Very low birth weight premature (VLBWPT) infants demonstrate growth patterns in the early years of life which differ from those of term and large low birth weight preterm (LBWPT) peers. Optimal post natal growth of VLBWPT children is associated with more positive later health and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The neonatologist engaged in the follow of care of VLBWPT infants after discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit should monitor over time the velocity of weight, length, head circumference and weight/length ratio utilizing appropriate growth references. VLBW children who demonstrate atypically low weight gain in the early years of life have a higher probability of less than optimal cognitive development over time, while those with excessive weight gain have a greater likelihood of later childhood and adult obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Nutritional planning should provide adequate calories for gradual normalization in all growth variables, while attempting to avoid atypically low or excessive weight gain. This nutritional planning should take into account the child's genetic growth potential, small for gestational age (SGA) or at gestational age (AGA), and clinical issues such as the presence of diseases like gastroesophageal (GE) reflux or chronic lung disease. Whatever nutritional approach is used, the neonatologist in follow up should track weight, length, head circumference, and weight/length ratio and adjust the nutrition plan and caloric intake to assure gradual return to normal in all growth variables while avoiding excessive weight gain.


Abstract Concerning hedge funds and private equity, opinions differ: Critics refer to it as predatory capitalism, supporters enthuse about the champions league of investment industry. A theoretical analysis with focus on speculation will be followed by an overview of the market. Considering that social concerns cannot be overcome solely with theoretical, economic argumentation, financial companies will be reconstructed as moral stakeholders in a subsequent business ethical evaluation. Based on this stakeholder approach the business model will be described in the context of individual ethical responsibilities and the corporate governance debate. With this interdisciplinary survey the authors break new ground and show further research perspectives. Economic and moral arguments will promote to deal with criticism on hedge funds and private equity companies on a factual basis.


Why do areas with high numbers of small-range species occur where they do? We found that, for butterfly and plant species in Europe, and for bird species in the Western Hemisphere, such areas coincide with regions that have rare climates, and are higher and colder areas than surrounding regions. Species with small range sizes also tend to occur in climatically diverse regions, where species are likely to have been buffered from extinction in the past. We suggest that the centres of high small-range species richness we examined predominantly represent interglacial relict areas where cold-adapted species have been able to survive unusually warm periods in the last ca 10 000 years. We show that the rare climates that occur in current centres of species rarity will shrink disproportionately under future climate change, potentially leading to high vulnerability for many of the species they contain.


The aim of this research is to examine the determinants of liquidity risk of commercial banks in Pakistan. For this research, the data of 20 commercial banks of Pakistan is collected annually for eight years ranging from 2012-2020. This study uses the Panel data regression analysis approach. Liquidity ratio as a dependent variable has been selected as measures liquidity risk whereas five independent variables size of bank, liquid assets ratio, capital adequacy ratio, Leverage, Non-performing loans have been selected for different types of bank-specific factors. Fixed effect regression analysis and random effect analysis has been performed, the Hausman test used to see whether the fixed effect model or random model is suitable. The findings of this study are beneficial for policymaker, manager, economic agents to control on risk factors. The results of this study show the size of bank (SOB), liquid assets ratio (LAR), capital adequacy ratio (CAR) has a negative and statistically significant effect on liquidity ratio. However, Leverage (LEV) has a positive and statistically significant effect on liquidity risk meaning that increase in leverage increase the liquidity risk but Non-performing loans (NPLs) has a negative and statistically insignificant relationship with liquidity risk.


A high-resolution tomographic study, using cubic B-splines parameterization and employing a systematic approach to the choosing of appropriate damping and smoothing parameters, provided a three-dimensional P-wave velocity map of the Loma Prieta area. Used in the inversion were 11,977 high-quality raypaths from 844 aftershocks of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The velocity model exhibits a low-velocity feature between the San Andreas and Zayante-Vergeles faults in the top 10 km of the crust. This low-velocity feature is interpreted as a sedimentary unit exposed to the northwest and separated from the Salinian block by the Zayante-Vergeles fault. Below 10 km, no consistent change is observed between the Salinian and the Franciscan blocks. There appears to be a high correlation of aftershock activity and localized high-velocity anomalies southeast of the Loma Prieta mainshock. Whereas this anomaly may represent brittle rocks associated with a fault-zone asperity that failed after the mainshock, there is evidence to suggest it may be a body of serpentinite. The serpentinite exhibits high velocities and is potentially less competent than surrounding country rock, thus providing a sector along the fault more likely to be associated with many smaller earthquakes or creep behavior.


Lesions of human articular cartilage most often are the result of pathologically unclear disease processes that eventually lead to primary or secondary osteoarthritis. The incidence of the latter may even increase because of traumatic cartilage/bone injuries during sport activities. Likewise, osteochondritis dissecans can lead to osseous and cartilaginous lesions. Adult articular cartilage has only a very limited repair capacity after acute and chronic insults, and thus, cartilage lesions do not heal naturally and often undergo progressive degeneration. Until today, the only proven and effective treatment for the resulting pain and disability of such patients is joint replacement with a prosthesis. Repair of articular cartilage defects is still an unsolved problem. Many methods, including use of synthetic resorbable or nonresorbable materials, have been tried to enhance the quality of the repair tissue, but so far, no method has achieved reliable repair of normal hyaline cartilage with normal biomechanical properties and bonding to the surrounding cartilage. After publication of the first results of chondrocyte transplantation in patients with localized cartilage lesions of the knee joints by Brittberg et al. in 1994, the interest in this technique has grown steadily, and it should be further evaluated. The following review should enable the reader to understand better the unique nature of cartilaginous lesions, to recognize the difficulties and controversies involved in old and novel experimental methods of cartilage repair, and to evaluate critically the developments of orthopedic therapies in repairing articular cartilage lesions.


This article considers the organizations, financial patrons, and lawyers involved in two significant campaign finance cases decided by the Roberts Court: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. The research indicates that these elements of the support structures for litigation on both sides of these cases, like the justices to whom they direct their advocacy, fall into well-defined opposing and partisan camps. It also suggests that strategic case selection on the challengers' side, the diversity of organizations supporting their positions, their network and coordination, and a simple and powerful frame around which to rally may have contributed to their success and to the Roberts Court's fundamental reshaping of campaign finance doctrine.


A new class of cross-coupled planar microwave filters using microstrip hairpin resonators is introduced. The realization of bath the canonical and the cascaded quadruplet (CQ) filters is feasible. Coupling characteristics of four basic coupling structures encountered in this class of filters are investigated in the light of full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations. A four-pole cross-coupled filter of this type is designed and fabricated. Both the theoretical and experimental performance is presented.


Recent advances in sensor web geospatial data capture, such as high resolution satellite images as well as corresponding web ready data processing and modeling technologies, have led to the generation of large amounts of datasets on real-time or near realtime observation and measurement. The quality of observation data register has become a 'bottleneck' of sensor web-based applications. In order to improve the quality of sensor data register, Sensor Observation Service (SOS) register middleware is put forward, which includes geospatial sensor observation service (SOS), geospatial catalogue service based on ebRIM, SOS register mediator service, sensor data granule information extraction service, and sensor data granule record generation service. The content and sequence of SOS observation 'synchronous' and 'asynchronous' data register strategy based on service middleware is described. The prototype system is designed and implemented by OGC CSW specification and SWE SOS standard. The EO-1 SOS register is tested, including 2420 WCSLayer observation records in a specified time, and the performance is evaluated. The experimental result shows the efficiency of the 'asynchronous' strategy proposed in this paper is 0.3- 0.4 times fast than that of the 'synchronous'.


Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis (BBE) is a Fisher Syndrome (FS) related disorder characterized by the disturbance of consciousness or hyperreflexia in addition to the classical triad of ataxia, areflexia and ophthalmoplegia. The pathophysiology of BBE remains controversial therefore a complete neurophysiological study including the study of cranial nerves may be crucial to add evidence of peripheral or central nervous system involvement in the assessment of patients. We report the case of 29 years old woman with BBE and the blink reflex (BR) follow up studies revealing a correlation between clinical and electrophysiological improvement. This case may support the usefulness of BR studies for electrophisiological diagnosis in BBE in early stages.


Stretchable electronics may open new applications in display, sensors and actuators. To attain the stretchable electronics, the ink formulation should be compatible with elastomeric substrates. Here, we present the formulation of silver nanoparticles and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) for printing stretchable silver electrodes on the elastomeric substrates. Highly conductive stretchable electrodes can be printed directly on the poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (PSBS) substrates by roll to plate (R2P) gravure printer. During the stretching test, R2P printed silver based stretchable electrodes show the high conductivity of 1000 S cm(-1) at 0.27 wt% of SWNT loading. Furthermore, the resistance of the printed silver electrode was not changed up to 15% of tensile strain.


The development and reproduction of the braconid wasp, Lysiphlebus japonicus Ashmead, parasitizing either symbiotic or aposymbiotic aphids, were investigated. In order to obtain aposymbiotic aphids, the black bean aphid, Aphis craccivora Koch, was fed at birth with Vicia faba dipped in 200 mg/ml rifampicin. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the intracellular symbiotic bacteria (Buchnera) began to degenerate 2 days after the antibiotic treatment. Bacteria-free aposymbiotic aphids exhibited a reduced growth rate, adult size and reproduction rate. The development and reproduction of the parasitoids were clearly affected by the rifampicin treatment of the aphid host. The larval size and the growth rate of the parasitoids were reduced, and the emergence rate and the body weight of the wasps decreased by 13% and 54%, respectively. The number of progeny produced by the wasps that emerged from aposymbiotic aphids decreased by 25%. Possible factors involved in the effects of aposymbiosis on the parasitoids are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The transplant vasculopathy as a sign of chronic graft rejection affects both the epicardial and the intramyocardial arteries of the graft. This is at least partially mediated by NO synthases. The aim of this study was to assess possible protective effects of cyclosporine A (CsA), tacrolimus (FK506), and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) on the expression of NO synthases in an experimental transplant rat model.

AIMS
Heart transplantation was performed in 322 rats. These were randomly assigned to four equal groups (control, CsA, FK506, MMF). Recipients were monitored up to 60 days after transplantation, while transplanted hearts were recovered at certain time points for analysis. Expression and staining intensity for endothelial nitric oxide synthases (e-nos) and inducible nitric oxide synthases (i-nos) were analyzed in epicardial and intramyocardial vessels in each group.

RESULTS
All employed drugs led to a significant reduction of expression or staining intensity of i-nos and e-nos. MMF was most effective in reduction in expression of both NO synthases.

CONCLUSIONS
These results imply that all described drugs prevent endothelial impairment induced by toxicity of NO and thereby prevent transplant vasculopathy. MMF seems to be the most effective drug.


A major obstacle in the quest for health care quality improvement is physician acceptance of clinical practice guidelines. Typically objective and autonomous, physicians do not readily "buy-in" to standards that challenge their judgement. In this article, the authors identify the necessary conditions for physician acceptance if not active participation in the development and promulgation of these living documents.


A novel double-in-plane gate oxide-based electric-double-layer (EDL) transistor structure applicable to thin-film transistors (TFTs) and nanoscale transistors (nanoFETs) is proposed. An equivalent circuit model is provided to illustrate the operation mechanism. The double-in-plane gate structure can simplify device fabrication effectively and provide unique tunability of threshold. Specifically, the gate bias modulates the threshold voltage of TFT and nanoFET and effectively controls the transistor subthreshold swing and leakage current. Moreover, the EDL gate dielectric can lead to a high gate dielectric capacitance (>1 μF/cm(2)). These simulation results provide basic understanding needed to use and control EDL TFTs and nanoFETs in a novel manner.


AIMS
Altered blood flow affects vascular tone, attracts inflammatory cells, and leads to microvascular remodelling. We tested the hypothesis that inflammation facilitates the remodelling response, but that vascular tone determines its direction (inward or outward).

METHODS AND RESULTS
Mouse mesenteric resistance arteries were ligated to create either increased blood flow or low blood flow in vivo. In vivo microscopy was used to determine changes in vascular tone. Structural remodelling was studied after 2 days, with or without macrophage depletion. In order to characterize the inflammatory response, immunostaining, confocal microscopy, and real-time PCR were used. To address the role of vascular tone in remodelling, arteries were treated with the vasodilator amlodipine during organ culture. Vessels exposed to high blood flow dilated, whereas low flow induced constriction. After 1 day, inflammatory markers showed a complex but remarkably similar increase in expression during high flow and low flow. Both high-flow and low-flow vessels showed an increase in the number of adventitial macrophages. Depletion of macrophages eliminated flow-induced remodelling. Manipulation of vascular tone reversed inward remodelling in response to low blood flow.

CONCLUSION
Altered blood flow triggers an inflammatory response that facilitates remodelling. Vascular tone is a crucial determinant of the direction of the remodelling response.


Streaming video comprises the most of today's Internet traffic, and it's predicted to increase more. Today millions of users are watching video over the Internet; video sharing sites are getting more than billion hits per day. To serve this massive user base has always been a challenging job. Over the period of time a number of approaches have been proposed, mainly in two categories client server and peer to peer based streaming. Despite the potential scalability benefits of peer to peer systems, most popular video sharing sites today are using client server model, leveraging the caching benefits of Content Delivery Networks. In such scenarios, video files are replicated among a group of edge servers, clients' requests are directed to an edge server instead of serving by the original video source server. The main bottle neck to this approach is that each server has a capacity limit beyond which it cannot serve properly. Instead of traditional file based streaming approach, in this thesis we propose to use distributed data structure as the underlying storage for streaming video. We developed a distributed B-tree, and stored video files in the Btree which runs over a cluster of computers and served from there. We show that system throughput increases almost linearly when more computers are added to the system.


In the root canal system, infection of the pulp tissue caused by caries or other pathways is the primary cause of apical periodontitis. The ultimate goal of the endodontic treatment is to create adequate conditions for periradicular tissue healing. Nonsurgical endodontic treatment is a highly predictable treatment option in most cases, but surgery may be indicated for teeth with persistent periradicular pathosis unresponsive to nonsurgical approaches. The aim of this article is to highlight the possibility of the successful outcome of surgical endodontic treatment following failed non surgical treatment of right maxillary central incisor. With proper case selection and operator skill, periradicular surgery can be considered predictable, cost effective alternative to tooth extraction and tooth replacement.


It is widely accepted that the Semantic Web will be based on machine-readable metadata describing the content of resources. These descriptions are designed to enable intelligent agents to locate and filter relevant information with a higher level of accuracy. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) has been developed as universal language for encoding content-related metadata and recently a number of query languages have been proposed to extract information from metadata models. Current applications of RDF and RDF query languages only use very simple metadata like simple concept hierarchies (The Open Directory) or pre-defined attribute value pairs (Dublin Core). In this paper we address the problem of encoding and querying complex metada using RDF models and queries. In our approach we consider ontologies with complex concept definitions in the spirit of DAML+OIL and propose a pre-processing method that enables us to access these models using RDF query languages without losing information.


This case report presents an eight-year-old girl having periauricular swelling and severe pain during mouth opening on the right-side temporomandibular joint (TMJ). CBCT showed extensive destruction of the base of the skull and the roof of the glenoid fossa on the right side. The findings based on CT and MRI images with and without contrast are discussed herein. This report highlights a skull base eosinophilic granuloma that mimics TMJ disorder and the importance of proper evaluation of CBCT images to make an early diagnosis.


Two actors perform a dance sequence in Aretha: The Musical. One actor wears a black dress and the other actors wears a black and white outfit.


Abstract A bridging technique based on Lagrange multipliers, namely the Arlequin method, is widely used for coupling multi-scale models. However, the definition of the following key parameters is still unclear: the energy partition functions, the characteristic length of the coupling operator and the size of the coupling zone. This work aims to investigate the influences of these factors on the coupling accuracy by conducting global sensitivity analysis on different multi-scale models. To this end, a data-driven model that approximates the input/output behavior of the numerical model is built by using the Sparse Polynomial Chaos Expansion (SPCE) methodology. Then, Sobol' indices that quantify the sensitivity of the input factors are calculated analytically from the data-driven model with a negligible additional computational cost. Interaction effects among different parameters are also captured. Using this approach, several benchmark tests, including a coarse-fine bar model, a particle-continuum model and a 2D-1D sandwich model, are considered to explore the optimal settings of the coupling factors, which hopefully help for the multi-scale analysis of heterogeneous materials and structures.


This thesis seeks to demonstrate the presence of a social structure based on the organisation of relationships in a group of preschool children. Analyses of interaction frequencies indicate the presence of four distinct friendship groups. Analyses based on semantic classifications of acts (mainly speech) were undertaken and these demonstrated that children do establish mutually meaningful interactions by which differential relationships are expressed. This is achieved through the selective use by the children of inclusive and exclusive behaviours whose distribution was found to conform to the distribution of interaction frequencies. It is argued that these behaviours provide the constitutive bases of the observed social structure by maintaining distinctions in interrelationships. Subsequent analyses of pronominal references indicated that different degrees of mutual involvement are actively sought by children. It is thus demonstrated that children are interested in the formation and maintenance of relationships per se and this leads to the conclusion that psychological research in this area has been constrained by the imposition of excessively restrictive paradigms. The social capacities of the young child have thereby been underestimated. Most research has tended to consider children's relationships within an analytic framework based on individual acts (e.g. Social Learning Theory) or individual cognitions (e.g. Piagetian Theory). This thesis concludes with the assertion that relationships evade explication within a paradigm that only allows for a study of the individual.


Many medical conditions affect the skeletal system and constitute independent risk factors for fractures. The action of thyroid hormones is necessary to maintain adequate development, mineralization, and bone strength. Untreated hyperthyroidism can lead to a decrease in bone mineral density (BMD), osteoporosis, and pathological fractures. In hypothyroidism, the changes in the quality of bone structure lead to an increase in the frequency of fractures. Excessive body weight negatively impacts fracture risk, increases the risk of osteoarthritis and accelerates the development of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with an increased risk of bone fractures despite different etiopathogenesis due to the duration of the disease and the pro-inflammatory state, the incorporation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) into the bone matrix, and microvascular disorders. This study summarizes the current literature on the influence of thyroid dysfunction, obesity, and diabetes on the skeletal system.


The March 1999 issue of Zygon provides a case illustration of a religion-and-science conversation. The three responses to the issues raised by The Humanizing Brain represent a spectrum ranging from skepticism to affirmation. Each is examined in turn. Next, we present a constructive ser of guidelines beginning with the recognition that interdisciplinary talk requires stretching disciplinary language into metaphor and analogy. We conclude with a methodology emphasizing empiricism and wholism.


OBJECTIVES
To compare patient factors and outcomes among children admitted to PICUs from referring versus children's hospital emergency departments (EDs).

METHODS
Pediatric patients (<19 years old) admitted to PICUs from referring and children's hospital EDs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2013. We compared demographic and clinical factors, including severity of illness as measured by a recalibrated Pediatric Index of Mortality, version 2 score.

RESULTS
Of 80 045 children from 109 PICUs, 35.6% were admitted from referring EDs and 64.4% were admitted from children's hospital EDs. Children from referring EDs had higher illness severity (Pediatric Index of Mortality, version 2-predicted risk of mortality, 3.1% vs 2.2%, P < .001), were more likely to be mechanically ventilated within their first hour in the PICU (28.4% vs 23.4%, P < .001), and had higher observed mortality (3.3% vs 2.1%, P < .001). Once adjusted for illness severity and other confounders in a multivariable logistic regression model, there was no difference in the odds of mortality between children from referring and children's hospital EDs (odds ratio: 0.90; 95% confidence interval: 0.79 to 1.02, P = .09) CONCLUSIONS: Children transferred to PICUs from referring EDs had higher illness severity on arrival compared with children admitted from children's hospital EDs. Variations in patient selection for transfer or pretransfer treatment at referring EDs may contribute to the greater illness severity of transferred children. Referring hospitals may benefit from leveraging existing resources to improve patient stabilization before transfer.


As in most developing countries, agricultural wholesale markets in China operate under imperfect market conditions. Traders are separated and volatile, information services are unavailable or poor, and formal credit or insurance is unavailable to traders. To deal with these circumstances, some traders have developed working relationships with their customers. This paper addresses the newly established relationships between agricultural traders and their customers within China's wholesale markets. Important findings of the paper are (1) improved customer relationships lead to higher profits for traders; and (2) improved customer relationships lead traders to increase their use of variable capital, permanent labor, and temporary labor.


This article surveys the coverage of press advertising and the print ad market in Poland in the interwar period by leading Polish press analysts and advertising specialists who were also involved in the respective trade organizations. They were concerned about the economic condition of the press at large, the legal and technical problems of the print media, and the inadequate understanding of the importance of advertising by the majority of the publishers and the advertisers themselves. Critical analyses were often backed up suggestions how things might be improved to the benefit of the Polish economy


Abstract: Conversion of natural habitats to anthropogenic land uses is a primary cause of amphibian declines in species-rich tropical regions. However, agricultural lands are frequently used by a subset of forest-associated species, and the habitat value of a given land use is likely modified by the presence and characteristics of remnant trees. Here we used mark–recapture methods to examine abundances and movement probability of the poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, at individual trees in forest-fragment edges and adjacent pastures in north-eastern Costa Rica. One hundred and forty-seven trees were surveyed at three replicate sites that each included a forest fragment and adjacent pasture. Trees were sampled at distances of ≤30 m into forest and ≤150 m into pastures for Oophaga pumilio, and local environmental characteristics were measured at each tree. We also measured indices of physical condition (size and endurance) of frogs captured in forest edges and in nearby pastures. Analyses of 167 marked individuals showed no difference in per-tree abundances or sex ratios between pasture and forest edges. We found significant interactions between habitat type and leaf-litter cover, tree dbh and number of logs, indicating greater influence of local variables on abundances in pastures. Movement among trees was infrequent and not predicted by sex, size, habitat type or environmental variables. While results of endurance tests did not differ for individuals from the two habitats, frogs captured in pastures were, on average, larger than frogs captured in forest edges. These data indicate that remnant trees are important habitat features for O. pumilio in pastures and corroborate research in other systems that suggests that large relictual trees should be retained to maximize the potential for altered landscapes to provide habitat for native species.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Nintedanib (BIBF 1200) is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFR), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGFR) and fibroblast growth factor (FGFR) receptors. It is approved in Europe in combination with docetaxel for patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma who have progressed to first-line chemotherapy. However, its role in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is uncertain. Recent results from the LUME-Colon 1 pivotal phase III trial showed only a marginal increase in progression free survival over placebo in refractory mCRC patients, with a toxicity profile similar to other antiangiogenic agents, and no benefit in overall survival. Areas covered: The aim of this review is to summarize the pharmacology, efficacy and safety profile of nintedanib in the context of mCRC, and to provide some perspective regarding the role of this drug in clinical practice. Expert commentary: Nintedanib provides limited clinical benefit in refractory CRC and its use in this clinical setting is not warranted. Efforts shall continue to pursue the identification of predictive biomarkers that allow the selection of subpopulations with a greater likelihood to benefit from this therapeutic approach, in order to improve the benefit-risk and cost-benefit ratios of this and other antiangiogenic agents.


This paper reviews the concept of Reproducibility Probability and makes a brief introduction to RP-testing. The RP-based version of some common parametric tests is provided. Moreover, a particular attention is devoted to the well-known nonparametric Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test. A comparison between the properties of the RP and the p-value is made in order to evaluate the practical utility of these stability indicators. It turns out that the use of the RP to perform the tests and to interpret their results, requires more technical analysis, but it provides more interpretable direct information on the stability of the test results.


The modern mathematical treatment of the study of decisions taken by participants whose interests are in conflict is now generally labeled as "game theory". To understand these interactions the theory provides some solution concepts. An important such a concept is the notion of Nash equilibrium, which provides a way of predicting the behavior of strategic participants in situations of conflicts. However, many decision problems regarding to the computation of Nash equilibrium are computationally hard. Motivated by these hardness results, we study the parameterized complexity of the Nash equilibrium. In parameterized complexity one considers computational problems in a twodimensional setting: the first dimension is the usual input size n, the second dimension is a positive integer k, the parameter. A problem is fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) if it can be solved in time f(k)nO(1) where f denotes a computable, possibly exponential, function. We show that some decision problems regarding to the computation of Nash equilibrium are hard even in parameterized complexity theory. However, we provide FPT algorithms for some other problems relevant to the computation of Nash equilibrium.


This thesis describes a novel method for the layout of undirected graphs. It works by identifying certain patterns within the graph and drawing these in a consistent manner. For graphs to be useful and of benefit to a user, the result must clear and easy to understand. This process attempts to draw graphs in such a manner.

Firstly, a background of graph problems and graph drawing is introduced, before the benefits of patterns are explained. Following this, there is an in-depth discussion of a number of existing graph drawing techniques, perceptual theories and methods for subgraph isomorphism.

This pattern-based method is then explained in great detail. Firstly, the patterns required are defined and examples given. Then, there is an explanation of the methodology involved in identifying these patterns within a graph. Following on from this, the order in which patterns are drawn based on their connection types to those already drawn is detailed, before a detailed description of each drawing method.

Evaluation of this method follows, starting with analysis mainly based on three real world data sources. This is in the form of side-by-side comparisons of graphs drawn with this method and a force-directed method. Following this, a metric based evaluation compares the two methods on edge crossings and occlusion, while also detailing some pattern based metrics.

Further evaluation continues in the form of an empirical study. The methodology of this study is detailed before results are displayed. Analysis of these results follows, with conclusions drawn.

Finally, potential further work is detailed and possible implementations discussed. All study materials and results are provided in the Appendix for those who wish to repeat the study or analysis.


For non-linear inverse scattering problems utilizing Gauss-Newton methods, the Jacobian matrix encodes rich information concerning the system performance and algorithm efficiency. In this paper, we perform an analytical evaluation of a single-iteration Jacobian matrix based on a previously derived nodal adjoint representation. Concepts for studying linear ill-posed problems, such as the degree-of-ill-posedness, are used to assess the impact of important system parameters on the expected image quality. Analytical singular value decomposition (SVD) of the Jacobian matrix for a circular imaging domain is derived along with the numerical SVD for optimizing imaging system configurations. The results show significant reductions in the degree-of-ill-posedness when signal frequency, antenna array density and property parameter sampling are increased. Specifically, the decay rate in the singular spectrum of the Jacobian decreases monotonically with signal frequency being approximately 1/3 of its 0.1 GHz value at 3 GHz, is improved with antenna array density up to about 35 equally-spaced circumferentially positioned elements and drops significantly with increased property parameter sampling to more than twice the amount of measurement data. These results should serve as useful guidelines in the development of design specifications for an optimized hardware installation


While the Pennsylvania Constitution's Environmental Rights Amendment creates rights to clean air, pure water, the preservation of natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment and a public trust over public natural resources, judicial interpretations since the Amendment's passage significantly restricted the meaning of the provision. The Commonwealth Court's three-part test in Payne v. Kassab was the primary basis for those judicial interpretations, and had the effect of a near-universal rejection of such claims. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's plurality opinion in Robinson Township provides a fresh and expansive view of the amendment that revitalizes the possibility of constitutional claims. Although Robinson Township expressly criticized the Payne test, the Commonwealth Court continues to apply it. This article explores the development of the Payne test, and identifies fundamental problems with that test in light of Robinson Township. Finding that the Payne test cannot be salvaged, the article proposes a new test based on the principles articulated in Robinson Township that more closely hews to the new understanding of what the Environmental Rights Amendment means. It concludes by postulating that eliminating the Payne test would better serve the effort to revitalize Section 27 and allow Commonwealth agents and judges to assure that Section 27 plays a vital role in helping to protect Pennsylvania's environment and public natural resources.


It is shown for two simple fixed-source theories with one stable excited state of the source that (1) a knowledge of the physical $S$-matrix elements of the theory is sufficient to decide if the state is associated with an elementary particle or a composite particle, and (2) the theory in which the particle is composite corresponds to the elementary-particle theory in the limit of vanishing wave function renormalization constant of the elementary particle. The distinction between elementary and composite particle is related to a generalization of Levinson's theorem, and it is made plausible that this generalization is valid in local field theory. In an Appendix, the result (2) is generalized, and an application to the dispersion-theoretic treatment of rearrangement collisions is suggested.


It is becoming increasingly hard to build an intrusion detection system (IDS), because of the higher traffic throughput and the rising sophistication of attacking. Scale will be an important issue to address in the intrusion detection area. For hardware, tomorrow's performance gains will come from multi-core architectures in which a number of CPU executes concurrently. We take the advantage of multi-core processors' full power for intrusion detection in this work. We present an intrusion detection system based on the Snort open-source IDS that exploits the computational power of MIPS multi-core architecture to offload the costly pattern matching operations from the CPU, and thus increase the system's processing throughput. A preliminary experiment demonstrates the potential of this system. The experiment results indicate that this method can be used effectively to speed up intrusion detection systems.


Bispecific T-cell engaging (BiTE®) antibody constructs recruit T cells to target antigens independent of their T-cell receptor specificity. Blinatumomab, a CD19xCD3 BiTE® antibody construct, is approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL), including patients with persistence or reoccurrence of measurable residual disease (MRD). Despite superior anti-leukemic efficacy compared to cytostatic agents, a majority of patients do not respond to treatment. Biomarkers for the identification of non-responders prior to or early during treatment are unknown. However, the definition of robust biomarkers for efficacy is of high importance for clinical decision-making and might also indicate ways to improve response rates. We therefore established a comprehensive immune-monitoring program for blinatumomab patients.
 We sequentially analysed peripheral blood of patients with r/r or MRD-positive disease receiving blinatumomab prior to the start of infusion and once weekly over the course of the first 28-day cycle. We determined CD3+ T cell counts and their subset distribution (CD4, CD8, naïve [TN], central memory [TCM], effector memory [TEM], and effector memory CD45RA-positive [TEMRA] T cells) by multiparameter flow cytometry (MPFC). Additionally, patient-derived T cells were cocultered with BCP-ALL cell lines (SEM and REH) at an effector: target ratio of 1:3 in presence of blinatumomab or a control BiTE® (0.5 ng/ml, respectively) for 3 days to assess their cytotoxic capacity. Blinatumomab-mediated cytotoxicity was determined by MPFC. T-cell proliferation was evaluated by MPFC (Far Red Cell tracer) after incubation with CD3/CD28 beads for 6 days.
 A total of 16 patients were enrolled. Four of these patients suffered from MRD disease, whereas the remaining 12 had overt relapse of BCP-ALL. Response rates for patients with morphological relapse were 50% (4 CRMRD- and 2 CRMRD+ after the first cycle) and 75% for patients with MRD disease (3 MRD conversions, 1 MRD persistence). Absolute lymphocyte counts were not significantly different between responders and non-responders before treatment initiation (0.9 G/l and 0.7 G/l, respectively). Whereas the percentage of CD3+ T cells (of all lymphocytes) did not significantly differ between responders and non-responders on day 0, non-responders had a significantly reduced CD3+ percentage on day 7 (81.2% vs 92.9%, p=0.03). Until day 28 of the first cycle, CD3+ percentages of responders and non-responders re-converged (80.2% and 81.4%, respectively). There were no significant differences for CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell percentages prior to and over the course of the first cycle. This was also true for TN, TCM, TEM and TEMRA subset distributions.
 Additionally, CD19-BiTE®-mediated cytotoxicity of patient-derived T cells was assessed against CD19 expressing target B cell lines in vitro. Interestingly, specific lysis did not differ between responders and non-responders on day 0 (89.6% vs 79.8%, p=0.89), but decreased for non-responders over the course of the first cycle (normalized AUC for cytotoxicity 149 vs 403 in responders, p=0.03). However, this observation was only true for the patients with refractory morphologic relapse, as the non-responding MRD patient maintained T cell cytotoxicity over the first cycle of therapy. Impaired T cell proliferation (leading to reduced E:T ratios) might contribute to the observed dysfunctional cytotoxicity in non-responders, as the percentage of proliferating T cells after CD3/CD28 bead-based stimulation tended to be reduced for non-responders (17.9% vs 36.1%, p=0.07).
 In summary, lymphocyte counts, T cell percentage and T cell subset distributions do not allow for a response prediction prior to treatment start for patients receiving blinatumomab. BCP-ALL patients with morphological relapse/persistence who do not achieve a remission with blinatumomab therapy show reduced cytotoxicity in vitro in comparison to patients responding to treatment. As this observation could not be confirmed with one MRD non-responder in our cohort, the burden of disease might contribute to the observed T cell dysfunction, possibly by interfering with T cell proliferation. Evaluation of immune checkpoint expression on effector and target cells over the course of the therapy is currently ongoing, as are analyses of the T cell transcriptome of responders and non-responders.

 Kischel: AMGEN Research (Munich) GmbH: Employment, Equity Ownership. Subklewe:Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Oxford Biotherapeutics: Research Funding; Miltenyi: Research Funding; Roche: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Morphosys: Research Funding; AMGEN: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding.


Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are global epidemics, driven by an obesogenic environment. This is mediated by complex underlying pathophysiology, in which chronic inflammation is an important aetiological and mechanistic phenomenon. A shift towards a subclinical TH1–lymphocyte mediated innate and chronic inflammatory response is well defined in obesity and MetS, demonstrated in multiple systems including visceral adiposity, brain (hypothalamus), muscles, vasculature, liver, pancreas, testes, epididymis, prostate and seminal fluid. Inflammatory cytokines disrupt the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐testes axis and steroidogenesis cascades (hypogonadotropic hypogonadism), spermatogenesis (poor semen parameters, including DNA fragmentation and detrimental epigenetic modification) and results in subclinical prostatitis and prostate hyperplasia. This review aims to highlight the role of chronic inflammation in obesity and MetS, cytokines in male reproductive physiology and pathophysiology, the impact on steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis, prostate pathology and erectile dysfunction. Currently, it is recommended that clinical assessment of male infertility and reproductive dysfunction in obese and MetS patients includes inflammation assessment (highly sensitive C‐reactive protein), and appropriate advice and therapeutic options are incorporated in the management options. However, the mechanisms and therapeutic options remain poorly understood and require significant interdisciplinary research to identify potential novel therapeutic strategies.


We investigate the effects of the molar ratio (x) of PbBr2 on the phases, microstructure, surface morphology, optical properties, and structural defects of mixed lead halides PbI2(1−x)Br2x for use in solar cell devices. Results indicate that as x increased to 0.3, the surface morphology continued to improve, accompanied by the growth of PbI2 grains. This resulted in lead halide films with a very smooth and continuous morphology, including large grains when the film was formed at x = 0.3. In addition, the microstructure changed from (001)-oriented pure PbI2 to a highly (001)-oriented β (PbI2-rich) phase. The plausible mechanism for the enhanced morphology of the lead halide films by the addition of PbBr2 is proposed based on the growth of a Br-saturated lead iodide solid solution. Furthermore, iodine vacancies, identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, decreased as the ratio of PbBr2 increased. Finally, an electrical analysis of the solar cells was performed by using a PN heterojunction model, revealing that structural defects, such as iodine vacancies and grain boundaries, are the main contributors to the degradation of the performance of pure PbI2-based solar cells (including high leakage, low stability, and high hysteresis), which was significantly improved by the addition of PbBr2. The solar cell fabricated at x = 0.3 in air showed excellent stability and performance. The device lost merely 20% of the initial efficiency of 4.11% after 1500 h without encapsulation. This may be due to the dense microstructure and the reduced structural defects of lead halides formed at x = 0.3.


BACKGROUND
Cholesterol is especially abundant in nervous system, where it plays important role in different aspects of cellular structure (e.g. fluidity of cell membranes) and function (e.g. membrane). Several studies showed that there may be a link between depression and low cholesterol because of altered central serotonergic functions. On the other hand, some studies also showed either no such association or yielded inconsistent results. However, many studies have related low cholesterol with different psychiatric disorders. Hence, we intend to see the possible link between the two.

AIM
To study the association between lipid profile and psychiatric disorders.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients attending Amala Institute of medical science, Psychiatry clinic in the month of January 2013 and whose lipid profile data before the start of treatment is available.

DESIGN
Descriptive study. The patients were classified into Neurotic and Psychotic spectrum after being diagnosed with the psychiatric diseases based on International Classification of Diseases, 10(th) edition (ICD10) by a Psychiatrist. There lipid profile (Total cholesterol; LDL=Low Density Lipoprotein; HDL=High Density Lipoprotein; TAG=Triacylglycerol) were estimated before the initiation of anti-psychotic treatment.

RESULTS
The lipid profile values though showed some statistically significant association between the psychotic and neurotic spectrum, there was no statistical significance between the low lipid profile and different psychiatric diseases.

CONCLUSION
We have found that there is no significant association between low lipid profile and any psychiatric diseases.


Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) have important social and economic values for society by utilizing NTFPs for their livelihood. The purpose of this research was to make aninventory and to identify NTFPs that has been managed dan utilized by community, to determine superior NTFPs of Barito Timur Regency, to analyze the stake holder's tasks, functions, and rolesin the NTFPs development, and to formulate the development strategy of NTFPs. The research was carried out in selected locations of Barito Timur Regency, Central Kalimantan Province. The data were obtained withindepth interviews to the key informants and villagers and through surveying the potential of NTFP. Development Strategy was formulated with SWOT analysis.. Primary and secondary data were collected through bservation method. The findings showed that the commodity of NTFP in Regency Barito Timur were rattans, agar wood, bamboos, and palm sugar. Rattan was featured NTFP of Regency Barito Timur with the value 68.15. Based on the result of the analysis of Matrix SWOT diagram, the development position of Barito Timur Regency was in quadrant I that showed the coordinate (1,132 and 0,988). It means that the position has strengths and pportunities to make it possible to develop and achieve progress. The stake holders are government, enterpreneurs, and farmers. The development strategies for maximizing the use of rattans were to develop rattan production source by cultivation, developing cooperative businesses as an attempt to increase the use of rattans, to develop the marketing of rattan, and to develop the role of stake holders.


the Kanto struck Tokyo metropolitan area and about 90 % of victims were killed by urban mass fires. It is well that fire whirls appeared after the which resulted in the death of 38,000 evacuated people in Hifukusho-ato area. Prof. Torahiko reported the occurrence of the fire whirls and considered their behaviors. In this presentation, as disaster education, we will demonstrate a desktop experiment on fire whirls using transparent halfpipes. We also show a simple experiment of moisture whirl (its buoyancy is opposite to the fire whirl). Because the moisture is generated by dry ice in humid air, it is much safer than the fire whirl experiment in a class room. The 3D flow structure in the whirl is visualized by a commercial projector, which provides better understanding on the flow in the whirl.


This paper evaluates the impact of prepayment schemes on access to health care for poor households, based on household survey data. Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world. After the genocide in 1994, public health care services were provided for free to patients, financed by donors and the government. In 1996, the Ministry of Health reintroduced prewar level user charges. By 1999, utilization of primary health care services had dropped from 0.3 in 1997 to a national average of 0.2 annual consultations per capita. This sharp drop in health service use combined with growing concerns about rising poverty, poor health outcome indicators, and a worrisome HIV prevalence among all population groups motivated the Rwandan government to develop community-based health insurance to assure access to the modern health system for the poor. The findings presented in this paper reveal that insurance enrollment is determined by household characteristics such as the health district of household residence, education level of household head, family size, distance to the health facility, and radio ownership, whereas health and economic indicators did not influence enrollment. Insurance members report up to five times higher health service use than nonmembers.


Iterative deblurring methods using the expectation maximization (EM) formulation and the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART), respectively, are adapted for metal artifact reduction in medical computed tomography (CT). In experiments with synthetic noise-free and additive noisy projection data of dental phantoms, it is found that both simultaneous iterative algorithms produce superior image quality as compared to filtered backprojection after linearly fitting projection gaps. Furthermore, the EM-type algorithm converges faster than the ART-type algorithm in terms of either the I-divergence or Euclidean distance between ideal and reprojected data in the authors' simulation. Also, for a given iteration number, the EM-type deblurring method produces better image clarity but stronger noise than the ART-type reconstruction. The computational complexity of EM- and ART-based iterative deblurring is essentially the same, dominated by reprojection and backprojection. Relevant practical and theoretical issues are discussed.


Electrical stimulation of the anterior limbic region in Nembutal-anesthetized cats evokes uterine contractions similar to those elicited by the injection of 50–100 mu of synthetic oxytocin. The contractions of the uterus caused by cortical stimulation must be related to release of an oxytocic agent carried through the blood stream, since transection of the spinal cord together with the severance of the vagi did not prevent the contractions. A moderate rise in blood pressure that appeared in the animals with spinal cord transection also suggests release of vasopressin.


held at the Rice Institute, Houston, Texas. It comes at a time when exciting discoveries about the nature of the parathyroid hormone are providing a key to the clearer understanding of calcium metabolism in relation to bone, kidney, and gut. There are 29 original contributions, all but one being by leading American workers in this field. These and the discussions which follow cover most of the ground. Historical perspective is achieved by preliminary reviews and the inclusion of biographical tributes to the great pioneers, such as Collip and Albright. Notable among so many outstanding contributions are important accounts of the isolation and chemical properties of parathyroid hormone by Aurbach and Rasmussen (section II); new evidence on the actions of parathyroid hormone on renal excretion of calcium and phosphate by Bartter and Kleeman (section VI); and on mineral absorption from the gut by Cramer (section III). Talmage and Copp (section IV) both discuss very clearly current views on the control of parathyroid hormone secretion; and the important role of citric acid in bone metabolism is dealt with by several authors in section V. By contrast the clinical section (VII) is small and rather disappointing. The book as a whole is a great tribute to the zeal, fertility, and basic trends of American research at its best. Much of it is readable and stimulating to the general clinician. He will feel that principles of great clinical importance are about to emerge even though their outline may not as yet be clear.


Predation causes robust long-term stress-related effects on prey individuals even if they do not get consumed by the predator. Here I review the role of basolateral amygdala (BLA) neurons in the mediation of non-consumptive effects of predation. This brain region is critical for the generation and maintenance of fear response across many phylogenetic groups. The exposure to cues of predator presence activates neurons within the BLA. Hormones secreted during stressful episodes cause long-lasting structural changes in BLA neurons, causing facilitation of endocrine response during subsequent exposure to stressful episodes like later predator exposure. Some studies also suggest that BLA is involved in creating anticipatory defensive behavior in response to the expectation of change in the environment.


The dispersal and flight activities of Plecia nearctica Hardy were studied by 2 mark-recapture techniques. First flies were collected with a D-Vac and agitated in a 1-gal jar containing Day-Glo fluorescent dust. Then the flies were released in an area containing sticky traps placed in a circular pattern around the release point at distances of 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 ft. The second marking technique involved dusting resting flies in a grassy area with Day-Glo pigment in the late afternoon after the flies had settled for the evening. With the release technique, more flies were recaptured at 100 ft than at any distance greater than 100 ft from the release point. Beyond 100 ft and up to 500 ft similar numbers of marked flies per trap were recollected. With the dusting technique the number of marked flies recaptured decreased at increasing distances from the center of the dusted area. No significant differences were found in the distances moved by single males and females or copulating pairs with either marking technique. There were also no differences in the directions moved by the 3 categories of flies after either marking technique. Dusting flies on the vegetation is the more desirable marking technique because no handling of the flies is necessary.


With the wealth of complete genome sequences, a large number of genes have been identified. It is reported that the genes coding transmembrane proteins (TMPs) tend to be located on genome in dense cluster [4], some of closely located TMPs seem to be simultaneously expressed, or functionally related. In this study, we analyzed 46 complete prokaryotic genomes by expressing them as gene sequences in order to find out clusters of TMP genes.


This article is a study on methods of digitalization for older oriental books using XML (extensible Markup Language) proposed as a standard for Web documents by W3C in 1996. In this paper, to digitalize older books, 1 designed the XML DTD(Document Type Definition) for general older oriental books and input the texts of the older books on the basis of the XML DTD, examined the problems and limitations in light of the technical level these days, and established the model of the system for using XML files of older oriental books at a national level in the future.


The objective is to describe the outcomes of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe respiratory failure (SRF). The design and setting was a single centre retrospective observational case series, from January 2012 to June 2017, at a tertiary university hospital and regional referral centre for ECMO in the United Kingdom. The participants were all patients referred with SRF and HIV infection. The main outcome measure was patient 90-day survival. Twenty-four patients were referred, of whom nine received ECMO. Six out of nine (67%) of patients were alive at 90 days. Median duration of ECMO was 18 days. There were no identified differences between survivors and non-survivors. ECMO can be used successfully in selected patients with HIV and SRF, including those with poor HIV control and high illness severity. HIV status alone should not exclude patients from treatment with extracorporeal therapy.


This paper compares lead-acid batteries, sodium-sulfur batteries, solid polymer fuel cells and closed-cycle diesel engines for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) applications. The service is described in terms of a parametric mission and life cycle. A generic AUV is used as a basis for comparison. Power systems are evaluated by two criteria: (1) submerged endurance capability and (2) life cycle cost. This study determines categories of service for which each power system is preferred. The solid polymer fuel cell can provide greater submerged endurance than other power systems examined. For extremely long duration AUV missions, the fuel cell is the required system, indicating a possible market niche for today's fuel cell technology. Considering cost projections for each power system, the results also show that the SPFC can become cost-competitive with conventional technologies, particularly for services characterized by high levels of utilization. >


Paper focuses on main topics in high speed video acquisition system designing. This video system is used in sophisticated diagnostics of microstructures in human tissue, especially respiratory epithelium cilium. System is linked with optical microscope and uses a phantom generator controlled with DSP processor for calibration and debugging. Algorithms and software are developed as user friendly virtual instruments.


International efforts to dismantle the nuclear program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have been marked by limited and inconsistent engagement and distrust. One often overlooked diplomatic process that has been continuous and has supported the development of greater trust is parliamentary diplomacy writes Jeffrey Robertson. Parliamentary diplomacy is best known as a process for dialogue between parliamentarians of different countries, typified by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). With globalisation and the greater impact of foreign affairs on domestic politics, parliamentarians have also started to undertake roles commonly associated with traditional diplomats, including the tasks of representation, negotiation and mediation.


For Richard Florida, the 'creative city' is characterised by 'lots of high-tech industry' (Florida, 2002: 275), located in an urban centre 'whose rebirth has been fuelled by a combination of creativity and lifestyle amenities' (Florida, 2002: 285). Following a visit to Wellington, New Zealand, in 2003, Florida suggested that these factors existed in sufficient concentration to provide a foundation for its continuing development as a 'creative city'. In reaching this judgment, Florida made little attempt to account for the origin of the qualities of Wellington's current urban culture. This paper therefore examines Florida's account of Wellington's status as a 'creative city' and analyses the development of its cultural characteristics through the interaction of the intended and unintended consequences of urban policy over time


RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE
Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common among hospitalized children and is associated with increased hospital length of stay and costs. However, there are limited data on post-discharge healthcare utilization after AKI hospitalization. Our objectives were to evaluate healthcare utilization and physician follow-up patterns after pediatric dialysis-treated AKI.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study, using provincial health administrative databases.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
All hospitalized children (0-18yr) between 1996-2017 in Ontario, Canada.

EXCLUSIONS
Non-Ontario residents, metabolic disorders or poisoning, and dialysis or kidney transplant (pre-admission or by 3mo post-discharge).

EXPOSURE
Episodes of dialysis-treated AKI, identified using validated health administrative codes. AKI survivors were matched to four hospitalized controls without dialysis-treated AKI by age, sex, and admission year.

OUTCOMES
Our primary outcome was post-discharge hospitalizations, emergency department, and outpatient physician visits. Secondary outcomes included outpatient visits by physician type and composite healthcare costs.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH
Proportions with ≥1 event and rates (per 1,000 person-years). Total and median composite healthcare costs. Adjusted rate ratios (aRR) using negative binomial regression models.

RESULTS
We included 1688 pediatric dialysis-treated AKI survivors and 6752 matched controls. Dialysis-treated AKI survivors had higher re-hospitalization and emergency department visit rates (0-1yr, 0-5yr, 0-10yr, and throughout follow-up), and outpatient visit rates (0-1yr). The overall aRR for re-hospitalization was 1.46 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-1.69, p<0.0001) and outpatient visits was 1.16 (95%CI 1.09-1.23, p=0.01). Dialysis-treated AKI survivors also had higher healthcare costs. Nephrologist follow-up was infrequent among dialysis-treated AKI survivors (18.6% by 1yr post-discharge).

LIMITATIONS
Potential miscoding of study exposures or outcomes. Residual uncontrolled confounding. Data for healthcare costs and emergency department visits was unavailable prior to 2006 and 2001, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Dialysis-treated AKI survivors had greater post-discharge healthcare utilization and costs vs. hospitalized controls. Strategies are needed to improve follow-up care for children after dialysis-treated AKI to prevent long-term complications.


PDE-constrained optimization problems with control or state constraints are challenging from an analytical as well as numerical perspective. The combination of these constraints with a sparsity-promoting $\rm L^1$ term requires sophisticated optimization methods. We propose the use of an Interior Point scheme applied to a smoothed reformulation of the discretized problem, and we illustrate that such a scheme exhibits robust performance with respect to parameter changes. To increase the potency of this method we introduce fast and effective preconditioners which enable us to solve problems from a number of PDE applications in low iteration numbers and CPU times, even when the parameters involved are altered dramatically.


In this paper we address a set of interrelated issues. These comprise increasing concerns about reliance on nationally based income poverty measures in the context of EU enlargement, the relative merits of one-dimensional versus multidimensional approaches to poverty and social exclusion and the continuing relevance of class-based explanations of life chances. When identifying economically vulnerable groups we find that, contrary to the situation with national income poverty measures, levels of vulnerability vary systematically across welfare regimes. The multidimensional profile of the economically vulnerable sharply differentiates them from the remainder of the population. While they are also characterised by distinctively higher levels of multiple deprivation, a substantial majority of the economically vulnerable are not exposed to such deprivation. Unlike the national relative income approach, the focus on economic vulnerability reveals a pattern of class differentiation that is not dominated by the contrast between the self-employed and all others. In contrast to a European-wide relative income approach, it also simultaneously captures the fact that absolute levels of vulnerability are distinctively higher among the lower social classes in the less comprehensive and generous welfare regimes while class relativities are significantly sharper at the other end of the spectrum.


INTRODUCTION
Potassium iodine (KI) is used as a drug therapy for treating numerous diseases such as small-vessel vasculitis, erythema nodosum, vasculitis nodularis, Sweet's syndrome, tuberculosis and granulomatosis, and for iodized salt. At the same time, KI can be harmful. Iodine intake may increase the frequency of thyroiditis in humans, and may induce the occurrence of experimental thyroiditis (ET) in animals. Investigations on an experimental model for the examination of thyroiditis in Wistar rats have clearly showed morphological changes in the rat thyroid evoked by KI administration.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of low and high doses of KI on the thyroid gland of Wistar rats and determine the effect on hormone status (T4, T3 and TSH) in this rat strain.

METHODS
Two groups of rats from the Wistar strain were treated with a low iodine dose (225 microg/g BW) and with a high iodine dose (675 microg/g BW) of KI solutions. Untreated nonimmunized animals served as controls. The solution was administrated daily intraperitoneally during the period of 26 consecutive days.

RESULTS
Monitoring hormone status (TSH, T3 and T4) and morphological changes it was found that therapeutic doses of KI applied in treatment induced the occurrence of experimental thyroiditis (chronic destructive Hashimoto's thyroiditis in humans) and cell necrosis in animals not carrying a genetic susceptibility. Significant inflammatory changes were observed in rats treated with a high iodine dose.

CONCLUSION
The early iodine induced cell necrosis and inflammation in the nonimmunized animals without genetic susceptibility is a new experimental model of thyroiditis.


Total current spectroscopy (TCS) was used to study an evolution of unoccupied states through the process of thin-layer copper deposition and its oxidation on polar ZnO(0001) and surfaces. Zn-derived and O-derived unoccupied bands were identified in the TC spectrum at 7.7 and 9.8 eV, respectively, from the clean and well ordered polar ZnO faces, while the spectra from a thin CuO layer reveal an intensive fine structure in the 6 - 25 eV energy range above the Fermi level, which is discussed in comparison with previously reported results of experimental and theoretical investigations. The obtained data provide additional information on the energy location of the edges of unoccupied bands in CuO in the 6 - 25 eV range relative to .


The new privately owned one-family house sold (C25) is recognized as great indicator for
economy. The monthly data in February 2011 was 250,000 houses sold. Compared to five
years ago, 1,061,000 in 2006 were decreased by 76%. What are the causes to the dramatic
decline of number of C25? The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors that determine the
decline of number of C25 in US. Therefore, in this study, dependent variable is the new
privately owned one-family house sold. Independent variables include 30 years mortgage rate,
real personal income, unemployment rate, population, and house price index. The results
indicate when the interest rate increases 1%, the number of new privately owned one-family
houses sold decreases by 20 thousand. When the unemployment rate increases 1%, the number of new privately owned one-family houses sold decreases 81 thousand, holding all
other variables constant. We thought when price goes up the demand should go down. But it
doesn't fit in this study. Income and house sold have positive relationship but it's not
significant. It shows that real personal income and unemployment have a high correlation. For
the population variable, the coefficient is a negative number. Even though the p-value
indicates that this result is not significant, we still couldn't figure out the cause of this
negative relation. The result of monthly dummy test indicates that none of the months has
significant effects. However, from March to July the slopes of the months have positive or
lower negative effects. Consequently, it's impossible to determine all the causes to the
number of new house sold since many factors are interrelated. However, through our series of
statistical tests, we could be able to conclude that current mortgage rate is significant at 1%
level; mortgage rate at lag one time period is significant at 5% level; both real personal
incomes at lag one time period and unemployment rate at lag two time period are significant
at 10% level.
Keywords: house sold, mortgage rate, income level, unemployment rate, population increases,
house price index


Objective:To study the differences in short and long-term outcomes of transthoracic and transhiatal esophagectomy for cancer. Background:Studies have compared transthoracic with transhiatal esophagectomy with varying results. Previous systematic reviews (1999, 2001) do not include the latest randomized controlled trials. Methods:Systematic review of English-language studies comparing transthoracic with transhiatal esophagectomy up to January 31, 2010. Meta-analysis was used to summate the study outcomes. Methodological and surgical quality of included studies was assessed. Results:Fifty-two studies, comprising 5905 patients (3389 transthoracic and 2516 transhiatal) were included in the analysis. No study met all minimum surgical quality standards. Transthoracic operations took longer and were associated with a significantly longer length of stay. There was no difference in blood loss. The transthoracic group had significantly more respiratory complications, wound infections, and early postoperative mortality, whereas anastomotic leak, anastomotic stricture, and recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy rate was significantly higher in the transhiatal group. Lymph node retrieval was reported in 4 studies and was significantly greater in the transthoracic group by on average 8 lymph nodes. Analysis of 5-year survival showed no significant difference between the groups and was subject to significant heterogeneity. Conclusions:This meta-analysis of studies comparing transthoracic with transhiatal esophagectomy for cancer demonstrates no difference in 5-year survival, however lymphadenectomy and reported surgical quality was suboptimal in both groups and the transthoracic group had significantly more advanced cancer. The finding of equivalent survival should therefore be viewed with caution.


The US Census Bureau has released new data regarding same-sex couples from the 2008 American Community Survey. Notably, this marks the first time the Census Bureau has released official estimates for the number of same-sex spouses in the US. An estimated 149,956 same-sex couples identified one partner as a husband or wife, and an estimated 414,787 additional same-sex couples identified as "unmarried partners".


A previous study has shown bone formation around poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) wire in vivo. However, it is still unknown how bone cells are stimulated to form bone around PLLA wire. The effect of PLLA on primary bone cells in vitro is the subject of this study. Osteoprogenitor and osteoblastic cells derived from neonatal mouse calvaria were cultured after addition of PLLA wire or L-lactide to the culture medium. Alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity, as a parameter of bone cell differentiation, and DNA content, to assess cell growth were measured. In osteoblast-enriched cell cultures PLLA wire did not affect DNA content, but AP activity was increased by 28%. In osteoprogenitor-enriched cell cultures PLLA wire decreased DNA content by 10%, but AP activity of the cells was not affected. L-Lactide enhanced the DNA content of osteoblastic cell cultures at 0.1 mM by 19%, but not at higher concentrations, and did not affect cell differentiation. In osteoprogenitor cell cultures, L-lactide had no effect at all. These results indicate that the proliferation and differentiation of bone cells in vitro can be modulated by PLLA, dependent on their stage of differentiation. L-Lactide at concentrations up to 10 mM did not adversely affect cell growth or differentiation, while PLLA wire upregulated the expression of the osteoblastic phenotype. These data support the observation of newly formed bone around poly-lactic acid wire in vivo in other the studies.


The neonatal period represents a critical phase of human brain development. During this time, the brain shows a dramatic increase in size, but it remains largely unclear how the morphology of the human brain develops in early post-partum life. Here we show that human newborns undergo a rapid formation of brain shape, beyond the expected growth in brain size. Using fractal analysis of structural neuroimaging data, we show that brain shape (i) strongly reflects infant maturity beyond differences in brain size, (ii) significantly outperforms brain size in predicting infant age at scan (mean error ~4 days), (iii) detects persistent alterations in prematurely born infants that are not captured by brain size, (iv) is consistently more sensitive to genetic similarity among neonates, and (v) is superior in predicting which newborns are twin siblings, with up to 97% accuracy. These findings identify the formation of brain shape as a fundamental maturational process in human brain development.


The power Selsyn unit, an adaptation of the wound rotor induction motor, provides accurate remote control of angular motion, using only an electrical connection. The characteristics of these units are described briefly in this paper, and methods of calculating their performance are offered. Typical applications of Selsyn drives also are given.


We trace the history of the Durban Aquarium from its founding to the present. With reference to individuals such as Kelpie the dolphin (Stenella euphrosyne), Sally the sawfish (Pristis pectinatus), ORI II the penguin (Spheniscus demersus) and Ballard the curator (Homo sapiens), we delineate mechanisms such as visibility, accelerated turnover, transgression, consumption of spectacle, and the predation taboo which work to shape the dynamic tension between science and spectacle, between freedom and captivity and between modern and postmodern in the life of the aquarium.


THE ESSENTIALS OF FORENSIC MEDICINE, 2nd ed. Revised. By C. J. Polson. (Pp. xvi + 600; 153 figures. 105s.) Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1965. This textbook will be welcomed as an enlarged and improved second edition of a successful treatise on forensic medicine. Professor Polson, in his prefaces, declares that his primary aim was a text for medical undergraduates and for them, despite size and price, the book remains eminently suitable. It will also be of value to a much wider reading public including, despite the author's disclaimer, specialists in forensic medicine who will turn to this work for reference. The price reflects the size of the book and the number of the illustrations, most of which are excellent.


The concept of Business Intelligence (BI) approaches several technologies that aim at arranging the extraction and visualization of information, and just like in a competitive company the university management must also update itself, therefore adopting the use of processes that aid and speed decision making. Information Systems (IS) are indispensable elements and should mean more than the processing of routine activities, thereby starting to contribute to a strategic vision. The Western State University of Parana (UNIOESTE) has many IS, but its users still face difficulties in extracting information in the desired format. Thus, this paper reports the outcomes of a research developed during the dissertation of a Master's Degree on Information Technology Management which is aimed at researching BI technologies. More specifically the Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), as well as implementing an operation prototype that could facilitate the retrieval of information from the dean's office for planning, whose sources are many UNIOESTE information systems. In order to reach that goal, an exploratory/descriptive research of the qualitative type was developed by means of a documentary and bibliographical research. A prototype with the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) tool, which is a component of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, here integrated with Excel 2010 spreadsheet editor for end-user interface, was developed and evaluated. As part of the evaluation system, the SUS questionnaire was used to measure user satisfaction, where the average score given by participants was 91.5 on a 0 to 100 scale, which means quite a positive evaluation.


Abstract. This paper focuses on the molluscan faunal changes in the nonmarine deposits of the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) Itsuki Formation of the Tetori Group, central Japan. In the lower part of the Itsuki Formation, the transition from brackish to freshwater environments is recognized by lithofacies, sedimentary structures, and fossil indices of molluscs and plant remains. The molluscan assemblages include eleven gastropod species and six bivalve species, and one new gastropod species, Probaicalia okurai sp. nov., is described. The brackish habitats in the delta-front were dominated by Myrene tetoriensis, which usually formed shell beds. The newly founded freshwater habitats on the fluvial environments were populated by Campeloma onogoense and Sphaerium coreanicum as pioneer immigrants. With the development of the fluvial floodplain, a variety of aquatic and semiaquatic microenvironments formed, thereby providing various habitats suitable for small gastropods.


The triple-helical domains of two subtypes of type V collagen were prepared from human placenta, one with the chain composition of [α1(V)]2α2(V) (Vp112) and the other with the chain composition of α1(V)α2(V)α3(V) (Vp123) with limited pepsin treatment. In order to characterize the triple-helical domain of the type Vp123 collagen molecule, the reconstituted aggregate structure formed from the pepsin-treated collagen was compared by using transmission electron microscopy. The diameter of the fibrils reconstituted from types pepsin-treated type Vp123 collagen and type Vp112 collagen was highly uniform and less than the D-periodicity at all the temperatures examined, suggesting that the major triple-helical domain of both subtypes has a potency to limit their lateral growth. Both fibrils were approximately 45 nm in width and showed the D-periodic banding pattern along their axes at 34°C. In contrast to type Vp112, the reconstituted type Vp123 fibrils showed no banding pattern along their axes when they were reconstituted at 37°C. The banded fibrils once reconstituted from type Vp123 at 34°C tend to lose their characteristic pattern within 60 min when they were incubated at 37°C. One explanation is that a slightly higher content of hydrophobic residues of type Vp123 collagen than those of type V112p collagen augmented the intermolecular interaction that disturbs the D-periodicity governed essentially by electrostatic interactions. Taken together with recent data in Col5a3 gene-targeted mice, the results suggest that type V123 collagen exists not only as a periodic banded fibril but also as nonfibrillar meshwork structures.


In order to assess the capacity of low voltage electricity grids different grid operation cases are usually analyzed. These cases are used to identify weaknesses in the grid, evaluate the risks involved and subsequently facilitate the integration of new loads such as electric vehicles or heat pumps which are joining these grids in an increasing degree. This study suggests a random load allocation algorithm to create realistic worst-case scenarios for grid operation without the need for historical load data or reverting to load profiles. This is achieved by distributing loads asymmetrically across all three phases so that they comply with grid codes and burden the local transformer moderately. In this way, a multitude of feasible load scenarios is generated and evaluated. A metric is proposed to select those scenarios which lead to a critical operation state of the grid. The generated worst-case scenarios can be used to evaluate the potential capacity and risks of integrating new consumers into grids. This is demonstrated in a use case where electric vehicles are integrated into the investigated grid at half of all connection points. The Analysis shows that the grid is additionally stressed and the reinforcement of cables or charge management would be required to facilitate the safe operation of the grid with additional loads.


Abstract This paper proposes a solution to a certain two-alternative problem of aviation transportation optimal organization in conditions of uncertainty of the subjective preference functions. Conditional optimization of the objective functional containing the entropy of the individuals' operational effectiveness functions preferences is carried out in the framework of the simplest variational problem. The advantages of the described optimization approach are demonstrated in the generalized terms of the operational effectiveness functions for aviation transportation organization.


A self-consistent theory of the admittance of a perfect ballistic, locally charge neutral wire is proposed. Compared to a non-interacting theory, screening effects drastically change the frequency behavior of the conductance. In the single-channel case the frequency dependence of the admittance is monotonic, while for two or more channels collective interchannel excitations lead to resonant structures in the admittance. The imaginary part of the admittance is typically positive, but can become negative near resonances.


Deconvolution techniques used in circulation studies have been compared by generating synthetic curves with known parameters and analysing them by digital and analogue methods. The digital computer technique introduces a systematic error which can only be reduced to reasonable proportions when prohibitively long computer times are used. The analogue computer gives results of sufficient accuracy for clinical purposes which can be available within minutes of completing a measurement.


down disease progression. Aim and objectives To analyse the reasons for treatment discontinuation with biological drugs in patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in our hospital. Material and methods A retrospective study was performed in which all patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis treated with biological drugs at some point (between 2007 and 2016) were included. Data on biological drug dispensations, causes of treatment discontinuation, sex and age of the patients were collected. We use Excel to analyse the data. Results 136 patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis treated with a biological drug were included, with a total of 251 treatments (85 etanercept, 50 infliximab, 48 adalimumab, 23 abatacept, 11 certolizumab, 7 golimumab and 5 tocilizumab). Patients received a median of 1.8 biological drugs (range 1–6 drugs). Mean patient age was 41.12±11.33 years, and 81.9% of all patients were women. 103 patients discontinued therapy at some point in their treatment with the prescribed biological drug, corresponding to a total of 196 of 251 (78.1%). 33 patients continued with the same drug that they started treatment. 63 (74.1%) discontinuations were due to etanercept, 41 (82.0%) to infliximab, 39 (81.2%) to adalimumab, 16 to abatacept (69.6%), 20 to rituximab (90.9%), 7 to certolizumab (63.6%), 5 to golimumab (71.4%) and 5 to tocilizumab (100%). The main causes of treatment discontinuation were adverse events (29.6%), followed by secondary failure (24.5%) and primary failure (18.4%). Other reasons were patient reasons (3.6%), patient's illness (3.6%), remission (3.1%) and immunogenicity (1.5%). 14.8% of discontinuations were unknown. Allergic or skin reactions were the most common adverse events. Conclusion and relevance Certolizumab was the biological drug with the lowest discontinuation rate, followed by abatacept, golimumab and etanercept. Among the different reasons for treatment discontinuation with biological drugs, adverse effects were the main cause (29.8%), with about 50% related to allergic or skin reactions.


In this report, we have found that fatty acid-free bovine serum albumin stimulated the expression of a transfected foreign gene in Cos1 cells in serum-free medium and that its activity was as same as that of fetal calf serum. This will simplify the purification of the gene product from the culture medium.


OBJECTIVE
Current suicide risk screening and measurement are inefficient, have limited measurement precision, and focus entirely on suicide-related items. For this study, a psychometric harmonization between related suicide, depression, and anxiety symptom domains that provides a more balanced and complete spectrum of suicidal symptomatology was developed. The objective of this article is to describe the results of the early stages of computerized adaptive testing development for a suicide scale and pave the way for the final stage of validation.

METHODS
Data from psychiatric outpatients at the University of Pittsburgh and a community health clinic were collected from January 2010 through June 2012. 789 participants were enrolled in the calibration phase; 70% were female, and 30% were male. The rate of major depressive disorder as diagnosed by DSM-5 was 47%. The item bank contained 1,008 items related to depression, anxiety, and mania, including 11 suicide items. Data were analyzed using a bifactor model to identify a core dimension between suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, and mania items. A computerized adaptive test was developed via simulation from the actual complete item responses in 308 subjects.

RESULTS
111 items were identified that provided an extension of suicidality assessment to include statistically related responses from depression and anxiety domains that are syndromally associated with suicidality. All items had high loadings on the primary suicide dimension (average = 0.67; range, 0.49-0.88). Analyses revealed that a mean of 10 items (5-20) had a correlation of 0.96 with the 111-item scale, with a precision of 5 points on a 100-point scale metric. Preliminary validation data based on 290 clinician interviews revealed a 52-fold increase in the likelihood of current suicidal ideation across the range of the Computerized Adaptive Test Suicide Scale (CAT-SS).

CONCLUSIONS
The CAT-SS is able to accurately measure the latent suicide dimension with a mean of 10 items in approximately 2 minutes. Further validation against an independent clinician-administered assessment of suicide risk (ideation and attempts) and prediction of suicidal behavior is underway.


The ultrastructure of the sweat glands of cattle, sheep and goats was studied before, during, and after, exposure of the animals to controlled warm environments. In cattle, sweating induced little ultrastructural change in the gland, although fluid-filled spaces appeared between the myo- and secretory epithelial layers. The mechanism appears to be one of fluid transport and exocytosis of secretory vesicles, which in this species seem to be derived from the Golgi apparatus and/or mitochondria. The glands of the sheep and goat also displayed signs of vesicle exocytosis and of fluid transport during sweating. The sweating 'fatigue' in these species was apparently due to failure of the secretory cells, some of which ruptured and were extruded into the lumen. The evidence during subsequent recovery indicates that neighbouring cells spread to make contact, encase remnants of atretic cells between them and the underlying myoepithelium, and engulf them. Sweat in these species appears to be formed (a) by secretion and (b) from cells which can no longer meet the demands of stimulation. The role in sweating of cell replacement, and of undifferentiated cells found between the myo- and secretory epithelia, is discussed.


Hardware prefetching is an effective technique for hiding cache miss latencies in modern processor designs. Prefetcher performance can be characterized by two main metrics that are generally at odds with one another: coverage, the fraction of baseline cache misses which the prefetcher brings into the cache; and accuracy, the fraction of prefetches which are ultimately used. An overly aggressive prefetcher may improve coverage at the cost of reduced accuracy. Thus, performance may be harmed by this over-aggressiveness because many resources are wasted, including cache capacity and bandwidth. An ideal prefetcher would have both high coverage and accuracy. In this paper, we introduce Perceptron-based Prefetch Filtering (PPF) as a way to increase the coverage of the prefetches generated by an underlying prefetcher without negatively impacting accuracy. PPF enables more aggressive tuning of the underlying prefetcher, leading to increased coverage by filtering out the growing numbers of inaccurate prefetches such an aggressive tuning implies. We also explore a range of features to use to train PPF's perceptron layer to identify inaccurate prefetches. PPF improves performance on a memory-intensive subset of the SPEC CPU 2017 benchmarks by 3.78% for a single-core configuration, and by 11.4% for a 4-core configuration, compared to the underlying prefetcher alone.


Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare non-Langerhans histiocytic disorder. We report a 76-years-old man who suffered a cardiac tamponade secondary to ECD. A pericardial window was made and during the operation the surgeons observed that the myocardium was diffusely infiltrated. Twenty-eight months before, ECD was clinically diagnosed and prednisone and methotrexate were prescribed. Due to disease progression which culminated in the cardiac tamponade, methotrexate was changed to sirolimus aiming to obtain plasma levels between 5-8 ng/ml. This treatment stabilized his cardiac function allowing a survival of 52 months after its initiation, with fewer side effects.


A classification system in German language is proposed for scoring of acute and chronic treatment sequelae after radiotherapy. It includes all important organs and organ systems. The proposed grading corresponds to the four-scale-system of the WHO and UICC. The system is also compatible to the RTOG and EORTC acute and late radiation morbidity scoring criteria. This facilitates the data transfer for retrospective and prospective analysis of monomodal and multimodal radiotherapy treatment regimens. We recommend to use this scoring system in all German speaking countries for multicentric prospective studies. It is possible, that organ-specific sophistication of the toxicity grading will be developed in the future. These additions should conform with (inter)national standards and apply the same four-scale grading of this classification system.


The poor aqueous solubility of new and existing drug compounds represents a significant challenge in pharmaceutical development, with numerous strategies currently being pursued to address this issue. Amorphous solids lack the repeating array of atoms in the structure and present greater free energy than their crystalline counterparts, which in turn enhances the solubility of the compound. The loading of drug compounds into porous materials has been described as a promising approach for the stabilisation of the amorphous state but is dependent on many factors, including pore size and surface chemistry of the substrate material. This review looks at the applications of mesoporous materials in the confinement of pharmaceutical compounds to increase their dissolution rate or modify their release and the influence of varying pore size to crystallise metastable polymorphs. We focus our attention on mesoporous silicon, due to the ability of its surface to be easily modified, enabling it to be stabilised and functionalised for the loading of various drug compounds. The use of neutron and synchrotron X-ray to examine compounds and the mesoporous materials in which they are confined is also discussed, moving away from the conventional analysis methods.


We studied the reproduction, population structure and growth of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis L.)off the Island of Seili in the Archipelago Sea of Finland in summer 1996. The discharge of gametes occurred from 26 July to 2 August. The breeding period was short and repeated spawning was not found. Density of mussels ranged from 1250 to 16730 ind m and biomass from 250 to 2100 g m. Size of individuals (shell length) ranged from 0.6 mm (spat) to 44.0 mm (nine years old). The distribution of age groups in the mussel population demonstrates the stability of recruitment over several previous years. The most rapidly growing individuals (reaching up to 41 mm at the end of the seventh year) were registered at the depth of 8 m. The average growth rate of molluscs from different habitats did not vary. A Bertalanffy model of ontogenetic growth, based on seasonal changes in the water temperature, was constructed for the "average individual" of this population.


Flooding algorithm is one of the most significant algorithms used in sensor networks. Although simple, this algorithm causes a large amount of energy and bandwidth to be wasted. The most important application of flooding is RREQ flooding in initial step of most routing algorithms. Although simple, this algorithm causes a large amount of energy and bandwidth to be wasted. Most previous efficient flooding algorithms use location information, which is impossible for simple node in sensor network. Some others are not suitable for RREQ flooding due to eliminating redundant retransmissions. We present a modified flooding that simultaneously decreases energy consumption as well as network delay. This flooding algorithm is a form of cross layer algorithm which uses physical layer information to be more efficient in time and energy. It is shown that the proposed algorithm can save a significant amount of energy while reducing the settling time delay


Are the United Nation's (U.N.'s) institutionalized spaces for international diplomacy capable of producing cooperation between states on international issues? This project deconstructs two such spaces using Irving Goffman's theory of face-work and Habermas' theory of communicative action in an effort to address this question. Video footage is used to conduct an extractive videographic analysis, documenting the interaction order of two U.N. diplomatic events. This is supplemented by a linguistic analysis of inclusive and exclusive personal pronoun usage by participants at both events. Four main findings are made, in relation to the importance of identity and language within institutionalized spaces for international diplomacy, which are the basis for the recommendations made to encourage more inclusive, engaged and proactive spaces for international diplomacy in the future.


In this paper, the Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu and 63Sn37Pb were mixed by a certain mass ratio to research reliability of mixed solder material. Firstly, in order to obtain the data of the 9 fitting Anand parameters of mixed solder joint material, a series of tensile tests were carried out under the condition of 5 strain rates from 5.0E-5/s to 1.0E-3/s and at 4 temperatures 253K, 298K, 348K and 398K. Secondly, the constant strain rate method was applied to tensile test at different temperature, and it is this test that must be repeated two times with the same test conditions, the same strain rate and the same temperature. Finally, the stress-strain curve was acquired. The 9 materials parameters of Anand model for mixed solder alloys were determined from experiments and least-square fitting of constitutive relation as well. Further, it is these parameters that can lay the foundation for the analysis of mixed solder joint thermal fatigue simulation and life prediction.