Abstract Knowledge and understanding of bat habitat associations and the responses of bats to forest management are critical for effective bat conservation and management. Few studies have been conducted on bat habitat use in the southeast, despite the high number of endangered and sensitive species in the region. Our objective was to identify important local, stand, and landscape factors influencing bat habitat use in northwestern South Carolina, USA. We hypothesized that use would be greatest 1) at points with relatively sparse vegetation, 2) in early successional and mature stands, and 3) at points close to streams. We also predicted that species would exhibit different patterns of habitat use based on morphology. We placed Anabat II bat detectors at points located in 3 forest types and 3 age classes to record bats from May–August 2004 and 2005. We used an information theoretic approach to determine the variables that best predicted use by bats. Vegetation density at the sample point was the best predictor of overall bat presence in 2004. In 2005 vegetation density and distance to the closest road were the best predictors of overall bat use; the model containing age class also had good support. Bats were more likely to be recorded at points with sparse vegetation, farther from roads, and in early successional stands. Vegetation density was also the best predictor of habitat use by big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) and red bats (Lasiurus borealis); both species were far more likely to be recorded at points with sparse vegetation at the sample point. Eastern pipistrelles (Pipistrellus subflavus) were also more likely to be recorded at points with sparse vegetation and in early successional stands. The best predictors of northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) habitat use were vegetation density and age class. Northern long-eared bats were more likely to be recorded at points with sparse vegetation and in mature stands. Our results suggest that early successional habitats and small openings and gaps within forest stands provide suitable commuting and foraging bat habitat in northwestern South Carolina. However, mature forests are also important for some species. Forest management practices that provide a variety of age classes across the landscape and that create gaps and openings within mid- and late-successional stands will likely provide suitable habitat for bats in the mountains of South Carolina.


Kurds as the largest stateless people in the world have been divided into four geographical areas of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. After centuries of oblivion over the past century, they were repeatedly faced with an iron fist policy by successive riots in Turkey. However, during past 52 years in northern Iraq and in form of federal Iraq framework, they were achieved partly to autonomy; while they were never hide their democratic independence desire. In this way, one of the most persistent structural problems of the Kurds is "geopolitical hardship" of Kurdistan privacy, in which is forced the Kurds to cooperate increasingly regional with Israel and internationally with the United States. In this paper, we addressed to geopolitical situation of Iraqi Kurdistan and the manner of its relations with other two countries.


Abstract
Objective - To review mixed methods research trends in the field of library and information science (LIS). In particular, we examine the extent to which research about or using mixed methods has been occurring in library and information science over the past decade (2008-2018), and how much of that mixed methods research is done in health contexts.
Methods - We conducted a methodological review and analysis of mixed methods research (MMR) in LIS for published articles indexed in LISTA and Web of Science. After deduplication and verification for inclusion, we coded 417 articles to identify contributions using or about MMR. Given the connections between evidence based practice in health and LIS, we also identified whether articles about or using mixed methods were health-focused.
Results - We found MMR to be a tiny proportion (less than 0.5%) of the overall LIS research literature. In terms of observable trends, while contributions about MMR remain fairly static, there has been an increase in articles using mixed methods. Of the 417 included articles, 373 (89.5%) primarily used mixed methods and 44 (10.5%) were primarily about MMR. Results also demonstrated that health-related research both using and about mixed methods has a strong presence in the LIS literature, with 136 published articles (32.6% of the total).
Conclusion - Confirming findings of prior analyses of research methods in LIS, our methodological review shows current opportunities to adopt and expand the use of mixed methods research processes. Further contributions about mixed methods research, and ideally connecting research and practice in LIS, are needed. Despite the small proportion of MMR in LIS research, there is an observable increase in the number of publications using mixed methods during this timeframe. The LIS research community can promote additional growth by leveraging this momentum around using mixed methods, and look to translate lessons learned about mixed methods research and practice in health contexts to other LIS settings. Recommendations include developing educational opportunities and learning resources that facilitate wider engagement with MMR in LIS contexts.


Received Date:4 April 2021 Accepted Date:22 June 2021 So far, there has been no study of the discourses that gay people build on their happiness in Turkey. As a result of the Özkan's (2019) research as her master theis, 7 interpretative repertoires have been identified that refer to the conversations of gays in middle adulthood living in Istanbul about happiness. In this article, the repertoire of "long term/secure partner relationship", which is one of the explanatory repertoires reached in Özkan's work, is analyzed in detail. Within the scope of the research, which formed the basis for the article, semi-structured in-depth individual interviews were conducted with 10 gays from different education, income and professional groups between the ages of 45 and 62 living in Istanbul. The interviews recorded with the voice recorder were transcribed into writing and the texts were examined by the method of discourse analysis. In interviews, relationships, personality structure, belief, education level, income level and health were asked about their relationship with the feeling of having a happy and satisfied life. It was determined that the participants of the study subjectively considered themselves to be good and happy, on the one hand, suggesting the existence of a long-term/safe partner relationship, on the other hand, they would not be liked as they got older, and they considered their relationship probability low due to the fact that safe/long-term relationships. In gay community, the often expressed view that loyalty has diminished and even no longer exists is constructed as an accepted "reality" that stands in the way of having a safe relationship. The interviewees, as individuals from the gay community where they express no more loyalty, both complain about it and position themselves passive in the face of it and seem to accept it as normal.


During the 1930s, Faulkner made radical adjustments in the shaping of his mythical Yoknapatawpha country to accommodate his deepening understanding of America's ″peculiar institution.″ That peculiar institution, of course, was slavery, and in his fiction of the period Faulkner portrays it through a radical critique of the myth of ″the Old Plantation.″Doing so meant he both had to challenge the myths about plantation slavery in which he had been raised and had to alter his own apocryphal vision of the institution that haunted America like a ghost. Replacing the Sartoris family with the McCaslin family as the family that would represent the Falkners' in his fiction, Faulkner created a fiction better able to bear the weight of history, both the history of the South and of his own family.


Abstract. Bryozoans from the Dapingian (Middle Ordovician) of the Baltic paleobasin remain poorly studied and their taxonomic composition is unclear. In this paper, three bryozoan taxa, a bifoliate cystoporate Planopora volkhovensis n. gen. n. sp., a trepostome Hemiphragma insolitum n. sp., and an esthonioporate Esthoniopora clara Koromyslova, are described from Dapingian deposits of an unusual clayey-calcareous Hecker-type mudmound on the right bank of the Volkhov River in Leningrad Oblast', north-western Russia. Combined X-ray microtomography, scanning electron microscopy, and light microscopy of thin sections were used to characterize their morphology. Analysis of the stratigraphic distribution of early cystoporate bryozoans suggests that Planopora n. gen. is the oldest cystoporate bryozoan with an erect, bifoliate colony. The growth modes of these bryozoans are discussed. The colonies of P. volkhovensis n. gen. n. sp. and E. clara have an attachment structure, a holdfast, at their base, probably indicating their attachment to sponge spicules. The bryozoan H. insolitum n. sp. produced rod-like colonies, formed by overgrowing the problematic tubular fossil Sphenothallus Hall. It can be assumed that sponges with unfused siliceous spicules and individuals of Sphenothallus were numerous on the surface of the mudmound during its formation and provided a suitable substrate for settlement of bryozoan larvae.


Abstract Objectives. Contemporary, nationwide data on trends in mitral valve surgery are scarce. Our aim was to investigate changes in procedure rates, patient selection, and post-procedural prognosis of open-heart mitral valve surgery in Finland. Design. We combined data from three nationwide administrative registers with compulsory reporting. We identified patients who had undergone first-ever open-heart mitral valve surgery between 1997 and 2014 and followed them for adverse events. We examined trends in mitral valve surgery over three six-year time periods (1997-2002, 2003-2008, and 2009-2014). Results. 3684 mitral valve procedures (mean age: 67.0 ± 10.9 years, 42.6% women) were performed in 1997–2014 in Finland. During this period, mitral valve repair operations became more common than replacements and we observed an increasing trend in the use of bioprosthetic valves. Between 1997-2002 and 2009-2014, the mean age of patients undergoing mitral valve surgery and the proportion of urgent surgeries increased (p < .001 for both). The proportion of women undergoing surgery decreased while the share of patients with hypertension (p = .023) or diabetes (p = .026) increased. The multivariable-adjusted risk of 28-day (hazard ratio, 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.37–0.83) and 6-year (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.67–0.97) post-operative mortality was lower in the last six-year period than in 1994-1998. Conclusions. Short- and long-term mortality of mitral valve surgery patients in Finland has decreased from 1997 to 2014 despite the patients being older and having more comorbidities. Understanding the changing characteristics and prognosis of these patients is important for the interpretation of previous and future cohort studies and trials.


Various crystal forms of sulphathiazole, barbitone and aspirin were compressed in a single‐punch tablet machine instrumented to monitor axially applied and radially transmitted forces, and upper punch movement. The changes in radial stress during the compression cycle depended upon the polymorphic form of the compressed material. The results were rationalized in terms of the degree of plastic flow/crushing that occurred with each material, and the degree to which the final compact underwent elastic compression. It is postulated that the reduction in the transition temperature of polymorphic forms of sulphathiazole and barbitone and the polymorphic transition of sulphathiazole Form II was due to the production of dislocations in the crystal and the distortion of the crystals at crystal boundaries formed in the compressed materials.


In science and engineering mathematical modeling serves as a tool for the understanding of processes and systems and as a testing bed for several hypotheses, e.g., concerning the testing (prediction) of functional limits by simulations. A brief overview of current modeling strategies in brain research is given, spatial scales ranging from single neuron to large scale activity of and between brain regions are considered. The models are mainly time-invariant. Three time-variant modeling strategies, which enable a model-based signal analysis, are described and applied to large scale signals. The first is derived from adaptive filter theory and covers linear system and linear as well as nonlinear process models. The second is based on modeled brain source signals, i.e., the inverse problem must be solved. The third strategy consists of a generalization of Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM); DCM is frequently used for analysis of directed interactions between brain structures. Examples are derived from neonatal electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring of preterm and fullterm newborns. A further example is based on high-density recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs) and shows the combination of a time-variant ERP-based source model, as a part of a realistic head model, with a multivariate process model to analyze the time evolution of interactions between source processes before and during the execution of a complex motoric task. In two other examples hemodynamic signals (functional magnetic resonance imaging-fMRI) are utilized for analysis of interactions between brain regions, where nonlinear, multivariate models are used.


The effects of microstructure on reversible permeability (µrev) are discussed for thermally aged ultra‐supercritical (USC) steel, which is required for the next generation of power plants. Thermal aging was observed to coarsen the tempered carbide (Cr23C6), generate the Laves (Fe2W) phase and decrease the dislocation density. The peak position of the µrev decreased drastically during the initial 1000 h aging period, and was thereafter observed to decrease only slightly. The variation in peak position of µrev is closely related to the decrease in the number of pinning sites, such as dislocations, fine precipitates, and the martensite lath.


Objective: To test and compare the cariogenicity of carbonated soft drinks and fruit-flavored drinks using experimental rats.
Materials and Methods: Seventy Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into six experimental groups comprising 10 rats each. Each group was offered one of the following drinks: carbonated cola, carbonated orange, carbonated citrus, apple-flavored, orange-flavored, and mango-flavored. In addition, 10 rats were offered distilled water as a control. The experiment continued for 5 weeks. The rats' molar teeth were scored for smooth surface and sulcal caries using the modified Keyes method. Caries scores were compared between different groups using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's test.
Results: Rats in the carbonated and fruit-flavored drink groups had higher caries scores with significant differences when compared with the control group. Rats consuming carbonated cola developed higher smooth surface and sulcal caries than rats consuming the other drinks. However, rats consuming other carbonated and fruit-flavored drinks developed similar smooth surface and sulcal caries.
Conclusion: Carbonated soft drinks, especially cola, and fruit-flavored drinks are cariogenic; however, cariogenicity was comparable between the various drinks evaluated in this study


We investigate eigenvalue moments of matrices from Circular Orthogonal Ensemble multiplicatively perturbed by a permutation matrix. More precisely we investigate variance of the sum of the eigenvalues raised to power $k$, for arbitrary but fixed $k$ and in the limit of large matrix size. We find that when the permutation defining the perturbed ensemble has only long cycles, the answer is universal and approaches the corresponding moment of the Circular Unitary Ensemble with a particularly fast rate: the error is of order $1/N^3$ and the terms of orders $1/N$ and $1/N^2$ disappear due to cancellations. We prove this rate of convergence using Weingarten calculus and classifying the contributing Weingarten functions first in terms of a graph model and then algebraically.


The dynamic potentials of a two–dimensional (2D) quasi–plane piezoelectric infinite medium of transversely isotropic symmetry containing an inclusion of arbitrary shape is derived in terms of scalar solutions of the 2D Laplace and Helmholtz equations. Closed–form expressions for the space–frequency representation of this dynamic potential are obtained for the case when the spatial source distribution is characterized by a region occupied by a circular inclusion embedded in a quasi–plane transversely isotropic matrix. The results are used to solve the dynamic Eshelby problem of a circular inclusion (plane region with the same material characteristics as the matrix) undergoing uniform eigenstrain and eigenelectric field. In contrast to the static case, the dynamic electroelastic fields inside the circular inclusion are non–uniform in the space–frequency representation. The derived dynamic piezoelectric potentials are basic quantities for the description of the dynamic properties of micro–inhomogeneous quasi–plane piezoelectric material systems (e.g. fibre–reinforced piezocomposites).


BACKGROUND
In the United States, only 13% of transplant surgeons are women. We evaluated gender distribution and trends of American authorship over the past 10 y in high-impact solid organ transplantation journals to gain insight into the current status of women authorship in transplantation.

METHODS
Original articles from 2012 to 2021 from the 5 highest-impact solid organ transplantation journals were extracted from Scopus. First and last author's gender was predicted using Genderize.io. Data of first and last authors, article type and topic, location, citation, and funding metrics were analyzed. Chi-square, logistic regression, and trend tests were performed where appropriate. Statistical significance was set at <0.05.

RESULTS
Women's first and last authorship increased over time among all journals. There was an increase in women first authors in the American Journal of Transplantation and in senior women authors in Liver Transplantation and Transplantation. Significant differences in gender authorship in lung, intestine, pancreas, general, and islet cell transplantation were found. Women's last authorship was associated with 1.69 higher odds of having a woman first author when adjusting for year and journal. There was an increase in the rate of women's first and last author collaborations over the years. Women last authors had 1.5 higher odds of being funded by the National Institutes of Health over the years.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite an increase in women transplant surgeons and physicians, the gap in women authorship in transplantation persists. Women's last authorship was associated with higher odds of having a woman first author, pointing to the importance of mentorship for women joining the transplant academia.


The author presents a survey of the development of the Geography of Education, which has been developing in different countries of the world since the World War II. The subject of the research are geographical problems, location patterns of schools and the level of public education. The paper indicates the initial stages of research in individual countries. Czechoslovak geographers have been studying the location pattern of educational institutes and schools, and the level of the education of the population. The results of their studies are mainly represented in cartographic form.


We review construction of the improved holographic models for QCD-like confining gauge theories and their applications to the physics of the quark–gluon plasma. We also review recent progress in this area of research. The lecture notes start from the vacuum structure of these theories, then develop calculation of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic observables, energy loss and momentum broadening of heavy probes, and end with more advanced topics such as the holographic QCD in the presence of external magnetic fields. This is a summary of the lectures presented at the LVI Cracow School of Theoretical Physics in spring 2016 at Zakopane, Poland.


G Fuel, an energy drink marketed towards gamers, performs a 'contemporary' gamer persona to interact with its audience, drawing upon an array of gaming influencers to appeal to fans of these figures. Specifically, this contemporary gamer persona builds upon the 'geeky' male gamer identity that has been constructed by marketers and adopted by players, utilising elements of esport such as skilfulness and focus. However, this persona also reimagines the gamer identity in alternative ways, such as gaming as an athletic activity – one that requires much mental and physical energy—and as an activity that connects players to others, and is exciting and glamourous, evocative of the lifestyles of gaming influencers. Thus, the contemporary gamer persona signals that there has been a shift in the popular discourses surrounding the 'gamer' identity in specific gaming micro-publics. The energy drink company G-Fuel is aware of this shift and strengthens this persona by forming partnerships with gamer microcelebrities and influencers. In this article, we find that in G Fuel's construction and maintenance of the contemporary gamer persona, they seek to appeal to the wider gaming audience, but must constantly negotiate a balance between popular but controversial influencers and a commitment to diversity.


Different changes according to T- or B-cell origin occur in dinitrophenyl (DNP)- and trinitrophenyl (TNP)-modified lymphoid cells. The electrophoretic mobility (EPM) or nylon-wool adherent splenic cells (B cell-enriched) modified by TNP and DNP and that of nylon-wool non-adherent splenic cells (T cell-enriched) and thymic cells modified by TNP increase respectively as follows: +24%, +20%, + 6%, and +16%. A relation has been found between these EPM amounts and amino groups which are positively charged on cell surface. The EPM decreases in the case of nylon-wool non-adherent splenic cells (T cell-enriched, -9%) and thymic cells modified by DNP (-4%). The hydrophobic fluorescent probe 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulphonate used to study conformational changes of cells revealed a slight fluorescence decrease for TNP-modified cells (-11% for thymic cells, -38% for T cells of spleen, and -66% for B cells of spleen), and a fluorescence increase for DNP-modified cells. This fluorescence increase is more important for spleen T cells (+130%) and thymic cells (+233%) than for spleen B cells (+30%).


We show that quasiparticle excitations with irrational charge and irrational exchange statistics exist in tight-binding systems described, in the continuum approximation, by the Dirac equation in (2+1)-dimensional space and time. These excitations can be deconfined at zero temperature, but when they are, the charge rerationalizes to the value 1/2 and the exchange statistics to that of "quartons" (half-semions).


MOTIVATION
Metabolomics has developed rapidly in recent years, and metabolism-related databases are also gradually constructed. Nowadays, more and more studies are being carried out on diverse microbes, metabolites and diseases. However, the logics of various associations among microbes, metabolites and diseases are limited understanding in the biomedicine of gut microbial system. The collection and analysis of relevant microbial bioinformation play an important role in the revelation of microbe-metabolite-disease associations. Therefore, the dataset that integrates multiple relationships and the method based on complex heterogeneous graphs need to be developed.

RESULTS
In this study, we integrated some databases and extracted a variety of associations data among microbes, metabolites and diseases. After obtaining the three interconnected bilateral association data (microbe-metabolite, metabolite-disease and disease-microbe), we considered building a heterogeneous graph to describe the association data. In our model, microbes were used as a bridge between diseases and metabolites. In order to fuse the information of disease-microbe-metabolite graph, we used the bipartite graph attention network on the disease-microbe and metabolite-microbe bipartite graph. The experimental results show that our model has good performance in the prediction of various disease-metabolite associations. Through the case study of type 2 diabetes mellitus, Parkinson's disease, inflammatory bowel disease and liver cirrhosis, it is noted that our proposed methodology are valuable for the mining of other associations and the prediction of biomarkers for different human diseases.Availability and implementation: https://github.com/Selenefreeze/DiMiMe.git.


A circuit is reversible if it maps each input vector into a unique output vector, and vice versa. Reversible circuits lead to power-efficient CMOS implementations. Reversible logic synthesis may be applicable to optical and quantum computing. Minimizing garbage bits is the main challenge in reversible logic synthesis. This paper introduces an algorithm to generate the cascade of reversible complex Maitra terms (called here reversible wave cascade) implementing incompletely specified Boolean functions. The remarkable property of the presented method compared to other reversible synthesis methods is that it creates at most one constant input and no additional garbage outputs. Preliminary estimation suggests that the method may be applicable to small and medium-sized benchmarks.


The authors have previously reported a rigorous macroscale modeling approach for an in vitro 3D dynamic microorgan device (DMD). This paper represents the second of a two‐part model‐based investigation where the effect of microscale (single liver cell‐level) shear‐mediated mechanotransduction on drug biotransformation is deconstructed. Herein, each cell is explicitly incorporated into the geometric model as single compartmentalized metabolic structures. Each cell's metabolic activity is coupled with the microscale hydrodynamic Wall Shear Stress (WSS) simulated around the cell boundary through a semi‐empirical polynomial function as an additional reaction term in the mass transfer equations. Guided by the macroscale model‐based hydrodynamics, only 9 cells in 3 representative DMD domains are explicitly modeled. Dynamic and reaction similarity rules based on non‐dimensionalization are invoked to correlate the numerical and empirical models, accounting for the substrate time scales. The proposed modeling approach addresses the key challenge of computational cost towards modeling complex large‐scale DMD‐type system with prohibitively high cell densities. Transient simulations are implemented to extract the drug metabolite profile with the microscale modeling approach validated with an experimental drug flow study. The results from the author's study demonstrate the preferred implementation of the microscale modeling approach over that of its macroscale counterpart. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 623–634. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Self-gravitating scalar fields with nonminimal coupling to gravity and a quartic self-interaction are considered in the domain of outer communications of a static black hole. It is shown that there is no value of the nonminimal coupling parameter ζ for which nontrivial static black-hole solutions exist. This result establishes the correctness of Bekenstein 'no-scalar-hair' conjecture for quartic self-interactions.


Trays with stones were implanted in a south Swedish stream. They rapidly became covered by large quantities of dcbris and detritus. The composition and diversity of the colonizing species collectives were examined after 2, 4, 8, 15 and 32 days. The changing substrate conditions were accompanied by a successive exchange of species demonstrating their capability of active habitat selection. The species diversity first rose but apparently approached an asymptotic level at the end of the experiment. Species richness was the major factor affecting the diversity, while the evenness component played a minor role, at least in more comprehensive samples.


unstable. An important question that could be addressed by comparing these 21 regimes to failed democracies is, Which tend to be more stable: majoritarian or consensus democracies? If both models appear to be equally stable, why have these democracies survived and others failed? If both are equally unstable, what accounts for the longevity of the 21 democracies analyzed in this study? Lijphart seems to point to some answers early in his study, but those answers have little to do with the institutional patterns that are the focus of his book.


Abstract Evidence has been accumulated indicating that GnRH-like peptides are present in a variety of extrabrain areas of mammalian and nonmammalian vertebrates. A pioneer study carried out in the frog, Rana esculenta, demonstrated that testicular GnRH induced spermatogonial proliferation. Recently, we have shown that in proliferating spermatogonia (SPG) of frogs, a change of localization of the oncoprotein Fos, from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, occurs. This leads to the hypothesis that one or more testicular GnRH peptides may regulate SPG proliferation through Fos family proteins. Therefore, in vivo experiments in intact R. esculenta and in vitro incubations of testis fragments have been carried out using GnRH agonist (GnRHa; buserelin) and GnRH antagonist (d-pGlu1,d-Phe2,d-Trp3,6-GnRH). Cytoplasmic and nuclear Fos-like protein localization has been found by Western blot analysis in testicular extracts. Immunocytochemistry confirmed that cytoplasmic immunostaining was restricted to SPG; change of localization into the nuclear compartment was observed after GnRHa treatment. Northern blot analysis showed that treatments of testis fragments with GnRHa did not modify testicular c-fos mRNA expression. On the contrary, a Fos-like protein of 52 kDa, while not affected in vivo, disappeared from testicular cytosolic extracts after in vitro treatment with GnRHa. Contemporaneously, a 55-kDa Fos-related signal appeared in nuclear extracts. The GnRH antagonist counteracted the effects of GnRHa. Furthermore, in vivo treatments showed that GnRHa acted negatively on a 43-kDa nuclear Fos-related signal and that gonadotropins caused the decrease of 52-kDa cytoplasmic signal. In conclusion, we show, to our knowledge for the first time, that Fos is regulated by GnRHa directly (not through the pituitary) at the testicular level. The main effect appears to be related to Fos translocation from cytoplasmic to nuclear compartments of SPG.


Mehmet Rauf is one of the most significant writers of the "Modern
Turkish Literature". He started to write in the Servet-i Funun period and
achieved great success particularly with his novel Eylul. Mehmet Rauf's short
story, "Verven" is also interesting due to the fact of being one of the first
novels making a correlation between the sense of smell and the feeling of love.
In the present study, compact information is given about the story-telling
aspect of Mehmet Rauf and then the story is analysed in terms of "teĢrih-i ruh"
(psychological dissection) which occupies a significant place in Mehmet Rauf's
conception of literature. While psychological dissection is carried out in
"Verven", techniques that are currently called "psychological analysis",
"quoted monologue/direct free speech" and "narrated monologue/combined
speech" are analysed with examples in the story. Afterwords "Verven" is
converted into the Lâtin alphabet.


BACKGROUND
Additional evidence is needed regarding the impact of inpatient palliative care (IPC) on the quality of end-of-life care and downstream utilization.

AIM
Examine the effects of IPC on quality of end-of-life care and acute and postacute care use in a large integrated system.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort design.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS
Adult decedents from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2014, who had at least one hospitalization at 11 Kaiser Permanente Southern California medical centers in the 12 months before death and not hospitalized for a trauma-related condition or receiving home-based PC or hospice were included in the cohort.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Inverse probability of treatment weighting of propensity scores was used to compare outcomes between patients exposed to IPC (n = 3742) and controls (n = 12,755) who never received IPC before death.

RESULTS
Patients who received IPC were more likely to enroll in home-based PC or hospice (69% vs. 43%) and were less likely to die in a hospital (15% vs. 29%) or intensive care (2% vs. 9%) compared with controls (all, p < 0.001). IPC exposure was associated with higher risk for rehospitalization (HR: 1.18, 95% CI 1.11-1.25) and more frequent emergency department visits (RR: 1.16, 95% CI 1.07-1.26) with no increase in postacute care use compared with controls. Stratified analyses showed that IPC effects on acute care utilization were dependent on code status.

CONCLUSION
IPC exposure was associated with higher enrollment in home-based PC/hospice and more deaths at home. The increased acute care utilization by the IPC group may reflect persistent confounding by indication.


ABSTRACT This article studies the particular case of the mythological plays of Calderón that form a cohesive and recognizable set of works in certain circumstances. This kind of comedy is modulated by specific issues of reception, under the dominant global principle of playfulness, through the mechanisms of admiratio, and different strategies of courtly game that can be summarized in four basic areas: conventional comicity, the writing of a theater full of sensorismo, the importance of the intellect games, and finally, the strategies to point identity marks of a particular social group.


Capital intensity indicates how much money is invested to produce one rupee of sales revenue. Business tangible properties or tangible assets are real things that a company has such as buildings or equipment. Capital intensity and tangibility has the vital role in the firms' financial performance. This paper addresses to explore the impact of capital intensity and tangibility on the firms' financial performance. For the purpose of analyzing data in this research, the sample was selected on the availability of data in range from 2007 to 2011, for banking and insurance companies listed in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). Capital intensity is represented by the capital intensity ratio which is calculated by dividing the Total assets by the sales and the Tangibility is represented by the Total Debt Ratio and Debt to Equity Ratio. The financial performance of the firm represented by the Profit Margin (PM), Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE). To find out the association and impact of the variables the correlation and regression analysis has been made by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The findings of this study revealed that there is a significant relationship between the Capital Intensity and tangibility and the financial performance. It means that the firm's capital intensity and tangibility increases it will significantly affect to increasing firm's financial performance and future stability, and the financial mangers always act to increase firm's value in order to maximize the shareholders wealth.


Increased epithelial permeability is a common and important consequence of mucosal inflammation that results in perturbed body homeostasis and enhanced exposure to external pathogens. The integrity and barrier properties of epithelial layers are regulated by specialized adhesive plasma membrane structures known as intercellular junctions. It is generally believed that inflammatory stimuli increase transepithelial permeability by inducing junctional disassembly. This review highlights molecular events that lead to disruption of epithelial junctions during inflammation. We specifically focus on key mechanisms of junctional regulation that are dependent on reorganization of the perijunctional F-actin cytoskeleton. We discuss critical roles of myosin-II-dependent contractility and actin filament turnover in remodeling of the F-actin cytoskeleton that drive disruption of epithelial barriers under different inflammatory conditions. Finally, we highlight signaling pathways induced by inflammatory mediators that regulate reorganization of actin filaments and junctional disassembly in mucosal epithelia.


This paper describes an approach to automatically extracting floor plans from the kinds of incomplete measurements that could be acquired by an autonomous mobile robot. The approach proceeds by reasoning about extended structural layout surfaces which are automatically extracted from the available data. The scheme can be run in an online manner to build water tight representations of the environment. The system effectively speculates about room boundaries and free space regions which provides useful guidance to subsequent motion planning systems. Experimental results are presented on multiple data sets.


The amino acid industry has been steadily expanding since monosodium glutamate was first marketed as a flavoring material in 1909. Its production has recently reached almost the 1 billion dollar level. Amino acids are produced by extraction from protein hydrolyzates, by fermentation with the aid of microorganisms, by enzymatic processes, and by chemical synthesis. To obtain natural L-amino acid, chemical synthesis generally requires two additional steps, i.e. optical resolution and racemization of the D isomer. The most important applications of amino acids include the fortification of plant food and feeds by supplementation of the deficient essential amino acid(s). Apart from their uses in the food industry, medical applications of amino acids (nutritional preparations and therapeutic agents) are becoming increasingly important.


This paper researches on modeling and path following for wheeled mobile robot. The proposed approach of kinematic modeling based on recursive kinematic propagation (RKP) simplifies the derivation of relevant Jacobians and also provides the solution for general cases. The kinematic model can be implemented recursively using a single formula that applies to all cases. The algorithm of path following with compensating slip proposed can compensate the path error effectively by compensating sideslip, wheel slip and steering slip of the wheeled mobile robot. The proposed approach and algorithm have been verified by simulation.


This is a report concerning the diseases in artifical salmon propagation programme in Hokkaido. Although the diseases during the artificial propagation of salmons are usually not so frequent as those in fish culture, the preventive and restraint of them are indispensable to the salmon propagation on account of their artificial mass production.It has been widely known that almost all the diseases of salmon resulted in the mass mortalities are caused by well described microorganisms. Furunclosis caused by Aeromonas salmonicida occurs often in the immature adult fish kept in a holding pond untile they reach maturity. Bacterial kidney disease has now been recongnized in cultured salmon.Infections with Saprolegnia sp. and Achlya sp. have been usually found in adult fish of salmons holding pond. Although most of the saprolegnoid infections are generally considered to be secondary condition, kokanee salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka var. adonis, has been heavily infected with Saprolegnia shikotsuensis sp. nov. from 1974 to 1978, except 1976.Gill diseases caused by various bacterial species or protozoa are found frequently in salmon fry. Especially, in chum salmon fry bacterial gill idseases tend to increase recently along with the diffusion of fry feeding.Among the virus diseases that occur in salmonid in epizootic proportions, so far only IHN is found in masu salmon and kokanee salmon at times, but it is still not recorded in chum salmon fry in Hokkaido.External protozoan disease caused by Tricodina sp. is usually not so frequent and serious as the bacterial and virus diseases.


Flexible, lightweight, and low-cost thermoelectric thin films are promising for self-powered wearable electronics and sensors. In this work, we report on flexible Te nanostructures/PEDOT:PSS composite thin films with high power factor and their application as flexible temperature sensors. Te nanostructures with high crystallinity and high aspect ratios were synthesized through an environmentally friendly method without using highly toxic chemicals. Individual Te nanostructures achieve a thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of 0.13 at 300 K, indicating good potential as inorganic fillers for nanostructures/polymer hybrid materials. Based on the synthesized Te nanostructures, flexible p-type Te/PEDOT:PSS thin films were fabricated through a simple dilution and vacuum filtration method. The power factor of the as-prepared composite thin film outperforms that of either a Te or DMSO-treated PEDOT:PSS thin film, and importantly, it can be further enhanced to 149 μW m-1 K-2 by hot pressing, which is nearly threefold enhancement compared to the values reported for the vacuum-filtered flexible Te/PEDOT:PSS thin films in the literature. The hot-pressed composite thin film shows high flexibility with the electrical conductivity remaining almost unchanged after 1000 bending cycles under a bending radius of 5 mm. Flexible temperature sensors were fabricated based on the hot-pressed Te/PEDOT:PSS thin film, which exhibited high sensitivity in detecting temperature stimuli. The developed temperature sensors were applied onto a two-finger flexible mechanical claw for identifying hot/cold objects in robotic grasping. This work demonstrates an effective approach to enhance the thermoelectric power factor of flexible Te nanostructures/polymer composites and their promising application in flexible thermal sensing.


Background Health 2.0 is a benefit to society by helping patients acquire knowledge about health care by harnessing collective intelligence. However, any misleading information can directly affect patients' choices of hospitals and drugs, and potentially exacerbate their health condition. Objective This study investigates the congruence between crowdsourced information and official government data in the health care domain and identifies the determinants of low congruence where it exists. In-line with infodemiology, we suggest measures to help the patients in the regions vulnerable to inaccurate health information. Methods We text-mined multiple online health communities in South Korea to construct the data for crowdsourced information on public health services (173,748 messages). Kendall tau and Spearman rank order correlation coefficients were used to compute the differences in 2 ranking systems of health care quality: actual government evaluations of 779 hospitals and mining results of geospecific online health communities. Then we estimated the effect of sociodemographic characteristics on the level of congruence by using an ordinary least squares regression. Results The regression results indicated that the standard deviation of married women's education (P=.046), population density (P=.01), number of doctors per pediatric clinic (P=.048), and birthrate (P=.002) have a significant effect on the congruence of crowdsourced data (adjusted R 2=.33). Specifically, (1) the higher the birthrate in a given region, (2) the larger the variance in educational attainment, (3) the higher the population density, and (4) the greater the number of doctors per clinic, the more likely that crowdsourced information from online communities is congruent with official government data. Conclusions To investigate the cause of the spread of misleading health information in the online world, we adopted a unique approach by associating mining results on hospitals from geospecific online health communities with the sociodemographic characteristics of corresponding regions. We found that the congruence of crowdsourced information on health care services varied across regions and that these variations could be explained by geospecific demographic factors. This finding can be helpful to governments in reducing the potential risk of misleading online information and the accompanying safety issues.


Over the past decade, the South Asian region has witnessed remarkable efforts in reforming child protection systems from institutions as the first resort to providing a wide range of family-based. This tenth anniversary edition of the journal gives a real, raw, and compelling view of UN defined Alternative Care in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Authors from Afghanistan were asked to participate, but due to the current socio-political climate, did not feel comfortable. This scholarly journal edition seeks to delve into the multifaceted process of child protection system reform by examining the challenges, progress so far, and lessons learned from the past 10 years providing a direction forward.


Recent improvements in deep learning techniques applied to images allow the detection of people with a high success rate. However, other types of sensors, such as laser rangefinders, are still useful due to their wide field of vision and their ability to operate in different environments and lighting conditions. In this work we use an interesting computational intelligence technique such as the deep learning method to detect people in images taken by a mobile robot. The masks of the people in the images are used to automatically label a set of samples formed by 2D laser range data that will allow us to detect the legs of people present in the scene. The samples are geometric characteristics of the clusters built from the laser data. The machine learning algorithms are used to learn a classifier that is capable of detecting people from only 2D laser range data. Our people detector is compared to a state-of-the-art classifier. Our proposal achieves a higher value of F1 in the test set using an unbalanced dataset. To improve accuracy, the final classifier has been generated from a balanced training set. This final classifier has also been evaluated using a test set in which we have obtained very high accuracy values in each class. The contribution of this work is 2-fold. On the one hand, our proposal performs an automatic labeling of the samples so that the dataset can be collected under real operating conditions. On the other hand, the robot can detect people in a wider field of view than if we only used a camera, and in this way can help build more robust behaviors. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).


With the increase in incidence of Type 1 diabetes in children and young people (CYP) and the use of intensive insulin therapies, paediatric diabetes teams are under increasing pressure to support school staff with the day to day management of their pupils with diabetes. The XX network have developed a study day to provide basic diabetes awareness education to all school staff in the XX region. This work also meets the training and support responsibilities of diabetes teams in line with the statutory guidance for schools governing bodies, 'Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions', (DfE, 2014). The aims of this project have been to provide school staff with an awareness of: All stakeholders responsibilities of managing a CYP with diabetes in school The difference between Type 1 and 2 diabetes Causes, signs and symptoms of diabetes Treatment options How to manage acute complications – hypo and hyperglycaemia Dietary requirements – carbohydrate counting Insulin pump therapy Have a basic understanding of the practicalities of insulin administration and blood glucose/ketone monitoring. To date we have run events, attended by over 270 school staff delegates and attended by over 110 schools in the XX Region. The group believe that this programme can be delivered by any team nationally with minimal need for training and/or explanation in to its use thus minimising development, planning provision and evaluation time. Raising staff awareness of diabetes with school staff, improving their knowledge and confidence around diabetes can only enhance the experience of families with CYP with diabetes when they are dealing with the anxieties of a new diagnosis or a start/change in school/teacher. Parental confidence in the schools capabilities to care for their child throughout the school day is fundamental in both the emotional wellbeing and physical health of the child and parent.


Long-term operation of a cw doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator was demonstrated. The minimum threshold was 9mW and the slope efficiency was 25%. Using a rigid structure cavity and a stable pump laser, it operated in a single longitudinal signal-idler mode pair for over 3 h without any mode hopping.


The intrasubband electron-polar optical phonon scattering rates for interface and confined phonons are calculated. The AlAs/GaAs/AlAs double heterostructures with independent confinement of electrons and phonons as well as structures containing a phonon wall (a phonon-reflecting barrier transparent to electrons) embedded in an electron quantum well (QW) are considered. It is shown that, because of the independent electron and phonon confinement in the double heterostructure, the scattering rate is lower than that obtained in the case of electron confinement alone. The total scattering rate by confined and interface phonons in the QW with a phonon wall is reduced significantly as compared with the rate of confined electron scattering by bulk phonons. Thus, the phonon wall within the electron QW is a powerful means of reducing electron scattering and enhancing, correspondingly, the electron mobility in two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures.


blood to an abnormally high level later on, to maintain a normal osmotic pressure, if the chloride and protein deficiency is aliowed.to progress. So it, too, will tend to disappear from the urine, but only when the plasma proteins have already fallen. Mr. Smith calls neglect of physiological stimulation of the dilated bowel " physiological rest." Since the dilatation is due to some pathological cause I would suggest that physiological stimulation is the correct form of treatment. Can one call it " physiological rest " when the ileum and perhaps the lower jejunum are dilated, with toxic and " stagnant fluid left in " ? As regards attempting " to coerce the gut into contracting while it is dilated and therefore at a great mechanical disadvantage," surely lie has not forgotten that stretched muscle contracts more forcibly when stimulated than unstretched muscle, and the tone in muscle increases with stretching. That is, provided it has not been negiected too long by " physiological rest," thus entering the " vicious circle." " Eternal vigilance and prompt action are the answer."


Various forms of vasculitis may result in mesenteric ischaemia, ischaemic colitis or aneurysm formation in the aorta or intestinal blood vessels. Vasculitides may involve large- and/or medium-sized vessels, medium- and/or small-sized vessels, or small-sized vessels only. It is essential to differentiate between the different forms of vasculitis since diagnostic tests and therapies differ greatly. Gastrointestinal manifestations of vasculitis can generally be detected using angiography, digital subtraction angiography and/or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). Various laboratory tests are helpful in establishing the diagnosis in patients in whom vasculitis is clinically suspected. In addition, the diagnosis should be confirmed using histology or angiography if possible. Treatment of vasculitis not caused by chronic infection consists of high dose corticosteroids and, in the case of polyarteritis nodosa or vasculitis associated with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), cyclophosphamide.


The stochastic arrival of patients at hospital emergency departments complicates their management. More than 50% of a hospital's emergency department tends to operate beyond its normal capacity and eventually fails to deliver high-quality care. To address this concern, much research has been carried out using yearly, monthly and weekly time-series forecasting. This article discusses the use of hourly time-series forecasting to help improve emergency department management by predicting the arrival of future patients. Emergency department admission data from January 2014 to August 2017 was retrieved from a hospital in Iowa. The auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), Holt–Winters, TBATS, and neural network methods were implemented and compared as forecasters of hourly patient arrivals. The auto-regressive integrated moving average (3,0,0) (2,1,0) was selected as the best fit model, with minimum Akaike information criterion and Schwartz Bayesian criterion. The model was stationary and qualified under the Box–Ljung correlation test and the Jarque–Bera test for normality. The mean error and root mean square error were selected as performance measures. A mean error of 1.001 and a root mean square error of 1.55 were obtained. The auto-regressive integrated moving average can be used to provide hourly forecasts for emergency department arrivals and can be implemented as a decision support system to aid staff when scheduling and adjusting emergency department arrivals.


We consider problems involving the comparison of two or more treatments where we have the opportunity to adjust for relevant covariates either conditionally in a regression model or implicitly in repeated measures data, for example, in crossover trials. It is seen that for data arising from non-Normal distributions there is the possibility that models adjusting for covariates and those not adjusting for covariates will be inconsistent, that is, at most one of the models can be valid. Alternatively, even if conditional and unconditional models are valid, parameters in each model may have different interpretations. We note that this presents difficulties for the specification and interpretation of the analysis. It is also clear that model validation is critical. Specific attention is paid to survival data analysed by the Cox proportional hazards model.


A printed antenna realised on an indium phosphide wafer is presented. The antenna provides an efficient, broadband antenna solution for MMIC/OEIC systems and subsystems. The antenna is based on an aperture coupled patch architecture with the substrates layers in a hi-lo configuration. Measured results exhibit an impedance bandwidth of around 12% for VSWR<2, and a gain of 8 dBi.


Steganography is one of information hiding area that covers the information in any medium domain such as text, image, audio and video. One of steganography categories in the medium of text is called text steganography. It conceals hidden message with embedding the text via various methods such as horizontally shifting, vertically shifting or based on the letter of text structures. Many researchers utilize the feature-based technique to cover hidden message based on uniqueness of letter. Therefore, this study intends to focus on specific type of feature-based technique which is the letter-based text steganography. However, there is still issue relating to this method which the existence of the technique in the text is easily discoverable by attackers. Literature indicated that this issue is probably rooted from the lack of verification and validation procedures during the development of the steganography method. This study aims to identify the suitable parameters for verification and validation process. In addition, the parameters will then be used in conducting evaluation on the letter-based text steganography. The outcome of this study showed that the parameters which involved in verification and validation process will be able to improve the performance and security of the technique.


The increasingly sophisticated at-home screening systems for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), integrated with both contactless and contact-based sensing modalities, bring convenience and reliability to remote chronic disease management. However, the device pairing processes between system components are vulnerable to wireless exploitation from a non-compliant user wishing to manipulate the test results. This work presents SIENNA, an insider-resistant context-based pairing protocol. SIENNA leverages JADE-ICA to uniquely identify a user's respiration pattern within a multi-person environment and fuzzy commitment for automatic device pairing, while using friendly jamming technique to prevent an insider with knowledge of respiration patterns from acquiring the pairing key. Our analysis and test results show that SIENNA can achieve reliable (> 90% success rate) device pairing under a noisy environment and is robust against the attacker with full knowledge of the context information.


Two experiments were conducted with golden Hubbard pullet chicks to investigate the replacement effects of locally prepared fish silage for imported fish meal in pullet and layers' rations. Acidic and neutral fish silage preparations concentrated with either maize or cassava plus groundnut meal and wheat offals, were fed as a substitute for fish meal. Results with pullets showed good feed consumption for all dietary treatments but feed efficiency was decreased (P<0.05) for neutral cassava, acidic maize and acidic cassava fish silage treatments. Pullet mortality was between 0.18 and 4.1 7%, being significantly (P< 0.05) highest in the acidic fish silage diets. Lipid retention, metabolizable energy (ME) and efficiency of energy utilization (ME%) were similar across all treatments except for neutral maize fish silage, in which ME was slightly hlgh and lipid retention low. Egg production and egg size significantly (P<O .05) decreased among groups of birds fed acidic maize acidic cassava and neutral cassava fish silage diets. Similarly, the efficiency of feed conversion to eggs deer.eased (P< 0.05) in all fish silage substituted diets. Key Words : Fish silage Pullets, Layer Hen. Metabolizable Energy, Egg Production.


Designing an injection mold with 3D-CAD software is the current trend. With help of 3D-CAD software tools, the mold components become more transparent and more precise, therefore the cost of mold development can be reduced substantially by applying 3D-CAD software. In this paper, taking the design of outlet for an example, we discourse the general process of designing injection moulds as well as some techniques that could be taken during the process, which is helpful for development of injection mold in practice.


A striking feature of the discourses surrounding the negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and developing states is the starkly contrasting pictures given of the role and nature of the EU. The Union is either portrayed as an angel, an actor with altruistic objectives, concerned primarily with the economic and social development of the ACP countries, or as a demon, an actor driven by self-interest with an hidden agenda and using confrontational tactics. The first image is mainly held by Commission officials, the second by NGO representatives. In this article, I establish the existence of the two contrasting images, try to explain theoretically the nature of the debate by reference to cognitive theory, and discuss the potential consequences of constructing and utilizing black-and-white images. I argue that the EU risked being caught in rhetorical traps by describing itself in overly altruistic terms, thereby giving its counterparts argumentative advantages. NGOs, on the other hand, lost some of their possibilities of influencing EU policy by taking a totally confrontational stance.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) is a subtype of sarcoma that may occur in any part of the gastrointestinal system, most frequently in the stomach and small intestine. The most common symptoms are bleeding and abdominal pain. In this clinical review, we summarise the progress made with this condition and discuss the recommended diagnostics and treatment of GIST.


Twenty-one patients with pseudomembranous enterocolitis were seen over a 17 year period. Major inciting factors appeared to be an antecedent operation or a serious medical illness. The most common symptoms were fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. The most commonly involved organ was the colon. The diagnosis was missed in the majority of patients. Neither conservative treatment or surgical treatment were successful. Awareness of the disease and its course will lead to earlier diagnosis and hopefully to a higher cure rate.


This paper deals with the magnitude of currents in a secondary a-c network due to a line-to-line fault on the high-voltage feeder, and gives the analysis of the double-unbalance circuit resulting when a network protector fails to open during such a fault, and one of the protector fuses blows. Results of field tests made on an actual network are included.


This study explores the association between job satisfaction and turnover intentions among lecturers in three public universities in Tanzania. It had three objectives: (1) to determine the level of perceived job satisfaction among lecturers; (2) to determine the association between job satisfaction and turnover intention; and (3) to determine the extent to which lecturers' job satisfaction and turnover intention differs by sex, age and work experience. Data were collected using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 20.0. A total of 66 public university lecturers participated in the study by filling in the questionnaires. The findings showed that these lecturers were highly satisfied with all facets of their job. There was a significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention among the lecturers, whereby those who were highly satisfied were less likely to have an intention to leave their job. Also, there were significant differences in job satisfaction in relation to age and work experience. On the other hand, the turnover intention differs significantly by sex whereby the male lecturers had a greater intention to leave their job than their female counterparts. We suggest that for the universities to have highly innovative, motivated and productive teaching staff, job satisfaction should be given considerable attention. Keywords: Job satisfaction, Turnover intention, Public universities, Tanzania


This work is based on modification of the general relativity, which includes effects of production /absorption of matter by the vacuum. The theory (without fitting parameters) is in good quantitative agreement with cosmological observations. In this theory we got an interface between dark and ordinary matter, which very likely exist not only in cosmos, but everywhere, including our body and, especially, our brain. Subjective experiences are considered as a manifestation of that interface. This opens a possibility of a "communication" with dark matter. Probable applications of these ideas include health (brain stimulation), communication, computational capabilities and energy resources.


Schizophrenia is associated with a shortened life expectancy and increased somatic comorbidity with e.g. cardiovascular disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate hyperlipidemia and metabolic syndrome in schizophrenia and thus find specific risk factors for excess mortality and morbidity. The study population was a subsample of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, a general population-based birth cohort. In 1997, 8,463 members of the cohort were invited to a clinical examination, where e.g. blood samples were taken after an overnight fast. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides (TG) were determined. The following psychiatric diagnostic categories were used: 1) DSM-III-R schizophrenia (n = 31), 2) other psychoses (n = 21), 3) non-psychotic disorders (n = 104), 4) comparison group (n = 5,498), having no psychiatric hospital treatment. Mean TC (5.5 mmol/l) and TG (1.5 mmol/l) were significantly higher in the schizophrenia group than in the comparison group (5.1 mmol/l and 1.2 mmol/l, respectively). To evaluate serum lipid levels in subjects with and without antipsychotic medication the sample was analyzed according to used medication. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, high LDL cholesterol and hypertriglyceridemia was high in persons using antipsychotic medication (31%, 20% and 22%, respectively) compared to persons without such medication (12%, 10% and 7%, respectively). We found higher triglyceride levels in patients who were ≤ 20 years old at the onset of schizophrenia (mean 1.7 mmol/l; N = 17) as compared with patients with later onset (mean 1.4 mmol/ l; N = 14) or non-hospitalized controls (mean 1.2 mmol/l; N = 5,453). The difference between the first and third group was significant (p < 0.01), and there was a negative correlation between the age at onset and the level of serum triglycerides (r = -0.35, p = 0.05). To evaluate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, the subjects were assessed for the presence of metabolic syndrome according to the criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was high in subjects with schizophrenia compared with the comparison group (19% vs. 6%, p = 0.010). The results indicate an elevated risk for hyperlipidemia and metabolic syndrome in persons with schizophrenia or on antipsychotic medication. Regular monitoring of weight, serum lipid and glucose levels and blood pressure is important. Comprehensive efforts directed at controlling weight and improving physical activity are needed.


This paper deals with electric field characteristics under three-phase voltage in three-phase electric power apparatus such us gas insulated switchgear (GIS) and three-phase power cable. Three-phase equipment differs from single-phase equipment in two aspects: configuration and applied voltage. In this paper the effects of these differences on electric field in three-phase GIS are reported. There are periodic changes in the electric field magnitude and direction produced by three-phase voltage at any point. While the voltage phase varies, the electric field vector changes and rotates continuously. The rotating characteristics of the electric field vector in three-phase power apparatus depended on the position inside the insulation of the tank. The electric field vector locus is circular, elliptic, or linear. The elliptical nature of rotating electric field is expressed as electric field ratio. The mathematic description of the rotating electric field is given considering the maximum and the minimum electric field and the position inside the insulation. There is no zero electric field under three-phase voltage. The areal velocity of the electric field vector locus is constant. The electric field vector moves slowly in a high electric field area, but moves quickly in a low electric field area.


In this paper, a novel lung vessel segmentation method is introduced. In this method, some Reference Points (RPs) were determined by making use of the properties of unchangeable anatomical structure. Due to these RPs, truncus, left-right pulmonary artery, lobar segment vessels have been segmented and subsegment vessels have been detected by looking at the differences of intensities in lung region. If there is pulmonary emboli (PE), heart disease, or abnormal tissues, vessel structure doesn't regularly continue and decreases the sensitivity of segmentation. Using RPs, vessel structure becomes more definite and sensitivity of the segmentation increases. CTA images belonging 30 patients including different disease are examined and 95% of sensitivity is obtained. The performance of the method for lung vessel segmentation is found to be quite well for radiologists and it gives enough results to the surgeries medically.


We use the method of characteristic sets with respect to two term orderings to prove the existence and obtain a method of computation of a bivariate dimension polynomial associated with a non-reflexive difference-differential ideal in the algebra of difference-differential polynomials with several basic derivations and one translation. As a consequence, we obtain a new proof and a method of computation of the dimension polynomial of a non-reflexive prime difference ideal in the algebra of difference polynomials over an ordinary difference field. We also discuss applications of our results to systems of algebraic difference-differential equations.


The design of a micro-wind energy conversion system represents the core of this study. The attention is derived towards the brushless DC permanent magnet generator with outer rotor configuration and trapezoidal induced back-EMF voltages. The global aim of the thesis is represented by the attempt of determining the optimal geometrical and electrical design parameters of the BLDCPM generator that give the minimum total power losses in the system, over long-term wind speed cycle operation and thereby increasing the efficiency of the overall system. In advance to the optimization, an adapted simulation model needs to be developed in terms of results accuracy and simulation time. This is done in the first part of the thesis by determining the modeling level, as well as the design variables of each component of the system. As the optimization appeals to an algorithm for the design process, the reduction of the simulation time has been investigated in the third and fourth part of the thesis by developing a suitable method that allows the integration and exploitation of the available data from the wind-speed profile when determining the totality of the power losses in the system. Afterwards, the optimization methodology is presented along with the optimum results obtained, as well as comparison of several input/output parameters. Finally, experimental tests are also carried out on a reference BLDCPM machine prototype in order to verify its electronic commutation and control technique


Pork shoulders were restructured into nuggets with 0.5% NaCl, 0.25% polyphosphate and 3.0% water or with the three additives plus 1.5% defatted glandless cottonseed flour (GCF). Restructured nuggets were batter-breaded with either commercial coating ingredients or commercial ingredients plus GCF. The coated nuggets were prefried in vegetable oil and stored at 4°C for 0 or 9 days before reheating when needed. Thiobarbituric acid values and sensory warmed-over flavor scores of products showed that oxidative flavor deterioration in batter-breaded pork nuggets can be minimized by incorporating GCF into either the meat or the coating system. The GCF additions did not have adverse effects on coating pick-up and palatability.


Making use of an rDNA unit, containing oligonucleotide tags in both the 17S and 26S rRNA gene, we have analyzed the effect of various deletions in the External Transcribed Spacer (ETS) and in one of the Internal Transcribed Spacers 1 (ITS1) on the process of ribosome formation in yeast. By following the fate of the tagged transcripts of this rDNA unit in vivo by Northern hybridization we found that deleting various parts of the ETS prevents the accumulation of tagged 17S rRNA and its assembly into 40S subunits, but not the formation of 60S subunits. Deleting the central region of ITS1, including a processing site that is used in an early stage of the maturation process, was also found to prevent the accumulation of functional 49 S subunits, whereas no effect on the formation of 60S subunits was detected. The implications of these findings for yeast pre‐rRNA processing are discussed.


In these compelling new essays, leading critics sharpen our understanding of the narrative structures that convey meaning in fiction, taking as their point of departure the narratological positions of Dorrit Cohn, Grard Genette, and Franz Stanzel. This collection demonstrates how narratology, with its attention to the modalities of presenting consciousness, offers a point of entry for scholars investigating the socio-cultural dimensions of literary representations. Drawing from a wide range of literary texts, the essays explore the borderline between fiction and history; explain how characters are constructed by both author and reader through the narration of consciousness; show how gender shapes narrative strategies ranging from the depiction of consciousness through intertextuality to the representation of the body; address issues of contingency in narrative; and present a debate on the crucial function of person in the literary text. The contributors are Stanley Corngold, Gail Finney, Kte Hamburger, Paul Michael Ltzeler, David Mickelsen, John Neubauer, Thomas Pavel, Jens Rieckmann, Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Judith Ryan, Franz Stanzel, Susan Suleiman, Maria Tatar, David Wellbery, and Larry Wolff.


Contrastive loss and its variants have become very popular recently for learning visual representations without supervision. In this work, we first generalize the standard contrastive loss based on cross entropy to a broader family of losses that share an abstract form of $\mathcal{L}_{\text{alignment}} + \lambda \mathcal{L}_{\text{distribution}}$, where hidden representations are encouraged to (1) be aligned under some transformations/augmentations, and (2) match a prior distribution of high entropy. We show that various instantiations of the generalized loss perform similarly under the presence of a multi-layer non-linear projection head, and the temperature scaling ($\tau$) widely used in the standard contrastive loss is (within a range) inversely related to the weighting ($\lambda$) between the two loss terms. We then study an intriguing phenomenon of feature suppression among competing features shared acros augmented views, such as "color distribution" vs "object class". We construct datasets with explicit and controllable competing features, and show that, for contrastive learning, a few bits of easy-to-learn shared features could suppress, and even fully prevent, the learning of other sets of competing features. Interestingly, this characteristic is much less detrimental in autoencoders based on a reconstruction loss. Existing contrastive learning methods critically rely on data augmentation to favor certain sets of features than others, while one may wish that a network would learn all competing features as much as its capacity allows.


Using district population in Spain between 1860 and 1991, recorded approximately every decade, this article examines whether initial population affects subsequent population growth. While such a relationship between these two variables hardly existed during the second half of the nineteenth century, this link increased significantly between 1910 and 1970, although this trend was abruptly interrupted by the Civil War and the autarkic period that followed. The intensity of this relationship decreased in the 1970s, a process that continued during the 1980s. Our findings also stress that agglomeration economies were stronger in medium-size districts, especially from 1960 onwards.


In coastal areas salinity of groundwater may pose problems for the sustainable exploitation of fresh groundwater. Groundwater flow modelling is the adequate tool to produce valid predictions of future development in the groundwater system. In order to set up the groundwater models it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the geological subsurface. How geophysical methods can contribute to the geological understanding is shown for the model area Elbe-Weser estuaries at the German North Sea coast. Techniques used are electromagnetic soundings (airborne and ground-based), magnetic resonance soundings and 2-D electrical resistivity tomography.


This five-part dialogue argues that despite its common positioning as a 'minor' player in Italian letters, Somali Italian literature has prompted a major shift in the Italian cultural field by bringing to light forgotten pages of Italian history. This chapter presents key issues in Shirin's career which represents some aspects of Somali Italian authors' struggles to be heard and read, including the processes of translation and self-translation, and the challenges to be published. The chapter argues that collaborative writing can challenge the 'minor' role that immigrant authors occupy in the present cultural industry and their marginalisation in academic discussions concerning them.


The aim of present work is to control the coupled tank system with Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) structure by using the Sliding Mode Control (SMC) method. The most important disadvantage of the conventional SMC is chattering problem. The purpose of the presented study is to decrease the chattering effect. Two different controllers are proposed: Firstly, conventional SMC is designed. In the second step; to decrease the chattering problem in the conventional SMC, the same system is controlled by the second order SMC (SOSMC). The designed controllers have been applied to the coupled tank system, which has an important place in the industry. At the end of the study, by comparing the experimental results, it has been observed that the chattering in the control signal is significantly decreased.


Evanescent wave excitation of fluorescence was used to study the adsorption of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) from aqueous solution to three types of surfaces:  bare silica, a dimethylethylsiloxane (C(2)) monolayer on silica, and a dimethyloctadecylsiloxane (C(18)) monolayer on silica. The solution pH was varied to investigate the nonpolar and electrostatic contributions to the free energy of adsorption for each surface. The pH dependence of the adsorption showed that the pK(a) is the same for each of the three surfaces, consistent with earlier conclusions that the acidity of derivatized silica surfaces is due to areas of exposed silica. The free energies of adsorption for the bare silica surface, -26.2(±0.2) kJ/mol at pH 8, was attributed to electrostatic interactions alone. The free energy of adsorption for the C(2) and C(18) surfaces, -28.5(±0.1) and -31.5(±0.1) kJ/mol, respectively, were found to have both electrostatic and nonpolar contributions, with the latter being larger by 50% for the C(2) surface and 100% for the C(18) surface. Using Gouy-Chapman theory, the surface charge densities on each of the three surfaces, calculated from the electrostatic interaction energy of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+), were found to be within the range of literature values:  8.8(±0.1) × 10(-)(7) mol/m(2) for bare silica and 1.7(±0.1) × 10(-)(7) mol/m(2) for both the C(18) and C(2) surfaces. The results demonstrate that a cationic dye can be used to probe the silanol activity of chemically modified silica surfaces. The results support the picture that these chemically modified silica surfaces are acidic due to molecular-scale areas of contact between the bare silica substrate and the aqueous phase.


This study for establishing specific standards of atrium design aims to discuss design of atrium to consider energy performance atrium in office buildings. In order to evaluate a type and a scale of atrium at the early design stage, modeling details of mass design were set as standards of conceptual design. In the experiment, Project Vasari was used to analyze modeling and energy consumption, based on the LOD 100-step suggested by AIA, because there is no guideline to specify a level of modeling details at each design process. From this analysis, the correlation among a simple- typed atrium and scale and energy load was considered. The result of this research is as follows: First, the single-sided atrium reduced energy the most, and it was followed by three-sided, two-sided, four-sided and continuous-typed ones. On the whole, they could decrease energy by up to about 15%. Also, the atrium with a wide facade facing in the south was more favorable to reduce energy. Second, planning the atrium within 10~30% of the whole building area was more energy efficient. Third, rather than the depth, adjusting the length in designing an atrium could reduce cooling and heating loads by 1.5% per 1m. As explained above, energy performance evaluation considering types and planning elements of atrium helps to assess alternatives in a reasonable way. In particular, considering the use of building needs to be preceded to select a type of atrium, although it is also important to consider its planning elements.


Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy offers portable and rapid analysis of endogenous constituents and drugs within fingernails. Fingernails are a useful alternative biological matrix to blood and urine specimen as they provide the advantage of being non-invasive and require minimal sample size (1–3 mm). This work utilised NIR spectroscopy for the detection of (1) drugs in fingernails including benzocaine, calcium carbonate, cocaine hydrochloride (HCl), levamisole HCl, lidocaine HCl and procaine HCl; and (2) endogenous constituents such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and water. Fingernails were analysed initially 'as received' to identify the aforementioned endogenous constituents. Seven sets of fingernails were then spiked with one the identified drugs and measured over a six-week period. Spectra were exported into Matlab 2019a for spectral interpretation and machine learning analytics (MLAs). MLAs included correlation wavenumber space (CWS), principal component analysis (PCA) and Artificial Neural Networks Self-Organising Maps (SOM). The results showed that NIR spectra of spiked nails showed key characteristic features at specific wavelengths that corresponded to their spiked drug (1). When combined with CWS and PCA, NIR spectroscopy was able to differentiate between spiked and un-spiked nails and distinguish between the drugs that did not share similar chemical structures. CWS values (r values) and PCA loading scores highlighted spectra/spectral features that were significant. In addition, SOM showed further classes beyond PCA that corresponded to changes in physical properties of the fingernails. Thus, finding confirmed that NIR spectroscopy combined with MLAs possessed the ability to characterise fingernails based on their endogenous constituents and to detect the presence of drugs within fingernails.


Silver has long been used for mirrors and tableware due to its high reflectivity, and it is still a very important component in optics. In particular, silver island films or small particles have been applied as photographic materials, tools and devices to generate localized electrical fields for molecular detection and electrical field enhancement. It has recently been discovered that silver oxide thin films may be a very useful material for dealing with optical near-field and surface plasmons. Silver oxide decomposes into oxygen and small metallic silver particles, and this characteristic has been applied to ultrahigh-density optical data storage to create a strong light-scattering centre that resolves small pits or marks beyond the diffraction limit. More recently, it has been found that silver film can be cheaply and easily transformed into Ag nanoparticles and nanowires in a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen in a vacuum chamber. The particle and wire diameters are very uniform and approximately 20–50 nm, and they can be three-dimensionally fabricated on almost all material surfaces without the need for thermal annealing. Silver nanoparticles and wires will soon appear in small and cheap molecular detection sensors by small precise adjustments for generating surface plasmon conditions.


We have investigated lower limits for scattering loss in plastic optical fibers produced from PBVE. Even in the undoped polymer, frozen-in variations of density and orientation cause Rayleigh scattering, resulting in a minimum attenuation at 850 nm of -5 dB/km. Upon addition of dopant, this minimum attenuation increases to 10 dB/km. Since all of these scattering mechanisms (as well as any extrinsic scattering) introduce coupling between the various modes of a multimode plastic fiber, it is conceivable that scattering will positively impact the fiber bandwidth by reduction of modal dispersion.


Consider the problem of estimating normal means from independent observations with known variances, possibly different from each other. Suppose that a second-level normal model is specified on the unknown means, with the prior means depending on a vector of covariates and the prior variances constant. For this two-level normal model, existing empirical Bayes methods are constructed from the Bayes rule with the prior parameters selected either by maximum likelihood or moment equations or by minimizing Stein's unbiased risk estimate. Such methods tend to deteriorate, sometimes substantially, when the second-level model is misspecified. We develop a Steinized empirical Bayes approach for improving the robustness to misspecification of the second-level model, while preserving the effectiveness in risk reduction when the second-level model is appropriate in capturing the unknown means. The proposed methods are constructed from a minimax Bayes estimator or, interpreted by its form, a Steinized Bayes estimator, which is not only globally minimax but also achieves close to the minimum Bayes risk over a scale class of normal priors including the specified prior. The prior parameters are then estimated by standard moment methods. We provide formal results showing that the proposed methods yield no greater asymptotic risks than existing methods using the same estimates of prior parameters, but without requiring the second-level model to be correct. We present both an application for predicting baseball batting averages and two simulation studies to demonstrate the practical advantage of the proposed methods.


Received: November 28, 2017; Accepted: March 19, 2018 Abstract Background: Different studies have investigated the overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in ovarian cancers, in addition to the association between the level of its overexpression and tumor characteristics (tumor grade, subtype, stage, and prognosis). However, the prognostic significance of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2/neu dysregulation in epithelial ovarian tumors is controversial. The current study aims to assess human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression in different types and stages of epithelial borderline and malignant ovarian tumors in a population of Iranian patients. Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study on 100 patients diagnosed with epithelial borderline and malignant ovarian tumors who referred to the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital at Tehran between 2012 and 2014. After selection of the appropriate tissue block, we prepared slides for immunohistochemical staining with the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 marker. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positivity was evaluated and scored according to Ellis and Wolff recommendations. Cases with equivocal immunohistochemical results (score 2) also underwent chromogenic in situ hybridization. Results: The most prevalent tumor in our study was serous carcinoma (54%). Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 scores were: 0 in 69%, 1+ in 26%, 2+ in 4%, and 3+ in 1% of tumors. Chromogenic in situ hybridization examination of cases with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 score of 2 showed negative results for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 gene amplification. We observed no association between human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and the level of tumor differentiation, histologic subtype, clinical stage, tumor size, and patient's age. Conclusion: Controversial results and wide range of prevalence in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression in different studies could be due to several causes. Technical considerations, tumor heterogeneity, and lack of standard guidelines for interpretation could influence the results. We did not find any relationship between human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression and prognostic indices of grade, clinical stage or histologic subtype as many other reports. Future studies should be conducted on larger numbers of patients with different disease stages and adequate numbers of different histologic subtypes.


The chapter aims at overview of the main approaches to agricultural policies in developed and developing countries and investigation of perspective ways to ensure sustainable rural development in the conditions of liberalization of trade in agricultural commodities and food. The issues of sustainable rural development and main influences of trade liberalization are considered in the light of food security, alternative income opportunities in rural areas, and support of local identities. When analyzing the economic potential of rural areas, the following indicators are studied: natural conditions; assets; general characteristics of labor resources. Some of the indicators, used to be considered as secondary for economic results of agricultural activity, are also considered: living conditions in rural areas; demographic situation; rural social, cultural and leisure infrastructure; access of rural people to modern services of communication, transport, education, medicine, consumer services and other benefits, accustomed for urban citizens.


THE EFFECTS OF PRE-MAXIMAL EXERTION INHALATION OF AMMONIA AND THE PERFORMANCE EFFECTS DURING DEADLIFT MAXIMAL TESTS Justin Nicholas Vigil Old Dominion University, 2015 Director: Dr. David Branch The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ammonia as a stimulant on athletic performance during a deadlift one maximal repetition (1-RM) absolute strength test. It was hypothesized that ammonia inhalation would result in a larger 1-RM, possibly due to immediate catecholamine release attributed to the fight-or-flight response. If proven effective, ammonia inhalation would present an option to increase power and strength performance during training and competition based on an acute manipulation of natural occurring hormones, eliminating the side effects attributed to other supplementation methods. Subjects (n = 10 males, X±SD age = 21±1 years, mass = 72.5±6.8 kg; n = 10 female, age = 22±5 years, mass = 66.2±8.1 kg) were required to have at least two years of resistance training experience while lacking a history of asthma, lightheadedness, fainting, anaphylaxis, sickle cell traits, and other respiratory disorders. After a baseline 1-RM test, subjects were paired by 1-RM performance and gender, then randomly assigned in a counterbalanced treatment order to control/blinding water or ammonia trials after a minimum 72-hour recovery period for another 1-RM test involving attempts at 100%, 102.5%, 105%, and 107.5% of the established 1-RM value. Testing was then repeated after the minimum rest period for the remaining trial. Results revealed the expected sex main effect for dead lift 1-RM (93.0±29.5 [females]; 152.0±29.5 kg [males] (1,18F = 20.09, p<0.001), but no trial main effect (2,36F = 0.135, p = 0.874) or sex


Unified classical symmetries have led to many typical advances, including gigabit switches and Markov models. After years of appropriate research into flip-flop gates, we show the development of information retrieval systems, which embodies the robust principles of distributed systems. We demonstrate that the transistor can be made probabilistic, introspective, and ubiquitous.


Accurate estimation of extreme discharges in rivers, such as the Meuse, is crucial for effective flood risk assessment. However, existing statistical and hydrological models that estimate these discharges often lack transparency regarding the uncertainty of their predictions, as evidenced by the devastating flood event that occurred in July 2021 which was not captured by the existing model for estimating design discharges. This article proposes an alternative approach with a central role for 5 expert judgment, using Cooke's method. A simple statistical model was developed for the river basin, consisting of correlated GEV-distributions for discharges in upstream sub-catchments. The model was fitted to expert judgments, measurements, and the combination of both, using Markov chain Monte Carlo. Results from the model fitted only to measurements were accurate for more frequent events, but less certain for extreme events. Using expert judgment reduced uncertainty for these extremes but was less accurate for more frequent events. The combined approach provided the most plausible results, with Cooke's method 10 reducing the uncertainty by appointing most weight to two of the seven experts. The study demonstrates that utilizing hydrological experts in this manner can provide plausible results with a relatively limited effort, even in situations where measurements are scarce or unavailable.


Three advances are proposed as a pathway to the cataclysmic event of our first encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial beings. First, discovery of very large numbers of extraterrestrial planets, "exoplanets" (possibly as many as1023 in our Universe); second, introduction of electronic components into the human body evolving into a cybernetic and biological "cyborg," a model for an extraterrestrial being Cyborgs might allow advanced civilizations to endure hundreds of thousands of years. Third, the recent development of high-frequency gravitational wave (HFGW) detectors, the communication means of choice for an advanced cyborg civilization since they are not easily absorbed like electromagnetic radiation. Six HFGW detectors are presented for application to our first encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial beings. Numerical estimates are made for the failure of extraterrestrial civilizations such that no two exist at the same time (Fermi's Paradox). It is concluded that there might remain at least ≈1.48 × 108 Worlds intercommunicating with HFGWs at any one time in any one region of our Universe. The predicted form of extraterrestrial beings is by means of animaginary, but based upon comprehensively documented and detailed projection of the evolution of "Earthling" homosapiens, to become "cyborgs." It is proposed that such long-living cyborg forms of intelligent beings would be encountered by us. The first cataclysmic encounter with them is expected to be interception of their interstellar communications. The predicted frequency of intercepted messages under one set of assumptions is at least 1500 per day. After decoding the intercepted messages, keys may be found to improve vastly the present and future quality of life for us earthlings. Advanced beings might utilize direct brain-to-brain communication and it is concluded that research into brain-to-brain communication and HFGW detection are encouraged.


Computer system security is a factor that needs to be considered in the era of industrial revolution 4.0, namely by preventing various threats to the system, as well as being able to detect and repair any damage that occurs to the computer system. DDoS attacks are a threat to the company at this time because this attack is carried out by making very large requests for a site or website server so that the system becomes stuck and cannot function at all. DDoS attacks in Indonesia and developed countries always increase every year to 6% from only 3%. To minimize the attack, we conducted a study using Machine Learning techniques. The dataset is obtained from the results of DDoS attacks that have been collected by the researchers. From the datasets there is a training and testing of data using five techniques classification: Neural Network, Naïve Bayes and Random Forest, KNN, and Support Vector Machine (SVM), datasets processed have different percentages, with the aim of facilitating in classifying. From this study it can be concluded that from the five classification techniques used, the Forest random classification technique achieved the highest level of accuracy (98.70%) with a Weighted Avg 98.4%. This means that the technique can detect DDoS attacks accurately on the application that will be developed.


INTRODUCTION Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a Gramnegative, spiral, and microaerophilic bacterium, which can usually persist lifelong in gastric mucosa if not treated efficiently. H. pylori infection plays an undeniable role in the development of different gastroduodenal diseases, while its eradication cures ulcer disease and also prevents occurrence of gastric cancer (1–3). At the beginning, as usual, it was thought that antibacterial therapy could easily eliminate the infection in human gastric mucosa. As such, during the last 30 years that we have known about H. pylori, there have been numerous therapeutic regimens suggested (e.g., sequential, triple/dual, quadruple, DANCE, hybrid, salvage, and empirical) (4–8). Therefore, many studies have been conducted to identify the most effective and least harmful therapeutic regimen, although, a unique therapeutic regimen to cure H. pylori infection in all reported colonized individuals is still lacking (8, 9). However, high rates of resistance have been reported to all primary/secondary lines and even to the newly introduced alternative drugs described for H. pylori treatment (10). In 2014, due to the skyrocketing rates of antibiotics resistance, a new scope toward the antibiotic therapy against this mysterious bacterium seems necessary. It has been indicated that virulence factors are the ability of a bacterium to induce certain disease in attributed hosts (1, 11, 12). Accordingly, virulence factors in H. pylori (e.g., cagA, dupA, homB, and vacA) have essential and definite roles in pathogenesis of different gastroduodenal disorders such as chronic gastritis, gastric cancer, and peptic ulcers (13–15). Certain H. pylori strains (specific PCR positive for cagA, dupA, homB, and vacA) harboring virulence determinants are capable to survive longer and induce more severe diseases. Surprisingly, among the currently described studies, no therapeutic regimen according to H. pylori virulence pattern (virutype) has yet been suggested.