Abstract. Ground-based observations have insufficient spatial coverage to assess long-term human exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at the global scale. Satellite remote sensing offers a promising approach to provide information on both short- and long-term exposure to PM2.5 at local-to-global scales, but there are limitations and outstanding questions about the accuracy and precision with which ground-level aerosol mass concentrations can be inferred from satellite remote sensing alone. A key source of uncertainty is the global distribution of the relationship between annual average PM2.5 and discontinuous satellite observations of columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD). We have initiated a global network of ground-level monitoring stations designed to evaluate and enhance satellite remote sensing estimates for application in health-effects research and risk assessment. This Surface PARTiculate mAtter Network (SPARTAN) includes a global federation of ground-level monitors of hourly PM2.5 situated primarily in highly populated regions and collocated with existing ground-based sun photometers that measure AOD. The instruments, a three-wavelength nephelometer and impaction filter sampler for both PM2.5 and PM10, are highly autonomous. Hourly PM2.5 concentrations are inferred from the combination of weighed filters and nephelometer data. Data from existing networks were used to develop and evaluate network sampling characteristics. SPARTAN filters are analyzed for mass, black carbon, water-soluble ions, and metals. These measurements provide, in a variety of regions around the world, the key data required to evaluate and enhance satellite-based PM2.5 estimates used for assessing the health effects of aerosols. Mean PM2.5 concentrations across sites vary by more than 1 order of magnitude. Our initial measurements indicate that the ratio of AOD to ground-level PM2.5 is driven temporally and spatially by the vertical profile in aerosol scattering. Spatially this ratio is also strongly influenced by the mass scattering efficiency.


Objective: To report nationally representative findings on the prevalence, correlates, psychiatric comorbidity and treatment of DSM-IV Cannabis Use and Cannabis Use Disorders in Australia. Method: The 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was a nationally representative household survey of 8841 Australians (16–85 years) that assessed symptoms of the most prevalent DSM-IV mental disorders. Results: Prevalence of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use was 18% and 6%; prevalence of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use disorder was 6% and 1%. The conditional prevalence (proportion of ever users who met criteria for a disorder) of lifetime and 12-month cannabis use disorder was 32.2% and 14.3%. Current cannabis use disorders were more common in males (OR 2.0) and younger users (OR 4.6). Strong associations were observed between current cannabis use disorders and alcohol use disorders (OR 3.6) and current affective disorders (OR 3.0). Only 36.2% of those with current cannabis use disorders sought any treatment. Conclusions: The prevalence of cannabis use disorders in the Australian population is comparable with that in the USA. Current cannabis use disorders are highly concentrated in young Australians who have high levels of comorbidity. The low rates of treatment seeking warrant attention in treatment and prevention strategies.


A total of 53 tamboatás, Hoplosternum littorale, from the Batalha River, São Paulo, southeastern Brazil, were examined between February 2014 to December 2016. Seventeen species of parasites were identified, and 961 specimens were collected . The richness of each community varied from one to seven species of parasites per fish. The metacercariae of Diplostomum lunaschiae showed higher prevalence and mean abundance, being the core species. Gyrodactylus sp. obtained a higher mean intensity value. Aporocotylidae gen. sp. showed a significant negative correlation between its abundance and the standard host weight and length, while Spiroxys sp. showed a significant negative correlation between its abundance and the host weight. Batalha River has importance as a maintainer of local biodiversity with a relevant contribution to the knowledge of freshwater biodiversity in the State of São Paulo. Gyrodactylidae gen. sp., A. mordax, Aporocotylidae gen. sp., D. lunaschiae, Diplostomidae gen. sp. 1, Contracaecum sp., D. renale, Porrocaecum sp., Pseudocapillaria sp. 1, Pseudocapillaria sp. 2, S. contortus, Oligobdella sp., and L. cyprinacea are parasites mentioned for the first time in H. littorale. Aporocotylidae gen. sp., Gyrodactylidae gen. sp., and Oligobdella sp. are new species in process of taxonomic description by the authors of the present study.


The Tatoosh volcanic-plutonic complex, exposed in and near Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, is one of a series of Tertiary igneous bodies that are exposed along the axis of the Pliocene to Holocene High Cascades volcanic chain of the Pacific Northwest. It is possible that these Tertiary bodies are the eroded roots of an ancestral calc-alkalic arc. The Tatoosh complex was emplaced in an Eocene and Oligocene volcanic terrane that evidently was oceanic in character. Isotopic ages of zircons from plutonic, hypabyssal, and volcanic phases of the complex show that Tatoosh igneous activity, probably fed by repeated injections of magma from a deep source, spanned some 12 m.y. The earliest activity was emplacement of a dike and sill swarm about 26 m.y. ago. Subsequently, about 25 m.y. ago and again about 22 m.y. ago, magma broke through to the surface to form thick welded tuffs. Magmatism culminated with the rise of the core of the pluton (in part invading its own earlier volcanic and hypabyssal cover) in two stages, 17.5 and 14.1 m.y. ago.


A hospital room has multiple patient monitoring devices at the bedside to monitor his or her status. However, vital sign monitors, ventilator and other bedside devices are made by a variety of different manufacturers and often cannot easily interface to the hospital information system. Medical environments incorporate complex and integrated data networks to transfer vast amounts of patient information, such as images, waveforms, and other forms of digital data. Hence, to assure interoperability of images, waveforms and patient data, Health Level Seven (HL7) was developed as an international standard to facilitate the communicating and storing of medical data. In this study, we developed middleware capable of receiving data from mCare 300 vital signs monitoring devices and converting the data to HL7 data format. The HL 7 middleware streamline clinical workflow and support patients. Therefore, clinical expertise are empowered to respond to dynamic healthcare situation as soon as they emerged, and consequently quality of care while helping to reduce the length of a patient's stay in a hospital.


Consensus on the source of marine magnetic anomaly stripes has remained one of the most elusive aspects of the Vine and Matthews seafloor spreading model which has been of such fundamental importance to global plate tectonics. The first attempt to measure the vertical magnetic structure of oceanic crust exposed at a scarp face using near-bottom magnetic measurements is reported along with the theoretical basis for the reduction and analysis of these measurements. Magnetometers mounted to deep-tow and submersible platforms were used to determine the horizontal and vertical variation of crustal magnetization of the upper 2 km of young oceanic crust exposed by a steep submarine escarpment at the Blanco fracture zone in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Results show a large-amplitude magnetic anomaly is consistently found at the extrusive to intrusive transition indicating that the extrusives are strongly magnetized compared to the weakly magnetized intrusive crust. Profiles also show the systematic presence of more than one polarity with depth indicating the possibility of dipping polarity boundaries within the extrusives. Forward models find that a dipping polarity boundary model correctly predicts the amplitude and shape of the overlying sea surface anomaly, while a block model with vertical polarity boundaries overestimates the amplitude. These in situ results are used to directly assess the contribution made by the extrusive section to the overlying magnetic anomaly signal, in essence, to define the magnetic source layer. It is concluded that the extrusive lavas constitute the main magnetic source for magnetic anomalies in oceanic crust less than 2 m.y. in age.


While bronchial disinfection by intrabronchial lavage with various chemotherapeutic agents would appear to be both possible and safe, as determined by experiments on rabbits, and worthy of clinical trial in the treatment of bronchiectasis and other types of chronic suppurative pneumonitis,1 the results of additional experiments summarized in this paper indicate that local immunization and disinfection of the bronchi by intrabronchial injections of vaccines, antivirus and bacteriophage may offer even greater therapeutic possibilities and prove worthy of clinical trial in the treatment of bronchiectasis and other types of pulmonary suppuration. Undoubtedly subcutaneous and intracutaneous injections of properly prepared autogenous vaccines are sometimes of therapeutic value in certain cases of chronic bronchitis, especially those associated with allergic asthma, but vaccine therapy has generally failed to be of any particular value in the treatment of bronchiectasis. It would appear that intrabronchial injections of vaccines and antivirus may open up a new and


Electronic games have been applied in several areas of science, using intelligent computational resources to aggregate knowledge to processed information. In this scenario, we highlight the use of psychopedagogical games for cognitive analysis, intervention and rehabilitation. However, due to its multidisciplinary nature and its uncertainties and inaccuracies, the modeling of mathematical algorithms for cognitive assessment is complex. In this paper, we propose the creation of an inference system that works integrated to the development platform, allowing the construction of inference algorithms decoupled from the games' source cod, so that the neuroscientist himself be able to participate in its modeling.


Since the beginning of the 20th century, average global surface temperature has increased ~0.7 °C and the current scenarios predict that it will continue to rise additional 2-4 °C during the 21st century. Although many emphasise the need to better understand how warming affect ecosystems on both communities and species level, conclusive data is relatively scarce and our understanding of the effects of warming on community processes and species' genetic and plastic responses to climate change is still in its infancy.This thesis aims at investigating the ecological and ecophysiological responses to warming of the vegetation in the littoral zone in the Baltic Sea and whether warming affects the genetic composition of the dominant algal species in this zone, the green alga Cladophora glomerata. Warming was studied by comparing properties of the vegetation and the genetic composition of C. glomerata grown in natural communities in unheated sites and heated sites with 3.4-10.3 °C higher water temperature. The studies in this thesis were performed in the Forsmark (60°24'N 18°09'E) and Oskarshamn (57°25'N 16°40'E) areas.The thesis shows that warming changed the community composition in Cladophora-belts, but not the species richness. It also shows that vegetation coverage and height increased with warming. The results also suggest that the vegetation at the heated sites was exposed to lower levels of oxidative stress. The results showed relatively high genetic diversity in the strictly asexual species C. glomerata, but that the genetic diversity decreases with warming. Further, all analyses showed differences between samples from heated and unheated sites and revealed specific patterns for samples from the heated sites. Additonally, C. glomerata at heated sites were more strongly affected by the effect of season than at the unheated sites. An analysis of the genotypic composition of C. glomerata from heated and unheated sites in the two different sub-basins of the Baltic Sea (Forsmark and Oskarshamn) revealed a congruent direction in selection to warming.In all, this new knowledge increases the understanding of how a habitat-forming filamentous alga in a coastal ecosystem may respond to current and future global warming.


Peruvian jungle regions have remained relatively untouched by development projects, but recent sell-offs of more than 70% by President Alan Garcia's government have caused controversy and violent protests that threaten to divide the developing nation. A look at Inca and colonial land rights can help us understand the communal land rights model that is currently preventing development projects. There are many obvious upsides to opening the native-owned lands to development like growth of the Peruvian economy and employment opportunities; however, the indigenous culture would also be under threat by national and multinational companies that have little regard for any native culture that stands in the way of profit. Some argue that improving indigenous land rights are the key to getting the communities organized and able to benefit from the imminent development. Others believe that these type of land rights will lead to "divide and conquer" tactics historically employed by big business. This paper seeks to understand the context of the controversy in order to determine a middle ground solution between both arguments that can deliver economic growth to Peru while simultaneously preserving indigenous culture, respecting human rights, and conserving the environment.


The study was conducted in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 rainy seasons at Nanzolo, Domasi and Mkondezi in three replications using the RCBD following the Mother-Baby Trial Approach. The objective of the study was to evaluate grain yield of twelve high-yielding rice (Oryza sativa) varieties that were selected and shared from elite Doubled Haploid germplasms of a Collaborative Project of KAFACI (RDA) and AGRA at Suwon in Korea and Africa Rice Centre, Senegal. An improved variety called Mtupatupa was used as a common check. Data collection was done on several traits including plant height at maturity, number of effective tillers and DUS as well as VCU. The two lines SR35285-HB3469-6 and Sahel 328 met farmers' preferences during participatory variety selection because of earliness to maturity, high grain yield, medium to slender grain shape and long to extra-long, moderate aroma and absence of the white belly on the endosperm. The Genotype × Environment interaction summarized by the biplot of the two principal component axes explains 96.56% of the Genetics and Genotype × Environmental (GGE) variation. The hierarchical clustering pattern showed two main clusters in the dendrogram description. Genotypes SR35285-HB3469-6 and Sahel 328 had been therefore released as Wachangu and Makafaci, respectively, for lowland cultivation in Malawi.

 Key words: Doubled Haploid, principal component analysis, DUS and VCU, GGE biplot, grain quality, grain yield, lowland, PVS.


The objective of the study was to test the heart rate variability (HRV) and the association between RR interval and the spontaneous respiration in a selected population of sick premature infants. Approximated Entropy (ApEn) and Regularity index were computed for RR series while four numerical indexes able to quantify association between signals were compared: (quadratic spectral coherence, linear correlation index, non linear association functions, and synchronization index). From a methodological point of view, both linear and non linear indexes were able to enhance the relationships between the signals. From a clinical point of view, lower relationships values were strongly associated with Sepsis Group while the Non Sepsis Group was characterized by a stronger relationship between RR series and the respiration. These results suggest that the exploration of RR and respiration relationships may help revealing systemic infection in premature newborns.


Intelligent Tutoring Systems are a genre of highly adaptive software providing individualized instruction. The current study was a conceptual replication of a previous randomized control trial that incorporated the intelligent tutoring system Native Numbers, a program designed for early numeracy instruction. As a conceptual replication, we kept the method of instruction, the demographics, the number of kindergarten classrooms (n = 3), and the same numeracy and intrinsic motivation screeners as the original study. We changed the time of year of instruction, changed the control group to a wait-control group, added a maintenance assessment for the first group of participants, and included a mathematical language assessment. Analysis of within- and between-group differences using repeated measures ANOVA indicated gains of numeracy were significant only after using Native Numbers (η_p^2 = .147). Results of intrinsic motivation and mathematical language were not significant. The effect size of numeracy achievement did not reach that of the original study (η_p^2 = .622). Here, we compared the two studies, discussed plausible reasons for differences in the magnitude of effect sizes, and provided suggestions for future research.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of weekly vinorelbine (VNB) in patients with metastatic breast cancer previously treated with both adriamycin (ADM) and docetaxel (TXT). VNB was administered weekly at the dose 20 mg/m2 by i.v. infusion over 20 minutes followed by flushing the vein with 100 ml of normal saline. From June 1999 to August 2000, ten patients were enrolled in this study. Patient characteristics were that the cumulative doses (median) of previous ADM and TXT were 300 mg (range, 120-880 mg), 560 mg (range, 120-960 mg) respectively. The median number of metastatic sites was four, with poor performance status (ECOG 1-2: 40%, 3-4: 60%). The median cycles of weekly VNB were seven (range: 2-12). Two of 10 assessable patients obtained partial response, with an overall response rate of 20%. The main toxicity (NCI grade 4) was leukopenia in 10% of 10 patients. Phlebitis (grade 2) was observed in 4 of 10 patients (40%). VNB is an active agent against metastatic breast cancer pretreated with both ADM and TXT, possessing no severe toxicities.


The practice of auto-transfusion is highly considered due to its safety and economic beneficts. It comprises two basic modalities: "Reinfusion" and "Pre-Collection" of blood. The reinfusion uses the patient's own blood spurted either from the patient's previous hemorrhage or during the surgery. The auto-transfusion of Pre-Collect uses the patient's blood tajen before surgery and it consists two basic modalities: The multiple Pre-Collection in which the blood is taken from the patient much before the scheduled sate of the surgery and the Pre-Collection done 10-30 minutes before surgery, which we presently designated as "Immediate Pre-Collection" (or Pre-Deposit for Immediate Utilization) which constitutes the basic topic of this essay.


The task of this work is to reveal the forms of spatial transformation of the Moscow metropolitan area due to the sectoral and radial differentiation of housing construction. The research is based on the monitoring of all multi-story housing projects under construction and development. These projects are classified by size class, location relative to existing housing stock, housing prices, and distance from highways. The localization of housing projects relative to the main highways changes non-linearly as the distance from the Moscow Ring Road increases. The core of the Moscow metropolitan area is relatively evenly sprawling in the 10-km zone outside the Moscow Ring Road. The nearest suburban zone of Moscow Oblast is being developed not only along key highways, but a significant part of housing projects is implemented in inter-highway intervals. As the distance from the Moscow Ring Road exceeds 10 km, the urban sprawl is replaced by the strengthening of the axes of the settlement pattern along main transport corridors (highways and railways), and the distance of projects from the highways decreases. This trend is particularly evident in the northeastern, eastern and southeastern segments of the suburban zone. In the peripheral zone of the Moscow metropolitan area, projects are concentrated mainly on the outskirts of existing towns, and the distance from highways increases in comparison with the suburban zone.


The authors have developed 6-dimensional phase-space code that tracks macroparticles for the study of coherent bunch instabilities and related feedback systems. The model is based on power-series maps to represent the lattice, and allows for straightforward inclusion of effects such as amplitude dependent tune shift, chromaticity, synchrotron oscillations, and synchrotron radiation. It simulates long range wake fields such as resistive-wall effects as well as the higher order modes in cavities. The model has served to study the dynamics relevant to the transverse feedback system currently being commissioned for the Advanced Light Source (ALS). Current work integrates earlier versions into a modular system that includes models for transverse and longitudinal feedback systems. It is designed to provide a modular approach to the dynamics and diagnostics, allowing a user to modify the model of a storage ring at run-time without recompilation.


The function of many important biomolecules is related to their dynamic properties and their ability to switch between different {\em conformations}, which are understood as {\em almost invariant} or {\em metastable} subsets of the positional state space of the system. Recently, the present authors and their coworkers presented a novel algorithmic scheme for the direct numerical determination of such metastable subsets and the transition probability between them. Although being different in most aspects, this method exploits the same basic idea as {\sc Dellnitz} and {\sc Junge} in their approach to almost invariance in discrete dynamical systems: the almost invariant sets are computed via certain eigenvectors of the Markov operators associated with the dynamical behavior. In the present article we analyze the application of this approach to (high--friction) Langevin models describing the dynamical behavior of molecular systems coupled to a heat bath. We will see that this can be related to theoretical results for (symmetric) semigroups of Markov operators going back to {\sc Davies}. We concentrate on a comparison of our approach in respect to random perturbations of dynamical systems.


Background
 Polycythemia vera (PV), characterized by erythrocytosis and JAK2 mutations, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Patients (pts) are at risk for thrombotic events and experience symptoms (sxs) that may impact quality of life. Data describing the clinical characteristics of pts with PV at the time of diagnosis (dx) are limited. The Prospective Observational Study of Patients with Polycythemia Vera in US Clinical Practices (REVEAL) is a multicenter, prospective, observational study designed to collect data on disease burden, clinical management, and pt-reported outcomes (PROs) of adult pts (aged ≥18) with PV. This analysis describes pt demographic and clinical characteristics, treatment patterns, and sxs of newly dxed pts with PV.
 Methods
 Pts enrolled in REVEAL who were dxed ≤6 months prior to enrollment were included in this analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize pt demographic and clinical characteristics, tests at dx, and management patterns at dx. Sxs were assessed with a validated PRO instrument: the Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Symptom Assessment Form Total Symptom Score (MPN-SAF TSS). Mean and standard deviation for individual sx scores and total sx score (TSS) at enrollment are reported.
 Results
 Of the 2510 pts enrolled in REVEAL, 321 dxed within 6 months of enrollment were included in this analysis. Median age at enrollment was 67.0 (range, 23.0-94.0) years, 54.8% were male, and most (74.5%) had high-risk disease (aged ≥60 years and/or history of thrombosis). The most common physician-reported symptoms at the time of presentation included fatigue (24.6%), pruritus (17.1%), insomnia (10.3%), and muscle aches/bone pain (9.7%). Of those pts reported to have undergone mutation testing at dx (n=201), 99.5% were JAK2V617F positive. A history of thrombosis was reported for 15.9% of pts (arterial, 8.1%; venous, 8.7%), and the most common relevant comorbidities were hypertension (58.6%), obesity (19.6%), and diabetes mellitus (15.9%). Of 188 pts with lab values within 1 month before dx, 95.2% had elevated (≥45%) hematocrit and 59.6% had elevated (>10 × 109/L) white blood cell counts. Most high-risk and low-risk pts were reported to have received phlebotomies within 6 months after dx (71.7% and 78.4%, respectively). A higher proportion of pts with high-risk disease initiated a pharmacologic therapy for PV compared with those who had low-risk disease (60.5% vs 23.9%); hydroxyurea (HU) was the most common cytoreductive therapy (n=151 [93.2%]). Most of these pts (n=137 [90.7%]) were still receiving HU 2 years after dx. Of those who initiated HU within 6 months of dx, 5.3% (n=8) received an alternative cytoreductive therapy following HU.
 A total of 287 pts provided PRO data at enrollment (Table 1). The most common pt-reported sxs were fatigue (77.2%), early satiety (61.1%), and inactivity (58.0%); the mean (SD) MPN-SAF TSS was 18.5 (15.6). The sxs with the highest reported mean (SD) scores were fatigue (3.4 [2.7]), inactivity (2.6 [2.9]), and early satiety (2.5 [2.6]) and were largely similar between low-risk and high-risk pts.
 Conclusions
 Compared with all 2510 pts enrolled in REVEAL (Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 2018[18]12:788-95), this subgroup of 321 pts dxed within 6 months of enrollment was similar with respect to age and sex. However, in the newly dxed subgroup, a slightly lower proportion of pts (74.5%) had high-risk disease (77.3% of the full cohort). In the newly dxed subgroup, a higher proportion of pts (62.6%) underwent mutation testing (49.2% of all enrolled pts). The HU discontinuation rate early in the treatment course was approximately 9.3%, which is similar to the rate (6.3%) of HU discontinuation due to toxicity in patients with PV in a large, multicenter, MPN cohort (Am JHematol 2012[87]5:552-4). Sx burden in pts who completed the MPN-SAF TSS at enrollment was similar in the newly dxed pts (mean TSS, 18.5) and all pts enrolled in REVEAL (18.8; Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 2018[18]9:590-6); the most frequent pt-reported sxs (fatigue, early satiety, and inactivity) in this smaller pt subgroup were the same as those observed in the larger pt cohort. Overall, near the time of dx, a greater proportion of pts had low-risk disease. Despite this difference, the sx constellation and severity tends to be very similar to the larger cohort. It also appears that only a very small proportion of pts are unable to tolerate HU early on in the course of the disease.

 Gerds: Sierra Oncology: Research Funding; Imago Biosciences: Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy, Research Funding; CTI Biopharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy; Celgene Corporation: Consultancy, Research Funding; Roche: Research Funding. Altomare:Novartis: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Rigel: Consultancy. Colucci:Incyte: Employment, Equity Ownership. Paranagama:Incyte: Employment, Equity Ownership. Burke:Roche/Genentech: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy.


The nutrient requirements of the plants are different in their different phenological stages, so in the present experiment the Steiner solution was modified to adapt it to each stage of poinsettia (root growth, vegetative development and pigmentation). The Prestige cultivar was used the substrate was a mixture of leaf soil, coconut fiber and red tezontle in proportion 60:20:20 (%, v/v) and black polyethylene container of 15.24 cm in diameter. The experiment was carried out in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos. Morphological variables of the poinsettia plants were evaluated in response to the relative concentration between NO3 and Ca of the nutrient solution. The supply of nutrients according to the phenological stages of poinsettia affects the growth, extraction and concentration of nutrients, but depends on the nutritional regime. The regimen with the concentration (in meq L) NO3 :Ca 10:7 in radical growth, 10:9 in vegetative development and 12:9 in the pigmentation stage induced the poinsettias to present greater extraction of N, P, K, Ca and Mg, will increase the concentration of K and the morphological characteristics and the production of dry matter were outstanding.


This paper presents an appreciation of the originality and salience of Ruy Mauro Marini's political-economic thought, specifically that he posits the super-exploitation of labour as
the driving category of capitalist underdevelopment.

Writing from the Marxist wing of the Latin American dependency school, Marini made a novel contribution that addresses the continent's unequal exchange with Britain from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Marini derives super-exploitation from the import of cheap food and raw materials sought by the most developed capitalist nation. An inequality between capitals sets in, the primary export-producing capitals compensate for their lowering prices and lower rate of profit by driving down wages. Through this mechanism, Marini connects super-exploitation in the raw material exporting countries with the consolidation of relative surplus value in the developed countries. Once superexploitation (a higher rate of surplus value) is established it shapes the dependent social formation.

The paper explores Serra and Cardoso's critique, arguing that Marini's response in the debate raises a fundamental issue: distinctive combinations of absolute and relative surplus value as the explanation for the divergent social formations of developed and underdeveloped capitalism.

The paper examines the relationship between super exploitation and the mechanisms of increasing surplus value. It argues for sympathetic modifications to Marini's argument,
principally that price tends to cost of production rather than value. This refers to the necessary divergence of price from value in a system of sectors with different value compositions of capital, as unfolded by Marx in the early chapters of Volume 3 of Capital. This modification reinforces the general direction of Marini; however it introduces complications into the limiting assumptions of Marx's transformation schema.

The paper concludes that the revolutionary wing of the Latin American dependency theory provides a fruitful and necessary conceptual basis for the analysis of capitalist imperialism.


Connector fretting propensity is generally evaluated through an exhaustive series of experimental tests, making the connector design and validation process time consuming and costly. Thus, a method using modeling and simulation techniques to predict the influence of various design factors on vibration-induced fretting propensity in electrical connectors would be very beneficial to those responsible for connector design and application. One approach is to use detailed finite element models for the connector system to relate the actual dynamics of the contact interface to the threshold vibration levels required for the onset of fretting and the relative motion transfer function. The present study describes one such model for a single tin-plated blade/receptacle connector pair. Concurrent simulation and experimental studies were performed to evaluate the threshold vibration levels as a function of excitation frequency, interface friction coefficient, and normal force. Good correlation between the experimentally observed results and those predicted by the models were obtained. Some insights and observations with regard to the effectiveness of such a modeling approach are also presented.


We performed 151 Eu Mossbauer spectroscopy on the filled skutterudite compound EuRu 4 P 12 which undergoes a ferromagnetic transition at T c =17.8 K. A hyperfine field of -398 kOe was observed at 4.2 K, which absolute value is considerably large compared with other Eu compounds. A transferred hyperfine field produced mainly by conduction electron polarization shows a negative value of -58 kOe, which suggests that conduction electrons with d-character are involved in RKKY interactions in the compound.


We explore the use of the delay-coordinateembedding technique to automatically construct and use probability forecast models. The technique offers distinct advantages, including coherent handling of noise and continuous data, over previously explored [1] probability forecast methods employing Bayesian belief networks. We discuss the relationship between the dynamical systems and the probabilistic reasoning approaches to probability forecasting. Finally, we apply the dynamical systems method to a multivariate time series of physiologic measurements of an infant with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).


The specimens referred to Pteraspis mitchelli have been re-examined and re-described, and it is confirmed that all the pteraspid material from Bridge of Allan and Newtyle belongs to this one species. The associated cephalaspid fauna from Bridge of Allan is referred to three distinct species, Cephalaspis scotica sp. nov., Securiaspis waterstoni sp. nov., and Securiaspis caledonica sp. nov.


Summary. The basic directions of use, frozen vegetable oil, an analysis of markets. Analyzed trends in the development of cryogenic freezing. The urgency of developing energy efficient cryogenic devices. Integrated approach to the development of competitive domestic technologies and equipment for cryogenic freezing of vegetable oils is to use effective and innovative cooling techniques, process intensification, reduction of specific energy consumption and, consequently, reducing the cost of production in achieving high quality performance. The advantages of using an inert gas vapor as an alternative direction for existing equipment freezing wax-like substances using brine or water cooling. The investigations of cryogenic freezing using nitrogen vapor. Scientifically confirmed that oil bubbling nitrogen vapor layer, helps to increase the cooling capacity due to the thermal capacity and significantly reduces the processing time. Variants of using cryogenic coolant in the chiller plant. The optimal thermal, geometric and hydrodynamic modes. The ways to improve energy efficiency cryogenic apparatus using cryogenic coolant. The results will produce engineering calculations and design of freezing progressive installations with different technological modes. The conditions for cooling food liquids by bubbling with possibility of integration of physical and chemical characteristics of the cooled product. Cryogenic unit designed for continuous freezing of vegetable oils increased efficiency to the process of automatic control. Confirmed the economic efficiency of cleaning oils from impurities in continuous cryogenic apparatus by reducing the amount of equipment on similar processes in the preparation of the final product with a high degree of purification.


SUMMARY BGP might experience a lengthy path exploration process to reach the convergence after the routing changes [1]. [2] found that the BGP rate-limiting timer—MinRouteAdvertisementInterval (MRAI) has an optimal value M o that achieves the best trade-off between the stability and the convergence speed. In this paper, with the aid of a timed BGP model, we investigate the effects of MRAI and its optimal value M o for the BGP convergence process. We find that an adequately long MRAI timer can batch-remove candidate paths and ensure the routing stability in the convergence process. There exists a minimal MRAI M s that achieves the effect , which is also the upper bound of M o and provides an approximation of M o. We calculate the approximations of M s for different settings and estimate the optimal MRAI for the Internet. According to the results, the optimal MRAI for the Internet might be 5–10 times less than the current default value used in the Internet. The simulations taken with SSFNet and the experiments conducted over the Planet-Lab demonstrate the correctness of our analysis.


Higher education (HE) is currently undergoing changes and facing challenges in the UK, including coping with growth in the mature student entry, the removal of the binary divide, the reduction of student grants and the likelihood that students will increasingly have to pay more for their education. This article reflects on sustainable development in HE and probes how satisfied academics are with their primary tasks of teaching, research and administration and management. Using a questionnaire survey, the study found that about 65 percent of the university teachers were satisfied, very satisfied or extremely satisfied with research. Similar figures for teaching and administration and management are about 80 and 40 percent respectively. The study further investigated operational aspects of universities and in particular, whether satisfaction with each of their core tasks was related to age, gender or rank. The results show that significant associations exist between age and satisfaction in the core aspects of the university teachers' job. However the nature of the impact of age on the job satisfaction of academics varies from one aspect of the job to another. The nature of the relationships between age and research, teaching and administration and management is not clear, although the relationships themselves are statistically significant. While it appears that, generally, the older one is, the greater the satisfaction enjoyed with respect to teaching and administration and management, the reverse appears to be true with research satisfaction. The results also reveal, expectedly, that research satisfaction was related to rank – the higher the rank, the greater the level of research satisfaction. It was also found that gender satisfaction is not related to teaching, research or administration and management. The interpretations of these results and their implications to sustainability in higher education institutions are explored.


Adaptive hypermedia has provided a way information can be presented online. Based on adaptive presentation and adaptive navigational support, a static page can now be dynamically personalised for an individual user. Users who possess different needs, interests and background knowledge can now be provided with a different presentation of the same information. Many frameworks for adaptive hypermedia systems and applications have been proposed that use different strategies. This thesis proposes a new approach for the presentation and personalisation of links based on the idea of a multi-dimensional linkbase. It is the notion that describes a single linkbase that contains links annotated with metadata that place the links in several different contextual dimensions at once. These sets of links signify different dimensions of expertise of the user and are encoded to condition the visibility of links. This work builds upon the implementation of FOHM and Auld Linky at Southampton University. To provide users with control over the personalisation of their links, the users are provided with navigational tools for the presentation of these links. The presentation of the links depends on the preferences of the users and the linkbases they have enabled and disabled. This facilitates flexibility and reduces the user syndrome of 'too many-irrelevant-additional links'. Four straightforward adaptive systems have been developed to demonstrate the diversity of the link service approach, and in particular the concept of a multi¬dimensional linkbase, which has been applied into a Web-based prototype, an inquiry-led personalised navigation system. This thesis also documents the formal evaluation studies undertaken, which demonstrates that such a proposal is practicable and meaningful to a user.


Traditional long-run identifications face two problems. The first problem is that imposing long-run propositions without restricting cointegrating vectors may end up with an over-identifying situation. The second problem is that even if there is no over-identifying problem, long-run propositions may not be able to provide enough identifying restrictions to identify the structural shock of interest. This paper develops a new restricted estimation approach that solves the over-identification problem. We also show that if the long-run propositions are unique to the structural shock of interest, then it can be exactly identified without resorting to any short-run identifying assumptions. We apply our method to a benchmark model used by Gali (1992) to identify the money supply shocks of the US from 1955 to 1987. JEL: C32, C51, E52.


Further clarification of the impact of FM classification criteria has emerged with a higher prevalence and greater proportion of men identified with the modified 2010 criteria. This together with ongoing epidemiologic studies has confirmed the relationships between FM, other pain conditions, and mood disorders. Advances in the understanding of FM physiology have continued to evolve with advanced neuroimaging studies confirming altered central representation of pain as well as more static changes in brain volumes and brain region connectivity. Additional studies reveal alterations in brain function during cognitive processing. In addition to these advances, there has been re-focused attention on peripheral mechanisms that may initiate or maintain centrally amplified pain, specifically focusing on evidence for involvement of cytokines, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, and small fiber neuropathy. The potential role of autonomic dysfunction as a unifying factor in these peripheral changes continues to be investigated. Few advances were made in treatments for FM with most studies re-confirming the limited effectiveness of available pharmacologic treatments and re-affirming the utility of non-pharmacologic treatment modalities. The search for novel approaches to treatment may be informed by studies of the physiology of FM. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Abstract. The influence of human activities on the role of inland waters in the global carbon (C) cycle is poorly constrained. In this study, we investigated the impact of human land use on the degradation of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM) and its potential impact on bacterial respiration in ten independent catchments of the Lake Geneva Basin. Sites were selected along a gradient of human disturbance (agriculture and urbanization), and we monitored bacterial respiration in parallel to DOM bioavailability. Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to determine the influence of human land uses on DOM sources and composition as well as the dynamic of degradation or production of the fluorophores identified in our study sites. Higher bacterial respiration measured in agro-urban streams related to a short-term bioreactive pool (0–6 days of incubation) from autochthonous origin, whose the size increased with human disturbance. On the other hand, the degradation of terrestrial DOM was not impacted by human activities and was not found to contribute substantially to aquatic bacterial respiration. Although human land uses controlled DOM sources, composition and bioavailability at the basin scale, our results showed that human activities in the Lake Geneva Basin had a limited impact on the net C exchanges between inland waters and the atmosphere related to DOM mineralization. Considering that greater proportion of autochthonous-DOM signature is a common feature in human-impacted catchments, the implications of our results likely apply more widely. Yet, on a global scale, the influence of human activities remains to be determine given the large diversity of effects of agriculture and urbanization on freshwater DOM depending on the local environmental context.


To examine law and culture's effects on labor conditions of male and female lawyers, the author interviewed Chilean lawyers. The study found that the reality of women's family responsibilities and stereotypes about women's weaknesses as work leaders harm women lawyers' careers. Although the law permits mothers to share their six-month post-natal leaves with fathers, fathers rarely take leaves because of societal and employer disapproval, a practice that reinforces traditional separation of male and female roles. The article concludes that culture has an even greater effect than law on the gendered conditions of lawyers' work, but that law also may affect behavior. Culture is not static, and lawmakers should consider law's effects and unintended consequences to propose new legislation to correct inequities.


The oxidation and reduction of the conductive polymer polypyrrole (PPy) doped with different counterions (bromide, ferrocyanide (FCN) and poly@-styrenesulfonate)) was studied by scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) during both potential step (chronocoulometric) and cyclic voltammetric scans. The ultramicroelectrode tip was positioned, close to the surface of a PPy-modified substrate electrode, and the responses of both electrodes to a substrate potential step or linear sweep were monitored simultaneously. In this way, the rates of bromide or ferrocyanide ejection during PPy reduction were shown to be functions of the reduction potential. The nature of the cation (e.g., TBA+ vs K+) was an important factor determining the kinetics of ion transport in the PPy+/FCNfilms. With a solution containing TBA+ the release of Fe(CN)64during PPy+/FCNreduction was kinetically slow, and some ferrocyanide-containing species were also ejected during film reoxidation. Direct evidence for the incorporation of cations (e.g., R U ( N H ~ ) ~ ~ / ~ + ) in a PPy film during its reduction was also obtained by SECM measurements. Finally, the physical localization and mechanism of Fc+ (Fc = ferrocene) and O~(bpy)3~+ (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) reduction at oxidized and reduced PPy are discussed in connection with the applicability of different models for conducting polymers.


We present a bracketing-based encoding that can be used to represent any 2-planar dependency tree over a sentence of length n as a sequence of n labels, hence providing almost total coverage of crossing arcs in sequence labeling parsing. First, we show that existing bracketing encodings for parsing as labeling can only handle a very mild extension of projective trees. Second, we overcome this limitation by taking into account the well-known property of 2-planarity, which is present in the vast majority of dependency syntactic structures in treebanks, i.e., the arcs of a dependency tree can be split into two planes such that arcs in a given plane do not cross. We take advantage of this property to design a method that balances the brackets and that encodes the arcs belonging to each of those planes, allowing for almost unrestricted non-projectivity (∼99.9% coverage) in sequence labeling parsing. The experiments show that our linearizations improve over the accuracy of the original bracketing encoding in highly non-projective treebanks (on average by 0.4 LAS), while achieving a similar speed. Also, they are especially suitable when PoS tags are not used as input parameters to the models.


Functional reasoning is regarded as an important asset to the engineering designers' conceptual toolkit. Yet despite the value of functional reasoning for engineering design, a consensus view is lacking and several distinct proposals have been formulated. In this paper some of the main models for functional reasoning that are currently in use or discussed in engineering are surveyed and some of their differences clarified. The models included the Functional Basis approach by Stone and Wood [1], the Function Behavior State approach by Umeda et al. [2, 3, 4], and the Functional Reasoning approach of Chakrabarti and Bligh [5, 6]. This paper explicates differences between these approaches relating to: (1) representations of function and how they are influenced by design aims and form solutions, and (2) functional decomposition strategies, taken as the reasoning from overall artifact functions to sub-functions, and how these decomposition strategies are influenced by the use of existing engineering design knowledge bases.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Acutumine 1 is a tetracylic alkaloid isolated from Menispermum daurcum, which exhibits selective T-Cell cytotoxicity. It is potentially useful for specific therapy T-Cell related Leukemia and lymphoma. Acutumine is a highly functionalized tetracyclic natural product, containing a [4.3.3]-propellane core and a 5,5-spirocycle. The synthesis of the 5,5-spirocycle is prepared via enantioselective Pd II/IV catalyzed chloro-induced semi pinacol rearrangment. However, studies showed Pd catalyst functioned as Lewis acid to oxidant, PhI(OAc)2 rather than forming a π-complex with the substrate as proposed. Fortunately, the preparation of the spirocycle can be accomplished from an asymmetric Pd II /Brønsted acid cocatalyzed semi pinacol rearrangement via direct allylic C−H activation. [4.3.3] propellane core was concisely synthesized in eight step sequences featuring a phosphoric Brønsted acid catalyzed aldol condensation and radical Ncyclization as the key transformations. Hydroamination, the addition of an amine N–H bond across an unsaturated carbon–carbon linkage, allows a highly atom economical access to industrial and pharmaceutical important alkaloids. The hydroamination of alkene by early transition metal has seen significant process. Herein, we reported the substrate structural effect in Yttrium(III)-catalyzed intramolecular hydroaminations. Aminoalkenes possessing a terminal 2(5-trimethylsilyl)thienyl group exhibited substantially enhanced reactivity. Cyclization efficiency for a representative aminoalkene possessing a Z-configured 2(phenyl)ethenyl group is considerably higher than that observed for the corresponding Eisomer. Enantioselective hydroamination/cyclization of representative aminoalkenes catalyzed by chelating diamide complexes of La(III) and Y(III) are described. The La(III) complex derived from the sterically demanding (R)-N,N'-dibenzosuberyl-1,1'binaphthyl-2,2'-diamine proligand provides enantioselectivities that are in many cases significantly higher than those obtained with the corresponding Y(III) analog.


A method of forming an interconnect structure, comprising forming a first interconnect layer (123) embedded in a first dielectric layer (118), forming a dielectric tantalum nitride barrier (150) by means of atomic layer deposition on the surface of the first interconnect (123), depositing a second dielectric layer (134) over the first interconnect (123) and the barrier (150) and etching a via (154) in the dielectric layer (134) to the barrier (150). The barrier (150) is then exposed to a treatment through the via (154) to change it from the dielectric phase to the conductive phase (180) and the via (154) is subsequently filled with conductive material (123).


Odontocetes are breath-hold divers with a suite of physiological, anatomical, and behavioral adaptations that are highly derived and vastly different from those of their terrestrial counterparts. Because of these adaptations for diving, odontocetes were originally thought to be exempt from the harms of nitrogen gas embolism while diving. However, recent studies have shown that these mammals may alter their dive behavior in response to anthropogenic sound, leading to the potential for nitrogen supersaturation and bubble formation which may cause decompression sickness in the central nervous system (CNS). We examined the degree of interface between blood, gases, and neural tissues in the spinal cord by quantifying its microvascular characteristics in five species of odontocetes (Tursiops truncatus, Delphinus delphis, Grampus griseus, Kogia breviceps, and Mesoplodon europaeus) and a model terrestrial species (the pig-Sus scrofa domesticus) for comparison. This approach allowed us to compare microvascular characteristics (microvascular density, branching, and diameter) at several positions (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) along the spinal cord from odontocetes that are known to be either deep or shallow divers. We found no significant differences (p < 0.05 for all comparisons) in microvessel density (9.30–11.18%), microvessel branching (1.60–2.12 branches/vessel), or microvessel diameter (11.83–16.079 µm) between odontocetes and the pig, or between deep and shallow diving odontocete species. This similarity of spinal cord microvasculature anatomy in several species of odontocetes as compared to the terrestrial mammal is in contrast to the wide array of remarkable physio-anatomical adaptations marine mammals have evolved within their circulatory system to cope with the physiological demands of diving. These results, and other studies on CNS lipids, indicate that the spinal cords of odontocetes do not have specialized features that might serve to protect them from Type II DCS.


Th􀀚is paper reports the results of a study of productivity change in Kenyan agriculture. The data span the period from Kenyan independence in 1964 to 1989. Until now, no estimates of productivity for agriculture in Kenya have been available. Both multi-factor and labour productivity measures were constructed. Laspeyres indexing procedures were used. Our results indicate that while total production and input use have grown in the sector, productivity has stagnated through the period. Recent years have witnessed declining productivity. Attempts to use Cline's model to explain variations in productivity were unsuccessful. Coefficients of resear.ch and extension expenditures, education and weather variables were found to be statistically insignificant when these variables were regressed on productivity.


Tl201 MPS and MGCBS were performed on patients with myocardial infarction in the acute phase and the results were evaluated using a scoring system. The findings obtained in this study can be summarized as follows. There was a significant difference in RNEF between Killip class I and III. Significantly high correlation was noted between RWM score and RNEF. In cases of low RNEF (less than 35%) with poor RWM (less than 7), the incidence of complications, especially malignant PVC (47%, P less than 0.01) was markedly high. There was no obvious correlation between Tl201 MPS and complications. However, adding low RNEF (35% or less) to poor Tl scores (-22 or less) malignant PVC was noted with high frequency. Tl scores on admission were not related to the number of coronary arteries involved. For patients with good Tl score and low RNEF on admission (suspected of having severe ischemia), EF did not necessarily showed a tendency toward improvement. Patients with single-, tow- or three-vessel disease showed no difference in improvement of EF at discharge. There was no marked difference in Tl score on admission among three groups of single lesion of left anterior descending artery; patients with total occlusion without collateral circulation, patients with collateral circulation and patients with recanalization.


OBJECTIVE
Given the rapidly increasing rates of adult chronic diseases in Mexico there is a need to assess the knowledge and understanding of these sufferings in relation to an inadequate diet.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
In a randomly selected sample of primary, secondary and high schools in a region of Mexico City, the knowledge of the dietary contributors to chronic disease was assessed by taking the specific example of salt and the knowledge of its importance. Participation encompassed: 1504 students, 890 parents and 27 teachers. An analysis was made of the curricular contribution of the school to nutritional and health knowledge.

RESULTS
Forty five percent of students showed knowledge about the role of salt in health as well as 64.7% and 70% of parents and teachers respectively. Knowledge increased along with age: high school students showed a greater number of correct answers (74.3%) than those from secondary (48.8%) and primary (55.2%) (p < 0.0001). More girls (30.3%) (p < 0.001) answered rightly that industrialized foods contain more salt. No formal lessons are given on any aspects of nutrition or health, but one subject dealing with sexual education.

CONCLUSION
There is little health education and no nutritional teaching in the studied schools despite the wide ranging of nutritional deficiencies and the national epidemic of chronic diseases in Mexico. A change in the scholastic curriculum in schools, that includes subjects on nutrition and health, is urgently required.


This paper describes the results on the use of new dynamic phasor models of SVC's suitable for high frequency analysis. The analysis and control design study of a simple test system having an SVC is presented. Comparisons of the results from conventional models are also presented, making apparent the benefits gained with the use of the proposed models in the analysis of higher-frequency dynamics. The program PSCAD/EMTDC is used for the validation of the FACTS models in the time domain


Preliminary fan design for a functionally silent aircraft has been performed with noise reduction as the primary goal. For such an aircraft the fan design must, in addition to delivering low cruise fuel burn, enable low jet and fan source noise during takeoff. This requires the fan to be operating at low pressure ratio and high efficiency during takeoff and, for conditions where the relative tip Mach number onto the fan is supersonic, ensuring the primary shock structure is ingested into the blade passage. To meet these requirements, flyover and cruise flow coefficients are matched using a variable area nozzle at the same time as delivering low takeoff FPR. This places the sideline operating point near the shoulder of the characteristic and fixes the top of climb and cruise fan pressure ratios. For a 4-engine, 250 pax, 4000 nm silent aircraft this approach leads to a top of climb FPR of 1.45, requiring a 39% increase in nozzle area at takeoff. A fan rotor has been designed for this cycle with 20 blades, low tip loading during takeoff, and a 350 m/s top of climb tip speed.


Knowledge of climate change that increases weather-related risk to agricultural production is critical for communities depending on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture in rural communities in Kenya is highly dependent on rainfall, which has been diminishing over time. Most scientific studies have focused on perceptions and adaptations at the local level; however, limited studies have explored local perceptions in ways that are robust, synergistic, and could have practical application to national policy. This study assesses and compares smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate variability with regard to the local knowledge they employ to measure it and adaptations they use to mitigate it. The study was conducted in Laikipia District, Kenya, with a focus on two specific sublocations: Umande and Muhonia. Qualitative data-collection methods included transect drives, informal and key informant interviews, and focus-group discussions. A content analysis of local perceptions of climatic variability was completed using ATLAS-ti, fol-lowed by an interpretation of the results. Small-holders' climatic perceptions are measured seasonally and yearly, and are linked to observable occurrences of climatic variables, which small-holders apply to their management of agriculture and natural resources. Perceptions are similar in both sites and include reports of erratic rainfalls (locally referred to as majimbo ), droughts, degradation of resources, animal and crop diseases, and a prevalence of pests. Notable differences in adaptations used by farmers exist between the two sites. Basic infrastructural inadequacies in both sites limit smallholders from adapting. We conclude that local knowledge is critical and enables smallholders to grasp and act upon microclimate variability and is therefore a source of relevant adaptation practices. Policy-makers are recommended to do ex-ante analysis of their policies and farmer needs, and tailor the policies to enhance adaptation at the farm level.


Serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (s-beta-hCG) is a widely used tumor marker in patients with testicular neoplasia. When elevated in patients with an enlarged testis it is considered as a strong indication of a germ cell tumor. Elevation of S-hCG-like material (S-hCG-1) has been reported in nontesticular non-germ cell tumors including non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) as well. It has never been investigated whether testicular NHL is also associated with elevated S-hCG-1. In the present study the relationship of testicular NHL with increased S-hCG-1 was investigated. In the Danish population-based NHL registry, LYFO registry, 12 cases with testicular involvement of the lymphoma at the time of diagnosis and that had S-hCG-1 measured prior to treatment were identified, and cases with elevated S-hCG-1 were analyzed clinicopathologically. Of these, 2 patients had elevated levels. Both cases were high-grade, diffuse B-cell NHL in elderly patients. The patients were hemiorchiectomized and after surgery levels of S-hCG-1 declined to normal. The study indicates that S-hCG-1 elevation is quite frequently associated with testicular NHL. The prognostic significance of this elevation remains to be investigated, as does the usefulness of S-hCG-1 as tumor marker for early detection of recurrences and for monitoring the therapy of patients with S-hCG-1 positive NHL.


A major aim of most income distribution studies is to make comparisons of income inequality across time for a given country and/or compare and rank different countries according to the level of income inequality. However, most of these studies lack information on sampling errors, which makes it difficult to judge the significance of the attained rankings. The purpose of this paper it to derive the asymptotic properties of the empirical rank-dependent family of inequality measures. A favourable feature of this family of inequality measures is that it includes the Gini coefficients, and that any member of this family can be given an explicit and simple expression in terms of the Lorenz curve. By relying on a result of Doksum (1974) it is easily demonstrated that the empirical Lorenz curve, regarded as a stochastic process, converges to a Gaussian process. Moreover, this result forms the basis of the derivation of the asymptotic properties of the empirical rank-dependent measures of inequality.


Over the past decade, the demand for automated protein function prediction has increased due to the volume of newly sequenced proteins. In this paper, we address the function prediction task by developing an ensemble system automatically assigning Gene Ontology (GO) terms to the given input protein sequence. We develop an ensemble system which combines the GO predictions made by random forest (RF) and neural network (NN) classifiers. Both RF and NN models rely on features derived from BLAST sequence alignments, taxonomy and protein signature analysis tools. In addition, we report on experiments with a NN model that directly analyzes the amino acid sequence as its sole input, using a convolutional layer. The Swiss-Prot database is used as the training and evaluation data. In the CAFA3 evaluation, which relies on experimental verification of the functional predictions, our submitted ensemble model demonstrates competitive performance ranking among top-10 best-performing systems out of over 100 submitted systems. In this paper, we evaluate and further improve the CAFA3-submitted system. Our machine learning models together with the data pre-processing and feature generation tools are publicly available as an open source software at https://github.com/TurkuNLP/CAFA3 Author summary Understanding the role and function of proteins in biological processes is fundamental for new biological discoveries. Whereas modern sequencing methods have led to a rapid growth of protein databases, the function of these sequences is often unknown and expensive to determine experimentally. This has spurred a lot of interest in predictive modelling of protein functions. We develop a machine learning system for annotating protein sequences with functional definitions selected from a vast set of predefined functions. The approach is based on a combination of neural network and random forest classifiers with features covering structural and taxonomic properties and sequence similarity. The system is thoroughly evaluated on a large set of manually curated functional annotations and shows competitive performance in comparison to other suggested approaches. We also analyze the predictions for different functional annotation and taxonomy categories and measure the importance of different features for the task. This analysis reveals that the system is particularly efficient for bacterial protein sequences.


Background in history of music. In music history it is often considered important to have a reliable overview of the oeuvre of a certain composer. Unfortunately many pieces exist of which the composer cannot be determined with great certainty. Not rarely this leads to authorship-discussions. Various kinds of evidence are used to defend an attribution. These can be categorized into external and internal evidence (Love, 2002). Stylistic evidence is a subcategory of the latter.


From 6 June to 20 September 1982, 271 of 376 fatal casualties sustained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the Lebanon War, 1982, were examined by pathologists of the IDF Medical Corps at a central examination center. An attempt was made to determine the nature of the weapons that caused the injuries. The examination was almost always restricted to external inspection of the body, and a complete autopsy was performed in only a few instances. X-ray facilities were used to detect foreign metallic fragments in the tissues and, where possible, these fragments were subjected to ballistic evaluation. It was found that explosions of various types were the most frequent cause of injury and death; gunshot injuries were second in frequency. Other causes, such as aircraft or traffic accidents and stab wounds, were responsible for very few of the deaths.


This paper presents a sigmoid type gain function with a modified a priori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation approach to single channel speech enhancement in noisy environments. Frequency domain noise reduction techniques are often defined in terms of the a priori SNR. A widely used method to determine the a priori SNR from noisy speech is the decision directed (DD) approach. In the DD approach the a priori SNR depends on the speech spectrum estimation in the previous frame which degrades the noise reduction performance. To overcome this problem a sigmoid type weighting function is proposed with a modified a priori SNR estimator. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by two objective tests under various noisy environments and it is found that the proposed sigmoidal-shaped gain function produces significant improvements in noise reduction performance compared to that of the conventional Wiener gain.


The symptoms and diagnoses of 58 psychiatrically hospitalized children aged 12 or under who were children of substance abusing parents (COSAPs) were compared with a matched group of 51 children who were not COSAPs. These two groups were further subdivided according to history or lack of history of physical and/or sexual abuse. Symptoms and diagnoses of COSAPs and physically and/or sexually abused (P/SAs) children differed significantly from the hospitalized group who were neither COSAPs nor P/SAs. Being a COSAP and/or P/SA are strong correlates of psychiatric hospitalization for the children studied. Both high-risk groups should be awarded special diagnostic and treatment consideration that would include their systematic identification and focused treatment.


S1 --> S(n) spectra of porphyrin, diprotonated porphyrin, and tetraoxaporphyrin dication have been measured in the energy range 2-3 eV above S1 at room temperature in solution by means of transient absorption spectroscopy exciting with femtosecond pulses. Highly excited pi pi* states not active in the conventional S0 --> S(n) spectrum have been observed. The experimental data are discussed on the basis of the time dependent density functional theory taking advantage of large scale calculations of configuration interaction between singly excited configurations (DF/SCI). The DF/SCI calculation on porphyrin has allowed to assign g states active in the S1 --> S(n) spectrum. Applying the same calculation method to tetraoxaporphyrin dication the S0 --> S(n) spectrum is reproduced relatively to the Q and B (Soret) bands as well as to the weaker E(u) bands at higher energy. According to our calculation the S1 --> S(n) transient spectrum is related to states of g symmetry mainly arising from excitations between doubly degenerate pi and pi* orbitals such as 2e(g) --> 4e(g). In the case of diprotonated porphyrin it is shown that the complex of the macrocycle with two trifluoroacetate anions plays a significant role for absorption. Charge transfer excitations from the anions to the macrocycle contribute to absorption above the Soret band, justifying the intensity enhancement of the S0 --> S(n) spectrum with respect to the other two macrocyclic systems.


We present ISO Short-Wavelength Spectrometer observations of pure-rotational line emission H 2 from the disks around low- and intermediate-mass premain-sequence stars as well as from young stars thought to be surrounded by debris disks. The premain-sequence sources have been selected to be iso- lated from molecular clouds and to have circumstellar disks revealed by millimeter interferometry. We detect ii warm ˇˇ (T B 100¨200 K) gas around many sources, including tentatively the debris-disk H 2 objects. The mass of this warm gas ranges from D10~4 up to 8 ) 10~3 and can constitute a M _ M _ nonnegligible fraction of the total disk mass. Complementary single-dish 12CO 3¨2, 13CO 3¨2, and 12CO 6¨5 observations have been obtained as well. These transitions probe cooler gas at T B 20¨80 K. Most objects show a double-peaked CO emission pro—le characteristic of a disk in Keplerian rotation, consistent with interferometer data on the lower J lines. The ratios of the 12CO 3¨2/13CO 3¨2 integrated —uxes indicate that 12CO 3¨2 is optically thick but that 13CO 3¨2 is optically thin or at most moder- ately thick. The 13CO 3¨2 lines have been used to estimate the cold gas mass. If a conversion H 2 /CO factor of 1 ) 104 is adopted, the derived cold gas masses are factors of 10¨200 lower than those deduced from 1.3 millimeter dust emission assuming a gas/dust ratio of 100, in accordance with previous studies. These —ndings con—rm that CO is not a good tracer of the total gas content in disks since it can be photodissociated in the outer layers and frozen onto grains in the cold dense part of disks, but that it is a robust tracer of the disk velocity —eld. In contrast, can shield itself from photodissociation even in H 2 low-mass ii optically thin ˇˇ debris disks and can therefore survive longer. The warm gas is typically 1%¨10% of the total mass deduced from millimeter continuum emission, but it can increase up to 100% or more for the debris-disk objects. Thus, residual molecular gas may persist into the debris-disk phase. No signi—cant evolution in the CO, or dust masses is found for stars with ages in the range of H 2 , 106¨107 yr, although a decrease is found for the older debris-disk star b Pictoris. The large amount of warm gas derived from raises the question of the heating mechanism(s). Radiation from the central H 2 star as well as the general interstellar radiation —eld heat an extended surface layer of the disk, but exist- ing models fail to explain the amount of warm gas quantitatively. The existence of a gap in the disk can increase the area of material in—uenced by radiation. Prospects for future observations with ground- and space-borne observations are discussed. Subject headings: circumstellar matterinfrared: starsplanetary systems: protoplanetary disks


This paper describes the design and development of MQUAD technology. The MQUAD packaging system is a high performance reliable technology currently in use for packaging of microprocessors, high-speed ASIC devices, including CMOS, Bi CMOS, Bi polar, gallium arsenide, and other high performance IC's. The packaging technology is being used for devices dissipating up to 14 watts and switching speed of up to 300 MHz. The design and development was carried out with the objectives of high thermal performance (up to 15 watts), high electrical performance (inductance and capacitances lower than comparable PQFPs) and reliability superior to the PQFPs. The approach taken was; to use an adhesively bonded metal package. An aluminum alloy lid and base were chosen to give excellent heat dissipation ability, mechanical integrity and light weight construction. A special anodization process was developed to put a hard, electrically insulating black colored anodic film on the aluminum alloy components. The adhesive seal is a filled epoxy having low dielectric constant and low ionic content and with excellent adhesion to both copper alloys and aluminum anodic films, especially in moist environments. The leadframe chosen is a high-strength, thermally conductive copper alloy. The assembly process for the MQUAD package emulates the PQFP assembly process except that the molding step is replaced by a single step pad attach simultaneous with the seal adhesive lamination/cure process. The leadframe pad is attached to the anodized aluminum alloy base via a silver-filled epoxy paste. The package was thoroughly tested for reliability and fully characterized for thermal and electrical performance. Reliability tests performed include temperature cycling, thermal shocks, solvent resistance, flammability, pressure cooker, and vapor phase shocks. Reliability of MQUAD packages is superior to that of PQFPs. Characterization includes /spl theta//sub ja/ and /spl theta//sub jc/, and resistance, inductance and capacitance measurements. Thermal and electrical performance of MQUAD packages equal or exceed that of comparable plastic or ceramic QFPs. The high reliability and performance of MQUAD was confirmed by many customers and users and has been published. Because of these benefits, the technology is being further extended to advanced packages such as MCMs, TAB and ball or pad grid arrays.<<ETX>>


Consistent aggregation ensures that behavioural properties which apply to disaggregate relationships apply also to aggregate relationships. The agricultural economics literature which has tested for consistent aggregation or measured statistical bias and/or inferential errors due to aggregation is reviewed. Tests for aggregation bias and errors of inference are conducted using indices previously tested for consistent aggregation. Failure to reject consistent aggregation in a partition did not entirely mitigate erroneous inference due to aggregation. However, inferential errors due to aggregation were small relative to errors due to incorrect functional form or failure to account for time series properties of data.


Removing lactose from buttermilk and other dairy products is a topical problem, as there is a significant increase in morbidity rates due to lactose intolerance. In many cases, milk and dairy products containing lactose can not be completely excluded from the diet. These products have a number of valuable components. There are several ways to remove lactose from milk or other dairy products. They are based on separation methods of processing and on the use of enzymes. Among the separation methods, membrane treatment, including diafiltration, is of particular importance. A technique of engineering calculation of cleaning an ultrafiltration buttermilk concentrate is suggested. As a solvent that reduces the concentration of lactose, a nanofiltrate permeate of buttermilk ultrafiltration is used. This method allows preserving the chemical composition of the concentrate with lactose effectively removed. Basing on the experimental data of membrane productivity and their selectivity for lactose, the main characteristics of diafiltration are calculated for various practical applications. For practical purposes, it is advisable to use a buttermilk permeate nanofiltrate using highly selective lactose membranes. Selectivity for salts should be minimal. When comparing the different diafiltration variants, the most suitable is a periodic method, with continuous dilution, and a continuous method with a crossflow and reverse flow of the nanofiltrate. The smallest аmount of a nanofiltrate is observed in the case of a continuous countercurrent. The time for diafiltration treatment depends on the membrane's specific parameters, process operating parameters, and the selected lactose purification variant. The most cost-effective is the continuous variant with a countercurrent nanofiltrate. However, it can not be recommended because of the considerable duration of the process. The suggested technique for calculating diafiltration allows quick evaluation of possible options of purifying the product from lactose, and concludes which one is optimal.


The photoinduced ring-opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene to produce 1,3,5-hexatriene is a well-known example of the Woodward-Hoffmann rule for stereochemical reactions governed by molecular orbital symmetry, and it plays an essential role in photobiological synthesis of vitamin D3 in the skin. Since the photoexcited 11B state of 1,3-cyclohexadiene is not electronically correlated to the ground state of 1,3,5-hexatriene, the reaction is expected to proceed via non-adiabatic transitions through a doubly excited 21A electronic state. However, spectroscopic observation of this elusive state has been difficult. Here we present the results of a photoelectron spectroscopy study using table-top ultrafast deep and extreme UV lasers, based on filamentation four-wave mixing and high-harmonic generation, which enabled us to arrest the 21A state. It is shown that the ring-opening reaction takes only 60 fs to complete, which is a considerably shorter time than previous experimental and theoretical estimates. The ballistic reaction creates vibrational coherence in the reaction products.


This article studies global testing of the slope function in functional linear regression models. A major challenge in functional global testing is to choose the dimension of projection when approximating the functional regression model by a finite dimensional multivariate linear regression model. We develop a new method that simultaneously tests the slope vectors in a sequence of functional principal components regression models. The sequence of models being tested is determined by the sample size and is an integral part of the testing procedure. Our theoretical analysis shows that the proposed method is uniformly powerful over a class of smooth alternatives when the signal to noise ratio exceeds the detection boundary. The methods and results reflect the deep connection between the functional linear regression model and the Gaussian sequence model. We also present an extensive simulation study and a real data example to illustrate the finite sample performance of our method. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


We have developed a method to study the effects of a perturbation to the motion of a test pointlike object in a Schwarzschild spacetime. Such a method is the extension of the Lagrangian planetary equations of classical celestial mechanics into the framework of the full theory of general relativity. The method provides a natural approach to account for relativistic effects in the unperturbed problem in an exact way.


In the past decade, poled polymeric materials have been extensively studied for NLO applications since the simplification in preparation and the flexibility exists through chemical synthesis to optimize the physical properties.'-' Most of the earlier works were concerned with the synthesis and the general properties such as nonlinear optical coefficients and temporal stability and only a few studies have been reported on phase matched second harmonic generation (SHG). In fact, phase-matching is the first important condition to achieve high conversion efficiency of SHG. To realize phasematching, a general method is using the natural birefringence in certain anisotropic crystals to compensate the refractive index dispersions between the fundamental and second harmonic wavelengths and realize n i = n:,. However, at present, it is not possible to engineer a crystal with the expected birefringence for phase-matching at the required wavelengths. It has been proposed that the mode dispersion and quasi phase-matching for poled polymers. However, these methods are implement from the difficulty in device processing. It was believed that birefringence phase-matching in poled polymers is not p~ss ib l e .~ Nevertheless, through drawing and poling A-type main chain polymers, we found phase-matching can be realized at a number of wavelengths. Furthermore, noncritical phase-matching with certain draw ratio is also possible.


Examination.-There was a mild conjunctival injection and some oedema of the upper lids. No intra-ocular disease was found. A small nodule resembling a sebaceous cyst was noted on the left side of the forehead underlying a small linear scar from an old injury. After 10 days the nodule on the forehead had increased in size, the eyelids were still puffy, and swellings which were hard, painless, and fairly well defined in the form of pads, about the size and shape of an almond, had developed on each side of the bony part of the nose. These swellings were movable and not attached to skin or bone (Figure).


The poison frog genus Ameerega (Dendrobatidae) currently contains 32 species. They are distributed from central Brazil into western Amazonia to the lower Andean versant. In addition, three trans-Andean species have been allocated to Ameerega (Andrade et al . 2013; Frost 2014). Ameerega berohoka (Vaz-Silva & Maciel 2011) was described based on specimens from central Brazil (type-locality: Arenopolis, GO) and it is assumed to occur in parts of western and southwestern state of Goias (Frost 2014). More recently, Andrade et al . (2013) extended its distribution to the state of Mato Grosso. Here we re-describe the advertisement call of A. berohoka, providing additional information regarding its temporal structure and spectral traits. Our observations also consist of a new distribution record for this species to the state of Mato Grosso.


OBJECTIVE
To propose a new surgical technique as an alternative method for the correction of segmental trichiasis and distichiasis.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
An interventional case series reviewed the segmental trichiasis and distichiasis patients who were treated with folliculectomy in the Ophthalmology Department, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. The data was collected from January 1997 to December 2002. The history, clinical features and treatments were reviewed. Patients with the initial diagnosis of entropion were excluded.

RESULTS
Nine segmental trichiasis and distichiasis patients (13 eyes) were reviewed. Eight eyes underwent folliculectomy and one had folliculectomy with anterior lamellar recession. The follow-up time was 1-24 months. Nine of thirteen eyes (69.2%) were successfully treated with folliculectomy or folliculectomy with anterior lamellar recession. Four eyes needed second operations due to the recurrence of the eyelashes.

CONCLUSION
Folliculectomy revealed good results in trichiasis and distichiasis. It should be considered as an alternative technique because it is a simple and fast procedure.


As the breadth of radical chemistry grows, new means to promote and regulate single-electron redox activities play increasingly important roles in driving modern synthetic innovation. In this regard, photochemistry and electrochemistry—both considered as niche fields for decades—have seen an explosive renewal of interest in recent years and gradually have become a cornerstone of organic chemistry. In this Outlook article, we examine the current state-of-the-art in the areas of electrochemistry and photochemistry, as well as the nascent area of electrophotochemistry. These techniques employ external stimuli to activate organic molecules and imbue privileged control of reaction progress and selectivity that is challenging to traditional chemical methods. Thus, they provide alternative entries to known and new reactive intermediates and enable distinct synthetic strategies that were previously unimaginable. Of the many hallmarks, electro- and photochemistry are often classified as "green" technologies, promoting organic reactions under mild conditions without the necessity for potent and wasteful oxidants and reductants. This Outlook reviews the most recent growth of these fields with special emphasis on conceptual advances that have given rise to enhanced accessibility to the tools of the modern chemical trade.


INTRODUCTION. Histoplasmosis1is a term applied to a fatal infection by a protozoon,Histoplasma capsulatum, which has been encountered three times during the past two and one-half years in Ancon Hospital, Canal Zone, Panama. Clinically and pathologically the disease is suggestive of kala-azar,2a disease of India, characterized by irregular fever, emaciation and splenomegaly and by the presence of the Leishman-Donovan body in the tissues. The micro-organism responsible for the Isthmian infection is different from the Leishman-Donovan body, sufficiently so to warrant its being placed in a different order. The condition was not discovered until the autopsies, and chiefly on that account cultural experiments were unsuccessful and clinical data meager. HISTORICAL SKETCH. Cunningham3published in 1885 an account of bodies found in the tissue obtained from a Delhi boil. Cunningham's technic was crude and the bodies measured 8.8 to 12.6 microns—altogether too large to be the bodies


This paper discusses the concept of cyber defence exercises (CDX) that are very important tool when it comes to enhancing the safety awareness of cyberspace, testing an organization's ability to put up resistance and respond to different cyber events to establish the secure environment, gathering empirical data related to security, and looking at the practical training of experts on this subject. The exercises can give ideas to the decision makers about the precautions in the cybersecurity area and to the officials, institutions, organizations, and staff who are responsible on the cyber tools, techniques, and procedures that can be developed for this field. In the cyber defense exercises, the scenarios that are simulated closest to reality which provides very important contributions by bringing together the necessity of making the best decisions and management capabilities under the cyber crisis by handling stress and coordinated movement as a team. The objective of this paper is to address the issue from a scientific point of view by setting out the stages of planning, implementation, and evaluation of these exercises, taking into account and comparing international firefighting exercises. Another aim of the work is to be able to reveal the necessary processes that are required for all kind of cyber exercises, regardless of the type, although the processes involved vary according to the target mass of the planned exercise.


Objective: To determine the prevalence, characteristics, and impact of arthritis in the US nursing home population. Methods: A national cross sectional sample of US nursing homes (8138 sampled residents in 1406 nursing homes) from the 1997 National Nursing Home Survey provided demographic and functional characteristics for residents with primary arthritis, any arthritis, or no arthritis diagnosis at admission. Results: Of the estimated 1.6 million current nursing home residents in 1997, only 43 000 (3%) had a primary and 300 000 (19%) had any arthritis diagnosis at admission. People with a primary or any arthritis diagnosis received physical/occupational therapy, used wheelchairs and walking aids, and needed assistance with walking and transferring more often than those with no arthritis diagnosis. Conclusions: These national estimates suggest that arthritis is underreported in nursing home residents. Because arthritis contributes to an increased physical burden on staff and decreased functional capability of residents, both staff and residents can benefit from better diagnosis, intervention, and education.


This report describes a simple brachytherapy procedure in a patient with endometrial cancer with age related hyperkyphosis.  Sixty-eight year-old postmenopausal woman with age related hyperkyphosis presented with endometrial carcinoma, and the patient was not operated on due to associated pelvic deformity. The patient received whole pelvic radiation followed by uterovaginal brachytherapy. Patient was supported with soft pillows to support her exaggerated anterior concavity during brachytherapy procedure and execution. The brachytherapy dose was 6 Gy per fraction per week for 3 weeks using image guidance. This is probably the first reported case of endometrial cancer with age related hyperkyphosis. In spite of the associated skeletal problems, a simple brachytherapy procedure is possible and provides good result.


We introduce a protocol through which a pair of quantum mechanical devices may be used to generate n random bits that are ϵ-close in statistical distance from n uniformly distributed bits, starting from a seed of uniform bits. The bits generated are certifiably random, based only on a simple statistical test that can be performed by the user, and on the assumption that the devices obey the no-signalling principle. No other assumptions are placed on the devices' inner workings: it is not necessary to even assume the validity of quantum mechanics.


Low threshold InGaAsN QW lasers with lasing wavelength at 1.378 and 1.41 /spl mu/m were demonstrated by metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). The threshold current densities are 563 and 1930 A/cm/sup 2/ for the 1.378 and 1.41 /spl mu/m emitting lasers, respectively. The significant improvement of device performance is believed due to utilisation of high temperature annealing and introduction of GaAsN barriers to suppress the resulting wavelength blue shift. A comparable characteristic temperature coefficient of the external differential quantum efficiency, T/sub 1/, is observed for the InGaAsN-GaAsN QW laser compared to similar InGaAsN/GaAs structures.


Transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) from 16 normal human ears and 26 normal guinea pig ears were measured with the ILO 88 (ver 3.91). The following results were obtained: 1) In one animal ear, waveforms of TEOAEs were unchanged after administration of muscle relaxants, and showed reversible changes before and after asphyxia. 2) In 3 guinea pig and 2 human ears, the input-output functions showed a strong saturation at higher stimulus levels, when measurement of the highest peak-to-peak amplitude was used as the output energy. 3) Highest peak frequencies (HPFs) of TEOAEs were distributed at around 1 kHz in human ears but were concentrated around frequencies of 2 kHz to 3 kHz in almost all guinea pig ears. 4) Latencies of predominant TEOAEs in human and guinea pig ears were 9.26 +/- 1.89 msec and 2.37 +/- 0.47 msec, respectively. Endpoint times of TEOAEs were 16.37 +/- 1.79 msec and 5.74 +/- 1.10 msec, respectively. Both indicators in human ears were 3-4 times longer than those in guinea pig ears. From these results, we conclude that click-evoked TEOAEs can be detected even in guinea pigs. In addition, our measurements showed that HPFs of TEOAEs in guinea pig ears were higher than those in human ears, and that latencies and durations in guinea pig ears were much shorter than those in human ears. The higher HPFs of TEOAEs in guinea pig ears may be attributable to higher resonant frequencies in the middle ear than are found in human ears.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The years 2014 and 2016 mark the anniversaries of two notable process accidents: respectively thirty years from the unparalleled Bhopal tragedy and forty years from the Seveso accident. These events shaped developments in process safety worldwide, so that after them risk analysis and legislation got applied more generally focusing on prevention and control of major chemical incidents. Even if completely different in their evolution according to "black swan" scenarios, these events cause us to recall that a more positive stance can and should be taken to emergency response and to improve major hazard awareness. Starting from a systemic view of accident causation, this paper illustrates by a simplified quantitative approach the determining role of organizational deficiencies in the safety procedures for handling abnormal situations and emergencies.


Calculating generation adequacy indices (GAI) is performed not only for planning problems but also for on-line computation. Practically, the main mathematical method for calculating GAI of electrical grid with complex structure is Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS). It provides sufficiently accurate results, but the computation is time-consuming for large systems. On-line GAI computation requires an accurate method with low computation time. For that reason, analytical methods for GAI calculations have been proposed. Most of the proposed analytical methods include a lot of constraints and suppositions in calculating GAI. comparative analysis of the case study results helps to estimate efficiency for the analytical methods. Test results have been calculated by MCS and by analytical calculations based on the supplied demand algorithm. Analytical solution was implemented by the C# and VBA programming language. Input data includes generation set data, generation and load probability indices. The comparison of supplied demand algorithm and MCS in calculating GAI has been made. Guidelines for combined using of analyzed methods have been formulated. Investigation results allow to select proper method for calculating GAI.


In the companion paper [Am. J. Physiol. 256 (Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. 19): G759-G766, 1989] we showed that highly purified Clostridium difficile toxin A had a profound effect on intestinal smooth muscle after in vivo but not in vitro exposure. In this study we assessed the effects of in vivo and in vitro exposure to C. difficile toxin B on simultaneous measurements of intracellular membrane potential and contractility in rabbit ileal smooth muscle. Direct exposure of ileal smooth muscle to toxin B (0.1-60 micrograms/ml) in vitro caused membrane depolarization and inhibition of action potential frequency, amplitude, and peak voltage, but no effect on slow wave frequency or amplitude was seen. Toxin exposure also resulted in inhibition of the amplitude of carbachol-induced contractions, with phasic contractions being significantly more sensitive to the effect of toxin B than tonic contractions over the complete dose range. The electromechanical effects of toxin B were not affected by prior administration of tetrodotoxin, atropine, hexamethonium, or phentolamine. In contrast, toxin B administered in vivo into an isolated ileal loop had no effect on spontaneous electromechanical properties of excised smooth muscle strips. Our results indicate that direct exposure in vitro of ileal smooth muscle to C. difficile toxin B causes membrane depolarization in association with inhibition of electromechanical activity. This effect, in combination with the indirect effects of toxin A, may contribute to altered intestinal motility during diarrhea caused by C. difficile.