In the present study, the effects of untreated wastewater and associated health risks were assessed in an abundantly consumed vegetable, Luffa cylindrica. In this direction, trace metal accumulations in L. cylindrica samples irrigated with three different water regimes (municipal wastewater, groundwater, and canal water) were determined. The metal levels were defined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer equipped with a graphite furnace and D2 corrector. Trace metal concentrations in L. cylindrica samples were in the range of 7.91–9.01, 3.78–4.22, 0.54–0.63, 39.18–43.27, 15.76–20.82, 29.04–42.49, 6.96–8.24, 5.85–7.72, 4.06–4.39 and 0.18–0.42 mg/kg for Mo, As, Se, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd and Co, respectively. The health risk index values of As, Cd, Pb, Mo, Ni, Se and Co; and pollution load index values of As, Mo, Ni, Cu, Cd and Pb were high, indicating possible phytotoxicity. As had the highest value for the pollution load index suggesting high-risk levels. High levels of some metals could be an alarm call for consumers as the vegetable is irrigated with untreated wastewater.


CD40 is expressed on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, and CD40 activation leads to signaling critical for cell survival and proliferation. We have previously described a novel, fully human IgG 1 anti-CD40 antagonistic monoclonal antibody, CHIR-12.12, generated in XenoMouse® mice (Abgenix, Inc.), and have demonstrated that it inhibits normal human B cell proliferation and survival and mediates potent antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against primary CLL and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells. In this study, we examined the ability of CHIR-12.12 to modulate cytokine production by primary CLL cells and compared the ADCC activity of CHIR-12.12 with rituximab against primary CLL cells. Primary CLL cells stimulated with CD40L produced a variety of cytokines, including IL-10, TNF-α , IL-8, GM-CSF, IL-6, MCP-1, and MIP-1β. Addition of CHIR-12.12 to primary CLL cells inhibited CD40L-mediated production of these cytokines. Cytokine production by primary CLL cells cultured with CHIR-12.12 alone in the absence of CD40L did not exceed levels produced by CLL cells cultured in medium. These data suggest that CHIR-12.12 is a potent antagonist for CD40L-mediated cytokine production by primary CLL cells and shows no agonistic activity by itself. We next compared the relative ADCC activity of CHIR-12.12 and rituximab against ex vivo primary CLL cells from 8 patients. CHIR-12.12 exhibited greater ADCC than rituximab against CLL cells from all patients. The average percent of maximum lysis by CHIR-12.12 and rituximab were 49 ± 16% and 31 ± 14%, respectively. CHIR-12.12 was greater than 10-fold more potent than rituximab, as measured by ED 50 values (14.1 pM versus 155.5 pM, respectively). Quantitative CD20 and CD40 density on CLL cells and the degree of antibody internalization were investigated as potential reasons for the difference in ADCC activity. The greater ADCC potency and efficacy of CHIR-12.12 was not dependent on a higher density of cell surface CD40 molecules, as there were 1.3 to 14-fold higher numbers of CD20 than CD40 molecules on the cell surface. Antibody internalization studies using primary CLL cells conducted by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy show that upon binding to CD40 at 37°C, CHIR-12.12 remains uniformly distributed on the cell surface, even after 3 hours. In contrast, after binding at 37°C, rituximab is redistributed into caps and internalized. These data suggest that the potent ADCC activity of CHIR-12.12 may be partly related to its ability to remain on the surface of target cells uniformly, allowing optimal interaction with effector cells. Taken together, these results suggest that CHIR-12.12 may be effective at mediating potent ADCC against CLL cells in vivo . CHIR-12.12 is currently in Phase I trials for B-cell malignancies.


Field journalists in Pakistan who have covered violent conflicts especially in the wake of Karachi, Baluchistan, and former FATA conflicts have repeatedly staked their physical, emotional, and financial security while fulfilling their journalistic responsibilities. The study at hand is majorly aimed at exploring the reactions of the field journalists in Pakistan concerning the professional and safety challenges faced by them. A purposive sample of 15 field journalists from mainstream newspapers and television channels of Pakistan was selected for conducting the qualitative in-depth interviews. The study concluded that the most frequently faced challenges by the field journalists in Pakistan included the tendency to self-censor one's content and editorial judgment; working under loosely defined safety protocols; and absence of seeking psychological help in terms of handling Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD).


Elevation, detail showing collapable shutter system; Student Housing project by Bevk Perovic Arhitekti is a building on the edge of Ljubljana city centre, near the river bank, comprising of 56 dwelling units for students of Ljubljana University. It is a building of high programmatic clarity: a series of public programs (spaces for teaching, communal living and leisure) are concentrated in a horizontal transparent (glass enclosed) base while series of student living units hover above in two slabs. Student units are organized around central service cores containing bathrooms and kitchen/dining rooms, which appear on the elevation of the buildings as huge openings--windows like 'eyes', overlooking the street. Adjoining student bedrooms are, in turn, screened from the street by series of folding panels in aluminium, intricately perforated, protecting private lives of inhabitants from the street bustle. (Posted on 09 January 2008). Source: architecture lab [ezine]; http://architecturelab.net/ (accessed 7/18/2010)


Follow the Gap Method (FGM) is an obstacle avoidance method which uses gap arrays. This method recursively directs robot to the goal state while avoiding the obstacles through the safest gap. Since FGM is a geometric method, it does not consider the robot dynamics. For this reason, oscillations or collisions due to robot dynamics is possible. On the other hand, FGM calculates a desired heading angle but it does not give linear and angular velocity reference. Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) is one of the most popular obstacle avoidance algorithm which does take robot dynamics into consideration. It calculates best angular and linear velocity pair which is chosen by an objective function. In this paper, a FGM-DW approach which uses the strongest elements of FGM and DWA methods to achieve safe, smooth and fast navigation is proposed. The FGM-DW approach provides these concerns and meets the low level angular and rotational velocity requirement of FGM.


The Internet of things (IoT) is the new technology trend that is grouping physical objects with different kinds of software and hardware technologies. IoT has been applied in several domains, such as logistics, supply chain, and others, to achieve business value through a communication channel and to work more efficiently. The art of testing these integrated technologies and the need for increasing the level of quality is a crucial challenge. Since IoT Testing is a significant topic nowadays, the main purpose of this research paper is to present two major contributions. First, it promotes an Automation Testing and Monitoring Lab (ATML) on the cloud to test and monitor IoT systems on all related levels, using different testing automation tools and types with a sample of practical test scenarios. Second, it prepares a prototype for IoT Smart Fleet Systems (SFS) to help e-commerce companies manage fleet operations effectively. This study could be useful and applicable for information technology enterprises and E-Commerce companies.


Cadmium is one of the industrial elements that lead environmental pollution. Biological half-life ofcadmium is relatively longer, so its clearance from tissue is considerably long. In present study, oxidant stress and antioxidant defense mechanism due to exposure to cadmium in rats wanted to be investigated. For such a purpose adult female wistar albino rats were divided into two as control and experimental groups. During experimental period while both group animals were fed by standard fodder, cadmium added (20μg Cd/ml as cadmium sulfate) drinking water was given to experimental group for four weeks. At the end of four weeks blood samples were drawn from animals under ether anesthesia. As a last product of lipid peroxidation malondialdehyde (MDA) level, superoxide dismutase ( SOD ) activity which is sign of antioxidant defense enzyme activity and glutathione levels (GSH) were measured. Increase in lipid peroxidation has been observed by increased MDA levels in experimental group (p<0.001). SOD enzyme activity was also found to be significantly lower in experimental group (p<0.001). Glutathione level of experimental group found to be decreased according to control group values (p<0.01). As a result of present study it may be concluded that cadmium may lead to increase in lipid peroxidation. On the other hand SOD activity and glutathione levels may also be decreased by effect of cadmium in erythrocytes. So the resultant would be the disturbed antioxidant mechanism.


This paper advances and evaluates a recently proposed progressively interactive evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithm. The algorithm uses preference information from the decision maker during the intermediate generations of the EMO and produces the most preferred solution on the Pareto-optimal front. The progress towards the Pareto-optimal front is made by approximating decision maker's value function. In this paper, a generalized polynomial value function has been proposed and the procedure to fit the value function to the decision maker's preference information has been described. The generality of the procedure of fitting a value function to the decision maker's preferences has been shown by using other existing value functions from the literature. The proposed generic polynomial value function has been incorporated in the PI-EMO-VF algorithm to efficiently approximate the decision maker's value function. The paper then evaluates the performance of the PI-EMO-VF algorithm on three and five objective test problems with constraints. It also evaluates the efficacy of the procedure in producing the most preferred solution when the decision maker is unable to provide perfect information, i.e., the decision maker finds certain pairs of solutions in the objective space to be incomparable. Results have been presented for three and five objective constrained test problems using the procedure.


We present DIA, a Web services-based infrastructure for the Discovery, Integration, and Analysis of geoscience data, tools, and services. DIA provides a collaborative environment where scientists can share their resources (e.g., geochemical data, filtering services, etc.) by registering them through well-defined ontologies. We have developed a planetary materials ontology in OWL for this purpose. The ontology is used by different geoscientists (using Web services) to explore, extract, and integrate information from different heterogeneous data sets. The DIA system is now in its final pre-release phase. It is currently made accessible to a few geoscientists for conducting usability analyses, and it will eventually be made available to the community at large through the geoscience portal (GEON) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.


Coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality increased during the 1950s and 1960s but then showed a steady decline over time, starting in 1970. The author reviews the evidence relating this decline in CHD mortality to a favourable evolution of the major coronary risk factors. Monitoring of trends and determinants in CHD incidence is currently in progress in two major Belgian cities.


The dietary habits of 374 healthy Greek students aged
between 12 and 15 years were investigated. Subjects and
Methods: There were 185 male and 189 female students
(6th Gymnasium of Nicea), of mean age 13.5 and 13.6
years respectively, residents of an area of approximately
150,000 inhabitants of low to moderate socioeconomic
level. Dietary habits were evaluated using a specially formulated
questionnaire, which included various items
referring to dietetic habits, as well as questions related
to educational and social status of the students' family.
Body Mass Index was also calculated for each subject.
Results: The results showed that milk was the main constituent
of the breakfast in 228 students (60.3%). Sugar
was added in the milk by only 17% of cases. Four percent
of the students consume fruit during the breaks and 55%
eat mainly cheese. Fifty-six percent consume fruit or fruit
juices during the day. Only 5.8% of them eat bread rich
in fiber. Eighty three per cent of the total population of
students eats one or more kinds of pulses, at least once
a week, while the corresponding figures for meat and fish
were 84.1% and 73.6% respectively. Most of the students
very often eat different kinds of candies. Consumption
of different kinds of beverages or refreshments (including
varius cola liquids) was reported by 27.5% of them.
Male students described meat consumption less frequently
than female students (P<0.002). The majority of students (58.2%) have their meals prepared by their
parents and most of them (68%) were informed about
the various aspects of the so-called "healthy diet" by their
parents and/or teachers. Significant differences in the
proportion of female students being above or under normal
Body Mass Index limit were found (P=0.007). Conclusion:
It is concluded that the dietetic habits of students
in this particular area of Greece include some elements
of the traditional Mediterranean diet. Generally
there were no significant differences between boys and
girls as far as the kinds of food consumption were concerned.
Key words: Mediterranean diet, Diet, Greece, Students, Dietary
habits


The purpose of this study was to describe and compare cardiac structure and function in adult male weight trainers, runners, and those who do both activities. Subjects had actively participated in the various training programs for the previous five years. Age ranged from 28.4 to 31.3 years in the three groups. Echocardiography was used to assess selected heart diameters, volumes, indices of contractility, and thicknesses, while VO2 max and percent body fat were measured using standard methods. Heart structure and function were expressed in absolute terms and relative to total body weight. An alpha level of .05 was used in all comparisons. Results indicated the runners demonstrated significantly greater relative LVIDd, LVIDs, and LVPW than the weight trainers. The runner/weight trainers possessed significantly greater relative LVIDd, LVIDs, LVPW, IVS, and LVEDV than the weight trainers. No significant differences, absolute or relative, existed between the runner and runner/weight trainer groups in any of the myocardial structure and function variables. It was concluded that men who run or run and weight train have similar structural and functional characteristics of the heart and possess greater relative internal diameter and left ventricular wall thickness than men who only weight train.


With the increasing use of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a new method of bullying has emerged known as cyberbullying. It is indeed ironic that the advancement in communication tools designed to improve the life of mankind is also the cause of much pain. More and more frequently we do read or hear of cases of young children being victims because of the misuse of ICT which have in some extreme cases led to them committing suicide. Unfortunately the ICT's very nature of being accessible from anywhere and anytime, and its often anonymous nature makes it difficult to regulate what children say or do to each other. This paper discusses the scope of the cyberbullying problem amongst the young in Australia and considers what role the government, the courts and schools should play in detecting, deterring or preventing such conduct.


The utilization of glycerol as a carbon source for growth by Klebsiella aerogenes, strain 2103, involves separate aerobic (sn-glycerol-3-phosphate or G3P) and anaerobic (dihydroxyacetone or DHA) pathways of catabolism. Enzyme and transport activities of the aerobic pathway are elevated in cells grown under oxygenated conditions on glycerol or G3P. Anaerobic growth on G3P as carbon source requires the presence of an exogenous hydrogen acceptor such as fumarate; cells thus grown also are highly induced in the G3P pathway. Anaerobic growth on glycerol requires no exogenous hydrogen acceptors; cells thus grown are highly induced in the DHA pathway but almost uninduced in the G3P pathway and the addition of fumarate electron acceptors has no effect on the relative levels of the two pathways. When both glycerol and G3P are provided anaerobically with fumarate, the DHA pathway is still preferentially induced, which probably accounts for the exclusive utilization of glycerol until its exhaustion. These observations suggest the presence of a regulatory control of G3P pathway imposed by the operation of the DHA pathway.


The efficacy of dose fractionation in neutron therapy of malignant tumors was investigated using a method of mathematical simulation. The regimen of fractionation was shown to produce a considerable effect on the results of therapy and a degree of difference in the efficacy of gamma-beam and neutron irradiation.


Quality assurance (QA) is a broad-based activity, which encompasses both quality management and quality control, and requires all the policies, standards, systems and processes in place to maintain and improve medical education quality. QA can be managed through an institutional monitoring that should include the evaluation of teaching and learning approaches, and the assessment. Accreditation standards by international agencies such as the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) are to be followed for an external quality assurance. In addition, the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) is the assessment criteria for promoting QA in higher educational programs in ASEAN countries. Both WFME and AUN-QA require that teaching and learning approaches and assessment methods be aligned to the program learning outcomes. The purpose of this review is to compare the WFME standards and the AUN-QA criteria on teaching and learning approaches and methods of assessment to encourage the integration of these two QA systems for undergraduate medical education.


The Kodavas have traditionally lived in the Kodagu precinct of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Their mode of dress, rituals, and physical appearance differ in many ways from that of many of their other neighbors in the south. Traditionally a community that subsisted on farming (rice and later coffee, among other crops), many of the ceremonies of the Kodavas revolve around the harvest calendar. Their wedding rituals, in particular, provide a fascinating look into the agricultural underpinnings of this unique group of people. This article documents the details of a two-day wedding ceremony held outside Madikeri, the capital of Kodagu, with a special emphasis on the culinary traditions on display.


Two close-lying 1Π-1Σ+ systems of the isotopic molecules 120Sn16O and 120Sn18O in the region 1790-1920 Å have been obtained by the flash-absorption technique. Five bands belonging to the ν' = 0 progression of each system have been rotationally analyzed and molecular constants for the two upper states are given.


Sizwe Snail and Nicholas Hall set out the provisions for wills in South Africa, including the provisions of the Electronic Communication Transaction Act that expressly exclude a data message as a method of executing a valid will. They then consider the case of Macdonald v The Master , in which the court held that a draft will in the form of an electronically stored document which was stored on a computer hard-disk, can be condoned in terms of the Wills Act.


The Chevrel phase (CP) is a class of molybdenum chalcogenides that exhibit compelling properties for next-generation battery materials, electrocatalysts, and other energy applications. Despite their promise, CPs are underexplored, with only ∼100 compounds synthesized to date due to the challenge of identifying synthesizable phases. We present an interpretable machine-learned descriptor (Hδ) that rapidly and accurately estimates decomposition enthalpy (ΔHd) to assess CP stability. To develop Hδ, we first used density functional theory to compute ΔHd for 438 CP compositions. We then generated >560 000 descriptors with the new machine learning method SIFT, which provides an easy-to-use approach for developing accurate and interpretable chemical models. From a set of >200 000 compositions, we identified 48 501 CPs that Hδ predicts are synthesizable based on the criterion that ΔHd < 65 meV/atom, which was obtained as a statistical boundary from 67 experimentally synthesized CPs. The set of candidate CPs includes 2307 CP tellurides, an underexplored CP subset with a predicted preference for channel site occupation by cation intercalants that is rare among CPs. We successfully synthesized five of five novel CP tellurides attempted from this set and confirmed their preference for channel site occupation. Our joint computational and experimental approach for developing and validating screening tools that enable the rapid identification of synthesizable materials within a sparse class is likely transferable to other materials families to accelerate their discovery.


The evolution of vocal and vibrational communications and photoperiod perception in the blind subterranean mole rat of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies, are reviewed in the context of adaptation and active speciation in the subterranean ecotype. Progressive evolution of the acoustic system and regressive evolution of the atrophied eye coupled with progressive evolution in photoperiodic perception and biorhythmicity systems, are discussed. Prospects are suggested for future research at the molecular, anatomical and organismal levels, in the twin evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation. Spalax appears to be a uniquely productive evolutionary model for the study of evolutionary structural reductions and hypertrophies as well as functional shifts in evolution. It provides particularly a rich observational and experimental material to critically evaluate the challenges recently levelled against the synthetic theory of evolution concerning gradualism in speciation, the "adaptationist programme", and the role of natural selection as a creative force in evolution.


The incidence of chronic pain among the adult Japanese population has been reported to be around 23%. In the majority of cases, the site of chronic pain is located in the musculoskeletal system, such as the lumbar spine, neck and shoulder joint. Based on the pain mechanism, musculoskeletal chronic pain is classified as chronic nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain or mixed pain. Psycho–social factors often affect clinical symptoms in chronic pain cases. The first choice of medication for chronic nociceptive pain, resulting from conditions such as inflammation or degeneration of joints or spine, is nonsteroidal anti–inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Cox 2 selective inhibitors should be used in cases of long–term use to avoid gastrointestinal problems. Although opioids may be applied in cases in which NSAIDs have no effect, attention should be paid to potential side effects such as nausea and constipation, abuse and addiction. Physical therapy including muscle stretching and strengthening is a very important therapeutic modality for chronic nociceptive pain. Surgical treatment, such as arthroplasty and spinal fusion, may also be applied in cases in which conservative treatments fail. As NSAIDs are not effective for neuropathic pain caused by disorders and diseases of nervous system, pregabalin (Ca2+ channel blocker), anti– depressant s and opioids may be applied. Surgery intervention, including laminectomy, discectomy or neurolysis for the purpose of nerve decompression, may be applied in cases in which conservative treatment fail or nerve palsy is observed. For difficult chronic pain cases with psycho–social factors, a multidisciplinary approach including cognitive behavioral therapy should be considered.


Purpose MicroRNAs can influence many biological processes and have shown promise as cancer biomarkers. Few studies have focused on the expression of microRNA-223 (miR-223) and its precise role in breast cancer (BC). We aimed to examine the expression level of miR-223 and its prognostic value in BC. Methods Tissue microarray (TMA)-based miRNA detection in situ hybridization (ISH) with a locked nucleic acid (LNA) probe was used to detect miR-223 expression in 450 BC tissue samples. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between two groups using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model. Results OS and DFS were prolonged in the high miR-223 expression group compared to the low miR-223 expression group (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.017, respectively), especially in patients with the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype (p = 0.046 and p < 0.001, respectively). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that TNM stage (p = 0.008), the molecular subtype (p = 0.049), and miR-223 (p < 0.001) were independently associated with OS and DFS. External validation was performed with the METABRIC and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases via online webtools and was consistent with the data described above. Conclusions This study provides evidence that high miR-223 expression at diagnosis is associated with improved DFS and OS for BC patients, especially those with the TNBC subtype. miR-223 is a valid and independent prognostic biomarker in BC.


Background: The etiology of lymphocytic colitis, a microscopic colitis syndrome, has remained elusive. Because 1) many infectious enteritides exhibit seasonal variability in incidence and 2) a few investigators have proposed some infectious mechanism in lymphocytic colitis, our aim was to determine if any variability in symptom onset existed among lymphocytic colitis patients diagnosed at our institution. Study: We identified 71 nonduplicated, consecutive patients with lymphocytic colitis over a 4-year period using rigorous clinicopathologic inclusion criteria: 1) chronic watery diarrhea, 2) endoscopically normal colon, 3) no evidence for celiac sprue or drug-induced colitis, 4) diffuse colitis with increased intraepithelial lymphocytes of at least 10 lymphocytes per 100 epithelial cells, 5) evidence of surface epithelial damage, and 6) no significant neutrophilic infiltrates, architectural distortion of the mucosa, or subepithelial collagen deposits. The date of diagnosis was corrected for month of onset of symptoms. Results: The distribution of month of onset of symptoms showed a statistically significant (χ2 test of homogeneity, P = 0.0008) temporal variability and seasonal incidence pattern with excess cases during summer and fall and a paucity of cases during colder months. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine systematically and report a significant seasonal incidence pattern of lymphocytic colitis. Our observations may support a potential link to an infectious source in lymphocytic colitis.


Air traffic control is an important application with demanding real-time database processing requirements. Systems that have been implemented using current approaches have typically been expensive, late, over-budget and have not performed up to specification. In part this is because, in attempting to meet the real-time requirements, developers have been driven to use complex algorithms and software for what are inherently relatively simple requirements. Our analysis indicates that the use of modern SIMD COTS systems enables guaranteed real-time performance to be achieved with simpler algorithms on modest amounts of hardware. This paper covers the system, the approach to the application and some of the solution details.


The content and isotopic compositions of different sulphur species in pore-water and solid phases have been examined on five sediment cores taken from muddy sediment region in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. Relationships among these data have been investigated with the combination of morphology of mineral pyrite and organic matter so as to role out the diagenetic behaviour of sulphur species at the early stage of diagenesis in modern marine sediment and the origin of pyrite formation.


Dietary glutamine (Gln) has been shown to be important for maintenance of the intestinal barrier. To investigate the role of the epithelium in this Gln dependence, Caco-2 cells were raised on semipermeable membranes under conditions that model different regions of the crypt and villus. Gln availability was controlled by addition to the medium and treatment with methionine sulfoximine to inhibit Gln synthetase (GS). Barrier function was assayed by measuring transepithelial electrical resistance and fluxes of [(14)C]mannitol and fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran. The barrier function of these monolayers was found to require the Gln provided either in the medium at the apical or basal surface or via GS. However, the barrier was no more sensitive to Gln deprivation than it was to accumulation or maintenance of total protein. These results suggest that the in vivo dependence of the gut mucosal barrier on Gln likely involves roles separate from maintenance of the epithelial barrier per se.


Objective To determine whether orbital axial proptosis occurs in the affected eye of patients with acute oculomotor or abducens nerve palsy. Materials and Methods In this prospective, cross-sectional survey, the Hertel instrument was used to measure the amount of axial protrusion in 26 consecutive patients with complete or severe acute oculomotor nerve palsy and 27 consecutive patients with complete or severe acute abducens nerve palsy. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the amount of relative proptosis of the affected eye in the patient groups with that of 40 control subjects. The absolute amount of the interocular difference in axial protrusion of the normal eyes was used to determine control values. The proportion of patients and control subjects with relative proptosis greater than 1 mm was compared using Fisher's exact test. Results There was no significant difference in the degree of relative proptosis of the affected eye of patients with oculomotor nerve palsy or abducens nerve palsy as compared with the control eyes. Likewise, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients with relative proptosis greater than 1 mm in either the oculomotor nerve palsy group or the abducens nerve palsy group as compared with the control group. Conclusions Acute oculomotor or abducens nerve palsy does not produce any significant amount of orbital axial proptosis in the affected eye, at least as measured clinically using the Hertel instrument. Acute neurogenic ophthalmoplegia rarely causes relative proptosis greater than 1 mm.


Coinciding with the scientific flourishing of the 5th / 11th century, which was favoured by the cultural policy of the Andalusī kingdoms ( mulūk al-tawā'if ), Abū ' Umar ibn ' Abd al-Barr, Ibn Hazm and Sā' id al-Andalusī all dealt with the classification of the sciences in many works that are already known. Ibn Bājja began his career at the end of this period. In his glosses to al-Fārābī's commentary to the Isagoge he wrote a text on this subject that has not yet been analysed. The present paper studies Ibn Bājja's classification in connection with his predecessors and with the scientific and philosophical background of Andalusī culture. In their classifications of the sciences, all these authors express and stress important factors of the evolution of Andalusī science and thought, such as the dialectic between religious and rational sciences and the importance of the scientific method derived from Aristotle's logic. Sā' id al-Andalusī and Ibn Bājja ( and, to a lesser extent, Ibn Hazm ) show the profound influence exerted by al-Fārābī's works, particularly the Ihsā' al-' ulūm. Thus, Ibn Bājja foreshadows the evolution of sciences in the next century and the movement headed by Ibn Rushd, Ibn Tufayl and others, characterized by the search for concordance with the postulates set forth by philosophical disciplines.


The FDA recently approved AstraZeneca's Farxiga (dapagliflozin) for the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) in adults with and without type 2 diabetes, marking the first time a drug in a class developed for diabetes was approved for heart failure even if diabetes is not present.


Recent observations started revealing the compositions of protostellar disks and planets beyond the solar system. In this paper, we explore how the compositions of terrestrial planets are affected by the dynamical evolution of giant planets. We estimate the initial compositions of the building blocks of these rocky planets by using a simple condensation model, and numerically study the compositions of planets formed in a few different formation models of the solar system. We find that the abundances of refractory and moderately volatile elements are nearly independent of formation models, and that all the models could reproduce the abundances of these elements of the Earth. The abundances of atmophile elements, on the other hand, depend on the scattering rate of icy planetesimals into the inner disk, as well as the mixing rate of the inner planetesimal disk. For the classical formation model, neither of these mechanisms are efficient and the accretion of atmophile elements during the final assembly of terrestrial planets appears to be difficult. For the Grand Tack model, both of these mechanisms are efficient, which leads to a relatively uniform accretion of atmophile elements in the inner disk. It is also possible to have a "hybrid" scenario where the mixing is not very efficient but the scattering is efficient. The abundances of atmophile elements in this case increase with orbital radii. Such a scenario may occur in some of the extrasolar planetary systems, which are not accompanied by giant planets or those without strong perturbations from giants. We also confirm that the Grand Tack scenario leads to the distribution of asteroid analogues where rocky planetesimals tend to exist interior to icy ones, and show that their overall compositions are consistent with S-type and C-type chondrites, respectively.


Existing literature finds that equity return variances over trading periods substantially exceed those over nontrading periods and suggests three potential explanations for the effect: (1) more public information reaches the marketplace during normal business hours; (2) the trading activity of informed investors reveals their private information inducing greater return variance; (3) the process of trading itself introduces noise into stock prices and returns as investors overreact to each other's trades. I offer the first direct test of the public information, private information, and noise hypotheses utilizing data on order flow in the after-hours, pre-market, and regular trading sessions along with a unique extensive dataset of the contemporaneous public information flow for a large sample of Nasdaq securities. Consistent with the findings of prior literature, I show evidence in favor of the private information hypothesis. Contrary to the existing studies, however, my results also support the public information hypothesis.


Because of the complexity of the physics in the edge of divertor tokamaks, extrapolation from present-day machines to future reactor or reactor-type devices is done using two-dimensional-edge codes. Amongst the issues which are important for future machines, are those of inboard/outboard divertor power asymmetries and the compression of hydrogen and helium. The issues driving the in-out power asymmetry are explored, and a reasonable match is found to existing experiments, as well as an `adjustable knob' that could be used to further improve the match. In this work, one further effect that is known to play a role - that of E×B and diamagnetic drifts - is identified but not analysed, because the codes have not yet been able to include the drift terms in combination with the impurities and kinetic neutrals. It is also shown that the codes reproduce the fact the only small differences were seen on the ASDEX Upgrade experiment in the compression of helium when the DivII divertor was replaced by the DivIIb configuration.


Contracts are means to allocate the scope of work and associated risks to owners and contractors involved. In case of megaprojects, since there are many stakes involved, identifying risk factors of megaprojects and estimating their likelihoods and consequences are entirely vital. Likewise, analyzing how the contract risks are shared between parties and predicting the possibilities of achieving the contract goals are important practices as well. This paper, through an exploratory research, describes a risk analysis procedure and the results of applying probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) techniques on the new Iranian upstream contract framework for a real world gas megaproject. Such a process consists of: (a) gathering and reporting all risk factors affecting construction schedule, cost, IRR, Gross and Net revenue, (b) eliciting and de-biasing expert judgments, (c) building a mathematical model to implement Monte Carlo simulation, (d) providing the Probability Distribution Function (PDF) of project financial parameters. Results of this paper are of interest to practitioners involved in contractual negotiations as well as those who are responsible for developing financial framework of upstream service contracts.


Domestication in the cotton genus is remarkable in that it has occurred independently four different times at two different ploidy levels. Relatively little is known about genome evolution and domestication in the cultivated diploid species Gossypium herbaceum and G. arboreum, because of the absence of wild representatives for the latter species, their ancient domestication, and their joint history of human-mediated dispersal and interspecific gene flow. Using in-depth resequencing of a broad sampling from both species, we confirm their independent domestication, as opposed to a progenitor-derivative relationship, showing that diversity (mean π = 2.3×10-3) within species is similar, and that divergence between species is modest (weighted FST=0.4430). Individual accessions were homozygous for ancestral SNPs at over half of variable sites, while fixed, derived sites were at modest frequencies. Notably, two chromosomes with a paucity of fixed, derived sites (i.e., chromosomes 7 and 10) were also strongly implicated in introgression analyses. Collectively, these data demonstrate variable permeability to introgression among chromosomes, which we propose is due to divergent selection under domestication and/or the phenomenon of F2 breakdown in interspecific crosses. Our analyses provide insight into the evolutionary forces influencing diversity and divergence in the diploid cultivated species, and establish a foundation for understanding the contribution of introgression and/or strong parallel selection to the extensive morphological similarities shared between species. Significance statement The cotton genus (Gossypium) contains four different species that were independently domesticated at least 4,000 years ago. Relatively little is understood about diversity and evolution in the two diploid African-Asian sister-species G. herbaceum and G. arboreum, despite their historical importance in the region and contemporary cultivation, largely in the Indian subcontinent. Here we address questions regarding the relationship between the two species, their contemporary levels of diversity, and their patterns of interspecific gene flow accompanying their several millennia history of human-mediated dispersal and contact. We validate independent domestication of the two species and document the genomic distribution of interspecific genetic exchange.


Consider a time-harmonic electromagnetic plane wave incident on a periodic structure in R2. The periodic structure separates two regions. In one region, the dielectric coefficient is assumed to be a fixed constant with non-zero imaginary part corresponding to the energy absorption. The other region contains perfectly reflecting material. The inverse problem is to determine the periodic structure or the shape of the interface from the scattered field. A uniqueness theorem is proved by an application of Holmgren's uniqueness theorem.


The nature of the relationship between (proto-)feminism and (anti-)imperialism is highly contested. A case in point is the work of Olive Schreiner, and the articulation of gender politics with (anti-)imperialism which has been subjected to repeated scrutiny in the last twenty years. One strand of criticism, exemplified by critics like Laura Chrisman, Anne McClintock and Carolyn Burdett, argues that Schreiner generally successfully integrates a (proto-)feminist politics with criticism of imperialism in her writing produced after The Story of an African Farm . However, her first novel is viewed as more problematic in this regard. While acknowledging it as a major early text of the women's movement, such critics see the novel as in large measure endorsing prevailing Victorian ideologies of racial hierarchy. Drawing on the methodology of Sub-altern Studies, Moore-Gilbert proposes a rather different interpretation of The Story of an African Farm . Following the lead of Ranajit Guha and his colleagues, he seeks to trace the impact of (the resistance of) the colonized subaltern on the colonizer's unconscious and how this is reflected in the colonizer's regimes of representation and self-image. He proposes that Waldo can be read 'catachrestically' as a figure of the (partially resistant) colonized who at the manifest level occupy only a marginal role in Schreiner's text. The aim is not to overturn readings of Waldo that see him as an exemplary 'modern', embodying many of the characteristics of western civilization at the time. Rather, the argument is that such a 'catchrestic' reading can co-exist simultaneously with these received interpretations of his role, thus corroborating the perception of the Subaltern Studies historians on the existence of conflicts and contradictions in the colonizer's unconscious that mark the (oppositional) presence of the (historically effaced) subaltern. Against their emphasis, however, Moore-Gilbert suggests that the colonizer's unconscious can also be the seat of 'progressive' drives. And the presence of such drives on Schreiner's novel suggests that its racial politics are more consonant with those of her later work than is commonly assumed.


Biocompatibility constitutes the most fundamental requirement with respect to all dental materials to be applied within the oral cavity. In its environment, various toxic compounds may be released by dental materials which pose potential threats to the patient's health. Due to the fact that dentures remain in the oral cavity for a very long time, a detailed examination and verification of prosthetic materials with a view to their toxicity seems to be essential. By using very sensitive measurement techniques such as gas chromatography, one may determine which compounds are released by these materials. The aim of this paper was to determine the influence of various denture cleansers on the release of organic compounds from four soft dental materials used in prosthetics for lining dentures. These materials when placed in commonly used disinfectants (Corega Tabs, sodium hypochlorite, chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide), as well as in artificial saliva, produced 13 chemical compounds such as monomers (methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, dodecyl methacrylate), plasticizers (dibutyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate, tributyl acetylcitrate) and others (e.g. benzophenone). A comparison of chemical compounds released from acrylic-based materials and those released from silica-based materials demonstrated that acrylic-based materials are less resistant to disinfectants.


This thesis investigates the area of agribusiness industry structure, in particular the form and function of Agribusiness Statutory Marketing Authorities (ASMAs) and their influence on relationships and governance in dynamic export networks. The networks examined were involved with the Australia-Japan and Australia-Republic of Korea export trade in wheat and dairy products. Network governance and strategic activity were tracked and the changes analysed from the time of the first cross-border exchanges until 1994. The units of analysis were strategic episodes involving ASMAs and seven of their industries' suppliers. The research proceeds on the premise that the heterogeneous distribution of actors' interests and power asymmetries in agribusiness industrial networks creates imbalances and pressures for change. The research problem is determine how up-stream suppliers in long-established asymmetrical relationships can countervail dependencies, given the potential for the more powerful buyer to retaliate should the less powerful partner seek to shorten the supply channel or expand the network with additional buyers. A particular contribution of this research is the identification of the significance of network culture (ie norms and conventions) in facilitating or constraining evolution in the network governance. An accurate knowledge of corporate histories, cross-ownership linkages and traditional interdependencies was also critical for the selection of appropriate exchange partners. Enculturation and network knowledge is a basis for influence and an important strategic element. Both of these areas of understanding are time and repeated-experience dependent. In 1994, most key personnel in the networks had more than ten years continuous employment with their firm. But the convention of working for the one employer for many years is rapidly changing in the Republic of Korea, Japan and Australia. This paradigm shift may challenge the way norms and conventions have been used to entrench the status quo, and the way relational exchanges have been traditionally established and maintained. Finally, a model identifying the evolution of network governance was developed. The constructs and their interrelationships show strategy stimulated by the macro environment which is in turn a dynamic admixture of interdependent demand-competition, productiondistribution and institutional factors. These are moderated by the micro context, ie the internal characteristics of the firms the experience and skills of the key personnel and their network position. The model of network governance developed also offers a workable framework for collecting data and undertaking analysis of dynamic business relationships using case studies. Using case study method, this research was able to gain insights into complex, dynamic interrelationships, over time and in real life contexts.


Background: Within the field of cardiology, telehealth has been advocated by many as important benefits have been demonstrated regarding disease management and survival. Both patient- and physician-related barriers have hampered the uptake of telehealth in the clinical practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the upscaling of telehealth modalities. Objective: The current study will examine patients' preferences, needs, and recommendations regarding the use of telehealth at the cardiology outpatient clinic during the pandemic. Methods: Semi-structured focus groups were organized covering two themes: (1) patients' experiences with telehealth and (2) patients' needs and recommendations regarding the use of telehealth. Focus groups were held online using Microsoft Teams, and audio recordings were made. After transcribing the recordings, thematic analysis was applied to code the answers that were given. Results: A total of n = 19 patients were recruited; the mean age was 62.4 (7.7) and 10 (52.6%) were female. The majority of the patients (15/19) indicated to be positive regarding telehealth use mainly due to its time-saving character. Four patients were negative toward telehealth as they did not receive appropriate care in their perception due to telehealth use. Patients recommend using blended care where teleconsultation, and face-to-face appointments are provided in accordance with patients' preferences. Conclusions: This is the first study to examine, in-depth, cardiac patients' experiences, needs, and recommendations regarding telehealth use in the clinical practice. Learning from current experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic where upscaling of telehealth emerged will give us a foundation to further increase the uptake of telehealth in the clinical practice.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of profitability, liquidity, growth on assets, and investment opportunity set on firm value in manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in the period 2015 - 2017. The sampling method used was purposive sampling with the total sample is 162 data which was financial statements and performance report. The collected data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS application program. The results showed that the independent variable was able to explain the dependent variable by 97%, while the other 3% was explained by other variables that were not examined. The independent variables of profitability and investment opportunity set have a significant influence on firm value, while the independent variables of liquidity and growth on assets have a not significant effect on firm value.


ABSTRACT Background and Purpose: Initial treatment with external fixation of tibial fractures is indicated in severely injuried multitrauma patients. A conversion procedure to secondary nailing is often performed later to enhance fracture repair. The aim of the study was to compare definitive treatment of experimental tibial fractures with external fixation to an early conversion to secondary intramedullary nailing with large and small diameter nails. Methods: Thirty male rats were subject to a standardized tibial shaft osteotomy initially stabilized with external fixation. On day 7, they were assigned to either the control group (group A, N = 10) or conversion to secondary nailing with a small (group B, N = 10) or large diameter nails (group C, N = 10). Evaluation at 60 days included radiography, dual energy radiographic absorptiometry (DXA), and mechanical bending testing. Results: All fractures healed radiographically with bridging of the fracture line and more or less visible periosteal callus formation. Group B demonstrated significantly increased mineralization and callus formation measured as DXA parameters, bone mineral content (BMC), and callus area (CA) compared to both the other two groups. This group also tended to have mechanically stronger bones with higher fracture energy compared to both the other two groups, but no significant difference in mechanical prioperties between the groups was found in our study. Interpretation: In conclusion, we found that conversion from external fixation of leg fractures in rats to intramedullary nailing did not improve bone healing significantly supporting external fixation as definitive fracture management.


Relative efficiency (RE), the Pitman asymptotic relative efficiency (ARE) and efficacy are important relative performance measures of signal detection techniques. These measures allow comparing two detectors in terms of the relative sample sizes they require to achieve the same prescribed level of false alarm and detection probabilities. While the finite-sample-size measure RE is useful to analyze the small sample behavior of detectors, in practice it is difficult to compute. In the limit as the signal strength approaches zero at an appropriate rate, the RE converges to an asymptotic limit only for very large sample sizes. This limiting ratio of the number of samples is the ARE, which lends analytical tractability, but does not provide insights into the finite sample behavior of detectors which is important for practical applications. This led researchers to study the convergence of RE to ARE, and has been well-reported for the problem of constant signal detection in additive, independent, and identically distributed noise. When the signal to be detected is random ({\ie}, unknown), such a convergence analysis is lacking in the literature and is the focus of this paper. A relationship between RE and ARE for random signal detection is established. We use the higher-order terms in the Taylor series expansion of the mean of the test statistic under the alternative hypothesis to derive this formula. We present preliminary remarks on the convergence of RE to ARE for random signals in comparison to that for constant signal detection.


Quinoline-3-carboxamide (LS 2616) is a broadly acting immunostimulator with anti-inflammatory effects in Coxsackie virus B3-induced myocarditis in female BALB/c mice. This infection caused extensive inflammatory and necrotic lesions in the myocardium 7 days after inoculation (6.8% of tissue section area). The damaged area was reduced (to 3.7% (p less than 0.05] and the lethality decreased when LS 2616 was administered over 14 days, starting 7 days before the inoculation. The response pattern of lymphocyte subsets in situ in myocardial inflammatory lesions was elucidated by a newly developed immune histochemical staining technique. LS 2616 increased the number of class II-expressing cells 3-fold (p less than 0.01) and the CTL, Ts:Th cell ratio by 55% (p less than 0.05), whereas Lyt-1+ and TIB+ cells were unaffected. After 7 days of LS 2616 treatment, spleen lymphocyte activity tended to increase (T cells by 21% (NS) and B cells by 60% (p less than 0.05), respectively). The activity of NK cells increased by 51% (p less than 0.01). LS 2616 may thus have potential in therapy of human inflammatory disorders, such as myocarditis.


Location estimation is one of the most attractive applications in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a new iterative location estimation method using radio signal strength indicators (RSSIs) not only among target and fixed nodes but also among target nodes. Our computer simulation shows that, if the RSSIs among target nodes are available whose locations are unknown so should be estimated, we can improve the location estimation performance by means of the proposed iterative method


Exploring the phenomenon of 'mixed categories', this book is the first in-depth study of the way in which languages can use a noun, as opposed to an adjective, to modify another noun. It investigates noun-adjective hybrids - adjectives and adjective-like attributive forms which have been derived from nouns and systematically retain certain nominal properties. These rarely-discussed types of mixed category raise a number of important theoretical questions about the nature of lexemic identity, the inflection-derivation divide, and more generally, the relationship between the structure of words and their phrasal syntax. The book proposes a new formal framework that models cross-linguistic and cross-constructional variation in noun modification constructions. The framework it offers enables readers to explicitly map word structure to syntactic structure, providing new insights into, and impacting upon, all current theoretical models of grammar.


The following is a sociolinguistic study carried out in 2009 in a region with a particular linguistic background, Galicia, in northern Spain. The study examines the relationship between language and identity amongst Galician students and recent graduates aged 18 to 25 years, looking specifically at the way in which the identity one desires to portray affects one's linguistic choices, and inversely how one's linguistic choices affect the identity displayed to others. A questionnaire was circulated amongst participants requiring responses on the topic of language use and the opinions held associated with the use of language in order to examine this issue in depth. A distinction was drawn between those reading Arts subjects and those studying Sciences in order that any differences between the uses of language and opinions held by these groups should come to light. The results show several statistically significant differences in linguistic usage and views on the topic between these two groups.


This article focuses on my interpretation of the history of ethnic minority psychology, using as a base the presentations of the contributing authors to this special issue of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Because each contributing author has focused on a particular ethnic group or a particular aspect of history, my goal is to focus on 3 common issues and problems. First, what are the themes and issues that confronted African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, and Latinos? Second, what were characteristics of the ethnic leaders on whose shoulders we now stand? Third, what kinds of relationships existed between members of different ethnic minority groups?


This paper presents a study on supply and demand side flexibility resources assessed for two South African power system expansion scenarios with high penetrations of variable renewable energy. The demand response opportunities associated with residential water heating as well as plug-in electric vehicles are included in order to demonstrate demand-side flexibility options. Supply-side options are based on existing and optimally deployed new-build generation technologies. The scenario based results indicate that the combination of cost reductions in wind, solar PV and stationary storage (batteries), results in economic deployment of batteries in South Africa. Battery storage complements flexibility provided by demand response and supply-side options. A notable outcome is the displacement of gas-fired turbines by batteries when assuming cost reductions for batteries in the future. Finally, despite the extensive deployment of battery storage, a significant 55 TWh of energy from solar PV and wind is curtailed. Therefore, effective sector-coupling could make extensive use of this curtailed energy in a number of ways to be identified as part of future research.


Registration of image volumes acquired over time is important for tasks that include measurements and quantification of temporal changes such as variations in tumor size, shape, or characteristics in response to therapy. A number of methods have been proposed over the years to address this problem but whole body registration of small animals presents special challenges because these images contain many articulated joints and because the animals cannot be easily placed in the same position from acquisition to acquisition. This paper presents a new method for the automatic registration of whole body CT volumes, which consists of two steps. Skeletons are first brought in approximate correspondence with a point-based method. Transformations so obtained are refined with an intensity-based algorithm. The approach has been tested on serial image volumes of a mouse acquired with a micro CT. We demonstrate that the approach we propose can successfully register image volumes even when the limbs are in very different positions as is often the case for small animals


Urban traffic sensing has been investigated extensively by different real-time sensing approaches due to important applications such as navigation and emergency services. Basically, the existing traffic sensing approaches can be classified into two categories by sensing natures, i.e., explicit and implicit sensing. In this article, we design a measurement framework called EXIMIUS for a large-scale data-driven study to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of two sensing approaches by using two particular systems for traffic sensing as concrete examples. In our investigation, we utilize TB-level data from two systems: (i) GPS data from five thousand vehicles, (ii) signaling data from three million cellphone users, from the Chinese city Hefei. Our study adopts a widely used concept called crowdedness level to rigorously explore the impacts of contexts on traffic conditions including population density, region functions, road categories, rush hours, holidays, weather, and so on, based on various context data. We quantify the strengths and weaknesses of these two sensing approaches in different scenarios and then we explore the possibility of unifying two sensing approaches for better performance by using a truth discovery-based data fusion scheme. Our results provide a few valuable insights for urban sensing based on explicit and implicit data from transportation and telecommunication domains.


Objective: To compare the mean post-treatment bilirubin level with light emitting diode (LED) phototherapy versus compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) phototherapy in neonates presenting with hyperbilirubinemia
Study Design: Comparative prospective study
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Paediatrics, Pakistan Railway Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jan to Dec 2019.
Methodology: Hundred children fulfilling the inclusion criteria were recuited in the study from Emergency Department. Then neonates were divided into two groups. In Group-A, neonates underwent phototherapy with LED; in Group-B, neonates underwent phototherapy with conventional phototherapy. Then neonates were followed up in the neonatal intensive care unit for 24 hours. Pre and post-treatment reports were assessed, and bilirubin level was noted.
Results: In Group-A, the mean age of neonates was 49.12±23.42 hours, while in Group-B was 38.70±15.42 hours. In Group-A, the mean Bilirubin level at baseline was 13.64±5.98 gm/dl and in Group-B was 15.88±5.44 gm/dl. In Group-A, the mean Bilirubin level after 24 hours was 8.47±4.96 gm/dl and in Group-B was 9.538±5.35 gm/dl. In both groups, no significant difference in the mean bilirubin level was observed after 24 hours (p-value=0.30).
Conclusion: Light-emitting diode phototherapy and compact fluorescent lamp phototherapy are equally effective in a mean reduction in the total serum bilirubin after 24 hours.


Floral nectaries are an interesting example of a convergent trait in flowering plants, and are associated with the diversification of numerous angiosperm lineages, including the adaptive radiation of the New World Aquilegia species. However, we know very little as to what genes contribute to nectary development and evolution, particularly in noncore eudicot taxa. We analyzed expression patterns and used RNAi-based methods to investigate the functions of homologs from the STYLISH (STY) family in nectar spur development in Aquilegia coerulea. We found that AqSTY1 exhibits concentrated expression in the presumptive nectary of the growing spur tip, and triple gene silencing of the three STY-like genes revealed that they function in style and nectary development. Strong expression of STY homologs was also detected in the nectary-bearing petals of Delphinium and Epimedium. Our results suggest that the novel recruitment of STY homologs to control nectary development is likely to have occurred before the diversification of the Ranunculaceae and Berberidaceae. To date, the STY homologs of the Ranunculales are the only alternative loci for the control of nectary development in flowering plants, providing a critical data point in understanding the evolutionary origin and developmental basis of nectaries.


The present work was carried out in the rivulet Bis han Nalah of Barpeta District of Assam, which lies between 26° 28 00 North latitude; 91° 10 00 East longitudes , during the period of two consecu tive years from December, 2012 to November, 2013. Altogether 85 species of fi shes are diversified over 6 orders, 28 families and 55 genera. Dumping of garbage, drainage of sewage and waste pr oduct, construction of number of bridges, impeachme nt on both side of the bank, soil erosion, siltation, eut rophication, high infestation of macrophytes, over exploitation, operation of fishing gear and flow of effluents int o the water bodies are the major factors for the de clining of present fish diversity.


Before discussing some of the disease entities encountered in children, I would like to comment on methods of examination. If one is to have any concept of what is taking place in the middle ear, he must be able to visualize accurately the tympanic membrane. The best source of illumination is a head mirror or preferably a head light, which can be worn over one eye to provide axial illumination. Use of the head light leaves the examiner with two hands unencumbered, one to use the speculum with a magnifier ( ×2) attached and the other hand free to use a curette for removing wax or semisolid debris. If there is fluid exudate, it can be removed with a cotton-tipped applicator or preferably a No. 15 gauge aspirating tip if suction is available. The examiner should select the largest size speculum which will fit comfortably in the ear canal. The magnifier


Pakistan is a frontline ally of the United States in the US war against terrorism in Afghanistan. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Pakistan was coerced by Washington to join the US effort to dismantle the Taliban-Al Qaeda terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is believed that Pakistan has employed a selective approach in the war against terrorism. It has targeted Al Qaeda and other militants but has remained reluctant to target the Afghan Taliban. The underlying reason for this inconsistent behaviour can be located in Pakistan's conflicting interests in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. By joining the war, Pakistan gained economic benefits, improved its international standing, and also denied India, an arch foe, an opportunity to use US engagement in the area against it. On the other hand, the removal of the Taliban regime after 9/11 deprived Pakistan of a pro-Pakistan regime in Afghanistan. Moreover, the emergence of an anti-Pakistan regime and the increasing involvement of India in Afghanistan added to Pakistan's insecurities and Islamabad felt encircled from both eastern and western fronts.Pakistan thus has been reluctant to fight against the Taliban.


AIM: To evaluate the prevalence of markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among blood donors in Kolkata, Eastern India for two consecutive years and to conduct a pilot study to explore the presence of HBV DNA among hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative but anti-HBc positive blood donors. METHODS: Seroprevalence of HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV was studied among 113 051 and 106 695 voluntary blood donors screened in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Moreover, a pilot study on 1027 HBsAg negative donors was carried out for evaluating the presence of HBV DNA by PCR on HBsAg negative/anti- HBc positive donors. RESULTS: A statistically significant increase in the prevalence of HBV (1448 vs 1768, P 0.001), HIV (262 vs 374, P 0.001), HCV (314 vs 372, P = 0.003) and syphilis (772 vs 853, P = 0.001) infections was noted among blood donors of Kolkata West Bengal in 2005 as compared to 2004. Moreover, the exploratory study on 1027 HBsAg negative donors revealed that 188 (18.3%)of them were anti-HBc positive out of which 21% were positive for HBV DNA. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study underscore the significantly increasing endemicity of hepatitis viruses, syphilis and HIV among the voluntary blood donors of our community. The pilot study indicates a high rate of prevalence of HBV DNA among HBsAg negative/anti-HBc positive donors and thus emphasizes the need for a more sensitive and stringent screening algorithm for blood donations.


Phenacyl benzoylpyridinium (PBP) salts are effective photoinitiatiors for cationic polymerization. In this study, it is shown that PBP salts are stable in their keto forms, and undergo a reversible keto-enol tautomerization reaction when a capillary action is applied. Spectroscopic and theoretical methods are used to explain the existence of the enol forms in the capillary tube.  2006 Society of Chemical Industry


The major determinant of the performance of financial markets is the nature of the
information available, both in terms of the overall quality of the information held by
investors, and the distribution of information amongst investors. The nature of this
issue makes it difficult to model realistically. This thesis marks an attempt to gain
insights to the behaviour of securitiesm arkets by investigating the consequences of
relaxing, in a realistic way, some of the restrictions on information in existing models.
The core of the thesis consists of formal models of the stock market. The first of these
is a development of the information aggregation literature, and in particular the model
of Hellwig (1980). It looks at the ability of prices to aggregate information that is
dispersed among agents who specialise in acquiring information about particular
components of the factors that determine the future stock value. We find that
narrowing the extent of specialisation beyond a certain point will inevitably lead to a
reduction in the informativeness of the market price.
The second model is also a development of the information aggregation literature, and
looks at the implications of investors obtaining private information about the extent of
liquidity trading. We find that such a framework gives rise to the possibility of
multiple equilibria and price 'crashes'. The third model is an extension of the second
in which the acquisition of information is made endogenousa, nd shows that the main
results of that model are retained. It also shows up the dominance of the cost of
information about value, rather than about liquidity trading, in determining the overall
informativeness of the price.
After investigating the possible consequences of, and providing evidence for, the
existence of positive feedback trading we investigate the behaviour of a market in
which investors exhibiting such behaviour are combined with investors who trade on
the basis of value in a form as in De Long, Shleifer, Summers & Waldmann (1989,
1990a). We then apply results from Hart (1977) to determine the conditions under
which manipulation can be possible. A number of model characteristics are shown to
be possible depending on the specific form of the feedback trading. We finish by
adding shocks to the system, as in De Long et. al., and look at the effect of both
competitive and monopolistic speculation. We find that competitive speculation may
be more destabilising than monopolistic speculation, and that positive feedback
trading is more destabilising when it acts after a delay.


Objective 3-carboxy-4-methyl-5-propyl-2-furanpropanoic acid (CMPF) is a metabolite produced endogenously from dietary sources of furan fatty acids. The richest source of furan fatty acids in human diet is fish. CMPF was recently shown to be elevated in fasting plasma in individuals with gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes, and mechanistically high level of CMPF was linked to β cell dysfunction. Here we aimed to study the association between plasma CMPF level and glucose metabolism in persons with impaired glucose metabolism. Methods Plasma CMPF concentration was measured from plasma samples of the study participants in an earlier controlled dietary intervention. All of them had impaired glucose metabolism and two other characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. Altogether 106 men and women were randomized into three groups for 12 weeks with different fish consumption (either three fatty fish meals per week, habitual fish consumption or maximum of one fish meal per week). Associations between concentration of CMPF and various glucose metabolism parameters at an oral glucose tolerance test at baseline and at the end of the study were studied. Results Fasting plasma CMPF concentration was significantly increased after a 12-week consumption of fatty fish three times per week, but the concentration remained much lower compared to concentrations reported in diabetic patients. Increases of plasma CMPF concentrations mostly due to increased fish consumption were not associated with impaired glucose metabolism in this study. Instead, elevated plasma CMPF concentration was associated with decreased 2-hour insulin concentration in OGTT. Conclusions Moderately elevated concentration of CMPF in plasma resulting from increased intake of fish is not harmful to glucose metabolism. Further studies are needed to fully explore the role of CMPF in the pathogenesis of impaired glucose metabolism. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00573781


Generalizing the realized variance, the realized skewness (Neuberger, 2012) and the realized kurtosis (Bae and Lee, 2020), we construct realized cumulants with the so-called aggregation property. They are unbiased statistics of the cumulants of a martingale marginal based on sub-period increments of the martingale and its lower-order conditional cumulant processes. Our key finding is a relation between the aggregation property and the complete Bell polynomials. For an application we give an alternative proof and an extension of a cumulant recursion formula recently obtained by Lacoin et al. (2019) and Friz et al. (2020).


Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a global crisis due to the increasing incidence of drug-resistant forms of the disease, gaps in detection and prevention, models of care, and limited treatment options. The DR-TB treatment landscape has evolved over the last 10 years. SUMMARY Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a global crisis due to the increasing incidence of drug-resistant forms of the disease, gaps in detection and prevention, models of care, and limited treatment options. The DR-TB treatment landscape has evolved over the last 10 years. Recent developments include the remarkable activity demonstrated by the newly approved anti-TB drugs bedaquiline and pretomanid against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Hence, treatment of DR-TB has drastically evolved with the introduction of the short-course regimen for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), transitioning to injection-free regimens and the approval of the 6-month short regimens for rifampin-resistant TB and MDR-TB. Moreover, numerous clinical trials are under way with the aim to reduce pill burden and shorten the DR-TB treatment duration. While there have been apparent successes in the field, some challenges remain. These include the ongoing inclusion of high-dose isoniazid in DR-TB regimens despite a lack of evidence for its efficacy and the inclusion of ethambutol and pyrazinamide in the standard short regimen despite known high levels of background resistance to both drugs. Furthermore, antimicrobial heteroresistance, extensive cavitary disease and intracavitary gradients, the emergence of bedaquiline resistance, and the lack of biomarkers to monitor DR-TB treatment response remain serious challenges to the sustained successes. In this review, we outline the impact of the new drugs and regimens on patient treatment outcomes, explore evidence underpinning current practices on regimen selection and duration, reflect on the disappointments and pitfalls in the field, and highlight key areas that require continued efforts toward improving treatment approaches and rapid biomarkers for monitoring treatment response.


In the first part of the present work, the structural, elemental and optical properties of PbS and PbS:Ni(3%) thin films synthesized by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique on glass substrates at room temperature were analyzed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) and absorption measurements, respectively. It was determined that the particle size of PbS:Ni (3%) thin film in the presence of Ni additive material is smaller than that of PbS although both thin films have the same structure (cubic phase). A similar result was achieved using the data obtained as a result of the optical measurements. Moreover, when the PbS thin film was doped with Ni, its energy band gap was observed to be wider. In the second part; the photovoltaic properties of FTO/Zn2SnO4/PbS and FTO/Zn2SnO4/PbS:Ni(3%) thin films were investigated by performing incident photon-tocurrent efficiency (IPCE) and current density (J)voltage (V) measurements, respectively, using Zn2SnO4 coated on FTO conductive glasses instead of glass susbtrates. Based on the data obtained from both measurements, it was observed that the Ni dopant significantly enhance the performance of the PbS-based solar cell devices.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS OF THE STUDY
Partial left ventriculectomy (PLV, the "Batista procedure") has received recent attention as a surgical treatment for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and end-stage congestive heart failure; however, the mechanisms responsible for the purported short-term improvement in left ventricular (LV) function are poorly characterized. This study examined the effects of PLV on three-dimensional (3-D) LV geometry, wall stress and passive LV mechanics in excised porcine hearts.

METHODS
Thirty-three radio-opaque tantalum markers were placed into the LV wall of nine freshly excised, porcine hearts (arrested with cold crystalloid cardioplegia) to measure three dimensional LV geometry and volume. Simultaneous biplane video-fluoroscopic marker images and LV pressure (LVP) were obtained over a wide range of LV volumes generated with an intracavitary LV balloon. Measurements were repeated after excision of a diamond-shaped wedge of the lateral LV wall between the papillary muscles (mean: 8 x 3 x 2 cm; 10 +/- 2% of LV mass).

RESULTS
Following PLV, the ventricle assumed a more elliptical shape (LV eccentricity rose from 0.71 +/- 0.15 to 0.81 +/- 0.09, p < 0.01). Circumferential radius of curvature fell in the anterior, lateral and posterior regions at the equatorial level (p < 0.01), while the posterior wall longitudinal radius of curvature increased at the basal, equatorial and apical levels (p < 0.01). No change in the longitudinal radius of curvature was observed in the other walls. These changes were associated with a fall in average equatorial LV wall stress from 176 +/- 34 to 159 +/- 30 kdyne/cm2 (p < 0.02). Myocardial stiffness (slope of the LV stress-strain relation) fell from 12.4 +/- 4.0 to 10.0 +/- 3.4 (p < 0.004), indicating lower global LV wall stress at any given LV size.

CONCLUSIONS
In flaccid porcine hearts, the left ventricle became more elliptical and chamber size decreased after PLV, which resulted in lower regional LV wall stress and myocardial stiffness. LV ellipticalization may improve systolic LV performance by decreasing regional LV afterload (e.g., systolic wall stress), which would thereby lower myocardial oxygen consumption and improve LV pump efficiency.


Abstract In this paper, the extremely low frequency magnetic field produced by the tablet computers is explored. The measurement of the tablet computers' magnetic field is performed by using a measuring geometry previously proposed for the laptop computers. The experiment is conducted on five Android tablet computers. The measured values of the magnetic field are compared to the widely accepted TCO safety standard. Then, the results are classified by the Self-Organizing Map method in order to create different levels of safety or danger concerning the magnetic field to which tablet computer users are exposed. Furthermore, a brief comparison of the obtained magnetic field levels with the ones from typical laptops is performed. At the end, a practical suggestion on how to avoid the high exposure to the low frequency magnetic field emitted by the tablet computers is given.


The first 4 years (1994 1997) of continuous atmospheric CO 2 measurements from Jubany station located on the Antarctic peninsula are presented. Details are given on the station environment, meteorological conditions, instrumentation, and data selection strategy. The average seasonal cycle and annual growth rate are characterized and compared with other independent Antarctic CO 2 measurement records. An analysis of diurnal behaviour and local meteorology and statistical variability in the measurements suggests that Jubany is a suitable site for making systematic observations of CO 2 that are representative of large well-mixed air masses.


This is the first effort to provide a broad assessment of how well the Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared an end to segregated schools in the United States was implemented. Written by a distinguished group of historians, the twelve essays in this collection examine how African Americans and their supporters in twelve states - Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Delaware, Missouri, Indiana, Nevada, and Wisconsin - dealt with the Court's mandate to desegregate "with all deliberate speed." The process followed many diverse paths.Some of the common themes in these efforts were the importance of black activism, especially the crucial role played by the NAACP; entrenched white opposition to school integration, which wasn't just a southern state issue, as is shown in Delaware, Wisconsin, and Indiana; and the role of the federal government, a sometimes inconstant and sometimes reluctant source of support for implementing Brown.


Famous first of all as "the poet of the town" Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873–1924) was rarely mentioned among famous literary dachniks of Silver Age, and his poems depicting Russian nature are not well known or appreciated. Bryusov didn't know either peasants' or country squires' life, but living on dacha (hired summer cottage in the suburbs) took a significant place in his biography and literary work. For Bry- usov dacha was neither a town as a usual place of living, nor a Town as a "world", and DOI: 10.22455/978-5-9208-0627-7-239-250 240 also not a country as opposite to a town. Dacha was the place to continue comfortable town's life on plain-air, not really separated from a town because it was hired in the suburbs, usually near a railway station, so it was possible to go there and back again in the same day or to spent a nignt in the town. This article deals with known facts of dacha's life of the Bryusov family in the suburbs of Moscow. The study may be continued using unpublished sources to verify details, including their dacha's addresses.


Biostratigraphic and lithologic correlations of Lower and Middle Cambrian strata are made in eastern and southeastern Nevada at Eureka, Cave Valley, Pioche, Delamar, Mormon Range, and Virgin Mountains, and in Arizona at the western end of the Grand Canyon near Grand Wash Cliffs, and in the Granite Gorge area of the Canyon. These correlations, together with others in the better-known areas of Lower and Middle Cambrian strata in central Arizona, western Utah, and southeastern Idaho, disclose widespread faunal and lithogenetic continuity over a large part of the Great Basin area of the Southern Cordilleran geosyncline and thus permit unification and consequent simplification of formational nomenclature. The Prospect Mountain quartzite (Eureka district, Nevada) is present throughout the entire region, ranging from Upper Algonkian (?) and Lower Cambrian in eastern Nevada and western Utah to lower Middle Cambrian in northwestern Arizona (Granite Gorge), central Arizona, northwestern Utah, and southeastern Idaho. The quartzite has been locally designated as Tapeats sandstone, Tintic, and Brigham quartzites. The overlying Pioche shale (Pioche district, Nevada) is recognized from Eureka to western Grand Canyon and eastward throughout most of western Utah. In southeastern Nevada and north-westernmost Arizona the Pioche has previously been regarded as part of the Bright Angel shale; and in western Utah it has been called Ophir and Cabin. The Pioche formation is both Lower and Middle Cambrian over most of the Great Basin area but is Lower Cambrian at Eureka and Cave Valley (?), Nevada, and in the House and Deep Creek (?) ranges of western Utah, and Middle Cambrian in the Tintic and Sheeprock ranges of central Utah. The Middle Cambrian Lyndon limestone and Chisholm shale (both of the Pioche district) may be traced northward to Cave Valley and southward to western Grand Canyon. Farther east in the Grand Canyon, the Lyndon limestone disappears, and the combined Pioche and Chisholm shales constitute the Bright Angel shale. The Peasley and Burrows limestones and portions of the Highland Peak limestone are recognized at Cave Valley and Delamar in eastern Nevada as well as in their type area, the Pioche district, and the first of these is traced southward to western Grand Canyon.


OBJECTIVE
To study posttraumatic stress in patients after treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU).

METHODS
This prospective cohort study included 136 adult patients with critical medical and surgical problems who were discharged from the ICU of the Caritas Medical Centre, Hong Kong. Their occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression after ICU treatment were measured using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Patient ICU experience was measured using the ICU Memory Tool. Multivariable analyses were conducted to examine the predictors of PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression.

RESULTS
Symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression were reported in 10% to 17% of patients. Symptom severity was associated with less factual memory, more vivid memory of feelings about and more delusional memory of the ICU experience, low emotional support, and high perceived life threat.

CONCLUSIONS
Symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression may occur after ICU treatment. Early identification and appropriate intervention for PTSD are important for rehabilitation.


The objective of the Finance Law of 2002 was to make French law more compatible with Community law. In fact, however, the new tax regime applicable to mergers and comparable operations remains complex. In this article the author discusses the reforms and comments on the shortcomings and questions that remain.


Background Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), most commonly Crohn's disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC), suffer from chronic intestinal inflammation of unknown etiology. Increased proinflammatory macrophages (M1) have been documented in tissue from patients with CD. Anti-inflammatory macrophages (M2) may play a role in UC given the preponderance of Th2 cytokines in this variant of IBD. Animal and clinical studies have shown that the probiotic VSL#3 can ameliorate signs and symptoms of IBD. Although animal data suggests a modulatory effect on macrophage phenotype, the effect of VSL#3 on human macrophages remains unknown. Objective To determine the effect of the probiotic VSL#3 on the phenotype of polarized (M1/M2) and unpolarized (MΦ) human macrophages. Methods Human monocyte-derived macrophages, generated by culturing monocytes with M-CSF, were left unpolarized or were polarized towards an M1 or an M2 phenotype by culture with LPS and IFN-γ or IL-4, respectively, and were then cultured in the presence or absence of VSL#3 for 3 days. Changes in macrophage morphology were assessed. Cytokine and chemokine levels in supernatants were determined by multiplex assay. Results VSL#3 decreased the granuloma-like aggregates of M1 macrophages, increased fibroblast-like M2 macrophages, and decreased fibroblast-like MΦ macrophages. VSL#3 increased the secretion of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and G-CSF by M1, M2, and MΦ macrophages. VSL#3 exposure maintained the proinflammatory phenotype of M1 macrophages, sustaining IL-12 secretion, increasing IL-23 secretion, and decreasing MDC secretion. Both VSL#3-treated M2 and MΦ macrophages secreted higher levels of anti-inflammatory and pro-healing factors such as IL-1Ra, IL-13, EGF, FGF-2, TGF-α, and VEGF, as well as proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-12 and TNF-α. Conclusion Under our experimental conditions VSL#3 induced a mixed proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory phenotype in polarized and unpolarized macrophages. This differential effect could explain why patients with CD do not respond to probiotic therapy as well as patients with UC.


ELMBERG, J., HIRSCHFELD, E., CARDOSO, H. & HESSEL, R. 2020. Seabird migration at Cabo Carvoeiro (Peniche, Portugal) in autumn 2015. Marine Ornithology 48: 231–244. Land-based counts at Cabo Carvoeiro (Peniche, Portugal), made between 15 August and 15 November 2015 (effort 90 d, 517 h), tallied 302 469 birds, most of which (99.98%) were southbound. Although 65 species were observed, four species contributed to 91% of the total: 207 608 Northern Gannet Morus bassanus, 32 281 Cory's Shearwater Calonectris borealis, 16 086 Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus, and 15 222 Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus. Passage as a whole increased throughout the period, mainly due to a gradual intensification of Northern Gannet migration. More than 67 000 southbound procellariforms of 12 species were recorded, as were 6183 Stercorariidae of four species. Daily passage rates of species recorded on more than 68 d were positively correlated in 22 of 36 cases. For Northern Gannet and Mediterranean Gull Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, the proportion of adult birds increased steadily, outnumbering younger birds. Extrapolation based on counted versus uncounted daylight hours suggests that at least 415 000 Northern Gannets, 65 000 Cory's Shearwaters, and 30 000 Balearic Shearwaters passed south at Cabo Carvoeiro in autumn 2015. Clearly, a very large share of the global population of the endangered Balearic Shearwater can be monitored at Cabo Carvoeiro. Based on generally unidirectional passage patterns, high species diversity, as well as high season totals and daily passage rates of several species, Cabo Carvoeiro is one of the most promising mainland sites in the eastern North Atlantic to monitor a wide range of seabirds.


Three species of Oncaeidae, Triconia umerus, T. hawii and T. rufa are reported for the first time in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea, western Mediterranean Sea. They were found in meso-zooplankton samples collected in 2004 and were absent from samples collected prior to 2004. Specimens of Triconia umerus and T. hawii were compared with material collected from the type locality (the Red Sea). In order to facilitate identification, brief differential diagnoses, supported by scanning electron micrographs, are presented for the five species of Triconia that have small body size (450 to 600 μm) and co-occur in the upper 50 m of the water column of the Gulf of Naples. Surface ornamentation on the genital double-somite of the female is reported in T. minuta and T. hawii for the first time, but it is difficult to observe using light microscopy and we infer that it has probably been overlooked in these species hitherto. Possible explanations for the new discovery of these species in such a well-studied area are discussed and it is suggested that they represent relatively recent additions to the fauna. A key to the eleven species of Oncaeidae found in the Gulf of Naples is presented.


This project investigates mode coupling effects in laminated composite beams with delamination damage. 8-ply composite beams from carbon fibre woven fabric and different configurations of artificial delamination damage are used in the study. A 3-D explicit finite element simulation modelling the woven layers as transversely isotropic materials are developed to analyse the propagation and scattering behaviour of the fundamental anti-symmetric Lamb wave mode (A0). The results from the 3-D numerical model were in good agreement with analytical solutions derived from the Timoshenko beam theory in terms of phase velocities of the A0 mode. Reflection and transmission coefficient spectrums of two delamination sizes were generated based on the 3-D numerical model. The reflection and transmission spectrums were found to be dependent on the location of measurement points being selected due to the fact that the amplitude of incident wave varies periodically along the length of the beam as well as the width. The wave amplitudes across the width of the beam should also be considered in order to obtain more stable reflection and transmission coefficient spectrums.


In this paper, 732 high-pressure K-values obtained from PVT analysis of 17 crude oil and gas samples from a number of petroleum reservoirs in the UAE are used. Material balance techniques are used to extract the K-values of crude oil and gas components from the constant volume depletion and differential liberation tests for the oil and gas samples, respectively. These K-values are then correlated and the resulting correlation compared with published correlations. Comparisons of results show that currently published correlations give poor estimates of K-values for non-hydrocarbon and hydrocarbon components, while the proposed new correlation improved significantly the average absolute deviation for non-hydrocarbon and hydrocarbon components. The average absolute error between experimental and predicted K-values for the new correlation was 20.5% compared with 76.1% for the Whitson and Torp correlation, 84.27% for the Wilson correlation, and 105.8 for the McWilliams correlation. Additionally, the bubble point and dew point pressures are calculated for these 17 samples and compared with experimental values. The average absolute error in the saturation pressures for the new correlation was 6.08% compared with 56.34% for the Wilson correlation, 57.84% for the Whitson and Torp correlation, and 9.28% for the Peng–Robinson equation of state with default parameters. q 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Integrated reporting shows a panoramic view of the firm's status. IIRC's framework is principles-based, it does not provide specific key performance indicators (KPIs) for integrated thinking and reporting. Through empirical analyses of all listed firms in 34 countries, our study provides the first evidence that value added information is actually useful for evaluating the firm's financial stability and sustainability. We focus on firms that have survived for more than 100 years and that have already achieve sustainability. We find two distinguishing facts; the value added distributed to stakeholders other than shareholders is significantly larger and the stability of profitability is significantly higher in sustainable firms. These two KPIs are equivalent to the two interrelated aspects of value under the IIRC framework. We therefore propose the value added distribution and the stability of profitability as a sustainability KPIs for integrated reporting.


We report a case of spinal cord injury following an attempted epidural in a conscious woman for pain management in acute pancreatitis. The epidural needle was inserted at the T11–T12 interspace. On the second attempt, dural puncture occurred. The patient did not complain of pain or discomfort during the procedure. Thirty-two hours after the attempted epidural, the patient was found to have motor deficit on her right lower limb. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a spinal haematoma with direct spinal cord injury. Post-laminectomy neurological recovery was slow but progressive. The possible causes for spinal cord injury and spinal haematoma without pain or paraesthesia during the procedure are discussed.


This thesis seeks to apply the field of informatics to the intelligent integration of electric vehicles into the power system. The main goal is to release the potential of electric vehicles in relation to a reliable, economically efficient power system based on renewables. To make intelligent EV integration a reality, it is prudent to understand the domain in its entirety. In this thesis, this is reflected by a thorough investigation of the stakeholders most relevant to the synergistic relationship between electric vehicle and grid. The first investigation addresses the power market. The market can give system operators access to the flexibility of electric vehicles while at the same time creating an immediate economic incentive for the EV owner. A fleet operator is introduced to allow a fleet of electric vehicles to participate in the markets. Examples are provided on the specific markets and services in which the electric vehicle may be best suited to participate. The next stakeholder investigated is the distribution system operator representing the low voltage grid. The challenge is assessed by considering a number of grid impacts studies. Next, a set of grid congestion mitigation strategies are proposed with a special attention to the impact that congestion would have on the operation of a fleet operator. The third and most important stakeholder is the electric vehicle owner. The emphasis is on the plug in patterns of a number of Danish electric vehicle drivers. The objective is to understand how owner behavior will influence charging flexibility. It is indicated how plug in behavior may be predicted and how the resulting flexibility may be applied to achieve several different goals. After having investigated the aims, constraints and requirements for the above stakeholders, the attention, in the second part of the thesis, is turned to three vital topics within the field of informatics. The first topic is the control architecture that determines the placement and relationship between control systems used to control electric vehicle charging. A centralised market-based architecture is chosen and the functionalities needed by the control logic are defined. The next informatics topic, communication, describes a set of protocols and standards applicable for electric vehicle integration. The study investigates the IEC 61850 standard and its ability to support smart charging. Finally it is described how considerations to each of the stakeholders can be included in the optimization done by the fleet operator. It is shown how different markets can be considered and how stochastic optimization can be used to model uncertainty in regards to plug in behavior and grid congestion. A large part of the above work have been done as contributions to the EDISON project in which the Thesis Author has participated. During the project the author has built a technical platform for testing several of the technologies mentioned above, against a small fleet of electric vehicles. This thesis is meant as an input for market players, system operators, fleet operators, fellow researchers and anyone with an interest in the role of the electric vehicle in the future power system.