In replacing CFC-12 with HFC-134a for refrigerator co~pressors, the compatibility with lubricating oil, and lubrication in general, are of ~jor concern. HFC-134a does not have adequate solubility with current lubricating oils because of its molecular structure. Current oils also do not provide enough lubricating action when using HFC-l34a. A new oil and new materials have to be utilized in order to use HFC-l34a. D@veloping a new lubricating oil involved numerous tests of different combinations of many polyolester synthetic oils and additiv@s. On~ of the pre-evaluated methods ~as pursued via sealed tube tests. Lubrieated parts were selected by studies involving a plane-on-roller type of wear test ~chine and by analyzing the traces of acid material commonly created during the lubricating action. Tb@ matric~s of new lubricating oils and new lubricated mat@rials ~re estimated based on durability tests conducted on compressors and refrig@rators. Results showed that polyo1ester synthetic oils having a low total acid value and including certain quantities of additives did not br@ak down into a tar-like substance and they did not produce co~posite particles in the operating compressors and refrigerators. The study also found that ~@ramics and anticorrosion alloy steel possessed good abrasion-reducing qualities. Based on our evsluation 1 we will i~plement CO$pressor reli~bility tests and apply HFC-134a to rotary compressors for refrigerators.


The monosynaptic connection between muscle spindle Ia afferents and motoneurones is one of the most extensively studied reflex pathways in the central nervous system. Physiological evidence has pointed to glutamate as the fast transmitter in this synaptic connection. In this study of the spinal cord segment C2, we used dual labelling with cholera toxin subunit B-horseradish peroxidase (B-HRP) and postembedding immunohistochemistry to show that group Ia primary afferent boutons synapsing on retrogradely labelled central cervical nucleus (CCN) neurones and motoneurones are enriched in glutamate-like immunoreactivity (LI). All double-labelled Ia terminals studied could be classified as S-type (CCN neurones and motoneurones) or M-type (motoneurones) boutons.


The strong lottery ticket hypothesis has highlighted the potential for training deep neural networks by pruning, which has inspired interesting practical and theoretical insights into how neural networks can represent functions. For networks with ReLU activation functions, it has been proven that a target network with depth $L$ can be approximated by the subnetwork of a randomly initialized neural network that has double the target's depth $2L$ and is wider by a logarithmic factor. We show that a depth $L+1$ network is sufficient. This result indicates that we can expect to find lottery tickets at realistic, commonly used depths while only requiring logarithmic overparametrization. Our novel construction approach applies to a large class of activation functions and is not limited to ReLUs.


The photolysis of NH3 and SiH4 by the 185 nm radiation of a low-pressure Hg lamp is used to deposit silicon nitride films at temperatures ranging from 50 up to 420 degrees C. The deposition kinetics are analysed by considering the gas phase and surface reactions of radicals (H, NH2, SiH3, SiH2) involved in the photochemical process. Radical densities and flux to the walls in the deposition chamber are computed from numerical solutions of one-dimensional spatially resolved balance equations for creation, reaction and diffusion of each species. The film composition is analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The thickness and refractive index are obtained by ellipsometry. Finally the electrical properties are derived from current-voltage I(V) and capacitance-voltage C(V) characteristics. The optimum dielectric properties are obtained for deposition temperatures between 250 and 350 degrees C and for SiH4 concentration in NH3 of about 1%.


Shape analysis is of great importance in many fields, such as computer vision, medical imaging, and computational biology. This analysis can be performed considering shapes as closed planar curves in the shape space. This approach has been used for the first time to obtain the morphological classification of erythrocytes in digital images of sickle cell disease considering the shape space S1, which has the property of being isometric to an infinite-dimensional Grassmann manifold of two-dimensional subspaces (Younes et al. , 2008), without taking advantage of all the features offered by the elastic metric related to the possibility of stretching and bending of the curves. In this paper, we study this deformation in the shape space, S2, which is based on the representation of closed planar curves by means of the square-root velocity function (SRVF) (Srivastava et al. , 2011), using the elastic metric of this space to obtain more efficient geodesics and geodesic lengths between planar curves. Supervised classification with this approach achieved an accuracy of 94.3%, classification using templates achieved 94.2% and unsupervised clustering in three groups achieved 94.7%, considering three classes of erythrocytes: normal, sickle, and with other deformations. These results are better than those previously achieved in the morphological analysis of erythrocytes and the method can be used in different applications related to the treatment of sickle cell disease, even in cases where it is necessary to study the process of evolution of the deformation, something that can not be done in a natural way in the feature space.


This paper presents an analysis of the near fields of antenna arrays using an alternative approach taking into account field variations due to mutual coupling. The method does not require solving Maxwell's equations under the customary boundary condition, but is based instead on searching for equivalent dipole models that are capable of reproducing the same radiated fields of the actual array (ideally obtained through accurate measurement.) We treat mutual coupling between array elements as essentially a multiple scattering effect and propose a method to calculate the near field of arbitrary linear arrays with significant electromagnetic coupling. It is found that a single (analytical) dipole model obtained under certain circumstances, which are detailed in the paper, can be used to predict correctly the near field radiated by arbitrary-size antenna arrays. The paper ends by developing an application of the equivalent dipole method by expanding the near fields into a sum of propagating and nonpropagating parts. It is shown that the 3-D spatial Fourier transform required in this expansion can be eliminated when the dipole model is used in computing the near field in the domain of the validity of the model.


The authors used telephone interviews to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices regarding breast and cervical cancer screening among 775 Chinese American women in San Francisco. The rates of ever had a mammogram, ever had a clinical breast examination, and ever examined one's breasts among women aged 40 and older were 70%, 75% and 70%, respectively. The rates of ever had a Pap smear and ever had a pelvic examination were 67% and 85%, respectively. However, the rates of having had these cancer screening tests at regular intervals were much lower (25% for mammograms, 37% for Pap smears). Ability to speak English and insurance status were significantly associated with breast and cervical cancer screening knowledge and practices. Further analysis of the data, together with the data collected from a survey on physicians serving this population, will provide a basis for future interventions.


Abstract : The Annual Progress Report documents all research protocols, both new and continuing, reviewed during FY 02 by the Clinical Investigation Committee (CIC) and the Human Use Committee/ Institutional Review Board (HUC/IRB) of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) Continuing research review is administered by the Research Review Service (RRS), Department of Clinical Investigation (DCI), WRAMC. A detail summary sheet of each protocol giving the objective, technical approach, and progress is presented. Personnel rosters, DCI accomplishments, funding information, and known publications and presentations by the WRAMC professional staff are listed for FY 02.


The future wireless communication system faces the bottleneck of the shortage of traditional spectrum resources and the explosive growth of the demand for wireless services. Millimeter-wave communication with spectral resources has become an effective choice for the next generation of wireless broadband cellular communication. However, the transmission path loss is large and oxygen and water molecules absorb Characteristics such as seriousness have brought great challenges to millimeter wave communication, and it is necessary to seek a technical approach different from low-frequency wireless communication. In the analysis of millimeter wave transmission characteristics After the analysis, the research progress of millimeter wave communication technology and the RF front-end is comprehensively analyzed, and the technology of millimeter wave communication is thoroughly analyzed with technical challenges and proposed corresponding research directions. Finally, the advances of artificial intelligence and machine learning are also applied into millimeter wave communication, so we also cover these parts in this paper.


The benefits of group living mostly surpass the disadvantages like sharing of resources and competition over food, space and mates, driving the evolution of social organization. Group living can be facilitated by social tolerance and cooperation among the group members. Social canids (e.g. wolves) display cooperative breeding, hunting, and prosocial activities in different contexts. Unlike cooperative pack-living wolves (Canis lupus lupus), their descendants, domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), show varying levels of associations from solitary to stable social groups. Free-ranging dogs are group-living but prefer to forage solitarily, hence providing an excellent opportunity for investigating social tolerance and coordinated task performance among the members in various situations. We tested 113 adult-only groups of free-ranging dogs in three different tasks to investigate group responses and performance in problem-solving situations in the presence of an unfamiliar human. Task 1 (unfamiliar, single food reward) and 2 (familiar, single food reward) examined group responses and cooperation from the perspective of familiarity, while Task 3 (familiar, multiple food rewards) enabled us to test whether increased food rewards promote social tolerance and food sharing among the group members. Regardless of significantly higher performance in Task 2 compared to Task 1, cooperation and food sharing were significantly lower in both. Task 3 revealed a strong positive correlation between food sharing and social tolerance, but not between success and social tolerance, suggesting a tendency for cooperation. We conclude that context-dependent cooperation and tolerance among group members facilitate group-living in free-ranging dogs. Significance statement Group living is a common phenomenon in the animal world where the members of a group show social tolerance and co-operative behaviours towards each other. This need for cooperative intents increases manifolds while groups face different problem-solving situations in their day to day lives. Here, we tested a large number of free-ranging dog groups to understand general cooperative intents such as social tolerance and food sharing in different problem-solving conditions. We found shreds of evidence of context-dependent cooperation and social tolerance among group members with minimal display of aggression. It is not adaptive for the dogs to fight or display aggression over resources. Alternatively, use of subtle cues such as display of dominance and subordination seem to be more plausible mechanisms for the development of efficient scavenging strategies and maintaining hierarchy.


Background: Any high-stakes assessment that leads to an important decision requires careful consideration in determining whether a student passes or fails. This observational study conducted in Erbil, Iraq, in June 2018 proposes a defensible pass/fail decision based on the number of failed competencies. Methods: Results were obtained for 150 medical students on their final objective structured clinical examination. Cutoff scores and pass/fail decisions were calculated using the modified Angoff, borderline, borderline-regression and holistic methods. The results were compared with each other and with a new competency method using Cohen s kappa. Rasch analysis was used to compare the consistency of competency data with Rasch model estimates. Results: The competency method resulted in 40 (26.7%) students failing, compared with 76 (50.6%), 37 (24.6%), 35 (23.3%) and 13 (8%) for the modified Angoff, borderline, borderline regression and holistic methods, respectively. The competency method demonstrated a sufficient degree of fit to the Rasch model (mean outfit and infit statistics of 0.961 and 0.960, respectively). Conclusions: the competency method was more stringent in determining pass/fail, compared with other standard-setting methods, except for the modified Angoff method. The fit of competency data to the Rasch model provides evidence for the validity and reliability of pass/fail decisions.


OBJECTIVE
To assess differences in neural mechanosensitivity between patients with chronic nonspecific neck pain with and without neuropathic features (NF and No-NF, respectively).

DESIGN
Descriptive, cross-sectional study.

SETTING
A primary care center, a hospital physiotherapy outpatient department, and a university campus.

SUBJECTS
Chronic nonspecific neck pain patients classified by the self-completed leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs pain scale (S-LANSS; 49 patients with NF [S-LANSS ≥ 12] and 50 patients with No-NF [S-LANSS < 12]) and a healthy control group (n = 48).

METHODS
The primary measurements were the mechanosensitivity of the median nerve and cervical region, specifically the assessment of the onset of symptoms and submaximal pain intensity according to the upper limb neural test 1 (ULNT1) for the median nerve and the modified passive neck flexion test (MPNFT) for the cervical region; secondary measurements included pain intensity, neck disability, kinesiophobia, and pain catastrophizing.

RESULTS
Statistically significant differences between the NF and No-NF groups were found with respect to the onset of symptoms of ULNT1 (-15.11 [-23.19 to -7.03]) and MPNFT (-6.58 [-11.54 to -1.62]), as well as the outcomes of the visual analogue scale (Mean difference [95% Confidence Interval]; 7.12 [1.81-12.42]) and neck disability index (3.72 [1.72-5.71]). Both chronic nonspecific neck pain groups showed statistically significant differences compared with the control group for all outcomes assessed (P < 0.01) except for the onset of symptoms of ULNT1 in the No-NF group.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study suggest that chronic nonspecific neck pain patients with NF have greater neural mechanosensitivity, pain intensity, and neck disability than those with No-NF.


When a robotic manipulator is mounted to a crane, boom or mobile platform, it loses its accuracy and speed due to the compliance of the base. The paper presents a simple robust control strategy that will reduce mechanical vibrations and enable better tip positioning. The control algorithm uses sensory feedback of the base oscillation to modulate the manipulator actuators to induce the inertial damping forces. Previous work by the author has demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed concept using linear analysis. This work extends to a more general case of a nonlinear multiple link manipulator using acceleration feedback and one sample delayed torque. An experimental study shows very promising results for a test bed consisting of a two-link manipulator and a compliant base.


The present study was undertaken to investigate the safe doses of Pueraria tuberosa water extract (PTWE) on different organs. The OECD guidelines 407 of repeated toxicity was followed with respect to the selection of dose and days for different organs. The selected doses of PTWE were 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg b wt for 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. Haematoxylin and eosin staining was used to study the morphological alterations in heart, intestine, testis, adrenal gland and spleen. In the present study, no adverse alterations in cardiac fibers of the heart, size and shapes in crypts and villi of intestine, seminiferous tubules and spermatozoa count in testis, three zones of adrenal gland, and spleen were seen in all treated groups of PTWE. There were no adverse morphological alterations found in described organs. The PTWE are safe at 1000 mg/kg b wt. up to 28 days and 2000 mg/ kg b. wt up to 21 days, respectively.


We report a case of atypical mycobacterial dermal infection caused by M. marinum, which was effectively treated with oral administration of minocycline and local hyperthermic treatment using chemical pocket warmers. A daily oral dose of 200 mg of minocycline was given, and local hyperthermic treatment was applied every evening for 5–6 hours with a disposable chemical pocket warmer. After 2.5 months of therapy, the lesion healed completely with scar formation. At 24 months after the completion of treatments, there is no sign of recurrence.


Management education in Africa's poorest countries suffers from the greatest resource constraints of any continent on earth. At least three major challenges exist: lack of current teaching material; very expensive books/photocopies, making an insufficient quantity of materials available; and too few qualified faculty. In 2010, the Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada established a three-pronged strategy to help improve management education in 39 of the world's poorest countries. Of these, 32 are in Africa. The primary purpose of its approach is poverty reduction. It is premised on the belief that if managers and entrepreneurs can make more sound business decisions, failures will decline, and prosperity will increase. The viability of all three elements of the strategy has been proved in various Ivey initiatives over the past 20 years in different geographies. This article reviews the history of the 39 Country Initiative to date in relation to Africa, provides some ideas about the way forward, and some personal observations.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Oxygen supplementation is the treatment most commonly used to relieve dyspnea in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is a lack of data, however, on the response of the respiratory drive to low flow oxygen in severe stable COPD. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the magnitude of chemoresponsiveness to low flow supplemental oxygen in patients with COPD of variable severity in terms of mouth occlusion pressure at 100 msec (P0.1), P0.1 and minute ventilation (MV) response to CO2 stimulation, and blood gas tension.

METHODS
Twenty-six patients with stable COPD of variable severity were divided into two groups: those with mild airway obstruction and normocapnia (n = 14) and those with hyperinflation and hypercapnia (n = 12).

RESULTS
Arterial oxygen tension, oxygen saturation, and arterial CO2 tension were significantly increased after oxygen therapy in COPD patients with or without hypercapnia (all p < 0.01). COPD patients with hypercapnia had a significantly higher P0.1 (0.7 +/- 0.07 kPa) than those with normocapnia (0.3 +/- 0.03 kPa, p < 0.01). Oxygen significantly decreased the P0.1 adjusted by end tidal CO2 pressure (delta P0.1/PETCO2) only in patients with hyperinflation and hypercapnia, from 0.2 +/- 0.05 to 0.1 +/- 0.03 kPa (p < 0.05). There was a weak correlation between P0.1/PETCO2 and forced vital capacity (FVC; r = 0.41, p < 0.05) or forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1; r = 0.45, p < 0.05). In addition, the arterial CO2 tension (PaCO2) was inversely related to P0.1/PETCO2 (r = -0.57, p < 0.01). The MV with 6% CO2 (MVCO2) was also significantly decreased in the hypercapnic group from 17.9 +/- 3.7 to 14.8 +/- 4.9 L after oxygen therapy (p < 0.01). The maximum inspiratory pressure did not change after oxygen usage in either group.

CONCLUSION
We conclude that short-term oxygen therapy may blunt respiratory response to CO2 in COPD with chronic hypercapnia. Cautious observation of respiratory response is needed during oxygen therapy in COPD patients with a higher magnitude of air-trapping and hypercapnia.


Respiratory infections, including Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp), contribute to asthma pathobiology. To date, the mechanisms underlying the increased susceptibility of asthmatics to airway Mp infection remain unclear. Short palate, lung, and nasal epithelium clone 1 (SPLUNC1) protein is a recently described large airway epithelial cell-derived molecule that was predicted to exert host defense activities. However, SPLUNC1 function and regulation in an infectious or allergic milieu are still unknown. We determined host defense and anti-inflammatory functions of SPLUNC1 protein in Mp infection and the regulation of SPLUNC1 by Mp and allergic inflammation (e.g., IL-13). SPLUNC1 function was examined in Mp or human airway epithelial cell cultures by using SPLUNC1 recombinant protein, overexpression and RNA interference. Human and mouse bronchial epithelial SPLUNC1 was examined using immunostaining, Western blotting, ELISA, laser capture microdissection, and real-time PCR. Mouse models of Mp infection and allergic inflammation and air-liquid interface cultures of normal human primary bronchial epithelial cells were used to study SPLUNC1 regulation by Mp and IL-13. We found that: 1) SPLUNC1 protein decreased Mp levels and inhibited epithelial IL-8 production induced by Mp-derived lipoproteins; 2) normal human and mouse large airway epithelial cells expressed high levels of SPLUNC1; and 3) although Mp infection increased SPLUNC1, IL-13 significantly decreased SPLUNC1 expression and Mp clearance. Our results suggest that SPLUNC1 serves as a novel host defense protein against Mp and that an allergic setting markedly reduces SPLUNC1 expression, which may in part contribute to the persistent nature of bacterial infections in allergic airways.


Any book must be evaluated in the context of its goals. The authors indicate it is not their aim to present an encyclopedia containing all possible presentations of congenital heart disease in newborn infants. Rather, with unnecessary apologies to their colleagues in pediatric cardiology, the book is directed to pediatricians and general practitioners who constitute the newborn infant's first line of defense. Such a noncardiologist pediatrician is not likely to be primarily interested in the detailed anatomy of various malformations of the heart and great vessels. Rather, he is searching for a better understanding of the infant with disturbed cardiac function, ie, the systemic effects of cardiac disease, or the cardiac effects of systemic diseases. The pediatric generalist may then better be able to recognize the early signs of heart disease in the newborn infant and to approach the primary diagnosis in a logical manner; and, having consulted the cardiologist,


Objective(s): The present study aimed to determine the immunoadjuvant efficacy of mixed cross-linked dextran microspheres (CDM) and tetanus toxoid (TT)-loaded trimethyl chitosan (TMC) nanospheres in dry powder form. Materials and Methods: The TMC nanoparticles (NPs) containing TT were produced using the ionic gelation method. Co-administration of TT-loaded TMC NPs and CDM as an absorption enhancer was performed to improve immunity against the antigen. Dry powder formulations were delivered via the nasal route in a rabbit model. Results: Among immunization groups, mixing of CDM with TT encapsulated in TMC NPs could elicit the highest titer of systemic IgG antibody. Furthermore, the addition of CDM to TT-loaded TMC enhanced the sIgA response relative to the TT solution. Conclusion: The TMC NPs had a considerable effect on mucosal and systemic immunity against the TT antigen. Therefore, the CDM excipient can be utilized for nasal immunization to elevate systemic and mucosal responses.


Recent research has shown that the high current relativistic klystron with an annular electron beam is an excellent high power microwave source. Advances in RKA design at higher frequencies are of practical interest. Experimental work on the input stage of a 3.3 GHz relativistic klyston amplifier will be reported. We designed and tested a compact, tunable reentrant input cavity and studied the current modulation it produces. In the experimental set-up, the Nereus Marx Accelerator provides a 5 kA, 350 kV, 150 ns annular electron beam, which is confined with a 1-2 T guide field from a superconducting magnet. Up to 1 MW is available at 3.1-3.5 GHz from a tunable magnetron. The power is injected radially to the cavity through a single C-band coupling aperture. Studies of the current modulation as a function of input power, axial position, beam current and guide field strength will be described. We observed about 5% current modulation downstream from the cavity gap, in good agreement with theory and MAGIC simulations. Thesis Supervisor: George Bekefi, Professor of Physics Acknowledgments I would like to express my respect and admiration for Professor George Bekefi and thank him for the chance to work in his laboratory. His teaching and guidance are invaluable to me. This project relied heavily on the engineering expertise and insightful suggestions of Ivan Mastovsky. Students speak of Ivan not only for his technical help, but for the moral support and encouragement he gives each of us. Sincere thanks to Chiping Chen for his many suggestions and generous hours of patient explanations and discussions of RKA theory. I wish to express my thanks to Wen Hu, and acknowledge his penetrating insights, creative ideas and long hours of work on the RKA. A special thanks to Felicia Brady, a member of the laboratory who is a person of extraordinary talent and inner qualities. Many thanks and good wishes to Professor Jonathan Wurtele, Jim Blastos, Beth Chen, Manoel Conde, Todd Hay, Ken Ricci, David Sisson, Gennady Shvets, Rick Stoner and Paul Volfbeyn. I am indebted to Rick Stoner and Manoel Conde for sharing their knowledge and experience. Most of all, I thank my family for their love and support. This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.


Molecular processes first took place in the Universe in the recombination era as the expanding Universe cooled adiabatically and recombined when the cooling radiation field ran out of photons energetic enough to cause photoionization. The formation of neutral helium heralded the dawn of chemistry as the neutral atoms participated in processes of radiative association to form molecular ions. Dissociative recombination of the molecular ions produced neutral atoms and accelerated the conversion of the ionized plasma into a neutral gas. The subsequent chemistry involved hydrogen, deuterium, helium and lithium created earlier in a brief period of nucleosynthesis. With the continued expansion the Universe became cold and dark and chemistry came to a temporary end until the formation and gravitational collapse of the first distinct cosmological objects. Heavy elements were made, a new source of radiation – starlight – appeared and a richer chemistry was initiated.


In permafrost regions, ground surface deformations induced by freezing and thawing threaten the integrity of the built environment. Mapping the frost susceptibility of the ground at a high spatial resolution is of practical importance for the construction and planning sectors. We processed Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) data from thawing seasons 2015 to 2019, acquired over the area of Ilulissat, West Greenland. We used a least-squares inversion scheme to retrieve the average seasonal displacement (S) and long-term deformation rate (R). We secondly investigated two different methods to extrapolate active layer thickness (ALT) measurements, based on their statistical relationship with remotely sensed surface characteristics. A generalized linear model (GLM) was first implemented, but the model was not able to fit the data and represent the ALT spatial variability over the entire study domain. ALT were alternatively averaged per vegetation class, using a land cover map derived by supervised classification of Sentinel-2 images. We finally estimated the active layer ice content and used it as a proxy to map the frost susceptibility of the ground at the community scale. Fine-grained sedimentary basins in Ilulissat were typically frost susceptible and subject to average seasonal downward displacements of 3 to 8 cm. Areas following a subsiding trend of up to 2.6 cm/yr were likely affected by permafrost degradation and melting of ground ice below the permafrost table. Our approach enabled us to identify frost-susceptible areas subject to severe seasonal deformations, to long-term subsidence induced by degrading permafrost, or to both. Used in combination with traditional site investigations, InSAR maps provide valuable information for risk management and community planning in the Arctic.


Objective: To determine the elective laparoscopy in diagnosing chronic abdominal pain. Patients And Methods: The one year cross sectional study (2017-18) was conducted at tertiary care hospital on the patients present with pain abdomen of 3 months duration or more. A detailed history was taken from each of the patient as per the proforma designed before the commencement of the study whereas the frequency / percentages (%) and means ±SD computed for study variables. All cases of undiagnosed (by conventional methods and investigations such as detailed history, clinical examination, blood counts, urine examination, USG abdomen, Plain x ray abdomen) chronic abdominal pain > 3 months duration of both sex, all cases of undiagnosed chronic abdominal pain in patients > 12 years of age and cases of clinically diagnosed chronic abdominal pain of >3 months duration not responding to the treatment given were placed in inclusion criteria whereas the frequency / percentages (%) and means ±SD computed for study variables. Results: During one year study period total fifty patients were explored and study. The mean ± SD for age (yrs) of population was 52.21±7.72. The laparoscopic findings were post operative adhesions 28 (56%), recurrent appendicitis 08 (16%), chronic cholecystitis 02 (4.0%), malignancy 04 (8.0%), mesenteric lymphadenopathy 04 (8.0%), tuberculosis (strictures) 04 (8.0%). Conclusion: Laparoscopy has an effective diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic efficacy in the management of patients who present with chronic abdominal pain and conventional methods of investigations have failed to elicit a cause for the pain.


Abstract Objective: To determine transfusion compatibility of maternal RBCs for her neonate up to 4 weeks of age, irrespective of maternal-neonatal ABO mismatch. Methods: This was a prospective observational study involving eligible mothers with their neonates delivered in participating site from 1 July 2012 till 31 December 2012. Mother's blood was collected before child birth. Neonatal blood sample was collected from placental end, shortly after birth. Blood Groups of mother–baby pair were individually tested for ABO and Rh-D groups. Pairs with negative Rh-D antigen/s or with same ABO blood groups were excluded. Thus, 28 pairs with both maternal and neonatal samples positive for Rh-D antigen and with different maternal neonatal ABO blood groups were included in the study. Blood samples were collected at birth and at 4 weeks. Cross matching was done at birth and at 4 weeks for each pair with standard blood bank protocols. Results: All 28 pairs showed positive compatibility with standard blood bank cross-matching protocols at birth and at 4 weeks. Conclusions: Maternal blood irrespective of ABO compatibility might be a viable and potentially acceptable option for her new born baby in neonatal period. This may be especially important in developing world with limited blood bank resources.


Fine-Grained Sketch-Based Image Retrieval (FG-SBIR) is to use free-hand sketches as queries to perform instance-level retrieval in an image gallery. Existing works usually leverage only high-level information and perform matching in a single region. However, both low-level and high-level information are helpful to establish fine-grained correspondence. Besides, we argue that matching different regions between each sketch-image pair can further boost model robustness. Therefore, we propose Multi-Level Region Matching (MLRM) for FG-SBIR, which consists of two modules: a Discriminative Region Extraction module (DRE) and a Region and Level Attention module (RLA). In DRE, we propose Light-weighted Attention Map Augmentation (LAMA) to extract local feature from different regions. In RLA, we propose a transformer-based attentive matching module to learn attention weights to explore different importance from different image/sketch regions and feature levels. Furthermore, to ensure that the geometrical and semantic distinctiveness is well modeled, we also explore a novel LAMA overlapping penalty and a local region-negative triplet loss in our proposed MLRM method. Comprehensive experiments conducted on five datasets (i.e., Sketchy, QMUL-ChairV2, QMUL-ShoeV2, QMUL-Chair, QMUL-Shoe) demonstrate effectiveness of our method.


Chitosan powder when dissolved with acetat acid solution gives viscous solution. The accessibility of chitosan depends on viscosity of its solution. The viscosity determines the extent of penetration of chitosan. The aim of this study was to account the proliferation cells on wound healing process of dental extraction using different viscosity of chitosan gel. Rattus nornegicus strain wistar male, aged 8-16 weeks, divided into 2 treatment groups namely group 1 which given chitosan gel with high viscosity and group II which given chitosan with low viscosity. Chitosan were applied into the socket of dental extraction. Rat was decaputated 7 and 14 days after chitosan application and the jaw in the treated regions and control group were cut for histopatological to observe the proliferation cells. Data were analyzed using t test. The result showed significant differences of proliferation cells between groups with high and low viscosity of chitosan. The group with high viscosity of chitosan have more higher of proliferation cells.(p<0,05). The viscosity can influence the absorbtion of chitosan that accessibility to its application on proliferation cells of wound healing process.


Sputtered Fe-N films with various nitrogen contents were investigated from point of view of device manufacturing. As-deposited Fe-N films have compressive stress that becomes tensile due to heat treatment. At optimum N content where soft magnetic properties were realized, the film shows a close to amorphous microstructure. Compared to NiFe, Fe-N has higher reactivity with humidity and lower reactivity with atmospheric pollutants such as Cl and S. >


The friction performance is an important factor of parts processed by fused deposition modeling (FDM) for various engineering applications. It is one type of failure made of surface contact. The proper use of FDM process parameters can bring a significant reduction in friction and the amount of wear, thereby leading to a reduction in the material waste. To date, very little studies have been performed in this area. This paper investigates the effect of FDM manufacturing parameters on the friction performance of polycarbonate-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene prototypes processed by FDM using definitive screening design and partial least squares method. The observation of surface morphology was obtained by the scanning electron microscopy to examine the effect of process parameters on the microstructure. The experimental results have shown that layer thickness, air gap, raster angle, and build orientation are the most influential factors affecting the friction performance of FDM manufactured parts. The proposed approach presented in this study provides an impetus to develop analytical modeling and functional relationships between FDM manufacturing parameters and friction performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Scars from self-inflicted wounds to the upper extremities are the hallmark of self-mutilation. They are easy to recognize and difficult to hide. Camouflaging these scars can be an onerous task. In this case study, a 23-year-old woman who has major depressive disorder with comorbid borderline personality disorder presented for scar repair of self-inflicted wounds on the volar and dorsal forearm (each approximately 10 cm2 x 15 cm2). Following a psychological and physical evaluation, split-thickness skin grafts (10/1,000 inches in thickness) were obtained from both areas and switched. The grafts were fixed with staples, immobilized with a short arm splint, and dressed daily with gauze and neomycin ointment. Staples were removed after 10 days; at the 6-month follow up, the wounds resembled burn wound scars. The patient was satisfied with this more socially acceptable result. This method might offer a simple camouflage option in appropriately selected cases.


We describe the development of a scoring function designed to model the hydrophobic effect in protein folding. An optimization technique is used to determine the best functional form of the hydrophobic potential. The scoring function is expanded using the Chebyshev polynomials, for which the coefficients are determined by minimizing the Z-score of native structures in the ensembles of alternate conformations. (The Z-score is the score relative to the mean, measured in units of standard deviation.) The derived effective potential is tested on decoy sets conventionally used in such studies. The function is able to discriminate very well between correct and incorrect folds, despite the fact that it simply counts the number of neighbors of each amino acid. Our results show that the techniques of Z-score optimization and Chebyshev expansion work, and work well. Our results also confirm that hydrophobic effect is one of the principal driving forces in protein folding.


Consumers, when buying health insurance, do not know the exact value of each treatment that they buy coverage for. This leads them to overvalue some treatments and undervalue others. We show that the insurance market cannot correct these mistakes. This causes research labs to overinvest in treatments that hardly add value compared to current best practice. The government can stimulate R&D in breakthrough treatments by excluding treatments with low value added from health insurance coverage. If the country is rich enough such a government intervention in a private health insurance market raises welfare.


Learning during skills-based psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia is influenced by the motivating properties of the treatment context and the motivational orientation of the client. Given that motivational impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia with significant functional implications, intervention strategies emphasizing extrinsic and/or intrinsic goals may be prescribed to enhance skill learning and treatment outcomes. The purpose of this article is to consider the role that motivation plays in treatment success by evaluating the relationship between motivation and learning during cognitive remediation for schizophrenia. As intrinsic motivation (IM) is most often associated with learning, we will integrate research findings which address 3 main questions: (1) is IM in schizophrenia static or dynamic, (2) is it possible to manipulate the state of being intrinsically motivated and if so do manipulations of IM affect learning? and (3) can motivation theory be translated into clinical practice? This knowledge can facilitate treatment strategies to address the low base rate of IM that is characteristic of schizophrenia and can be applied to cognitive remediation as well as other psychosocial interventions which require learning for treatment success.


The present study investigates human aversive Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) and possible influences of outcome devaluation and instrumental overtraining on this effect. PIT measures the extent to which a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) can increase instrumental responses independently paired with the same (outcome-specific transfer) or a different (general transfer) reinforcer. Two measures of PIT were obtained: the percentage of instrumental responses and the vigor of such responses. Thirty-eight volunteers performed a standard PIT task sequence. Results showed a double dissociation between outcome-specific and general transfer: the first selectively expressed in the amount of responses, the second in the vigor measure solely. Furthermore, outcome-specific transfer was enhanced by overtraining, but not affected by devaluation. General transfer, on the other hand, was affected by neither overtraining, nor devaluation. A positive correlation between general transfer and sensitivity to punishments was found. Findings are discussed in terms of hypothetically different underlying neurobehavioral mechanisms and their relations to habits and goal-directed behavior.


ABSTRACT This article considers an appeal of homicide brought by the widow of a hanged Hereford man, the background to which was what R.A. Griffiths calls the 'forcible arrangement' by powerful men of Herefordshire and the Welsh marches of the trial and execution of those said to have been guilty of murdering Watkin Vaughan of Bredwardine. While this incident has been considered in the context of disorder perpetrated in England, Wales and the Marches by particular families and affinities, and the efficiency or otherwise of royal justice in the mid-fifteenth century, some of its legal aspects have not been explored, and, in particular, it has generally been overlooked that the case was deemed worthy of a report, so that its essentials could be preserved for the instruction of common lawyers (YB Pasch. 35 Hen. VI f. 57b). This article draws on information from this Year Book report and the records of the King's Bench, and argues that limitations on existing legal processes should form part of historians' consideration of criminal justice in the mid-fifteenth century.


Surface complexation models(SCMs) have been widely used to study mineral surface adsorption and solution, especially for (hydr)oxide and phylloaluminosilicate minerals Surface functional groups are basic units of surface complexation reactions of minerals. (Hydr)oxide minerals possess surface hydroxyl groups only and phylloaluminosilicate minerals have ion bearing exchange sites in addition to surface hydroxyl groups. Surface charges on minerals consists of permanent structural charge, coordinative surface charge and dissociated surface charge. A variety of zero surface charge conditions could be presented with different types of points of zero charge. The constant capacitance model (CCM), the double layer model (DLM) and the triple layer model (TLM) are three most commonly used SCMs Among them, some differences existed in their electrical double layer structures, surface reactions (protolysis and surface complexation), surface charge and mass balance equations, and range of application.


Numerous studies proposed the possible use of auxetic periodic structures in engineering applications. The regular cellular structures with several nodes in a unit cell of the lattice are referred to as multilattices. In this work, a homogenization procedure was applied to three types of plane multilattices: conventional and re-entrant honeycombs (REH), double arrowheads, and semi REH constructed from elastic ribs. It was shown, that for all considered lattices the components of effective tensors of elasticity can be obtained in an explicit way in the frames of the same approach taking stretching, bending and shear of the ribs into account. As a result, equivalent elastic in-plane properties were found analytically as the functions of geometrical parameters of the lattices and the elastic parameters of the ribs. The estimation of the limits for the elastic properties was also performed. It was investigated how the condition of constant density changes the dependence of the elastic constants on the angles between the nodes. Also, different lattices were investigated at the same reference density taken equal to the density of the honeycomb lattice. The most typical cases from the practical point of view were considered and the corresponding elastic parameters were calculated for them.


Though treatment and outcomes have significantly improved over the past 15years, morbidity and mortality of heart failure (HF) remains very high. In thesetting of heart failure comorbidities such as iron deficiency is present in nearly50% and anemia in 37%. Prevalence of anemia in heart failure depending on thedefinitions used, varies from 15% to 56%. In a retrospective study of outpatientswith CHF, the prevalence of anemia, using the World Health Organization (WHO)definition (hemoglobin<12 g/dL in women and<13 g/dL in men), ranged from9% to 19% in NYHA class I to II, to 79% in NYHA class IV. Anemia has convincingly been shown to be a powerful predictor of re-hospitalization rates and survival in chronic heartfailure. Most studies have shown a linear relationship between hematocrit or haemoglobin and survival. SOLVD (Studies ofLeft Ventricular Dysfunction) trial reported 2.7% increase in the adjusted risk of death per 1% reduction in hematocrit andPRAISE (Prospective Randomized Amlodipine Survival Evaluation) trial described 3% increase in risk for each 1% decline inhematocrit. In a study on significance of anemia among patients hospitalized with acute decompensated heart failureOPTIME-CHF (Outcomes of a Prospective Trial of Intravenous Milrinone for Exacerbations of Chronic Heart Failure) documentedthat hemoglobin level independently predicted adverse events, even after adjustment for other covariates. For every 1 g/dldecrease in haemoglobin value, a 12% increase in the probability of death or re-hospitalization within 60 days of treatment wasobserved. In patients of heart failure with preserved systolic function, anemia was found to be independently associated withadverse outcomes (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.6 to 1). To conclude, anemia in patients with HF is present in approximately one-third of patients with HF, and these patients have aworse prognosis and poor quality of life. The problem may be far more worse in our scenario. Anemia has multifactorial causesand may be due to nutritional deficiencies, renal disease, and volume overload. Although it is recommended thatunderlying disorders should be addressed, there is no evidence for the clinical benefit of increasing Hb levels as such.Intravenous iron treatment in HF appears promising for iron-deficiency and anemia. , The benefit is partly independent of Hblevels, and data on hard clinical endpoints are not yet available. As per to date, ESA therapy has shown neutral results on rates ofdeath and HF rehospitalization and causes more ischemic strokes, which outweigh their marginal effect on symptomimprovement.


Control of painful conditions is becoming an increasingly important part of veterinary medicine. Many of the available analgesics are considered effective for a variety of painful conditions in horses, but their use may be limited for various reasons. The development of unwanted side effects are a major factor that limits their use. Tramadol has only recently gained significant attention as an analgesic in animals despite its having been used in humans in Germany since 1977.
Tramadol hydrochloride, (1RS,2RS)-2-[(dimethylamino)-methyl]-1-(3-methoxyphenyl)-cyclohexanol hydrocloride, is a centrally acting analgesic that has been used clinically for the two decades to treat acute and chronic pain in humans. Tramadol produces its antinociceptive effect in animals and analgesic effect in humans by both opioid and non-opioid mechanism of action. Tramadol is available as a racemic mixture composed of (+) and (-) enantiomers in equal proportions. The racemic mixture produces analgesia by synergistic action of two enantiomers and their main O-desmethylated metabolites (M1). In fact (+)M1 has been demonstrated to have an affinity to µ-opioid receptors that is 200 times greater than that of the parent compound. On the other hand, the monoaminergic component in tramadol analgesia is mediated by (-)tramadol, by means of an inhibition of the re-uptake of the neurotransmitters serotonina and norepinephrine. The therapeutic use of tramadol has not been associated with significant adverse effects, such as respiratory depression, constipation or sedation, and the drug has been used successfully in humans and many animals to produce analgesia in peri-operative and post-operative periods.
The pharmacokinetics of tramadol have been investigated in several animal species and recently also in horse. After IV administration at a dose of 2.0 mg/kg in only two horses muscle twitching were observed and physical examination revealed decreased gastrointestinal sounds. Moreover, there are two studies that showed good analgesic effect after epidural administration of tramadol to horses without any significant influence on heart rate, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, body temperature and behaviour. Caudal epidural administration of tramadol was compared with morphine and both are potential drugs in management of perineal and lumbosacral pain in horse
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects and tolerability of systemically administered tramadol at two different dosages (1.0 mg/kg EV and 2.0 mg/kg EV) in the horse. Heart rate, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, body temperature, central nervous system excitement, head ptosis, arterial pH, PaO2 and PaCO2 were measured during 12-hour period and the different was statistically evaluated. Analgesia was not documented.
Results of this study suggest that tramadol con be administered to horse systematically at a dose of 2.0 mg/kg.


The indirect immunofluorescence test (IFT) using the Hantaan virus (agent of Korean hemorrhagic fever, KHF) was applied for detection of antibodies to nephropathia epidemica (NE). From 103 patients with symptoms suggesting NE, 61% revealed KHF/NE antibodies in the convalescent sera. All seropositive patients seemed to have acquired their disease in NE endemic areas (north of the 60th parallel). Only patients found to have a typical clinical NE (fever, abdominal pain and renal engagement) were seropositive. Antibodies to KHF/NE were found in 4.2% of sera from 647 healthy persons living in NE endemic areas. Signs of local clusters were found. Subclinical or mild disease seems common. Proof of man to man spread of the disease was not found. Sera from 355 persons living outside NE endemic areas were also tested and 2.4% contained KHF/NE antibodies.


The conversion of polytitanocarbosilane fibers to SiC has been studied from 1400°C to 1600°C. Thermochemical modeling indicated the stable phases were SiC and TiC. Kinetics were studied with a thermogravimetric method and post heat-treatment phases, and microstructures were studied with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Kinetics exhibit a strong temperature dependence and an activation energy of 443.3 ± 11.7 kJ/mol. This suggests that a chemical reaction step is rate-limiting. X-ray diffraction shows the conversion of an amorphous phase to crystalline SiC. Electron microscopy shows the development of internal porosity and large grains on the fiber surface, particularly at the higher temperatures.


Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) may trigger organs damage, including kidney injury, due to a massive cytokine release. In this observational, prospective study, we analyzed the possible impact of chronic treatment with ACE-Inhibitors (ACE-I) on the inflammatory response and renal function after CPB. Sixty-nine patients undergoing major cardiac surgery with CPB were enrolled. Patients were stratified according to long-term (> 6 mo.) ACE-I use (n = 38) or not (n = 31). The primary endpoint was the change in IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF alpha, EGF and VEGF plasma levels. Secondary (renal) endpoints were postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI), recovery of baseline GFR values and the absolute changes in renal function indexes. After CPB, IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-4 and TNF-alpha remained stable over time while a significant decrease in IL-2 levels was noticed in the ACE-I group (p = 0.01). IL-6 and IL-8 increased after surgery and tended to decrease after 48 h. IL-10 levels showed a similar variation, but both their rise and decrease were more pronounced in patients under ACE-I treatment (p = 0.007). Finally, VEGF and EGF showed a marked initial decrease with a tendency to normalization 10 days after surgery (p for trend ranging from 0.01 to 0.001). The occurrence of AKI within 2 days after surgery, the rate of GFR recovery and the absolute changes in renal function indexes were not statistically different between groups. Chronic, long-term ACE-I treatment may influence the inflammatory response following CPB. On the other hand, this drug class apparently has neutral impact on perioperative renal outcomes.


The study aimed at evaluating the effects of certain nutrients and influence of environmental factors on growth and production of bioactive metabolite by Streptomyces PT1 isolate in submerged culture using the Plackett-Burman design. Factors considered in the study included the effect of carbon source, nitrogen source, MgSO4, FeSO4, MnCl2, ZnSO4, NaCl, pH, temperature, agitation and incubation time. Glucose and yeast extract were found to be the most suitable carbon and nitrogen sources respectively, for optimum production of growth and bioactive metabolite by the isolate. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the responses showed that FeSO4 (p=0.0215), MnCl2 (p=0.0001) and NaCl (p=0.0215) were significant factors affecting the antimicrobial activity of secondary metabolite against Bacillus subtilis (BS). Activity of secondary metabolite produced by the tested Streptomyce PT1 isolate against Vibrio parahaemoliticus (VI) was significantly affected by FeSO4 (p=0.0044) and NaCl (p=0.0044) concentration. The models established from the ANOVA analysis all presented significant values of Pmodel>F less than 0.005.


Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are highly contagious and have caused huge economical loss to the poultry industry. AIV vaccines remain one of the most effective methods of controlling this disease. Turkey herpesvirus (HVT) is a commonly used live attenuated vaccine against Marek's disease; it has also been used as a viral vector for recombinant AIV vaccine development. The clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system is a gene editing tool which, in vaccinology, has facilitated the development of recombinant DNA viral-vectored vaccines. Here, we utilize homology-directed repair (HDR) for the generation of a HVT–H7N9 HA bivalent vaccine; a H7N9 HA expression cassette was inserted into the intergenic region between UL45 and UL46 of HVT. To optimize the selection efficiency of our bivalent vaccine, we combined CRISPR/Cas9 with erythrocyte binding to rapidly generate recombinant HVT–H7HA candidate vaccines.


The search-type problem of evacuating 2 robots in the wireless model from the (Euclidean) unit disk was first introduced and studied by Czyzowicz et al. [DISC'2014]. Since then, the problem has seen a long list of follow-up results pertaining to variations as well as to upper and lower bound improvements. All established results in the area study this 2-dimensional search-type problem in the Euclidean metric space where the search space, i.e. the unit disk, enjoys significant (metric) symmetries. We initiate and study the problem of evacuating 2 robots in the wireless model from $\ell_p$ unit disks, $p \in [1,\infty)$, where in particular robots' moves are measured in the underlying metric space. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of a search-type problem with mobile agents in more general metric spaces. The problem is particularly challenging since even the circumference of the $\ell_p$ unit disks have been the subject of technical studies. In our main result, and after identifying and utilizing the very few symmetries of $\ell_p$ unit disks, we design \emph{optimal evacuation algorithms} that vary with $p$. Our main technical contributions are two-fold. First, in our upper bound results, we provide (nearly) closed formulae for the worst case cost of our algorithms. Second, and most importantly, our lower bounds' arguments reduce to a novel observation in convex geometry which analyzes trade-offs between arc and chord lengths of $\ell_p$ unit disks as the endpoints of the arcs (chords) change position around the perimeter of the disk, which we believe is interesting in its own right. Part of our argument pertaining to the latter property relies on a computer assisted numerical verification that can be done for non-extreme values of $p$.


We explore an approach for bandwidth allocation for the centralized MAC protocol employed by DOCSIS (data over cable service interface specification) compliant cable networks. The proposed approach is based on the statistics of the source traffic models. It aims at achieving low excess bandwidth while still offering delays that are acceptable from the point of view of the application's QoS requirements. The access and total delays as well as the excess bandwidth are our performance metrics. Computer programs were used to compute the performance metrics for a system servicing two applications with different QoS requirements. The selected applications are an Internet video game, which is delay sensitive, and data transfer, which is delay tolerant. The performance metrics were computed for different offered loads. Results show our approach yields QoS complying delays while achieving high bandwidth utilization.


A comparison of absolute sphericity measurements with a ShackHartmann sensor and a TwymanGreen interferometer is presented. The absolute deviations of a test sphere from its ideal shape were calculated in both cases from the measured wave aberrations of three different positions. Very good qualitative and quantitative agreement of the results was achieved. The difference of the root-mean-square values of the two methods was 1/1000 of a wavelength.


ABSTRACT For physicians facing patients with organ-limited metastases from colorectal cancer, tumor shrinkage and sterilization of micro-metastatic disease is the main goal, giving the opportunity for secondary surgical resection. At the same time, for the majority of patients who will not achieve a sufficient tumor response, disease control remains the predominant objective. Since FOLFOX or FOLFIRI have similar efficacies, the challenge is to define which could be the most effective targeted agent to achieve these goals. The a priori molecular identification of patients who could benefit from anti-EGFR or anti-VEGF monoclonal antibodies (i.e. the targeted therapies up to now available for mCRC) is of critical importance. In this setting, the KRAS mutational status is the first identified predictive marker of response to anti-EGFR therapy and is required prior treatment with anti-EGFR therapy. For KRAS wild-type patients, the choice is in between anti-VEGF and anti-EGFR. In the future, in addition to clinical considerations, molecular markers may provide critical information for selecting patients who might benefit preferentially from one of these drugs. Indeed, the tumor's pathology and patient's metabolism is driven by genetic make-up, influencing the individual response and toxicity. A great amount of exploratory data has been delivered. The challenge of treatments' optimization through specific biomarkers gain special value for a potentially curable disease as mCRC with metastases confined to the liver, and it is even more important if we consider that we do really have the opportunity of mutually exclusive therapeutic choices in this setting. The high degree of complexity of the biological systems we are dealing with makes the discovery of determinant biomarkers a demanding endeavor per se. On the other hand, researchers have to face with all the difficulties of prospective verification and clinical validation of the most promising factors. In the future, to make translational research productive, affordable and more concrete, it will be necessary to have a worldwide effort from the scientific community (from medical oncologists to surgeons and basic researchers, but also of national health systems, industries, regulatory agencies and academies).


Pathway mapping is a new tool in the 3D-CANVENT ventilation software to track potential air pathways in complex mine ventilation systems and help in determining the pressure differences to deliver the required airflow to underground workplaces. After a ventilation model is established, a structure tree of the ventilation system can be formed from the branch series based on the ventilation parameters, locations of fans and regulators, and the airflow state as obtained from mine ventilation simulation. In order to find the unique pathway to each workplace, strict rules must be set to respect the structure tree and the priority of different fans in operation. The pathway tracking system provides a graphic interface with multi-functional tools and data sheets for generating and manipulating the structure tree and tracking the airflow pathways to different locations in the mine. It can be used in designing and managing the advanced mine ventilation systems, such as the ventilation on demand (VOD) systems, and to efficiently deliver the fresh air to the production areas in deep mines.


The penetration of microwaves in various materials gives active microwave imaging a large potential for some applications in medical imaging. This fairly recent imaging technique is aimed at obtaining some information about the physical properties of an object which is exposed to low power incident microwave radiation. Measured external scattered field data is used for the imaging purpose. In this computer simulation work, electromagnetic far field scattered data of a dielectric cylinder having infinite length are used for reconstruction under Born approximation. Using a series of integral transform, the three fold Radon transform integral is reduced into one fold. Having found the Radon transform of the object function, inverse Radon transform algorithms are used to reconstruct it. These three different inverse Radon transform methods are direct inverse Radon transform, convolution back projection and filter back projection. The result of the computer simulation algorithms of different methods are presented.<<ETX>>


Objective Several studies have suggested that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the right prefrontal cortex may be useful in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to compare the effect of rTMS on the right prefrontal cortex with that of sham stimulation among patients with PTSD. Methods In total, 18 patients with PTSD were randomly assigned to the 1-Hz low-frequency rTMS group or the sham group for 3 weeks. Primary efficacy measures were the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and its subscales, assessed at baseline and at 2, 4, and 8 weeks. Results All CAPS scores improved significantly over the study period. We found significant differences in the re-experiencing scores (F=7.47, p=0.004) and total scores (F=6.45, p=0.008) on the CAPS. The CAPS avoidance scores showed a trend toward significance (F=2.74, p=0.055), but no significant differences in the CAPS hyperarousal scores were observed. Conclusion The present study showed low-frequency rTMS to be an effective and tolerable option for the treatment of PTSD. Trials using variable indices of rTMS to the right prefrontal cortex and explorations of the differences in the effects on specific symptom clusters may be promising avenues of research regarding the use of rTMS for PTSD.


In light of the advancements in cognitive science and the evolutionary psychology of religion in the past two decades, scientists and philosophers have begun to reflect on the theological and atheological implications of naturalistic—and in particular, evolutionary—explanations of religious belief and behaviour. However, philosophical naiveté is often evinced by scientists and scientific naiveté by philosophers. The aim of this article is to draw from these recent contributions, point out some common pitfalls and important insights, and suggest a way forward. This proposal avoids the genetic fallacy as well as misunderstandings of the cognitive mechanisms that give rise to religious belief. In the end, it may well be that the cognitive science of religion is atheologically and theologically ambiguous; traditional philosophers of religion on both sides of the debate still have work to do.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to assess baby and parental satisfaction and plaque-removal efficacy of a novel infant tooth wipe (Spiffies) in high caries-risk babies.

METHODS
Thirty-five healthy and caries-free infants were selected. Babies had never had their teeth cleaned and no primary molars were yet present. Subjects were identified with the risk factor of nightly feeding behaviors. Pre- and postcleaning oral hygiene plaque measurements were recorded and then analyzed by a blinded examiner. A manual toothbrush (Ultra Kids) was used as the control method. Infants' caregivers used their randomly assigned cleaning method without instruction. Babies returned to the clinic after a 48- to 72-hour washout period, and the procedures were repeated before and after use of the alternate method. Parental satisfaction and baby-perceived acceptance were evaluated by a questionnaire and were analyzed at the time of the visit and at bedtime.

RESULTS
Both the infant tooth wipe and conventional brushing significantly reduced plaque levels (P < .001). Parents were more satisfied with the wipes when compared to toothbrushing, particularly after nightly feeding habits (P < .001). Similarly, infant's acceptance was higher with the wipes at daytime and significantly higher at night-time (P = .002).

CONCLUSIONS
The Novel novel Infant infant Tooth tooth Wipe wipe provides an effective method of plaque removal before the eruption of primary molars.


The work described in this dissertation is part of the worldwide program that has the aim to develop nuclear fusion as energy source. Fusion - the process in which two light nuclei fuse, releasing vast amounts of energy - is very attractive as a source of energy: it is a clean and safe process, and it does not produce the greenhouse gas CO2. The fuel resources are inexhaustible and widely available. Fifty years of research has proven the scienti??c feasibility of controlled nuclear fusion. The ??rst fusion reactor, ITER, in which the produced power will be approximately ten times bigger than the power input, will be built in a worldwide collaboration. ITER is a `tokamak', a reactor in which the fuel is contained in a torus-shaped tank. The fuel is hydrogenic gas, which must be heated to 150 million degrees Celsius. Thus the gas ionises and becomes a plasma. The plasma is kept in place by means of magnetic ??elds. The ITER plasma - and that of other so-called conventional tokamaks - has a shape that can be compared to the inner tube of a car tire. However, it is also possible to design the tokamak in such a way that the plasma has the shape of a cored apple. This `spherical tokamak' can result in a more compact construction of the fusion reactor. This is a rather recent concept and needs to be compared thoroughly with the conventional tokamak. The ??rst spherical tokamak in which plasmas of millions of degrees were produced was START (in Culham, England). The promising results obtained on this experiment, have led to the development of the Mega-Ampere Spherical Tokamak MAST (also in Culham). This machine achieved its ??rst plasma in December 1999 and has since demonstrated plasma currents of 1.35 mega-ampere during 0.7 seconds. ITER follows the `standard scenario' that has resulted from fusion research. This means that it will operate in the so-called `H-mode' (high-con??nement) regime, a state in which the plasma can be ef??ciently heated. Just like conventional tokamaks, MAST can also operate in H-mode. This dissertation is the result of a study of several aspects of H-mode in MAST, and makes a comparison with the conventional tokamak. In comparison to the L - (`low-con??nement') mode, the H-mode can achieve much higher plasma pressure using equal heating power. This is the result of the formation of a `transport barrier' at the edge of the plasma. Associated with H-mode is the occurrence of edge instabilities, so-called ELMs (Edge Localised Modes). These instabilities produce pulsed out??ows of heat and particles. These out??ows are deposited in a short time on the wall of the reactor, which could lead to increased material wear. ELMs occur in all tokamaks, spherical as well as conventional. It is to be veri??ed whether the power exhaust during an ELM will cause problems in the compact spherical tokamak. The key question of this dissertation is: how does H-mode in MAST - as representative of spherical tokamaks - compare with that on conventional tokamaks. In this, two aspects are especially considered. First, the development of density and temperature gradients at the edge of the plasma, and secondly: the exhaust of particles during ELMs. In order to be able to answer these questions two diagnostics have been developed. The ??rst uses the scattering of a laser beam (Thomson scattering) to perform an accurate measurement of the density and temperature gradients. This measurement can be taken once per plasma discharge. This system was originally built with a resolution of 30-40 data points distributed over the diameter of the plasma. At a later stage, the system was upgraded to close to 300 data points in order to provide better resolution. This has resulted in a measurement of the density and temperature pro??le from the inside to the outside along the central midplane of the plasma. With this unique measuring capability, MAST is in a good position to study these quantities in H-mode. The second system uses the light that is emitted by neutral hydrogen at the edge of the plasma. This system, too, produces a measurement of the density gradient at the edge of the plasma, but in contrast to the scattering system which produces a single measurement, this system produces a time resolved measurement with a frequency of 1 kHz or higher. However, for calibration purposes this system requires the single measurement of the laser scattering diagnostic and only a measurement of the outside gradient is produced. The following results have been obtained using these diagnostics. It has turned out that H-mode in MAST resembles that in a conventional tokamak to great extent. Of great importance is that the energy con??nement time - a measure of the ef??ciency of the magnetic con??nement of the plasma - follows the same scaling laws, making MAST, in this respect, very comparable to conventional tokamaks. However, there are also substantial differences: ? During H-mode in MAST a very pronounced density gradient is formed - potentially leading to the formation of the edge density `ear' - but the increase in temperature is much smaller than that in conventional tokamaks. ? The plasma pressure - which is the product of density and temperature - at the edge of the plasma in MAST is small. Nonetheless, the energy con??nement - being the result of the total plasma pressure - scales as in conventional tokamaks. The development of the density ears can be well understood as the result of very low particle transport, which image is generally excepted to explain the formation of gradients in a conventional tokamak. The other observations, however, indicate that the exchange of particles and heat between the plasma and its surroundings in MAST differs from that in conventional tokamaks. This is likely due to the fact that the MAST plasma is surrounded by a large volume of neutral hydrogen, which can act as a continuous source of low-energetic neutrals. In a conventional tokamak this surrounding, neutral layer is much narrower and the role of the wall in the recycling process much more pronounced. However, the question remains to what degree the difference in plasma shape plays an important role in this. Also concerning the out??ow of plasma during ELMs interesting results were obtained. Of these the most signi??cant is that the out??ow is strongly biased to the outside of the plasma sphere. In other words, the column that cuts through the centre of the plasma and that could potentially be damaged by the effect of ELMs, only receives a very small portion of the total exhaust. The fact that the power exhaust is strongly concentrated on the outside of the plasma is a positive result for the development of reactor concepts based on the spherical tokamak design. In this framework, the impact of the results concerning the edge gradients and neutrals is not yet entirely clear.


Domain-specific searching heuristics is greatly influential upon the searching efficiency of robot action planning (RAP), but its computer-realized recognition and acquisition, i.e., learning, is difficult. This paper makes an exploration into this challenge. First, a problem formulation of RAP is made. Then, by applying explanation-based learning, which is currently the only approach to acquiring domain-specific searching heuristics, a new learning based method is developed for RAP, named robot action planning via explanation-based learning (RAPEL). Finally, an example study demonstrates the effectiveness of RAPEL.


The preparation and self-assembly of the enantiomers of a series of C3 -symmetric compounds incorporating three tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) residues is reported. The chiral citronellyl and dihydrocitronellyl alkyl chains lead to helical one dimensional stacks in solution. Molecular mechanics and dynamics simulations combined with experimental and theoretical circular dichroism support the observed helicity in solution. These stacks self-assemble to give fibres that have morphologies that depend on the nature of the chiral alkyl group and the medium in which the compounds aggregate. An inversion of macroscopic helical morphology of the citronellyl compound is observed when compared to analogous 2-methylbutyl chains, which is presumably a result of the stereogenic centre being further away from the core of the molecule. This composition still allows both morphologies to be observed, whereas an achiral compound shows no helicity. The morphology of the fibres also depends on the flexibility at the chain ends of the amphiphilic components, as there is not such an apparently persistent helical morphology for the dihydrocitronellyl derivative as for that prepared from citronellyl chains.


The hallmarks of tethered cord syndrome are a low-lying conus medullaris and a thick filum terminale. In diagnosing the tethered cord syndrome, the thick filum terminale is often defined as that greater than 2 mm in diameter. The cutoff of 2 mm in diameter was derived from myelographic measurements a few decades ago, and the true normal diameter of the filum terminale diameter in children or adults remains unknown. We measured the diameters of the filum terminale in vivo in the operating room on 31 children (age range = 2-14 years; mean age = 5 years) undergoing selective dorsal rhizotomy for spastic cerebral palsy. None of them had clinical evidence of tethered cord syndrome. The conus medullaris and filum terminale were videotaped intraoperatively and images were transferred to an image analyzer; the filum diameters at 10 and 15 mm caudal to the conus medullaris were then measured extraoperatively using the computer graphics system. The diameter of the filum at 10 and 15 mm caudal to the conus was 1,211 +/- 209 and 1,163 +/- 245 microm (mean +/- SD), respectively. In all children except one, the conus medullaris ended above the L2 level. The data indicate that filum terminales greater than 2 mm in diameter in children are abnormally thick.


Most studies on the antiproliferative action of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) were performed in a rat hypertensive remnant kidney model with 5/6 kidney ablation which raised objections about the antihypertensive effect of ACEI and the influence of other antihypertensive drugs administered to remnant kidney control rats. To prevent these objections, a normotensive 4/6 remnant kidney model was elaborated and a subantihypertensive dosage of enalapril was used to evaluate its antiproliferative action. Subtotally nephrectomized rats (Nx) markedly increased the remnant kidney weight during a 4-week period and this rise was prevented by the treatment with enalapril (NxE) (Nx +297+/-35 mg vs. sham-operated +145+/-32 mg, p<0.001; NxE +154+/-35 mg vs. Nx p<0.001). While collagen concentration in the kidney cortex was not increased in sham-operated rats (Sham) in comparison with the control group (Ctrl) at the beginning of the study, the subsequent increase was significant in the Nx group and enalapril did not attenuate this increase (Sham 148+/-5 mg/100 g w.w. vs. Nx 164+/-2 mg/100 g w.w., p<0.01; NxE 161+/-4 mg/100 g w.w. vs. Sham p<0.05). The tubular protein/DNA ratio increase, which was significant in the Nx group, was inhibited by enalapril (Nx 26.2+/-10.5 vs. NxE 15.3+/-2.6, p<0.05). The protein/DNA ratio was much lower in glomeruli, with no significant changes in either the Nx or NxE groups. Serum urea concentrations were slightly higher in the Nx group than in the sham-operated group, but markedly elevated in the NxE group (Nx 10.71+/-0.76 mmol/l vs. Sham 6.10+/-0.33 mmol/l, p<0.001; NxE 28.9+/-2.6 mmol/l vs. Sham p<0.001). Creatinine concentrations in the Nx group were increased in comparison with the sham-operated group and markedly increased in the NxE group (Nx 63.7+/-3.56 micromol/l vs. Sham 37.2+/-2.84 micromol/l, p<0.001; NxE 107.0+/-5.2 micromol/l vs. Sham p<0.001). The clearance of creatinine was lower in the Nx group than in the sham-operated group and was markedly reduced in the NxE group (Nx 0.89+/-0.06 ml/min.g kidney wt. vs. Sham 1.05+/-0.16 ml/min x g kidney wt., p<0.01; NxE 0.58+/-0.029 ml/min x g kidney wt. vs. Sham, p<0.001). Enalapril improved proteinuria in comparison with the Nx group (NxE 5.6+/-0.6 mg/24 h vs. Nx 16.1+/-3.4 mg/24 h, p<0.05). Thus remnant kidney proliferation is substantial even in normotensive rats. It includes both proliferation and collagen accumulation with partial recovery of kidney weight and function, but is accompanied by enhanced proteinuria. Enalapril attenuates the proliferation and decreases proteinuria but prolongs kidney function recovery.


Inappropriate sinus tachycardia is a disease which is relatively rarely found and sometimes difficult to treat. Up to now it has been mostly treated with a β-blocker or verapamil. If this did not work sinus node modulation was considered. Since the relatively new selective IF-stream blocker ivabradine has been approved for the therapy of chronic stable angina pectoris, a new therapeutic option is available. As ivabradine is well tolerated and only few side effects are known, it may become a new therapeutic step between medication and the invasive sinus node modulation. We report the case of a young female patient with inappropriate sinus tachycardia where a sustained therapeutic success was achieved with ivabradine medication as an alternative therapeutic trial after various ineffective medications.


The Nigerian local chickens were grouped on the basis of body size and body weight into Heavy Ecotype (HE) and Light Ecotype (LE). Comparative evaluation of growth traits; Body Weight (BWT), Body Weight Gain (BWG) and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) at 4-weekly intervals (from 0-20 weeks) of HE, LE and their F1 crosses; HE x LE - Main Cross (MCX) and LE x HE - Reciprocal Cross (RCX) were carried out. The total of 214, 142, 190 and 185 day-old chicks of HE, LE, MCX and RCX, respectively were used for the study. The chicks in al l the genetic groups were raised on deep litter pens from 0-20 weeks using standard management procedures. Data were subjected to analysis of variance. Results showed that the HE differed (p 0.05) between the BWT of HE and the crossbred groups as from 8-20 weeks of age. The crossbred groups quickly overcame the initial set backs resulting from maternal/sire-dam interaction effects and grew significantly heavier than the straight bred heavy and light ecotypes during the period, 12-20 weeks of age. FCR showed highly significant (p<0.001) difference among the genetic groups which indicates differences in maintenance requirements. On the whole, results of FCR showed that the local chickens are less efficient in feed utilization.


Māori diagnosed with cancer are more likely to die-and to die sooner-than non-Māori with cancer. If we accept that these inequities are unfair and avoidable, then we need a well-resourced and focused approach to eliminating them for Māori. Closing this gap will require significant action and sustained resourcing; but first, it requires an aspirational objective to enable collective ownership and navigation. At the Cancer Care at a Crossroads conference held in Wellington in early 2019, the wider cancer sector accepted a tabled goal: to achieve equity in cancer survival for Māori by the year 2030. In this viewpoint, we provide rationale for this goal, provide some recommendations for how it might be achieved, and address its likely criticisms.


Block floating-point arithmetic is considered as an alternative to fixed-point and floating-point arithmetic in the implementation of recursive digital filters. Block floating-point implementation of state-space digital structures is shown to have improved signal-to-noise ratio compared to fixed-point implementation and can be designed to be free of overflow. It is shown that the filter cannot support zero input limit cycle oscillations of period higher than one. An architecture suitable for the VLSI implementation of a block floating point co-processor is described.


The incidence rate of Gridhrasi (sciatica) is quite significant as more than three-quarters of the world's population is affected by the disease. It is characterized by the onset of Ruja (pain), Toda (pricking), and Stambha (stiffness), initially in Sphika (gluteal region) and then radiating distally to Kati-Prishtha (low back), Janu (knee), Jangha (thigh) till Pada (feet). The patients suffering from Gridhrasi have restricted movements due to painful limb, affecting the daily routine activities. Aim: To study and evaluate the therapeutic effect of Raktamokshan in the management of Gridhrasi with the modified version of Shrunga. (cupping). Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on twenty patients who had reported for the treatment of Gridhrasi at an Ayurvedic hospital. Raktamokshana was done on Sphik (gluteal region) or Kati (low back) region with the help of 22 no.surgical blades and modified version of shrunga (cupping instrument)in four settings (0, 5th, 10th and 15th day). The sign and symptoms, namely Ruka, Toda, Stambha  were given scores depending on their severity. The patients were also assessed for straight-leg raise (SLR) test. Follow-up was done at an interval of 5 days for three times and the scores were noted down before and after treatment. The scores were analyzed using the Student's t-test. Result: Marked reduction in severity of mean scores of Ruja, Toda, Stambha was seen in the patients after the use of the modified version of shrunga (cupping instrument) for Raktamokshana, which was statistically significant. Conclusions: cupping is the simple and effective treatment (in adjunct to other treatment) for reducing Ruka, Toda, Stambha  in Gridhrasi.


Maximum likelihood is the most common estimation method in structural equation modeling. Standard errors for maximum likelihood estimates are obtained from the associated information matrix, which can be estimated from the sample using either expected or observed information. It is known that, with complete data, estimates based on observed or expected information are consistent. The situation changes with incomplete data. When the data are missing at random (MAR), standard errors based on expected information are not consistent, and observed information should be used. A less known fact is that in the presence of nonnormality, the estimated information matrix also enters the robust computations (both standard errors and the test statistic). Thus, with MAR nonnormal data, the use of the expected information matrix can potentially lead to incorrect robust computations. This article summarizes the results of 2 simulation studies that investigated the effect of using observed versus expected information estimates of standard errors and test statistics with normal and nonnormal incomplete data. Observed information is preferred across all conditions. Recommendations to researchers and software developers are outlined.


This paper describes the design and implementation of MPI-SIM, a library for the execution driven parallel simulation of MPI programs. MPI-LITE, a portable library that supports multithreaded MPI, is also described. MPI-SIM, built on top of MPI-LITE, can be used to predict the performance of existing MPI programs as a function of architectural characteristics, including number of processors and message communication latencies. The simulation models can be executed sequentially or in parallel. Parallel executions of MPI-SIM models are synchronized using a set of asynchronous conservative protocols. MPI-SIM reduces synchronization overheads by exploiting the communication characteristics of the program it simulates. This paper presents validation and performance results from the use of MPI-SIM to simulate applications from the NAS Parallel Benchmark suite. Using the techniques described here, we are able to reduce the number of synchronizations in the parallel simulation as compared with the synchronous quantum protocol and are able to achieve speedups ranging from 3.2-11.9 in going from sequential to parallel simulation using 16 processors on the IBM SP2.


Background: Prolonged oxidative stress leads to apoptosis of keratinocytes and, consequently, results in skin cell damage. Objective: To investigate the in vitro effects of alpha lipoic acid (LA) and lipoic acid loaded calcium citrate nanoparticles (LA loaded CaCitNPs) in terms of cell protection against oxidative stress-induced cellular damage. Methods: HaCaT cells were preincubated with and without LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs before oxidative stress induction by H 2 O 2 . The protective effects of both LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs on HaCaT cells were assessed by the percentage of cell viability, percentage of proliferated cells, type of cell death, and ROS generation. In addition, we evaluated the effect of LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs in regulating expression of the Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) gene. Results: Our result has revealed that both LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs have an effect on increasing cell proliferation. H 2 O 2 increases ROS production and decreases SIRT1 expression levels, whereas LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs pretreatment reverses the situation. The treatment with LA loaded CaCitNPs is more effective than LA. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the cytoprotective effects of LA and LA loaded CaCitNPs against oxidative stress induced human epidermal keratinocyte damage.


In this paper Seattle Public Library designed by OMA/LMN and Sendai Mediatheque designed by Toyo Ito are investigated as specific operational modes when it comes to the relation between institution, organisation and space. These modes suggests fundamentaly different attitudes towards change and the future unknown, and where the spatial design is a key factor. This paper investigates spatial design as a integral part in the shaping of institutional and organisational practices.


The paper presents the research aimed at determining the factors affecting the sense of marital satisfaction of parents of a child with intellectual disability. Special attention has been paid to the way in which the parental role is understood as well as to the parents' description of their child. The research has involved 165 mothers and fathers of children with intellectual disa- bility, aged 23-76. The following methods have been used: the Questionnaire of a Well-matched Couple (KDM-2), the Questionnaire My Child (KMD) and the Questionnaire of Fulfi lling the Parental Role towards a Child with Intellectual Disability (KRRR). The results show that ap- proval of the parental role and a positive way in which the parents describe their child belong to the factors supporting the parents' marital satisfaction.


An integrated use of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery is implemented in this study for the assessment of pine forest condition in Camp John Hay, Baguio City, Philippines. These assessments include: (1) the inspection of distribution of dead trees, (2) trends analysis of Sentinel-derived products, and (3) the generation of anomaly maps. Dead trees were identified using Google Earth Pro imagery – the trees were classified as such if they manifest brown or grey foliage with evident foliage loss. The products used for succeeding analyses are sigma naught VH (σ0VH) and sigma naught VV (σ0VV) backscatter derived from Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8a, 11, and 12, as well as Sentinel-2 derived vegetation indices S2REP (Sentinel-2 Red-Edge Position Index), NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index), NDVI (Normalized Difference Water Index), NDII (Normalized Difference Infrared Index), MSI (Moisture Stress Index), IRECI (Inverted Red-Edge Chlorophyll Index), GNDVI (Green Normalized Difference Water Index), and EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index). Trends in these products were backtracked to identify patterns they exhibit as tree health deteriorates, and to determine which are most robust for early detection of stress in pine trees. From the analysis of slope decline against time, and their corresponding R2 statistic, Sentinel-2 products found to be robust for early stress detection are band 5, followed by equally important GNDVI, NDII, MSI, and bands 2, 3, and 4, then NDVI. A synergistic analysis of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 products showed that NDVI is well-correlated with σ0VV backscatter; hence, they exhibit concurrent decline in trends due to stress. Among Sentinel-1 products, a delayed decline in σ0VH backscatter occurred compared with σ0VV backscatter. These patterns manifested in three-month intervals. A map of high risk and low risk forest areas was generated from the overall average of negative and positive anomalies of vegetation indices. The relative reliability of the map of at-risk vegetation areas was computed based on the count of layer values with valid data per cell, resulting in a maximum relative reliability of 65.3%. This study showed that the integration of Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery is a promising approach in the comprehensive assessment of pine forest condition towards the early detection and monitoring of stress.


Pharmacological treatment is required for almost all cases of atopic dermatitis. All require topical treatment and a sedating antihistamine, while the minority will, in addition, need a more aggressive form of systemic therapy. These modalities are discussed and motivated, with some suggestions on their use.


Abstract For about forty years, age-related differences in episodic-memory tasks have been a major focus of the growing field of cognitive-aging research. Most theoretical approaches invoked to explain such differences are based on a vast research literature consisting mostly of empirical studies, and making relatively little use of formal models of memory. We argue that formal modeling is an invaluable tool in meeting the unique theoretical and methodological challenges of the field. We provide an overview of formal models that address core theoretical issues in memory-and-aging research. These issues are age differences in encoding and retrieval processes, age differences in memory for contextual information, and the interplay of memory with judgment and decision processes. We also discuss areas that could benefit from further formalization. Formal Modeling in Research on Episodic Memory and Aging Older adults typically show lower performance in episodic-memory tasks as compared to younger adults (for reviews, see Light, 2000; Zacks, Hasher, & Li, 2000). The area of cognitive-aging research has grown rapidly in recent years, with one of its chief goals to understand age-related differences in episodic-memory performance. In this article, we argue that formal modeling can help meet this goal. We give a brief overview of the field of aging and episodic memory before reviewing how formal models have been used and how they could further contribute to theoretical advancement in the field. Theories, Methods, and Major Findings of Research on Episodic Memory and Aging Younger adults usually outperform older adults in episodic-memory tasks such as recall and recognition (for a meta-analysis, see Verhaeghen, Marcoen, & Goossens, 1993; for qualitative reviews, see Craik, 2000; Light, 2000; Zacks at al., 2000). In recall tasks, older adults reproduce less of the studied information and commit more intrusion errors than younger adults. In recognition tasks, older adults "are more likely than younger adults to accept as old never-presented items [called foils or lures], especially if those lures share a conceptual, schematic, or perceptual resemblance to the presented items" (Zacks et al., 2000, p. 31 1). A number of theories have been proposed to account for these findings. Among the currently most popular explanations are those that attribute the pattern of age differences to deficits in speed of processing (e.g., Salthouse, 1996), ability to inhibit irrelevant information (e.g., Hasher & Zacks, 1988), working-memory capacity (e.g., Light, Zelinski, & Moore, 1982; Salthouse, 1992), or attentional capacity (e.g., Salthouse, Fristoe. Lineweaver, & Coon, 1995; Anderson, Craik, & Naveh-Benjamin, 1998). Other approaches have sought to locate age-related deficits in encoding or retrieval processes (e.g., Rabinowitz et al., 1982; Schonfield & Robertson, 1966), or attributed age differences in episodic-memory performance to older adults' deficits in processing contextual information (e.g., Bayen, Phelps, & Spaniol, 2000; Kliegl & Lindenberger, 1993; Light et al., 1992), or deficits in recollective processes (e.g., Jennings & Jacoby, 1993). Neurobiological work has suggested that agerelated declines in memory are linked to structural changes in the prefrontal cortex (e.g., Raz et al., 1997) or to changes in brain chemistry (e.g., Volkow et al., 1998). None of these cognitive-aging theories can, in their current form, explain all the data in the literature. The main focus of this paper is on the experimental tradition within cognitive-aging research. This tradition has borrowed theories and experimental methods from the episodic-memory literature in cognitive psychology, which has typically dealt with younger-adult data. This literature is characterized by a higher degree of formalization than the memory-and-aging literature. Thus far only few of the formal models of memory developed in cognitive psychology have been utilized in cognitive-aging research. …


The aggregate demand and supply model (ADAS) is interpreted as a synthesis of the Keynesian and neoclassical models. It uses the ISLM model, without explaining its nature, to derive aggregate demand (AD). It is combined with an aggregate supply (AS) curve to explain price- inflation and output dynamics. This paper argues that neither the AD nor AS curve is conceptually the same as its microeconomic counterpart and ADAS is not a synthesis. In fact ADASimplies that discretionary policy is necessary and that price changes do not perform their traditional negative feedback function.


The growing volume of domestic waste is a particularly visible manifestation of the environmental problems caused by high levels of economic growth and consumption in Ireland, while the effective management of waste is becoming progressively problematic for policy-makers and householders alike. Surveys of public opinion demonstrate a gap between concern for the environment and actions to protect it. However, there has been little consideration of public views of, and behaviour in relation to, the waste sector. An in-depth study of public actions and attitudes towards waste in Ireland was conducted in response to this paucity of information. The research revealed a complex landscape of attitudeaction relationships influenced by factors ranging from personal characteristics to social and institutional contexts. Attention to this complexity by policy makers in Ireland will be essential if the management of household waste is to be improved.


We present mu-zero resonance (MZR) antennas that use an artificial mu-negative (MNG) transmission line (TL). The equivalent circuit for verifying the peculiarity of the MNG TL is derived and analyzed. To operate the MZR antenna properly, the antenna is fed by magnetic coupling. The analysis and design of the MZR antenna are performed according to theory and simulation based on a dispersion diagram and field distribution. The surface current distribution shows that the radiation mechanism of the MZR antenna is essentially identical to that of a small-loop antenna. Applying the novel concept of the MZR antenna, a dual-band MZR antenna using two MZR antennas with different MZR frequencies is proposed. The radiation characteristics of the antenna are simulated and measured at two frequencies. The measured characteristics show agreement with the simulated results. It is confirmed that the characteristics of the MZR antenna, including the efficiency, gain, and fractional bandwidth, are suitable for a multiband antenna.