Atom Probe Tomography (APT) resolves atoms in real space and detects their chemical identity. In the realm of microscopic techniques, it has its unique place with sub nanometer spatial resolution and high chemical sensitivity. In this thesis, data driven techniques have been developed to identify nano scale chemical features from reconstructed atomic data obtained from APT experiments. Main drawbacks in present day methods, to detect nano scale features, are use of input parameters involving heuristics on part of user. Techniques developed in this work use the APT data to determine the input parameters, thereby making the process more quantitative. In particular, techniques have been developed to select optimal voxel size to calculate the concentration profile, and to select the concentration threshold using ideas from computational topology. Voxel size is selected using an error minimization technique. A framework to quantify and visualize spatial uncertainty in isosurface has also been developed. Approaches developed in this work are generic in nature and can be applied on any APT data. In this work, results have been shown for Ni based superalloy data.


A patient with virilization was studied. The basal urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids was at the upper limit of normal, but the plasma testosterone concentration was greatly elevated. Testosterone secretion could be stimulated by hCG, suppressed by dexamethasone, and was not affected by ACTH. At operation, an arrhenoblastoma of the left ovary was found. Isolated tumor cells in culture secreted testosterone. The addition of a LRH agonist (10 ng/ml) suppressed the secretion of testosterone by 50% (P less than 0.01). The inhibiting effect of a LRH agonist on steroidogenesis suggests that LRH receptors were present on this tumor and that treatment with LRH agonists might be beneficial in patients with metastatic steroid hormone-secreting ovarian and testicular tumors.


Abstract Objectives: Although life-threatening emergencies for cancer patients are relatively rare, cancer patients often seek care in the emergency department. The use of emergency medical service (EMS) by these patients is not well studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of cancer patients who present to the emergency department (ED) for care and compare characteristics of patients transported by EMS vs. those transported by private vehicle. Methods: Our retrospective cohort study was conducted in an EMS system with 21,070 annual transports and an academic ED with 129,263 annual visits. Our study consisted of patients with a new diagnosis of cancer between January 1 and July 1, 2015 who subsequently presented to the ED between January 1, 2015 and July 1, 2017. Study variables included patient demographics, mode of ED arrival, cancer type and treatment, patient clinical characteristics, and disposition. To describe differences in patient characteristics of EMS vs. private vehicle transport, we report variable frequencies and stratified them by mode of transport. Results: Of the 2,727 patients with a new diagnosis of cancer, 1,303 (47.8%) presented to the ED with a total of 3,590 visits in 30 months. EMS transported 22% of cancer patients to the ED vs. 78% transported by private vehicle. Thus, cancer patients would make up approximately 1.5% (781/52,675) of all EMS transports during the study period. For those transported by EMS, the most common chief complaints were respiratory distress (16.0%), pain (15.4%), and neurological symptoms (12.6%). Patients with cancer of the lung/respiratory tract (21.5%), upper GI (12.4%), and central nervous system (CNS) (11.0%) were most frequently transported by EMS. Older age, presence of CNS cancer, presentation with neurological or cardiovascular complaints, and higher acuity were significantly associated with EMS transport to ED, while gender and pain severity were not. Patients transported by EMS were more likely to be hospitalized and for greater than 2 days (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Cancer patients frequently seek emergency care after initial diagnosis, most commonly present for symptom relief, and are often admitted. Patients transported by EMS are more likely to be admitted and for longer periods of time.


There's no one way to create Composed Theatre. Innovation and reinvention are its hallmark. Music calls the tune, but no one artform need necessarily lead its intermedial dance. However as this new field comes into focus, it is possible to divine certain essential moves. How best to locate, capture and identify them? From within creative practice itself.

Tyrone and Lesley in a Spot is a 60 minute intermedial show combining music and screen in performance. The project had a very musical question at its heart: 'can a whole show be like a song?' A collaboration between a writer/musician/performer, video artist/writer, and musician, the project employed the performance personae of Tyrone and Lesley in developing a new work of Composed Theatre. Ostensibly a concert presentation of original songs, the performance progressively revealed its playfully covert intermedial complexities in a poetic and humorous show which was described as 'a unique piece of theatre…a performance that knows it's a performance' (Sullivan 2016).

The practice led research took in two phases of artistic activity: Creative Development, culminating in a work in progress showing in late 2015, and Devising Rehearsals towards a public performance in 2016. The project began as a pure creative development, with no particular performance outcome in sight. This scattered, part-time collaborative process happened in person, on paper and virtually over six months in 2015 at Metro Arts, a multidisciplinary arts organisation housed in a heritage-listed warehouse in central Brisbane. This period of writing construction and experimentation culminated with a work in progress to a small invited audience. The work was then selected for the Queensland Cabaret Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse and premiered in June 2016.

The artists engaged in a hybrid process which traversed writing, design, filmmaking, composition and performance. In a highly musicalized process led by form rather than content, narrative was allowed to emerge rather than being predetermined. These strategies enabled distinct discoveries around principles of performance making in Composed Theatre, bringing a quality of process to a product in which an attempt at spectacle itself can become the spectacle.

In this research, work was characterized by a distinct provisionality based in a dialogue between plasticity of structure in the writing, and plasticity of form in the making. The creative play and discovery was identified as 'within domain' (Katz and Gardner in Hargreaves, Miell, MacDonald, 2012: 110) firmly locating it as a project of Composed Theatre Axial thinking (Eno, 1998) informed the development of a series of intersecting continua which shaped the construction of critical moments of the performance.

The performance was noted by Katherine Sullivan in thecreativeissue as a show that 'doesn't try to hide anything… [and] combined music with moving images to create a cabaret show that is … absurd and very charming.' (2016) Rhumer Diball pointed out that 'Sibthorpe's projections were used not only as accompaniment, but as a third character' (2016)


Huang ES, Zhang Q, Gandra N, Chin MH, Meltzer DO: The effect of comorbid illness and functional status on the expected benefits of intensive glucose control in older patients with type 2 diabetes: a decision analysis. Ann Intern Med 149:11-19, 2008

Design. A decision analysis.

Subjects. Adults ages 60-80 years with diabetes.

Methods. The authors developed a simulation model to understand the magnitude of the potential benefits of intensive (target A1C < 7.0%) versus moderate (target A1C < 7.9%) glycemic control in older adults with diabetes (both new-onset and of different levels of duration) and a range of comorbid illnesses and functional limitations. The model parameters were drawn from available trials and cohort studies. Comorbidity and functional limitations were categorized using a previously validated framework and were used to model life expectancy. The potential benefits of intensive control were expressed in average quality-adjusted life-days gained. Diabetes-related complications (e.g., blindness, end-stage renal disease, amputation, and myocardial infarction) were assigned health values (utilities) based on previous studies. The model did not consider costs …


Biondi and Marasini recently reported that patients with Raynaud's phenomenon showed increased platelet aggregation induced by serotonine and adenosine diphosphate (low doses), and normal platelet aggregation induced by adrenalin.' We also investigated adrenaline (5 pg/ml) induced platelet aggregation in 20 healthy volunteers, 27 patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon, and 25 patients with obliterative atherosclerosis. We registered the time to the start ofaggregation rather than its intensity. The mean (SD) figures were 34 2 (5-57) seconds in Raynaud's phenomenon and 37 8 (5 54) seconds in obliterative atherosclerosis. The time registered to the start of aggregation was significantly shorter in Raynaud's phenomenon compared with that in normal adults (46 3 (4-37) seconds (p


Aggregation of isolated graphene sheets during drying graphene dispersions leads to a loss of its ultrahigh surface area advantage as a two-dimensional nanomaterial. We report a metal nanoparticle-graphene composite with a partially exfoliated graphene morphology derived from drying aqueous dispersions of platinum nanoparticles adhered to graphene. Platinum nanoparticles with diameters spanning several nanometers are adhered to graphene by a chemical route involving the reduction of metal precursors in a graphene dispersion. Face-to-face aggregation of graphene sheets is arrested by 3−4 nm fcc Pt crystallites on the graphene surfaces, and in the resulting jammed Pt−graphene composite, the Pt acts as spacers resulting in mechanically exfoliated, high-surface-area material of potential interest for supercapacitors and fuel cells.


Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) has been of great interest among researchers, and multiple causes have been proposed and accepted; however, cholecystectomy (CMY) as a potential cause for CRC, particularly in the female gender has not been studied in detail, despite multiple evidence suggesting a positive association. This review is directed at investigating the association between CMY and CRC in the female gender and aims at finding a potential cause for this association. CRC involves cancer of the sigmoid and rectum. The composition of the bile acids is altered in patients after CMY, and the resultant secondary bile acids (BA) without a functioning gall bladder are exposed directly to the intestines, which could lead to cancer. An increase in fecal secondary bile acids is also described as high in the CMY population and has been linked to cancer. Right-sided GI cancers were attributed to CMY, although many earlier studies did not find this to be true. It is interesting to note a strong association between CRC and CMY in the female western population.


ABSTRACT Pneumococcus is a significant pathogen in neonates and in early infancy, particularly as a cause of invasive disease in sub-Saharan Africa where nasopharyngeal carriage rates are also exceptionally high. The pneumococcal-conjugate vaccines have now been rolled out in many high income settings and an increasing number of low and middle income countries. They have been highly effective at preventing vaccine serotype disease in infants. However, a window of susceptibility remains prior to the first vaccination at around six weeks of age. This paper summarizes the data available on both maternal and neonatal vaccination to prevent disease in newborns and early infancy and considers the key challenges and next steps for research in the field.


The effect of microbial processes on electrical properties of unconsolidated sediments was investigated in a laboratory experiment consisting of biotic and abiotic sand columns. The biotic column (nutrient, diesel and bacteria) showed (a) temporal increase in the real, imaginary, and surface conductivity, and (b) temporal decrease in the formation factor. The abiotic columns (nutrient; and nutrient and diesel) showed no significant changes. Increase in microbial population numbers, decrease in organic carbon source, nitrate, and sulfate and increase in dissolved inorganic carbon and fluid conductivity were indicative of microbial activity in the biotic column. We also measure relative increase in the interfacial electrical properties that exceed relative increase in the electrolytic conductivity. Thus changes in the real and imaginary conductivity were induced by microbial processes. These results suggest that interpretation of geoelectrical data from near surface environments should consider effects of microbial processes.


The carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a validated marker of cerebrovascular disease risk. This work presents a new parameter, the IMT variability (IMTV), and compares the IMT and IMTV in symptomatic and asymptomatic Italian patients. 142 patients were analyzed (age 59±11.2 years, 59% males), 42 of which suffered from TIA (transient ischemic attack) or minor stroke. The lumen-intima (LI) and media-adventitia (MA) interfaces were manually traced by a Reader, and automatically traced by an automated system (AutoEdge). These interfaces were then used to measure the IMT and IMTV along the carotid wall. Wilcoxon and Pearson correlation analyses were performed. There was about a 65% correlation between the manual and automated measurements of IMT. There was no statistical difference between the manual and automated IMTV measurements (Wilcoxon signed rank, p>;0.7). The observed mean IMT for symptomatic patients (0.83±0.44 mm for Reader vs. 0.82±0.35 mm for AutoEdge) was higher compared to asymptomatic patients (0.78±0.45 mm for Reader vs. 0.74±0.30 mm for AutoEdge). The symptomatic IMTV was about 11% higher than the asymptomatic IMTV when using Reader tracings and 8% higher when using AutoEdge. AutoEdge was very accurate in measuring the IMT and IMTV both for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Results showed that the symptomatic subjects had comparable IMT with respect to asymptomatic subjects, but a higher IMTV value.


In patients under artificial lung ventilation (ALV) there is often observed development of severe ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) due to polyresistant hospital pathogens. It should be noted that in the patient described here with the initial diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia rapidly subjected to prolonged ALV the previous antibacterial therapy by broad spectrum drugs significantly increased the risk of contamination just by multiresistant nosocomial strains, which hampered the starting therapy of nosocomial pneumonia either when there were not available or sometimes there were available microbial cultures. When the treatment of severe pneumonias caused by multiresistant hospital flora resistant to carbapenems is actual, in the alternative therapy it could be used tigecycline, a tetracycline from the group of glycylcyclines. A case of successful treatment of nosocomial VAP by tigecycline based on the results of the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) culture is described. The case is of interest because tigecycline was used as off label.


AIM:To assess the role of the major risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) development in the western part of North Africa.METHODS:A multicenter case control study was conducted in Tunisia,Morocco and Algeria in collaboration with Pasteur Institutes in these countries.A total of 164 patients with HCC and 250 control subjects without hepatic diseases were included.Prevalences of HBsAg,anti-hepatitis C virus(HCV)and diabetes were assessed.HCV and HBV genotyping were performed for anti-HCV and HBsAg positive patients.RESULTS:The mean age of patients was 62±10 years old for a 1.5 M:F sex ratio.Sixty percent of HCC patients were positive for anti-HCV and 17.9% for HBsAg.Diabetes was detected in 18% of cases.Odd ratio(OR)and 95% confidence intervals(CI) were 32.0(15.8-65.0),7.2(3.2-16.1) and 8.0(3.1 -20.0)for anti-HCV,HBsAg and diabetes respectively.Multivariate analysis indicated that the three studied factors were independent.1b HCV genotype and D HBV genotype were predominant in HCC patients.HCV was the only risk factor significantly associated with an excess of cirrhosis(90% vs 68% for all other risk factors collectively,P=0.00168).Excessive alcohol consumption was reliably established for 19(17.6%) cases among the 108 HCC patients for whom data is available.CONCLUSION:HCV and HBV infections and diabetes are the main determinants of HCC development in North Africa.An active surveillance and secondary prevention programs for patients with chronic hepatitis and nutrition-associated metabolic liver diseases are the most important steps to reduce the risk of HCC in the region.


When do a landowners owe a duty to protect an individual on their property from the criminal acts of a third party? The answer to this question usually turns on whether the type of criminal act that occurred was foreseeable. Courts determine whether an act was foreseeable either by examining the totality of the circumstances or by demanding evidence of prior similar acts or some method of analysis that borrows from both approaches. This article addresses a variety of duty-foreseeability cases from around the country, paying particular attention to the three major decisions issued by the California Supreme Court in 2004-2005. Part I of the article traces the various pendulum swings of the California Supreme Court as it moves from a strongly pro-plaintiff to a moderately pro-defendant back to a moderately pro-plaintiff definition of duty in premises liability cases. The article particularly considers the impact of a shifting approach to duty, in which the legal analysis of foreseeability changes depending on whether the criminal assault is in the future, imminent or ongoing. The article then examines a number of "twists in the tale" that make it particularly difficult for courts to determine whether a particular criminal act was sufficiently foreseeable that landowners had a duty to the victim and may be liable for the resulting harm. Twist #1 is the tragically bizarre criminal act that causes injury. Twist #2 considers whether a landlord has a duty to prevent tenant-on-tenant crime, e.g., where both the attacker and victim were authorized to be on the premises. Twist #3 considers whether gang violence impacts the analysis of foreseeability in a different way than "random" crime. Taken together, these twists demonstrate that courts frequently find themselves in the untenable position of second guessing the reasonableness of property owners and their employees during an ongoing criminal act. Viewing the incidents in hindsight, judges tend to expand the landowners' duty, to the detriment of certainty and fairness in the law.


The goal of the second component is to strengthen and advance the teachers profession in preschool, primary and secondary education in the R. of Macedonia. The process will include a thorough analysis of educational offers and documentation, capacities for training of educators and teachers, as well as interviews with project stakeholders.
The fields of research will also include the contemporary trends of the teachers' profession in Europe and globally, structural changes in the higher education

institutions, revisions of study programs, the capacities of the higher education institutions, etc.
The meeting was hosted by the Minister for education and science, Mr. Abdilaqim Ademi and attended by the members of the working group Mr. Safet Neziri – Adviser to the Minister for education and science, Mr. Jove Talevski, Ph.D. – Dean of the Teacher Training Faculty in Bitola, Mr. Fadbi Osmani, Ph.D.- Dean of the State University of Tetovo, Mr. Vlado Timovski, Ph.D. – Dean of the Teacher Training Faculty in Skopje, Ms. Tatjana Koteva-Mojsovska, Ph.D. – Vice Dean at the Teacher Training Faculty in Skopje, Mr. Zoran Velkovski, Ph.D. – Professor at the Institute of Pedagogy, Faculty of Philosophy, Mr. Sasho Stojkovski – NDC Skopje Executive Director, Mr. Veton Zekolli – NDC Skopje Project Manager, Mr. Deјan Iliev, Ph.D. – Professor at the Teacher Training Faculty in Bitola, Ms. Elena Rizova, Ph.D. – Professor at the Institute of Pedagogy, Mr. Kiril Barbareev, Ph.D. – Faculty of Educational Sciences in Stip and Ms. Ymrane Reka, MoES designated coordinative assistant


Stochastic spectral finite-element method can be used to take into account some random aspects in the input data (material characteristic, source terms) involved in static electromagnetism problems. Similarly to the deterministic case, two potential formulations can be used in the stochastic case. The vector potential formulation applied to static problems is developed and compared to the scalar potential one, previously developed.


Harmful cyanobacterial blooms have severely impaired freshwater quality and threatened human health worldwide. Here, a Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus sp. strain S51107, which exhibits strong algicidal activity against Microcystis aeruginosa, was isolated from Lake Taihu. We found that the algicidal activity of strain S51107 was regulated primarily by NprR-NprX quorum sensing (QS), in which the mature form of the signaling peptide NprX was identified as the SKPDIVG heptapeptide. Disruption of the nprR-nprX cassette markedly decreased the algicidal activity, and complemented strains showed significantly recovered algicidal activity. Strain S51107 produced low-molecular-weight algicidal compounds [indole-3-carboxaldehyde and cyclo(Pro-Phe)] and high-molecular-weight algicidal substance(s) (>3 kDa). Moreover, the production of high-molecular-weight algicidal substance(s) was regulated by NprR-NprX QS, but the production of low-molecular-weight algicidal compounds was not. High-molecular-weight algicidal substance(s) played a more important role than low-molecular-weight algicidal compounds in the algicidal activity of strain S51107. The results of this study could increase our knowledge about algicidal characteristics of a potential algicidal bacterium, Bacillus sp. strain S51107, and provide the first evidence that the algicidal activity of Gram-positive algicidal bacteria is regulated by QS, which will greatly enhance our understanding of the interactions between algae and indigenous algicidal bacteria, thereby providing aid in the design and optimization of strategies to control harmful algae blooms.


A simple and low-cost solution to reduce the height and weight of extended hemispherical lenses is proposed based on the introduction of a cylindrical air cavity above the primary feed. The presence of an additional air-dielectric interface enables one to shorten the focal length of the lens, which leads to antenna height and weight reductions of 13% and 27%, respectively. The communication describes the design principle and performance characteristics of the reduced-size integrated lens antenna, superimposed with a conventional synthesized elliptical one. Both prototypes are fabricated in Rexolite and measured in Ka band. A good agreement between the performance characteristics of the antennas is observed. The additional advantages of the proposed approach are explained, and its applicability for lens antennas made of high-k materials is discussed.


A young provenance/progeny trial of spotted gums, which are major hardwood plantation species in subtropical eastern Australia, was studied for growth, form, and damage from Quambalaria shoot blight. The trial contained a wide range of genotypes, mainly of Corymbia citriodora subsp. variegata, with between one and 21 families per provenance. Genetic parameters were calculated from 23 provenances with four or more families. Provenances superior for growth included four well-represented C. citriodora subsp. variegata provenances, all from south-east Queensland, which also had a high proportion of superior families. Overall, Queensland provenances had significantly higher mean diameter and height than those from New South Wales (NSW), although there were several superior NSW families. Provenances superior for growth also displayed good straightness and relatively fine branching. Relatively low Quambalaria shoot blight damage was recorded for four Queensland provenances and one coastal NSW provenance, which all had high proportions of families with low damage. Provenances that were putative intergrades between C. citriodora subsp. variegata and C. maculata tended to have high damage levels. However, some mediocre provenances contained superior families potentially useful for breeding. Regressions of Quambalaria damage index (QDI) on latitude, and mean height growth on QDI, were highly significant and moderately strong (0.51 and 0.58, respectively), indicating increasing damage in more southern material, and a retarding effect (although not striking) of damage on growth. Individual heritability estimates were low (zero to 0.14) for growth and form, and moderate for QDI (0.31). The genetic correlations for QDI with growth traits were strong and negative (–0.77 and –0.88), supporting a strategy of selecting vigorous trees for breeding programs from provenances and families superior for these traits.


The submission of seedlings to mechanical stimuli and plant growth regulator promote their hardening and can be included in the routine of nurseries, favoring the survival and initial growth in the field. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of applying methyl jasmonate and stem bending in hardening and initial growth of Cordia trichotoma seedlings. Seedlings were subjected to 20 stem bending daily for 4 weeks; 20 stem bending daily for 8 weeks; 50 µmol.L-1 of methyl jasmonate applied weekly for 4 weeks; 50 µmol.L-1 of methyl jasmonate applied weekly for 8 weeks and the control treatment. The design was a completely randomized, with five repetitions of the fourteen seedlings. Seedlings submitted to hardening treatments showed less increment in height, greater increment in stem diameter and less value for strength index. Seedlings of control treatment had greater loss of root tissue electrolytes and less potential for root regeneration. In the field, 180 days after planting, seedlings submitted to eight weeks of stem bending and eight methyl jasmonate applications showed greater increment in height and stem diameter. The results indicate that both stem bending such as methyl jasmonate application for eight weeks are effective in promoting hardening and improve the starting performance in field of Cordia trichotomaseedlings.


Different overlap configurations of discontinuous helical baffles affect the flow pattern of the shell-side fluid directly, and thus there is a significant impact on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the shell-side fluid. In the present paper, experiments were carried out to study the impact of baffle overlap proportion on the shell-side flow and heat transfer performance of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with helical baffles (STHEHB). Two different shell-side friction factors, the friction factor per helical pitch (fs,1B) and the friction factor per tube length (fs,1m), were defined based on different reference lengths. The results showed that, since the baffle overlap proportion leads to different helical pitch as well as flow fields in shell side, opposite conclusions are obtained by choosing different reference length. Based on the same Reynolds number, the shell-side Nusselt number of the STHEHB with 10% baffle overlap is higher than that with 50% baffle overlap. The reason is that the larger baffle overlap proportion produces more serious leak flows and weakens the heat transfer in shell side. The comparison of heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop versus shell-side flow rate showed that the STHEHB with smaller baffle overlap proportion has better comprehensive heat transfer performance, but the difference between the two decreases gradually with the increase of the flow rate.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Software-defined Networks (SDN) is a new networking paradigm enabling innovation through network programmability. Over past few years, many applications have been built using SDN such as server load balancing, virtual-machine migration, trac engineering and access control. In this paper, we focus on using SDN for energy-aware routing (EAR). Since trac load has a small influence on the power consumption of routers, EAR allows putting unused links into sleep mode to save energy. SDN can collect trac matrix and then computes routing solutions satisfying QoS while being minimal in energy consumption. However, prior works on EAR have assumed that the SDN forwarding table switch can hold an infinite number of rules. In practice, this assumption does not hold since such flow tables are implemented in Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) which is expensive and power-hungry. We consider the use of wildcard rules to compress the forwarding tables. In this paper, we propose optimization methods to minimize energy consumption for a backbone network while respecting capacity constraints on links and rule space constraints on routers. In details, we present two exact formulations using Integer Linear Program (ILP) and introduce ecient heuristic algorithms. Based on simulations on realistic network topologies, we show that using this smart rule space allocation, it is possible to save almost as much power consumption as the classical EAR approach.


Abstract Multilayers that comprise thin films of heavy metals and ferromagnets have been shown to host Néel-type magnetic skyrmions at room temperature. Fresnel defocus imaging in Lorentz transmission electron microscopy is a widely used technique for recording magnetic information about skyrmions. However, the visibility of Néel-type skyrmions in Fresnel defocus images is typically low, both because only a small component of their magnetic field contributes to the signal and because of the presence of diffraction contrast from the polycrystalline multilayer structure. Here, we take advantage of the out-of-plane hysteresis in such samples to record background-subtracted Fresnel defocus images. We demonstrate an improvement in magnetic signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution by a factor of 3 for a (Pt/Co/NiFe)×5 multilayer. We also use simulated Fresnel defocus images of Néel-type magnetic skyrmions to understand the influence of defocus on apparent skyrmion size.


Tumour of the Optic Nerve, Chiasma, and Thalamus.-RUBY 0. STERN, M.D. (by permission of Dr. DONALD PATERSON). Clinical history.-Joan E., aged 3 years and 10 months, admitted to the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, June 8, 1936, on account of weakness of legs and unsteadiness in walking (duration three months), and incontinence of urine (duration six months). On examination. Pale, weil'nourished child, slightly dull mentally, not always understanding what was said to her, though she tried to co-operate in the examination. Small caf6-au-lait patches were scattered over-the trunk and limbs. Cranial nerves: Both discs showed considerable papilloedema, more on right side than on left. Slight weakness of the'right facial muscles; otherwise cranial nerves normal. Arms: Slight weakness and dubious spasticity. Arm-jerks normal. Legs: Muscular power'diminished on both sides. Slight spasticity of left leg. Kneejerks brisk, left > right; ankle-jerks brisk, left > right. Plantars both flexor. G&ait ataxic with a tendency to fall backwards. -Sensation normal-as far as could be ascertained. 'Cerebrospinal fluid normal. Skiagrams of skull in usual positions showed no abnormalities. A mid-line cerebellar tumour was suspected and Mr. C. Donald performed a suboccipital decompression and explored the'cerebellum. No tumour was found, but the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid was much raised. The child died twelve days after operation. No further neurological signs developed before death.' Post-mortem examination.-The right optic nerve was diffusely enlarged from the eyeball to the chiasma, the greatest enlargement being towards the chiasma, whilst the chiasma itself was thickened to nearly twice its normal size. On dissection of the brain after fixation the right optic th'alamus was found to be enlarged and conAisting mainly of white tumour substance, distinguishable with difficulty from the white matter of the thalamus, until palpated, when its firm consistency revealed its nature. Microscopical examination.-The tumour was composed of oval and spindle-shaped cells with very little cytoplasm, arranged in strands, with their long axes roughly parallel. The nuclear chromatin was well defined; no mitotic figures were seen. No neuroglial fibres could be demonstrated either by the Victoria blue stain or by Mallory's phosphotungstic acid method, but in sections stained by the latter method a process could be seen arising from either end of many of the spindle cells. These processes varied in length, and though usually straight, occasionally presented a corkscrew-like appearance. There was little connective tissue present in the tumour except around the blood-vessels which were fairly numerous and thick-walled. The histological appearances of the tumour suggested that it should be classed as a spongioblastoma polare, as it conformed closely to the description of that tumour of the optic nerve given by Bailey and Eisenhardt (1932, J. Comp. Neurol., 56, 391).


ABSTRACT Observations on the course of Hymenolepis nana infection in immunosuppressed mice are presented. Treatment of the host with hydrocortisone acetate caused superinfection of the bowel with worms and the development of normal cysticercoids in the mesenteric lymph node and liver. Natural infection of mice deprived of their T-cells by pre-adult thymectomy and administration of antithymocyte serum resulted in superinfection and widespread metastasis of aberrant cysticercoids that were greatly enlarged and without scolices, causing death after about five months. The significance of these findings and their possible relevance to human infection with H. nana are discussed.


excess secretions. It is characterised by a violent expiration, which provides the high flow rates that are required to shear away mucus and remove foreign particles from the larynx, trachea, and large bronchi. Most sensory stimuli that cause coughing also increase airway secretion, which is beneficial as this provides a vehicle for explusion of particulate matter. Cough is a very common presenting symptom in general practice and in the chest clinic. The prevalence of cough in the population depends on the prevalence of smoking and other environmental factors and in different populations has varied from 5°0 to 400%.One indication of the size of the problem is the self prescription of over the counter antitussives, which has been estimated at 75 million doses


In this paper, a cantilevered column bonded with a piezoelectric layer, which is employed as an actuator, is investigated. Firstly, the differential equation governing the transverse deflection of the column, in the presence of external axial loads, is derived. Then, two feedback control strategies, namely, displacement feedback control and velocity feedback control, are designed to control the vibration of the column. The analytical and semi-analytical solutions for the governing equations are deduced for these two control strategies, respectively. The closed-form formulae obtained are illustrated using a numerical example. In the example, the vibration characteristics of a cantilevered steel column bonded with a polyvinylidene fluoride layer are computed. The numerical results show that the designed velocity feedback control method provided satisfactory vibration control by damping out the vibration of the structure with an acceptable feedback voltage, while the displacement feedback control method was unable to do this.


Interactions among parasites and other microbes within hosts can impact disease progression, yet study of such interactions has been mostly limited to pairwise combinations of microbes. Given the diversity of microbes within hosts, indirect interactions among more than two microbial species may also impact disease. To test this hypothesis, we performed inoculation experiments that investigated interactions among two fungal parasites, Rhizoctonia solani and Colletotrichum cereale, and a systemic fungal endophyte, Epichloë coenophiala, within the grass, tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum). Both direct and indirect interactions impacted disease progression. While the endophyte did not directly influence R. solani disease progression or C. cereale symptom development, the endophyte modified the interaction between the two parasites. The magnitude of the facilitative effect of C. cereale on the growth of R. solani tended to be greater when the endophyte was present. Moreover, this interaction modification strongly affected leaf mortality. For plants lacking the endophyte, parasite co-inoculation did not increase leaf mortality compared to single-parasite inoculations. By contrast, for endophyte-infected plants, parasite co-inoculation increased leaf mortality compared to inoculation with R. solani or C. cereale alone by 1.9 or 4.9 times, respectively. Together, these results show that disease progression can be strongly impacted by indirect interactions among microbial symbionts.


The main goal of this work is to calculate the contributions of bound-bound transitions of helium to the cosmological recombination spectrum. We show that helium in the early Universe causes unique features to appear in the total cosmological recombination spectrum. These may provide a unique observational possibility to determine the relative abundance of primordial helium, well before the formation of first stars. We include the effect of the tiny fraction of neutral hydrogen atoms on the dynamics of He II $\rightarrow$ He I recombination at redshifts z ~ 2500. As discussed recently, this process significantly accelerates He II $\rightarrow$ He I recombination, resulting in rather narrow and distinct features in the associated recombination spectrum. In addition this process induces some emission within the hydrogen Lyman- α line, before the actual epoch of hydrogen recombination around z ~ 1100-1500. We also show that some of the fine-structure transitions of neutral helium appear in absorption, again leaving unique traces in the cosmic microwave background blackbody spectrum, which may allow confirmation of our understanding of the early Universe and of detailed atomic physics.


This book presents a way to formulate, from several points of view, "Psychoanalysis as an encounter between two persons", and highlights the aspects of symmetry and affective exchange of this encounter where analysis is seen as a relationship between two minds. In this shared experience the study of the mind of the Analyst and of his method of work grows in importance as the source of benefits and misdirections which can be exchanged in the encounter with the patient.In this context, the patient has an active role as an attentive and sensitive observer of the Analyst, signaling errors and showing the road to be taken. This change in the concept of psychoanalysis has evolved through many years; from the Analyst acting to open the patient within himself, while at the same time struggling against his own resistance to change, to a vision of a "Couple at Work". Psychoanalysis is now a "shared experience", in which the listening and creating of internal space to the other, within the self, is the instrument and the journey.The aim of analysis is not the discovery of hidden truths, but rather the recover of alienated areas, new beginnings of natural development, and the construction of new meanings. The editors and contributors, all from the Centro di Psa Milanese, are members of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis and of the International Psychoanalytical Association. 'In this volume the contributors from the Milanese Society show themselves to have gone through their own "growing pains" of psychoanalytic development and arrived at their diverse personal ways of getting closer to dealing with what is thought and felt to be the most important. They have gone through the struggle of slavish devotion to foreign models of psychoanalytic practice and xenophobic rejection of alien viewpoints; they have arrived at distilling that which they considered the most valuable and marrying this to their own thoughtful and intuitive personal understanding.


The thesis argues that considerations that concern contextualists in the philosophy
of language can allow for a conception of language use in which meaning is to be
properly regarded as intrinsically normative. I first introduce the idea that meaning
is intrinsically normative and set out just what kind of features the posited norms
would have to have. I then introduce an initial problem that exploits an
incompatibility between the idea that the requirements laid down by the norms of
meaning are to be understood in terms of hypothetical imperatives and meaning
being intrinsically normative. I then discuss a reason for thinking that semantic
correctness is an instrumental value, but contend that this is consistent with
meaning being intrinsically normative, and present a framework in which semantic
correctness can be so thought of. This framework conceives of language use as a
practice. I go on to look to arguments by DanielWhiting in favour of the Normativity
Thesis, but find his presentation unable to answer the incompatibility argument.
The reason for that is that Whiting accepts the idea that meaningful expressions
must have conditions for correct application. I propose that there is space for a
notion of conditions for semantic correctness that should not be understood in
terms of correct application. Finally, I discuss some traditional semantic
contextualist concerns, and show that interpreting them in a specific way, following,
to various degrees of success, insights by P. F. Strawson and J. L. Austin (and, in turn
Charles Travis) such a conception of semantic correctness, in contrast to the
understanding of it in terms of the correct application of terms, is understood as
derivative of the rules governing the practice of language use as understood in
Chapter 1. Such an understanding, I argue, is one in which meaning is intrinsically normative.


Background: Although the chance of surviving an aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) has increased steadily, disturbed sleep and persistent psychological complaints are frequently experienced post-ictus. To date, however, few studies have sought to determine whether physiological parameters, such as objectively measured sleep and cortisol secretion, interrelate significantly with low sleep quality and psychological complaints such as depression. Furthermore, there is little evidence as to whether post-ictal complaints differ between aSAH patients and other groups who have experienced stressful medical intervention. Methods: Data on objective and subjective sleep, sleep-related dysfunctional cognitions, psychological functioning and cortisol secretion were collected from 15 patients who had undergone medical intervention for aSAH. Data were also collected from a group of 16 individuals who had undergone surgery for a meningioma and a third group made up of 17 healthy participants. Results: aSAH patients and meningioma patients had significantly poorer subjective sleep than healthy controls and reported more sleep-related dysfunctional cognitions and hypochondriacal beliefs. They also had a significantly higher morning cortisol response. Finally, a non-significant trend was found showing that aSAH patients and meningioma patients reported poorer psychological functioning than healthy controls. Conclusion: Following treatment, aSAH patients and meningioma patients experience poorer subjective sleep and some differences in objectively measured sleep, which might be attributable to increased sleep-related dysfunctional cognitions and poorer overall psychological functioning. Differences in cortisol production were also observed, suggesting that some physiological imbalances are still present post-ictus.


In order to explain why The Metamorphosis of Kafka is a black comedy, I argue that all comedy is governed by an illogical logic that generates a catharsis of wish and fear: we want the protagonist to succeed, but fear he will fail. Our fear is a form of anxiety. Mistaken identity and role reversal, two of the most common devices used in comedy (and also in satire), are funny to the degree they are unrealistic. Kafka's story is a comic satire on family love fraught with extreme anxiety.


Kiwisaldula waiho new species and K. hurunui new species, are described from the South Island of New Zealand. Kiwisaldula butleri (White, 1878) and K. laelaps (White, 1878), two taxonomically little-known taxa, are redescribed. Morphological descriptions are provided together with illustrations emphasising the most important diagnostic features of external morphology and male genitalia. Information is given on synonymy, type specimens, material examined, geographic distribution and biology.


igh-profile international stabilisation efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq in recent years have accentuated the growing centrality of fragile states to global security. Indeed, one of the most central lessons from the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States is that in an age of globalisation, no country, regardless of how poor and seemingly remote it is, can be ignored without incurring security risks. Afghanistan, where plans for the attacks were undertaken, has long ranked at the very bottom of world poverty indices. The July 2010 soccer World Cup bombings in Kampala were organised in Somalia. The attempted May 2010 carbombing in Times Square in New York and the failed Christmas Day 2009 airline bombing were planned in Yemen. These episodes, and the potentially more lethal capacity that modern technology provides terrorists, underscore that fragile states present grim dangers to the international community.


Communicating scientific information about earthquakes is an important and delicate issue in countries like Italy, where seismic risk is high. Furthermore, continuous and scientifically sound communication is needed, especially in recent times when social media have amplified the risk of being biased by misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories. For this reason, we have developed a communication strategy for earthquake science and risk in Italy, mostly based on social media. The INGVterremoti platform was born between 2010 and 2012 with the goal of increasing scientific information released to the public, and also establishing a two-way communication channel between scientists and citizens. In the past 12 years, the INGVterremoti platform has gained trust and popularity, increasing the number of involved people, which amounts today to several hundred thousand. The platform consists of a coordinated suite of social media channels and a blog-magazine, where updates on ongoing earthquake sequences and posts on scientific topics are continuously published. Our end users are mostly citizens, but also authorities and media. Special attention has been given to interactions with the public, especially on our Facebook page, in order to understand their information needs, identify rumors and fake news, particularly in areas affected by seismic sequences, and address the most pressing requests. In this paper we describe the INGVterremoti strategy, the different media that we use, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses. We concentrate on the experience, carried out in the last few years, of the publication of provisional information on ongoing earthquakes, a long-standing issue strongly requested by our followers. The INGVterremoti platform has played a fundamental role in many seismic sequences of the past 12 years in Italy, starting from the Emilia sequence in 2012, to the central Italy one, started with the deadly earthquake of 24 August 2016 and still ongoing. Besides the periods of high attention after strong earthquakes, we used the INGVterremoti social media as a tool for releasing continuous and sound information to the public, and as a way to involve citizens in the communication arena.


This study points out that the Clinical Engineering Department (CED) can provide expertise for the improvement of healthcare services if the size of the CED is appropriately determined; that is when the number of engineers, technicians and administrative staff is suitable for the activities that they are intended to carry out and for the amount of equipment they must manage. The paper presents a simple and flexible model where the staff is estimated according to the activities that need to be carried out by the CED and according to the amount of biomedical equipment being managed. Several examples of application and comparisons with the results provided by other models are reported and discussed.


Idiopathic hypercalcemia (IHC) in cats has become increasingly recognised since 1990 as a relatively common finding in biochemistry profiles. It is still unknown if increased intestinal calcium absorption, increased bone resorption, or decreased renal calcium excretion plays the main role in the development of the ionised hypercalcemia in this syndrome. This article describes two cases of IHC and provides an in depth discussion on diagnostic approach and treatment.


We extend a recently-proposed framework for the rate-distortion optimized transmission of packetized media. The original framework assumed that each packet has a single arrival deadline and that a packet is useless if it arrives after its deadline. In practice, however, packets may be associated with multiple deadlines. Examples include the case of compressed video that uses bi-directional prediction and the case of decoders that can recover from late packet arrivals through the accelerated retroactive decoding of the dependency chain. We extend the original framework to consider multiple deadlines. In our experimental results for the case of the accelerated retroactive decoding of late packets, the multiple-deadline formulation yields up to a 3.15 dB improvement in rate-distortion performance compared to the original, single-deadline formulation. The results indicate, furthermore, that accelerated retroactive decoding offers significant benefit only when coupled with a scheduler that considers multiple deadlines.


We propose a method for protecting fragile quantum superpositions in many-particle systems from dephasing by external classical noise. We call superpositions "fragile" if dephasing occurs particularly fast, because the noise couples very differently to the superposed states. The method consists of letting a quantum superposition evolve under the internal thermalization dynamics of the system, followed by a time reversal manipulation known as Loschmidt echo. The thermalization dynamics makes the superposed states almost indistinguishable during most of the above procedure. We validate the method by applying it to a cluster of spins-1/2.


Background: Primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) is a life-threatening disease associated with increased mortality. The urea cycle pathway plays a major role in PPH severity and treatment response. Little is known about the association of the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and PPH prognosis. Methods: Clinical data were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database. Adult patients (≥18 years) patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) in the database were enrolled. Spearman correlation was used to analyze the association of BUN with length of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stays. The chi-square test was used to analyze the association of BUN with mortality rate. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the BUN as an independent prognostic factor of mortality. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to analyze the sensitivity and specificity for mortality. Results: In total, 263 patients who met the selection criteria were enrolled. BUN was significantly positively associated with length of hospital stay and ICU stay (hospital stay: ρ = 0.282, ICU stay: ρ = 0.276; all P < 0.001). Higher hospital, 90-day and 4-year mortality rates were observed in the higher BUN quartile of PPH patients (hospital: P = 0.002; 90-day: P = 0.025; 4-year: P < 0.001). The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that patients in higher BUN quartile tended to have lower 4-year survival (Q1:7.65%, Q2: 10.71%; Q3: 14.80%, Q4: 16.84%; P < 0.0001). Logistic regression analyses found a significant association of BUN and mortality (hospital: OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.02–1.08, P = 0.001; 90-day: OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.00–1.05, P = 0.027; 4-year: OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.02–1.08, P = 0.001). Results of ROC and AUC showed that the diagnostic performance of BUN for mortality was moderately good. Conclusion: BUN was positively correlated with the length of hospital stay and ICU stay of PPH patients. Higher BUN was associated with higher hospital, 90-day and 4-year mortality and lower 4-year survival of PPH patients. These findings indicate that BUN can be a novel potential prognostic predictor for PPH.


Experimental observations and advanced computer simulations in High Energy Physics (HEP) paved the way for the recent discoveries at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Currently, Monte Carlo simulations account for a very significant amount of computational resources of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). The current growth in available computing performance will not be enough to fulfill the expected demand for the forthcoming High Luminosity run (HL-LHC). More efficient simulation codes are therefore required.
This study focuses on evaluating the impact of different build methods on the simulation execution time. The Geant4 toolkit, the standard simulation code for the LHC experiments, consists of a set of libraries which can be either dynamically or statically linked to the simulation executable. Dynamic libraries are currently the preferred build method.
In this work, three versions of the GCC compiler, namely 4.8.5, 6.2.0 and 8.2.0 have been used. In addition, a comparison between four optimization levels (Os, O1, O2 and O3) has also been performed.
Static builds for all the GCC versions considered, exhibit a reduction in execution times of about 10%. Switching to newer GCC version results in an average of 30% improvement in the execution time regardless of the build type. In particular, a static build with GCC 8.2.0 leads to an improvement of about 34% with respect to the default configuration (GCC 4.8.5, dynamic, O2). The different GCC optimization flags do not affect the execution times.


OBJECTIVE
An earlier three-way crossover study evaluating bioequivalence of 3 cefalexin formulations (capsule for reference, capsule and tablet for test) in healthy subjects in Malaysia showed that the intra-individual coefficients of variation were 9.25% for AUC0-t, 9.54% for AUC0-∞, and 13.90% for Cmax. It is preliminarily stated that cefalexin is not a high-variation product. The here-presented clinical study in China was carried out to analyze the pharmacokinetic properties of two preparations in fasting and postprandial condition to assess the bioequivalence of the test preparation and reference preparation when administered on a fasting and postprandial basis in healthy Chinese subjects and to observe the safety of the test preparation and reference preparation in healthy Chinese subjects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this trial, a total of 56 eligible subjects were randomly assigned to the fasting group and the postprandial group. The two groups were given 250 mg of the test and reference preparation, respectively. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was applied to determine the plasma concentration of cefalexin. PhoenixWinNonlin software (V7.0) was used to calculate the pharmacokinetic parameters of cefalexin using the non-compartmental model (NCA), and the bioequivalence and safety results were calculated by SAS (V9.4) software.

RESULTS
The main pharmacokinetic parameters of the test and reference preparations were as follows, the fasting group: Cmax 12.59 ± 2.65 μg/mL, 12.72 ± 2.28 μg/mL; AUC0-8h 20.43 ± 3.47 h×μg/mL, 20.66 ± 3.38 h×μg/mL; AUC0-∞ 20.77 ± 3.53 h×μg/mL, 21.02 ± 3.45 h×μg/mL; the postprandial group: Cmax 5.25 ± 0.94 μg/mL, 5.23 ± 0.80 μg/mL; AUC0-10h 16.92 ± 2.03 h×μg/mL, 17.09 ± 2.31 h×μg/mL; AUC0-∞ 17.33 ± 2.09 h×μg/mL, 17.67 ± 2.45 h×μg/mL.

CONCLUSION
The 90% confidence intervals of geometric mean ratios of test preparation and reference preparation were calculated, and the 90% confidence intervals of geometric mean ratios of max, AUC0-10h, and AUC0-∞ were within the 80.00% ~ 125.00% range in both groups. Both Cmax and AUC met the pre-determined criteria for assuming bioequivalence. The test and reference products were bioequivalent after administration under fasting as well as under fed conditions in healthy Chinese subjects. This study may suggest that successful generic versions of cefalexin not only guarantee the market supply of such drugs but can also improve the safety and effectiveness and quality controllability of cefalexin through a new process and a new drug composition ratio.


We study the Cauchy problem for the (2+1)-dimensional relativistic Abelian Chern-Simons-Higgs model. We prove the global existence and uniqueness of the solutions for the finite energy data.


In this paper, a new design has been proposed for the realization of grounded and floating meminductor emulators built with two OTAs and two second-generation current conveyors. The proposed emulators can be configured in both incremental and decremental topology. This paper also proposes the application of meminductor as Amplitude Modulator (AM). The proposed circuits and its application claim that the circuit is much simpler in design and can be utilized in both topologies. The performance of all the proposed circuits has been verified with Cadence Virtuoso Spectre CMOS 180 nm. Furthermore, post-layout simulations and its comparison along with non-ideal and Monte Carlo analysis have been carried out in detail.


J. Martin-Malivel and K. Okada (2007, this issue) reported that chimpanzees raised with extensive social contact with humans show face discrimination abilities for human faces that exceed those for conspecific faces. Martin-Malivel and Okada have placed this finding in the theoretical context of the relative role of experience and innate face representations. The present article discusses the logic of the various styles of studies relevant to this question--considering primates without prior visual experience, sensitive periods, perceptual narrowing, childhood development, other-species effects, other-race effects, social quality of experience with nonconspecifics, and perceived social group membership--and also reviews the key current data. A case is made that there is still a long way to go in understanding whether there is an innate representation of conspecific faces, how tightly tuned any such representation is to conspecific morphology, and how experience obtained during different age brackets (e.g., infancy versus adulthood) affects discrimination and interacts with any innate representation.


The design of a one meter class telescope mount is addressed, specifically developed for space object tracking, including orbiting objects, in any orbital regime, as well as objects re-entering in the Earth atmosphere. . The telescope mount design is completed and a first prototype is at the moment under manufacturing, thanks to the collaboration between the Space Systems Laboratory of University of Rome "La Sapienza" and the University spin-off Roboptics srl, in the framework of a program funded by the Lazio Region. The requirements of the core parts of the mount deriving from its utilization for LEO fast moving objects are pointed out in the paper, highlighting control system specifics and structural static and dynamic analysis.


The 2012–14 reform of the Belgian state has deeeply transformed its Senate. Not only does the reform reduce the legislative powers of the Belgian upper chamber, but it also alters its composition. The former appointment of Senators based on a system of direct and community-based election is replaced by a system of indirect and mixed regional and community-based designation. This article presents this important reform. On the basis of a comprehensive dataset of federal and regional political careers, it also comparatively analyses the profile of the Senators, before and after the reform. Overall, although rules regarding seats allocation have been thoroughly remodelled, we conclude that the reform had neither dramatically affected the subtle balances upon which the Belgian federal state relies nor altered the patterns of Senators' profiles.


A new type of distributed active vibration absorber using MR fluids embedded in a sandwich beam structures was designed to suppress unwanted structural vibrations. The paper introduces an analytical model for the MR sandwich beam structures based on the Kelvin-Voigt model and the Hamilton's principle. The relationship between the magnetic field and the complex shear modulus of MR sandwich beam in the pre-yield regime is presented. The governing partial differential equations describing the dynamics of the MR sandwich beam are derived and a model analysis is performed. An active structural vibration controller based on the Lyapunov stability theory is designed. Simulations show the stable response and improved transient performance provided by the MR fluid damper.


Plasma membrane H+-ATPase is a major integral membrane protein with a role in various physiological processes including abiotic stress response. To study the effect of NaCl on the expression pattern of a gene encoding the plasma membrane H+-ATPase, an experiment was carried out in a completely random design with three replications. A pair of specific primers was designed based on the sequence of the gene encoding plasma membrane H+-ATPase in Aeluropus littoralis to amplify a 259 bp fragment from the target gene by PCR. A gene encoding actin was used as reference gene to normalize the expression level of the target gene. A pair of specific primers was designed to amplify a 157 bp fragment from the actin gene by PCR. Plants were treated with different concentrations of NaCl, 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 500 and 1000 mM, for two days. Our results showed that the expression level of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase gene increased dramatically at 500 mM and then decreased with increasing concentrations of NaCl. The results also indicated that the leaves of plants, were treated with high concentrations of NaCl changed morphologically, but those grown under low concentrations of NaCl as well as the control plants did not show morphological changes in their leaves. Our results suggest a relation between morphological changes of treated plants and the expression level of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase gene in Aeluropus littoralis.


Research on the effectiveness of warnings has tended to focus on internal design aspects including variables such as the inclusion of various pictorials, color, and signal words. Only a few studies have examined the influence of warning-related variables that are external to the design of the warning itself although there have been some exceptions such as research on the effects of social influence and cost of compliance. Another potentially important external factor with respect to warning effectiveness is stress. Stress has been shown to influence the quality of decision-making and judgment formation in other domains. The present research examined the effects of stress and warning placement on compliance behavior. Participants were assigned randomly to one of four conditions in a 2 (Stress: lower vs. higher) x 2 (Warning Placement: as a posted sign vs. within a set of task instructions) between-subjects design experiment. In the higher stress condition, participants were given a time limit to complete the task, and during the task the experimenter stood immediately adjacent to the participant, appearing to be measuring and timing the participant's performance. Thus in this condition there were both time-pressure and social-evaluation stress. In the lower stress condition, participants were given as much time as they needed to complete the task and the experimenter stood at a distance, out of the participant's field of view. Participants performed a chemistry task in which they weighed and measured various chemical substances that appeared potentially hazardous, but were actually safe. A warning directing participants to wear mask and gloves while performing the task was present in one of the two locations. Compliance with the warning (wearing of protective equipment) was significantly higher among participants under lower stress and who were exposed to the within-instructions warning. The findings add to knowledge about the effects of external warning factors by showing that stress, such as that evoked in the present experiment, affects the extent to which warnings are complied with. Implications of these results are discussed.


The goal of the project is to create a database for storing the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, and a user interface to query the database. Currently, the survey data is stored in excel files in the CSV format, which makes it hard to perform complex analyses over the data. Analyses of interest to transportation community include comparisons of the trips made by urban household to those made by rural household, finding the average trip time spent based on ethnicity, the total travel time of a particular household, the preferred vehicle by a specific household, average time spent per shopping trip, etc. The tool designed for the purpose of querying the NHTS database is a Python-based Web application. Django is used as the Web framework for this project and PostgreSQL is used for the back-end purpose. The user interface consists of various drop-down lists, text-boxes, buttons and other user interface components that facilitate querying the database and presenting the results in formats that allow easy interpretation. FusionCharts Django-Wrapper and FusionCharts Jquery-Plugin are used to visualize the data in the chart form. A Codebook of the NHTS dataset is also linked for the reference purpose at any point for the user. The tool built in the project allows the user to get a deeper understanding of the data, not only by plotting the data in the form of line charts, bar charts, two column graph, but also by providing the results of the queries in the CSV format for further analysis.


We propose a two-stage mixed-integer linear stochastic optimization model to analyze the scheduling of electricity-production units under natural gas-supply uncertainty due to pipeline congestion and natural gas-price variability. The first stage of this stochastic optimization model represents the day-ahead scheduling (i.e., unit commitment) stage, while the second stage represents actual real-time operations through a number of scenarios. We use this model to analyze the effect on unit commitment and dispatch of two types of natural gas-supply conditions. First, we analyze a case involving low-cost natural gas supply with gas transmission issues related to potential gas-pipeline congestion. We then examine a case involving higher-cost natural gas, which is used solely to attain feasibility with fast-ramping events. The first case mimics situations in the ISO New England system, in which relatively low-cost natural gas supply is uncertain in cold weather conditions due to natural gastransmission bottlenecks. The second case is reminiscent of situations in the California ISO system, in which relatively expensive but flexible natural gas-fired units need to be used to handle rapid changes in net demand in the early mornings and late afternoons.


Abstract In recent years there has been an increase in the incidence of acute pancreatitis worldwide. In spite of efforts to improve the treatment and care of patients with acute pancreatitis, to develop imaging investigations and interventional diagnostic and treatment techniques and to facilitate patients' access to them, acute pancreatitis continues to be associated with significant mortality and morbidity, and the treatment of patients suffering from this disease entails significant costs for healthcare systems. Researchers are in a permanent quest to get to a global consensus for stratifying the severity of acute pancreatitis. We need this in order to offer the proper management for each patient diagnosed with this condition and to improve hospital and health system strategies. Over the years, it has been attempted to develop algorithms to support a swift assessment of patients with acute pancreatitis with a prediction of disease severity as close to reality as possible for optimal management. This has led to the development of classifications of severity and severity scores. These require a permanent updating to keep up with the technical and technological developments involved in investigating and treating the patient and encompassing the most recent studies. The goal of this paper is to go through these classifications and scores, emphasizing factors that should be taken into account, and reflecting upon their utility and upon the necessity of improving them.


The ecological and epizootiological aspects relating to Staphylococcus aureus in domestic fowl are expounded, on the basis of literature, with particular reference being made to five topics: occurrence of these conditionally pathogenic bacteria in domestic fowl, point of attack and routes of infection, conditions for possible occurrence of infections, reciprocal infection between man and animal, as well as aspects of therapy and prophylaxis.


BACKGROUND
Benign stenoses of main respiratory pathways develop usually in patients after intubation or tracheostomy. Incidence of such states is not known, they are frequently diagnosed too late, and there are different views of their treatment. In order to contribute to the improvement of our knowledge of this serious impairment we followed prospectively all patients with this diagnose at our department since March 1998.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The group of 31 patients with benign stenoses of non-tumorous origin diagnosed and treated at the TRN of the Teaching Hospital Motol in years 1998 to 2000 consisted of 24 males and 7 females, age median was 52 years. Stenosis was caused in 27 patients by intubation, in 4 patients by some other causes. At admission we performed in 30 patients electrocauterization and dilatation of stenosis, one patient was immediately indicated for surgery. Beside two cases we always achieved sufficient patency of stenosis and weighted indication to surgery. We sent for surgery 15 patients, 10 patients were permanently healed using methods of interventional bronchoscopy, including introduction of stent in 6 cases. From the remaining 6 patients, two of them are planned for resection of stenosis, four are inoperable from various reasons, and two died of causes not related to stenosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on our experience we recommend as an optimal management of such patients is the dilatation or removal of stenosis and then always to consider resection of trachea. In inoperable cases methods of interventional bronchoscopy should be used. Authors recommend sending all patients intubated longer than 2 days for bronchoscopic examination in interval of 2 months.


Constitutional uncertainty clouds the horizon in South Korea. Despite a strongly rebounding economy, uncertainty continues over the timing and format of the elections that will replace President Chun Doo Hwan. Student and labor protest could increase significantly if the ruling Democratic Justice Party (D]P) and the opposition New Korea Democratic Party (NKDP) fail to achieve a compromise on revising the constitution and holding elections. A substantial increase in political turmoil could lead to Chun's refusal to leave office or a military coup. It could also threaten the staging of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, which in turn would reverse the country's current economic trend. If open elections were held, the DJP and the NKDP would have about the same chance of winning. An NKDP regime, however, would be more restrictive toward international business and trade than the current government.


Like other basic amphiphilic drugs, the (S)-enantiomer of the antiallergic drug ketotifen exhibited biphasic kinetics when it was converted to two isomeric quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronides in human liver microsomes. For (R)-ketotifen this applied when incubations were carried out in the absence of a detergent. Two UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) present in human liver, UGT1A4 and UGT1A3, were previously shown to catalyze tertiary amine N-glucuronidation when expressed in HK293 cells. Therefore, the conjugation kinetics of (R)- and (S)-ketotifen were investigated with the two expressed proteins. When homogenates of HK293 cells expressing UGT1A4 were incubated without detergent, N-glucuronidation kinetics were monophasic with K(M) values of 59 +/- 5 microM for (R)- and 86 +/- 26 microM for (S)-ketotifen. In experiments with membranes containing expressed UGT1A3, somewhat higher K(M) values were obtained. These values correspond to the high rather than to the low K(M) components of ketotifen glucuronidation in liver microsomes, the latter exhibiting K(M) values around 2 and 1 microM, respectively, with (R)- and (S)-ketotifen. With amitriptyline as the substrate, N-glucuronidation kinetics in the absence of detergent were biphasic in human liver microsomes and monophasic with a high K(M) value in cell homogenates containing UGT1A4. The results suggest that UGT1A4 and UGT1A3 catalyze high-K(M) N-glucuronidation of tertiary amine drugs, whereas the low-K(M) reaction requires either an alternative enzyme or a special conformation of UGT1A4 or UGT1A3 that can be attained in liver microsomes, but not in HK293 cell membranes.


Rigid ryegrass is the most-troublesome, herbicide-resistant weed in cropping systems of southern Australia. Field experiments were undertaken at Roseworthy, South Australia, in 2013 and 2014, to identify effective herbicide options for the control of clethodim-resistant rigid ryegrass in Clearfield canola. PPI trifluralin + triallate followed by (fb) POST imazamox + imazapyr + clethodim + butroxydim had the lowest plant density of rigid ryegrass in 2014 and provided superior control compared with the standard grower practice of PPI trifluralin + triallate fb POST imazamox + imazapyr + clethodim in 1 of 2 yr. Propyzamide either alone or as a split application (PPI fb POST) or in combination with clethodim provided similar rigid ryegrass control to that of the standard grower practice (38 to 553 plants m−2). Rigid ryegrass treated with PPI dimethenamid-P, pethoxamid, pethoxamid + triallate, and PPI trifluralin fb carbetamide POST produced significantly more seeds than the standard grower practice, which would lead to reinfestation of subsequent crops. Canola yield responded positively to effective herbicide treatments, especially in 2014, when rigid ryegrass density was greater. PPI dimethenamid-P and pethoxamid alone or in combination with triallate and propyzamide were ineffective in reducing rigid ryegrass density and seed production to levels acceptable for continuous cropping systems. Nomenclature: Butroxydim; clethodim; dimethenamid-P; imazamox + imazapyr; pethoxamid; propyzamide; triallate, trifluralin; rigid ryegrass; rigid ryegrass, Lolium rigidum Gaudin; Clearfield canola; Brassica napus L.


Study Design. A finite element analysis-based bone remodeling study in human was conducted in the lumbar spine operated on with pedicle screws. Bone remodeling results were compared to prospective experimental bone mineral content data of patients operated on with pedicle screws. Objective. The validity of 2 bone remodeling algorithms was evaluated by comparing against prospective bone mineral content measurements. Also, the potential stress shielding effect was examined using the 2 bone remodeling algorithms and the experimental bone mineral data. Summary of Background Data. In previous studies, in the human spine, the bone remodeling algorithms have neither been evaluated experimentally nor been examined by comparing to unsystematic experimental data. Methods. The site-specific and nonsite-specific iterative bone remodeling algorithms were applied to a finite element model of the lumbar spine operated on with pedicle screws between L4 and L5. The stress shielding effect was also examined. The bone remodeling results were compared with prospective bone mineral content measurements of 4 patients. They were measured after surgery, 3-, 6- and 12-months postoperatively. Results. After 1 year, there was an average experimental bone loss of 9.78% below the positions of pedicle screws, and the results for the 2 bone remodeling algorithms showed an average bone gain of 8.41% and 1.61%. There were no similarities between the bone remodeling and experimental data. Conclusion. The bone remodeling data showed no resemblances when compared to the prospective data of BMC measurements. There was no basis for confirming the validity of the bone remodeling algorithms in this study.


OBJECTIVES
The aim was to compare the efficacy of the electric versus the manual toothbrush in terms of the oral hygiene achieved by patients wearing rapid palatal expanders (RPEs).

METHODS
Forty patients were randomly divided into two groups; one equipped with a manual toothbrush (Group A), the other with an electric toothbrush (Group B). Each child's plaque index (PI) and gingival index (GI) were calculated at banded molar level at times T0 (before banding), T1 (a month later), T2 (3 months later) and T3 (when the expander was removed). At each appointment, the PI and GI were recorded and the patient was remotivated.

RESULTS
The level of oral hygiene achieved by the group using an electric toothbrush produced a greater improvement in the two indexes than in the group using the manual toothbrush that showed no statistically significant improvement (PI T0-T3: P = 0.309; GI T0-T3: P = 0.141). Both indexes dropped considerably in both groups from T0 to T2, but more so in the group B. From T2 to T3, although the electric toothbrush continued to be substantially more effective, Group B showed a statistically significant deterioration in the oral hygiene (PI +20%; GI +33%). Other assessments conducted on particular areas of the tooth showed improvements in the PI (-33%) for the vestibular region, and for the GI (-57%) in the palatal region among the patients in Group B, while there were no significant changes in these indexes in Group A.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that the electric toothbrush is statistically more efficient in performing an adequate level of oral hygiene in children wearing RPE.


In this paper, several basic models of complex networks be studied, and I improve the BA scale-free network model. According to the characteristics of transmission of the virus in real network, I take some experiments, and get the experimental data. According to experimental results, I put forward a specific containment strategy, and do the simulations. Find that this containment strategy plays a very good deterrent in the early spread of the virus.


Intangible Cultural Heritage is a mainspring of cultural diversity and as such it should be a focal point in cultural heritage preservation and safeguarding endeavours. Nevertheless, although significant progress has been made in digitization technology as regards tangible cultural assets and especially in the area of 3D reconstruction, the e-documentation of intangible cultural heritage has not seen comparable progress. One of the main reasons associated lies in the significant challenges involved in the systematic e-digitisation of intangible cultural assets, such as performing arts. In this paper, we present at a high-level an approach for transforming intangible cultural assets, namely folk dances, into tangible choreographic digital objects. The approach is being implemented in the context of the H2020 European project "Terpsichore".


Abstract Purpose: To understand the biological effect of external and internal exposure from 137Cs, DNA damage spectrum induced by directly emitted electrons (γ-rays, internal conversion electrons, Auger electrons) from 137Cs was compared with that induced by 137Cs γ-rays. Methods: Monte Carlo track simulation method was used to calculate the microscopic energy deposition pattern in liquid water. Simulation was performed for the two simple target systems in microscale. Radiation sources were placed inside for one system and outside for another system. To simulate the energy deposition by directly emitted electrons from 137Cs placed inside the system, the multiple ejections of electrons after internal conversion were considered. In the target systems, induction process of DNA damage was modeled and simulated for both direct energy deposition and the water radical reaction on the DNA. The yield and spatial distribution of simple and complex DNA damage including strand breaks and base lesions were calculated for irradiation by electrons and γ-rays from 137Cs. Results: The simulation showed that the significant difference in DNA damage spectrum was not caused by directly ejected electrons and γ-rays from 137Cs. Conclusions: The result supports the existing perception that the biological effects by internal and external exposure by 137Cs are equivalent.


In response to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the government has encouraged all organizations including public organizations to support teleworking of their employees However, correctional officers, due to the unique nature of their tasks, have not actively engaged in the current trend Nevertheless, the correctional institutions in the western society, such as in the U S , have implemented the teleworking policy This study aims at learning from the teleworking experience of the U S Bureau of Prisons We tested what factors leading to teleworking of the employees in the bureau The results indicate that those employees in the bureau, who are prepared to deal with the potential security threats, share the job-related information with their colleagues effectively, and communicate frequently the goals of organizations with their managers, tend to likely telework The implications for the Korean correctional management are discussed


The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the demographic, farming and other characteristics that influencing the perceptions of farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies in paddy sector evidence from Divulapitiya region in Sri Lanka. For this purpose, simple random sampling technique was used to select hundred farmers from three main paddy producing areas in the above region for the period of 2015. Primary data related to farmers' perceptions and the characteristics of demographic, farming and others such as attitudes of the farmers towards risk and availability of market information were collected through a structured questionnaire. Dependent variable is the adoption of farmers' perceptions which has the ranges between zero to one and farmers' age and education, size of cultivated land, ownership of land, farming experience, attitudes of the farmers towards the risk and availability of market information were treated as explanatory variables. The collected data were analyzed using different econometrics techniques such as frequency analysis, chi – square test, Tobit model and marginal effects. Frequency results of farmers' perceptions to adopt new types of technologies indicates that, nearly 6% of the farmers not adopting any type of technologies while, 35% of them adopting any three types of technologies. Only17% of them was adopting all four types of technologies in paddy cultivation in Divulapitiya area. Empirical results of Tobit model reveal that the farmers' adoption decisions were significantly influenced by all the above characteristics and the marginal effects shows that the farmers who have more educational knowledge interested nearly 15% of more probability to adopt new techniques while the farmers who are prefers to avoid the risk interested almost 7% of less likely to adopt them in their cultivation. Findings of this study highlight the relevance of networks that promote farmer-to-farmer interactions in the circulation of new technologies and also it is important to policy makers to endorse paddy cultivation with expertise knowledge in the applications of new farming techniques in paddy cultivation in the Divulapitiya, Sri Lanka. Keywords: Demographic and farming characteristics, perceptions of farmers, Tobit model, Marginal effects.


From the time of Hippocrates to that of Louis Pasteur, the medical profession relied on plausible but almost wholly mistaken ideas about the causes of and best treatments for infectious illness. Bleeding, purging, and mysterious nostrums remained staple remedies, and surgeons, often wearing filthy butcher's aprons, blithely spread infection from patient to patient. Then between 1879 and 1900 came the germ revolution. After two decades of scientific virtuosity, outstanding feats of intellectual courage, bitter personal rivalries, and a large dose of good fortune, doctors came to realize infectious diseases are caused by microscopic organisms. The discovery of the germ led to safe surgery, large-scale vaccination programs, dramatic improvements in hygiene and sanitation, and the pasteurization of dairy products. Above all, it set the stage for the emergence of antibiotic medicine. John Waller provides insight into twenty years in the history of medicine that profoundly changed the way we view disease. He shows how the germ revolution was made possible not only by the risk taking and raw ambition of several brilliant late-century pioneers, but also by the groundwork-including mistakes and near misses-of earlier generations of scientists. Rich in human drama, The Discovery of the Germ charts how, why, and by whom germ theory was transformed from a hotly disputed speculation to a central tenet of modern medicine. It examines the ideas and experiments of the giants of microbiology, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch, as well as less well known figures such as Casimir-Joseph Davaine, Waldemar Haffkine, and Almroth Wright.


It is well understood that multiple video cameras and computer vision (CV) technology can be used in sport for match officiating, statistics and player performance analysis. A review of the literature reveals a number of existing solutions, both commercial and theoretical, within this domain. However, these solutions are expensive and often complex in their installation. The hypothesis for this research states that by considering only changes in ball motion, automatic event classification is achievable with low-cost monocular video recording devices, without the need for 3-dimensional (3D) positional ball data and representation. The focus of this research is a rigorous empirical study of low cost single consumer-grade video camera solutions applied to table tennis, confirming that monocular CV based detected ball location data contains sufficient information to enable key match-play events to be recognised and measured. In total a library of 276 event-based video sequences, using a range of recording hardware, were produced for this research.

The research has four key considerations: i) an investigation into an effective recording environment with minimum configuration and calibration, ii) the selection and optimisation of a CV algorithm to detect the ball from the resulting single source video data, iii) validation of the accuracy of the 2-dimensional (2D) CV data for motion change detection, and iv) the data requirements and processing techniques necessary to automatically detect changes in ball motion and match those to match-play events. Throughout the thesis, table tennis has been chosen as the example sport for observational and experimental analysis since it offers a number of specific CV challenges due to the relatively high ball speed (in excess of 100kph) and small ball size (40mm in diameter). Furthermore, the inherent rules of table tennis show potential for a monocular based event classification vision system.

As the initial stage, a proposed optimum location and configuration of the single camera is defined. Next, the selection of a CV algorithm is critical in obtaining usable ball motion data. It is shown in this research that segmentation processes vary in their ball detection capabilities and location out-puts, which ultimately affects the ability of automated event detection and decision making solutions. Therefore, a comparison of CV algorithms is necessary to establish confidence in the accuracy of the derived location of the ball. As part of the research, a CV software environment has been developed to allow robust, repeatable and direct comparisons between different CV algorithms. An event based method of evaluating the success of a CV algorithm is proposed. Comparison of CV algorithms is made against the novel Efficacy Metric Set (EMS), producing a measurable Relative Efficacy Index (REI). Within the context of this low cost, single camera ball trajectory and event investigation, experimental results provided show that the Horn-Schunck Optical Flow algorithm, with a REI of 163.5 is the most successful method when compared to a discrete selection of CV detection and extraction techniques gathered from the literature review. Furthermore, evidence based data from the REI also suggests switching to the Canny edge detector (a REI of 186.4) for segmentation of the ball when in close proximity to the net.

In addition to and in support of the data generated from the CV software environment, a novel method is presented for producing simultaneous data from 3D marker based recordings, reduced to 2D and compared directly to the CV output to establish comparative time-resolved data for the ball location. It is proposed here that a continuous scale factor, based on the known dimensions of the ball, is incorporated at every frame. Using this method, comparison results show a mean accuracy of 3.01mm when applied to a selection of nineteen video sequences and events. This tolerance is within 10% of the diameter of the ball and accountable by the limits of image resolution.

Further experimental results demonstrate the ability to identify a number of match-play events from a monocular image sequence using a combination of the suggested optimum algorithm and ball motion analysis methods. The results show a promising application of 2D based CV processing to match-play event classification with an overall success rate of 95.9%. The majority of failures occur when the ball, during returns and services, is partially occluded by either the player or racket, due to the inherent problem of using a monocular recording device. Finally, the thesis proposes further research and extensions for developing and implementing monocular based CV processing of motion based event analysis and classification in a wider range of applications.


Call Center industry has rapidly increased in number over the last ten to 15 years in the world. Nowadays call centers have become an important part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). They are often the primary source of contact for customers. As a result, customer representatives are most important components of such call centers. The customer representatives first welcome the customers. The customers assume that the agents represent both the company and theirselves. Thus, the quality of the service by given the agents represent the company. In this context, the performance of the agents are extremely important for the company. Staffing costs account for over half of a call center?s total operations costs. Every call center has its own performance measurements that help internal managers to determine the level of success or failure of various agent activities. In this study, it is considered the criteria that the call centers consider in performance appraising of the customer representatives. The Cluster Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling techniques are used to classify the performance criteria. Clustering is the grouping of similar objects using data from the objects (Seber, G.A.F., 1984). This study is aimed to classify the customer representatives according to their similar performance characteristics using Cluster Analysis. The data used in analysis is taken from a inbound call center in Istanbul which belongs to 190 employees. This data contains number of calls, sales and churn rates. Firstly hierarchical clustering methods were used to decide the number of clusters. Five different performance levels (groups) were created and then were used Multidimensional Scaling. The basic result of multidimensional scaling is a spatial map. Similar results were obtained when two analysis results were compared. It is seen the best variables for evaluating the performance of employees are the number of calls and sales values. In the clustering analysis a clear clustering was occurred especially according to the number of calls. In multidimensional scaling outcomes, it is easier to observe customer representatives that differ from other performance criteria, such as sales, sales proposal and cancellation. The evaluation of employee performance is of great importance for both managers and employee motivation. A fair assessment can be made using Cluster Analysis for employee performance evaluation.


A composite coating using mixed powders of pure Al and α-Al2O3 as feedstock was deposited on AZ91D alloy substrate by cold spraying. The content of α-Al2O3 in mixed powders was 50wt%. Electrochemical experiments were carried out using 3.5wt.% NaCl solution as electrolyte. Because of dense structure, the composite coating could separate substrate from electrolyte thoroughly for long time immersion. The corrosion behavior of the composite coating was evaluated by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. It is found that the composite coating presented much better corrosion resistance than bare AZ91D alloy, even than bulk 1050 aluminum by electrochemical studies in 3.5wt.% NaCl solution.


This chapter offers an historical contextualization for the volume's specific case studies in parts two and three. It presents a new introductory interpretation of the entanglement and particularities of the elites, the institutions and practices, and the transformations that, since the days of Temur (r. 1370-1405), left their marks on the rough political landscapes of Muslim West-Asia. Emphasizing the segmented nature of Turko-Mongol politics and socio-economic organization it describes ongoing dynamics of expansion, fragmentation, and circulation and recurrent attempts at Ottoman, 'Mamluk', Timurid and Turkmen political stabilization and administrative penetration. It also argues that widely used binaries, such as those of 'Turks' and 'Tadjiks', 'elites' (khāṣṣa) and 'commoners' (ʿāmma), or commanders and administrators, pertained to claims and explanations that contributed to the many appearances of social order across West-Asia, amidst those highly complex Ottoman, Timurid, Turkmen and Syro-Egyptian realities of segmentation, fragmentation, and competitive empowerment.


Proteus syndrome is a rare disease manifested by progressive segmental overgrowth involving the skeletal, Cutaneous, subcutaneous, and nervous systems. We report the case of a 24-year-old female who was born with no obvious abnormality at birth. From the age of 1 year, she developed asymmetric enlargement of her left upper limb and bilateral lower limbs leading to enlargement of the right-hand phalanges with radial deviation, enlargement of the right big toe, lateral deviation of left foot, and discrepancy in the length of lower extremities and kyphoscoliosis. She had become bed-bound for the last few years due to increasing disability. She was diagnosed with Proteus syndrome based on clinical features of progressive course, mosaic distribution, and sporadic occurrence of the lesions.


INTRODUCTION: The floodplains of the large Amazonian rivers are very productive as a result of seasonal fluctuations of water levels. This favors the fishes as they are provided with a wide range of habitats and food resources; AIM: In this study, we identified the trophic structure of fish assemblages in the upper river Urucu area (State of Amazonas - Brazil), observing seasonal changes determined by the hydrological cycle; Methods: Samples were collected with the aid of gillnets, during the flood season (April/2008) and the dry season (August/2008) in areas upstream and downstream of ports of the Urucu river within the municipality of Coari, Amazonas, Brazil; RESULTS: 902 individuals of seven orders, 23 families and 82 species were collected. Fishes were more abundant in the dry season than in the flood season, and the piscivores and carnivores (Serrasalumus rhombeus and Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) were the most significant trophic categories in the dry season whereas piscivores and insectivores (Serrasalumus rhombeus, Bryconops alburnoides and Dianema urostriatum) were more abundant in the flood season. The trophic diversity, dominance and evenness were very similar in all sampling periods and show lower values than taxonomic index patterns, except for the trophic dominance in the dry season. Taxonomic diversity and dominance were higher in the flood season if compared to the dry season, but figures were quite uniform and there were no great discrepancies between seasons. CONCLUSION: We found through our studies that the dry and flood seasons work as regulatory factors of abundance of fishes of certain trophic categories in the Urucu river, what can be possibly explained by the availability of resources and the food spectrum of each category.