Crop yields on Alfisols, the most abundant soils in the semi-arid tropics, have remained low and unstable due to aberrant weather and soil-related constraints. With suitable examples from India and West Africa, variations in the amount and distribution of rainfall as well as its intensity are described. The role of soil constraints, such as depth, soil w2048ater storage capacity, particle size distribution, and soil moisture release characteristics in making water available for crop growth on Alfisols, is illustrated. At soil depths below 30 cm in Alfisols the recharge and depletion of soil water occurred on an annual basis whereas, in the upper 30 cm, the process occurred repeatedly with a periodicity determined by the depth, amount, and frequency of rainfall. In the upper 30 cm soil layers with decreasing capillary potential there was a large decrease in the water content, while in the lower layers this decrease was considerably less. The effect of short-term intraseasonal droughts on crop moisture status was shown to differ depending on soil depth. The timing and intensity of water stress is an important factor in assessing the crop response to drought on Alfisols. Studies conducted at ICRISAT Center showed that crop water-use efficiency on Alfisols could be improved through appropriate management practices, including the selection of suitable genotypes, crops, and cropping systems.


The correlation between organic photoconductor (OPC) thickness and several printer parameters and OPC aging are theoretically analyzed. We found that linewidth changes from varying the charge transport layer (CTL) thickness are analogous to those from adjusting several printer parameters. Thus, the same linewidths and print quality can be achieved by appropriately adjusting those parameters, provided that lateral motion of photogenerated charge carriers during their transit from the charge generation layer to the CTL surface is negligibly small. In particular, it is found that the laser power is required to increase exponentially with respect to an increase in CTL thickness in order to maintain the same linewidths, and the power sensitivity is inversely proportional to the quantum efficiency. In addition, it is found that, under certain conditions, varying the CTL thickness is analogous to adjusting several print engine parameters.


The sort of public administration needed to escalate the growth rate may not necessarily be the one that tackles deep poverty, seeks to remove inequality, tackles corruption, fights criminalization of politics, or ensures speedy justice. It is unlikely that a single design of the administrative machinery will fill all bills. One needs to be bold and innovative in designing special purpose instrumentalities, some of which may apparently be inconsistent with one another. For instance, further de-regulation may be required to foster economic growth, and the state may need to withdraw from some of the commercial activities that it is currently engaged in. At the same time, the state may need to devise measures to more effectively regulate certain sectors while pumping more money to improve the infrastructure, alleviate poverty and remove inequalities.


Spreadsheets can be large and complex and their maintenance and comprehension difficult to end-users. Large numbers of cells, complex formulae and missing documentation can impede the understanding of a spreadsheet. Comprehension assesses different levels of a spreadsheet according to a specific maintenance task, ranging from single formulae over sets of cells to complex structural patterns. These levels of abstraction are subsumed under the term cognitive unit. XVIZIT helps end-users in maintaining and comprehending spreadsheets. It guides them through a spreadsheet model: Roles of cells and sheets, similar patterns and various concepts of modularity can be explored. It uses modularization algorithms to provide conceptional decompositions of a spreadsheet model, such as equivalence classes or data modules. XVIZIT's slice visualizations ease the evaluation of corrective modifications by showing the dependant cells. Furthermore, XVIZIT provides a number of complexity measures allowing end-users to estimate the effort to comprehend and maintain a spreadsheet.


For pt.I see ibid., vol.9, no.5, p.721 (1976). The effect of traces of macromolecular additives on the stability of laminar flow has been studied in pipes of radii 0.85, 0.88, 1.60, 2.00, 2.20, 2.70, and 3.00 mm at temperatures ranging from 15-35 degrees C. Drag reduction in fully-developed turbulence and pressure fluctuations during the transition from laminar to turbulent flow have also been studied. Most experiments have been done with 250 ppm polyacrylamide solutions. Drag reduction occurred whether or not the stability was affected, the amount increasing the decreasing pipe diameter. Both the amount of destabilization (or stabilization as the case may be) and the amount of drag reduction decreased as the temperature was increased. It might be concluded that the factors affecting drag also affected the stability. Pressure fluctuations were least in the solution when the flow was destabilized and most when it was stabilized. A phenomenological theory involving known molecular properties is put forward to account for the results.


Purpose: Oral severe dysplasia is a high grade precancerous lesion for which there is limited knowledge on effective treatment and outcome. The Canadian Optically-guided approach for Oral Lesions Surgical (COOLS) Trial, funded by Terry Fox Research Institute, is an ongoing Phase III clinical trial assessing the clinical, molecular and cost-efficacy of fluorescence visualization (FV)-guided surgery to reduce local recurrence of high-risk oral lesions: 140 patients will have high-grade lesions, the rest invasive cancer. One critical gap, identified by COOLS' knowledge translation component, is the lack of information on treatment practices and outcomes for patients with primary severe dysplasia outside of the trial. The purpose of this study is to establish an evidence base about variation in treatment and outcomes. Methods: We are extracting primary data on practice variation and patient outcomes from available data sources in the study sites across Canada (chart review, pathology reports and cancer registries, reports of cohort databases). This information will be supplemented via other knowledge translation methods including literature review and knowledge synthesis, and key stakeholder interviews and focus groups. Results: We report here on file review of 106 primary oral severe dysplasia in longitudinal follow-up in British Columbia (BC) for outcome outside of the COOLs trial. Follow-up was standardized for this cohort; treatment was at discretion of the attending clinician. There was considerable variability in treatment. When treated, the lesion tended to be excised conservatively before (2004), when FV began to be used in BC clinics, but wider margins were more common thereafter. When severe dysplasia were not treated (n=55), prognosis was poor: 5-year progression rate was 50.1% (31.2%-63.9%); when the lesion was removed conservatively (before 2004, n=7), the rate was worse (58.3%, Cl: 0%-84.1.1%)), and when the lesion was more aggressively removed (after 2004, n=42), the rate was significantly improved (9.4%, Cl: 0%-32.3% P = 0.002). Conclusion: A knowledge translation project turned up research-to-practice variation in the treatment of severe oral dysplasia and an association with patient outcomes. Extension of this study to all COOLS sites will assess whether such variation in surgical practice for severe oral dysplasias, and associated outcome effects, is widespread. We support greater attention to these issues, and dialogue and deliberation among key stakeholders to establish consensus about best treatment of high-grade oral dysplasias and priorities for further research. Citation Format: Miriam P. Rosin, Kitty K. Corbett, Huijun Jiang, Tarinee Lubpairee, Catherine F. Poh, Lewei Zhang. Variation in treatment of severe oral dysplasia: Knowledge translation in the COOLS trial points to a pressing concern. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3256. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3256


With the increasing prevalence and demand of large scale cloudcomputing environment, a researcher has to draw more attentiontowards the services provided by the CLOUD. As the access tothe server is increasing, centralized and distributed computingarchitecture will produce bottlenecks data which affect thequality of cloud computing services and bring the huge supportto users. In this paper we are going to propose certain vitalaspects such as memory utilization, storage capacity to check theefficiency and performance of various clouds in cloudcomputing environment. This is based upon the static data. Theproposed mechanism enables users to access memories invarious systems depending on the predefined criteria. Selectionmethod for accessing the memory of a resource is properlyintroduced in this paper. Our evaluation results show that theaggregation of various clouds is effective in indicating the betterefficiency and also to reduce network traffic sent over cloudnetworks.


Strophanthine (5 X 10(-7) - 1 X 10(-5) g/ml) applied to the epicardium of the right and left auricles of an isolated frog heart produced negative chronotropic and positive inotropic effects. Specific effects of strophanthine developed during complete blockade of alpha-, beta- and M-cholinoreceptors of the heart. Upon isolated blockade or stimulating of the receptors indicated, the effects of strophanthine were shown to be changed. Attempts are made to prove the existence in the auricles and ventricles of the heart of glycoside inhibitory and stimulating receptors that form the constellation system of reciprocal relationships, with the mediator receptors, with this system participating in the triggering mechanism of heart membranes.


This is an application of AHP method. Being useful for dealing with multiple criteria, it is broadly used in research. especially as the multi-attribute decision method, and also good for solving marketing problems like as resource allocation and product/service choice. Therefore, the application in this paper will be a model for decision making of tourism policy priority.


Work is progressing on monopropellant thrusters for use as an attitude control system for nanosatellites (satellites whose mass is under 10 kilograms). The thrust range for these microthrusters is on the order of millinewtons. Systems using both hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide are being developed which will offer higher performance than currently available thrusters for nanosatellites. Complete thruster systems using both propellant combinations have been built and are undergoing evaluation. Hot firings are currently being conducted. The microthruster system will be tested on an upcoming nanosatellite to be launched at the end of this year. These thrusters will offer an inexpensive, high performance option for attitude control for nanosatellites or fine pointing control for small satellites.


A measure of folding characterizes aspects of the instantaneous organization of a polymer chain in space. For three-dimensional polymers (D = 3), one such measure is the mean overcrossing number. An intuitively similar property, the radial intersection number, has been proposed as a tool to characterize "folding features" in two-dimensional polymers (D = 2). In this work, we show rigorously that these measures are indeed related and that they can be derived as particular cases within a single, unified formulation. The present approach provides an analytical expression for a measure of folding complexity that can be applied to generic D-dimensional polymers. In the case D = 2, we show results for models derived from experimental structures by using optimized multidimensional scaling transformations for data compression.


Class imbalance tends to cause inferior performance in data mining learners. Evolutionary sampling is a technique which seeks to counter this problem by using genetic algorithms to evolve a reduced sample of a complete dataset to train a classification model. Evolutionary sampling works to remove noisy and duplicate instances so that the sampled training data will produce a superior classifier. We propose this novel technique as a method to handle severe class imbalance in data mining. This paper presents our research into the the use of evolutionary sampling with C4.5 decision trees and compares the technique's performance with random undersamp ling.


CONTEXT.—
Grant Medical College and Sir J. J. Hospital, Mumbai (India), have a long tradition of clinical autopsies, wherein autopsy records have existed since 1884. The old autopsy records from 1884 to 1966 were discovered during a refurbishing drive of the pathology department in 2007.

OBJECTIVE.—
To know the relative causes of deaths in Sir J. J. Hospital Mumbai from 1884 through 1966. To determine the rate of antemortem and postmortem discrepancies in the prehistology and posthistology era.

DESIGN.—
The reports of clinical autopsies in the archives of Department of Pathology from January 1884 to December 1966 were reviewed. Data such as sex, age, and clinical and autopsy diagnoses were collected, based on the autopsy records of 13 024 patients.

RESULTS.—
Of 13 024 patients, 10 197 (78%) were male and 2827 (22%) were female. Most deaths (55%) involved individuals ages 21 to 40 years. Infections were the cause of death in 7281 of 13 024 patients (56%), followed by cardiovascular diseases in 2138 (16%) and neoplasms in 963 (7%). The overall disagreement between clinical diagnoses and postmortem findings was 4105 of 13 024 patients (31%). Discrepancy between antemortem and postmortem diagnoses in the prehistology era (before 1950) was found in 3053 of 8951 patients (34%), whereas in the posthistology era (after 1950), discrepancy was found in 1019 of 4073 patients (25%).

CONCLUSIONS.—
Historical collections provide baseline data against which modern observations can be compared. Such collections also offer a window on the past and often provide a less biased account of events. Historical collections of museum materials such as ours are valuable because they can serve as potential biorepository materials to facilitate future research. Apart from providing reliable data on the occurrence of diseases, the autopsy has an important role in providing information about conditions that are no longer prevalent. Medical institutes possessing old autopsy records, wet specimens, paraffin blocks, and slides should preserve such historical collections.


BackgroundIndividuals with type 2diabetes mellitus (T2DM) commonly present with gastro intestinal symptoms. Exact pathophysiology behind these symptoms is not elucidated. Previous studies reported the role of adrenoceptors on gut motility. However, no study has been conducted to observe whether adrenergic beta receptor (ADRB) 2 and 3 gene polymorphism could influence the gut motility in T2DM. Materials and Methods:Three hundred T2DM patients and 200 age and sex matched healthy controls were enrolled for this study. Participants were subjected to lactulose hydrogen breath test for estimation of orocecal transit time (OCTT). To carry out polymorphism study, buffy coat of EDTA blood was used for DNA isolation followed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results:In this study, the frequency of C allele as well as CC genotype of ADRB3 gene polymorphism and A allele as well as AA genotype of ADRB2 gene polymorphism were significantly higher in patients than controls and was associated with increased risk for T2DM. On comparison of gut motility, OCTT was found to be significantly prolonged (p<0.01) in individuals with CC genotype compared to TT or CT genotype in ADRB3 polymorphism and AA genotype, compared to AG and GG genotype in case of ADRB2 polymorphism. Combined effect of both adrenoceptors on gut motility revealed that individuals having AG or AA genotype in combination with other genotypes had significantly prolonged OCTT. Conclusion:It could be concluded that beta adrenoceptor gene polymorphism has significant role on regulation of gut motility in T2DM.


Phenolic acid decarboxylase from Bacillus subtilis (BsPAD) catalyses the decarboxylation of phenolic acids such as coumaric acid to give vinyl phenols, which are of interest as possible polymer precursors and flavour/fragrance compounds. The structure of the Tyr19Ala mutant of BsPAD has been solved in complex with coumaric acid. In the active site, the substrate carboxylate is bound by Tyr11 and Tyr13, and the phenolic hydroxyl by the NE atom of Arg41. A comparison of the mutant complex with the wild-type apoenzyme reveals that the β1–β2 loop, running from Tyr11 to Ala19, closes over the active site in the presence of substrate, shielding it from bulk solvent. The complex structure, in conjunction with an activity study of point mutants of BsPAD, provides support for a mechanism for PADs, proposed by Mancheno and co-workers for the homologue from Lactobacillus plantarum [Proteins, 2010, 78, 1662–1676]. In this mechanism, a quinone methide intermediate results from deprotonation of the phenolic hydroxyl of the substrate by Glu64, assisted by Arg41. Decarboxylation of the substrate is effected through binding of the carboxylate by Tyr11 and Tyr13, the latter being brought into contact with the substrate as a result of the movement of the β1–β2 loop on substrate binding.


Introduction Alveolar bone grafting aims to restore bony continuity of the alveolus and provide optimal periodontal support for teeth adjacent to the cleft. We created a survey of cleft surgeons to assess the current standard of care regarding this procedure. Methods A multiple choice survey was implemented using Qualtrics software and emailed to a list of 708 surgeons from the ACPA membership directory. Correlation between various provider factors and treatment practices was assessed with Fisher's exact test and likelihood ratio tests. Results The response rate was 17.5%. Eighty-seven percent of providers preferred to perform grafts prior to secondary canine eruption while 10% favored before central incisor eruption. Eighty-one percent favored palatal expansion prior to bone grafting. Wide variability existed regarding the time to initiate postoperative orthodontics; 43% waited 4 to 6 months. Sixty-four percent of surgeons now utilize cone beam CT to assess graft take. The majority of respondents utilized cancellous bone autograft (92%) from the anterior iliac crest (97%) as graft material. Seventy percent used three or more modalities for post-operative pain control management. Early career surgeons (0–5 years) appeared more likely to use non-autologous materials (p < .01) for grafting. Conclusion Alveolar bone grafting prior to secondary canine eruption remains the most common strategy but other protocols are employed. Surgeons utilize multiple modalities for radiographic evaluation and most often use autologous cancellous bone as the primary grafting material. There is no true consensus on the perioperative timing and sequencing of orthodontic manipulation while principles of multimodal perioperative pain control appear widely accepted.


General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas revolutionized global space access with the introduction of their respective commercial Atlas I and Delta II rockets. 12Developed with support from the Air Force as an anchor tenant, the commercial Atlas and Delta rockets evolved from their legacy ancestors. Through continuous innovation, these early commercial vehicles evolved to the current Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles that provide the backbone of America's national security and science space access. Through numerous acquisitions and mergers, both of these world class rocket families are now part of United Launch Alliance (ULA). The long history of innovation that resulted in these vehicles continues today at ULA, ensuring that the Atlas and Delta families will continue to provide reliable, cost-effective space transportation for decades to come. Ongoing development of common manufacturing and processing, an improved RS-68A, and GPS metric tracking will provide enhanced customer support in the next few years. Currently in preliminary development, the Advanced Common Evolved Stage (ACES) and human rating will substantially enhance ULA's ability to support its customer needs. With conceptual development of partial booster reuse, orbital refueling, long-duration stages, and long-duration cryogenic propulsion stages, ULA is setting the stage to provide revolutionary space transportation in the years ahead.


Differentiable physics enables efficient gradient-based optimizations of neural network (NN) controllers. However, existing work typically only delivers NN controllers with limited capability and generalizability. We present a practical learning framework that outputs unified NN controllers capable of tasks with significantly improved complexity and diversity. To systematically improve training robustness and efficiency, we investigated a suite of improvements over the baseline approach, including periodic activation functions, and tailored loss functions. In addition, we find our adoption of batching and an Adam optimizer effective in training complex locomotion tasks. We evaluate our framework on differentiable mass-spring and material point method (MPM) simulations, with challenging locomotion tasks and multiple robot designs. Experiments show that our learning framework, based on differentiable physics, delivers better results than reinforcement learning and converges much faster. We demonstrate that users can interactively control soft robot locomotion and switch among multiple goals with specified velocity, height, and direction instructions using a unified NN controller trained in our system. Code is available at https://github.com/erizmr/Complex-locomotion-skill-learning-via-differentiable-physics.


Background: Buprenorphine is an effective treatment for opioid use disorder, yet some persons are concerned with its "alternative use" (i.e., any use unintended by the prescriber). There is limited evidence on the factors associated with alternative use of buprenorphine (AUB); in this study, we examined correlates of recent (past 6 months) AUB. Methods: Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze survey data from a multi-site, cross-sectional study of people who use drugs (PWUD) (N = 334) in Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; and Providence, Rhode Island. Results: One-fifth (20%) of the sample reported recent AUB. In adjusted analyses, significant negative correlates of AUB were female gender (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.48, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.24–0.95), recent emergency room visit (aOR 0.45, 95% CI 0.23–0.89), and recent injection drug use (aOR 0.41, 95% CI 0.19–0.88). Significant positive correlates were alternative use of other prescription opioids (aOR 8.32, 95% CI 4.22–16.38), three or more overdoses in the past year (aOR 3.74, 95% CI 1.53–9.17), recent buprenorphine use as prescribed (aOR 2.50, 95% CI 1.12–5.55), and recent residential rehabilitation treatment (aOR 3.71, 95% CI 1.50–9.16). Conclusions: Structural and behavioral correlates of AUB may help identify PWUD at high risk of overdose with unmet treatment needs.


The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Tritium Systems Group has developed and fabricated an Oxidative Tritium Decontamination System (OTDS), which is designed to reduce tritium surface contamination on various components and items. The system is configured to introduce gaseous ozone into a reaction chamber containing tritiated items that require a reduction in tritium surface contamination. Tritium surface contamination (on components and items in the reaction chamber) is removed by chemically reacting elemental tritium to tritium oxide via oxidation, while purging the reaction chamber effluent to a gas holding tank or negative pressure HVAC system. Implementing specific concentrations of ozone along with catalytic parameters [1], the system is able to significantly reduce surface tritium contamination on an assortment of expendable and non-expendable items. This paper will present the results of various experimentation involving employment of this system [2].


Is the integration of occupational pension regulations across the Canadian provinces feasible? In this paper, we assess the proposal for harmonization made by the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities (CAPSA) by comparing it to the EU's successful integration of member states' pension regulations. We argue that CAPSA's initiative failed both because regulatory diversity was defined as a fundamental problem and because the regulations that serve social policy goals were not protected from integration. We suggest that occupational pension integration in Canada would be feasible if provincial governments largely excluded rules on benefits and relied primarily on the mutual recognition of regulations.


Abstract: Cabassous centralis (northern naked-tailed armadillo) is a small armadillo with a slender tail. The distinctive tail has widely spaced, thin plates that are gray-pink in color. This fossorial armadillo occurs in diverse tropical habitats and has a distributional range from southern Mexico, through Central America, and into northern South America (Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador). C. centralis is listed as "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and is rare everywhere.


Feedback-feedforward stabilizers for linear neutral delay-differential systems are proposed. Explicit conditions under which an adequate compensator yields a desired closed-loop characteristic polynomial are given. The relation between realizability properties such as causality of the compensator and structural properties of the system are also described. An example is provided to illustrate the design technique.


In his article, The Hypostatic Union: How did Jesus Function? [EQ 65:4 (1993), 311–327], Roger Helland has focused helpfully on the humanity of Jesus. But in declaring that Jesus performed his mighty deeds as a man empowered by the Spirit and thereby functioned as a model of faith for believers, he has raised questions about the incarnation and Jesus' role in relation to his people; thus Helland is led to a reduced Christology and a dubious spirituality focused on the emulation of Jesus.
In response, it is argued that certain key aspects of Chalcedonian Christology provide a satisfactory explanation of the human and the divine inJesus by stressing the unity of the person. Furthermore, the doctrine of imago Dei and Christ's atoning work suggest spirituality is based in forigiveness and reconciliation and the church's mission is the proclamation of the victory of the gospel in the name of Jesus.


Recent advances in dermatology and related fields have brought new answers to some old questions and new treatment options for some traditionally vexing diseases of the skin. This review focuses on several important reports of the past year, including progress in the understanding of pathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of some of the most difficult dermatologic maladies.

Since the discovery of its association with human immunodeficiency virus infection, Kaposi's sarcoma (1) has remained one of the most puzzling entities in the cutaneous repertoire of patients infected with HIV. An exhausting array of potential aetiological agents has been proposed.1 Until recently, even the basic categorisation of the condition (malignancy, reactive process, infection) has remained uncertain. Reports of Kaposi's sarcoma in homosexual men negative for HIV,2 coupled with the observation that among patients positive for HIV Kaposi's sarcoma was more common in homosexual men than in injecting drug users,3 led to the suspicion that the condition was sexually transmitted, presumably by a virus distinct from but often transmitted with HIV.

Fig 1
HIV associated (epidemic) Kaposi's sarcoma

During the past year, several reports have emerged documenting the discovery of herpesvirus-like DNA sequences within Kaposi's sarcoma lesions.4 5 6 The DNA sequences (sometimes referred to as KS330(233) or KSHV) have been identified by polymerase chain reaction and by Southern blot hybridisation. These bits of DNA have been discovered in tissue from the lesions of patients with epidemic (HIV associated) Kaposi's sarcoma as well as classic Kaposi's sarcoma (on the legs of immunocompetent elderly men of Mediterranean descent) and African endemic Kaposi's sarcoma.5 The additional finding of similar sequences in tissue from some lymphomas in patients infected with HIV7 and in Kaposi's sarcoma from homosexual men negative for HIV6 lends support to the hypothesis that a novel group of …


The aim of this study, whose theoretical framework is based on Bandura's social cognitive theory, was to investigate the effectiveness of including a metacognitive approach in teaching expressivity at the piano. Questions addressed the perceived effect of metacognition by investigating the processes allowing young pianists to elicit an expressive musical idiom through the use of aural modeling and esthetic and stylistic mental representations, by exploring the mechanisms triggering the translation from felt emotions to expressive performance, and by assessing the resulting overall pianistic performance. A case study design was employed. Five intermediate piano students were recruited. Data were collected through teachers' questionnaires, adjudicators' assessments, students' interviews, students' diaries, and students' performance recordings. Findings highlighted the central role played by aural modeling. The esthetic and stylistic mental representations in the metacognitive process allowed young pianists to elicit an expressive musical idiom through a mental conversion process. The constructs of aural modeling and of esthetic and stylistic mental representations, along with that of musical phraseology, appeared to function both independently and in conjunction with each other. Results also indicated a positive influence of the above constructs on the overall performance of young pianists.


Vascular hyperplasia after vascular trauma is one of the difficult problems in clinical treatment. Nowadays, there is no effective treatment for vascular hyperplasia. Previous studies have shown that integrinβ1 andβ3 activity play an important role in vascular hyperplasia. Kindlin-2 has been shown to modulate integrinβ1 andβ3 activity in cancer. Therefore, in this study, we hope to explore the relationship between Kindlin-2 and vascular hyperplasia. We overexpressed or knocked down Kindlin-2 by adenovirus. The results showed that Kindlin-2 overexpression could regulate integrinβ1 andβ3 activity through FAK-PIK3 signaling pathways ex vivo and in vivo, thereby affecting the proliferation and migration of VSMC, and then it causes the consequences of vascular hyperplasia. Therefore, Our results show that Kindlin-2 may be a potential target for the treatment of vascular hyperplasia.


Georgian Parliament adopted the law on Patients' Rights in 2000. The Georgian legislation on Patients' rights covers most of the universal European principles of patients' rights. The overall purpose was to determine the level of physicians' knowledge and understanding of patient's rights from the point of physicians' view. 200 physicians from 12 medical institutions were surveyed by method of interview. During the process of surveying the respondents mostly indicate to necessity of expanded information of patients in terms of payment for medical services, information dealing with test results, diagnosis and treatment, prognosis of disease. According to physician's view, the patients are less informed that reflects in delayed visit to physician. Data from the surveyed physicians shows that one of the most significant problems is related to informed consent on medical manipulations. As it was revealed most of them did not require informed consent during their practice. The authors of study come to a decision, that the need to adopt new instruments for protection of patients' rights during and after medical care and elimination of any violence of rights is of the highest importance and one of the main priorities for national health care.


Abstract Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are invading many areas globally and impacting biodiversity and economies in their non‐native range. Thus, wild pigs are often targeted for eradication efforts. Age‐ and sex‐specific body measurements are important for informing these eradication efforts because they reflect body condition, resource availability, and fecundity, which are common indicators of population trajectory. However, body mass is often difficult to collect, especially on large individuals that require specialized equipment or multiple people to weigh. Measurements that can be rapidly taken by a single land or wildlife manager on any size wild pig without aid from specialized equipment would be beneficial if they accurately infer wild pig body mass. Our goals were to assess whether morphometric measurements could accurately predict wild pig body mass, and to provide tools to directly input these measures and estimate wild pig body mass. Using linear models, we quantified the relationship between body mass and morphometric measurements (i.e., body length, chest girth, ear length, eye to snout length, hindfoot length, shoulder length, and tail length) from a subset (n = 102) of wild pigs culled at the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Mississippi, USA. We evaluated separate models for each individual morphometric measurement. We then used the model coefficients to develop equations to predict wild pig body mass. We validated these equations predicting body mass of 1592 individuals collected across eight areas in Australia, Guam, and the USA for cross‐validation. Each developed equation remained accurate when cross‐validated across regions. Body length, chest girth, and shoulder length were the morphometrics that best predicted wild pig body mass. Our analyses indicated it is possible to use the presented equations to infer wild pig body mass from simple metrics.


Exploitation of transboundary oil and gas on continental shelves may cause conflicts between or among States concerned due to the physical character of these resources. As oil and gas are fluid, exploitation of such a transboundary oil field by one side may affect other parties in other jurisdictions. However, there is no universal international legal regime on the issue. This article tries to find the international legal regime governing such resources through analysing UN Assembly's resolutions, UNCLOS, international judicial opinions, bilateral agreements and ILC activities relating to transboundary natural resources. As a result of this study, it seems that each coastal State has an inherent sovereign right on its part of the transboundary oil and gas deposit, but this right is not unlimited. Each state involved with the deposit has a duty to cooperate with other states-through information exchange, consultation, and negotiation. Furthermore, the state has an obligation to refrain from unilateral action when there is a possibility of causing irrevocable damage to the interests of the other states.


Pure amylase was isolated from pancreata and parotid glands of the baboon, an animal which has a serum amylase level and renal clearance of amylase (C(Am)) similar to man. After bolus injection, both pancreatic and salivary amylase rapidly disappeared from the serum in a monoexponential fashion with a mean serum half-time of approximately 83 min. Only about 24% of the amylase cleared from the serum appeared in the urine indicating that the majority of amylase was removed from the serum by an extraurinary mechanism. The C(Am) by the kidney was constant over a wide range of serum amylase levels and the ratio of C(Am)/C(In), which averaged 3.0%, was not influenced by mannitol diuresis. This suggests that the renal excretion of amylase results from glomerular filtration without appreciable tubular reabsorption. Pancreatic amylase was consistently cleared more rapidly by the kidney than was the baboon's endogenous amylase while salivary amylase was consistently cleared less rapidly than endogenous amylase. THE FINDINGS IN THIS STUDY PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO SEVERAL OF THE FOLLOWING CLINICALLY OBSERVED PHENOMENA: (a) the short serum half-time of amylase accounts for the transient nature of serum amylase elevations in pancreatitis; (b) the extra-urinary removal of amylase accounts for the maintenance of relatively normal amylase levels in uremia; and (c) the more rapid renal clearance of pancreatic amylase compared to salivary amylase may explain the disproportionate elevation of the urinary amylase excretion rate relative to the serum amylase level in acute pancreatitis.


The article presents an analysis of visual data — photos posted in the public domain on the Internet — to characterize social and cultural events in libraries. The article studies libraries of the Volga Region. The author compares dominant types of structuring photographic images. Among the visible vectors of the work on organizing social and cultural events in libraries, there are the appeal to staging methods (from holding library events on the stage sites of culture palaces to using "literary" costumes by the library staff or offering those costumes to readers), the search for symbols for library space marking easily "readable" by the widest audience, the creation of a gaming environment, the desire to go beyond the library walls, the positioning of the library as a prominent member of the local community, participant of festivals and initiator of special celebrations. The article considers the means of adaptation to the conditions of work in the open urban space, focused on inclusion in the routes of movement of the local population, regardless of the weather, on attracting attention to the activities of libraries, on creation of an attractive image of the library. Among the attributes of cultural practices represented in the photographs, the author distinguishes musical, ritual and culinary components, and workshops aimed to develop manual skills, writing, creativity, including non-verbalized. The hypothesis that this kind of activity actualizes sensory, tactile, emotional, social skills of library audience is put forward. This setting is interpreted as a desire to fill the shortage of such skills among the readers of the screen era. At the same time, the book as a text is shifted to the periphery of the frame.


An immunohistochemical study analyzing distributions of β‐subunit human chorionic gonadotropin (βHCG), human placental lactogen (HPL), placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP), and monoclonal anti‐cytokeratin (PKK1) was undertaken to determine whether the reactivity of these antigens might assist in the differential diagnosis of molar and non‐molar hydropic placentas. A total of 16 complete hydatidiform moles, 15 partial hydatidiform moles, 12 hydropic abortuses and 39 non‐hydropic placentas with gestational age ranging from 4 to 40 weeks was examined. In both the complete and partial moles, many syncytiotrophoblasts stained for βHCG, HPL, PLAP and PKK1 although the staining intensity of βHCG in the partial moles was weak compared with the complete moles. The staining patterns in the hydropic abortuses were almost the same as those in the normal first trimester placentas and had no distinct features from the partial moles. Trophoblastic hyperplasia is an essential feature in differentiating partial moles from hydropic abortuses. With regard to the immunostaining patterns of these antibodies, there was no significant difference to enable delineation between partial and complete moles, or between a hydropic abortus and a partial mole. Monoclonal anti‐cytokeratin was most sensitive for trophoblasts, but less specific for intermediate trophoblasts than HPL. Although an immunohistochemical study using antibodies against βHCG, HPL, PLAP and PKK1 is very useful for characterizing various trophoblasts, it is considered that an immunohistochemical study may not be a suitable tool for the differential diagnosis of molar and non‐molar hydropic placentas.


Inadequate health literacy affects 9 out of 10 English speaking Americans creating substantial barriers that contribute to disparities within the health care context. In adults, health illiteracy is associated with increased emergency room visits and difficulty managing chronic disease. While this relationship is established for adults, the effect on pediatric patients is not well studied. Through review of currently published studies, this thesis will examine the hypothesis that low parental health literacy increases adverse outcomes in children. Gaining a better understanding of this relationship will illuminate the necessity for supportive programs to supplement patient care. Lack of a cohesive definition and measuring tool of health literacy are pivotal aspects of the current challenges in this field of research. Ultimately, discussion and collaboration amongst health care professionals, policy makers, organizations, patients and communities will lead to advancements to reduce health illiteracy in caregivers creating healthier futures for American children.


In four cases of retrosternal dislocation of the clavicle, clinical examination was inconclusive and the diagnosis was best made by x-ray laminography. Three joints were reduced and stabilized surgically. In each case the capsule and articular structures remained attached to the manubrium and the denuded inner clavicle lay well behind the sternum. Varying methods of fixation were employed, and motion was begun in six weeks in each instance. Recovery was complete in a few months.


In my first year as a high school English teacher, I remember one distinct practice revision I needed to make early in my first month of teaching: my practice of providing feedback on students' writing. As a novice teacher of high school writers, I had set the goal of providing students with effective feedback to reflect on and use as a springboard for future writing so they could develop as hopeful, skillful writers. However, my first attempt fell short of this goal because I had provided an overabundance of feedback, which proved to be overwhelming for students. Mindful of this outcome, I set an intention to learn strategic ways of providing concise, yet comprehensive, feedback so students could grow as writers in my classroom. I wanted students to have hope while writing and be confident in their potentials to experience growth in their writing processes.That year, I had three classes of seniors taking a composition course for college credit. They had multiple summer writing assignments to complete, and when I collected them I was determined to give the most extensive and helpful feedback I could. I spent hours on each paper providing all-inclusive feedback-detailed marginal notes on every page, endnotes on the last page, and summative notes on the performance assessment rubric. Not only did I respond to students' ideas, but I also corrected every grammatical error on every page. I covered every ounce of every page in green pen.What I know now, and quickly learned from my students then, was that with feedback, less can certainly be more. When I returned the graded papers to my students, I saw despair in their eyes. I saw tears welling up and palms hitting foreheads and desktops. And then I heard, "Are you kidding me? I am a GOOD writer! This is insane!" This comment came from a student who had received a B+ on her assignment. Her paper had been strong and did not need much revision to move into the "A range," which I had written in my endnote to her; however, with all of the comments, arrows, and editing symbols decorating her paper in green throughout, I doubt she had even seen that.Another hand intentionally waved in my face. "Are you a hard grader? Because I have never gotten a paper back like this before . . . IN . . . MY . . . LIFE!" And then the student's foot began to tap nervously on the floor while his eyes looked up at me with disdain and disapproval.My students were outraged, and with good reason. I needed to remedy this, so I asked my students: What sort of feedback do you think would be most helpful to you in improving your writing skills this year? I asked myself, How can I be the "hope creator" I aim to be?What follows is a combination of what I have learned from my students as a high school English teacher and what I have learned as a researcher from speaking with teachers and high school and college students over the past five years about what sort of feedback has been most helpful in students' development as writers. The research question that frames this work is: What type of feedback is most effective in secondary students' development as hopeful and competent writers? Through interviews, focus groups, and surveys of students and teachers, I gained insight into this inquiry. I used open coding when examining the data and looked for overlapping themes in responses. Six main categories of strategies emerged, which I have since shared in professional development (PD) sessions with writing teachers. The ELA teachers who have employed these strategies with their students have also informed the refinement of these strategies.When I provide professional development on robust practices in teaching writing through a strengths-based approach, one of the first goals teachers articulate is they want to learn how to provide effective feedback on students' writing: feedback that students will appreciate and use in their revision processes. In professional learning communities, we discuss what types of feedback strategies they have found effective and what types have fallen short. …


The hippocampal dentate gyrus is an important relay conveying sensory information from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus proper. During exploration, the dentate gyrus has been proposed to act as a pattern separator. However, the dentate gyrus also shows structured activity during immobility and sleep. The properties of these activity patterns at cellular resolution, and their role in hippocampal-dependent memory processes have remained unclear. Using dual-color in-vivo two-photon Ca2+ imaging, we show that in immobile mice dentate granule cells generate sparse, synchronized activity patterns associated with entorhinal cortex activation. These population events are structured and modified by changes in the environment; and they incorporate place- and speed cells. Importantly, they recapitulate population patterns evoked during self-motion. Using optogenetic inhibition during immobility, we show that granule cell activity during immobility is required to form dentate gyrus-dependent spatial memories. These data suggest that memory formation is supported by dentate gyrus replay of population codes of the current environment.


AIM
  This paper is a report of a study of illuminating the meaning of 'learning to live with diabetes' 3 years after being diagnosed.

BACKGROUND
  A changed situation, for example, in relation to living with diabetes, raises a need to understand. How time for experience contributes to this learning process for people living with diabetes is not yet well understood. It would therefore seem valuable to ask people, who have had diabetes over a similar length of time, to narrate their experience in relation to daily life situations in order to understand better how learning is established.

DESIGN
  The study has a qualitative design.

METHODS
  A life world approach was used, with interviews being conducted with 13 people who had been diagnosed with diabetes 3 years earlier. Data were collected in 2007, and analyses were conducted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method.

FINDINGS
  How a person experiences the physical body was found to be crucial in the learning process. If the body with its signals is understood it can be a tool for experiencing and understanding the world and oneself. Feeling insecure about one's own needs, and not trusting or understanding bodily signs, made participants dependent on others to make decisions for them.

CONCLUSION
  This study showed that duration of illness was 'not' of importance for the understanding of living with diabetes. Living with diabetes 3 years after being diagnosed meant to experience both an overall balance in one's existence and a daily struggle.


In industry, the design of CMOS ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection devices and circuits has been approached empirically. In this work, we propose an optimization methodology for a typical two-stage CMOS I/O protection circuit based on simulation. We have identified two kinds of design, namely resistor-limited and NMOS-limited, and demonstrated that the isolation resistor design is the key to the circuit's protection level and performance.


Bellows Expansion joints are mostly linked with the piping connections of turbines, heat exchangers, process equipment's etc. Its primary function is to absorb expansion and contraction in pipelines on which it is fixed and fulfill its functioning through peculiar springy shaped convolutions. At design stage, it is very difficult to guess fatigue life cycles due to evolved stresses in convolutions. When it is subjected to purely axial load, stress generation per convolution acting along longitudinal line is same; however the behavior is different under very small angular rotation and axial shift due to misalignments in structural mountings. To understand it, preliminary investigations on axial case is necessary and also to identify the location of various stresses in convoluted section. This work aims to determine the meridional and circumferential stresses on the convoluted shape when it is subjected to an axi-symmetric internal pressure loading. Experimentation is carried out to determine the maximum stresses and verified it with the help of numerical simulation and analytically. 10 convolution bellows is used for the experiments. It is observed that the meridional stresses are highly dominating the circumferential stresses along the same longitudinal line. Meridional membrane stresses and meridional bending stresses due to pressure are evaluated on two different locations, one on perfectly meridional line and another at the top surface of convolution along the same longitudinal line. The stresses found higher on the top surface of convolutions. Meridional membrane and bending stresses due to deflection are higher than the meridional membrane and bending stresses due to pressure. Evaluation of the maximum stresses is very helpful for the designers to develop the fatigue analysis model and exact prediction of the cycle life of the bellows.


We analyzed a longitudinal collection of query logs of a full-text search engine designed to facilitate information retrieval in electronic health records (EHR). The collection, 202,905 queries and 35,928 user sessions recorded over a course of 4 years, represents the information-seeking behavior of 533 medical professionals, including frontline practitioners, coding personnel, patient safety officers, and biomedical researchers for patient data stored in EHR systems. In this paper, we present descriptive statistics of the queries, a categorization of information needs manifested through the queries, as well as temporal patterns of the users' information-seeking behavior. The results suggest that information needs in medical domain are substantially more sophisticated than those that general-purpose web search engines need to accommodate. Therefore, we envision there exists a significant challenge, along with significant opportunities, to provide intelligent query recommendations to facilitate information retrieval in EHR.


The issues of labour protection in the mines are taken very seriously because working conditions here are one of the hardest and most dangerous. This manual dwells on the important issues of labour protection and safety in the mines and focused on minimizing the injuries and losses of working hours and the material damages which could result from the inadequacy of mitigation measures which are in place. On the issues of mine safety in this manual dwells on the characteristics and causes of traumas and the methods of analysis, investigation and generation of mitigation, as well as, the creation of normal sanitary and hygienic conditions of the working environment in the mines. On the issues of mine rescue in this manual dwells on understanding the accidents which could happen and their warning signals, based on which rescue plans could be developed in advance for the prevention and timely liquidation of accidents which might happen, based on having the necessary working tools put in place and building solid skills and the understanding of individual responsibilities among all in case of any accident which might happen in the mines.


Competition in banking companies is increasing to dominate market share created through customer satisfaction. Customers are the main factor for banks to gain trust from customers to continue using their services. This study aims to determine and analyze whether tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, product and brand image affect customer satisfaction of Bank BNI Lubuk Alung, using a data collection method in the form of a questionnaire. The sample in this study were 99 respondents. In analyzing the data using validity, reliability, and classical assumption tests, namely normality, multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. The analytical method used is multiple linear regression analysis, while for hypothesis testing, namely t-test with the help of SPSS. The results of the tests conducted found that: 1) Tangible has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction; 2) Reliability has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction; 3) Responsiveness has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction; 4) Assurance has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction; 5) Empathy has no significant effect on customer satisfaction; 6) Products has a significant effect on customer satisfaction; and 7) Brand image has a significant effect on customer satisfaction


CONTEXT
CD34(+) fibrocytes, bone marrow-derived progenitor cells, infiltrate orbital connective tissue in thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, a manifestation of Graves' disease. In the orbit, they become CD34(+) fibroblasts and coexist with native CD34(-) fibroblasts. Fibrocytes have been shown to express TSH receptor and thyroglobulin.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to determine whether a broader repertoire of thyroid protein expression can be detected in fibrocytes and whether a common factor is responsible.

DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS
Fibrocytes and fibroblasts were collected and analyzed from healthy individuals and those with Graves' disease in an academic clinical practice.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Real-time PCR, Western blot analysis, gene promoter analysis, cell transfections, and flow cytometric cell sorting were performed.

RESULTS
We detect two additional thyroid proteins expressed by fibrocytes, namely sodium-iodide symporter and thyroperoxidase. The autoimmune regulator (AIRE) protein appears necessary for this expression. AIRE expression in fibrocytes results from an active AIRE gene promoter and stable AIRE mRNA. Knocking down AIRE with a targeting small interfering RNA reduces the expression of these thyroid proteins in fibrocytes as well as the transcription factors paired box-8 and thyroid transcription factor-1. When compared with an unaffected first-degree relative, levels of these proteins are substantially reduced in fibrocytes from an individual with an inactivating AIRE mutation. Levels of AIRE and the thyroid proteins are lower in orbital fibroblasts from patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy than in fibrocytes. However, when mixed fibroblast populations are sorted into pure CD34(+) and CD34(-) subsets, the levels of these proteins are dramatically increased selectively in CD34(+) fibroblasts.

CONCLUSIONS
Fibrocytes express four proteins, the aggregate expression of which was previously thought to be restricted to thyroid epithelium. These proteins represent the necessary molecular biosynthetic machinery necessary for thyroid hormone production. Our findings implicate AIRE in the promiscuous expression of thyroid proteins in fibrocytes.


Background Several previous studies from our laboratory had indicated that the salivary gland epithelial cells (SGEC) of primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) patients manifest cell autonomous (intrinsic) activation, which is demonstrated in non-neoplastic cell lines derived from patients (SS-SGEC). As for other autoimmune diseases, it is widely proposed that infectious factors may incite SS. In fact, several viral agents have been proposed to be involved in the development of SS, including EBV, retroviruses (such as HTLV-1 and endogenous retrotransposons) and the Coxsackie virus. Recently, the sequence and antigen of HDV were detected in the salivary gland tissues of approximately half of SS patients studied [Weller et al., 2016], however, in the absence of detectable hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen and antibodies to HBV or HDV. Therefore, we hypothesized that HDV may be causally related with the cell-autonomous aberrations observed in the SS-SGEC lines and may trigger the inflammatory and autoimmune reactions that characterize SS. Objectives Herein, using non-neoplastic SGEC lines derived from SS patients, we sought to address directly whether the SGEC of these patients manifest evidence for infection by the HDV virus, despite the fact that patients studied did not display any evidence of infection by HBV or HDV viruses. Methods For that purpose, we purified total RNA from SGEC lines from non-SS controls (n=7) and SS patients (n=7). Reverse transcription of RNA isolated from salivary gland epithelial cells (SGEC) was performed using random hexamer primers as per the manufacturer's specifications. We performed PCR for the identification of HDV RNA sequences with three sets of primers from different regions of the viral sequence. RNA extracted from HDV-positive sera was used as positive control in HDV-specific PCR. Results All SGEC lines from SS patients and non-SS controls tested were found positive for HDV RNA, as tested by the first two sets of primers (two sets of primers for first and nested PCR with expected PCR products 329bp and 234bp, respectively). Nevertheless, when we selected primers for another region of the HDV genome (set of primers with expected PCR products 375bp) all RNA samples from SGEC lines tested were found negative for HDV RNA, whereas the HDV RNA control specimen was positive. Conclusions We conclude that SS-SGEC are not actually infected by the HDV virus, but are probably carriers of an HDV-like sequence. In fact, the putative HDV virus-like sequence has been previously shown be highly homologous to the RNA binding-protein cytoplasmic polyadenylation element-binding protein-3 (CPEB3), which belongs to a family of genes regulating messenger RNA polyadenylation and is structurally and biochemically related to the human HDV ribozymes (Salehi-Ashtiani et al, 2006). We are currently in the process of further analyzing the nature of this HDV-like sequence, through cloning and Sanger sequencing of the RT-PCR products, as well as performing of HDV-specific immunostaining studies in both SGEC lines and salivary gland tissues. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Any methodological application in the field of philosophy for children implies study of the progression of the thought processes and practical learning capacities. Firstly, from a point of view of the method, which in order to be a valid construction must be based on sound paradigmatic structures and thereby be applicable in practice. These requirements both theoretical and practical are integral and demand together a means of identification of the progression of thought processes, one which is imbued both with a dynamic conception of thought and with a practical conception of learning. The dialectic conflict enables this progression to be charted. It is an essential concept of both the Lipman theories of child philosophy and socio-constructivism, while at the same time remaining in-dissociable from pragmatic linguistics. This federating paradigmatic position is the essential element in constituting a tool which is capable of accounting for the progression of thought in the learning process in the research community. Thereby it becomes possible to conceive of a framework both methodological and conceptual which constructs the dialectic conflict along with the actual dialectic thought, revealing a basic contradiction. The learning process of thought itself therefore reverberates with the exercise of thinking, itself rendered by language as an interlocutory process. This analysis of the progression of conceptual thought in child philosophy can therefore enable the construction of a method only if it is in schematised form and is capable of taking on the cohesion essential to the dialectic conflict. The schematisation of a dialectic progression can therefore be recognised as a tool which enables the constituting process of conceptual thought to be identified. This schematisation is made up of a system of classification marks recording the common denominators making up the prerequisites of thought : differentiation of single and multiple, identical and different, relative and absolute and the part from the whole. This first instalment describes the schematic tool, firstly by presenting the constituting elements, then listing the operative procedures, to conclude with an example of its application. It prefigures a more generalised application which would focus on a methodology which would satisfy more fully the solidarity of its founding requirements. Resume : Identifier la progression de la pensee, dans la pratique et l'apprentissage du philosopher, constitue une preoccupation inherente a toute application methodologique en philosophie pour enfants. Du point de vue de la methode, tout d'abord, celle-ci exige pour sa validite constitutive de reposer sur une structure paradigmatique autant fondatrice qu'apte a garantir son essence meme, soit son applicabilite. L'exigence theoretique et l'exigence pratique s'appellent donc mutuellement pour fonder la necessite d'un instrument d'identification de la progression de la pensee, qui soit impregne autant d'une conception dynamique du penser que d'une conception pratique de l'apprendre a penser. Le conflit dialectique permet de structurer cette progression. Il est au coeur autant des fondements lipmanniens de philosophie pour enfants que dans ceux du socioconstructivisme, tout en etant indissociable de toute linguistique pragmatique. Cette position paradigmatique federatrice en fait le domaine privilegie de la constitution d'un instrument qui soit a mene de rendre compte d'une progression de la pensee dans le processus d'apprentissage de la communaute de recherche. A partir de la, il devient envisageable d'entreprendre la mise en place d'un cadre tant methodologique que conceptuel qui concoit le conflit dialectique en solidarite avec la pensee dialectique elle-meme, qui se devoile aporetique. L'apprentissage du penser est ainsi mis en resonance avec l'exercice du penser, lui-meme rendu par le langage en communaute interlocutoire. L'analyse interlocutoire de la progression de la pensee conceptuelle en philosophie pour enfants peut donc, sur cette base, permettre la constitution d'une methode qui, si elle est schematisee formellement, peut etre en mesure d'assumer la cohesion fondee par le conflit dialectique. La schematisation d'une progression dialectique apparait ainsi comme un instrument permettant l'identification du processus constitutif de la pensee conceptuelle. Cette schematisation se compose d'un systeme de cotation signalant les denominateurs communs constituant la possibilite meme de la pensee : l'un et le multiple, l'identique et le different, le relatif et l'absolu et enfin la partie et le tout. Ce premier volet presente cet instrument schematique, tout d'abord en exposant son processus constitutif, puis en deroulant son protocole operatoire, pour terminer sur un exemple d'application. Il prefigure une application plus generalisee qui viserait une methodologie satisfaisant davantage la solidarite de ses exigences fondatrices.


We report the results of a comparative experimental and analytical study of the coupling of electromagnetic (EM) fields to a monopole inside a cavity with an aperture. Coupling measurements have been made over a wide range of frequencies using a number of monopole and aperture sizes. Measurements were made using two orthogonal cavity orientations. In some experiments, an absorbing sphere was placed inside the cavity to act as an additional energy absorber. The experimental results have been compared with estimates based on the bounds approach developed by Lee and Yang (1992). Some new expressions for the aperture cross-sections have been derived. Comparison has shown that the bounding approach developed by Lee and Yang using a power conservation approach is in close agreement with experimental results over a wide range of aperture and monopole sizes provided the frequency is high enough that the interior fields can be considered uniform. Violations of the bound are observed at lower frequencies when only a few cavity modes are excited and the uniform field approximation breaks down. It is also shown that the effects of absorbing bodies can be included. Use of this approach should simplify electromagnetic hardening of electronic systems.


BACKGROUND
Medical records discovered after the liberation of ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe are unique documents that report on the suffering of inmates, on ravaging infectious diseases, and on starvation-related organ degeneration and the resulting mortality. We offer a pathogenetic explanation for the scarcity of acute myocardial infarction in the Lodz Ghetto, Poland, 1941-1944.


Many affordable housing policies are the domain of local governments. While subnational housing policies can be used to increase racial and economic segregation, they can also protect renters, and thus are not without controversy. Local affordable housing policies include inclusionary zoning, rent control, short-term rental regulation and source of income discrimination. Starting in the 1980s, states began to preempt these local laws, preventing their cities from adopting affordable housing policies. We ask why states choose to preempt one or more of these four affordable housing policies. Using a cross-sectional, time-series dataset of preemptions, we find evidence that more conservative legislatures are more likely to adopt preemptions, while more professional legislatures and states with higher rental rates and previous preemptions are less likely to preempt. Contrary to expectations, interest group density, electoral competition and policy diffusion are not significant predictors of preemption. For advocates and policymakers concerned with increasing affordable housing in their jurisdictions, these results raise unease about the ability to further an affordable housing agenda at the local level, particularly in more conservative political environments, suggesting instead that affordable housing may need to return to the purview of the federal government.


Sexual dysfunction in women is a significant health problem that harms marriage stability. Women in the Western countries were reportedly being affected by this condition after childbirth but the magnitude of the problem in our local setting is still unknown. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of women with sexual dysfunction at four to six months postpartum and its possible risk factors in an urban primary care setting. The participants were given a set of questionnaire, consisting of three parts; i) sociodemographic and maternal characteristics ii) Malay version of Female Sexual Function Index and iii) Malay DASS-21 questionnaire. Responses from 249 women were analyzed. More than half (57.0%,n=142) were found to have sexual dysfunction. The most prevalent types of sexual dysfunction reported by the affected women were sexual satisfaction disorder (98.6%), followed by arousal disorder (58.5%) and lubrication disorder (28.9%). Three factors were found to be significantly associated with sexual dysfunction; household income of less than RM2000 (adj OR = 0.31, 95% CI 0.14, 0.70), Malay ethnic group (adj OR = 1.93,95% CI 1.02, 3.66) and breastfeeding (adj OR = 2.24,95% CI 1.03, 4.85). In conclusion, the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in the postpartum period was considerably high. Efforts should be made to incorporate sexual health as part of the routine postnatal assessment in primary care practice.


Abstract In this paper the optimal nonlinear predictive cascaded control structure is presented with application to induction motors, which provides global asymptotic tracking of smooth speed and flux trajectories. The controller is based on a finite horizon continuous time minimization of nonlinear predicted tracking errors. With full state measurement assumption, the robustness properties with respect to electrical parameter variations and load disturbance is presented. Finally computer simulations show the flux-speed tracking performances and the disturbance rejection capabilities of the proposed controller in the nominal and mismatched parameters case.


AIM To determine diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance arthrography (MRA) in evaluating rotator cuff tears (RCTs) using Snyder's classification for reporting. METHODS One hundred and twenty-six patients (64 males, 62 females; median age 55 years) underwent shoulder MRA and arthroscopy, which represented our reference standard. Surgical arthroscopic reports were reviewed and the reported Snyder's classification was recorded. MRA examinations were evaluated by two independent radiologists (14 and 5 years' experience) using Snyder's classification system, blinded to arthroscopy. Agreement between arthroscopy and MRA on partial- and full-thickness tears was calculated, first regardless of their extent. Then, analysis took into account also the extent of the tear. Interobserver agreement was also calculated the quadratically-weighted Cohen kappa statistics. RESULTS On arthroscopy, 71/126 patients (56%) had a full-thickness RCT. The remaining 55/126 patients (44%) had a partial-thickness RCT. Regardless of tear extent, out of 71 patients with arthroscopically-confirmed full-thickness RCTs, 66 (93%) were correctly scored by both readers. All 55 patients with arthroscopic diagnosis of partial-thickness RCT were correctly assigned as having a partial-thickness RCT at MRA by both readers. Interobserver reproducibility analysis showed total agreement between the two readers in distinguishing partial-thickness from full-thickness RCTs, regardless of tear extent (k = 1.000). With regard to tear extent, in patients in whom a complete tear was correctly diagnosed, correct tear extent was detected in 61/66 cases (92%); in the remaining 5/66 cases (8%), tear extent was underestimated. Agreement was k = 0.955. Interobserver agreement was total (k = 1.000). CONCLUSION MRA shows high diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility in evaluating RCTs using the Snyder's classification for reporting. Snyder's classification may be adopted for routine reporting of MRA.


Thermal testing of two manufactured homes was performed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory`s (NREL`s) Collaborative Manufactured Buildings Facility for Energy Research and Testing (CMFERT) environmental enclosure in the winter and spring of 1991. The primary objective of the study was to directly measure the thermal performance of the two homes, each built according to a proposed new US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standard. Secondary objectives were to test the accuracy of an accompanying compliance calculation method and to help manufacturers find cost-effective ways to meet the new standard. Both homes performed within the standard without major design or production line modifications. Their performance fell within 8% of predictions based on the new draft HUD calculation manual; however, models with minimum window area were selected by the manufacturer. Models with more typical window area would have required substantive design changes to meet the standard. Several other tests were also performed on the homes by both NREL and the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) to uncover potential thermal anomalies and to explore the degradation in thermal performance that might occur because of (a) penetrations in the rodent barrier from field hookups and repairs, (b) closing of interior doorsmore » with and without operation of the furnace blower, and (c) exposure to winds.« less


In recent years, the NFL's quarterback passer rating has become one of the most widely recognized statistics in sports. Though it has been in use since 1973, popular acceptance of the statistic took a few decades and has resulted in a great deal of debate over its ability to effectively quantify an aspect of the quarterback's performance. Here, we will offer some background on the current quarterback passer rating system, consider some prevalent criticisms of the rating and propose some minor modifications to the rating system designed to keep the original intent of the statistic intact, while significantly improving results. Thus, rather than to offer a newly designed statistic, the goal here is to offer the simplest of modifications to the current quarterback passer rating, in line with the established calculation procedure, which will improve the effectiveness of the statistic. We will show that these modifications produce results that are far more reasonable than those achieved by the current rating.


Tuberculosis-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (TB-HLH) is a rare and life-threatening complication of tuberculosis infection. Early recognition and treatment of TB-HLH is crucial for improving outcomes. Treatment typically involves a combination of antituberculosis therapy and immunosuppressive therapy to control the immune system's overreaction. In this report, we present the case of a 53-year-old ambulance driver who was diagnosed with TB-HLH. His CT scan revealed splenic abscesses, hepatomegaly and bilateral lung consolidation. He subsequently developed multiorgan failure, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), transaminitis and bone marrow dysfunction. The clinical course and simultaneous increase in serum ferritin raised the suspicion of HLH. His Hscore was 254, indicating a high probability of hemophagocytic syndrome. TB diagnosis was confirmed by positive endotracheal TB GeneXpert and bone marrow aspiration (BMA) which detected acid-fast bacilli organisms. The patient was promptly started on anti-TB, dexamethasone and IVIG. The patient responded well to treatment and made a full recovery without any lasting complications. This case highlights the importance of promptly recognising HLH and identifying the underlying cause. In critically ill patients, it is crucial not to delay HLH-specific treatment while working up for differential diagnosis.


Description: This paper describes a series of experiments that used X-ray tomography to visualize the mobilization of remaining oil by Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP) flooding after conventional waterflooding. The experiments were conducted in cores drilled from Bentheim sandstone outcrop material with diameters of approximately 7.55 cm and lengths of 14.9, 27.5 and 100 cm. The crude used in the experiments has an in-situ viscosity of about 100 cP and contains petroleum acids that are converted to soaps in the presence of alkali. Application: In addition to pressure and effluent data collected during conventional coreflood experiments phase and saturation distributions in space and time are needed to more completely interpret the results of core floods. This additional information reveals underlying mechanisms, and assists the development of models that capture the physics of ASP that can ultimately be used to provide field scale predictions for ASP performance. Results, Observations, and Conclusions: • A significant oil bank was created, propagated, and produced in each of the experiments. • The size of the oil bank in terms of length and maximum oil saturation is largely dependent on the post-waterflood saturation distribution along the cores. • Large variations in both the absolute value and the spatial distribution of the post-waterflood saturation distribution were observed in the different experiments. • A characteristic self-similar cross-sectional averaged oil saturation profile develops for floods conducted in the longer length cores. • Detailed analyses of individual frames revealed separate "oil" and "ASP fingers" in the area downstream of the oil bank. Significance: The displacement mechanisms involved in ASP flooding relatively viscous crudes are revealed by X-ray CT visualization. The resulting improved understanding of the process increases the confidence in the potential full-field application of ASP flooding.


Bioprospecting of plant-based insecticides for vector control has become an area of interest within the last two decades. Due to drawbacks of chemical insecticides, phytochemicals of plant origin with mosquito control potential are being utilized as alternative sources in integrated vector control. In this regard, the present study aimed to investigate oviposition deterring and oviciding potentials of Ipomoea cairica (L.) (Family: Convolvulaceae) crude leaf extract against dengue vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Ipomoea cairica is an indigenous plant that has demonstrated marked toxicity towards larvae of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Leaves of I. cairica were extracted using Soxhlet apparatus with acetone as solvent. Oviposition deterrent activity and ovicidal assay was carried out in oviposition site choice tests with three different concentrations (50, 100, 450 ppm). Acetone extract of I. cairica leaf strongly inhibited oviposition with 100% repellence to Ae. aegypti at lower concentration of 100 ppm, while for Ae. albopictus was at 450 ppm. The oviposition activity index (OAI) values which ranged from -0.69 to -1.00 revealed that I. cairica demonstrated deterrent effect. In ovicidal assay, similar trend was observed whereby zero hatchability was recorded for Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus eggs at 100 and 450 ppm, respectively. It is noteworthy that I. cairica leaf extract had significantly elicited dual properties as oviposition deterrent and oviciding agent in both Aedes species. Reduction in egg number through oviposition deterring activity, reduction in hatching percentage and survival rates, suggested an additional hallmark of this plant to be integrated in Aedes mosquito control. Ipomoea cairica deserved to be considered as one of the potential alternative sources for the new development of novel plant based insecticides in future.


High-bandwidth underwater wireless communication can be achieved over long-distance using a swarm of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) relaying an optical signal. The swarm behavior is of critical importance as it will determine the robustness and the autonomy of the communication link. Each vehicle must remain at a distance lower than the optical communication system range from each other while fighting against environmental disturbances such as ocean current. This technology could be a game changer in the deployment and supervision of future oil wells and of deep sea mining which will be deeper and deeper in the oceans. We developed an optimization program to maximize the communication link autonomy while assuring its robustness. The nonlinear optimization problem is transformed to a Second-Order Cone Problem (SOCP), a special case of convex problems that can be efficiently solved with Yalmip on Matlab. We show on two case studies that the autonomy of the swarm and thus the lifetime of the communication link is increased by more than 10% compared to a direct approach where the reference position of the vehicles is fixed.


Many protein families involved in protein-protein interaction (PPI) contain sub-families that interact with different protein binding partners. We have applied the Sequence Harmony method (SH), which is able to detect specificity sites from a multiple sequence alignment (MSA) containing sub-families. The input was a dataset of MSAs of interacting protein families, each time containing a set of non-interacting paralogous sequences. Exploiting the differences in sequence conservation between the binding and non-binding groups by SH, we demonstrate that predicted specificity residues turn out to reside on the protein surface. We also show that we can select interface residues with approximately 14% coverage (true-positive rate) at 27% error (false-positive rate).


The eavesdropping attack is a serious security threat to a wireless sensor network (WSN) since the eavesdropping attack is a prerequisite for other attacks. The traditional security solution based on cryptography and authentication is not sufficient for wireless sensor networks, which encounters new challenges from internal attackers, and trust is recognized as a novel approach to defend against such attacks. In this paper, we propose a trust-based LEACH (low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy) protocol for clustering to provide secure routing, while preserving the essential functionalities of the original protocol. Within the cluster, a measurable indirect trust of a CM (Cluster Member) is evaluated by its CH (Cluster Head). Thus each CM does not need to maintain the feedback from other CMs, which will reduce the communication overhead and eliminate the possibility of a Eaves Dropping attack by compromised CMs. A source and sink network is considered, and the intra cluster communication between the source and the sink is subject to non cooperative eavesdropping on each link. Without compromising any nodes an attacker can interrupt the network system. The proposed trust management detects the malicious behavior of the eavesdropped nodes. It is based on four trust components intimacy, honesty, energy, unselfishness of the nodes.


The primary purpose of this study was to compare the overall listening benefit in diffuse noise provided by dual-microphone technology in an in-the-ear (ITE) hearing instrument to that provided by dual-microphone technology in a behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing instrument. Further, the study was designed to determine whether the use of the dual-microphone + the manufacturer's party response algorithm in the ITE and BTE hearing instruments provided listening benefit in diffuse noise over their respective omnidirectional microphone modes. Twenty-four adults with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss were evaluated while wearing binaural BTE and ITE hearing instruments. The results indicated that the dual-microphone + party response mode did provide significant benefit in diffuse noise for both the ITE (3.27 dB signal-to-noise ratio [SNR] improvement) and BTE (5.77 dB SNR improvement) hearing instruments relative to their respective conventional omnidirectional microphones. No significant difference in performance was found between the ITE and BTE hearing instruments when each device was in the dual-microphone + party response mode. It is concluded that the use of dual-microphone technology in both ITE and BTE hearing instruments can improve speech recognition in diffuse noise.


The solutions to the Einstein equations representing the superposition of a particle and a ring are studied. The appearance of strut-type and membrane-type singularities is analysed. These objects are compared with cosmic strings and domain walls. It is found that, unlike the usual domain walls, the membranes have null effective gravitational mass, as have struts and strings. The relationship of these membranes with walls associated with sigma-model-type field theories is indicated.


-The Goodsight-Cedar Hills (GCH) depression near Las Cruces, New Mexico. was a north-north east-trending, nonmarine, elliptical basin of Oligocene age that developed along the southeastern margin of the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field. Within the basin were deposited six ash-flow tuff outflow sheets, as well as sed imentary rocks composed of interbedded syneruption and post-eruption lithofacies. The syneruption lithofacies consists of light-colored, medium-grained tuffaceous sandstones that represent reworked fallout tephra. Epiclastic conglomerates and coarse sandstones constitute the post-eruption lithofacies, with clast composition reflecting derivation from adjacent bedrock uplifts. An asymmetrical distribution of post-eruption lithofacies, based on provenance and sediment dispersal data, suggests that the GCH basin was an eastward-tilted half graben, with the Cedar Hills vent zone as the footwall and the Ancestral Goodsight uplift as the hanging wall. The GCH half graben provides important information about the Mogollon-Datil volcanic field , not only because it was a depository for several regional outflow sheets, but also because syneruption sandstones may record explosive eruptions that occurred during or between major ignimbrite-generating events. Furthermore, initial development of the half graben at 35 Ma precedes by 2 to 7 million years previous interpretations of the onset of regional crustal extension in the southern Rio Grande rift.


The Brazilian state owned central distribution centres for fruits and vegetables were created in the sixties and implemented in the state of Goiás in 1975 to attend regional, mostly family owned producers and clients. The goals of this work were to study composition, quantities and disposal of solid residues generated at CEASA-GO along one year, observing seasonal changes, among costs involved in transport and deposit of these, as well as electric energy consumption on place. It was evaluated the monthly potential of the generation of electric and thermal energy from biogas produced from these residues, as well as the use of the generated digestate from biogas fermentation as fertiliser. Systematic bibliographic research, data collection by interviews raising numbers of individual residues sorted by type, like e.g. pineapple or tomato, along a one year period was combined with the biogas potential of these substrates. The biogas potential for special substrates, like the Cerrado fruit "Pequi" (Caryocar brasiliense), where no literature data were available have been determined in the biogas lab by batch experiments with an automated AMPTS-II system, BioProcessControl, Sweden. Transformation of the biogas to energy was simulated and compared to the own consumption. Based on complete data of 2015 the results show the possibility to supply all electric energy consumed by CEASA of over 500 kW by biogas generation from a part of more than 90,000 tons of organic residues remaining annually. A relatively fast return of investment by the reduction of costs for electric energy (approximately 80,000 e per month), reduction of waste transport and deposit costs, and potential gains by selling the generated fertiliser, is expected. Environmental gains could be predicted by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions from deposits on landfills, reduction of transport impacts, raising use of renewable energy and production of organic fertilisers. This could provide an example for the state wholesales of all 26 Brazilian states. Thanks to: CEASA-GO, German Agency for International Cooperation GIZ and Brazilian CAPES and Ministry of Cities (ProBiogas-project), European Commission (Marie Curie FP7 "No-Waste" project).


Wheat Grain Yield (GY) and quality are particularly susceptible to nitrogen (N) fertilizer management. However, in rain-fed Mediterranean environments, crop N requirements might be variable due to the effects of water availability on crop growth. Therefore, in-season crop N status assessment is needed in order to apply N fertilizer in a cost-effective way while reducing environmental impacts. Remote sensing techniques might be useful at assessing in-season crop N status. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of vegetation indices formulated using blue (B), green (G), red (R) and near-infrared (NIR) bands obtained with a consumer-grade camera to assess wheat N status. Chlorophyll Content Index (CCI) and fractional intercepted PAR (fIPAR) were measured at three phenological stages and GY and biomass were determined at harvest. Indices formulated using RG bands and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were significantly correlated with both CCI and fIPAR at the different phenological stage (0.71 < r < 0.81, P < 0.01). Moreover, indices formulated using RG bands were capable at differentiating unfertilized and fertilized plots. In addition, RGB indices and NDVI were found to be related to both crop biomass and GY at harvest, particularly when data were obtained at initial grain filling stage (r > 0.80, P < 0.01). Finally, RGB indices and NDVI obtained with a consumer-grade camera showed comparable capacity at assessing chlorophyll content and predicting both crop biomass and GY at harvest than those obtained with a spectroradiometer. This study highlights the potential of standard and modified consumer-grade cameras at assessing canopy traits related to crop N status and GY in wheat under Mediterranean conditions.


Recent work has developed single-carrier linear precoding for the multiuser downlink for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. This paper addresses the problem of user selection in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based MIMO systems using such multiuser precoding. We propose an effective scheme to assign multiple users, chosen from a larger set, to individual subcarriers. The scheme is developed in the context of a previously proposed single-carrier MIMO linear precoding scheme to minimize the sum mean squared error (SMSE) over multiple users. We further simplify the implementation of the proposed algorithm exploiting the inherent channel correlation between adjacent OFDM subcarriers. Simulations show that the proposed user assignment algorithm exhibits near optimal performance and that reducing the computational load causes minimal performance loss.


The benefits of working with legacy seismic data are broad and valued in a wide range of geoscience applications and result from the comprehensive volume of industry and public seismic data acquired over several decades. Legacy seismic data exist in many parts of the world including areas that, due to stricter regulatory processes, environmental restrictions, demographic changes, or other factors would be challenging or even impossible to survey today. Examples are numerous but one includes 2D marine seismic data acquired in the 1980s with a large airgun array to provide a deep cross-section through the Appalachians beneath the now sen-sitive Gulf of St Lawrence, eastern Canada (Marillier et al., 1989). Sometimes benefits arise through the use of newly developed tech-niques to extract additional information from legacy seismic data. This idea is obviously not new and many examples can be found in the literature. One example is the use of extended Vibroseis cor-relation developed in 1980s (Okaya and Jarchow, 1989) applied to increase the depth range of marine Vibroseis seismic data acquired in 1971 in two of the Great Lakes of North America (Milkereit et al., 1992). Marine seismic data in the Great Lakes are sparse, but contain information about deep Grenvillian terranes that, in this case, could only be revealed using a technology developed more than a decade after data acquisition. Reflection seismology has been used for mineral exploration for more than 30 years (Reed, 1993). During that period, many case studies demonstrated the utility of the method for imaging deep lithological contacts and structures indirectly associated with mineralization, and for the direct imaging of deposits. Malehmir et al. (2012) provide a comprehensive overview of key accomplishments for various commodities and mining locations in Canada and around the world. In particular, many examples demonstrate the advantages of the 3D seismic method for providing high-resolution images of subsurface structures and deep-seated ore deposits in a variety of geological environ-ments. Several of these legacy 3D seismic data sets have been reprocessed with advanced and novel techniques to provide more reliable and detailed images of the subsurface.
Here, we show three early examples of the application of 3D seismic data for mineral exploration in the Bathurst, Sudbury, and Val d'Or mining camps, Canada (Figure 1). Specifically, we demonstrate that reprocessing of 3D datasets from earlier applications of seismic reflection can refine the imaging of known ore deposits and can lead to the identification of new exploration targets. For the case studies presented here, most improvements resulted from processing and imaging strategies built from an understanding of the response of mineralized bodies on seismic data and improving specific steps that prevented their proper imaging on final volumes. The case studies are introduced according to their year of acquisition, starting from the oldest (i.e., the Trill 3D survey in the Sudbury mining camp) to the most recent (e.g., the Louvicourt 3D survey in the Val d'Or mining camp). All 3D seismic surveys are located in areas with limited access and difficult terrain and as a result, were acquired with explosives. Surface conditions varied for each survey area but included steep hills, extensive swamps, and thick glacial sediments. Geology also varied at the three sites. Host rocks are either nearly-transparent-to-seismic waves or are highly heterogeneous and generating seismic scattering potentially masking the response of the mineralized body. In all three areas, however, mineralized bodies scattered or reflected energy in a preferred direction, and were observed only on a limited number of prestack seismic traces. In some cases, such a sparse signature was buried in noise when stacking all traces and required particu-lar attention to be properly imaged.


This paper discusses planned instructional and proxy interventions for incapacity, legal guardianship, and supplements to care for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Service providers are encouraged to identify and initiate care decisions that are consistent with the client's care preferences. Case examples are discussed. Practitioners are encouraged to educate clients, particularly those in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, to create evidence for care preferences through planning. Service providers' concerns for liability are briefly discussed.


ABSTRACT:A band pass tunable RF filter is proposed by using Radio Frequency (RF) Microelectro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). The tunability is obtained by using capacitive MEMS switches that can be tuned within the bandwidth of 3.6 GHz to 4.4 GHz. The performance of the filter depends on geometry and location and types of the MEMS switches. Optimization has been done to achieve tunability by using 3-D high frequency electromagnetic simulator (HFSS).


The appearance of semantic Web makes the automatic discovery and invocation of geospatial Web services become possible. The key technology of automatic discovery is service matching. This paper designs a common semantic service description model, which contains four aspects as the classification of service, input/output, precondition/effect and the quality of service (QoS), to describe the geospatial semantic service by geo-ontology. Then we propose a multi-level semantic web service matching approach which matches the geospatial services on four levels. Finally, a prototype system based on the above models and methods is designed and implemented, and it demonstrates that our solution yields high-quality results under realistic situation.


Binding of bilirubin by the alpha-helix conformation of poly(L-lysine) in water induces optical activity. The bisignate circular dichroism spectrum exhibits exciton bands centred at 444 nm, negative, and at 525 nm, positive. The magnitude of the induced circular dichroism depends on the concentration of total bilirubin and total lysine residues, the molar ratio of total lysine residues-to-total bilirubin molecules, the pH and the degree of polymerization of poly(L-lysine). Although bilirubin binds to the random coil conformation of poly(L-lysine), as evidence by the absorption spectrum, the complex is optically inactive. The results suggest that bilirubin binds to the poly(L-lysine) in the form of dimers and oligomers.