitment to reform proposals are fundamental for them to occur and to be continually renewed. In this sense, this study had as objective to evaluate the teachers' view of the FCMS of the PUC-SP medical course on the changes triggered by the curricular reform; the impact of these changes on their own work, on the quality of the course and on the graduate doctor and, the suggestions to improve the curriculum, as part of the ongoing goal to produce well-trained professionals adapted to the needs of the population and to the health care system. The data were obtained through a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire, sent to the teachers working on the medical course. The second part of the questionnaire, object of this article, was to be answered only by the teachers who were already working before the curricular reform. Of the 178 teachers, 102 answered the questionnaire and, of these, 73 (71.6%) had already worked on the course before the curricular reform and answered the second part of the questionnaire. In general, the teachers have a positive view of the changes triggered by the reform, with emphasis on the active role of the student in the teaching/learning process and the growth provided to the teacher, induced by the pedagogical model chosen. They also consider that there has been an improvement in the quality of the course and the graduate doctor. Although well evaluated, the change to an interdisciplinary model and the deficiencies of the physical structure and equipment made available for the course complicate the work of the teacher. The difficulty in evaluating the student and the lack of a permanent teacher development plan appear as the main problems to be faced in the search for improving the course.


Software collaboration platforms where millions of developers from diverse locations can contribute to the common open source projects have recently become popular. On these platforms, various information is obtained from developer activities that can then be used as developer metrics to solve a variety of challenges. In this study, we proposed new developer metrics extracted from the issue, commit, and pull request activities of developers on GitHub. We created developer metrics from the individual activities and combined certain activities according to some common traits. To evaluate these metrics, we created an item-based project recommendation system. In order to validate this system, we calculated the similarity score using two methods and assessed top-n hit scores using two different approaches. The results for all scores with these methods indicated that the most successful metrics were binary_issue_related, issue_commented, binary_pr_related, and issue_opened. To verify our results, we compared our metrics with another metric generated from a very similar study and found that most of our metrics gave better scores that metric. In conclusion, the issue feature is more crucial for GitHub compared with other features. Moreover, commenting activity in projects can be equally as valuable as code contributions. The most of binary metrics that were generated, regardless of the number of activities, also showed remarkable results. In this context, we presented improvable and noteworthy developer metrics that can be used for a wide range of open-source software development challenges, such as user characterization, project recommendation, and code review assignment.


Background: Febrile illness is considered a frequent medical syndrome of dengue. Due to the increasing prevalence of dengue infectivity, appropriate diagnosis among patients helps regarding timely medical intervention, etiological examination as well as disease control.

Objective: To estimate the frequency of suspected and probable cases of dengue in febrile patients and their knowledge about dengue fever, presenting at outdoor of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore.

Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study, in which 400 adult febrile patients visiting at outdoor of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore were included. A convenient sampling technique was carried out. Among the total febrile patients included, the frequency of suspected and probable cases was calculated. Data was collected through a questionnaire, which was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0.

Results: Out of 400 patients, 36.5% were 21-30 years old and 53.5% were female. Among these patients, 100% had fever (>2 and <10 days), 31.8% had headache, 51.8% had myalgia and43.8% patients had arthralgia while 12.5% were suspected cases of dengue. Majority (97.2%) had knowledge that full sleeve shirt can prevent dengue, none of the respondents had knowledge regarding dengue symptoms and 76% of respondents had knowledge that dengue is fatal. For the majority (76%) of respondents, the main source of information regarding dengue was health teams.

Conclusion: The study concluded that symptoms of dengue fever in the study patients, as well as the dengue, suspected cases were mainly headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgia, and arthralgia. The majority of the patients had knowledge about dengue prevention. Most of the adult febrile as well as suspected had no knowledge about the symptomology of dengue fever.


A non-disturbing and non-contacting current sensing device, namely LMOS, is proposed and experimentally shown to be effective. The LMOS enables a micro IDDQ test where the current of thousands of small circuit blocks on a chip in identifying the points of design errors and/or small margin. The scheme is helpful and this scheme can become an important debugging tool for the future complex VLSIs that achieve low standby and operation current.


The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revised the Manual for Hygiene Management at Large-scale Food Preparation Facilities (Shokuan; Issue No. 0618005) on June 18, 2008. This manual was issued for the purpose of food poisoning prevention in mass food service facilities based on the concept of hazard analysis and critical control point(HACCP). Especially this revision of the manual made verotoxin(VT examination indispensable in the practice of regular fecal examination for cooking staff (stool examination). Out of 150 fecal specimens that were examined on May 12, 2009, a specimen from a dietician revealed a strain of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli EHEC O103: H2 producing type I verotoxin (VT1). We studied the following with regard to EHEC O103: H2 producing VT1(EHEC O103): colony forms of the bacteria on the selective media for EHEC as well as the differential media for VT in use for stool examination in the laboratory and the usefulness of the hospital PCR based detection of VT genes. CHROMagar O26/O157 agar plates were used to select and isolate EHEC. Enterohemolysin blood agar plates were used to confirm VT. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted using primers set EVT-1, 2 as well as EVS-1, 2. CHROMagar O26/O157 agar plates and enterohemolysin blood agar plates can distinguish EHEC strains easily, rapidly, and effectively, although not always correctly. The PCR method employs PCR technology targeting VT genes, so that it can verify VT genes in all strains of E. coli. This examination is useful for defining EHEC especially in stool examinations of asymptomatic patients. The PCR-based detection of VT genes was considered as a rational method for fecal examination compatible with the revised Manual for Hygiene Management at Large-scale Food Preparation Facilities.


In January 2001, Indonesia embarked on an historic effort to devolve many functions and responsibilities of government from the center to the district level. These changes are being attempted in the midst of the political and economic uncertainty that continue to bedevil Indonesia's government and population years after the "East Asian crisis" swept through the region in 1997-98. After decades of centralized control of economic and political development, the country's more than 360 district and municipal governments are suddenly placed in charge of managing nearly all affairs of state, excluding foreign policy, monetary policy, re-ligion, and security. This essay examines emergent natural resource and environmental management consequences of this momentous transformation. Long promoted by social scientists and development agencies, it now appears that decentralization brings with it a host of new worries and problems. Indonesia's decentralization effort is still in the initial stages, and many of the problems have roots in previous regimes.


The clinical translation of new nanoparticle-based therapies for high-grade glioma (HGG) remains extremely poor. This has partly been due to the lack of suitable preclinical mouse models capable of replicating the complex characteristics of recurrent HGG (rHGG), namely the heterogeneous structural and functional characteristics of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The goal of this study is to compare the characteristics of the tumor BBB of rHGG with two different mouse models of HGG, the ubiquitously used U87 cell line xenograft model and a patient-derived cell line WK1 xenograft model, in order to assess their suitability for nanomedicine research. Method: Structural MRI was used to assess the extent of BBB opening in mouse models with a fully developed tumor, and dynamic contrast enhanced MRI was used to obtain values of BBB permeability in contrast enhancing tumor. H&E and immunofluorescence staining were used to validate results obtained from the in vivo imaging studies. Results: The extent of BBB disruption and permeability in the contrast enhancing tumor was significantly higher in the U87 model than in rHGG. These values in the WK1 model are similar to those of rHGG. The U87 model is not infiltrative, has an entirely abnormal and leaky vasculature and it is not of glial origin. The WK1 model infiltrates into the non-neoplastic brain parenchyma, it has both regions with intact BBB and regions with leaky BBB and remains of glial origin. Conclusion: The WK1 mouse model more accurately reproduces the extent of BBB disruption, the level of BBB permeability and the histopathological characteristics found in rHGG patients than the U87 mouse model, and is therefore a more clinically relevant model for preclinical evaluations of emerging nanoparticle-based therapies for HGG.


The binding of lectins on insoluble supports may be used to detect the interactions occurring between these molecules and the sites of some receptors of membranes. An example is given, using the "anti-T" lectin extracted from peanut, to show the presence of determinants with terminal free glactose on the surface of erythrocytes and lymphocytes.


Research concerning the development of diagnostic methods of the state of the vehicle driving systems basic elements — have been carried on for many years. Modern diagnostic systems, regardless of being technically highly advanced or small degree only, concern about assessments of basic mechanical subsystems such as toothed gears or suspension elements. The information on state changes of mechanical systems can be obtained by an analysis of changes of nonlinear effects in such systems operations. Since the nonlinearity increase accompanies the system destruction, the separation of nonlinear parts of signals creates the possibility of the increase of an accuracy, reliability and application range of diagnostic methods. Technical state diagnostics for vehicles is much more difficult than for machines operating in stationary conditions. the main excitation source is an internal combustion engine, in which a rotational speed changes from an idle running (approximately 800 rpm) to a maximum rotational speed (e.g. above 5000 rpm). Thus, an application of classic analytical methods is not possible. the only solution is the transformation of the analysed signals into the "pseudostationary" ones, by taking into account changes in the engine rotational speed. One of the methods applied now a days is resampling (adaptation change of a signal time resolution in a digital form) performed on the basis of information concerning changes in an engine rotational speed. the signal from the sensor of the engine crankshaft location was used for the above application.


For a unicellular, non-motile organism like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, carbon sources act both as nutrients and as signaling molecules and consequently affect various fitness parameters including growth. It is therefore advantageous for yeast strains to adapt their growth to carbon source variation. The ability of a given genotype to manifest different phenotypes in varying environments is known as phenotypic plasticity. To identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) that drive plasticity in growth, two growth parameters (growth rate and biomass) were measured in a published dataset from meiotic recombinants of two genetically divergent yeast strains grown in different carbon sources. To identify QTL contributing to plasticity across pairs of environments, gene–environment interaction mapping was performed, which identified several QTL that have a differential effect across environments, some of which act antagonistically across pairs of environments. Multi-QTL analysis identified loci interacting with previously known growth affecting QTL as well as novel two-QTL interactions that affect growth. A QTL that had no significant independent effect was found to alter growth rate and biomass for several carbon sources through two-QTL interactions. Our study demonstrates that environment-specific epistatic interactions contribute to the growth plasticity in yeast. We propose that a targeted scan for epistatic interactions, such as the one described here, can help unravel mechanisms regulating phenotypic plasticity.


In a quantum measurement process, classical information about the measured system spreads throughout the environment. Meanwhile, quantum information about the system becomes inaccessible to local observers. Here we prove a result about quantum channels indicating that an aspect of this phenomenon is completely general. We show that for any evolution of the system and environment, for everywhere in the environment excluding an O(1)-sized region we call the "quantum Markov blanket," any locally accessible information about the system must be approximately classical, i.e. obtainable from some fixed measurement. The result strengthens the earlier result of Brandão et al. (Nat. comm. 6:7908) in which the excluded region was allowed to grow with total environment size. It may also be seen as a new consequence of the principles of no-cloning or monogamy of entanglement. Our proof offers a constructive optimization procedure for determining the "quantum Markov blanket" region, as well as the effective measurement induced by the evolution. Alternatively, under channel-state duality, our result characterizes the marginals of multipartite states.


illegal immigration." (p. 148). Her fascinating analysis documents the transnational and cross-racial networks immigrants forged in order to evade U.S. laws by entering the U.S. through Canada or Mexico, often with assistance from greedy contractors who smuggled immigrants across both borders and from white immigration officials, many of whom found the many opportunities for corruption offered by the Chinese Exclusion laws too tempting to resist. Lee's overarching argument is that Chinese exclusion transformed "the United States into a gatekeeping nation, in which immigration restriction—largely based on race and nationality—came to determine the very makeup of the nation and American national identity. "(p. 6) In other words, she assigns Chinese exclusion laws the kind of significance historians have usually reserved for the immigration quotas of the 1920s or recent crackdowns on "illegal immigrants" from Mexico. In her desire to emphasize the unique and formative importance of Chinese exclusion, she sometimes overstates her case, as when she contrasts immigration officials' turn-of-the-century crackdowns on "illegal" Chinese immigrants to their supposedly "benign neglect" of Mexican immigrants in the same period. But these minor lapses are entirely overshadowed by Lee's achievement: At America's Gates is the strongest, best grounded, and most persuasive assessment of the long historical shadow Chinese exclusion has cast over the development of American immigration policy. It deserves a wide readership among historians of U.S. race, gender, immigration, and politics.


BACKGROUND
Children in mental health crises are increasingly admitted to children's hospitals awaiting inpatient psychiatric placement. During hospitalization, patients may exhibit acute agitation prompting pharmacologic restraint use.

OBJECTIVE
To determine hospital-level incidence and variation of pharmacologic restraint use among children admitted for mental health conditions in children's hospitals.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
We examined data for children (5 to ≤18 years) admitted to children's hospitals with a primary mental health condition from 2018 to 2020 using the Pediatric Health Information System database. Hospital rates of parenteral pharmacologic restraint use per 1000 mental health bed days were determined and compared after adjusting for patient-level and demographic factors. Cluster analysis (k-means) was used to group hospitals based on overall restraint use (rate quartiles) and drug class. Hospital-level factors for pharmacologic restraint use were compared.

RESULTS
Of 29,834 included encounters, 3747 (12.6%) had pharmacologic restraint use. Adjusted hospital rates ranged from 35 to 389 pharmacologic restraint use days per 1000 mental health bed days with a mean of 175 (standard deviation: 72). Cluster analysis revealed three hospitals were high utilizers of all drug classes. No significant differences in pharmacologic restraint use were found in the hospital-level analysis.

CONCLUSIONS
Children's hospitals demonstrate wide variation in pharmacologic restraint rates for mental health hospitalizations, with a 10-fold difference in adjusted rates between highest and lowest utilizers, and high overall utilizers order medications across all drug classes.