Aim: We aim to document the extent to which climate oscillation and rat infestation on islands affect the distribution of seabirds at sea. Location: The Chagos Archipelago, British Indian Ocean Territory, Central Indian Ocean Methods: At sea observations of seabirds (n = 425) were collected from 2012 to 2017 during the breeding season. We used generalized additive models to identify relationships between dominant seabird families (Laridae, Sulidae, and Procellariidae), geomorphology, oceanographic variability, and climate oscillation. We built boosted regression trees to quantify the effects of proximity to both rat-free and rat-infested islands on seabird distribution, identifying breaking point thresholds in distribution. Results: We identified oceanic hotspots and common geomorphic and oceanographic drivers for all seabird families. We documented positive relationships between Sulidae and Procellariidae abundance and the Indian Ocean Dipole, as represented by the Dipole Mode Index. The abundance of Laridae and Sulidae declined abruptly with greater distance to island. Both families aggregated more densely (1.08 and 1.25 times higher respectively) and in greater proximity (distribution thresholds at 16 and 44 km closer to islands, respectively) next to rat-free island compared with to rat-infested islands. In contrast, Procellariidae increased in abundance with greater distance to islands, plateauing at 83 km and were not significantly influenced by rat presence on nearby islands. We identified areas of increased abundance at sea under a scenario where rats are eradicated from infested islands with subsequent seabird recolonization. Main conclusions: Climate oscillations may cause shifts in seabird distribution, possibly through changes in regional productivity and prey distribution. Invasive species eradications and subsequent island recolonization can lead to predictable distribution gains and increased competition. Our analysis predicting range extension after successful eradications enables anticipatory threat-mitigation in these areas, minimising competition between colonies and thereby maximising the risk of success and the conservation impact of eradication programmes.


Context Diagnosis of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection using tuberculin skin testing (TST) in children is complicated by the potential influence of prior exposure to Bacille Calmette Geurin (BCG) vaccination or environmental mycobacteria. A whole blood assay has recently been developed to quantitatively measure interferon gamma (IFN- γ ) production by lymphocytes specific to the MTB antigens ESAT-6 and CFP-10, but its use and assessment in children has been limited to date. Objective To compare the performance of the whole blood IFN- γ assay with TST in diagnosing latent tuberculosis (TB) infection or TB disease in children in routine clinical practice. Patients Children with a high risk of latent TB infection or TB disease were eligible. High risk was defined as contact with TB disease, clinical suspicion of TB disease, or recent arrival from an area of high TB prevalence.


An extensive spontaneous right coronary artery dissection was the only abnormal angiographic finding detected in a 67-year-old man with chronic exercise-induced angina pectoris. The lesion was treated with multiple stenting with good angiographic results. The clinical implications of this finding and the details of the intervention performed are discussed in light of published data concerning this increasingly recognized angiographic entity.


Copyright © 2015 SAE International.This paper discusses the torque-fill capability of a novel hybrid electric drivetrain for a high-performance passenger car, originally equipped with a dual-clutch transmission system, driven by an internal combustion engine. The paper presents the simulation models of the two drivetrains, including examples of experimental validation during upshifts. An important functionality of the electric motor drive within the novel drivetrain is to provide torque-fill during gearshifts when the vehicle is engine-driven. A gearshift performance indicator is introduced in the paper, and the two drivetrain layouts are assessed in terms of gearshift quality performance for a range of maneuvers.


The fungicidal and fungistatic potential of methanolic root extract of male Carica papaya against Phomopsis vexans which affects egg plants (Solanum melongena L.) leading to the condition called the "Phomopsis blight" was investigated. Result of the experiments revealed that the aqueous extract did not show significant activity, but comparatively the methanol extract of male root demonstrated significant activity against the test fungus. Male methanolic root extract exhibited relatively higher antifungal activity than its female and hermaphrodite form. The extract was also found to be safe on the local algal population, which are one of the most sensitive indicators of toxicity. In summary, the male methanolic root extract can be considered as a potential biocontrol agent in the mitigation of P. vexans in the current scenario. There are no biological agents available for the control of P. vexans and here the present findings are novel in this regard.

 Key words: Fungicidal, fungitoxic, Carica papaya, Phomopsis vexans, methanolic extract, algal.


The patients can acquire the nosocomial infections by the hands of surgeon and surgical instruments because they are highly contaminated with hospital pathogens. Protective measures should be taken in hospital setting to stop transmission of infections. Therefore, the steps are established to remove the contamination as much as possible. In this study, were collected the different samples from the surgical tools in gynecology department to check the microbial load and antibiotic susceptibility against the isolated microorganisms. The isolated micro organisms were Staphylococcus aureus Escherichia coli, Enterococci spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa). These organisms are susceptible to Novobiocin, Erythromycin, Meropenem except Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed resistance to amikacin. The study provides the knowledge about the presence of possible hospital pathogens and the chances to cause infectious diseases in the patients.


Analysis on observability of tracking system is the premise and basis of target tracking, only if the observable condition is fulfilled, could the system have correct solution, then the effective tracking of target could be realized. Focus on the observability problem of bearings-only tracking for the target moving in constant acceleration based on multiple (three or more) passive sonar sensors, after the pseudolinear processing is applied on the observable equation as well as the judging theorem of observability for linear system is applied to the tracking system, the observable condition of judging for this system could be obtained, the validity of the conclusion is validated by simulations.


This article describes the gross, histopathological, and immunohistochemical findings of a mixed thymoma in a 2-year-old, mixed-breed, female goat. A large space-occupying neoplastic growth was observed within the cranial thoracic cavity, which by histology was well-encapsulated and formed by the proliferation of spindle-shaped epithelial cells arranged in solid sheets or rosette-like formations with varying accumulations of lymphocytes. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that the neoplastic epithelial cells expressed cytokeratin, with negative immunoreactivity to vimentin, thyroglobulin, Chromogranin A, neuron-specific enolase, and glial fibrillary acidic protein. The lymphocytic population expressed CD3 and CD2. These findings favor a diagnosis of mixed thymoma.


Raynaud's phenomenon may be secondary to several different pathological conditions. In some cases it is favoured by occupational exposure to vibration of the upper arms. The diagnosis of Raynaud's phenomenon requires clinical information together with specific technical investigations. This report presents the results of 232 chrono-thermometric tests performed on 157 workers exposed to vibrations during the use of different kinds of tools. Seventy-five subjects not exposed to vibrations of the upper arms but with suspected Raynaud's syndrome were also tested. Chrono-thermometry enabled us to distinguish between three different subgroups of subjects exposed to vibrations: 61 workers with "normal" chrono-thermometry, 33 subjects with "pathological" vascular reactivity to cold in some fingers and 63 workers with such reactivity in all fingers. Similarly the 75 patients not exposed to vibration could also be divided into three groups. No statistical difference was found between the chrono-thermometric results obtained from the exposed and non-exposed subjects when divided into the three subgroups. The overall analysis of the combined results of the different kinds of tests (capillaroscopy plus a vascular reactivity test) is discussed.


but one doubts whether it is appropriate to take five pages of text to describe the workings of the electromicroscope, which only a small number of specialists can use. Similarly three pages of photographs of ultracentrifuges seem unnecessary. I wonder how good the evidence was that " measles virus has been recovered from the brain" (p. 146) and there is even less reason to give physicians and students any reason to think rabbits and guinea-pigs are of value in the study of measles. I would also question the wisdom of making the unqualified statement that " measles virus can be grown on the chorio-allantois of the developing embryo or in tissue culture ." In spite of these few adverse comments, I should hasten to say that this is a useful adjunct to the growing number of books on viruses and rickettsiae. Sixty-five pages on poliomyelitis are a good indication of the increasing interest in this disease throughout the world, and this chapter is supported by extensive references. The detailed chapter on rabies should also be very useful to those faced with the problem of investigating suspected cases. There are numerous useful tables, and detailed instructions on such subjects as the control of poliomyelitis, and quarantine regulations for yellow fever and maps showing distribution of several diseases. F. 0. MACCALLUM.


The Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) Program was initiated in fiscal year 2001 (FY-01) by the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in partnership with other national laboratories. The AAA Project and the R&D for its underlying science and technology will require a large cadre of educated scientists and trained technicians in the future. In addition, other applications of nuclear science and engineering (e.g., proliferation monitoring and defense, nuclear medicine, safety regulation, industrial processes, and many others) require increased academic and national infrastructure and student populations. Thus, the DOE AAA Program Office has begun a multi-year program to involve university faculty and students in various phases of the Project to support the infrastructure requirements of nuclear energy, science and technology fields as well as the special needs of the DOE transmutation program. Herein I summarize the goals and accomplishments of the university programs that have supported the AAA Project during FY-01, including the involvement of more than eighty students.


In athletes with upper respiratory infections (URIs), the question of who plays and who sits can be difficult to answer. Acute exercise suppresses several aspects of the immune system. None of these immunologic changes, however, consistently correlate with the incidence of URIs in athletes. The risk of infection with exercise seems to follow a J-curve relationship, with regular, moderate exercisers having a lower risk than sedentary people, and regular, strenuous exercisers having the highest risk of all. The decision to allow an athlete to play or not can be guided by the "neck check" rules, and can also take into account nonmedical factors. The athlete with infectious mononucleosis warrants more careful attention, as there are strict guidelines for return-to-play in these individuals, to avoid the possibility of splenic rupture.


In this work comprehensive experimental and numerical studies incorporating the most relevant physical mechanisms causing limit cycle pressure and combustion rate oscillations (LCO) in a laboratory scale combustor will be discussed. The strong interaction between the aerodynamics-combustion-acoustic oscillations (ACA), and under specific conditions the aerodynamics-combustion-structural vibrations (ACS), is studied by a careful selection of experiments and numerical simulations performed using commercially available computational models. It is shown predominantly that the convective time scales due to the aerodynamics at the flame stabilizer and the time period related to acoustic propagation have to be of the same order in magnitude to be able to drive the system into LCO. The measurements indicated that the frequency spectrum of the oscillations of the LCO has a distinct peak close to the natural mode of the combustor along with higher order "harmonics" due to non-linear effects. Some non-harmonic higher order peaks are observed that are associated with the structural (liner) natural frequencies of vibration. A numerical simulation has been performed using the commercial code (ANSYS V13.0) that includes the effects of fluid-structure interaction by means of pressure load transfer on to the structure and vice-versa. The fluid domain is modeled using CFX and the structural domain is represented by ANSYS. The information is exchanged between the two domains dynamically at every time step computed. In order to reduce the computational effort and quickly gain insight into the problem only a 2 mm slice of the whole geometry has been considered making it essentially a 2D analysis. The good agreement between the model and measured instability frequencies shows a very promising approach in predicting the limit cycle oscillations in this kind of configurations.


There is an epidemic of health-care worker back injury in the State of Washington. Voluntary programs are not keeping pace with the increasing back injury rates to health-care workers. Adding all the health-care industry SIC codes, hospitals, nursing homes, home health and residential care puts health-care as the leading industry in the State of Washington for back injury. Licensed practical nurses, nurses aides, and registered nurses account for the majority of all claims in the health-care industry. Self-insured hospitals led the state for lost time compensable back injuries between 1993 and 2001, and combined Washington State Fund and self-insured health-care hospitals and nursing homes led all other industries for compensable soft-tissue disorders of the neck, back, and upper extremities. Legislation is needed to protect this group of workers in this type of industry. A bill will be re-introduced in the 2006 session that calls for hospitals to implement back injury prevention programs through either the Zero-Lift model, with nursing staff use of lift equipment, or the Lift-Team model, with a specially trained team using lift equipment, or a combination of the two, for all shifts. The State of Washington should provide funding, through savings created by back injury prevention programs, for small rural health-care institutions to assist them in compliance with the legislation.


Dengue virus (DENV) and other mosquito-borne flaviviruses are highly dependent on the ribosomal stalk proteins, RPLP1 and RPLP2 (RPLP1/2), for efficient infection. Here, we show that RPLP1/2 function to relieve ribosome pausing within the DENV envelope coding sequence, leading to enhanced protein stability. We used ribosome profiling to evaluate viral and cellular translation in RPLP1/2-depleted cells. This revealed that ribosomes pause in the sequence coding for the N-terminus of the envelope protein, immediately downstream of sequences encoding two adjacent transmembrane domains (TMDs). RPLP1/2 function to enhance ribosome elongation at this position and increase viral protein stability, possibly by improving co-translational folding of DENV proteins. We also analyzed the effects of RPLP1/2 depletion on cellular translation. We find that RPLP1/2 affects ribosome density for a small subset of cellular mRNAs. However, meta-analysis of ribosome positions on all cellular mRNAs revealed slightly increased accumulation of ribosomes downstream of start codons in RPLP1/2-depleted cells, suggesting that RPLP1/2 enhance elongation efficiency. Importantly, we found that ribosome density on mRNAs encoding multiple TMDs was disproportionately affected by RPLP1/2 knockdown, implying a role for RPLP1/2 in transmembrane protein biogenesis. Together, our findings reveal insights into the function of RPLP1/2 in DENV and cellular translation.


Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are next-generation energy storage systems with high energy density, and the rate performance is a very important consideration for practical applications. Recent approaches such as introducing catalytic materials to facilitate polysulfide conversion have been explored, yet the results remain unsatisfactory. Here, we present an optimized Li-S electrode featured by a large amount of highly dispersed Co3S4 nanoparticles (∼10 nm in size) throughout a hierarchical carbon nanostructure hybridized from ZIF-67 and carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge. This enables homogeneous distribution and close contact between infiltrated sulfur and Co3S4 nanoparticles within the ZIF-67-derived N-doped carbon nanocubes, leading to effective chemical interaction with polysulfides, maximum catalytic effect and enhanced lithium ion diffusion, while the built-in three-dimensional CNT network ensures high electrical conductivity of the electrode. As a consequence, the Li-S battery exhibits both extraordinary rate performance by maintaining a capacity of ∼850 mAh g-1 at very high charge/discharge rate (5 C) and long-term cycling stability with 85% retention after 1000 cycles at 5 C (an average capacity fading rate of only 0.0137% per cycle).


The milk-like accumulation in the R3230AC mammary adenocarcinoma that follows treatment with estrogen contains lactose, fatty acids, and proteins with electrophoretic properties similar to those of casein and whey of rat milk. This mammary tumor retains the biochemical capacity of the mammary gland in its lactational response to administration of hormone.


Abstract The most powerful lignin-degraders among the 82 microbial strains isolated during a screening of ligninolytic microorganisms from forest soil were identified as Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani . These fungi imperfecti mineralized 27.4%, 23.5% and 22.6% of 14 C-labelled milled wood lignin (MWL) from wheat straw after 28 days of incubation in liquid media. Degradation of MWL from pine by P. chrysogenum was 8% and 19% when it was evaluated by spectrophotometry and Klason lignin, respectively, but this substrate was hardly mineralized. All fungi were able to attack the hemicellulosic, cellulosic and also lignin fractions of wheat straw during solid-state fermentation, F. solani being capable of degrading about 25% of both carbohydrates and lignin. When the selected fungi were tested for dye decolourization, they all readily attacked the polymeric dye Remazol brilliant blue R (RBBR) and also poly R-478 to a minor extent.


Background Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in late adolescent women has multiple pathophysiologies. Silent blood loss, celiac disease (CD), malignancies, and other gastrointestinal (GI) lesions receive much attention during IDA management. There is no consensus about endoscopic screening. Our study evaluates factors affecting GI endoscopic diagnosis for the etiology of IDA in late adolescent women. Materials and Methods We conducted an observational, multicenter retrospective analysis of 192 adolescent women with IDA admitted for GI endoscopic diagnosis from 2006 to 2016. Baseline measurements included hemoglobin, serum ferritin, mean corpuscular volume, serum iron, total iron-binding capacity, and transferrin saturation. We collected demographic characteristics, duration of hospital stay, the degree of severity of anemia, and endoscopic findings. Results The mean age was 19±1 years (range 17 to 21 years), with mildly to moderately severe IDA. Patients received esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD, n=178) or colonoscopy (n=14). The mean hospital stay was 2.0±1.0 days. We found negative endoscopies (n=74), CD (n=85), gastric ulcer (n=19), malignancy (n=2), inflammatory bowel disease (n=1), and other nonsignificant endoscopic findings (n=11). We found no correlation between the duration of the hospital stay with the severity of IDA, no significant association between GI symptoms of the patients with endoscopic findings, and a significant but weak association between GI symptoms and serum ferritin. Conclusions In late adolescent women with IDA who have significant GI endoscopic lesions, the GI symptoms are of limited value in guiding the endoscopic diagnostic approach for evaluation of IDA.


Case study which aimed to describe a home care nurse's experience on transpersonal care to family members of a neonate discharged from an intensive care unit. Transpersonal Care Theory was used as theoretical landmark operationalized by means of Lacerda's Caring Process (1996). A family was selected as the study subject, being followed up during the child's hospitalization and at home after discharge. Data collection was carried out by means of documents and file registers which encompassed methodological notes and the researcher's field diary. It was used general analytical strategy "based on theoretical propositions", for evidence analysis, and "pattern adequation" as specific analytical strategy. Thus, it was possible to evidence family caregivers' caring practices, the importance of nursing in the process of hospitalization, discharge and home care and, additionally, of a theoretical background which guides nurse's actions and matches their way of thinking and acting in the world, mainly towards caring of the self and the other. This path enabled to realize that objective caring actions must come along with human, expressive caring so that nurses behave differently in relation to family caregivers, and also the need of research investmentes capable of bringing along home care and transpersonal care in nursing and other health professions.


Color has been scientifically investigated by linking color appearance to colorimetric measurements of the light that enters the eye. However, the main purpose of color perception is not to determine the properties of incident light, but to aid the visual perception of objects and materials in our environment. We review the state of the art on object colors, color constancy, and color categories to gain insight into the functional aspects of color perception. The common ground between these areas of research is that color appearance is tightly linked to the identification of objects and materials and the communication across observers. In conclusion, we argue that research should focus on how color processing is adapted to the surface properties of objects in the natural environment in order to bridge the gap between the known early stages of color perception and the subjective appearance of color.


Global Computing platforms, large scale clusters and future TeraGRID systems gather thousands of nodes for computing parallel scientific applications. At this scale, node failures or disconnections are frequent events. This Volatility reduces the MTBF of the whole system in the range of hours or minutes. We present MPICH-V, an automatic Volatility tolerant MPI environment based on uncoordinated checkpoint/roll-back and distributed message logging. MPICH-V architecture relies on Channel Memories, Checkpoint servers and theoretically proven protocols to execute existing or new, SPMD and Master-Worker MPI applications on volatile nodes. To evaluate its capabilities, we run MPICH-V within a framework for which the number of nodes, Channels Memories and Checkpoint Servers can be completely configured as well as the node Volatility. We present a detailed performance evaluation of every component of MPICH-V and its global performance for non-trivial parallel applications. Experimental results demonstrate good scalability and high tolerance to node volatility.


The self-similar model can reflect the Internet traffic property more precisely than Poisson model, the theoretical and simulation results of burst length distribution based on the time threshold assembly mechanism are shown in this paper. Moreover, the simulation result of OBS schedule algorithm under self-similar traffic model is reported. Both the analytic and simulation results show that burst length distribution is related to the length of assembly period; secondly, the assembly mechanism based on time period can reduce the self-similarity of traffic effectively; at last, the schedule algorithms in OBS have different performance based on the self-similar traffic.


Objective: To analyze the safety and efficacy of combined left atrial appendage (LAA) and patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure in adult atrial fibrillation (AF) patients complicating with PFO. Methods: This study is a retrospective and cross-sectional study. Seven patients with AF complicated with PFO diagnosed by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in Zhoupu Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences from June 2017 to October 2020 were selected. Basic data such as age, gender and medical history were collected. The atrial septal defect or PFO occluder and LAA occluder were selected according to the size of PFO, the ostia width and depth of LAA. Four patients underwent left atrial appendage closure(LAAC) and PFO closure at the same time. PFO closure was performed during a one-stop procedure of cryoablation combined with LAAC in 2 patients. One patient underwent PFO closure at 10 weeks after one-stop procedure because of recurrent transient ischemic attack (TIA). All patients continued to take oral anticoagulants. TEE was repeated 8-12 weeks after intervention. In case of device related thrombus(DRT), TEE shall be rechecked 6 months after adjusting anticoagulant and antiplatelet drug treatment. Patients were follow-up at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 months by telephone call, and the occurrence of cardio-cerebrovascular events was recorded. Results: Among the 7 patients with AF, 2 were male, aged (68.0±9.4) years, and 3 had a history of recurrent cerebral infarction and TIA. Average PFO diameter was (3.5±0.8)mm. Three patients were implanted with Watchman LAA occluder (30, 30, 33 mm) and atrial septal defect occluder (8, 9, 16 mm). 2 patients were implanted with LAmbre LAA occluder (34/38, 18/32 mm) and PFO occluder (PF1825, PF2525). 2 patients were implanted with LACbes LAA occluder (24, 28 mm) and PFO occluder (PF2525, PF1825) respectively. The patients were followed up for 12 (11, 24) months after operation. TEE reexamination showed that the position of LAA occluder and atrial septal defect occluder or PFO occluder was normal in all patients. DRT was detected in 1 patient, and anticoagulant therapy was adjusted in this patient. 6 months later, TEE showed that DRT disappeared. No cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events occurred in all patients with AF during follow-up. Conclusions: In AF patients complicated with PFO, LAAC combined with PFO closure may have good safety and effectiveness.


In this article, we report a new route to synthesize octahedral anatase mesocrystals (MCs), polycrystals (PCs) and single crystals (SCs) in the TiCl4–CH3COOH system just by tuning the reaction time and Ti-source concentration. Owing to the unique structures constructed from crystallographically oriented nanocrystals, MCs offer larger specific surface area than SCs and more effective electron transport compared with PCs. As anticipated, MCs show the highest photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue. MCs also demonstrate excellent cycle stability and renewable capability, and the photocatalytic efficiency still remains up to 90% even after five cycles. The designed fabrication of mesocrystals provides an attractive and effective route for improving the performances of semiconductor photocatalysts.


OTOSCLEROSIS is a disease process which arises in the otic capsule in which the normal bone is replaced by new spongy bone. This process begins most commonly just anterior to the oval window fossa in which the stapes sits. Involvement of the stapes in the disease process reduces its mobility, thus resulting in a conductive deafness. Until the fenestration operation was introduced no surgical treatment could be offered to patients with this disease. The fenestration operation gave some hearing improvement, but it had the disadvantage of leaving a large mastoid cavity, which frequently became infected, and of not restoring the hearing to normality. It was succeeded by the operation of stapedectomy which left no mastoid cavity and did, in many cases, restore the hearing to normal. Several variations in the technique of this operation have been described, all of which result in good hearing improvement. With these advances in surgical technique it is now possible to release many patients with otosclerosis from their handicap of deafness and restore them to useful life in their community.


The question of total and local measurement of loss in transformer core iron, on load and open circuit, is discussed. Local loss measurement methods are reviewed and one used to find loss levels due to flux normal to the laminations. A mechanism for the generation of such flux is hypothesised and experimental evidence of its existence is presented. Experimental results are given for a test butt-lap joint in which gap and overlap were varied. The possibility of direct measurement of core loss under loaded conditions is discussed and a test method is described.


After the shift of authority in the dispute settlement of Regional Head Election from Supreme Court to Constitutional Court, and the authority to evaluate the regulations of law of Constitutional Court, there is high public expectation on the role and functions of the Constitutional Court in the dispute settlement in Regional Head Election. This research discusses the problems on, first, the role and functions of Constitutional Court in the establishment of regional government law politics in Indonesia. Second the legal implications of the decision of Constitutional Court on the regional government governance. This research is a normative legal research using case study method. The result of the research concludes that, first, the role and functions of Constitutional Court is very significant, especially through the authority to evaluate the regulations of law and on the dispute settlement governing the regional head election. Second, the decision of Constitutional Court has given legal implication to the regional head election governance, that is the follow-up action by the lawmakers (Government and Legislative) by revising several particular provisions which has been annulled.


The Mayer-Born-Kahn-Uhlenbeck theory of imperfect gases and condensation phenomena has treated the ideal systems, for which the volume dependence of the cluster integrals is completely neglected, but the present paper treats the real systems, for which the volume dependence of the cluster integrals is rigorous! y taken into consideration. We prove a sequence of lemmas and theorems, which may be useful for the treatment of the real systems, and which may therefore contribute to the theory of imperfect gases and condensation phenomena. (Part I.) Then, from the analytical viewpoint, we discuss the condensation phenomena of the real systems, and discuss whether Mayer's theory about the connection between the phase transitions and the singularities is correct or not. (Parts II and III.)


Two shortened versions of the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) were tested for concurrent validity using two reference groups. Sensitivity, specificity and relative liability were computed and found to be of relatively low value. The usefulness of the questionnaires for screening the emotionally disturbed was found to be affected by respondents' sociodemographic characteristics such as age and sex and, in particular, educational level and ethnicity.


The Irish scientific research system is currently experiencing an unprecedented growth, following an investment programme launched in 2000. In order to underpin this growth the country is seeking to attract more research graduates from outside the country. The Expert Group for Future Skills Needs have established that the projected demand for graduate researchers can not be met by the current flow of Irish research graduates.


Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorder (WRMSD) is now well documented and recognised as an occupational hazard in the diagnostic ultrasound (US) work place. The impact of WRMDS range from minor discomfort to career ending injury. As the US work force in Nigeria increases, more WRMDS are expected.This study aims at documenting the common symptoms of WRMSD amongst cross section of Sonologists in Nigeria and also recommends ways to reduce and prevent this condition. Structured questionnaires distributed to 135 Sonologists were analysed for data relating the symptoms of WRMSD to specific ergonomic factors and other variables. 120 Sonologists met the inclusion criteria of which 117(97.5%) complained of musculoskeletal (MSk) pains and numbness at various anatomical sites while 3(2.5%) had no complaints. Analysis shows a positive association between these symptoms and certain US work habits. This study concludes that shoulder pain and finger numbness are the common symptoms of WRMSD in Sonologists in Nigeria. Efforts at reducing and preventing symptoms should focus primarily on educating the Sonologists and Management of institutions on the need to ensure appropriate ergonomic interventions and adaptations.


Multispectral person detection aims at automatically localizing humans in images that consist of multiple spectral bands. Usually, the visual-optical (VIS) and the thermal infrared (IR) spectra are combined to achieve higher robustness for person detection especially in insufficiently illuminated scenes. This paper focuses on analyzing existing detection approaches for their generalization ability. Generalization is a key feature for machine learning based detection algorithms that are supposed to perform well across different datasets. Inspired by recent literature regarding person detection in the VIS spectrum, we perform a cross-validation study to empirically determine the most promising dataset to train a well-generalizing detector. Therefore, we pick one reference Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) architecture and three different multispectral datasets. The Region Proposal Network (RPN) originally introduced for object detection within the popular Faster R-CNN is chosen as a reference DCNN. The reason is that a stand-alone RPN is able to serve as a competitive detector for two-class problems such as person detection. Furthermore, current state-of-the-art approaches initially apply an RPN followed by individual classifiers. The three considered datasets are the KAIST Multispectral Pedestrian Benchmark including recently published improved annotations for training and testing, the Tokyo Multi-spectral Semantic Segmentation dataset, and the OSU Color-Thermal dataset including recently released annotations. The experimental results show that the KAIST Multispectral Pedestrian Benchmark with its improved annotations provides the best basis to train a DCNN with good generalization ability compared to the other two multispectral datasets. On average, this detection model achieves a log-average Miss Rate (MR) of 29.74 % evaluated on the reasonable test subsets of the three datasets.


We have developed supercritical hydrothermal synthesis method of nanoparticles. In the method, metal salt aqueous solution is mixed with high temperature water to rapidly increase the temperature of the metal salt solution and thus reduce the reactions and crystallizations during the heating up period. By using this method, we succeeded in the continuous and rapid production of nanocrystals. In this paper, we propose a new method to synthesize organic-inorganic fused materials based on the methods of supercritical hydrothermal synthesis. By introducing organic materials in a reaction atmosphere of supercritical hydrothermal synthesis, nanoparticles whose surface was modified with organic materials were synthesized. In supercritical state, water and organic materials form a homogeneous phase, which provides an excellent reaction atmosphere for the organic modification of nanoparticles. Modification with bio-materials including amino acids was also possible. By changing organic modifiers, particle morphology and crystal structure were changed. This organic surface modification provides a various unique characteristics for the nanoparticles: Dispersion of nanoparticles in aqueous solutions, organic solvents or in liquid polymers can be controlled by selecting hydrophilic or hydrophobic modifiers. Polymer-like materials can be formed for the amino acid modified nanoparticles probably by the self-assembly of amino acid.


Objective This study aims to explore the changes in the structure, perfusion, and function of the bilateral hippocampus in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) applying multimodal MRI methods, hoping to provide reliable neuroimaging evidence for the diagnosis of hippocampus-related brain injury in T2DM. Methods We recruited 30 T2DM patients and 45 healthy controls (HCs), on which we performed 3D T1-weighted images, resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), arterial spin labeling (ASL) sequences, and a series of cognitive tests. Then, we compared the differences of two groups in the cerebral blood flow (CBF) value, amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) value, fractional ALFF (fALFF) value, coherence-based regional homogeneity (Cohe-ReHo) value, and degree centrality (DC) values of the bilateral hippocampus. Results In the T2DM group, the bilateral hippocampal volumes and the CBF value of the right hippocampus were lower than those in the HCs, while the ALFF value, fALFF value, and Cohe-ReHo value of the bilateral hippocampus were higher than those in the HCs. Correlation analysis showed that fasting blood glucose (FBG) was negatively correlated with the residuals of left hippocampal volume (r = −0.407, P = 0.025) and right hippocampal volume (r = −0.420, P = 0.021). The residual of the auditory-verbal learning test (AVLT) (immediate) score was positively correlated with the residual of right hippocampal volume (r = 0.369, P = 0.045). Conclusion This study indicated that the volume and perfusion of the hippocampus are decreased in T2DM patients that related to chronic hyperglycemia. Local spontaneous neural activity and coordination are increased in the hippocampus of T2DM patients, possibly as an adaptive compensation for cognitive decline.


Various molecular‐targeting drugs have markedly improved the treatment of patients with breast cancer. As yet, therapies for triple‐negative breast cancer are mainly cytotoxic agents. To investigate the novel therapy for triple‐negative breast cancer, we herein examined the effects of a new combination therapy comprising a RAF/MEK inhibitor CH5126766, also known as VS‐6766, which we originally discovered, and eribulin. The combination of CH5126766 and eribulin potently inhibited cell growth in the triple‐negative breast cancer cell lines tested. The underlying mechanism in the efficacy of this combination treatment in vitro and in vivo was due to enhanced apoptosis through the suppression of survivin and Bcl‐2 family proteins. We also showed the suppressed expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) in combination therapy in vivo. We found that combination therapy with eribulin and CH5126766 for triple‐negative breast cancer inhibited cell growth by apoptosis and raised a possibility that immune responses through suppression of PD‐L1 might partially contribute to inhibition of tumor growth, indicating the potential of this combination as a novel strategy for triple‐negative breast cancer.


According to recently reported outcome studies, functional outcomes after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair are reasonable and comparable to open or mini-open techniques. We report the functional outcomes after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair of 10 consecutive patients. The average age was 53.9(range 46-59) years. There was a significant improvement of the function of the shoulder when the preoperative scores were compared with those at the time of at least six months follow-up (range of 6 months to 18 months). With the UCLA rating scale, the average total score increased from preoperative 9.8 (range, 6-15) to postoperative 32.6 (range, 23-35). With the use of ASES shoulder index, the average total score improved from 14.6(range, 1.6-35) to 92.3 (range, 66.6 to 100). We concluded that arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is a treatment method in selective patients with symptomatic rotator cuff pathology to alleviate shoulder pain and improve function.


Objectives: To assess the level of first aid knowledge among undergraduate medical students in Army Medical College, Rawalpindi. The research aimed to compare the level of medical knowledge across five years of medical training and to evaluate the effect of demographic details on the degree of first aid awareness.
Study Design: The study design is cross-sectional.
Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in Army Medical College, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Nov 2021 to Apr2022
Methodology: A preformed questionnaire was used and was divided into two groups: The first group contained two parts: i) Personal information and ii) Question about previous attendance of the first aid course. The second group contained 14 questions aimed at assessing major aspects of first-aid. The results for every year were compared. Data was entered an SPSS version 25.
Results: In the study there was a marked increase in the level of first aid knowledge from first year to final year. The study also showed that those living at home had better scores than those availing university accommodation. Demographic background or receiving training in first-aid had an insignificant effect on it.
Conclusion: The study discovered that the academic year had a substantial impact on knowledge levels. From first year to final year, there was a significant increase in first-aid knowledge. Every year, medical students' first-aid education should be reinforced in order to improve their skills.


Abstract:Part One of an essay. Following the uproar over free speech at Middlebury College, legal scholar Adam Sitze parses the difference between the first amendment protections for free speech, and the university's responsibility for academic speech. Drawing heavily on historical documents, legal precedent, and Constitutional law, Sitze makes the case for a standard of academic rigor that preempts utterly "free" speech in an institutional space. He addresses the question, "Is the college responsible for promoting free speech or academically sound speech?"


First-principles based predictive understanding of complex, dynamic physical phenomena, such as regional precipitation or hurricane intensity and frequency, is quite limited due to the lack of complete phenomenological models underlying their physics. To address this gap, hypothesis-driven, manually-constructed, conceptual hurricane models and models for regional-scale precipitation extremes have been emerging. To complement both approaches, we propose a methodology for data-driven, semi-automatic inference of plausible phenomenological models and apply it to derive the model for eastern Sahel rainfall, an important factor for socioeconomic growth and development of this region. At its core, our methodology derives cause-effect relationships using the Lasso multivariate regression model and quantifies compound affect that the complex interplay among the key predictors at their prominent temporal phases plays on the response (rainfall). Specifically, we propose methods for (a) detecting and ranking predictors' prominent temporal phases, (b) optimizing the regularization penalty, (c) assessing predictor statistical significance, (d) performing impact analysis of data normalization on model inference, and (e) calculating the Expected Causality Impact (ECI) score to quantify impact analysis. The culmination of this study is the plausible phenomenological model of the eastern Sahel seasonal rainfall and quantified key climate drivers involved in the rainfall variability at different time lags. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first phenomenological model of this phenomenon; several of its components are consistent with the known evidence from literature.


We present a completely automatic method to build stable average anatomical models of the human brain using a set of magnetic resonance (MR) images. The models computed present two important characteristics: an average intensity and an average shape, both in a single image. We provide results showing convergence toward the centroid of the image set used for the computation of the model. In particular, the RMS distances between the model and the MR images contained in the set stabilize in a range of 2.88 to 3.36 mm from a range of 4.62 to 5.51 mm initially after only one iteration. As for the influence of the reference image chosen for the model construction, this is minimal with differences of about 1.0 mm, from approximately 3.5 mm initially. These results ensure the usefulness of our approach.


This paper presents an area optimized for composite field arithmetic based SubBytes transformation (Sbox) used in Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. The proposed architecture is based on precomputation technique. Implementation is proposed on FPGA using Xilinx ISE on XC3S 400-5 and results are shown in the paper. Keywords—AES, S-BOX, Sub-Byte, Encryption.


The pseudospin of Dirac electrons in graphene manifests itself in a peculiar momentum anisotropy for photoexcited electron-hole pairs. These interband excitations are in fact forbidden along the direction of the light polarization and are maximum perpendicular to it. Here, we use time-and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate the resulting unconventional hot carrier dynamics, sampling carrier distributions as a function of energy, and in-plane momentum. We first show that the rapidly-established quasithermal electron distribution initially exhibits an azimuth-dependent temperature, consistent with relaxation through collinear electron-electron scattering. Azimuthal thermalization is found to occur only at longer time delays, at a rate that depends on the substrate and the static doping level. Further, we observe pronounced differences in the electron and hole dynamics in n-doped samples. By simulating the Coulomb-and phonon-mediated carrier dynamics we are able to disentangle the influence of excitation fluence, screening, and doping, and develop a microscopic picture of the carrier dynamics in photoexcited graphene. Our results clarify new aspects of hot carrier dynamics that are unique to Dirac materials, with relevance for photocontrol experiments and optoelectronic device applications.


The impact sounds, generated by the walking of people, the dropping of an object or the moving of furniture, can be a source of great annoyance in residential buildings. The characteristics and level of this impact noise depends on the object striking the floor, on the basic structure of the floor, and on the finish materials of floor. The focus of this paper is to investigate the amount of improvement impact sound pressure level according to the change of the composition method of ceiling and wall. For this purpose, we tested impact sound pressure level of several cases which is the inserting of mineral wool, the increase of the thickness of air layer, the using of anti-vibration rubber in ceiling and attach the mineral wool on wall in the Floor Impact Sound Test Building of KICT. The results show that the composition method of ceiling and wall is more effective in the reduction of light weight impact sound specially in 125Hz and 250Hz.


Recent attempts to rethink labour history and contemporary labour struggles in India have variously memorialised the 'lost worlds' of industrial labour struggle and argued for stretching the terms of labour historiography, in part, by moving beyond the conceptual and political boundaries of the factory gate to take into account the complex configurations of labour, accumulation and struggle. This article contributes to this scholarship with a methodological focus on political theatre by three organisations in India. I ask what we might learn about labour and labour struggles when we look through the lens of cultural activism by the urban and rural poor. Drawing on Kalyan Sanyal's provocative distinction between accumulation and need economy, I argue that contemporary cultural work and activism both refuses and contributes to the market-based fetishisation of surplus-value as the sole purpose of work and as such it founds a view of labour and labour struggle that learns from labour and not just capital.


From 2010 to 2015, 73 common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) housed at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) were diagnosed postmortem with lymphocytic enterocolitis. We used unbiased deep-sequencing to screen the blood of deceased enterocolitis-positive marmosets for viruses. In five out of eight common marmosets with lymphocytic enterocolitis, we discovered a novel pegivirus not present in ten matched, clinically normal controls. The novel virus, which we named Southwest bike trail virus (SOBV), is most closely related (68% nucleotide identity) to a strain of simian pegivirus A isolated from a three-striped night monkey (Aotus trivirgatus). We screened 146 living WNPRC common marmosets for SOBV, finding an overall prevalence of 34% (50/146). Over four years, 85 of these 146 animals died or were euthanized. Histological examination revealed 27 SOBV-positive marmosets from this cohort had lymphocytic enterocolitis, compared to 42 SOBV-negative marmosets, indicating no association between SOBV and disease in this cohort (p = 0.0798). We also detected SOBV in two of 33 (6%) clinically normal marmosets screened during transfer from the New England Primate Research Center, suggesting SOBV could be exerting confounding influences on comparisons of common marmoset studies from multiple colonies.


The objective of this manuscript is to propose a Healthcare Waste Management (HWM) model for the safe disposal of healthcare waste which should be comprehensive, environment friendly and in an integrated form. This descriptive analytical study was done and based upon the factors associated with the poor handling of healthcare waste at Shalamar Hospital Lahore from November, 2008 to December, 2010 in healthcare facilities (HCFs) situated in Punjab, Pakistan, a model has been proposed. Five stages for the management of the waste (a) Planning the outline, (b) Implementation of action plan, (c) Classifying job descriptions, (d) disposal method and (e) Skill Development have been evolved. This model can be applied in any healthcare facility situated in Pakistan.


In this article, an efficient architecture for a low-power, high-resolution flash analog-to-digital converter (flash ADC) is presented. It operates at 12-bit resolution with a sampling frequency of 1.1 GS/s. The architecture is a segmented one consisting of three subflash ADCs that we call SADC1, SADC2, and SADC3. During the operation, SADC1 detects the MSB bit, and SADC2 detects the intermediate bits, while SADC3 detects the finer bits of the flash ADC. Furthermore, SADC1 has a 1-bit resolution, SADC2 has a 6-bit resolution, and SADC3 has a 5-bit resolution. The binary operation related to 12-bit resolution is achieved by combining the subflash ADCs, thermometer digital outputs, and an encoder. The ADC has been fabricated in Global Foundry (GF) 65-nm standard CMOS process. The measured performance parameters show a differential nonlinearity (DNL) of ±0.24 LSB, an integral nonlinearity (INL) of ±0.45 LSB, a signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 64.55 dB, a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 73.9 dB, and an effective number of bits (ENOB) of 10.43 bits. Also, power consumption is found to be 15.10 mW at 1.1-GS/s sampling frequency and 1.2-V supply voltage. The ADC achieves an FOM of 9.95 fJ/conversion-step (c-s) at the Nyquist input frequency and occupies a core area of 0.084 mm2.


We propose a two-stage approach for the design of a shared virtual memory. The rst stage is a high-level protocol description using the Structured Gamma formalism which is amenable to formal veriications. The second is a translation of this abstraction into an automaton which can be dynamically loaded in a runtime environment that provides a concept of global directory. This translation is based on Aspect-Oriented Programming which makes it possible to specify independently diierent aspects of the implementation. The complete system can thus be easily ported on a new environment.


Summary Loyal to long-held convictions of what undergraduates need intellectually, academic librarians ignore the critical signs that they may be failing students and faculty. Unless librarians are willing to question assumptions about how students think, what they value, and how external incentives shape their behavior in the information environment, they will find themselves increasingly at the margins of students' academic life. If there are important questions that beg for answers before librarians can redefine the teaching role of libraries, librarians have probably never been in a stronger position as a profession to engage in the research necessary for meaningful solutions.


mony that one has been united with what Christ has done" (p. 1101). He defends beUever's baptism by im mersion. The Lord's Supper is a time of relationship and communion with Christ in which he is made objec tively present by the Holy Sph-it. Erickson has a fine section on the evangeUstic and missionary func tions of the church. His section on eschatology contains a good intro duction to the history and contempo rary views of the doctrine.


Three age groups (teenage; 50-65 and 65+) completed a written version of Piaget's moral reasoning tasks to determine the general level of moral reasoning and performance on eight separate categories. Significant age effects were found. Though the nature of the age group difference was mixed, younger subjects consistently achieved lower levels of performance. Results indicate that Piaget overestimated all subjects' level of performance on his tasks and that, although there are differences in different areas of moral reasoning, the relationship with age is not uniform in its direction.


ABSTRACT This study assesses predictions from the dominant ideology thesis and theory of group interest concerning the relationship between socioeconomic status and racial solidarity across three domains of racial ideology. Findings from a local area sample (N = 184) in Cleveland, Ohio, provide considerable support for the theory of group interest. Racial solidarity indicators, such as the perception of discrimination, transcend individual socioeconomic status in constructing a group-based racial viewpoint. Conversely, traditional measures of class position, such as income and education, fail to induce attitudinal variation across the analyzed domains, namely causal attributions, racial politics, and attitudes toward interracial intimacy. In fact, the subjective social class measure, occupational prestige, tends to promote differences favorable to racial solidarity. These findings undermine the long-established conclusion that increased socioeconomic status exerts a conservatizing influence over racially/ethnically-specific attitudes. The implications shed light on the extent to which racial worldviews exist and directions for future research are mentioned.


Measuring the intensity of events is crucial for monitoring and tracking armed conflict. Advances in automated event extraction have yielded massive data sets of "who did what to whom" micro-records that enable data-driven approaches to monitoring conflict. The Goldstein scale is a widely-used expert-based measure that scores events on a conflictual–cooperative scale. It is based only on the action category ("what") and disregards the subject ("who") and object ("to whom") of an event, as well as contextual information, like associated casualty count, that should contribute to the perception of an event's "intensity". This paper takes a latent variable-based approach to measuring conflict intensity. We introduce a probabilistic generative model that assumes each observed event is associated with a latent intensity class. A novel aspect of this model is that it imposes an ordering on the classes, such that higher-valued classes denote higher levels of intensity. The ordinal nature of the latent variable is induced from naturally ordered aspects of the data (e.g., casualty counts) where higher values naturally indicate higher intensity. We evaluate the proposed model both intrinsically and extrinsically, showing that it obtains comparatively good held-out predictive performance.


Calcium (Ca2+) is involved as a signalling mediator in a broad variety of physiological processes. Some of the fastest responses in human body like neuronal action potential firing, to the slowest gene transcriptional regulation processes are controlled by pathways involving calcium signalling. Under pathological conditions these mechanisms are also involved in tumoral cells reprogramming, resulting in the altered expression of genes associated with cell proliferation, metastatisation and homing to the secondary metastatic site. On the other hand, calcium exerts a central function in nociception, from cues sensing in distal neurons, to signal modulation and interpretation in the central nervous system leading, in pathological conditions, to hyperalgesia, allodynia and pain chronicization. It is well known the relationship between cancer and pain when tumoral metastatic cells settle in the bones, especially in late breast cancer stage, where they alter the bone micro-environment leading to bone lesions and resulting in pain refractory to the conventional analgesic therapies. The purpose of this review is to address the Ca2+ signalling mechanisms involved in cancer cell metastatisation as well as the function of the same signalling tools in pain regulation and transmission. Finally, the possible interactions between these two cells types cohabiting the same Ca2+ rich environment will be further explored attempting to highlight new possible therapeutical targets.


The accurate assessment of discharge in vegetated floodplains during floods is a persistent challenge in river engineering due to the difficulty of acquiring hydraulic data, the variability in vegetation roughness, and the limitations of on-site vegetation characterization. This study introduces a novel approach that combines the continuous slope-area method with LiDAR-derived vegetation data and water depths measured with piezoresistive sensors to evaluate floodplain discharges while considering variations in roughness coefficients induced by arboreal vegetation. We apply this approach to a specific reach of the Piave River in Italy using data collected during the December 2020 flood event. The study demonstrates the capability of the employed measurement system to record extreme floods and emphasizes the importance of including vegetation roughness variations in floodplain discharge calculations. The proposed approach has the potential to be applied in similar scenarios, providing valuable insights for floodplain discharge estimation in vegetated areas.


Clinical anatomy of the inguinal, pelvic and lumbar lymph nodes was studied in 89 autopsies on adult males. The data on the life-time lymphographic and post mortem examination of the lymph nodes were compared. It was demonstrated that the retroperitoneal lymph nodes in an adult male include 4-20 right-side, 8-16 left-side external and common iliac, 3-13 right-side lumbar, 3-29 left-side and 0-8 intermediate lumbar nodes. It is important that the skeleton-related topography and number of lymph nodes, and the relationship between these parameters and age should be taken into account in making primary and differential diagnosis of various relevant lesions.


BACKGROUND
Acute otitis media (AOM) is one of the most common childhood infections, generally thought to be caused by ascension of bacteria from the nasopharynx (NP) to the middle ear. Using 16S ribosomal RNA-based sequencing, we evaluated the relationship between the NP and middle ear fluid (MEF) microbiota in children with AOM with tympanostomy tubes (AOMT) as a proxy for AOM and explored whether microbiota profiling predicts natural disease course.

METHODS
Microbiota profiles of paired NP and MEF samples of 94 children below 5 years of age with uncomplicated AOMT were determined.

RESULTS
Local diversity (P < 0.001) and overall microbiota composition (P < 0.001) of NP and MEF samples differed significantly, although paired NP and MEF samples were much more similar than unpaired samples (P < 0.001). High qualitative agreement between the presence of individual bacteria in both niches was observed. Abundances of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Turicella otitidis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Haemophilus spp. were strongly correlated between the 2 niches. Additionally, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, T. otitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae abundance in NP were predictive of the presence of a range of oral types of bacteria in MEF. Interestingly, there was no association between Moraxella catarrhalis in NP and MEF samples, which was highly present in NP but virtually absent in MEF. Finally, the NP microbiota composition could predict duration of AOMT, even better than MEF microbiota.

CONCLUSIONS
We observed substantial correlations between paired NP and MEF microbiota in children with AOMT. Our data also suggest that NP microbiota profiling deserves further exploration as tool for future treatment decisions.


This paper presents an analysis for implementation of high-throughput wireless communication signal processing system on general purpose processor (GPP). The large amount of complex computation brings challenge for the conventional platforms. GPP was compared with DSP and FPGA, and regarded as a new direction for signal processing system development. The program optimization on GPP platforms is necessary based on our research and developing experience. Therefore, we come up with the basic principle and optimization methods for GPP realization, especially for the application of multicore technique. Our analysis is proved to be convincible by solid justifications shown in the paper. Keywords-GPP platform; LTE; Signal processing; GPP optimization; Multicore application


The DSM–IV definition of delusion is argued to be unsatisfactory because it does not explain the mechanism for delusion formation and maintenance, it implies that such beliefs are necessarily dysfunctional (pathological), it underestimates the social component to some delusions, and it is inconsistent with research indicating that delusions can be modified through techniques such as contradiction, confrontation, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. However, a well-replicated mathematical model of magical/delusional thinking based on a study of paranormal beliefs and experiences is consistent with the hypothesis that attributional processes play a central role in delusion formation and maintenance. The model suggests attributional processes serve the adaptive function of reducing fear associated with ambiguous stimuli and delusional thinking is on a continuum with nonpathological forms. Based on this collective research an amendment to the definition of delusion is proposed and its clinical implications are addressed.


1. In platelets incubated in vitro, glycogen phosphorylase was activated, and the degree of activation roughly corresponds to the degree of manipulation of the platelets and is greatest in the least physiologic incubation medium.

2. Activation proceeds with an increasing proportion of enzyme which is active in the absence of AMP, suggesting the action of the phosphorylase-activating enzyme, phosphorylase kinase, in platelets.

3. Total enzyme activity (activity with AMP) likewise increases and continues to increase while the AMP-independent fraction begins to decrease again, suggesting more than one activating mechanism.

4. During glycogen breakdown, and during coagulation and clot retraction induced by thrombin, glycogen synthesis was shown to continue in vitro. Clot retraction was found to be more dependent on adequate glycogen stores than was coagulation.


Pasteurella multocida belonging to somatic serotype 1 and capsular type A has been known to cause avian cholera in domestic poultry. Pasteurella multocida serotype 1 has also been isolated from raptorial birds. However, the capsular type for these raptorial isolates remains unknown. Moreover, the virulence of these raptorial isolates for domestic poultry has not been determined. The objectives of this study were to determine the capsular type of raptorial P. multocida serotype 1 isolates and to determine if these isolates were virulent for domestic chickens. Study chickens were inoculated with one of three P. multocida isolates. Isolate WESO-1 was obtained from a western screech owl (Otus kennicottii) and isolates RTHA-2 and RTHA-4 were isolated from two red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). These isolates were given by either the oral, intravenous, or intraocular route. Control birds were given brain-heart infusion broth. The capsular serotypes of three isolates were also determined. The RTHA-2 and RTHA-4 isolates belonged to P. multocida capsular type A. The WESO-1 isolate belonged to capsular type F. Results also demonstrated that, for the isolates examined, the intraocular route did not cause mortality in chickens. There was mortality in all groups for the intravenous route. However, various mortality patterns were observed when P. multocida was given orally for the three different isolates. The RTHA-4 isolate (serotype 1:A) was the most virulent for domestic chickens. The WESO-1 isolate (serotype 1:F) was the least virulent for chickens among the raptorial isolates examined.


The preliminary result on looking at performance of the off-center ball end mill carbide tools: alloyed uncoated (W-Ti/Ta/Nb)C-Co (tool A) and multilayer PVD-coated (WC-Co)(TiCN/TiAlN/TiN) (tool B) with nominal diameter of 16 mm in end milling of titanium alloy Ti-6%Al-2%Sn-4%Zr-2%Mo-0.08%Si (Ti-6242S) under green machining is reported in this paper. Results of machining trial show that localised flank wear (VB3) is a dominant failure mode for both tools due to a concentrated of the coupled thermo-mechanical load at the tool leading edge. After machining for approximately 20 minutes, tools A and B start to reach VB3 ≥ 0.3 mm when used at cutting speed of 100 m/min and feed of 0.15 mm/tooth. Further examination using SEM/EDAX shows that flank wear, rake wear, plastic deformation and brittle fracture are all failure modes suffered by tools because of adhesion (attrition) and dissolution-diffusion wear mechanisms. In conclusion, tools A and B can be recommended for green milling of Ti-6242S and the best compromise between cutting speed and tool life is given by end milling at cutting speeds of 100125 m/min.


Mycosphaerella blight caused by Mycosphaerella pinodes (Berk. and Blox.) Vestergr. is an important disease, causing severe damage in peas. Variability of 20 Algerian isolates of M. pinodes representative of four agro climatic regions were investigated on the basis of cultural, morphological and pathogenicity. Culture and morphology showed variations in colony color, radial growth pattern and production of pycnidia and pycnidiospores. Significant differences (P < 0.05) in both pycnidia and pycnidiospores size among isolates were observed. Hence, the size of pycnidia and pycnidiospores of M. pinodes varied from 145 × 143 µm to 280 × 265 µm and from 11.5 × 2.3 µm to 22.5 × 6.3 µm respectively. Using the factor analysis, this revealed that the first principal component (pc) was more related to the growth and sporulation aspect, hence, the colony growth and both the pycnidia and pycnidiospore density were more related to the first pc, while the second pc contributed for the pycnidiospores size. The isolates were also evaluated for their pathogenicity on seven cultivars in controlled conditions. Cluster analysis based on disease rating on a scale of 1 to 5, indicated higher similarity coefficient. In addition, using Euclidian distances method, the clusters were subdivided at 70% of similarity in seven pathotype groups (PG). The two first pathotypes grouped the most isolates (70%), representing isolates from the four agro climatic regions. However, the members of same group were different in their cultural and morphological characteristics. A detailed study to investigate molecular and genetic basis of diversity is suggested.

 Key words: Mycosphaerella blight, morphometry, cluster analysis.


The lattice inversion method is used to construct the pair potential between a pair of unlike atoms for Cu-Au and Cu-Pd intermetallic compounds within the framework of Johnson's analytical model of the embedded-atom method. Compared with previous treatises, the alloy potential obtained by the present method is based on the Ll2 superstructures Cu3Au and Cu3Pd as references so that the usual assumption that the pair potential between distinct atoms is a function of monatomic pair potentials is cancelled. The alloy potentials from inversion fall in with those from the average schemes of Foiles el al. and Johnson in the short range but show deviation in the long range. The present method is used to solve the considerable disagreements of Johnson's calculations for the dilute-limit heats of solution and the phase stabilities of the intermetallic compounds of palladium with noble metals. While the overall degree of agreement is substantially improved, it is not good in some cases, nor is the phonon spectrum of gold.


Determining fiber length distribution in fiber reinforced polymer components is a crucial step in quality assurance, since fiber length has a strong influence on overall strength, stiffness, and stability of the material. The approximate fiber length distribution is usually determined early in the development process, as conventional methods require a destruction of the sample component. In this paper, a novel, automatic, and nondestructive approach for the determination of fiber length distribution in fiber reinforced polymers is presented. For this purpose, high-resolution computed tomography is used as imaging method together with subsequent image analysis for evaluation. The image analysis consists of an iterative process where single fibers are detected automatically in each iteration step after having applied image enhancement algorithms. Subsequently, a model-based approach is used together with a priori information in order to guide a fiber tracing and segmentation process. Thereby, the length of the segmented fibers can be calculated and a length distribution can be deduced. The performance and the robustness of the segmentation method is demonstrated by applying it to artificially generated test data and selected real components.


Photothermal immunotherapy has shown great potential for efficient cancer treatment. However, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment forms a heavy barrier for photothermal-induced anti-tumor immunity by inhibiting dendritic cell (DC) maturation and cytotoxic T cell response. Moreover, the lack of reliable spatiotemporal imaging modalities makes photothermal immunotherapy difficult to guide tumor ablation and monitor therapeutic outcomes in real time. Herein, we designed a theranostic thermosensitive liposome (PLDD) as a versatile nanoplatform to boost the adaptive anti-tumor immunity of photothermal immunotherapy and to achieve multiple bioimaging modalities in a real-time manner. PLDD contains two major functional components: a multifunctional photothermal agent (DTTB) and an immune potentiator STING pathway agonist (DMXAA). Upon irradiation, the heat generated by DTTB induced the immunogenic cell death (ICD) of the tumor and dissociated the structure of thermosensitive liposome to release DMXAA, which ultimately activated the STING pathway and promoted the ICD-induced immune response by increasing DC cell maturation and T cell recruitment. Moreover, the DTTB in PLDD displayed excellent second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescence and photoacoustic (PA) dual-modal imaging, which provided omnibearing information on the tumor and guided the subsequent therapeutic operation. Therefore, this versatile PLDD with light-triggered promotion of anti-tumor immunity and multiple spatiotemporal imaging profiles holds great potential for the future development of cancer immunotherapy.


Language plays the important role in society as means as communication. Realizing the importance of English in the international world, in many situations, the Indonesian people learn and use a switch of two languages; they are English and Indonesian language in communicating. Code switching as the alternation between two or more languages or varieties of a language in the same utterance or dialogue. The reason behind using of two languages because it becomes a trend among people in the world and also wants to show the linguistic skills. The phenomena of the various languages also could increase the status in society especially for young people. The aims of this research are to analyze the code switching used, the type and the function of code switching for investigating the purpose of the host in Break Out TV show.

This research was displayed through the descriptive qualitative in collecting the data and the document analysis employed in the research instrument. The data in this study was taken from Indonesian TV show by via downloaded on YouTube in the Break Out at NET TV with the topic of friendzone because the topic of this episode discussed about the activity of relationship in the society. The data is specified to the words and sentences out in conversation that containing code switching only.

The result of the analysis showed a great number of the code switchings used, the types and functions of code switching are seemingly on the selected data. Based upon the types, the inter-sentential code switching was mostly occurred, since they speak English fluently. Metaphorical switching cannot be found in this analysis. In this TV show also found six function of code switching. In this situation, the phenomena of code switching happens automatically as the bilingual people are able to use more than one language. In addition, there is also interesting phenomenon of code switching occurred in this analysis as variation of the words, which attached by either affix or suffix. In the other hands, the words cannot be translated, even if it is translated, it can produce unfamiliar and uncommon words which are possibly away from intended meaning. Overall, it convinces us how fantastic in using code switching.


A cow, trisomic for chromosome 22, became pregnant and gave birth to a karyotypically normal and healthy calf. Thus, a second example of reproductive capability in autosomal trisomies in mammals, in addition to trisomy 21 in man, is provided.


ABSTRACT Aim To systematically review the effectiveness of physical therapy interventions in infants, children and adolescents with brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI). Methods Systematic review of randomized controlled trials including patients under 18 years old with BPBI was conducted on Medline, Cochrane, Embase, Amed and Pedro databases. Methodological quality was assessed by the PEDro score and quality of evidence by the GRADE system. The primary outcomes measured were range of motion, muscle strength and bone mineral density. Results Seven studies were included, two in infant and 5 in children, of 932 title and abstracts screened. The interventions, characteristics of the participants and outcomes were diverse. The largest effect was found when other intervention was combined with conventional physical therapy in the primary outcomes, with low quality of evidence. Conclusion Physical therapy interventions alone or in combination with other treatment modalities are effective in improving short-term disabilities in children with BPBI.


Abstract Asurvey of 4 areas in the tsunami-affected area of Phang Nga Province, Thailand, found Culex sitiens to be the predominant species in freshwater sites that had changed into brackish-water. To determine the susceptibility of Cx. sitiens to Brugia malayi, 400 female mosquitoes were fed on a B. malayi-infected cat and were dissected at 14 days' post-feeding. Cx. sitiens was found to be completely refractory to experimental infection with nocturnal subperiodic B. malayi. Thus, despite the presence of relatively high larval and biting densities of this species, it appears to play no role in B. malayi transmission in this area of southern Thailand. Keywords : Culex sitiens, Brugia malayi, refractory, nocturnal subperiodic


Trait emotional intelligence (trait El or trait emotional self-efficacy) is a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies (see Petrides & Furnharn, 2000,2003; Petrides, Furnham, & Mavroveli, 2007). Trait El provides comprehensive coverage of the affective aspects of Personality and has been validated in several studies with adults and, less often, with adolescent samples. Research with children within the domain has been generally neglected. Therefore, the main goal of the thesis was the psychometric validation of trait El in middle and late childhood where research was lacking. This venture included both the development of an age-appropriate conceptual definition and a measure of trait El. The initial operationalisation of the construct was based on data generated through a qualitative method, which aimed at identifying and defining salient facets of children's affective personality. The preliminary pool of facets in children's trait El sampling domain included II theoretical constructs, which were subsequently reduced to 9 constructs based on correlational methods (see Robinson, Shaver, & Wrightsman, 1991).
The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Child Forrn (TEIQue-CF) was developed to measure trait El in children. The structure of the measure mirrored the conceptual definition of trait El and provided comprehensive coverage of children's trait El sampling domain. The psychometric properties of the TElQue-CF were examined in a string of seven studies, which provided sufficient evidence for the measure's internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity. Specifically, internal consistency indices varied from 73 to 84, and the evidence for construct validity was consistent with the theoretical postulates of trait El and related research with adults and adolescents. Overall,, the empirical findings showed low to zero Vill correlations between trait El and indices of cognitive ability, such as verbal and nonverbal IQ, reading and spelling scores, and SAT scores on English, math, and science. Additionally, trait El scores differentiated between a) pupils with unauthorised I., V..absences or exclusions from school and their well-adjusted peers and b) pupils with special educational needs and those without such needs. Higher trait EI scores were also positively related to teacher- and peer-rated positive (prosocial) behaviour, negatively related to negative (antisocial) behaviour, and predicted emotion perception accuracy. The data from all seven studies showed that the TEIQue-CF has sound psychometric properties and is a potentially useful trait El tool. On the whole, our findings provided support for the validity of trait El and for its saliency in predicting and explaining important psychological, socioemotional, and behavioural criteria in middle and late childhood.


Surrounded by products made from crushed rock materials in all corners of society, most people do not spend much time thinking about when, where, or how these are produced. In fact, most people take the supply and availability of products made from crushed rock materials for granted. One is only reminded of the raw material crushed rock when passing by construction work, or during winter when streets and roads are slippery. Nevertheless, crushed rock material or products made from it can be found in roads, railways, constructions, and all things made from metal.

Crushed rock materials can roughly be divided into aggregates and ores. These products are supplied by the aggregate and mining industry. However, along with the growing world population, increased urbanization, and improved standard of living, this industry is today faced with the challenge of meeting a rapidly rising product demand. In addition, industry is also confronted with additional demands of energy savings as well as considerations for sustainability and environment. For the rock processing industry, this means that efforts must be put towards improving the performance and efficiency of existing crushers and crushing processes. This requires a deeper fundamental understanding about the crushing process itself. The objective of this research is and has, therefore, been to develop the existing knowledge about compressive crushing and to eventually give advice for crusher design.

In the present research work, four technically interesting rock materials (i.e. gneiss, diabase, marble, and quartzite) were studied. Their compressive breakage behaviors were characterized using piston-die equipment and were subsequently modeled to enable theoretical optimizations. More specifically, genetic evolutionary algorithms were applied in order to study how the different rock materials should be crushed compressively given different optimization objectives expressed by so called fitness functions. Aspects such as product yield, energy consumption, and crushing pressure were considered.

Results indicate that the tested materials should, under the studied circumstances, be crushed with fewer and/or smaller compressions than what is believed to be applied in existing crushers. It is thus suggested that modern cone crushers do not work optimally in any of the studied aspects for any of the studied materials. In fact, it is believed that considerable improvements can be made for a crushing unit in terms of product yield. Significant gains considering capacity, energy consumption, and product yield are also indicated by crushing plant simulations. Future work should therefore include extended studies of existing crushers (i.e. with regards to their performance and dynamics) and implementation of research results in terms of conceptual crusher design. The objective of such implementation should be to improve the performance and efficiency of existing crushing equipment as well as to inspire for the next generation of compression crushers.


Fuzzy rule base and fuzzy variables are two crucial factors which decide the fuzzy controller performance. This paper presents the gradient descent learning algorithm to adaptively optimize free parameters of the interval type-2 fuzzy controller, which can overcome the divergence of another global optimization algorithms, such as GA, PSO and ACO, when they are employed to optimize the free parameters. A few numerical experiments are performed to evaluate our proposing approach. The experiment results verify the effectiveness.


High-performance Computing (HPC) systems have gone through many changes during the past two decades in their architectural design to satisfy the increasingly large-scale scientific computing demand. Accurate, fast, and scalable performance models and simulation tools are essential for evaluating alternative architecture design decisions for the massive-scale computing systems. This paper recounts some of the influential work in modeling and simulation for HPC systems and applications, identifies some of the major challenges, and outlines future research directions which we believe are critical to the HPC modeling and simulation community.


The most critical [issues] to which we should turn our attention are those that have consequences for the movement of music within and through different (and sometimes altogether new) spaces, such as changes in sales mechanisms, Internet broadcasting, the use of computers for producing, consuming and distributing music, and the personalisation of musical tastes and behaviours. (Jones, "Musicand the Internet" 225) Since the invention of recorded sound, music and the technology with which it is recorded have been entwined. From the phonograph to the mp3, the history of popular music production, distribution and consumption in the twentieth century is one marked by various technological innovations (see for example Coleman, 2003; Garofalo, 1999). Currently, new digital recording technologies are facilitating changes to the music making process (Théberge, 1997). Sophisticated software programs such as ProTools and Nuendo offer near-professional song recording, mixing and mastering abilities while Reason, Acid, plus a host of other programs encourage the manipulation of original or sample-based sounds. Innovations in the technologies of consumption are causing similar impacts to the listening process (Bull, 2000). Digital jukeboxes, mp3 players and new business models from the likes of iTunes and Napster 2.0 are affecting the way we receive and use music. In many ways, the processes associated with production and consumption are currently converging into one machine: the computer.


The Social Networking Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Share it, What Sapp, Instagram, Pinterest, Google +, Micro blogging services like Twitter, and content-sharing sites like YouTube and Flicker have created a wide scale online social participation. The attention and visibility to powerful social issues like Terrorism, Outbreak of Diseases, Public Health, Sports, Elections, Accidents, Disasters, Conflicts and Crisis, Environment has increased humongous. According to a new study from Pew Research Center with respect to the ongoing election campaign in the United States U.S. adults are now getting news and information about the presidential elections from the candidates' social media channels than any other mediums of communication like Newspaper, Magazine, Television, Radio, or Films. Hence, Social Media has become the Primary Point Of contact with voters. Yet we know little about the benefits and challenges of engaging in participatory communication through social media. This paper aims at discussing both the positive and negative outcomes of such participation. Media Theories and approaches to Participatory Communication with case studies. Most people might agree that social participation raises awareness of, if not knowledge about, social issues; however, it is less clear whether raising awareness translates into more meaningful and tangible societal benefits. Technology mediated social participation has been harnessed itself in the past for many social welfare activities in a number of novel ways. One recent example to quote is the use of Facebook and Twitter during Chennai Floods to gather and distribute timely, relevant information, creating a platform for guidance which resulted in saving the lives thousands people.


When patients of differing ethnicities are treated with one bracket system, negative consequences for the occlusion can result. This study investigated the crown angulation and inclination on study casts of 60 Northern Thais (30 males and 30 females) with a good occlusion. In all study casts, each tooth (except the third molars) was evaluated with the orthodontic Torque Angulation Device (TAD) twice on the right side; this was also performed twice on the left side. The mean of the two evaluations was used for the statistical analysis. The means of the males and females were compared with the independent Student t test. The results were that the crown angulation of the mandibular first and second molars was significantly higher in females (P<.01) and that the crown inclination of all teeth did not differ between the two sexes.


The pars intermedia (PI) of the adenohypophysis synthesizes pro-opiomelanocortin, which, through post-translational processing, gives rise to a group of chemically related peptides, including αMSH, AC


Background. Human blood groups may play a key role in various human diseases. An association has been found between ABO blood groups and both infectious and non-infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and other organs. Dyspepsia is one of the most common encountered gastrointestinal complaints.
Aims. To investigate the association between ABO blood groups and severity of dyspepsia symptoms in a specific ethnic group.
Study Design. Cross-sectional study.
Methods. Consecutive adult Nias tribe dyspepsia outpatients in the General District Hospital, Gunungsitoli Nias,Indonesia, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire between May–June 2018. The severity of dyspepsia was assessed with the Porto Alegre Dyspeptic Symptoms Questionnaire (PADYQ) scoring instrument. ABO blood groups were determined by a standard direct agglutination test. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed in all participants. Data were statistically analyzed using statistical software. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results. Of 66 patients, 54.5% were males, with median age of 47 years (range, 23–67). Majority of the participants had blood group O (48.5%). The most encountered dyspepsia symptom was epigastric pain (66.7%). Participants with blood group type B had significantly more severe dyspepsia symptoms based on total PADYQ score (p=0.017). Participants with blood group type O were more prone to epigastric pain (p=0.015), while blood group type B to bloating (p=0.01) and early satiation (p=0.02).
Conclusion. In outpatients from the Nias tribe with dyspepsia, those with blood group type B had more severe dyspepsia symptoms.


"The best scholarly description of European Fascism available." (American Historical Review). "Professor Carsten surveys the major and minor European fascist groups which flourished between the world wars, including such movements as were active in Romania, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Britain, and Belgium. In doing so, he has produced a useful, if brief, addition to the growing number of studies on this subject." (The Historian). "A short, responsible survey of how fascism came to power in Italy and Germany, with some valuable comparative data on fascist movements in other European countries." (Foreign Affairs). "The core of this factual, but extremely readable book consists of an account of Italian fascism up to 1929 and Nazism up to 1934." (International Review of Social History). "To date, this is the best study on the origins of fascism ...". (Library Journal).


Thermal spray coatings are widely used to protect materials from corrosion, wear, and oxidation, but they have yet to reach their full potential because of porosity limitations and the detrimental effects of oxidation on interlamellar bonding. This paper investigates an atmospheric plasma spraying process that deposits oxide-free dense metallic coatings with well bonded lamellae. The process produces ultrahigh temperature metallic droplets, up to 2650 °C, using specially designed powders that are deoxidized in-flight through the evaporation or gasification of oxides. The impact of these oxide-free ultrahigh temperature droplets has a spreading-fusing, self-metallurgical bonding effect resulting in fully dense bulk-like metallic coatings. Various coating materials, including NiCrMo, 304SS-Mo, NiCrBSi, and Al, are investigated, demonstrating the versatility of the new technique.


Background : Sensitive skin has been described as a skin type showing higher reactivity than normal skin and developing exaggerated reactions when exposed to internal stimulants and external irritants. The lactic acid sting test is widely accepted as a marker of sensitivity and employed for the selection of subjects experiencing invisible sensory irritation. Objective : To carry out an epidemiological study to assess the prevalence and possible related factors of sensitive skin in a regional population, and to examine the relationship between sensitive skin and subjective irritation using the lactic acid sting test. Methods : A total of 514 people responded to self-assessment questionnaires composed of questions about the self-perception, related factors, symptoms and signs of sensitive skin, We assessed subjective irritation using the lactic acid sting test in 54 volunteers. Results : The results are summarized as follows 1. The incidences of self-reported sensitive skin were 55.7% for woman, 38.9% for men and 51.0% for all responders. 2. The family history and seasonal variation of sensitive skin were significantly more common in sensitive skin group. 3. The face especially the cheek area was the most sensitive portion of body, cosmetics were common irritants. 4. The lactic acid stinging scores were significantly higher in the sensitive skin group. Conclusion : Our survey indicated that sensitive skin is a common problem for people and a complex problem with genetic, individual, environmental implications and the lactic acid sting test is a valuable method to define skin sensitivity.


One type of business that a lot of work at the Indonesian population is in the form of retail (Soliha, 2008). Retail in Indonesia is divided into two, namely traditional retail and modern retail. Traditional retail itself in the category of Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah (UMKM). Retail Indonesian population spread in the community thrives. However, intense competition, especially in the face of large modern retailers, traditional retailers are making in a less favorable position. The problem faced by traditional retailers are; (1) the owner can not determine sales trends; (2) purchase a product that is not sold in large quantities; (3) the difficulty of knowing the available stock; (4) does not have the data history of sales transactions; (5) often experience problems in the procurement costs of information technology devices; The solution to the above problems is an information system retail sales web-based that can produce information as up to date as sales turnover, the products most frequently purchased by customers, products sold less that needs to be promoted, benefits and can promote products sold in the form of a web product catalog. All the information can be used as a basis for business owners in making decisions for managing merchandise products as quickly as it can be accessed anytime, anywhere through the Internet.


Recent UK government policy initiatives have encouraged universities to seek funding from philanthropic sources. Yet, there has been little investigation into the work of the emergent Higher Education professionals expected to deliver this additional income. In this paper, we consider the role of professional networks in facilitating knowledge exchange amongst university fundraisers. Through interviews with senior UK philanthropy professionals in the 1960s universities, we identify significant variations amongst professional networks and peer groups. We argue that professional networks are multi-layered and often exclusionary. Yet, among participants, these associations provide both open spaces of learning and a means of achieving competitive advantage. Moreover, the networks permit university philanthropy professionals to develop new distinctive identities, transcending the institutional and locational setting of their employing organisations. This paper advances theoretical debates on the complexities of knowledge exchange across spatial scales and the role of these networks in the establishment of a new profession.


An implantable actuator and its accompanying driver circuit are presented for the purpose of lengthening bones and correcting skeletal deformities without requiring physical contact between the operator and the implanted device. This system utilizes magnetic coupling to form a magnetic gear, allowing an external motor to drive an implantable telescoping rod. The accompanying electronics are able to monitor the progress, in the form of turns delivered, as well as detect procedural errors, such as magnet decoupling. The force applied by the implanted telescoping rod can be accurately measured by monitoring the current necessary for the external controller to drive the extension of the implanted rod. After characterization, the system was shown to reliably deliver extension distances within 34 μm and maintain coupling out to 70 mm. The system is also able to measure torques as low as 0.12 mN m. System variability and accuracy of external monitoring are addressed.


Buchanan, Joan; Cretin, Shan Fee-for-Service Health Care Expenditures: Evidence of Selection Effects among Subscribers Who Choose HMOs. Health Insurance Experiment Series. Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Calif. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. ISBN-0-8330-0703-3; Rand-R-3341-HHS Mar 86 016B-80 68p. The Rand Corporation, 1700 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90406-2138 (25% discount on orders of 25 or more). Reports Research/Technical (143)


This is the summary of a research protocol constructed as part of the Radda Barnen project "Children's perspectives on their working lives", originally published in 1998. It provided the framework for local investigators carrying-out the initial study with 50 groups of working children in diverse occupations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, The Philippines and Central America.
• The protocol was designed to inform popular assumptions about the impact of work in children's lives with evidence on children's own perception of their situation;
• The protocol is applied in ways sensitive to the local circumstances of working children, and their preferred ways of communicating their experiences;
• The protocol can be adapted to provide systematic, detailed accounts of specific occupational situations in ways that can inform context-appropriate interventions;