Background: Most patients who report penicillin allergy are found to tolerate penicillin later in life. Few studies have examined patients' understanding and beliefs about penicillin allergy and testing. Evaluating patients' perspectives may help identify ways to improve patient education and increase testing to de-label those who can tolerate penicillin. Objective: To better understand patient perspectives on penicillin allergy testing and to identify whether patient characteristics and beliefs impact completion of testing. Methods: Patients who were visiting our allergy clinics and had documentation of a penicillin allergy in the electronic medical record (EMR) were approached to complete a survey with regard to their reaction history and knowledge and/or perspectives about penicillin allergy and testing. Eighty-eight patients completed the survey, and their medical records were reviewed to collect results of penicillin testing. Results: Fewer than half of the patients (45.5%) who had EMR-documented penicillin allergy reported awareness that testing for penicillin allergy is available. Awareness of penicillin allergy testing was significantly associated with completion of testing, whereas other patient characteristics, such as education, income, and distance to the hospital, were not. Patients who scheduled a return visit for testing at the time of their initial visit were significantly more likely to follow through with testing. Most patients were interested in penicillin testing. For patients who were not interested, the most frequently cited reason was fear of adverse effects of testing. Conclusion: Among the patients who carried a penicillin allergy label, those who were aware of penicillin allergy testing were more likely to complete testing, and ease of scheduling contributed to higher rates of testing completion. Fear about adverse effects from testing was the most reported barrier. Our findings emphasized the importance of increasing awareness of the availability and safety of penicillin testing through patient education and collaboration with other specialties.


Background Although palliative care teaching for undergraduate students in the UK is increasing, there remains considerable variation between medical schools. It is unclear how much opportunity there is for experiential learning from patient contact (Walker, S et al. 2016). End of life care is integrated throughout Keele Medical School's spiral curriculum, but it has previously not been possible for all students to experience or even visit a hospice. A half-day placement at Douglas Macmillan Hospice, Stoke-on-Trent, during the third year elderly care attachment was piloted. Viability and student satisfaction were evaluated. Method All third year medical students at Keele University attended a half-day placement at Douglas Macmillan Hospice in groups of up to six students. This included hospice orientation, observation of a nurse-doctor handover and syringe driver administration, and a patient interview in pairs followed by a de-brief. Students completed a feedback questionnaire including numerical rating scales and free text responses. Medical staff involved in organising the placement assessed the resource implications for the hospice in providing it. Results 89 students attended. 81% completed a feedback questionnaire. 78% had never visited a hospice before. Numerical ratings for all aspects of the placement were high indicating that students valued the experience. The most frequent suggestion for improvement was a longer placement. Conclusions The placement was highly valued by students but challenging to deliver due to the time needed from staff and the large number of students. The positive student feedback enabled funding to be secured to support the hospice to continue to provide the placement. Additionally, this academic year a palliative care seminar within the same elderly care attachment will explore end of life care in dementia. Further evaluation is needed to establish the effectiveness of the placement in influencing students' learning and behaviour in end of life care.


A novel concept is proposed to effectively measure and train central venous catheter guidewire insertion. This system utilizes a 3D printed funnel to direct the insertion of a guidewire from multiple angles and positions. This directed guidewire can then be passed through previously developed sensors to provide the user with valuable training feedback. Experiments are performed to measure the effectiveness of the funnel system under varying insertion positions, angles, and funnel coatings. After experimentation, it was found that a funnel greased with white lithium grease allows the guidewire to successfully make it through the funnel compared to alternatives tested. This design will be applied to the Dynamic Haptic Robotic Trainer Plus (DHRT+) system to train medical residents to safely perform central venous catheterization.


The decommissioning of major nuclear plant facilities will inevitably involve a number of project areas where significant levels of processing and manufacturing tasks are required. Typically this includes key task areas such as: • ILW materials retrievals and handling; • ILW / LLW materials processing and encapsulation; • Contaminated surfaces remediation; • Import of materials at dedicated ILW Stores. All such areas involve a series of high level project stages: 1) Design, install and commission facilities; 2) Operate facilities to complete the project tasks (retrievals, processing etc); 3) Post Operative Clean Out and final removal of plant and buildings. The time periods involved with the second (operational) stages have, in many cases, planned durations that are measured in terms of years rather than months. Variations in achieved performance levels can have a much higher impact on the project completion dates than is often appreciated. Given that material processing operations often constitute key critical path elements of the wider site decommissioning timing plans, it follows that any delays are likely to extend site completion dates and can incur costs at a rate of many millions of pounds per year. This paper outlines the often unforeseen risks inherent in the processing/manufacturing activities in this phase of decommissioning and identifies the typical root causes and issues that contribute to operational losses. This paper holds that many of these risks can be largely anticipated and mitigated in the design stages if an operational perspective is applied with appropriate tools. Since many of the projects involved in decommissioning have singular and challenging engineering requirements there is a heightened need to focus on potential processing issues from the earliest project stages. Therefore project phases from initial concept design right through to successful completion are considered. The text details a range of operational improvement methods and techniques (along with illustrations from specific projects) that are increasingly being adopted to mitigate the risks of significant project delays and overspend in the nuclear sector. Importantly, these tools are underpinned by realistic operational data to guide and support project and engineering decisions. This approach has been effectively deployed in a number of strategically important projects within the current BNFL and BNFL Environmental Services decommissioning programs. This paper argues that despite the levels of general engineering and technical excellence found within the Nuclear Industry, there remains a need to encompass 'best practice' methodologies from other industries. Specifically, this paper argues for the increasing adoption of manufacturing improvement methodologies that have been successfully developed in other industries (notably the automotive, pharmaceutical and technology sectors) to promote robust designs that subsequently deliver effective and efficient plants. This paper holds that these techniques can be successfully incorporated into process dependant decommissioning projects, and that, without utilisation of such methods, the taxpayers of countries participating in these programmes are unlikely to get value for money.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


The transition state stabilized by nucleoside hydrolase from Crithidia fasciculata is characterized by nearly complete glycosidic bond cleavage and oxycarbonium character in the ribosyl group [Horenstein, B. A., Parkin, D. W., Estupinan, B., & Schramm, V. L. (1991) Biochemistry 30, 10788-10795]. The electrostatic potential surface of the transition state provides detailed information which should be useful in the design of transition-state analogues [Horestein, B. A., & Schramm, V. L. (1993) Biochemistry 32, 7089-7097]. The electrostatic potential surface of inosine at the transition state contains a distributed positive charge resulting from the oxycarbonium ion character of the ribosyl ring. The ribosyl ring pucker is 3'-exo as a result of the near sp2 hybridization at Cl' of the ribose ring. A series of transition-state analogues have been synthesized which incorporate single or combined features of the transition state. Each feature of the transition state was analyzed for its contribution to binding energy. Kinetic inhibition constants correlate with the similarity of the inhibitor to the experimentally determined transition-state structure. Dissociation constants for the substrate and products of the reaction of inosine, hypoxanthine, and ribose are 380, 6200, and 700 microM, respectively. A transition-state analogue was synthesized which contains the required hydroxyl groups of the ribose ring, the positive charge feature of the oxycarbonium ion, and a hydrophobic mimic of the purine ring. The inhibitor 1(S)-phenyl-1,4-dideoxy-1,4-iminoribitol acts as a competitive inhibitor with respect to inosine with a dissociation constant of 0.17 microM. In addition, the inhibitor exhibits slow-onset inhibition which provides a final equilibrium dissociation constant of approximately 0.03 microM.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Inland Water Transport (IWT) is one of the modalities for freight transport between the ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp and the hinterland in Germany. Transport over water between these areas is possible as a result of the presence of the Rhine, but more important are the navigation conditions on the river. As a result of climate change, these navigable conditions on the river will deteriorate in the future by lower extreme river discharges and sea level rise. The available navigable water depth will decrease on the Rhine branches Waal, Nederrijn en IUssel due to lower river discharges in dry periods, while the available head clearance under bridges becomes smaller for transport of containers in the Rhine-Meuse-delta. The worsening navigable conditions are amplified by long term-processes in the river system and trends in the freight transport sector. This will lead to the reduction of load capacity of vessels, an increase of travel time and travel costs. Stakeholders in the IWT-sector (port authorities, waterway authorities, shippers and barge operators) have the urgency to find out where potential bottlenecks may arise in the future and to develop mitigation measures. In the current literature numerical models are applied to assess the impact of climate change on Inland Water Transport for specific relations or processes. Simulations with those models is executed for one climate scenario or one time horizon for a larger part of the IWT -network. Other researchers make use of analytical relations applied on one or two bottlenecks for multiple climate scenarios and time horizons. An integral assessment to setup an overview of potential bottlenecks for multiple climate scenarios and time horizons based on an integrated model is lacking. In this project an integrated assessment meta-model is built to examine navigation conditions as a result of climate change and the impact on IWT. The focus of the first part of the project is to assess the climate change impacts on IWT. In the second part the aim is to develop and assess a number of mitigation measures. In this paper, first, an analysis of potential bottlenecks is executed. As a case study, the integrated assessment meta-model is applied on the river branches Waal and IUssel for one climate scenario and time horizon. The results give insight into the locations where problems will occur for navigation conditions and mitigation measures are needed to improve the conditions in case of low river discharges. The method and model will be applied for the assessment of mitigation measures in the second phase of the research project. The outcomes of the two research phases shall be used to define policies by waterway manager Rijkswaterstaat for efficient IWT in the future over the river Rhine or to develop new logistic concepts by ports, shipping companies or barge operators.


The study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development of the mammalian heart is essential to address human congenital heart disease. The development of the primitive cardiac valves involves the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of endocardial cells from the atrioventricular canal (AVC) and outflow tract (OFT) regions of the heart in response to local inductive myocardial and endocardial signals. Once the cells delaminate and invade the extracellular matrix (cardiac jelly) located between the endocardium and the myocardium, the primitive endocardial cushions (EC) are formed. This process implies that the endocardium has to fill the gaps left by the delaminated cells and has to reorganize itself to converge (narrow) or extend (lengthen) along an axis. Current research has implicated the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway in regulating the subcellular localization of the factors involved in this process. Classically, the initial phases of cardiac valve development have been studied in cross-sections of embryonic hearts or in ex vivo AVC or OFT explants cultured on collagen gels. These approaches allow the analysis of apico-basal polarity but do not allow the analysis of cell behavior within the plane of the epithelium or of the morphological changes of migrating cells. Here, we show an experimental approach that allows the visualization of the endocardium at valvulogenic regions as a planar field of cells. This experimental approach provides the opportunity to study PCP, planar topology, and intercellular communication within the endocardium of the OFT and AVC during valve development. Deciphering new cellular mechanisms involved in cardiac valve morphogenesis may contribute to understanding congenital heart disease associated with endocardial cushion defects.


Cases of poisoning by p-phenylenediamine (PPD) are detected sporadically. Recently an article on the development and validation of an LC-MS/MS method for the detection of PPD and its metabolites, N-acetyl-p-phenylenediamine (MAPPD) and N,N-diacetyl-p-phenylenediamine (DAPPD) in blood was published. In the current study this method for detection of these compounds was validated and applied to urine samples. The analytes were extracted from urine samples with methylene chloride and ammonium hydroxide as alkaline medium. Detection was performed by LC-MS/MS using electrospray positive ionization under multiple reaction-monitoring mode. Calibration curves were linear in the range 5-2000 ng/mL for all analytes. Intra- and inter-assay imprecisions were within 1.58-9.52 and 5.43-9.45%, respectively, for PPD, MAPPD and DAPPD. Inter-assay accuracies were within -7.43 and 7.36 for all compounds. The lower limit of quantification was 5 ng/mL for all analytes. The method, which complies with the validation criteria, was successfully applied to the analysis of PPD, MAPPD and DAPPD in human urine samples collected from clinical and postmortem cases.


This paper focuses on the great variety of φ-agreement patterns and case alternations quantified noun phrases trigger in Serbo-Croatian. Novel data from Serbo-Croatian are contributed, showing more agreement patterns than so far attested. Crucial for the analysis is an observation that draws a parallel between the agreement patterns of quantified noun phrases and conjoined noun phrases. We will show that the data can best be described by a strictly derivational agreement system based on rule ordering (Müller 2009; Murphy &Puškar 2018) and operating in narrow syntax. Existing case-based approaches (Pesetsky 1982; Franks 1994; Bošković 2003; 2006) and index-concord based feature systems (Wechsler & Zlatić 2000; 2003; Danon 2013) fail to account for agreement alternations in preand post-verbal position as well as in NP-topicalisation configurations.


The susceptibilities (dosage-response regression curves) of northern fowl mites collected from six poultry farms in North Carolina were determined for five acaricides by exposure of the mites for 24 hr to acaricide residues inside glass pipettes. The residue concentrations were expressed as parts per million on a weight-volume basis of the acaricide-acetone solution in which the pipettes were immersed prior to testing. All of the acaricides, except malathion, were highly toxic to the northern fowl mites. The mean LD50 values (ppm) were: permethrin, .53; tetrachlorvinphos, 4.06; carbaryl, 4.11; and coumaphos, 5.04. For malathion, the mean LD50 for mites from three caged layer flocks was 119.35 ppm while concentrations as high as 500 ppm gave only low mortalities (20% or less) of mites from the other flocks and LD50 values could not be calculated. These data show that northern fowl mites are highly resistant to malathion in North Carolina, as has been reported elsewhere, but there is no evidence of resistance to the other acaricides tested. The effect of temperature on the toxicity to northern fowl mites of the newest acaricide, permethrin, was determined. Permethrin was significantly more toxic at 20 C than at 25, 30, or 35 C.


The snow avalanche has an insidious character, it can be repeated once in 100-200 years and cause great harm to the population of the mountainous region. There are many examples of damage caused by avalanches. In the 20th century, several thousand soldiers were died by avalanches in the Alps during the First World War, on the Austrian-Italian front. There are many examples of them not only in the Alps but also in the mountainous regions of Georgia. Frequently, snow avalanches block important transportation routes that connect people and countries.
In general, 56% of the territory of Georgia is covered with avalanche-prone slopes. Based on existing examples, it is important to record and study them, because snow avalanches are characterized by repetition. Examples of this are Svaneti, Racha and Mtianeti (regions of Georgia). It is worth noting the Mleta-Kazbegi section road (Georgia's military road), where there is a danger of avalanches every year, which is the subject of our research. The highway of Georgia is a transport hub of international importance. Therefore, observation of avalanches, study and carrying out various measures is a necessary prerequisite in order to avoid damage caused by avalanches.
Keywords: Mountainous regions, avalanche danger, climate, natural phenomena, transport infrastructure


A-23-year-old medical student, resident of an altitude of 700 meters, developed dyspnea and cough during a temple visit at an altitude of 2200 m within 10 hours of arrival and his symptoms improved on descending and with 100% oxygen. Chest skiagram and CT scan chest revealed soft fluffy shadows on the left side with small right lung and absent right pulmonary artery. Absent right pulmonary artery was responsible for development of pulmonary oedema at moderate altitude.


The European Directive 2002/49/CE suggests to map noise in harbor areas with methods mainly used for industrial noise, in accordance with ISO standards. Nevertheless, in many cases, these methods do not seem suitable to describe the effects of noise due to moored cruise ships. For noise measurements of ships, it is possible to refer to ISO 2922 standard, but it results ineffective for the estimation of noise levels at distances bigger than 25 m from the sound source and to obtain reliable information about sound power level of big vessels. The aim of this study, performed by the University of Padova on behalf of Venice Port Authority, is to improve a procedure for predicting noise of moored ships in the harbor area by the means of measures and reverse analysis with numerical models.


In this article, the topic of teacher evaluation in Normal Schools is addressed. The objective is to present a model of Self-evaluation and Hetero-evaluation of teaching practice in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The study is descriptive and factorial; students, teachers and managers of the Bachelors' degree in elementary school (2012 plan) of the Normal Schools participated. The following instruments are used: teacher performance evaluation from the students' perspective, management evaluation and teaching performance, selfevaluation of teaching performance and observation instrument and teacher interview, with Likert type responses. Some of the results are those in terms of perception of the students perception, the dimension in which their teachers performed best is in planning, with an average of 6.49 and a standard deviation of 0.348, while teaching competencies and attention to students, they show the lowest averages with 6.33 and 6.34 respectively, despite their confidence intervals being quite broad. In the analysis of the exploratory factor, the dimensions are grouped into two factors and it is concluded that students and teachers have very similar perspectives in terms of teaching practice, while managers are at the opposite end of the evaluation. Students show a tendency to bestow their teachers high grades in their assessment. In order to improve the training of students and teachers, the importance of evaluating teachers in an objective way must be emphasized.


Northern Chile is characterized by water scarcity. The Lluta River, located in the XV region of Arica and Parinacota, is the one of the main rivers in northern Chile. The elevated levels of metals and metaloids in the river reduce the agricultural productivity and variety of species can be cultivated within the valley, which are of great importance for the consumption of the inhabitants of the area. Heavy metals in river bottoms may cause various effects on the water quality, as such the capacity to accumulate metals; levels of toxicity and metal stabilization in sediments have often been considered a pollution index of a territory. In this work the concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb and Zn from the pseudo-total and labile fraction of Lluta river sediments were studied. Samples from 10 sites along the river were collected. The sediments were characterized determining: pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon (OC), organic total carbon (OTC), available phosphorus and boron. Heavy metals were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). For the metals analyzed in the pseudo-total fraction, the highest concentrations found were: Al in the site 10, (17061 mg kg -1 ) and Fe on site 6, (29898 mg kg -1 ). For the labile fraction, highest concentrations of metals were: Al in site 6 (1079 mg kg -1 ), Fe in site 9, (275 mg kg -1 ) and Mn in site 9 (1578 mg kg -1 ). Using the Risk assessment code (RAC), the site 6 presents the greatest risk with high values of Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn, followed by site 1 with high values of Mn, Cu and Zn, and site 9 with high values of Mn, Cu and Pb. On the other hand, the MacDonald PEC (probable effect concentration) and TEC (threshold effect concentration) toxicity criteria, showed that the sites 4 and 6 have levels above the TEC for Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn, and levels above the PEC at six sites for Mn.


This working paper examines differences in life expectancy at birth across time, space and sexes, focusing on two origins: 1) changes in age-specific mortality rates; and 2) changes in age-specific mortality rates by cause of death. We use decomposition methods in life expectancy differentials and show that the biggest contribution comes from reductions in mortality at advanced ages. In relation to the cause of death decomposition, we observe that the primary cause of differences is cardiovascular diseases, with a decreasing tendency, while on the contrary we observe a growing importance of cancer in all three dimensions analyzed. For the rest of the causes, results are more heterogeneous.


Objective: To scrutinize extra gastric associations of Helicobacter Pylori (H Pylori) infection with disorders those come under hematology domain. Design: Descriptive cross sectional Place and duration: Histopathology and hematology department of Bakhtawar Amin Medical & Dental College and Trust hospital, Multan from Jan 2021 to Dec 2021 Material and methods: Complete blood count (CBC) and peripheral blood microscopic examination were done in every histopathologically approved H Pylori positive patient to record hemoglobin (Hb %), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and platelet count. Serum Iron, serum ferritin, serum Vitamin B 12 and folic acid levels were done in suspected cases only. Patients with low platelet count were checked in detail for immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The CBC samples were taken twice once at the time of delivery of histopathology report and second time after treatment of H Pylori infection to check reversal of counts and peripheral blood changes for authentication of H Pylori association with these blood changes. The test results along with the essential details like age, gender, nutritional history, previous medical history esp. related to these disorders and menstrual history in females were recorded on excel sheet and the proportions of all the variables were calculated to extract appropriate tables and figures. Results: Out of total 132 gastric biopsies received in Histopathology department Helicobacter Pylori prevalence noted to be 78.8 %. Eighty three (79.8 %) out of 104 H Pylori positive cases revealed extra gastric hematological manifestations and in 59 (56.7 %) of these patients the blood indices along with peripheral blood picture returned to normal on H Pylori eradication. Conclusion: A large number of H Pylori positive patients displayed hematological manifestations that reverted to normal on taking H Pylori treatment. H Pylori should be kept in mind especially dealing cases of unexplained iron deficiency, vitamin B12 anemia and Immune thrombocytopenia. Keywords: Helicobacter Pylori infection, iron deficiency anemia, histopathology, platelets, vitamin B 12 deficiency anemia, serology


The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Protocatechuic acid and Corchorus olitorius on streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rat testis tissue. Randomly selected Wistar Albino rats were divided into five groups as; Diabetes Melli tus, Diabetes Mellitus treated with Corchorus Olitorus (STZ+CO), Diabetes Mellitus treated with Protacatechuic acid (STZ+PCA), Corchorus olitorius (CO), Protocatechuic acid (PCA) and Control. Diabetic model was generated by intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg Streptozotosin. After 48 hours of the STZ injection, blood samples were collected from tail vein in order to measure blood glyc ose levels. Over 250 mg/dL accepted as diabetic subjets and fed with 250 mg/kg Corchorus olitorius or 20 mg/kg PCA by oral gavage for three weeks. At the end of the experiment, right testes were removed and fixed in 10 % neutral formaldehyde for paraffine embedding. Sections were stained by HE, Masson trichrome, PAS and TUNEL for microscopic evaluation. Control, PCA-only and Corchorus olitorius-only treated group testes tissues showed a normal tissue organization, when degeneration in seminiferous tubules, the vacuoliz ation, seperations in spermatogenic cell series, outpouring of cell groups in the lumen, vesicular body formation, liquid accumulation in the interstitial region and edema were observed in STZ induced diabetic models and untreated groups. Besides, higher amount of TUNE L (+) stained cells were determined in STZ group. On the other hand, blood glucose level and number of TUNEL (+) stained cells we re decreased as a result of PCA and Corchorus olitorius treatment. Because of the reduction of blood glucose level and apoptotic cell numbers, PCA and Corchorus olitorius decreace the complications of diabetes mellitus induced rat testis


The essential provocation is this: that the biographer is not to be reduced to a simple symptomal subject, 'but rather that we hear in his [and her] voice what is "unreal", i.e. intractable'. Like Roland Barthes in A Lover's Discourse, I have decided to give myself over to the experientiality and intimacy of the biographer's work, to allow myself to be guided not by conventional thinking but by 'amorous feeling'. Drawing on my experience of researching and writing a biography – a text that has come to take the shape of an assemblage of Barthesian figures– this paper will argue that, like the lover's discourse, the biographer's discourse need not be extraneous or merely a symptom of the research process, but instead has the potential to illuminate the affective power of biographical praxis itself, thereby expanding its field of significance.


Background

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to expand at alarming rates. We aimed to identify the effect of various health, economic and demographic indicators on the spread case fatality of COVID-19 during the initial pandemic phase.
Methods

Pearson's chi-squared (χ2) test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used compare categorical and continuous variables respectively.
Results

A total of 182 countries were included. The globally confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 21, 2020 were 266,073; with 11,183deaths. Countries with high COVID-19 case volumes had higher health expenditure, higher prevalence of smoking and alcohol use, more access to basic sanitation services and higher volume of tourists. Countries with high COVID-19 fatality had significantly lower number of nurses/midwives per 1000 people 2.6 vs 6.4, p = 0.028, higher prevalence of undernourishment 4.5 vs 2.5, p = 0.019, lower access to basic sanitation services 94.2 vs 98.7, p = 0.034 and higher mortality rates due to unsafe water, limited sanitation and lack of hygiene 0.6% vs 0.2%, p = 0.004 and higher number of total tourists' departures 9.5 vs 5.9 million, p = 0.042.
Conclusion

Countries with primitive health structure and low income are at high risk for increased mortality. Additional measures to increase nurse staffing and address undernourishment and availability of easy access to basic sanitation services and good hygiene are crucial for pandemic control during initial phase.


Integrated charge-sensitive preamplifiers suffer from a reduced available dynamic range respect to discrete-type equivalents. This is due to the limits on maximum supply voltages that modern scaled technologies can tolerate. In this work we present a low-noise low-power integrated charge-sensitive preamplifier (CSP) for solid-state detectors. This device is equipped with an integrated range-booster that can enhance the spectroscopic range of the preamplifier by more than one order of magnitude, enabling high-resolution spectroscopy even if the preamplifier is in deep saturation condition. If the input signals from the detector are under the natural saturation threshold (40 MeV), the preamplifier works in an usual linear way, producing at the output the typical exponential signals. With proper filtering a resolution of approximately 1 keV is achievable. When a large signal from the detector saturates the preamplifier, a sensing circuit detects the saturation and switches the operation mode of the CSP to the "fast-reset mode". In this mode a constant and controlled current generator discharges the input node of the preamplifier until the normal operating point is reached. Meanwhile an auxiliary circuit similar to a TAC (Time-to-Amplitude converter) retrieves the energy of the signal that caused saturation. Although the natural dynamic range of the CSP is 40 MeV, the fast-reset mode enables for high-resolution spectroscopy (under 0.2% FWHM) up to several hundreds of MeV (700 MeV typically). One issue in this kind of circuits is the dependence of the energy measured with the TAC circuit on the baseline value of the CSP before the "fast-reset event" [1]. As a solution to this problem we propose a correction algorithm implemented inside the TAC block in the form of an analog circuit. On a test-bench a series of large 3 pC charge signals is injected in the input node of the preamplifier through a test capacitor. Before these events, residual charges ranging from 0 to 0.56 pC produce non-zero baseline voltages at the output of the CSP. The TAC with correction not only retrieves correctly the energy of the main event, but also rejects the baseline voltages, leaving the energy measurement unaffected. The fluctuations of the flat-top voltage in the signals produced by the auxiliary TAC circuit due to the different baseline voltages are under the 0.6% of the total signal amplitude.


To enhance the reliability and robustness of language identification (LID) and language diarization (LD) systems for heterogeneous populations and scenarios, there is a need for speech processing models to be trained on datasets that feature diverse language registers and speech patterns. We present the MERLIon CCS challenge, featuring a first-of-its-kind Zoom video call dataset of parent-child shared book reading, of over 30 hours with over 300 recordings, annotated by multilingual transcribers using a high-fidelity linguistic transcription protocol. The audio corpus features spontaneous and in-the-wild English-Mandarin code-switching, child-directed speech in non-standard accents with diverse language-mixing patterns recorded in a variety of home environments. This report describes the corpus, as well as LID and LD results for our baseline and several systems submitted to the MERLIon CCS challenge using the corpus.


We introduce a minimal agent-based model to qualitatively conceptualize the allocation of limited wealth among more abundant opportunities. We study the interplay of power, satisfaction and frustration in distribution, concentration, and inequality of wealth. Our framework allows us to compare subjective measures of frustration and satisfaction to collective measures of fairness in wealth distribution, such as the Lorenz curve and the Gini index. We find that a completely libertarian, law-of-the-jungle setting, where every agent can acquire wealth from, or lose wealth to, anybody else invariably leads to a complete polarization of the distribution of wealth vs. opportunity. The picture is however dramatically modified when hard constraints are imposed over agents, and they are limited to share wealth with neighbors on a network. We then propose an out of equilibrium dynamics {\it of} the networks, based on a competition between power and frustration in the decision-making of agents that leads to network coevolution. We show that the ratio of power and frustration controls different dynamical regimes separated by kinetic transitions and characterized by drastically different values of the indices of equality. The interplay of power and frustration leads to the emergence of three self-organized social classes, lower, middle, and upper class, whose interactions drive a cyclical regime.


Institutional constraints have been offered by some scholars as an explanation for why multiparty coalitions should be more peaceful than single-party cabinets. Yet others see the same institutional setting as a prescription for more aggressive behavior. Recent research has investigated these conflicting expectations, but with mixed results. We examine the theoretical bases for these alternative expectations about the effects of coalition politics on foreign policy. We find that previous research is limited theoretically by confounding institutional effects with policy positions, and empirically by analyzing only international conflict data. We address these limitations by examining cases of foreign policy behavior using the World Event/Interaction Survey (WEIS) dataset. Consistent with our observation that institutional constraints have been confounded with policy positions, we find that coalitions are neither more aggressive nor more peaceful, but do engage in more extreme foreign policy behaviors. These findings are discussed with regard to various perspectives on the role of institutions in shaping foreign policy behavior.


BACKGROUND
Lengthening of bones by gradually distracting bone fragments using an external apparatus by Ilizarov, is a long process with numerous complications. The greatest threats in limb lengthening are poor new bone formation as well as premature consolidation of the newly generated bone. The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of ultrasonography in evaluation of bone formation in limb lengthening.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The study involved 31 patients, in whom 52 long bones were lengthened by the Ilizarov method at the University Clinic for Orthopaedic Surgery in Skopje from 2006 to 2010. The study revealed the results of ultrasonographic analysis of new bone formation at four various stages of limb lengthening. The analysis of the results of ultrasonographic examination of bones throughout the lengthening process was based on the form and dimensions of the obtained ultrasonographic parameters--indicators of new bone formation--as well as on the appearance of the cortical margin at the distraction site.

RESULTS
Tiny, solitary and confluent hypo-echogenic foci developed on sonograms approximately 2 weeks after distraction was commenced. At stage I a new cortical margin was detected in 30.77%. The number of initial small indicators significantly decreased throughout lengthening. At stage IV the solitary indicators rate was 9.51%, whereas the linear indicators rate significantly increased from 22.12% at the first stage to 54.3% at the last stage. the cortical margin was presented in all 52 bones at III and IV stage of lengthening.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Ultrasonography enabled an evaluation of the degree of new bone formation and it preceded the radiographic changes at the distraction site. This helped to determine the surgical lengthening and to avoid numerous complications.


After attracting the attention of the scientific community due to a number of favourable characteristics that make it an attractive vector for human gene therapy [1,2], AAV has been thoroughly investigated in the past two decades. Standard technologies for the manipulation of the viral genome and for efficient packaging and purification protocols have paved the road for trial and error manipulation by educated guesses to study viral infectious biology by reverse genetics and to generate improved vectors for human gene transfer. However, despite remarkable progress, our limited knowledge of molecular mechanisms implicated in virus-cell interactions has been a limiting factor. Combinatorial engineering and high-throughput selection techniques hold the potential to boost technological improvement by offering the possibility to screen large numbers of randomly generated clones by appropriate selection protocols. These approaches not only require lesser knowledge of viral biology, but can also be employed as valuable tools to investigate molecular mechanisms that drive the infection process. In this review we recapitulate the rationale for employment of combinatorial methods in AAV vector development and the accomplishments achieved so far, discussing current limitations and interesting developments that are in sight.


Taking the Great Famine from 1959 to 1961 in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward as an example, the article presents an inquiry into different aspects of trauma and memory in the context of culture and politics in the PRC. It shows that even in a highly politicized environment like the PRC politics in its capacity to either suppress or instigate public debate about individual or collective memories is not the only, probably not even the most important factor in making individual remembrances about events of traumatic dimensions enter the realm of communicative and possibly cultural memory. Besides psychological factors complicating communication about traumatic experiences cultural particularities have to be taken into account in order to be able to answer the question why the Great Famine could have been the subject of a taboo for such a long time and why it eventually re-emerged at the surface of public debate during the nineteen eighties and nineties. While party historians are still reluctant to discuss the disaster of the Great Famine at length, literature is serving as a forum of debate and remembrance on what peasants went through during the late nineteen fifties. Different novels are discussed in the article to show how the perspective of those who directly participated in the events differs from the next generation trying to answer the question why people in China could have gone through all these sufferings without asking any questions. The explanations they give stress cultural particularities such as ancestor worship compelling people to forget the suffering of the past if only enough people survive to preserve the continuity of the clan (Yu Hua). The repetitiveness of traumatic experiences occurring in 20th century Chinese history is seen as another reason why the Great Famine could be tabooed for more than 30 years (Mo Yan). But besides these factors stressing that trauma is dealt with differently in different cultural settings the fact that the Great Famine as part of the Great Leap Forward had been a topic of inner party debate ever since it took place has to be seen as a political factor of major importance both instrumental in this taboo and in instigating public debate on the estimated 35 million victims of what is called the greatest famine in world history.


A�������. The goal of the present work is to synthesize the process of collective construction developed to protect the high-altitude wetlands of the Blanco River basin, located in the Andes Mountains, Province of Mendoza. The participatory process arose out of an initiative of basin residents and users, and was conducted by the Integrative Commi�ee for Creation of Potrerillos Municipal Environmental Protected Area (MEPA), composed of civil society organizations, government agencies and scientific institutions. The major pressures affecting the wetlands, identified through participatory assessment of the socio-ecosystem are: water pollution, reduction and total loss of habitat, stoppage of groundwater flows, artificial drainage, poldering of the meadow, and fragmentation of the wetland system, among other pressures. In order to identify priority sites for conservation of the ecosystem services (ES) wetlands provide, local people identified and prioritized the six most important of them, according to their perception: water for human consumption, agriculture and industry, aesthetic, spiritual and non-use representations, recreation and ecotourism, erosion control, water regulation and regulation of the biotic environment. The areas supplying ES were identified on the map of land use and land cover of the basin, with the wetland area, with tourist use and water catchment, and the watershed's headwaters standing out as areas with higher ES provision. This process culminated in the creation of a protected area to halt the intense degradation affecting the wetland system, promoting maintenance of the natural area and improving its provision of ES. This collective process allowed integrating local and scientific knowledge, becoming an experience to be replicated in other areas in terms of conservation and land management. Among its major strengths is a strong coordination between the different social actors involved, which allowed success in reaching the implementation stage of a public policy for conservation.


The use of MOCVD-grown wider-bandgap as a capping layer for long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) photoconductors has been studied using both theoretical and experimental results. A device model is derived which shows that in the presence of a suitable energy barrier between the infrared absorbing layer and the overlaying passivation layer, the high surface recombination rate which is usually present at the semiconductor/passivant interface is prevented from having a significant effect on device performance. The energy barrier, which repels photogenerated minority carriers from the semiconductor surface, is introduced by employing an n-type wafer which consists of a wider-bandgap capping layer that is grown in situ by MOCVD on an LWIR absorbing layer. The derived model allows the responsivity to be calculated by taking into account surface recombination at both the front and back interfaces, thickness of capping and absorbing layers, recombination at the heterointerface, and variations in equilibrium electron concentration. Calculations show that for an absorbing layer, the optimum capping layer consists of and a thickness of the order of 0.1 to 0.2 . Experimental results are presented for x = 0.22 n-type conventional single-layer LWIR photoconductors, and for heterostructure photoconductors consisting of an LWIR absorbing layer of x = 0.22 capped by an n-type layer of x = 0.31. The model is used to extract the recombination velocities at the heterointerface and the semiconductor/substrate interface, which are determined to be and respectively. The experimental data clearly indicate that the use of a heterostructure barrier between the overlaying passivation layer and the underlying LWIR absorbing layer produces detectors that exhibit much higher performance and are insensitive to the condition of the semiconductor/passivant interface.


The analysis of three Kangra kuhl irrigation networks suggest that these irrigation systems, though under stress during the seventies, were still operative and persisting till late eighties and supporting predominantly the age old paddy cultivation practices in the area. The kuhl irrigation system gradually came under acute stress during nineties and became almost defunct. Each kuhl is governed by a set of rules and the institutional arrangements of kuhl network demands more participatory labour, rather male labour intensive activities for the sustainability of the system. The opportunity of non-farm employment to the water users in the area rendered the kuhl irrigation system with declining participation of the communities and to virtual collapse of the system. The paddy lands are now without irrigation water in the kuhls. Water User Associations lacked motivation and resources as well as recognition. The emergence of land allottees, migrants and the establishments of new households and the institutions in the area for water use from the Government or local authority triggered the initiation of the stress in kuhl network in the 1970s. The non-farm employment and the male power outflux resulted in poor water enforcement of water rights within the village. The supplementary irrigation sources could not be maintained and the paddy cultivation started declining and ultimately has gone out of cultivation. Farmers adjustments are in the form of keeping land fallow during kharif. Wheat cultivation as rabi crop has been mechanised with the entry of small tractors for sowing of wheat crop. Kharif fallows have given rise to dairying enterprise with one or two jersey cows. The per capita milk production and availability of milk has increased on these households. Kuhl system induced farm mechanisation in favour of dairying has taken place displacing paddy cultivation. The adverse environmental effects are in terms of low availability and the availability of downstream as supplementary source of irrigation has dwindled. Kuhls used to run on 340 to 350 days annually on their own in 1989 have been running only for 25 to 50 days under strict watch and ward at the actual user level in mid- and lower clusters. The Government efforts has resulted in the creation of new middle cluster in these kuhl networks without ensuring the running the system. The vegetable cultivation at small scale is being supported by ground water/hand pumps meant for drinking water. With the defunct of the kuhl water systems, increasing stress is on the use of ground water. Even in this sorry state of affairs, the Government has taken over the authority of two kuhls and made the kuhls concrete/pucca. The difficult route of kuhl has been made smooth with the concretisation but there is no water availability. Mere concretisation of kuhl is the wastage of MGNREGA funds. Alternative rules and arrangements need to be framed for participation, water use and adequate sensitisation of users in ensuring its continuous flow. The kuhls need arrangements for making water flow regular. Since paddy cultivation has gone out of scene, the water rights need to be redefined. The rights for continuous flow of the water has no relevance at present time, the rotational pattern for water use even for paddy crop would also help in sustaining the system and ensuring cultivation of agricultural lands. The kuhl committees also need to be advised on sound ecological principles to agree to these terms to ensure the survival of the kuhl system. The creation of joint storage capacity at diversion sites for contiguous networks and generation of water based non-farm employment opportunities would help in the revival of the system on sustainable basis.


Jointly Gaussian memoryless sources are observed at N distinct terminals. The goal is to efficiently encode the observations in a distributed fashion so as to enable reconstruction of any one of the observations, say the first one, at the decoder subject to a quadratic fidelity criterion. Our main result is a precise characterization of the rate-distortion region when the covariance matrix of the sources satisfies a ¿tree-structure¿ condition. In this situation, a natural analog-digital separation scheme optimally trades off the distributed quantization rate tuples and the distortion in the reconstruction: each encoder consists of a point-to-point Gaussian vector quantizer followed by a Slepian-Wolf binning encoder. We also provide a partial converse that suggests that the tree-structure condition is fundamental.


Earlier studies conclude that spouses' retirement strategies are not independent from each other and that policies affecting individuals in a couple are also likely to affect the economic behaviour of their partner. In this study, we exploit retirement age legislation in France as well as a retirement policy change to identify the effect of own and spousal retirement on spouses' hours. To this end, we use a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity approach combined with Differences in Differences, for both spouses. The data for the analysis are drawn from French Labour Surveys pooled over thirteen years. The sample for the analysis includes over 85,000 dual-earner couples with spouses aged 50 to 70. We find evidence of large and significant jumps in the own retirement probability at the legal early retirement age for both men and women in a couple. We also conclude that the 1993 reform reduced significantly the probability of retirement at the early retirement age for married men while the effect was not significant for married women. Husbands' retirement probability increases significantly when the wife reaches early retirement age while her retirement probability is not responsive to his early retirement age. We conclude that hours fall significantly upon own and partner's retirement for both spouses. On average, her hours fall by 2.7 per cent when he retires while his hours fall by 5 per cent when she retires, implying an average reduction of one hour per week for women and two hours for men if their spouse retires.


Analysis of ABCB4 gene in young women with cholelithiasis and relative story of gallstone disease was performed by NGS sequencing. The discovered "risk alleles" of this gene and their adverse haplotypes testify to ABCB4 participation in the development of cholelithiasis.


This paper examines the emergence of activist organizations promoting midwifery as a "global" practice. New organizations like the International Alliance of Midwives link individual midwives and midwifery advocates through Internetbased chat rooms, websites, and discussion lists. These organizations draw productively on representations of midwives as world citizens to establish new forms of connection, fostered in part by technological developments in communication that posit direct links between local activists through a global network. Yet what kinds of visions are forged through invocations of midwifery's globality? Differences in the political, cultural, and economic status of midwifery worldwide complicate the efforts of midwives to advocate for a global political midwifery movement. By examining the "global" as a site of emotional investment, I demonstrate how midwives' attempts to map "tradition" and "technique" reveal attachments to particular ways of imagining the world. The world has become a global village. With this freedom to share information comes the ability to travel and relocate. When midwives move from one country to another, they should, with equivalent education and credentials, be able to practice their profession wherever they live (Verber, 1995:para. 1). Global culture ... is an aspiration, a fantasy, a desire as well as a marketplace and systems of flows and exchanges. Global subjects are constituted through the promise of a transcendent mobility, allowing them to move freely across time and space, joining the transnational flows of other objects (images, information, products) (Stacey, 2000:141).


Summary: This article deals with the last decade of the reign of Psusennes I in the light of the short chronology set out in earlier articles by the same author. It is argued that the burials of Psusennes I, HPA Menkheperre, HPA Nesubanebded, Khakheperre Pinuzem, the Devotee of Hathor Henttawy and Queen Nodjmet all took place within a very short period of time, called in P. Brooklyn 16.205 "the Bad Times". Elements of the funeral equipment of these individuals are discussed and several severe problems with the traditional views on these burials are highlighted. The author further discusses the Report of Wenamun and presents an alternative identification for its Nesubanebded.


Physics researchers obtain powerful results by using dimensional analysis to reduce the dimensionality of problems. Quantitative asset managers often use dimensional analysis implicitly. Interest rates, risk premiums, and squared Sharpe ratios are measured per unit of time while discount factors, t-statistics, and R-squares are dimensionless quantities which do not have time units. Stock commissions, bid-ask spreads, and tick size are often measured in units of pennies while transaction costs and bid-ask spread costs may equivalently be measured in dimensionless basis points. Trading volume and order size can be measured either in shares or dollars. This paper uses dimensional analysis to derive scaling laws which simplify quantitative models related to market microstructure. The invariance results generalize and refine the market microstructure invariance hypotheses of Kyle and Obizhaeva (2016). The scaling laws are based on four assumptions: (1) Investors are not confused by units of measurement. (2) The leverage-neutrality implications of the Modigliani-Miller theorem apply to market microstructure. (3) The cost of bets (decisions of institutional asset managers to take risky positions) is invariant across assets when measured in dollars per bet. (4) Quantities related to transaction costs and bet size are functions of only share volume, stock price, returns variance, and the dollar cost of a bet. The result of these four assumptions is a non-obvious dimensionless measure of liquidity, denote L, which is proportional to the cube root of the ratio of (A) dollar volume to (B) the product of the cost of a bet and returns variance. These four assumptions imply that, when measured in basis points, transaction-cost related quantities like bid-ask spread costs and implementation shortfall are inversely proportional to the liquidity measure L. For quantitative asset managers, this proportionality relationship simplifies modeling of transactions costs by implying that only one constant needs to be estimated for all stocks instead of separate constants for each stock. In other words, it makes it possible to describe various microscopic properties of financial markets such as liquidity in simple macroscopic terms. Dimensional analysis also implies that the size distribution of bets, orders, and trades -- when measured in dollars -- scale proportionally with L. The liquidity parameter lambda from the model of Kyle (1985) scales with the square of L. These results are based on the intuition that positions of large asset managers are limited by market liquidity. This is important for asset managers because it suggests an approach for optimizing the size of speculative positions across assets in the presence of transactions costs. When market microstructure quantities are functions of other variables in addition to share volume, stock price, and returns volatility, dimensional analysis places specific constraints on the functional forms of derived relationships. This principle is illustrated using tick size and minimum lot size. This is important for asset managers because it potentially provides a method to better understand, for example, how much wider quoted bid-ask spreads will be when tick size or minimum lot size are large. The scaling laws also can be used to understand stock market crashes and to calibrate public policy proposals of interest to asset managers such as optimal tick size, optimal minimum lot size, position limits. The paper illustrates the invariance principle by showing, using data from the Moscow Exchange, that bid-ask spreads and number of trades for Russian stocks are consistent with the scaling laws implied by invariance.


EDITOR, - Julie Dawson makes many valid points in her letter on whether the medical profession has the right to decide whether smokers should be entitled to vascular surgery,1 but she overlooks two issues. She asks how much longer society is prepared to let members of the medical profession take it on themselves to decide who gets treatment. Doctors have always had to carry out this duty because society has never put forward any group better educated or qualified to do so. I find it difficult to believe that there is another body of people who are so qualified, but this should certainly not be a political issue. What is clear is that society in general and the medical profession in …


Honey is a natural sweet substance produced by honeybees from nectar of flowers. It consists of major sugars, acids, vitamins, proteins, enzymes and volatile substances. It is a chief source of glucose and fructose. Henceforth, it plays an important role in food industries. Besides, honey is widely used in medicine as antibacterial agent. The selected strains of bacteria namely - Pseudomonas aeruginosa, staphylococcus species, Bacillus species and Escherichia coli were studied against the dilutions of honey by Agar-well diffusion technique. The honey sample from Coorg district, exhibited relatively high antibacterial activity.


Fitriya Dessi Wulandari. S 891502010. 2016. The Washback of Speaking Test on Extroversion Student`s Learning in EFL Classroom (A Case Study at 11th Grade of SMAN 7 Surakarta in 2016/2017 Academic Year). THESIS. Consultant 1: Dr. Sumardi, M.Hum; Consultant 2: Dr. Sujoko, M.A. English Education Department. Graduate Program. Sebelas Maret University. Language testing emerges effect, which is known as washback. The study of washback of a test and student`s personality brings great contributions to the success of language learning. Positive or negative washback may affect student`s learning strategy and motivation towards the test, the lesson or the teacher, thus the study comes to the significance. Examining the washback of speaking test, the research focused on the implementation of speaking test, washback of speaking test on extroversion student`s learning strategy, washback of speaking test on extroversion student`s learning motivation. Case study, a type of qualitative research method, was implemented to investigate the washback phenomenon. Data were collected by questionnaires, interviews and observations. The data were checked by using triangulation. The results of the study came to three findings. First, speaking test was important to be done because it measured student`s speaking ability and balanced the oral and written test conformed to the two personality types of the students, extroversion and introversion. Second, in performing speaking test, extroversion students used direct and indirect strategies. The direct strategies are memory strategy, cognitive strategy and compensation strategy. The indirect strategies are metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies. Third, the extroversion student`s learning motivation emerged in intrinsic-extrinsic and instrumental and integrative. The drawn conclusion from the research findings are positive washback found in the speaking test of the extroversion students which affected student`s learning strategy and motivation positively. Keywords : Washback, speaking test, learning strategy, learning motivation


We present an integrated pixel segmentation and region tracking algorithm, designed for indoor environments. Visual monitoring systems often use frame differencing techniques to independently classify each image pixel as either foreground or background. Typically, this level of processing does not take account of the global image structure, resulting in frequent misclassification. We use an adaptive Gaussian mixture model in colour and space to represent background and foreground regions of the scene. This model is used to probabilistically classify observed pixel values, incorporating the global scene structure into pixel-level segmentation. We evaluate our system over 4 sequences and show that it successfully segments foreground pixels and tracks major foreground regions as they move through the scene.


Chiral molecules in nature are involved in many biological events; their selectivity and specificity make them of great interest for understanding the behavior of bioactive molecules, by providing information about the chiral discrimination. Inspired by these conformational properties, we present the design and synthesis of novel chiral platinum(II) complexes featuring phosphine and chloroquine ligands with the general formula [PtCl(P)2(CQ)]PF6 (where (P)2 = triphenylphosphine (PPh3) (5), 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphine)propane (dppp) (6), 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphine)butane (dppb) (7), 1,1'-bis(diphenylphosphine)ferrocene (dppf) (8), and CQ = chloroquine] and their precursors of the type [PtCl2(P)2] are described. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, absorption spectroscopy in the infrared and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) regions, multinuclear ((1)H, (13)C, (31)P, (15)N, and (195)Pt) NMR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and mass spectrometry (in the case of chloroquine complexes). The interactions of the new platinum-chloroquine complexes with both albumin (BSA), using fluorescence spectroscopy, and DNA, by four widely reported methods were also evaluated. These experiments showed that these Pt-CQ complexes interact strongly with DNA and have high affinities for BSA, in contrast to CQ and CQDP (chloroquine diphosphate), which interact weakly with these biomolecules. Additional assays were performed in order to investigate the cytotoxicity of the platinum complexes against two healthy cell lines (mouse fibroblasts (L929) and the Chinese hamster lung (V79-4)) and four tumor cell lines (human breast (MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7), human lung (A549), and human prostate (DU-145)). The results suggest that the Pt-CQ complexes are generally more cytotoxic than the free CQ, showing that they are promising as anticancer drugs.


Since the commencement of screening in 1988, the West of Scotland Breast Screening Programme has invited women with symptoms, but normal screening mammograms, for assessment. This paper reviews the results of 344 such assessments. Malignancy was detected in three patients; two had invasive carcinoma and one Paget's disease of the nipple. One woman underwent a benign excision biopsy. Three women returned to routine recall were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer; one had Paget's disease, a second developed a true interval cancer, and a third a screen detected cancer six years later. Cancer detection rate in this group of women was approximately 1% in those assessed. The two women with invasive breast carcinomas had dense breasts and one view only was taken on screening. No cancers were detected in women complaining of lumps or dimpling who had normal fatty or mixed density mammograms.


Only one path applies: to date, five different mechanisms have been suggested for the P450-catalyzed N-hydroxylation of primary aromatic amines. Computational analysis employing density functional theory demonstrates that only the H-atom-transfer pathway, that is H abstraction from an amine N followed by a radical rebound step, on a low-spin route can contribute to the aromatic hydroxylamine formation.


Objectives: Although positron emission tomography (PET) using 18F-fluorodeoxy-glucose (FDG) frequently gives false-negative results for slow-growing tumors, 11C-acetate (AC)-PET has been reported to be able to detect them. To determine the usefulness of AC-PET for imaging non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs), the sensitivity and specificity were compared between the AC-PET and FDG-PET with a multicenter study. Materials and Methods: A total of 284 pulmonary lesions (227 NSCLCs and 57 benign lesions) were examined using both AC-PET and FDG-PET before surgery at seven Japanese institutes. The AC- or FDG-uptake in each lesion were quantitatively measured using the contrast ratio of the standard uptake value between the lesions and the contralateral lung. Results: The sensitivity of AC-PET for diagnosing NSCLC was 0.71, which was significantly higher than the value of 0.57 obtained by FDG-PET (p < 0.001). No significant difference in the specificity was seen between AC- and FDG-PET. For the 146 well-differentiated adenocarcinomas, the sensitivity of AC-PET was 0.62, which was significantly higher than the value of 0.37 obtained by FDG-PET (p < 0.001). Of the 51 moderately- or poorly-differentiated adenocarcinomas and 30 nonadenocarcinomas, there was no significant difference of sensitivity between AC- and FDG-PET. Conclusions: AC-PET could be used in place of FDG-PET for imaging NSCLC, with higher sensitivity for well-differentiated adenocarcinoma compared with FDG-PET.


—During the preceding decades, human gait analysis has been the center of attention for the scientific community, while the association between gait analysis and overall health monitoring has been extensively reported. Technological advances further assisted in this alignment, resulting in access to inexpensive and remote healthcare services. Various assessment tools, such as software platforms and mobile applications, have been proposed by the scientific community and the market that employ sensors to monitor human gait for various purposes ranging from biomechanics to the progression of functional recovery. The framework presented herein offers a valuable digital biomarker for diagnosing and monitoring Parkinson's disease that can help clinical experts in the decision-making pro- cess leading to corrective planning or patient-specific treatment. More accurate and reliable decisions can be provided through a wide variety of integrated Artificial Intelligence algorithms and straightforward visualization techniques, including, but not lim- ited to, heatmaps and bar plots. The framework consists of three core components: the insole pair, the mobile application, and the cloud-based platform. The insole pair deploys 16 plantar pressure sensors, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope to acquire gait data. The mobile application formulates the data for the cloud platform, which orchestrates the component interaction through the web application. Utilizing open communication


Abstract In this work auto-adaptive finite-element techniques are presented that allow for quantitatively reliable numerical computation of phase field models. These techniques are based on goal oriented error estimation for finite elements with dual weighted residuals and algorithms for auto-adaptive mesh adaptation in space and in time. It is discussed for which kind of problems the computational overhead of such methods is expected to be justified by a sufficient reduction of the problem size.


ABSTRACT Research Findings: Digital play is now commonplace in many young children's lives, but not in preschool settings. This situation is likely due to the fact that the existent literature seldom highlights what digital play looks like, the various ways it can be situated, and what young children do when they play together with digital devices in the preschool setting. The present study addresses this limitation by providing a close examination of the social interactions of young children as they engage with different types of iPad apps and each other. Observational data of 20 dyads of children during digital play analyzed qualitatively revealed that children exhibited a range of social behaviors from competitive to collaborative as they engaged in 4 types of digital play: practice/task, exploratory, construction, and pretense. Forms of play and exhibited behaviors were shaped by interrelated factors of children's individual characteristics and relationships, classroom culture and routines, adult views and actions, as well as aspects of the digital device itself. Practice or Policy: Selecting open-design apps, attending to digital play structures, and monitoring peer play more closely may lessen competition, enhance collaboration, and lead to more complex digital play.


There are a great variety of joint types used in nature which can inspire engineering joints. In order to design such biomimetic joints, it is at first important to understand how biological joints work. A comprehensive literature review, considering natural joints from a mechanical point of view, was undertaken. This was used to develop a taxonomy based on the different methods/functions that nature successfully uses to attach dissimilar tissues. One of the key methods that nature uses to join dissimilar materials is a transitional zone of stiffness at the insertion site. This method was used to propose bio-inspired solutions with a transitional zone of stiffness at the joint site for several glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) to steel adhesively bonded joint configurations. The transition zone was used to reduce the material stiffness mismatch of the joint parts. A numerical finite element model was used to identify the optimum variation in material stiffness that minimises potential failure of the joint. The best bio-inspired joints showed a 118% increase of joint strength compared to the standard joints.


The crucial role of platelets in maintaining primary hemostais has been evident for a long time and there is now also mounting evidence for their involvement in inflammation. In combination with aspirin, inhibition of the platelet P2Y12 ADP receptor with clopidogrel has become a cornerstone in the antiplatelet in acute coronary syndromes. Recently, several studies have indicated that a considerable number of patients treated with clopidogrel show poor responsiveness to the drug. In this thesis we investigate possible variables explaining the mechanisms behind variation to clopidogrel. We also investigate the effects of a novel P2Y12 receptor antagonist, prasugrel, in comparison to clopidogrel. In the last paper we investigate the mechanisms behind platelet-endothelial cell interactions in a mouse model of arterial inflammation. To study platelet function we mainly used flow cytometry based techniques. We used real-time RT-PCR and quantitative western blots to study mRNA and protein expression levels in human platelets. To study platelet interactions in vivo in mice we used fluorescent intravital microscopy. We could confirm the expression of three P2 receptors in human platelets and exclude expression of additional P2 receptors. In hyperactive platelets from patients with peripheral arterial disease we could not detect increased P2 receptor expression as compared to healthy controls. In a subsequent study we could correlate decreased response to clopidogrel to increased protein expression of the P2Y12 receptor in patients with coronary artery disease. We could conclude that prasugrel inhibits several markers of platelet activation and the formation of platelet-leukocyte aggregates more efficiently than clopidogrel. Furthermore, in a moue model of arterial inflammation we found that P-selectin is responsible for a significant part of the platelet-leukocyte interactions. In conclusion, this thesis presents experimental and clinical knowledge to better understand aspects of existent antiplatelet treatments and the studies also provide inputs to the development of future treatment modalities.


This study was focused on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) manifestations in experimental Streptococcus pneumoniae and Escherichia coli meningitis in rabbits. An increased (p less than 0.001) CSF lactate concentration was found in infected animals, mostly not accompanied by a decrease in CSF glucose concentrations. Despite a marked difference in CSF cellular response between the 2 etiological groups no significant difference in CSF lactate levels was found. Neither did CSF lactate levels correlate to CSF polymorphonuclear cell counts. CSF concentrations of albumin were with large variations above control levels in all infected animals. Also a small or moderate increase in CSF albumin levels was generally associated with a marked increase in CSF lactate concentration. The concentration of total amino acids in the CSF was above control values (mean + 2 SD) in 9/21 infected animals. Halothane/N2O anesthesia for 25 min increased (p less than 0.05) CSF levels of glucose, partly independent of alterations in plasma glucose concentrations, in both infected rabbits and in controls.


*Corresponding Author: Marwa Ahmed Gouda Ali Youssef Clinical and Molecular Parasitology Department, National Liver Institute (NLI), Menoufia University, Shebin Al Koom, Menoufia, Egypt Tel.: 01003080991 firstname.lastname@example.com Background; Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), are a range of mental disorders of neurodevelopmental type. More than three billion human hosts are estimated to be affected by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is intracellular pathogen with a particular preference for the central nervous system (CNS). Accumulating evidence suggests that latent chronic toxoplasmosis contributes to triggering and progression of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, however the link and prevalence in ASD is not clear. Objective; The present study aimed to detect the relationship between Toxoplasma gondii infection in children suffering from autism disorder. Method: A case-controlled study was conducted on 80 children (40 cases and 40 controls), aged from 4-10 years. They were tested for the presence of anti-T. gondii. antibodies by ELISA. Analysis of data was performed using the Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Results; No significant differences were detected between healthy (5.0%) and diseased children regarding presence of anti-toxoplasmosis antibodies (17.5%). However a significant difference was observed between boys and girls concerning age and seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis, the percent of autistic boys with toxoplasmosis was 9.1%, while the infection was represented in 57.1% of girls with autism. History of acquiring infection with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy was positive in 27.5% of diseased children compared to control children where the percent was 12.5%, with no statistically significant result. Considering residence, there were no significant differences in the seroprevalence of T. gondii IgG among urban and rural regions (P-value =1.0). Conclusion: From our study, we concluded that despite the absence of significant difference between healthy and diseased children in regard to toxoplasmosis, autistic children were highly risky for catching toxoplasmosis infection which need more research in this era.


This study was conducted to investigate the role of interhemispheric interaction in the production of spontaneous hyperactivity following right but not left frontal cortical suction lesions in the rat. Bilateral lesions, either simultaneous or left followed 1 week later by right, led to spontaneous hyperactivity and bilateral depletions of cortical norepinephrine concentrations. Rats given corpus callosum sectioning as neonates and frontal cortical suction lesions as adults developed spontaneous hyperactivity only when the right hemisphere was injured. These data suggest that lateralized spontaneous hyperactivity as elicited by small suction lesions of the right hemisphere does not depend on interhemispheric release or interaction and that at least the cortical mechanism is in the right hemisphere itself.


In this paper, we deal with the inverse spectral problem for the equation -(pu')'+qu = \lambda\rho u on a finite interval (0; h). We give some uniqueness results on q and \rho from the Gelfand spectral data, when the coefficients p and \rho are piecewise Lipschitz and q is bounded. We also prove an equivalence result between the Gelfand spectral data and the Borg-Levinson spectral data. As a consequence, we have similar uniqueness results if we consider the Borg-Levinson spectral data. Finally, we consider the inverse problem from the nodes and give uniqueness results on \rho and in the case where the coefficients p; q and \rho are smooth we give a uniqueness results on both q and \rho.


Spatial scale separation often leads to sharp interfaces that can be fully localized pulses or transition layer fronts connecting different states. This paper concerns the asymptotic interaction laws of pulses and fronts in the so-called semistrong regime of strongly differing diffusion lengths for reaction-diffusion systems in one space dimension. An asymptotic expansion and matching approach is applied in a model independent common framework. First order semistrong interaction is introduced as a general interface interaction type. It is distinct from the semistrong interaction studied over the past decade, which is referred to as "second order" here. Laws of motion are derived for pulses as well as fronts in abstract systems with attention to the effect of symmetries. First order interaction for pulses is shown to be gradient-like under conditions that are numerically checked for a class of equations including the Gray--Scott and Schnakenberg models.


The outcome of conservative management in a consecutive series of 107 localized prostate cancers (mean age 73.5 years) has been analyzed. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 12 years. Following regular surveillance and no initial treatment, 3 died from prostate cancer with a median survival of 6.3 years compared to 34 who died from intercurrent disease with a median survival of only 2.6 years. The observed survival for the whole group was similar to the expected survival for an age-matched population in Scotland. This was despite the fact that the nodal status and the capsular invasion were unknown.


The objective of this study was to compare prececal amino acid (AA) digestibilities in broilers, turkeys, and Pekin ducks that were 3 wk old. Five diets were used: a basal diet and diets that contained either soybean meal (SBM) or rapeseed meal (RSM) at the expense of starch each at either 150 or 300 g/kg. The differences in dietary CP and AA concentrations resulted only from the inclusion of SBM or RSM. Titanium dioxide was used as an indigestible marker. Each diet was allocated to 6 pens of 12 birds from each species and provided ad libitum for 1 wk starting at 14 d of age. Digesta were sampled on a pen basis from the distal two-thirds of the section between Meckel's diverticulum and 2 cm anterior to the ileocecocolonic junction. Ingested and digested amounts of AA were determined for each pen. Digestibilities for the 2 meals were then determined by a multiple linear regression analysis, which makes a correction for basal endogenous AA losses unnecessary. Digestibilities for essential AA from the meals varied between 92% (Met, RSM, broilers) and 62% (Val, RSM, ducks). Digestibilities were not significantly different between SBM and RSM for broilers and turkeys, but the average digestibility across all AA was slightly higher for SBM and lower for RSM in turkeys than in broilers. Digestibilities were lower in ducks than in the 2 other species, and significant differences between SBM and RSM were detected for some AA in ducks. Amino acid digestibility ranking was very similar between broilers and turkeys but different for the 2 meals. It was concluded that differences among species cannot be explained by differences in basal endogenous AA losses among species. Amino acid digestibilities determined with broilers should not be used in formulating feed for ducks.


Diarylethenes 1a-4a, having a fluorescent 2,4,5-triphenylimidazole chromophore in the aryl group, were synthesized. Upon excitation of the triphenylimidazole chromophore with 366 nm, 1a-4a underwent photocyclization reactions, and the solutions containing 1a-4a changed color from colorless to red-purple or to blue. The colors disappeared by irradiation with visible (lambda > 480 nm) light. The fluorescence intensity of the solutions also reversibly changed with the photochromic reactions. The fluorescence quantum yields of 1a, 2a, 3a, and 4a were determined to be 4.6, 7.7, 9.1, and 8.4%, respectively. The fluorescence quantum yields decreased with the increase in photocyclization quantum yields.


Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are complex safety-critical systems that operate in an uncertain and dynamic environment. To ensure safety, Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA) is recommended in ISO 26262. The entire process, however, is based on the very premise that a human driver is responsible for the safety of the vehicle. On the contrary, AVs function without any human intervention. Therefore, to ensure safe behavior in all possible situations, Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA) at runtime is a necessity to make AVs aware of themselves about the current risk and take decisions accordingly; instead of relying on static worst-case assumptions. In this paper, we present a novel approach to identify and classify the severity and controllability rating class based on the measured data from the on-board sensors. Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning technique was used to train, test, and validate the model with diverse feature sets. We illustrate the presented approach by employing an example of adaptive cruise control and discuss the case study with initial findings.


. Geopolymer concrete is a fastest developing field of research for utilizing industrial and agro waste materials as an alternative for Portland cement based concrete. Geopolymers are formed by the alkaline activation of aluminosilicates rich materials termed as geopolymerization. The process of geopolymerization requires elevated temperature curing which restricts its application to precast industry. This review summarizes the work carried out on developing the geopolymer concrete with the addition of various mineral admixtures at ambient curing temperature conditions. An overview of studies promoting the geopolymer concrete in general building construction is presented. Literature study revealed that geopolymer concrete with the addition of admixtures can exhibit desirable properties at ambient temperature conditions.


This article highlights the intensifying prevalence of sexual violence in South Africa, which affects women including izintombi (virgins, also known as Zulu maidens). Ubuntombi (virginity) traditionally represented a typical identity marker of young-womanhood in the indigenous lives of Zulus. As an aftermath of colonialism and imperialism, the cultural importance of women's virginity faded into the past with only sporadic survival in some rural areas of South Africa. For some reasons, it was visibly revived together with virginity-testing as public events in the 1980s and 1990s. The practice of virginity-testing was criticized by some scholars, human rights and gender activists, who blamed it for promoting rape of the young women involved. The blame became an undeniably common phenomenon in the early 1990s due to the myth that having sex with a virgin cured HIV infection. However, this empirical study conducted in KwaZulu-Natal through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions found that izintombi (virgins) refuted the claim. Virgins felt that the 1990s myth could not still be the cause of sexual violence against them since South Africans received education concerning that myth. This study used a postcolonial feminist theoretical lens because the group under study were young women from a formerly colonized Zulu ethnic group. Controversies that surrounded the revival of ubuntombi (virginity) accompanied by virginity testing did not deter its rapid embrace by a number of contemporary izintombi (virgins) as their indigenous cultural practice, heritage, and identity. It is in the practice of this intended choice that izintombi face persistent threats of sexual violence against them. This is regardless of the guaranteed South African constitutional rights to equality and security stipulated in the Bill of Rights. Thus, this article also raises the question of who is to blame for the ubiquity of this violence and how it could be addressed without blaming the sufferers. It further underscores the need for intensified activism by African feminists, human rights activists, and gender activists against the pervasiveness of sexual violence that haunts izintombi .


The clinical presentation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders is quite diverse. Very often, the initial symptoms do not fit a specific disease, and diagnosis is difficult to make. We describe a patient who presented with macrocytic anemia. Extensive biochemical and clinical work-up failed to provide an etiology for the macrocytic anemia. The patient over the course of 6 years developed gait problems, exercise intolerance, episodic vomiting, short stature, dermatological problems, and recurrent infection. At age 8 years she had encephalopathy with ataxia and dysphagia. The presence of elevated lactate, bilateral basal ganglia calcification, and ragged red fibers led to mtDNA mutational analysis. A novel 4.4-kb deletion from nucleotide position 10,560 to nucleotide position 14, 980 was identified in muscle biopsy. The same heteroplasmic mtDNA deletion was present in blood, buccal cells, and hair follicles, but not in mother's blood, consistent with sporadic mutation in the patient. This case emphasizes the importance of considering mtDNA disorder in patients with multisystemic symptoms that cannot be explained by a specific diagnosis.


Methods for enhancement of data obtained from scanning objects such as body tissue with ultrasonic wideband pulses to detect characteristics of the tissue and to identify the tissue. The methods include performing spectral analysis on selected time portions of signals obtained from ultrasonic scanning to derive spectral data which is representative of the received signal characteristics for spatial samples of a particular region of interest in the body. The characteristic values are selected to correlate with significant characteristics of the material. A display of the selected body region is generated, with the display characteristic for each of the spatial samples being selected in accordance with the derived spectral characteristic values. Examples of the spectral characteristic values include spectral amplitude, spectral slope, and spectral amplitude uncertainty. The spectral characteristic data can be used to derive periodicity data, such as cepstral data or spatial-correlation data, for each of the spatial samples. The spectral characteristic data obtained can be compared to data for tissue having known tissue characteristics to identify the tissue type. Related means for suppressing the display of noise, characterizing tissues using discriminent functions based on spectral data, and estimating scatter sizes are also shown.


We reviewed the morphologic findings of 948 previable fetuses and identified the fetal akinesia deformation sequence (FADS) in 16 cases. In eight fetuses who had joint contractures, micrognathia, and pulmonary hypoplasia, the cause of fetal akinesia could be attributed to an abnormal intrauterine environment restricting fetal movement. The other eight fetuses had pterygia across the immobilized joints, in addition to main manifestations of FADS. Since most of the fetuses with pterygia were of only 8-9 weeks developmental age, we suggest that embryonic onset of immobility interferes with limb development and results in joint fixation and pterygium formation, in contrast to fetal-onset immobility, which causes joint contractures alone.


Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease characterized by metabolic dysregulation which is frequently associated with diabetic foot ulcers that result from a severely compromised innate immune system. The high levels of blood glucose characteristic of diabetes cause an increase in circulating inflammatory mediators, which accelerate cellular senescence and dampen antimicrobial activity within dermal tissue. In diabetic wounds, bacteria and fungi proliferate in a protective biofilm forming a structure that a compromised host defense system cannot easily penetrate, often resulting in chronic infections that require antimicrobial intervention to promote the healing process. The designed host defense peptide (dHDP) RP557 is a synthesized peptide whose sequence has been derived from naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that provide the first line of defense against invading pathogens. AMPs possess an amphipathic α-helix or β-sheet structure and a net positive charge that enables them to incorporate into pathogen membranes and perturb the barrier function of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria along with fungi. The capacity of skin to resist infections is largely dependent upon the activity of endogenous AMPs that provided the basis for the design and testing of RP557 for the resolution of wound infections. In the current study, the topical application of RP557 stopped bacterial growth in the biofilm of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) USA300 infected wounds on the flanks of clinically relevant diabetic TALLYHO mice. Topical application of RP557 reduced bacterial load and accelerated wound closure, while wound size in control diabetic mice continued to expand. These studies demonstrate that RP557 reduces or eliminates an infection in its biofilm and restores wound-healing capacity.


We proposed a dynamic model of DNA to study its nonlinear excitation and duplication and transcription in the basis of molecular structure and changes of conformation of DNA under influence of bioenergy.


There is an analogy between the uniform and patterned antiinvidualism of modern architecture and the anonymous and collective character of popular art. This perception, stated by Mario de Andrade in 1928, can be seen as a guideline for the equation "modernity-patrimony" conceived by Lucio Costa by the end of the 30's. However, the latter acknowledgement of the "legitimacy of the plastic intention", by Costa, will gradually set apart their conception regarding the role of art in society, and, as a consequence, the meaning they attribute to the process of Brazilian cultural formation.


The modification of a technique that was developed to study time correlations in lattice-gas cellular automata to facilitate the numerical simulation of chain molecules is described. As an example, the calculation of the excess chemical potential of an ideal polymer in a dense colloidal suspension is discussed.


HoBa2Cu3O7−δ–SrTiO3 composites were produced with nominal isolator volume percentages from 0% up to 10%. Resistivity measurements were carried out for all composites and for the HoBa2Cu3O7−δ with different measurement current. All composites evidenced a superconducting behavior with critical temperature TC ≈ 92 K with wider transitions when isolator concentrations are incremented. By using the logarithmic derivative method, characteristic fluctuation exponents were determined close to TC. Above TC, typical gaussian and critical fluctuation regimes are observed. However, still closer to TC an atypical exponent about 0.14 is observed for all samples. Below TC, exponent of the coherence transition increases rapidly with SrTiO3 concentrations. Results for different currents reveal wider transitions as the current increases but characteristic exponents of the coherence transition do not change. Our results suggest a vortex–glass behavior for different current measurements and a gauge–glass feature for different insulator concentrations.


Energy consumption is a critical issue affecting the lifetime of WSN. It is observed that energy consumed for processing the data to transmit is considerably less than used in transmission. A number of techniques are proposed to solve this problem. Data compression is a promising approach to reduce transmitted data and inter-nodes communications over wireless channels. In this paper, we present a new approach to implement the K-RLE algorithm in WSN giving a trade-off between energy consumption and compression rate efficiency. Our solution called C-RLE is validated and qualified on a Cortex-M3 based WSN node and compared to the previous implementations of K-RLE. Experimental results show that proposed implementation preserves the performance of the K-RLE in terms of compression ratio. Moreover, it significantly performs better than the existing implementations of K-RLE in terms of energy consumption with a gain of 30.41%.


Resistivity and superconducting transition curves, critical current and morphology studies, using a scanning electron microscope, are reported for a series of YBa2Cu3O7- delta and YBa2Cu3O7- delta +5, 10 and 20 wt.% Ag thick films. The above are studied for various maximum processing temperatures on supposedly inert substrates made from both Y2BaCuO5 and BaZrO3. The width of the best transition curves is about 10 K for the Y2BaCuO5 and 5 K for the BaZrO3 substrates. For BaZrO3 substrates the onset temperature is severely reduced. The addition of Ag is shown to improve the transition curves and the critical current densities. In all cases the critical current densities are much lower than the best values previously reported.


There are many grid workflow systems appeared in the past few years. But most of them involved in many developers and need a long time to implement them. It is very difficult to small groups to build a grid workflow system with good performance. In this paper we review the architecture and technologies used by those grid workflow systems briefly, and present the state of the art of our on going research on grid workflow systems. And what is the most important thing in this paper is, we present a novel architecture for building a grid workflow system with fast implement speed and good performance. Using this architecture, we have implemented a grid workflow system: grid of USTB. The test bed show that the architecture works well with computing-sensed and data-sensed applications. The architecture is loose-coupling both vertically and horizontal. It is easy to implement, extend and modify. In order to got better robust and simplify the course of implementation, we integrate two great soft wares: Condor as the manager of underlying hardware, and OSworkflow as the local workflow engine. Moreover, we use Web service as the highest layer strategy.


Recruitment in the IT sector has been on the rise in recent times. Software companies are on the hunt to recruit raw talent right from the colleges through job fairs. The process of allotment of projects to the new recruits is a manual affair, usually carried out by the Human Resources department of the organization. This process of project allotment to the new recruits is a costly affair for the organization as it relies mostly on human effort. In the recent times, software companies round the world are leveraging the advances in machine learning and Artificial intelligence in general to automate routine tasks in the enterprise to increase the productivity. In the paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a resume classifier application which employs an ensemble learning based voting classifier to classify a profile of a candidate into a suitable domain based on his interest, work-experience and expertise mentioned by the candidate in the profile. The model employs topic modelling techniques to introduce a new domain to the list of domains upon failing to achieve the threshold value of confidence for the classification of the candidate profile. The Stack-Overflow REST APIs are called for the profiles which fail on the confidence threshold test set in the application. The topics returned by the APIs are subjected to topic modelling to obtain a new domain, on which the voting classifier is retrained after a fixed interval to improve the accuracy of the model.Overall, emphasis is laid out on building a dynamic machine learning automation tool which is not solely dependent on the training data in allotment of projects to the new recruits. We extended our previous work withnew learning model that has the ability to classify the resumes with better accuracy and support more new domains