Purpose: OP-lysine, a glycation product of lysine residues of proteins, has been reported to be formed with glyceraldehyde and glycolaldehyde as precursors in the lens, and has been suggested to play a role in senile cataracts. However, there has been no reliable information regarding the content of glyceraldehyde in tissues. This study determined the glyceraldehyde levels in the lenses of normal and diabetic rats. Methods: Glyceraldehyde was derivatized to a fluorescent compound, and the compound was then quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: The lens glyceraldehyde levels in normal and diabetic rats were 0.75 ± 0.06 and 1.26 ± 0.21 nmol/g wet weight (means ± standard deviations of 6 animals, p < 0.01), respectively. Isolated rat lenses accumulated a higher level of glyceraldehyde when cultured for 6 days in 25.5 mM glucose than when cultured in 5.5 mM glucose. Conclusions: Glyceraldehyde was found to be present in the lens and was increased in diabetes mellitus. OP-lysine is thus likely to be a potential risk factor for senile and diabetic cataracts.


A fibre-optic resonant ring interferometer with a low-coherent light source was investigated experimentally. The feasibility of measuring the parameters of ring cavities characterised by very narrow lines (of the order of tens of kilohertz) was demonstrated by using a broad-band light source and a retroreflecting Doppler mirror. The Sagnac effect was first observed in a ring resonant interferometer with a low-coherence light source. Modulation and compensation of the phase nonrecriprocity in a low-coherence resonant interferometer with the aid of an optical frequency shifter located outside a sensing fibre loop were observed experimentally.


This paper considers a downlink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system with pilot aided channel estimation (PACE) and iterative channel estimation (ICE) in the receiver. Exploiting orthogonal space-time block coding (STBC), we investigate ICE schemes as a simple extension of PACE using estimated data chips as additional pilots. Due to the superposition of different users' spread data signals, zero-valued chips can occur after spreading, which can cause noise enhancement when using data estimates as reference signals in ICE. Hence, we propose MIMO channel estimation methods to overcome the above problem. Simulations with a realistic outdoor MIMO channel model, over a wide range of data rates and speeds, show that ICE can outperform PACE at the cost of increased complexity


This preliminary study sought to evaluate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral, web-based intervention for posttraumatic stress in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans who are not able to participate, or not eligible to participate, in evidence-based posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatments. The study used an uncontrolled pre-posttest design with a sample of 24 OEF/OIF veterans presenting to a VA PTSD specialty clinic. Participants used the afterdeployment.org, Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) Workshop, which was supplemented with brief weekly telephone calls. Half of the participants (n = 12) completed at least 5 of the 8 workshop sessions. At posttreatment, 40.0% of completers demonstrated reliable reductions on PTSD symptoms and overall d = 1.04. Treatment satisfaction and acceptability was generally positive based on Likert ratings. This web-based intervention for PTS appears to be a feasible and potentially helpful intervention for veterans who may not otherwise receive psychosocial interventions. Given the minimal resources required and the potential reach, this web-based intervention could be a viable addition to services provided to OEF/OIF veterans seeking PTSD specialty care. Efforts to further develop and more rigorously evaluate this approach are warranted.


Based on virtual private network technology, a method of IP mobile position management is presented. Each mobile agent (MA) is set up corresponding to a respective autonomy network on the Internet. Once MA is connected to the local ISP, a VPN that is used to manage the binding information of mobile nodal position is formed, which manages the position of mobile nodes. The memory structure of the binding information table and the algorithm used to manage the binding information of mobile position is designed. The simulative test shows that the design can solve the problem of triangular route, obtain an optimized route, and greatly increase the speed of receiving data compared with the standard mobile IP


The red spider, Oligonychus coffeae (Niet.), persists in all stages of its development on a few old leaves and ' janams ' (small leaves at the base of the shoot) of tea bushes during the cold weather, and this persisting population is primarily responsible for the attack in the spring. In pruning, a great many of the old leaves (including janams) are removed from bushes, and, concomitantly, the red spider. Pruned tea is, therefore, less attacked than unpruned tea or ' skiffed ' tea (where just a little is cut off the tops of the shoots) in which comparatively more leaves are left on bushes.


The article deals with the positioning of the European Parliament in the EU institutional mechanism and to what extent the weakness of this directly elected body contributes to the low turnout at the elections, alongside with the ubiquitous democratic deficit within the Union. It explains the key attributes and competencies of the European Parliament with special focus on the improvements introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. This article argues that the power and position of the European Parliament have not improved significantly: weakness and, still, limited visibility of EP, are important reasons that citizens identify the elections for the European Parliament as a 'second-rate national competition'. Democratic legitimization of the European Union has to be parallel with the changes in institutional system and should include shifting the power from the Council to the European Parliament and the strengthening of inter-institutional cooperation between EP and the European Commission. .


Aim: To evaluate the association between obesity and lifestyle factors, eating behaviors related to emotional eating, and body perception. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with individuals of both sexes by taking anthropometric, biochemical and clinical measurements. Questionnaires were used to evaluate lifestyle, eating habits, emotional eating behavior and self-perception of body image. The participants were stratified according to body mass index (BMI). Results: A total of 318 subjects were evaluated (44% women), with an average age of 34 ± 8 years. Regarding the lifestyle questionnaire, the normal BMI group obtained a higher score [ 78.5 (71-82)] than did the overweight [76 (69-80)] and obesity groups [73 (65-79)], (p=0.005); this finding indicated that the normal BMI group had a healthier lifestyle. Conversely, the questionnaire on emotional behaviors related to emotional eating showed that the normal BMI group had lower scores [7 (3-13)] than the overweight [8 (3-15)] and obesity groups [12 (5 -21)], (p=0.008). Being a very emotional eater significantly increases the risk of obesity (OR= 3.83 (95% CI, 1.67-8.7) (p=0.002). Overall, 51.1% of the participants had a self-perception that was incorrect according to their BMI. Conclusion: Individuals frequently have a misperception of their body shape. People with obesity had lifestyle factors that were less favorable for their health as well as higher rates of emotional eating, both of which are risk factors for obesity.


A sharp positive δ34S anomaly occurs in a 0–5 cm siltstone that contains syndepositional pyrite and was deposited below wave base as part of a basinal off-reef succession at Medicine Lake, Alberta. The bed rests on bioturbated, oxygenated dolomitic siltstones that are positively correlated with biostromal banks containing the last Frasnian shelly benthos over a wide region. Above, laminated anoxic argillaceous lime-mudstones grade upward into beds containing Famennian conodonts and brachiopods. Geochemical and sedimentological data suggest flooding of the craton by basin-derived anoxic water at the extinction horizon as a result of a sudden deep basin or ocean turnover. Comparable positive δ34S values are found in sedimentary pyrite in Frasnian black shales from a passive margin basin in the Yukon to the north; values decrease in the Famennian.


Cultural diversity and community identity in South Lampung have the potential to be packaged in a tourism model based on local wisdom. Based on this description, the research question can be formulated: What are the potential factors in developing a tourism model based on local wisdom in South Lampung Regency, Lampung Province? This research was conducted as R&D research, where data combines qualitative methods through direct observation, in-depth interviews with parties related to research, and quantitative methods through surveys. From the results of the study, it is known that the majority of tourists visiting South Lampung are mainly in the category of "the casual cultural tourist" or tourists who want to enjoy other cultural heritages on a limited basis as a reason for traveling and in these destinations, they only visit attractions at a glance. Meanwhile, it is also understandable if the development of tourist destinations in the district has the potential to adopt a variety of local wisdom in the various interests of tourism policies in the region.
Keywords: regional tourism, local wisdom, tourism management


This study was to investigate the consumer recognition of commercial Sunsik & Saengsik. The data was collected from the 395 married women residing in Seoul and Kyungki area by the self-administered questionnaire. A related purpose was to analyze the nutrient composition and the hygienic safety of commercial Sunsik and Saengsik. The results from this study were as follows. The purchasing and using behaviors were significantly different between two user groups. Sunsik users have generally purchased the products at a discount store(41.0%) as a between-meal snack(36.4%). The products were usually the ones made on the spot(55.0%). However, Saengsik users have purchased the manufactured products-serving size package-(84.0%) at a health foods store(50.7%) as a health food(38.7%). Many of Sunsik users have had Sunsik in water or milk with sugar(40.7%) and 1-2 times a week(40.0%). But Saengsik users have usually had Saengsik in water or milk with honey(38.6%) and everyday(34.7%). According to the analysis on nutrition composition, crude proteins were significantly more rich in Sunsik samples, and crude ashes were more rich in Saengsik samples(p log cfu/g. Coliform groups were detected in all the Saengsik and two Sunsik(A, E) samples.


In proteomics, rapid developments in instrumentation led to the acquisition of increasingly large data sets. Correspondingly, ProDaC was founded in 2006 as a Coordination Action project within the 6th European Union Framework Programme to support data sharing and community‐wide data collection. The objectives of ProDaC were the development of documentation and storage standards, setup of a standardized data submission pipeline and collection of data. Ending in March 2009, ProDaC has delivered a comprehensive toolbox of standards and computer programs to achieve these goals.


Classification may refer to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood. Classification is an important data mining technique with broad applications. It classifies data of various kinds. Recent developments of e-learning specifications such as Learning Object Metadata (LOM), Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Learning Design and other pedagogy research in semantic e-learning have shown a trend of applying innovative computational techniques, especially Semantic Web technologies, to promote existing content-focused learning services to semantic-aware and personalised learning services. This paper has been carried out to make a performance evaluation of PART and FT classification algorithm. The paper sets out to make comparative evaluation of classifiers PART and FT in the context of dataset of Indian news to maximize true positive rate and minimize false positive rate. For processing Weka API were used. The results in the paper on dataset of Indian news also show that the efficiency and accuracy of FT is good than PART.


To maintain structural integrity and functionality during the designed life cycle of a structure, engineers are expected to accommodate for natural hazards as well as operational load levels. Active control systems are an efficient solution for structural response control when a structure is subjected to unexpected extreme loads. However, development of these systems through traditional means is limited by their model dependent nature. Recent advancements in adaptive learning methods, in particular, reinforcement learning (RL), for real-time decision making problems, along with rapid growth in high-performance computational resources, help structural engineers to transform the classic model-based active control problem to a purely data-driven one. In this paper, we present a novel RL-based approach for designing active controllers by introducing RL-Controller, a flexible and scalable simulation environment. The RL-Controller includes attributes and functionalities that are defined to model active structural control mechanisms in detail. We show that the proposed framework is easily trainable for a five story benchmark building with 65% reductions on average in inter story drifts (ISD) when subjected to strong ground motions. In a comparative study with LQG active control method, we demonstrate that the proposed model-free algorithm learns more optimal actuator forcing strategies that yield higher performance, e.g., 25% more ISD reductions on average with respect to LQG, without using prior information about the mechanical properties of the system.


Introduction In individuals with early (indexed ≤7 days poststroke) and severe upper limb paresis (shoulder abduction and finger extension score of <5 out of 10), our objectives are to: (1) determine if biomarkers of brain structure and function collected at <1 month poststroke explain who will experience clinically important recovery over the first 12 months poststroke; (2) compare stroke survivors' perceptions of personally meaningful recovery to clinically important recovery; and (3) characterise the trajectory of change in measures of motor function, brain structure and function. Methods and analysis Prospective observational study with an inception cohort of 78 first-time stroke survivors. Participants will be recruited from a single, large tertiary stroke referral centre. Clinical and biomarker assessments will be completed at four follow-up time points: 2 to 4 weeks and 3, 6 and 12 months poststroke. Our primary outcome is achievement of clinically important improvement on two out of three measures that span impairment (Fugl-Meyer Upper Limb, change ≥10 points), activity (Motor Assessment Scale item 6, change ≥1 point) and participation (Rating of Everyday Arm-use in the Community and Home, change ≥1 point). Brain biomarkers of structure and function will be indexed using transcranial magnetic stimulation and MRI. Multilevel modelling will be performed to examine the relationship between clinically important recovery achieved (yes/no) and a priori defined brain biomarkers related to the corticospinal tract and corpus callosum. Secondary analyses will compare stroke survivor's perception of recovery, as well as real-world arm use via accelerometry, to the proposed metric of clinically meaningful recovery; and model trajectory of recovery across clinical, a priori defined biomarkers and exploratory variables related to functional connectivity. Ethics and dissemination Approved by the hospital and university ethics review boards. Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Trial registration number NCT02464085.


In this paper, the two-sided Laplace transform, a classical but not very common mathematical tool, is revived to express the stable inversion for linear nonminimum phase systems that was recently proposed from the viewpoint of state-space representations. It is demonstrated that those two different expressions for the stable inversion are mathematically equivalent. Simple examples are presented to illustrate the two-sided Laplace transform as a direct and intuitive approach to stable inversion. The two-sided Laplace transform approach is also applied to development of an iterative learning control for nonminimum phase systems that needs neither a precise inversion model nor Fourier-Transform computations but instead requires only measuring the system response with time reversals.


The paper would extensively deal with the critical issues which any organization will have to deal with while they plan to go global. The various permutations and combinations of different cultures which the firm would have to adopt to get on with its operations in different countries. These critical issues would range from environmental differences like political, cultural, legal, economic, etc, diversity issues of workforce, corporate culture vs country-specific culture, business practices, product vs service company, cultural sensitivity of the management, business ethics, transcultural competence and many more such issues which need to be discussed for international business organizations. Organizations will also have to consider cross cultural configuration for developing such systems and processes in place so as to facilitate the following: 1. Negotiations with various business partners and government bodies. 2. Long term strategic alliances with complementing and competing organizations. 3. Leveraging cultural differences and synergies. 4. Cultural preservation and appreciation. 5. Cultural revitalization. Along with these the purpose of entering into international trade should not be forgotten. Hence the need to mould the marketing, human resource, finance, operations activities as per the requirements of the country's culture. In explaining how global behemoths can bring about universal excellence, the author would refer to cross cultural studies done by Hofstede, Berry and Cox. The paper would conclude by analyzing emerging practices, trends and future scenario in managing cultural diversity to achieve cohesiveness by the global organizations.


The fully transparent indium—tin-oxide/BaSnO3/F-doped SnO2 devices that show a stable bipolar resistance switching effect are successfully fabricated. In addition to the transmittance being above 87% for visible light, an initial forming process is unnecessary for the production of transparent memory. Fittings to the current—voltage curves reveal the interfacial conduction in the devices. The first-principles calculation indicates that the oxygen vacancies in cubic BaSnO3 will form the defective energy level below the bottom of conduction band. The field-induced resistance change can be explained based on the change of the interfacial Schottky barrier, due to the migration of oxygen vacancies in the vicinity of the interface. This work presents a candidate material BaSnO3 for the application of resistive random access memory to transparent electronics.


. We say that a regular graph G of order n and degree r > 1 (which is not the complete graph) is strongly regular if there exist non-negative in- tegers τ and θ such that | S i ∩ S j | = τ for any two adjacent vertices i and j , and | S i ∩ S j | = θ for any two distinct non-adjacent vertices i and j , where S k denotes the neighborhood of the vertex k . Let λ 1 = r , λ 2 and λ 3 be the distinct eigenvalues of a connected strongly regular graph. Let m 1 = 1, m 2 and m 3 denote the multiplicity of r , λ 2 and λ 3 , respectively. We here describe the parameters n , r , τ and θ for strongly regular graphs with m 2 = qm 3 and m 3 = qm 2 for q = 32 , 43 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 65 .


The fast pace of technical development within the tourism industry creates a gap between technology and the resources and knowledge of many small business owners. By launching the Geomedia approach ...


The present work is aimed at investigating the electrochemical properties of Li-ion cells, assembled using lithium substituted polyaniline and its composites with LiFePO4 and LiMn2O4 as the cathode active materials. Lithium substitution in PANI can be achieved by a variety of approaches and the present work introduces one of the cost effective methods using a comparatively cheaper lithium salt, n-butyllithium in hexanes (n-BuLi) as the dopant. X-ray diffraction, FTIR and SEM techniques were used to get the structural and surface morphological details of the Li-substituted PANI (LIPO) samples. Coin cells were assembled in the glove box using LIPO as cathode and lithium metal foil as anode with 1 M LiPF6 in EC:DMC (1:1) as electrolyte. Voltage sweep cyclic voltammetry and charge–discharge cycling were employed to characterize the electrochemical capabilities of the assembled cells. The cells are found to show a maximum discharge capacity of 25.04 mA h g−1 with 99.99% columbic efficiency and have got tremendous cycling stability over 50 cycles. Pouch cells were assembled using LIPO samples as cathode active materials, graphite as anode and gel polymer (poly(ethylene oxide)) as electrolyte. The pouch cells are found to hold the open circuit voltage of 0.6 V (OCV) even when bent up to 90° from the initial state, which provides the first signature of constructional flexibility of these polymer based Li ion cells. Hoping to improve the specific capacity of LIPO based cells, composite cathode materials were synthesized by mixing LIPO samples with LiFePO4 and LiMn2O4 in 9:1 ratio by weight. The cells are found to show a maximum discharge capacity of 37 mA h g−1 with 99.99% columbic efficiency and have got excellent cycling stability over 50 cycles. One of the highlights of these studies is the observation that the inherent Jahn–Teller effect associated with LiMn2O4 cathode material can be eliminated to a great extent by making composites with LIPO samples.


This paper presents a technique for improving the SNR and resolution of complex bandpass ∆ΣADCs which are used for wireless communication systems such as cellular phone, wireless LAN and Bluetooth. Oversampling and noise-shaping are used to achieve high accuracy of a ∆ΣAD modulator. However when a multi-bit internal DAC is used inside a modulator, nonlinearities of the DAC are not noise-shaped and the SNR of the ∆ΣADC degrades. For the conversion of complex intermediate frequency (IF) input signals, a complex bandpass ∆ΣAD modulator can provide superior performance to a pair of real bandpass ∆ΣAD modulators of the same order. This paper proposes a new noise-shaping algorithm— implemented by adding simple digital circuitry—to reduce the effects of nonlinearities in multi-bit DACs of complex bandpass ∆ΣAD modulators. We have performed simulation with MATLAB to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, and the results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the SNR of a complex bandpass ∆ΣADC with nonlinear internal multi-bit DACs. key words: complex bandpass ∆ΣAD modulator, bandpass filter, noiseshaping, ADC, DAC, element rotation, data-weighted averaging, low-IF receiver


Background: Balance is essential for maintaining postural stability while performing functional activities and for falls avoidance in patients with TKA.  There are very few RCTs done to assess functional improvement after TKA. Hence, this study was undertaken to find out evidence on physiotherapy treatment in TKA and analyze it.  Methods: We searched Medline, CINAHL, PEDro from the year 2001 to 2015 for RCT involving evaluations of physiotherapy exercise in adults with a knee replacement. Search criteria's were pain, stiffness, adherence and attrition. The inclusion criteria were studies which included physiotherapy exercise for balance specific exercises which compared various functional training and functional training with balance exercise in TKA. Result: Searches identified 20 randomized trials related to TKA and physiotherapy. Only three were fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Functional training with balance exercises found to be effective in patients with total knee arthroplasty. Conclusion: After total knee replacement, interventions including physiotherapy along with balance exercises showed improvement in pain, stiffness and functional performance in mobility.
Keywords: Osteoarthritis; Balance; Total knee arthroplasty physiotherapy.


Synthetic SrSO4 single crystals have been indented and the rosettes revealed by etching around the indentations have been studied. The three-dimensional structure of the dislocation half loops formed by indentation has been revealed by the process of repeated polishing and etching of the same surface. From measurements of the displacements of the rosette arms and the corresponding depths, the inclination of the planes in which the dislocation half loops lie with the observation plane has been calculated; from this the slip planes are computed. The active slip planes thus computed are found to be {201}. dagger This is further confirmed by studying the rosette structure produced on a (201) cleavage plane by indenting that plane itself.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) and moxibustion (Moxi) pretreatment on myocardial pathological and structural changes and expression of autophagy related protein LC 3 Ⅰ/Ⅱ and Beclin 1 in rats with myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MI/RI), so as to explore their mechanisms underlying improving MI/RI.

METHODS
Forty SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation, model, ischemic preconditioning (IP), EA and Moxi groups (n=8 in each group). EA (10 Hz/50 Hz,1 mA) or Moxi (ignited moxa stick) was respectively applied to bilateral "Neiguan"(PC 6) for 20 min, once daily for 7 days. The MI/RI model was established by occlusion of the anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery for 40 min, followed by reperfusion for 60 min. The left ventricular (LV) tissue samples were collected and analyzed for pathological (H.E. staining) and ultrastructural changes, for myocardial apoptosis (apoptotic index= number of apoptotic cells/total number of cardiomyocytes×100%) with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) method, and for the expression of LC 3 and Beclin 1 in myocardial cells with Western blot.

RESULTS
Following MI/RI, H.E. staining revealed a disorder of arrangement of cardiomyocytes with vague border, inflammatory cell infiltration, intracellular swelling with bleeding, necrosis and dissolution of partial striated muscles of the left ventricle under light microscope, and dual staining of Uranyl acetate and leadnitrate showed atrophy, arrangement disorder, dissolution, necrosis, and interstitial edema of partial myocardial fibers, mitochondrial structural disorder, vacolation, and large body of autophagosomes with bilayers, etc. in ultrastructure, which was relatively lighter in both EA and Moxi groups. The apoptosis index, expression levels of myocardial LC 3 Ⅱ and Beclin 1 and the ratio of LC 3 Ⅱ/LC 3 Ⅰ were significantly higher in the model group than those in the sham operation group (P<0.01), but the expression level of LC 3 Ⅰ was considerably down-regulated in the model group relevant to the sham operation group (P<0.01). Following the intervention and MI preconditioning, the increased apoptosis index and expression levels of LC 3Ⅱ and Beclin 1 proteins and the ratio of LC 3Ⅱ/LC 3 Ⅰ were obviously down-regulated in the IP, EA and Moxi groups relevant to the model group (P<0.01), and the decreased expression of LC 3 Ⅰ protein was up-regulated obviously in the 3 treatment groups (P<0.05,P<0.01). The effects of EA were significantly superior to those of IP and Moxi groups in down-regulating apoptosis index and expression of LC 3 Ⅱ and Beclin 1 and the ratio of LC 3 Ⅱ/LC 3 Ⅰ and in up-regulating expression of LC 3 Ⅰ (P<0.05, P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
Both EA and Moxi preconditioning of PC 6 have a protective effect on ischemic myocardium in MI/RI rats, which is probably related to their effects in regulating expression of myocardial autophagy proteins as LC 3 Ⅰ/Ⅱ and Beclin 1.


Objectives China has high burden on both of tuberculosis (TB) and tobacco use. This study aims to explore the potential link between smoking and TB infection using baseline survey data of a large-scale population-based prospective study in rural China Methods Between July 1 and Sept 30, 2013, based on the baseline survey of a population-based, prospective study in rural China, the relationship between smoking and TB infection, assessed by interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA), was investigated among the total study population and only among those smokers, respectively. Results A total of 21,008 eligible rural registered residents (≥ 5 years old) from 4 rural sites were included in the analysis. Ever-smokers were more likely to be QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT) positive than never smokers with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.34 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.21–1.49). Among ever smokers, a significant linear dose–response relation was observed between duration of smoking (by years) and QFT positivity (p < 0.001). Stratified analysis suggested that such an association was not influenced by gender and age. Evidence for interaction of smoking status with age was found. Conclusions Our results provide further evidence to support smoking might increase host susceptibility to TB infection. Populations under high risk of infection, such as elderly smokers, should be prior to TB infection controlling under a premise of community level intervention.


This paper provides empirical evidence on life-cycle patterns in the asset allocation of Swedish households. Data on household portfolio allocation are collected from the HINK surveys for the period 1982-1992, and portfolio shares of different asset categories are regressed on age, period, and cohort dummies as well as socio-economic and demographic variables. There are evident differences in the age profiles for the demand of different assets. The fraction of "risky" financial assets follows a hump-shaped age profile, as does the share of total real assets. While the probability of ownership of "safe" financial assets increases over life, the weight in the portfolio has a U-shaped age pattern. This is also true for the fraction of total financial assets. Furthermore, there are differences in the asset allocation of different birth cohorts; the portfolio weight of real assets is relatively higher for the "baby-boom" generation, while younger generations are more prone to invest in "risky" financial assets.


This paper proposes Commutative Event Sourcing as a simple and reliable mechanism for model synchronisation, bidirectional model to model transformations, incremental updates, and collaborative editing. Commutative Event Sourcing is a restricted form of a Triple Graph Grammar where the rules or editing commands are either overwriting or commutative. This restriction gets rid of a lot of Triple Graph Grammar complexity and it becomes possible to implement model synchronisation manually. Thus, you are not restricted to Java as your programming language and you do not need to use a proprietary library, framework, or tool. You do not even have to dig into graph grammar theory.


A Software Transactional Memory is a concurrency control mechanism that executes multiple concurrent, optimistic, lockfree, atomic transactions, thus alleviating many problems associated with conventional mutual exclusion primitives such as monitors and locks. With the advent of massive multi-cores, more transactions can be initiated concurrently, however resulting in an increase in the percentage of conflicting transactions. Each time a transaction conflicts, it imposes a significant cost on the system, originating from the need to abort and redo all the operations, including the costly shared memory read operations, thus making the overall system significantly heavy and impractical. We present an algorithm, Clustered Checkpointing and Partial Rollback (CCPR), for reducing the conflict costs of transactions in the face of increasing conflicts. The algorithm is based on intelligent checkpointing of transactions as they proceed, and, in case of conflict, rolling them back to a safe, consistent, intermediate checkpoint, thus reducing conflict costs. The intelligence of the algorithm lies in the fact that as conflicts decrease, the checkpointing costs go low, however, when conflicts increase, the checkpointing costs increase but are still pretty much less than the amount of savings obtained by the partial rollback of the conflicting transactions. We simulated several applications in the CCPR framework and found that it can result in as good as 17% reduction in the conflict costs originating from the need to redo all the shared memory read operations.


Objective ARID1A is commonly mutated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but the functional effects of ARID1A mutations in the pancreas are unclear. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive PDAC formation may lead to novel therapies. Design Concurrent conditional Arid1a deletion and Kras activation mutations were modelled in mice. Small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and CRISPR/Cas9 were used to abrogate ARID1A in human pancreatic ductal epithelial cells. Results We found that pancreas-specific Arid1a loss in mice was sufficient to induce inflammation, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) and mucinous cysts. Concurrent Kras activation accelerated the development of cysts that resembled intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm. Lineage-specific Arid1a deletion confirmed compartment-specific tumour-suppressive effects. Duct-specific Arid1a loss promoted dilated ducts with occasional cyst and PDAC formation. Heterozygous acinar-specific Arid1a loss resulted in accelerated PanIN and PDAC formation with worse survival. RNA-seq showed that Arid1a loss induced gene networks associated with Myc activity and protein translation. ARID1A knockdown in human pancreatic ductal epithelial cells induced increased MYC expression and protein synthesis that was abrogated with MYC knockdown. ChIP-seq against H3K27ac demonstrated an increase in activated enhancers/promoters. Conclusions Arid1a suppresses pancreatic neoplasia in a compartment-specific manner. In duct cells, this process appears to be associated with MYC-facilitated protein synthesis.


Positron annihilation from positron bound states in atomic systems has been investigated by using density functional theory. The shifts of the positron lifetime have been analysed in terms of competing influences of correlation potentials. The results suggest that inclusion of electron - positron correlation is crucial in the assignment of positron orbitals to lifetime components in density functional investigations of bound states of the positron in negative and neutral atomic systems. The eigenvalues of positron bound states consistently correspond to the positron annihilation lifetimes in our calculations.


The electromagnetic spectrum in the terahertz frequency region is of significant importance for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies and stars throughout the history of the universe and the process of planet formation. Within the star forming clouds the constituent atoms and molecules are excited to produce characteristic emission and absorption lines, many of which happen at the terahertz frequencies. Thus, detecting the spectral signatures as unique fingerprints of molecules and atoms require terahertz spectrometers, which need to be operated in a space observatory because of the water vapor absorption in the earth atmosphere. However, current terahertz spectrometers face several challenges that limit their performances and applications, including a low resolution, limited bandwidth, large volume, and complexity. In this paper, we address the last two issues by demonstrating a concept of a compact terahertz spectrometer using metasurface. We start by modelling, designing, and fabricating a metasurface, aiming to optimize its performance within a band from 1.7 to 2.5 THz. Next, we make use of an array of quantum cascade lasers that operate at slightly different frequencies around 2.1 THz to validate the performance of the spectrometer. Finally, we apply the spectrum inversion method to analyse the measured data to confirm a resolution R of at least 273. Our results demonstrated a miniaturized terahertz spectrometer concept successfully.


PURPOSE
To present an updated knowledge on the restorative options and their performance in the particular environment of non-carious cervical lesions (NCCL).

METHODS
Evidence-based support for a proper restoration of NCCL was searched. For this purpose, literature over the last 10 years available in the MEDLINE database was reviewed. Previous systematic reviews, meta-analysis and clinical trials as randomized clinical trials with a testing period of minimum 1 year were selected.

RESULTS
Until recently, glass-ionomer-based materials were considered the treatment of choice in most of the NCCL, although consistent improvements are still required. Today, based on the excellent esthetic properties and the good clinical performance, there is a general indication to use composite in NCCL. Clinical behavior was found to be highly product-dependent. The choice of an adhesive with tested efficiency is decisive for the retention and marginal adaptation, whereas differences in flexibility were not found to be clinically important. A periodontal-esthetic approach was suggested by combining the surgical root coverage with the correction of the emergence profile by composite.


Vixar has recently developed VCSELs at 1850nm, a wavelength of interest for neural stimulation applications. This paper discusses the design and fabrication of these new long-wavelength lasers, and reports on the most recent performance results. The VCSELs are based on InP-compatible materials and incorporate highly strained InGaAs quantum wells to achieve 1850nm emission. Current confinement in the VCSEL is achieved by ion implantation, resulting in a planar fabrication process with a single epitaxial growth step. Continuous wave lasing is demonstrated for aperture sizes varying from 8 to 50μm with threshold currents of 1-17mA. The devices demonstrate peak power of 7mW at room temperature and CW operation up to 85°C.


Bone allografts can store and release high levels of vancomycin. We present our results of a two-stage treatment for infected hip arthroplasty with acetabular and femoral impaction grafting using vancomycin-loaded allografts. We treated 29 patients (30 hips) by removal of the implants, meticulous debridement, parenteral antibiotic therapy and second-stage reconstruction using vancomycin-supplemented impacted bone allografts and a standard, cemented Charnley femoral component. The mean follow-up was 32.4 months (24 to 60). Infection control was obtained in 29 cases (re-infection rate of 3.3%; 95% confidence interval 0.08 to 17) without evidence of progressive radiolucent lines, demarcation or graft resorption. One patient had a further infection ten months after revision caused by a different pathogen. Associated post-operative complications were one traumatic periprosthetic fracture at 14 months, a single dislocation in two hips and four displacements of the greater trochanter. Vancomycin-supplemented allografts restored bone stock and provided sound fixation with a low incidence of further infection.


A wave of interest, policy and activities in children and young people's participation has passed through many countries over recent years. As participation activities have proliferated, so have challenges arisen as people have sought to translate the rhetoric of children and young people's participation into realities. Working across collaborators in Brazil, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom, this article draws on the collaboration's interest in 'transformative participation' as a potential way forward. The article begins with reviewing the growth of this concept within development studies, including its ties with empowerment. The article seeks to go further, to consider other potential concepts and theories that may critique or add to ideas of 'transformative participation': namely the concept of 'co-production'; and ideas of performance and multimodal pedagogy. The article discusses the potential for co-production to recognize children and young people's assets, capabilities and abilities, and to facilitate deeper engagement in service and policy development. The potential of performance-as-participation is more testing, valorising different ways of participation and communication, emphasizing creativity, affect and embodiment rather than rationality and governance. Such ideas may have equal, or even more potential, for 'transformative participation'.


Palabras clave: Distancia estocastica, frontera de produccion, panel de datos, sistema de salud. Abstract. The aim of this study is to compare the technical efficiency of the 13 public hospitals of the Maule region, Chile. The estimates were done with the stochastic frontier production method using a translogarithmic function. The information used came from a data panel for the 1999-2004 period, obtained from the Anuarios Estadisticos del Servicio de Salud del Maule (Health Service of the Maule Region Statistical Yearbooks). The 13 hospitals as a whole show a decreasing evolution of the technical efficiency, from 60% in 1999 to 57% in 2004. In terms of their complexity level, the evolution of the efficiency shows a similar trend, although there is a small difference in the level 3 and 4 hospitals, where the technical efficiency rates are slightly higher than the ones in level 1 and 2. It could be inferred that there is an inefficient use of the resources in the health system. In addition, the hospitals with more complexity are more efficient.


During the past decade a growing number of practitioners, educators, and cultural heritage funders have explored the idea of a convergence of library, archives, and museum functions. The rise of digital collections and services has served as an impetus for much of this thinking along with a search for economic efficiencies and enhanced and integrated user access to materials. With the growing interest in, and actuality of, LAM convergence, there is a pressing need for educators of LAM professionals to consider how this new reality changes educational requirements and programs. This paper discusses digital curation as a promising area of convergence in both professional practice and professional education and provides a model that seeks to identify both common requirements and institutional differences. We have developed a Matrix of Digital Curation Knowledge and Competencies for identifying and organizing the material to be covered in a digital curation curriculum. The Matrix is organized along six dimensions: mandates, values and principles; functions and skills; professional, disciplinary or institutional / qrganizational context; type of resource; prerequisite knowledge; and transition point in the information continuum. Within the context of potential LAM education convergence, one of the fundamental questions is the extent to which offerings must vary based on the professional, disciplinary, institutional, organizational, or cultural context in which students plan to work. LAM convergence is not likely to ' result in complete unification, but the growing importance of digital curation activities in supporting the missions of all three types of institutions poses exciting new opportunities for collaboration in professional education.


Small cell network is designed to provide mobile services to hot spots by deploying a large number of small access points (APs). As traditional network deployment requires costly AP location acquisition, cost-effective network deployment is necessary for small cell networks. We investigate this question by studying the network performance in terms of spatial outage and throughput of a completely random topology in comparison to that of a perfectly regular topology. Using a stochastic geometry model of user SINR in a random topology, our results show that the performance gap in terms of user SINR guarantee becomes narrow when the network density increases during the network densification. By a massive deployment, the loss is about 1 dB. Besides, it is at about 18% loss in user average throughput. These comparative results would provide helpful information to choose an appropriate deployment. In particular, as far as this relatively small performance loss can be compensated by other network control algorithms, the massive random deployment of a small cell network becomes attractive considering the cost reduction by the given deployment freedom.


Seven cases of necrotizing lymphadenitis (NEL) including a pair of male siblings, a female suffering from non‐bacterial meningitis, and two cases with the proliferation of monocytes and/or macrophages in the bone marrow are reported. This disease is clinically documented by the occurrence in young adults usually accompanied by painful cervical lymphadenopathy with fever and leukopenia (below 4,000/mm3). Morphological features were characterized by nuclear debris from degenerated lymphocytes and the appearance of blastoid cells and/or immunoblasts and macrophages. Ultrastructurally, tubular Inclusions with a close relation to the endoplasmic reticulum were observed in various kinds of cells in the lesion. Immunohistochemical studies revealed that the ratio of helper/suppressor T‐lymphocytes became low at the active stage and returned to normal range at the recovery stage. By immunohistochemical study it was confirmed that suppressor cells mainly corresponded to large transformed lymphocytes and/or immunoblasts and helper cells were degenerated by an unknown agent. Though the pathogenesis of NEL is still uncertain, it is suggested that T‐lymphocytes are mainly involved during the course of the disease and lymphocytes show cellular debris or blastoid transformation. ACTA PATHOL. JPN. 37:1071–1084, 1987.


At this stage, a detail study about EZ lock for my new product development was done. It is necessary in order to get detailed information about the product, non-verbal interview and research on the innovation product based and its features, quality, and conveniences. Furthermore, the theory of the new product development was related to my product concept. The details of my product were divided into research and development, product design, features, concept testing, build prototype and test marketing. In research and development, the details explanation of how the idea generation and market survey was conducted. The idea actually was generated based on the problem for the bikers and students in using their present bike lock which are not convenient and not enough secured. It is also waste time in finding the bike lock's key and sometimes student often forgot where the last time they put their key. Next, the details study based on target market for my product is bike store and hardware store which is the attractive sport for the people that looking for the bike lock. From the idea generation and market survey done, it shows the summary of the product detail, analysis and also target market on how our product idea was develop. The things that was analyzed is the product design or features. At this part, a sketch of my product design was done based on combination of existing product in market. Concept testing is the further analysis of the product on how target market will accept the innovation product.


European governance has witnessed dramatic changes in recent decades. By assessing the use of 'new' environmental policy instruments in European Union countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, this timely book analyses whether traditional forms of top-down government have given way to less hierarchical governance instruments, which rely strongly on societal self-steering and/or market forces. The authors provide important new theoretical insights as well as fresh empirical detail on why, and in what form, these instruments are being adopted within and across different levels of governance, along with analysis of the often-overlooked interactions between the instrument types.


An improved understanding of strongly driven laser-plasma coupling is important for optimal use of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) for both inertial fusion and for a variety of advanced applications. Such applications range from high-energy x-ray sources and high-temperature hohlraums to fast ignition and laser radiography. We discuss a novel model for the scaling of strongly driven stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering. This model postulates an intensity-dependent correlation length associated with spatial incoherence due to filamentation and stimulated forward scattering. We first describe the model and then relate it to a variety of experiments. Particular attention is paid to high-temperature hohlraum experiments, which exhibit low to modest stimulated Brillouin scattering even though this instability is strongly driven. We also briefly discuss the strongly nonlinear interaction physics for efficient generation of high-energy electrons either by irradiating a large plasma with near quarter-critical density or by irradiating overdense targets with ultra-intense laser light.


Anaesthetic techniques for paediatric cardiac surgery are presented, with emphasis on the special problems of premedication, induction, certain specific conditions and anticoagulation.


fragmentary Rabbi of Bacherach. Abraham represents the legal wisdom of the Jews, while his wife Sarah embodies the non-legalistic, exegetical texts of Judaism; in short, Abraham is the Halacha, Sarah the Aggadah. This synthesis of official and non-official Judaism is furthered with the appearance of Don Isaac in the last pages of the fragment; he completes the union by supplying the requisite laughter and joy needed to complete this reimagining of the Jewish tradition. The lesson for Critical Theory is, then, that it "only has a chance where laughter born of pleasure and joy is welcomed in as the offspring that enables life" (25). This monograph has many virtues. Among them are the penetrating interpretations of Heine texts in the various chapters. Goetschel has a comprehensive knowledge of Heine and a subtle manner of analyzing texts to support his arguments. He is also able to provide an interesting perspective on twentieth-century theory, demonstrating how dependent it was on nineteenth-century insights and previous thinkers, even when they are not fully acknowledged. On the other hand, the deficiencies in the overall thesis of this book are just as apparent. No matter how similar some of Heine's views may appear to be to those of Critical Theorists, we still have very little hard evidence that Heine exercised any significant impact on these later writers, or that his thoughts are more decisive in the development of the Frankfurt School than the writings of other, more theoretically sophisticated authors. Indeed, a chief problem with the conjunction in the title of this volume is what it betokens: is Goetschel claiming, as some passages suggest, that there was a direct influence of Heine on Adorno and other members of the Frankfurt School, or is there a mere confluence of views that requires no direct impact from Heine? As I have indicated above with a few citations, the nature of the connection is often blurry in this study. Furthermore, the reliance on the Jewish tradition as an enabling moment for Heine and Critical Theory is problematic. Certainly Heine and the Frankfurt School were outsiders to a German mainstream, but that outsider status was shared by non-Jews who were leftists or atheists or simply antagonistic to bourgeois thought and morality. Still, despite these shortcomings Goetschel provides Heine studies with numerous trenchant and provocative commentaries, and he forces scholars of Critical Theory to reconsider its origins, its indebtedness to Jewish tradition, and its relationship to one of the greatest literary figures of the nineteenth century.


The financial crisis and increasing unemployment have all necessitated that the EU adopts innovative policies to stimulate economic growth. Within the EU it remains the internal market which is at the core of EU trade policy and the Commission has been looking at ways in which to increase the volume of trade between Member States, especially by encouraging new opportunities for individual consumers. As part of the Europe 2020 Programme the Commission has been promoting its 'Digital Agenda'1 through which the Commission, amongst other initiatives, seeks to improve online sales and e-commerce of cross-border goods and services by consumers.2 In addition to the necessary technological developments, the Commission concludes that this can only be realised through the adoption of a uniform legal framework and effective consumer protection measures which will instil in consumers the confidence and protection that is necessary to guard against fraud and protect consumer rights. The Commission Communication Towards a Single Market Act3 and the Digital Agenda4 both highlight that significant fragmentation of online markets in Europe prevents growth and prevents consumers from obtaining the full benefit of the single market. Therefore, as part of the Agenda 2020 strategy through which the EU seeks to meet the goals of higher growth, employment and social cohesion, increasing the volume of online trade may, superficially, be considered as a logical component


The purpose of this study was to estimate the role of the SLC34A2 gene in breast cancer. A total of 146 samples were collected from breast cancer tissues and their adjacent normal breast tissues. Reverse transcription and real-time polymerase chain reaction were used to estimate gene expression levels. There was a significantly increased gene expression of SLC34A2 (normal tissues: 6.71±0.77; tumour tissues: 10.29±0.80) among breast cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. However, there was no significant association between overall survival and the gene expression level of SLC34A2. Moreover, a significant overexpression of CA125 (normal tissues: 7.26±0.62; tumour tissues: 10.51±0.58) in breast cancer tissues and a significant correlation between SLC34A2 and CA125 gene expressions were found. Our results suggested SLC34A2 to be involved in the development of breast cancer; this gene may therefore be a novel marker for the detection of breast cancer and act as a target gene in therapeutic strategies.


It is too early to make a detailed analysis of the general election for the 13th Lok Sabha. The proximate cause of Congress downfall are fairly obvious. The Congress vision of the nation is incomplete, underdeterminate and inconsistent in theory, and gravely dubious in practice. The BJP as a part of the Sangh parivar touches all aspects of our life. Its model of the nation is at variance with the true principles of Vedas. Yet it has potentially tremendous appeal to the caste-conscious, sanskritising Hindu masses. Not too long ago you heard a chorus of lambs: Indira is India. Expect soon a kirtan of hanumans: India is Hindia.


The diagnosis of primary hyperhidrosis is one of exclusion, but it is not a difficult one to make. It is a common, embarrassing and even disabling condition. If it does not respond to simple conservative therapy, the practitioner should not hesitate to advise sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis of the upper or lower limbs, or some simple local operation on the affected skin area for localized excessive axillary sweating.


Unfortunately, bike-related accidents are very common. Some of these accidents can be deadly. On most occasions, these accidents happen due to the lack of a safer means of commute, a bike lane. Further, many citizens could potentially be cyclists if bike lanes were installed. Driven by the idea of improving safety and convenience for cyclists, we contribute to a model that estimates the bike-lane demand in the city. We argue that the demand for bike lanes increases as the number of bike-related accidents increases. Further, the demand increases as the number of popular businesses increases, since some citizens commute to work and get around by bike. Our model estimates the demand for bike lanes using accidents and ratings of businesses. Accidents are defined by features that represent the severity as well as the cause of the accident. Our model uses the Weight of Evidence algorithm to determine the significance of the accident features. Further, the model uses an algorithm that breaks down roads into equally sized sections based on the US addressing standards. The estimation of the bike-lane demand is expressed via scores assigned to road sections.


A solid-state carbon monoxide sensor was fabricated using a 9% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) disc sandwiched between two platinum thin-film electrodes. One of the electrodes was coated with a thin layer of 7 CuO/10 ZnO/3 Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalyst. The sensor showed limiting current behavior at an applied voltage between 0.5 and 1.2 V. Linear response was observed with carbon monoxide in a nitrogen--oxygen mixture at high temperature and limiting current conditions. The linear carbon monoxide concentration range increased with increase in the operating temperature and its sensitivity increased from 2.437 mA/atm CO at 1,023 K to 10.771 at 1,093 K. These characteristics were adequately described by the proposed mathematical model relating the response to the rate processes occurring in the catalyst layer and in the electrochemical cell under limiting current conditions. The model showed that effective sensing and high sensitivity are best obtained using a catalyst with high catalytic activity toward the test solute and proper design and fabrication of the sensor to ensure its high diffusivity in the catalyst.


This in vitro study evaluated the effect of tooth brushing and thermal cycling on the surface lustre and surface roughness of three ceromer systems treated with different surface finishing methods. The ceromers studied were: (1). Artglass, (2). Targis, (3). Sculpture and (4). the control group, Z 100. Half of the Targis and Sculpture groups were polished and the rest were coated with staining and glazing solution, respectively. All specimens were subjected to thermocycling 10000 times. Tooth brushing abrasion tests were performed in a customized tooth-brushing machine with 500 g weight applied on a back-and-forth cycle for 20000 repetitions. The lustre determined by measuring the light reflection area and the average roughness was compared between groups and between pre- and post-test values. All materials showed a lower lustre and rougher surface after thermocycling and tooth brushing (P < 0.05). All ceromer specimens, except glazed Sculpture, showed a higher lustre and similar roughness to the control group. The post-brushing results revealed that glazed Sculpture presented discretely fallen out glaze coatings and had maximum change. However, stained Targis showed minimum change (P < 0.05) and polished Targis presented more changes than that of the staining treatment. It is therefore concluded that the glaze coatings for Sculpture don't exhibit long-term durability, while stain coatings for Targis acted like a protective layer.


Background: The education of patients with heart failure (HF) is an essential part of disease management. The perspectives of an increasing number of patients and a shortage of professionals force healthcare to explore new strategies in supporting patients to be better informed and more active. Methods: Three hundred and eighty-two patients with HF (age 71±SD 11.2 years) were randomly assigned to either a telemonitoring or a usual care group. Patients received four postal questionnaires to assess their levels of self-reported knowledge, self-care, self-efficacy and adherence. Generalized estimating equations analysis was performed to assess the effects of telemonitoring during the 1-year follow-up. Corrections for baseline were performed if needed. Results: Baseline differences between groups were found for self-care (p=0.001) and self-efficacy (p=0.024). Knowledge of patients in the telemonitoring group significantly improved with 0.9 point on a 15-points scale (p<0.001). Their self-care abilities improved with 1.5 point on a 10-item scale whereas no changes were found in patients receiving usual care (p<0.001). Self-efficacy of patients in the intervention group improved significantly after 6 months yet was not significantly different after 3 months and 1 year. For patients in the intervention group adherence improved for daily weighing (p<0.001) during the whole follow-up and for fluid intake (p=0.019) after 3 months and after 12 months (p=0.086). Adherence for activity recommendations improved (p=0.023) after 3 months and importance of medication adherence increased after 6 (p=0.012) and 12 months (p=0.037). No effects were found regarding appointments, diet, smoking and use of alcohol. Conclusions: Tailored telemonitoring was found to educate patients with HF and to improve their self-care abilities and sense of self-efficacy.


The hormone concentrations of 17 amenorrhoeic adolescent girls, with no apparent environmental factor associated with the secondary amenorrhoea, were evaluated. 28 regularly menstruating adolescent girls served as controls. The clinical characteristics of both groups were similar, except that the amenorrhoeic girls showed clinical signs of androgenicity significantly more often than the regularly menstruating group. The concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin, oestradiol, progesterone, testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS), and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) were determined in weekly blood specimens from the amenorrhoeic girls and during one menstrual cycle from the regularly menstruating girls. The amenorrhoeic girls had significantly higher concentrations of LH, androstenedione and free testosterone than the regularly menstruating girls. The LH/FSH ratio was significantly higher in the amenorrhoeic group than in the control group. The SHBG concentrations were significantly lower in the amenorrhoeic group than in the regularly menstruating group. Evaluation of the clinical signs of androgenicity combined with LH and androgen measurements seems important in the investigation of adolescent menstrual disorders.


Introduction: digitalization is a new trend of social development on the whole and the legal and political regulation in particular. The digitalization tempts and fascinates, attracts by its novelty and modernity. The idea of a fundamental change in the social order and social regulation under the digitalization influence in a broad sense is in the air and is already perceived as an axiom. At the same time, most people, both non-specialists in the area of social regulation, and even narrow professionals, will find it difficult to answer the question: what exactly will fundamentally change in the world, in society and in the economy, with the widespread introduction of digital technologies? As a result, the publications in the media and many scientific works resemble Hollywood blockbuster scenarios in the technocratic dystopia style, which leads researchers away from solving real problems of the legal regulation of changing social relations. The purpose of the study: to determine the model of interaction of law and digitalization in relation to the current level of technology development. Research objectives: to define the concept of digitalization; to consider the main trends in research on issues related to the large-scale spread of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies; to determine the limits of the real impact of digitalization on the law and legal regulation. Methods: the system, structural and functional methods, the methods of analysis and synthesis, expert evaluation. Results: the paper describes one of the trends of modern interdisciplinary research, called by the authors "the effect of digitalization". In relation to the sphere of legal regulation, the effect of digitalization is manifested in an attempt to see the fundamental novelty in relations using the latest technical means; the relations carried out in electronic form and/or using digital, network, telecommunication technologies, artificial intelligence. It is argued that the mediation of social relations with the latest technologies does not always lead to the change in the essence of relations and the need to create fundamentally new models of social regulation. Conclusions: digitalization in relation to the law appears in the modern world in two qualities: as an independent social phenomenon and as a tool designed to give the legal mechanisms efficiency and accessibility. At the present level of technology development the digitalization in relation to the law should be considered as a tool to improve the legal regulation quality. The Russian practice of "digitalization for the sake of digitalization" is dangerous and inefficient in social and economic terms.


This paper presents a channel condition prediction method for channel stage changes caused by the mobile move in high speed, which base on Kalman Filtering and Auto Regressive (AR) model. We introduced the selection of the sample and the revision of Kalman after studied traditional solution of LRP algorithms. Next, we extract the data from samples, established the AR model coefficient by a training sequence as the past information, predict the channel condition by the LRP channel prediction, and introduce a decision-making, when channel states have clear changes, revision them by Kalman filter. The algorithm we advanced can avoid the repeating calculation by use LRP algorithm. We found that it obtain the good effect in channel prediction by simulation analysis .


The dynamics of a semi-flexible sheet or tethered membrane in a solvent is studied using the method of stochastic rotation dynamics. Hydrodynamic interactions between different parts of the sheet are naturally included in this method. We confirm the scaling law for the radius of gyration versus sheet size predicted for a self-avoiding tethered membrane. The mean-square displacement shows both sub-diffusive and diffusive behavior similar to linear polymers. In the intermediate scattering function the sub-diffusive behavior appears as stretched exponential which we reproduce in our simulations. Thereby, we confirm an early prediction between the roughness and the sub-diffusion exponent derived from Zimm dynamics (E. Frey, D.R. Nelson, J. Phys. I 1, 1715 (1991)). Finally, we show that the diffusion coefficient of the square sheet is inversely proportional to the edge length of the sheet again in good agreement with theoretical predictions.


[reaction: see text] The selective removal from carbohydrate substrates of methoxy protecting groups next to hydroxy groups is reported. On treatment with PhI(OAc)(2)-I(2), the methoxy group is transformed into an easily removable acetal. The mild conditions of this methodology are compatible with many functional groups, and good to excellent yields are usually achieved.


University is a contributor to waste from its operational impacts, for this reason, it is obliged to report its activities to protect the environment. This is in line with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, namely ending poverty, reducing inequality, and protecting the environment. For that, it is very appropriate if all universities in Indonesia implement University social responsibility (USR). The purpose of this study was to examine more deeply the implementation of USR using a literature review approach. This study makes a real contribution in making public policies about the importance of implementing USR in University. For this reason, the research question is the extent to which USR based green accounting is implemented which includes environmental awareness, environmental involvement, environmental reporting, and environmental auditing. The results of the study have proven that the implementation of USR-based green accounting has been carried out by tertiary institutions properly, in real-life lectures (KKN) activities such as conducting training for the community on organic and nonorganic waste management and empowering communities around campus. However, the environmental report has not been published properly even though the report has been made. Also, the implementation of environmental audits has not been carried out optimally.


In some countries, the accepted rule is that individuals' personal situation is basically governed by the laws of their national government while in some other countries it is accepted that individuals' personal situation is governed by the laws of their residence. Conflicts between certain international and national laws are observed in the courts of countries that consider the individuals' personal situation is under the governance of their national governments' laws while the issue of conflicts between nationalities whose resolution is prioritized over the issue of conflicts between national laws, is also actionable in their courts. The issues of effects of marriage on nationality and vice versa are brought up in countries that accept that individuals' personal situation is governed by their national governments. In the present article which has been organized under the context of conflicts between certain personal-situation national laws relating to divorce, the causes of the former conflicts have been investigated and resolutions have been suggested for each.


The objective of this study was to assess the use of peach pomace in total mixed ration (TMR) silages and clarify the differences in aerobic stability between TMR and TMR silages caused by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The TMR were prepared using peach pomace, alfalfa hay or Leymus chinensis hay, maize meal, soybean meal, cotton meal, limestone, a vitamin-mineral supplement, and salt in a ratio of 6.0:34.0:44.4:7.0:5.0:2.5:1.0:0.1 on a dry matter (DM) basis. Fermentation quality, microbial composition, and the predominant LAB were examined during ensiling and aerobic deterioration. The results indicated that the TMR silages with peach pomace were well fermented, with low pH and high lactic acid concentrations. The aerobic stability of TMR silages were significantly higher than that of TMR. Compared with TMR silages with alfalfa hay, TMR silage with Leymus chinensis hay was much more prone to deterioration. Although the dominant LAB were not identical in TMR, the same dominant species, Lactobacillus buchneri and Pediococcus acidilactici, were found in both types of TMR silages after 56 d of ensiling, and they may play an important role in the aerobic stability of TMR silages.


When designing many products, especially vehicles, it is important to take into consideration impact properties. This paper presents fundamental dynamic data for two examples of bainitic steels. Hugoniots and shear–strength variation with longitudinal stress is reported. These were similar for both materials and in agreement with values for mild steel. The ferrite in the lower–temperature bainite was found to undergo a shock–induced phase transition at 13 GPa, whereas no phase transition was observed in the upper bainite. Further research is being conducted to account for this difference by studying the microstructure and the effect of impact on it. The lower–temperature bainite was found to behave in a brittle fashion, fragmenting extremely, whereas upper bainitic samples were usually recovered intact indicating ductile behaviour. The dynamic tensile or spall strength was also measured in these materials over a range of impact conditions. For the upper bainite, the spall strength dropped slightly with increasing longitudinal stress. However, for the lower–temperature bainite, there was a significant drop in spall strength above the longitudinal stress at which the phase transition occurs. Microstructural studies were also undertaken.


This paper looks at the novels by Joseph Diescho (Born of the Sun, 1988), Kaleni Hiyalwa (Meekulu's Children, 2000), and Neshani Andreas (The Purple Violet of Oshaantu, 2001) with a special focus on the access to education and land, but also problems such as Gender Based Violence and poverty. By comparing how an independent Namibia is imagined during South African apartheid rule, during the Liberation Struggle, and post-independence, the novels open up perspectives that empirical studies may overlook or decide not to emphasise. Furthermore, this comparison also allows for a linear, yet non-chronological, view on how the literary visions evolve with concepts such as nation and liberation, but also modernity and nationalism as they 'enter' into the characters' every day. With the protagonists deeply involved in the make-up of their respective villages, they can also be considered prototypical Namibians in their value systems and networks. Through their eyes, it is possible to trace how political promises that were envisioned and imagined prior to 1990 are either realised or disappointed.


On September 26, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California approved SB1260, a bill that, in relevant part, prohibits compensation to women who donate their eggs for scientific research.1 SB1260 is the first no-compensation legislation to extend into the private research sector, but it does not affect compensation for egg donations for in-vitro fertilization (IVF).2 While women's health advocates debate whether such a no-compensation rule really protects donors, scientists and others worry about the effects on research if altruism fails to produce enough donors.


High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry is commonly used for quantitation of analytes in biological matrices, because of the selectivity, sensitivity, and high throughput offered by this technique. However, the presence of both suppression and enhancement of ionization (SEI) by matrix components is an increasingly recognized impediment to accurate results. The existence of SEI indicates that ionization efficiency is a result of the chemical environment seen by both the analyte and internal standard during ion formation. SEI is influenced by the type and the make of ion source used, mobile-phase composition, extent of sample preparation, and the ability to chromatographically separate other compounds that may influence ionization of the analyte and/or internal standard. A comprehensive review of the phenomenon of SEI in high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was conducted, and a summary of salient papers relating to therapeutic agents in biological matrices is presented. Suggestions for approaches to minimize, normalize, or assess SEI and its deleterious effect on accuracy and sensitivity, and hence the validity of quantitative results, are provided. Consideration is also given to a strategy to test for SEI, including the number of samples from different sources that are required to adequately test for SEI.


At one time, universities educated new generations and were a source of social change. Today, colleges and universities are less places of public purpose than agencies of personal advantage. Remaking the American University provides a penetrating analysis of the ways market forces have shaped and distorted the behaviors, purposes, and ultimately the missions of universities and colleges over the past half-century. The authors describe how a competitive preoccupation with published rankings and markets has spawned an admissions arms race that drains institutional resources and energies. Equally revealing are their depictions of the ways faculty distance themselves from their universities, resulting in an increase in the number of administrators that contributes substantially to institutional costs. Other chapters focus on the impact of intercollegiate athletics on the educational mission, even among selective institutions; on the unforeseen result of higher education's "outsourcing" of a substantial share of the scholarly publication function to for-profit interests; and on the consequences of today's overzealous investments in e-learning. These trends raise the central question: Can universities and colleges today still choose to be places of public purpose? In the answers they provide, both sobering and enlightening, the authors underscore a consistent and powerful lesson--academic institutions cannot ignore the workings of the markets. The challenge ahead is to learn how to better use those markets for the greater public good. Robert Zemsky is a longtime professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he currently serves as the chair of the Learning Alliance. He has served as Penn's chief planning officer, as master of Hill College House, as the founding director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education, and as the codirector of the federal government's National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce. Gregory R. Wegner is the director of program development at the Great Lakes Colleges Association. He was the first and only managing editor of Policy Perspectives. William F. Massy is the president of the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group, Inc., and professor emeritus of higher education and business administration at Stanford University. In the 1970s and 1980s he held senior administrative positions at Stanford University, where he pioneered the use of financial management and planning tools that have become standards in higher education.


To economically meet the increasing demand for greater processing capability and reliability in information processing systems, the authors have developed a processor-to-processor communications unit (PCI) using a 100 Mb/s optical token ring. They describe a model for evaluating the performance of data transmissions carried over the PCIs, introduce the equations corresponding to the model, and present evaluation results obtained through actual measurements of PCI performance. Based on these results, they confirm the evaluation model can effectively estimate data transmission over the PCIs.<<ETX>>


The programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a major checkpoint protein that helps cancer cells evade the immune system. A non-invasive imaging agent with rapid clearance rate would be an ideal tool to predict and monitor the efficacy of anti-PD-L1 therapy. The aim of this research was to engineer a subnanomolar, high-affinity fibronectin type 3 domain (FN3)-based small binder targeted against human PD-L1 (hPD-L1) present on tumor cells. A naive yeast G4 library containing the FN3 gene with three binding loop sequences was used to isolate high-affinity binders targeted to purified full-length hPD-L1. The selected binder clones displayed several mutations in the loop regions of the FN3 domain. One unique clone (FN3hPD-L1-01) with a 6x His-tag at the C-terminus had a protein yield of >5 mg/L and a protein mass of 12 kDa. In vitro binding assays on six different human cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, DLD1, U87, 293 T, Raji and Jurkat) and murine CT26 colon carcinoma cells stably expressing hPD-L1 showed that CT26/hPD-L1 cells had the highest expression of hPD-L1 in both basal and IFN-γ-induced states, with a binding affinity of 2.38 ± 0.26 nM for FN3hPD-L1-01. The binding ability of FN3hPD-L1-01 was further confirmed by immunofluorescence staining on ex vivo CT26/hPD-L1 tumors sections. The FN3hPD-L1-01 binder represents a novel, small, high-affinity binder for imaging hPD-L1 expression on tumor cells and would aid in earlier imaging of tumors. Future clinical validation studies of the labeled FN3hPD-L1 binder(s) have the potential to monitor immune checkpoint inhibitors therapy and predict responders.


A grey fuzzy optimization model is developed for water quality management of river system to address uncertainty involved in fixing the membership functions for different goals of Pollution Control Agency (PCA) and dischargers. The present model, Grey Fuzzy Waste Load Allocation Model (GFWLAM), has the capability to incorporate the conflicting goals of PCA and dischargers in a deterministic framework. The imprecision associated with specifying the water quality criteria and fractional removal levels are modeled in a fuzzy mathematical framework. To address the imprecision in fixing the lower and upper bounds of membership functions, the membership functions themselves are treated as fuzzy in the model and the membership parameters are expressed as interval grey numbers, a closed and bounded interval with known lower and upper bounds but unknown distribution information. The model provides flexibility for PCA and dischargers to specify their aspirations independently, as the membership parameters for different membership functions, specified for different imprecise goals are interval grey numbers in place of a deterministic real number. In the final solution optimal fractional removal levels of the pollutants are obtained in the form of interval grey numbers. This enhances the flexibility and applicability in decision-making, as the decision-maker gets a range of optimal solutions for fixing the final decision scheme considering technical and economic feasibility of the pollutant treatment levels. Application of the GFWLAM is illustrated with case study of the Tunga–Bhadra river system in India.


A plasmid containing the bacterial gene of methotrexate-resistant dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr), under the control of early SV40 promoter, was introduced into murine teratocarcinoma CBA9H6 cells. From the whole pool of teratocarcinoma cells, which survived after transient methotrexate selection in vivo, the individual cells were isolated to give rise to 15 clones of tumors. Six of the 15 clones displayed nucleotide sequences of the original vector containing pBR322 sequences and the early SV40 promoter region; however, the bacterial dhfr gene was absent from the transformant clones. Possible causes of the loss of introduced dhfr gene from teratocarcinoma cells under non-selective conditions are discussed.


Purpose: Automating tasks such as lung tumor localization and segmentation in radiological images can free valuable time for radiologists and other clinical personnel. Convolutional neural networks may be suited for such tasks, but require substantial amounts of labeled data to train. Obtaining labeled data is a challenge, especially in the medical domain. Methods: This paper investigates the use of a teacher-student design to utilize datasets with different types of supervision to train an automatic model performing pulmonary tumor segmentation on computed tomography images. The framework consists of two models: the student that performs end-to-end automatic tumor segmentation and the teacher that supplies the student additional pseudo-annotated data during training. Results: Using only a small proportion of semantically labeled data and a large number of bounding box annotated data, we achieved competitive performance using a teacher-student design. Models trained on larger amounts of semantic annotations did not perform better than those trained on teacher-annotated data. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the potential of utilizing teacher-student designs to reduce the annotation load, as less supervised annotation schemes may be performed, without any real degradation in segmentation accuracy.


The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is a list of all chemicals released by over 22,000 manufacturing sites across the US. The TRI was established by the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986. The TRI is managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. It was opposed by the Reagan administration and many industry groups because it was seen as an increase in government paper work and regulation. It has turned out to be an easy-to-manage stimulate to change. Industry leaders have even proclaimed its ability to help raise awareness of pollution in the industry. The TRI is accessible through computers with modems on the TOXNET system at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda for about 25$-35$/hour. It is also available through RTK NET which is operated jointly by OMB Watch and the Unison Institute. TRI is by no means complete. It covers an estimated 5% of the total toxic release in the US. It monitors the release of only 330 toxic chemicals leaving about 500 more out. It does not count releases from sites that process less then 25,000 pounds or that use less than 10,000 pounds of a listed chemical. It also only monitors steel, paper, chemical, petroleum refining activities. It does not monitor the releases from other manufacturing like oil and gas extraction, warehousing, transportation, hazardous waste disposal, incineration, and mining.


Because sexual harassment by faculty can deter college women from entering male-dominated fields, college administrators face the serious task of determining effective policies to deal with such harassment. This study was conducted to examine students' ratings of appropriate punishment for male profess.Jrs who harass female students. The effects of gender and behavior on suggested punishment for sexual harassment of female students by male faculty members were examined for a wide range of behaviors. Male (N=96) and female (N=106) college students completed a questionnaire which briefly described 25 situations which might occur between a male professor and one of his current female students, both within and outside the classroom. All nine recognized categories of sexual harassment and six innocuous items of appropriate student-instructor interactions were included. Subjects rated the appropriate discipline for sexual harassment for each item with punishment ratings on a seven-point scale ranging from no punishment to filing criminal charges. A two-way analysis of variance revealed significant main effects and an interaction, with each p .005. Pair-wise post hoc comparisons allowed for the isolation of clusters of acts deserving similar punishments and revealed significant sex differences on 13 of the 20 harassing behaviors, especially among items describing more moderate levels of harassment. Male students were significantly less punitive overall than were female students. (Author/NB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * co reN N. C, CZ) In 0 Lai Influences on Proposed Punishment for Sexual Harassment Mary J. Allen, Mary Lou MacIlvaine, Kelli K. Hoindel California State University, Bakersfield Paper Presented at the Western Psychological Association Meeting April 28, 1988, San Francisco


An approximation is derived for longitudinally inhomogeneous waveguides (LIW). Total reflections are adopted for a rough approximation through the tracking of the main reflected and transmitted fields in the multilayered dielectric structure. This approximation can be used to determine the thickness of layers of which the dielectric properties are known. Although the obtained thickness values are a rough approximation for the exact values, they provide a utility for iterative optimization algorithms for which the initial values are vital.


Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been shown to directly and indirectly affect breast tissue. HIV-related breast conditions vary by geographic region and may include infection, benign breast enlargement from gynecomastia or lipomastia, and neoplasia. The aim of this study was to describe the spectrum of HIV-related breast disease encountered at a community teaching hospital, and identify factors associated with these breast conditions.Methods: A retrospective review was performed of HIV positive patients with a breast related encounter seen at our institution over a 9 year time period (1998-2007). Data was collected regarding patient demographics, HIV status (risk category, duration of HIV infection, CD4 cell count, HIV viral load), comorbid disease, and medications including antiretroviral therapy (ART). Breast events (encounters) were analyzed according to breast disease category (cancer, atypia, infection, benign), clinical findings, diagnostic procedure performed, pathology, imaging, treatment and outcome. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Univariate and multiple logistic regression was conducted for significance of factors in the development of breast cancer, infection or gynecomastia.Results: A total of 46 individuals were included with a median age of 47 years (range 24-64 years) and male:female ratio of 1:3. In the study population, 48% were Hispanic, 35% African American, and 17% Caucasian. HIV acquisition risk categories were heterosexual in 59%, intravenous drug users in 35%, and one man with gynecomastia was homosexual. The mean duration of HIV infection was 7 years prior to presentation with a breast condition, during which time 46% had an AIDS defining illness. The median CD4 cell count was 437 cells/mm3 (range 2 to ≥ 500) when their breast condition was diagnosed. Categories of breast disease identified were benign conditions (59%), infection (17%), cancer (22%), and atypia (2%; 1 patient had atypical ductal hyperplasia). Patients with breast infection had a lower median CD4 count (241 cells/mm3) than patients with breast cancer (442 cells/mm3) or benign conditions (496 cells/mm3). Most (78%) patients received combination ART. ART of all drug classes was associated with gynecomastia (n=8), including one man with concomitant lipohypertrophy and hyperlipidemia. Infections included abscesses (n=6), mastitis (n=1) and cutaneous molluscum contagiosum (n=1). Breast cancer included patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (n=7), ductal carcinoma in situ (n=2), and 1 liposarcoma. Five (11%) patients died, only one from breast disease.Conclusion: These data indicate that increased longevity in patients with chronic HIV infection may be associated with the development of benign, neoplastic and infectious breast conditions in both men and women. Breast disease does not appear to be related to HIV immunosuppression, with the possible exception of bacterial infection. Gynecomastia in men appears to be linked to antiretroviral therapy, including the fat maldistribution syndrome. A broad spectrum of breast disease should be anticipated as HIV infected persons are living longer with effective antiretroviral therapy. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 2076.


Two dimension (2D) seismic profile of Baruna and Jaya lines at North-East Java Basin show seismic reflector characteristics that can be used to interpret sediment thickness and continuity. Those reflector characteristics that can be applied for seismic facies analysis that represent depositional environment. This study starts from seismic data processing that using Kirchhoff Post Stack Time Migration method which is 2D seismic profile as result. Seismic reflector characterization has been done to both 2D profiles. Seismic reflector characterization was grouped as (i) individual reflection, (ii) reflection  configuration, (iii) reflection termination, (iv) external form. Individual reflection characteristics show high and medium amplitude, medium and low frequency, and continuous. Configuration reflection is continuous with parallel and subparallel type. Reflection termination shows onlap, and external form shows sheet drape. Local mound appearance can be interpreted as paleo-reef. Facies seismic anlysis result for this study area is shelf.


This article gives a review of the theoretical and clinical conditions in the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis which was introduced in 1980. Investigations suggest a definite relationship between the traumata and the subsequent stress disturbances while the roles played by premorbid factors and the paratraumatic happenings are still not elucidated. The conditions is common after violent traumata. The subsequent course tends to be chronic although the prognosis in many cases in which rapid intervention is instituted is good. Greater awareness of the occurrence of PTSD is recommended.


Rationale: Pemetrexed (PEM), a novel and multitargeted antifolate, has been used as an antineoplastic agent for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pleural mesothelioma. Although glucocorticoids (such as dexamethasone, DEX) are recommended to be co-administered with PEM during the chemotherapy to reduce toxicity, it is not clear yet whether DEX co-administration could affect PEM efficacy or not on chemotherapy. Methods: We used established NSCLC cell lines (H1650, A549, H2228 and H292) and examined the effects of DEX on PEM sensitivity in vitro and in xenograft models. Results: We found that DEX co-administration could reduce sensitivity to PEM and have high capacity for tumor invasion and metastasis. Meanwhile, DEX co-adminstration weakened senescence growth arrest, such as altered secretions of proinflammatory and mitogenic cytokines, reminiscent of a senescence associate secretory phenotype (SASP). Furthermore, we demonstrated that DEX co-administration enhanced ability of self-renewal, clonogenicity and initiation of tumors, which are consistent with crucial hallmarks in the definition of cancer stem cells (CSCs). In addition, we found that expression of Bcl-2 was increased with DEX co-administration. Knockdown expression of Bcl-2 inhibited cell growth and clonogenicity in DEX co-administration group. Conclusion: DEX might suppress the antitumor activity of PEM through alterd SASP level, thus changing self-renewal ability in Bcl-2 dependent manner. Extra caution need to be required when PEM and DEX were jointly adminstered in NSCLC patients chemotherapy.


Objective: To assess the role of platelet indices mainly: Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) and Platelet Distribution Width (PDW) for the differential diagnosis of thrombocytosis. Methods: A prospective case series study conducted at Ibn–Sena Teaching Hospital in Mosul during the period from June 2003 to January 2005. Ninety two patients with thrombocytosis were analyzed for platelets indices using Coulter MS-9. A control group of sixty normal subjects were also included in this study for comparison. Results: Thrombocytosis was found to be due to two main causes: 12 patients with myeloproliferative disorders, and 80 patients had secondary reactive causes of thrombocytosis. Patients with myeloproliferative disorders had significantly higher Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) than those with reactive thrombocytosis. Also the Platelet Distribution Width (PDW) was higher in patients with myeloproliferative disorders than those with reactive thrombocytosis and control group. Conclusion: Platelet indices especially PDW seem to be a good variable for the differential diagnosis of thrombocytosis.


I reclaim the patristic Christological use of perichoresis by showing how in bringing together different entities, such as God and Nature in unity as the one person of Christ, we can acknowledge the perichoresis between divine human and nature. Christological perichoresis supports the idea that the whole creation is included in God's recreated cosmos, in response to the redeeming power of Christ who entered the web of life as a creature. Trinitarian relationships bear a Christological message for intentional openness towards the "other". Thus ecofeminism can be considered from a Christian view, realizing Christ's "cosmic" role in the salvation of the entire cosmos.


In vitro corrosion resistance and ion dissolution of commercial pure titanium with different surface microroughness are studied adopting constant potential meter and atomic absorption spectroscopy. In terms of the surface roughness, titanium samples are divided into 5 groups: smooth surface, machining surface, 2 different microroughness surfaces and macrorough surface. Each group contains three category samples under different treatments: natural oxidation (24 h exposure to air), oxidation under 400 degrees C (400 degrees C, 45 min thermal oxidation), oxidation under 700 degrees C (700 degrees C, 45 min thermal oxidation). In Hanks corrosion media, comparative studies through constant potential anode polarization curves and titanium release rates of the 5 groups of Ti samples demonstrates that oxidation under 400 degrees C best increase corrosion resistance and decrease ion release sharply, oxidation under 700 degrees C is better than natural oxidation. Ti samples with a different surface roughness all have good corrosion resistance and their corrosion resistance drop with the raising of surface roughness. Comparing with macrorough surface and machining surface, microrough surfaces have better corrosion resistance and a lower ion release rate which are similar to those of smooth surfaces. Moreover, the corrosion resistance of machining surface Ti is the lowest. It is hypothesized that surface treatment methods such as surface thermal oxidation, surface aging and so on will improve the corrosion resistance and decrease the ion release rate of rough surface effectively by increasing the thickness of surface protection film, improving its structural uniformity and facilitating the formation of ordered, compact surface protection film.


We summarize the progress achieved at LSAI in the understanding and optimization of the transient collisional pumping of x-ray lasers using an ultra-short picosecond heating pulse. A strong ×300-400 enhancement of the 13.9 nm Ni-like 4d-4p lasing emission is obtained when a travelling-wave short pulse irradiates the preformed plasma. The temporal history of the 13.9 nm laser pulse is measured with a high-resolution streak camera. A very short, 2 ps x-ray laser pulse is directly demonstrated for the first time.