Human civilization can be ameliorated by human creativity. Innovation and progress of human civilization result from a change in our thinking patterns, thus, potentially transforming the present into a creative future. Accentuating the role of creativity in design even more than other disciplines pushes one to underpin the understanding of creativity as a key role player in architecture. Furthermore, by identifying the basic principles of our ingenuity/creativity, researchers might be able to enhance this ability in the future. The digital era allows for a new domain of architectural experience. It is assumed that new designs in virtual environments can be created that go beyond the mere accommodation of literal functions, and affect human experiences. This paper presents the role of a method developed by the authors: 'Proto-Fuse', experimented with, as an artwork for the survey of cognitive perception of humans, specifically targeting enhancement of spatial creativity. The logic behind this method is based on two psychological concepts: 1 – conceptual blending, 2 – tolerance of ambiguity. Two experimental projects were conducted for exploring the Proto Fuse method: (a) "unconventional virtual environments (UVEs)" to improve conceptual blending and (b) "Extracting local distance" to enhance tolerance of ambiguity. The paper concludes with an implementation scenario of the Proto-Fuse method in the pedagogy of architecture and elaborates on the results of the projects and analysis of the feedbacks received during the project session.


ABSTRACT Purpose/Aim: To investigate the association between retinal vascular tortuosity and traditional- and vascular-related risk factors in persons with diabetes. Methods: We recruited 224 diabetic patients. Retinal vascular tortuosity was measured from fundus photographs. Association of tortuosity with the following factors was assessed after adjusting for significant co-factors: diabetes duration, HbA1c, systolic blood pressure (SBP), cholesterol and body mass index (BMI), flicker-light induced retinal vasodilatation, and markers of endothelial function and inflammation (skin microvacular responses to acetylcholine iontophoresis, soluble e-selectin, inter-cellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, endothelin-1, total nitrite, C-reactive protein). Results: Adjusting for age and gender, longer diabetes duration was associated with more tortuous retinal arterioles (mean difference in arteriolar tortuosity 5.85 × 10−5, 95% Confidence Interval 1.44–10.3 × 10−5; p = 0.016; ≤10 versus >10 years duration). Reduced flicker-light induced retinal vasodilatation was associated with tortuous arterioles and venules (mean difference in arteriolar tortuosity 5.62 × 10−5, 4.50–6.72 × 10−5; p < 0.001 and in venules 5.94 × 10−5, 3.33–8.55 × 10−5; p < 0.001; comparing highest versus lowest tertile of flicker-light vasodilatation). These associations remained after adjusting for co-factors. Diabetes duration explained about 36% and flicker-light vasodilatation 25% of the variation in retinal arteriolar tortuosity. No associations were found between retinal arteriolar or venular tortuosity and HBA1c, SBP, cholesterol, BMI and serum markers of endothelial function. Conclusions: Increased retinal arteriolar tortuosity was related to longer diabetes duration and reduced flicker-light induced vasodilatory response, suggesting that retinal vascular tortuosity in adults with diabetes may be influenced by multiple diabetes-related physio-pathological changes.


Background Presenteeism is defined as the behavior of people who insist on attending work despite complaints of ill health that should prompt rest and absence from work. Due to the heavy workloads and irreplaceable duties of the nursing service, nurses are a typical representative group suffering from presenteeism. Although more scholars have recently begun focusing on presenteeism, an abundant number of studies have tended to focus on presenteeism's external objective factors. There is, thus, a lack of studies based on variables related to the intra-individual initiative. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the relationship between job crafting and nurses' presenteeism from the perspective of the individual internal initiative. Furthermore, this study also aimed to examine job embeddedness' mediating effect and job irreplaceability's moderating effect on presenteeism. Methods A total of 900 nurses from a 3A-graded hospital in Henan Province were invited to participate in the online study in October, November, and December 2021, respectively. Participants were asked to complete Self-report scales on job crafting, job embeddedness, job irreplaceability, and presenteeism at three time points above. Job crafting was measured at Time 1, job embeddedness and job irreplaceability were measured at Time 2, and presenteeism was measured at Time 3. Results Presenteeism was significantly associated with differences in participants' age and tenure. Job crafting was significantly positively associated with job embeddedness, and job embeddedness was significantly negatively correlated with presenteeism. Job embeddedness mediated the relationship between job crafting and presenteeism. Job irreplaceability moderated the relationship between job embeddedness and presenteeism. Conclusions This study explored job crafting's influence mechanism on nurses' presenteeism, which is beneficial to providing effective suggestions for managing and preventing the incidence of nurses' presenteeism. Future research should consider expanding the sampling area and enriching the occupational fields of included participants to conduct a more in-depth discussion on the relationship between job crafting and nurses' presenteeism.


Recently the advent of web 2.0 era is an important trend in the business environmental change. Web 2.0 era means users' active participation, share, and openness, develop 'Internet penetration into everyday life,' and change many aspects of our society. web 2.0 has been making these following changes in the socioeconomic aspects: 1) acceleration of system shift to a small quantity of multi-species production system 2) growing influence of on-line channel/information to consumers 3) various minorities' power increase in the socioeconomic sector. Web 2.0 has been making these following changes in the firms' strategies for information management: 1) increase of external knowledge and information utilization 2) amplification and reproduction of information from customers 3) change of information distribution: pursuit of two-way communication with customers 4) integration of different information/services for business transformation. Firms must squarely look at socioeconomic changes owing to web 2.0, and utilize them for firms' effective information management.


Scheduling is the process which improves the performance of parallel and distributed systems. Multiprocessor is a powerful computing for real-time applications and their high performance is purely based on parallel and distributed systems. Number of scheduling tasks in homogeneous and heterogeneous multiprocessor systems is an important problem in computing because this problem is a NP-hard problem.The execution time for individual tasks in a network are specified in a vector and refer only to the computation time. To increase the performance, reducing the processing time of the program is the main aim of scheduling. In this process we are computing rank for all nodes starting from exit node. An advanced task scheduling in heterogeneous multiprocessor by using P-HEFT Algorithm is proposed to minimize the execution time and increase the processor utilization and load balancing for more no of tasks.


Keywords : competition, fertilisation, food quality, grassland, herbivory, nitrogen, nutrients, plant-feeding nematodes, productivity, restoration management, succession, synergism, vegetation Plant-feeding nematodes may have a considerable impact on the rate and direction of plant succession. In this thesis the interactions between plants and plant-feeding nematodes in grasslands under restoration management were studied. In these grasslands, a management of ceasing fertiliser application and annual hay-making resulted in a succession of high- to low-production plant communities. It was hypothesised that a reduced nutrient availability and the development of species-specific nematode communities under plant species will increase the sensitivity of plant species to nematode herbivory. This may result in the replacement of such plant species by plant species that are better adapted to nutrient-poor conditions. The reduction in nutrient supplies resulted in a gradual succession of plants and plant-feeding nematodes. Alterations in the species composition of the plant community, but particularly qualitative changes within each plant species after the cessation of fertiliser application affected the plant-feeding nematode succession. Indications were found that the nematode numbers were positively related to the root nitrogen concentrations. Estimations of nematode consumption in the field indicated that in local hotspots nematodes may have a considerable impact on plant productivity. In experimental studies, however, the effects of nematodes on plant productivity were in general small. Some evidence was found that plant-feeding nematodes can affect the competition between an early- and late-successional plant species in favour of the latter, but I did not find experimental evidence that plants under nutrient-poor growth conditions were more sensitive to nematode herbivory. Neither did I find clear-cut evidence for species-specific suppression of plant species by nematodes. It was suggested, therefore, that in addition to progressing nutrient stress, plant species-specific differences in tolerance to plant-feeding nematodes, rather than host specificity of nematodes, may determine the plant species replacement during reversed succession in grasslands. It is concluded that plant-feeding nematodes are potentially an important biotic factor in the succession of plant communities, but their impact on the succession in grasslands under restoration management has yet to be further elucidated. So far the results suggest that the succession of the plant-feeding nematode community is probably more affected by changes in the plant community than the other way round.


Multiple access analysis is presented for pulsed direct sequence (DS) and hybrid DS time hopping (DS/TH) ultra-wideband (UWB) communications considering a Saleh-Valenzuela type clustered frequency selective Nakagami fading channel. A general analytical framework is developed for modeling the multiple access interference (MAI) in low-duty systems that is substantially complicated than analysis of more commonly known DS-code division multiple access (CDMA). Using Rake receiver with maximal ratio combining (MRC), we are able to produce a simple error rate expression for general number of combined paths. The theoretical results are then used for performance evaluation and comparison of the two systems. Results show that in multiple access environment, a DS/TH system may gain many fold performance improvement as compared to a DS system.


This paper deals with the mathematical approach to discuss the radially varying transient temperature distribution in a multilayer composite hollow sphere subjected to the time independent volumetric generation of heat in each layer. Initially the layers are at arbitrary temperature and the analysis assumes all the layers of the body are thermally isotropic and having a perfect thermal contact. It is novel to obtain the exact solution for temperature field by the separation of variables by splitting the problem into two parts homogeneous transient and non-homogeneous steady state. The set of equations obtained are solved by using the rigorous applications of analytic techniques with the help of eigen value expansion method. The thermoelastic response is studied in the context of uncoupled Thermoelasticity. The results obtained pointed out that the magnitude and distribution of the temperature and thermal stresses are greatly influenced by the layered heat generation parameter. The accuracy and feasibility of the proposed model is demonstrated by an example of three layered hollow sphere of Aluminium, Copper and Iron subjected to given conditions. The results presented in this article could be found hardly in an open literature despite of extensive search.


IgG antibodies form immune complexes (IC) that propagate inflammation and tissue damage in autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus. IgG IC engage Fcγ receptors (FcγR) on mononuclear phagocytes (MNP), leading to widespread changes in gene expression that mediate antibody effector function. Bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) proteins are involved in governing gene transcription. We investigated the capacity of BET protein inhibitors (iBET) to alter IgG FcγR-mediated MNP activation. We found that iBET dampened IgG IC-induced pro-inflammatory gene expression and decreased activating FcγR expression on MNPs, reducing their ability to respond to IgG IC. Despite FcγR downregulation, iBET-treated macrophages demonstrated increased phagocytosis of protein antigen, IgG IC, and apoptotic cells. iBET also altered cell morphology, generating more amoeboid MNPs with reduced adhesion. iBET treatment impaired chemotaxis towards a CCL19 gradient in IC-stimulated dendritic cells (DC) in vitro, and inhibited IC-induced DC migration to draining lymph nodes in vivo, in a DC-intrinsic manner. Altogether, our data show that iBET modulates FcγR-mediated MNP activation and migration, revealing the therapeutic potential of BET protein inhibition in antibody-mediated diseases.


A special issue (SI) based on presentations at a workshop, Peopling 'Europe' through Data Practices, organized by the members of the ARITHMUS project as part of the study of how methodological changes in the production of population statistics within the EU affect the enactment of populations as objects of government. The contributions study data practices through which the people of Europe are enumerated, classified, narrated, quantified, territorialized, visualized and imagined into being as knowable categories of people, such as citizens, workers, consumers, travellers, minorities, and so on.


BACKGROUND
It is often reported that men have lower rates of depression than women, but this does not necessarily signify better overall mental health in the male population.

OBJECTIVE
This article discusses the presentation of depression in men and how it may differ from that of women. It also provides strategies for improving the assessment of depression in men.

DISCUSSION
Men's lower overall rate of depression than women reflects a number of issues, including psychosocial barriers to seeking help. Depression rates vary according to age groups, and certain subgroups of men may be particularly vulnerable. Men often display different symptoms and behaviours in response to depression and experience anxiety disorders less frequently. Men's greater risk taking and substance abuse have health outcomes that can impact on depression later in life. Women have greater emotional literacy and are more likely to volunteer how they feel, while men are more likely to do something about their negative affect. While men are usually wary about talking about their depression, they will discuss their feelings if provided with a safe environment in which to do so.


In order to determine distribution and seasonal patterns of heavy metals concentration in the intertidal sediment of the north Oman sea, samples of sediment were collected from five different station in August 2007 and February 2008. The samples were oven dried and acid digested. Heavy metals content of acid digested samples were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometery method. Results showed that mean Cu, Pb and Ni concentration during summer were 38.28 ± 0.37, 50.37 ± 2.41 and 26.90 ± 2.72 µg.g-1 respectively. The average heavy metals concentration in winter was sharply dropped to 16.45 ± 1.77, 13.56 ± 1.24 and 14.68 ± 1.93 µg.g-1 for Cu, Pb and Ni respectively. Though Cu and Ni concentration did not significantly change over various station, seasonal difference between heavy metals concentration in sediment was significant (P < 0.05). It is suggested that Cu and Ni originate from non point sources. The heavy metals concentration  in the sediment may hardly be affected by monsoon.

 Key words: Heavy metals, intertidal zone, sediment.


An accurate method for producing compensating filters using high-density material (Cerrobend) is described. The procedure consists of two cutting steps in a Styrofoam block: (i) levelling a surface of the block to a reference level; (ii) depth-modulated milling of the levelled block in accordance with pre-calculated thickness profiles of the compensator. The calculated thickness (generated by a dose planning system) can be reproduced within acceptable accuracy. The described compensator thickness manufactured according to this procedure is reproduced to within 0.1 mm, corresponding to a 0.5% change in dose at a beam quality of 6 MV. The results of our quality control checks performed with the technique of stylus profiling measurements show an accuracy of 0.04 mm (1 sigma) in the milling process over an arbitrary profile along the milled-out Styrofoam block.


SUMMARY Many parasites that use intermediate hosts are transmitted to the next host through predation. If the next host's fitness is strongly reduced by the parasite, it is under selection either to recognize and avoid infected intermediate hosts or to exclude that prey species from its diet when alternative prey are available. We investigated the predator-prey interaction between laboratory bred three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), the second intermediate host of the cestode Schistocephalus solidus, from 2 parasitized and 1 unparasitized population, and different prey types: infected and uninfected copepods and size-matched Daphnia as alternative prey. Copepods with infective procercoids were more active, had a lower swimming ability and were easier to catch than uninfected controls. The sticklebacks preferred moving copepods. Therefore parasitized copepods were preferentially attacked and consumed. There was no effect of the sticklebacks' parent population being parasitized or not. The sticklebacks switched from Daphnia to (uninfected) copepods in the course of a hunting sequence; this switch occurred earlier in smaller fish. With this strategy the fish maximized their feeding rate: Daphnia were easier to catch than copepods but increasingly difficult to swallow when the stomach was filling up especially for smaller fish. However, there was no indication that sticklebacks from infected populations either consumed Daphnia rather than copepods or switched later in the hunting sequence to consuming copepods than fish from an uninfected population. Thus, sticklebacks did not avoid parasitized prey although S. solidus usually has a high prevalence and causes a strong fitness reduction in its stickleback host.


The first short Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the young and energetic pulsar J1357-6429 provided strong indications of a tail-like pulsar-wind nebula associated with this object, as well as strong pulsations of its X-ray flux with a pulsed fraction above 40% and a thermal component dominating at lower photon energies (below 2 keV). The elongated nebular is very compact in slze. about 1" x 1'.% and might be interpreted as a pulsar jet. The thermal radiation is most plausibly emitted from the entire neutron star surface of an effective temperature about 1 MK covered with a magnetized hydrogen atmosphere At higher energies the pulsar's emission is of a nontherma] '_magnetospheric) origin, with a power-law spectrum of a photon index F _ 1.1. This makes the X-ray properties of PSR J1357-6429 very similar to those of the youngest pulsars Jl119-6127 and Yela with a detected thermal radiation.


Mononuclear complexes of VO(IV), Cr(III), Fe(III), MoO2(VI), WO2(VI), and UO2(VI) with pyrazinecarbohydrazone ligand (N'-(1-(5-chloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene)pyrazine-2-carbohydrazide) were synthesized and the prepared complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, powder X-ray analysis, various spectroscopic techniques (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and Mass spectra), SEM, and thermal analysis. VO(IV) complex was additionally characterized by ESR study. The ligand behaves as a dibasic tridentate, coordinating through the phenolate oxygen, azomethine nitrogen, and enolate oxygen atoms towards the central metal ion. The analytical data suggest 1:1 metal to ligand stoichiometry for all complexes. The physicochemical data suggested octahedral geometry to Cr(III), Fe(III), MoO2(VI), WO2(VI), and UO2(VI) complexes while square pyramidal to VO(IV) complex. The SEM analysis indicated the presence of well-defined crystals free from any shadow of the metal ion on their external surface with particle sizes of greater than 10 μm. Various kinetics and thermodynamic parameters are calculated using Coats-Redfern method and on the basis of half decomposition temperature the thermal stability order of complexes was found to be Cr(III) < WO2(VI) < Fe(III) < MoO2(VI) <  VO(IV) < UO2(VI). The solid-state electrical conductivity of compounds was measured in their pellet form in the temperature range form 313-373 K. The conductivity data vary exponentially with the absolute temperature and obey Arrhenius equation indicating their semiconducting behavior. The antibacterial as well as antifungal activities of ligand and its metal complexes were evaluated in vitro against Gram positive bacteria (S. aureus and B. subtilis) and Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli and S. typhi.) and fungal strains (C. albicans and A. niger). The activity data revealed metal complexes are found to be more active than the ligand.


The integration of an Ada operational flight program (OFP) with a FORTRAN simulation model is described. The architecture of the OFP is described, along with the portions of code necessary to simulate the desired system functions. Differences between the VAX Ada implementation and the Ada compiler for the MIL-STD-1750A microprocessor are discussed, and the necessary workarounds are highlighted. Results of the integration are presented along with approximate level-of-effort estimates for the port.<<ETX>>


The study of people's beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, has been under intense investigation since the 1990s. Much of the research following this conception has found multiple links between epistemological beliefs and learning. Research examining women's personal epistemology found two beliefs that tend to be gender related, connected knowing and separate knowing. Connected knowing is characterized by empathizing and placing oneself within another person's situation to see from the inside out. Separate knowing, while not the opposite of connected knowing, is characterized by detaching oneself from a situation to analyze and be objective in an argument. Both ways of knowing have been hypothesized to support higher order thinking. The purpose of this study is to test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between ways of knowing and the established epistemological beliefs, as well as, the relationship between ways of knowing and need for cognition. The concept of an individual's need for cognition has been described as one's tendencies to "engage in and enjoy thinking" (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116). They determined that an individual may have either a high or low need for cognition.


A 0.18 μm process CMOS image sensor has recently been developed by e2v technologies plc. with a 0.5 megapixel imaging area consisting of 6 × 6 μm 5T pixels. The sensor is able to provide high performance in a diverse range of applications including machine vision and medical imaging, offering good low-light performance at a video rate of up to 60 fps. The CMOS sensor has desirable characteristics which make it appealing for a number of space applications. Following on from previous tests of the radiation hardness of the image sensors to proton radiation, in which the increase in dark-current and appearance of bright and RTS pixels was quantified, the sensors have now been subjected to a dose of gamma radiation. Knowledge of the performance after irradiation is important to judge suitability for space applications and radiation sensitive medical imaging applications. This knowledge will also enable image correction to mitigate the effects and allow for future CMOS devices to be designed to improve upon the findings in this paper. One device was irradiated to destruction after 120 krad(Si) while biased, and four other devices were irradiated between 5 and 20 krad(Si) while biased. This paper explores the resulting radiation damage effects on the CMOS image sensor such as increased dark current, and a central brightening effect, and discusses the implications for use of the sensor in space applications.


Edited by one of the leading authorities in international child care, this sourcebook provides valuable insights from international experiments in group child care. The selections, written by distinguished international child care experts, explore a broad range of successful group care settings in Austria, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, Poland, the Soviet Union, the United States and Yugoslavia. Much of the material was previously unknown to American professionals, at the time of the original publication, who, for the most part, held group care in disrepute. Today, there is a growing interest in group programs for children of various ages and in settings ranging from day care programs to institutions and schools of various types."Successful Group Care" is divided into six major parts. The first of which is a general review of successful group care, drawing upon material that appears later in the book. Subsequent sections present historical and philosophical issues in group care, including boarding schools in the former Soviet Union and the Israeli Kibbutz. Research studies analyzing the negative and positive effects of group care for young children and several teenage group environments are discussed, particularly with regard to their peer effect on values and moral character. The project also deals with group care of disturbed children. The book ends with the most complete bibliography on the subject, including some of the most significant works in Polish, Russian, German, and Hebrew.This book will be invaluable to all those interested in and involved in group child care: social workers, particularly in child welfare; developmental child psychologists; early childhood educators; child psychiatrists; family sociologists; child care workers; day care personnel; and students in social work courses in childhood and adolescence, early childhood education, developmental psychology, and in training courses for day care personnel and child care workers.


This paper considers abstract election games motivated by the United States Electoral College (USEC). There are two political parties, and the electoral votes in each state go to the party that spends the most money there, with an adjustment for a "head start" that one party or the other may have in that state. The states have unequal numbers of electoral votes, and elections are decided by majority rules. Each party has a known budget, and much depends on the information that informs how that budget is spent. Three situations are considered: (1) one party's spending plan is known to the other, (2) spending is gradually revealed as the parties spend continuously in time, and (3) neither side knows anything about the other's spending. The last situation resembles a Blotto game, hence the title.


The problem of generating a 3D simulation of a car accident from a written description can be divided into two subtasks: the linguistic analysis and the virtual scene generation. As a means of communication between these two system parts, we designed a template formalism to represent a written accident report. The CarSim system processes formal descriptions of accidents and creates corresponding 3D simulations. A planning component models the trajectories and temporal values of every vehicle that is involved in the accident. Two algorithms plan the simulation of the accident. The CarSim system contains algorithms for planning collisions with static objects, as well as algorithms for modeling accidents consisting of more than one collision and collisions with vehicles which have stopped.


Abstract In 1953 when the exploration in Nigeria moved towards the Niger Delta, it was realised that the recent delta could be used as a guide to the past. Consequently many studies were carried out between 1953 and 1964, ranging from surveys of the shallow offshore, the coastal zone and the rivers to an extensive shallow coring campaign (1960–62). The studies of the recent delta were soon augmented by the analysis of cores from several newly discovered fields (1963–69) and also by the description and grain size analysis of numerous side-wall samples. Around 1970 the basic facies types comprising the individual deltaic cycles of the hc-bearing paralic sequence were well established. The facies types occur in a very repetitive pattern of combinations and successions which facilitates recognition and correlation. A fairly reliable system of diagnostic criteria was worked out based on petrophysical logs and side-wall samples and calibrated by the cores and the recent delta. With the sequencial introduction of new logging tools the diagnostic methods are being refined while additional cored wells continuously enlarge the data base. Detailed seismic analysis at reservoir level is showing considerable promise for sand body delineation. For each facies a representative data base of sand body geometry could be compiled based on detailed reservoir correlations and recent examples. There is a good understanding of typical permeability and grain-size distributions. Knowledge on shale intercalation continuity is particularly useful in the planning of well completions to retard gas or water breakthrough to the well bore. It was shown that permeability can be computed from log derived porosity and grain-size distribution measured on side-wall samples. The practical value of the reservoir geological research lies in the possibility to correlate and model reservoirs in a reliable and consistent manner. Reservoir and well behaviour can be predicted and where necessary reservoir simulation models can be constructed. Continuous updating of reservoir studies has demonstrated the validity of this approach by checking past predictions and analysis of infill wells. In this way the production planning and reserve estimation is given a solid base.


Recent experiments on multiphoton ionization in intense laser fields have revealed that the photoelectron spectrum consists of a large number of peaks. Under certain pulse duration and laser intensity conditions, the spectrum appears shifted towards lower energies and the interval between two consecutive peaks is not equal to the photon energy. The theoretical explanation based on a classical description of electron-field decoupling previously proposed in this context is reexamined. For moderate laser intensities, an exact analytical solution giving a linear intensity dependence of the shift effect throughout the spectrum is obtained. At very high laser intensities, the problem is solved numerically. In this case, the shift effect is non-linear with respect to intensity and is considerably reduced in comparison with the predictions of the linear model. Quantitative comparisons between the results of these models and experimental data show the models to be satisfactory. The conditions under which the photoelectrons can be strongly accelerated are then investigated. For optimum acceleration, laser pulse durations and intensities are intimately related. Results of numerical computations show that electron energies at the limit of relativistic corrections could be obtained by present-day lasers.


By extension of technique described in earlier papers, biharmonic analysis and the solution of the equation V%> = W are brought within range of the relaxation method. Special attention is given to the problem of a fiat elastic plate which is either bent or stretched (the second case being that to which photo-elastic methods are commonly applied). In all, four cases are presented, since the edge conditions may specify either tractions or displacements both in the flexural and in the extensional problem: one example of each is treated. Mixed boundary conditions (tractions specified at some points, displacements at others) are not considered in this paper. It would seem that only slight modifications of method will be required to deal with acolo-tropic plates (which present much greater difficulties in an orthodox analysis).


The time-dependent features of red blood cell flow were evaluated with laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) in the left gastrocnemius muscle of 31 anesthetized New Zealand White rabbits during stepwise arterial occlusion. During the control period with a median femoral pressure of 72 mmHg, 29 animals showed minor irregular fluctuations in LDF blood flow, and only two animals displayed periodic variations of blood flow. Lowering femoral arterial pressure induced maximal periodic blood flow variations at a median pressure of 35 mmHg in all animals with a median frequency of 1.5 cycles/min (termed "slow-wave flow motion"). The median amplitude was 48% of the corresponding average flow. These slow waves disappeared at a median femoral pressure of 20 mmHg. The median LDF flow value was 4.00 arbitrary units (AU) at control pressure and 2.05 AU at maximum slow-wave flow motion. When slow-wave flow motion was seen at several pressure levels, their frequency was identical, which supports the local pacemaker concept. This study promotes a novel concept for the role and physiological significance of periodic hemodynamics in that it is a condition not characteristic for normal control situations but is activated below a specific local arterial blood pressure and flow threshold, which is known to be the lower end of autoregulation in the microcirculation of rabbit skeletal muscle. This also suggests that slow-wave flow motion is primarily under local control mechanisms.


Most of medical journals now has it's electronic version, available over public networks. Although there are parallel printed and electronic versions, and one other form need not to be simultaneously published. Electronic version of a journal can be published a few weeks before the printed form and must not has identical content. Electronic form of a journals may have an extension that does not contain a printed form, such as animation, 3D display, etc., or may have available fulltext, mostly in PDF or XML format, or just the contents or a summary. Access to a full text is usually not free and can be achieved only if the institution (library or host) enters into an agreement on access. Many medical journals, however, provide free access for some articles, or after a certain time (after 6 months or a year) to complete content. The search for such journals provide the network archive as High Wire Press, Free Medical Journals.com. It is necessary to allocate PubMed and PubMed Central, the first public digital archives unlimited collect journals of available medical literature, which operates in the system of the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda (USA). There are so called on- line medical journals published only in electronic form. It could be searched over on-line databases. In this paper authors shortly described about 30 data bases and short instructions how to make access and search the published papers in indexed medical journals.


Realization of agricultural production complying with the sustainable development principles has resulted in a separate direction – organic farming. Its big difference from all other economy sectors is in its dependence on the natural and climatic conditions. Therefore, agricultural production has a dual nature, namely it depends on the environment health on the one hand, and, on the other hand, directly affects this health through the use of technologies that can both improve and substantially worsen the environmental situation. The institutional support for the organic farming is of great importance. This issue is relevant for scientists from countries, where organic farming is actively developing. In Ukraine, this is also a topical issue. The paper presents a conceptual framework of institutional support for the organic farming development, which includes elements such as state regulation, self-regulation, objects and subjects of organic farming, as well as an organic product market. Legal, informational, infrastructure and financial directions of ensuring the development of organic farming are also defined. The essence of each element is revealed. The main indicators of the organic farming development in Ukraine are analyzed, i.e. the organic farming areas, their proportion in agricultural lands, the number of producers, the volume of the organic market, the volume of organic consumption per capita, as well as the share of domestic organic land in the world's territory. A correlation analysis based on data from the largest world market of the USA made it possible to determine the factors that have the greatest impact on the development of the organic agricultural sector. The number of organic producers is statistically significant, and the share of land in the organic farming does not have a significant impact on the organic product consumption. At the same time, this can be seen from the point of view that the more producers will offer their products, the more saturated the market will be, and therefore the level of the organic products coverage can be greater.


We previously demonstrated that indoxyl sulfate induces senescence and dysfunction of proximal tubular cells by activating p53 expression. However, little is known about the role of nuclear factor (NF)-κB in these processes. The present study examines whether activation (phosphorylation) of NF-κB by indoxyl sulfate promotes senescence and dysfunction in human proximal tubular cells (HK-2 cells). Indoxyl sulfate induced phosphorylation of NF-κB p65 on Ser-276, which was suppressed by N-acetylcysteine, an antioxidant. Furthermore, indoxyl sulfate induced NF-κB p65 expression. Inhibitors of NF-κB (pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate and isohelenin) and NF-κB p65 small interfering RNA (siRNA) suppressed indoxyl sulfate-induced senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity and expression of p53, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1, and α-smoothe muscle actin (SMA). The induction of p53 expression and p53 promoter activity by indoxyl sulfate were inhibited by pifithrin-α, p-nitro, an inhibitor of p53, whereas p53-transfected cells showed enhanced p53 promoter activity. NF-κB inhibitors suppressed indoxyl sulfate-induced p21 expression, whereas NF-κB p65 siRNA enhanced its expression. NF-κB inhibitors partially alleviated indoxyl sulfate-induced inhibition of cellular proliferation. NF-κB p65 siRNA-transfected cells showed less proliferation in the presence of indoxyl sulfate than control cells. Phosphorylated NF-κB p65 was expressed and colocalized with p53, p21, β-galactosidase, TGF-β1, and α-SMA in the kidneys of chronic renal failure (CRF) rats. AST-120, which reduces serum indoxyl sulfate level, suppressed their expression in the CRF rat kidneys. Taken together, NF-κB plays an important role in indoxyl sulfate-induced cellular senescence, fibrotic gene expression, and inhibition of proliferation in proximal tubular cells. More notably, indoxyl sulfate accelerates proximal tubular cell senescence with progression of CRF through reactive oxygen species-NF-κB-p53 pathway.


This article examines Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist art in the context of negative (apophatic) theology, as a crucial tool in analyzing both the artist's theoretical conclusions and his new visual optics. Our analysis rests on the point that the artist intuitively moved towards recognizing the ineffability of the multidimensional universe and perceiving God as the Spiritual Absolute. In his attempt to see the invisible in the formulas of Emptiness and Nothingness, Malevich turned to the primary forms of geometric abstraction—the square, circle and cross—which he endows with symbolic concepts and meanings. Malevich treats his Suprematism as a method of perceiving the ineffability of the Absolute. With the Black Square seen as a face of God, the patterns of negative theology rise to become the philosophical formula of primary importance. Malevich's Mystical Suprematism series (1920–1922) confirms the presence of complex metaphysical reflection and apophatic thought in his art. Not only does the series contain icon paraphrases and the Christian symbolism of the cross and mandorla, but it also advances the formulas of the apophatic faith of the modern times, since Suprematism presents primary forms as the universals of "the face of the future" and the energy of the non-objective art.


We report on the formation of optically active CdTe quantum dots in ZnTe nanowires. The CdTe/ZnTe nanostructures have been grown by a gold nanocatalyst assisted molecular beam epitaxy in a vapor-liquid solid growth process. The presence of CdTe insertions in ZnTe nanowire results in the appearance of a strong photoluminescence band in the 2.0 eV–2.25 eV energy range. Spatially resolved photoluminescence measurements reveal that this broad emission consists of several sharp lines with the spectral width of about 2 meV. The large degree of linear polarization of these individual emission lines confirms their nanowire origin, whereas the zero-dimensional confinement is proved by photon correlation spectroscopy.


In this paper, utilizing maps between cyclic groups contained in a finite field, two efficient methods for compressing a Tate pairing defined on a supersingular elliptic curve with prime characteristic p and MOV degree 3 are presented. They compress a pairing value from a string of length of 6logp bits to ones of 3logp and 2logp bits, respectively, and an implementation for both the compressed pairings makes use of the codes for the optimized algorithm of the original pairing and no new code is needed. Both the compressed pairings achieve the speed of the original implementation.


Drug resistance (DR) remains a global challenge in tuberculosis (TB) control. In order to develop molecular-based diagnostic methods to replace the traditional culture-based diagnostics, there is a need for a thorough understanding of the processes that govern TB drug resistance. The use of whole-genome sequencing coupled with statistical and computational methods has shown great potential in unraveling the complexity of the evolution of DR-TB. In this study, we took an innovative approach that sought to determine nonrandom associations between polymorphic sites in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) genomes. Attributable risk statistics were applied to identify the epistatic determinants of DR in different clades of Mtb and the possible evolutionary pathways of DR development. It was found that different lineages of Mtb exploited different evolutionary trajectories towards multidrug resistance and compensatory evolution to reduce the DR-associated fitness cost. Epistasis of DR acquisition is a new area of research that will aid in the better understanding of evolutionary biological processes and allow predicting upcoming multidrug-resistant pathogens before a new outbreak strikes humanity.


I feel I cannot let Professor George's paper pass without raising my voice in protest, however feeble, against his introduction of the term "strike-slip" in place of "tear-fault". As long ago as 1925 J. W. Evans (Q.J.G.S. lxxi, p. lxxx) used the term "slip" or "slip-fault" for a tensional fault due to vertical forces; and in this sense the term was perpetuated by the present writer (Geol. Mag. lxvi, 1929, pp. 345-7). Professor George now proposes to use the word in a totally different sense for a purely horizontal movement, and in doing so gives us no less than seven different names for the same thing—tear-fault, strike-slip, transcurrent fault, transverse thrust, wrench-fault, flaw and the German "blatt". Several other terms have also been used which have not come into common usage in this country. The "strike-slip" of a fault was a term introduced by American authors and perpetuated by Challoner (Geol. Mag. lxx, 1933, p. 386) and others in this country for a definite measurement on the fault surface, representing the resolved component along the strike of the fault of a movement which had taken place not in the direction of the maximum dip of the fault, but obliquely to it. Its use as descriptive term for a class of faults showing horizontal movement only is to be deprecated, and more especially so as the strike-slip refers to the strike of the fault, whereas the ordinary terms "dip-fault" and "strike-fault" refer to the dip and strike of the strata. I


ways is a consequence of the assumption that every interpretation is either "inhaltlich" or "konventionalistisch." This assumption, in turn, is based on the metaphysical doctrine that all knowledge is "inhaltlich." But this doctrine is self-contradictory; if you knew that the statement "Es gibt nicht nur inhaltliches Wissen" were false, you would possess a knowledge that was not "inhaltlich." In the author's opinion, symbolic logic is a system of "nicht-inhaltliche oder formale Aussagen." What "inhaltlich" and "formal," as here used, mean, is left unexplained. ANDERS WEDBEEG


In the process of shopping behavior, consumer decisions are influenced by a wide range of factors as well as the decisions of the consumer himself. In this article, attention is paid to consumer literacy. It interacts in the range of psychographic factors of motivation, perception, learning, belief and attitudes to the extent that the consumer makes a conscious decision about the preferences of the product, its quality or brand. Cultivating consumer literacy enables the consumer to make informed choices. There are not only benefits on the site of the consumer, but also on the site of the producer, or even the whole industry. The aim of the paper is to identify the importance of consumer literacy in the purchase of bee honey in the context of its fraud. The article identifies unfair practices of honey fraud and devaluing its nutritional value. These are currently a common practice, reflected in the reduced quality of honey offered on the Slovak and world markets. The paper is based on the findings of a honey quality survey carried out by the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Slovak Academy of Science and the measures of the world organization of beekeeping associations Apimondia on honey fraud. Subsequently, measures are proposed to increase consumer literacy when buying bee honey.


Micro-filters fabricated using integration methods is now the trend for multichannel filters in imaging spectrum systems. Traditional multichannel bandpass filters are mainly fabricated separately by multilayered thin films and then glued together. This approach involves the complexity of precision cutting, dicing, and adhesive bonding; therefore, the possibility of miniaturization is quite limited. In this work, a dual channel bandpass thin film filter for the mid-infrared was fabricated by using the lift-off process. The structure of a 4-cavity Fabray–Perot (F-P) type filter was designed and optimized. The bandpass filter over the range 3.55–3.75 µm with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 274 nm and the bandpass filter over the range 4.85–4.95 µm with FWHM of 246 nm were obtained with a 4.5 µm joint width. The average transmittance of the filters is more than 83.5% and optical density value of the cutoff is 3. The thickness of 3.55–3.75 µm bandpass filter was measured and the thickness error was analyzed. The results show that the thickness error, especially the thickness error of spacer layers, induces the degradations of peak transmission and bandwidth. This kind of mid-infrared filter has important application in space remote sensing, military, and civil fields.


This paper evaluates two-dimensional turbo product codes based on single-parity check codes (TPC/SPC) and low-density parity check (LDPC) codes for use in digital magnetic recording systems. It is first shown that the combination of a TPC/SPC code and a precoded partial response (PR) channel results in a good distance spectrum due to the interleaving gain. Then, density evolution is used to compute the thresholds for TPC/SPC codes and LDPC codes over PR channels. Analysis shows that TPC/SPC codes have a performance close to that of LDPC codes for large codeword lengths. Simulation results for practical block lengths show that TPC/SPC codes perform as well as LDPC codes in terms of bit error rate, but possess better burst error statistics which is important in the presence of an outer Reed-Solomon code. Further, the encoding complexity of TPC/SPC codes is only linear in the codeword length and the generator matrix does not have to be stored explicitly. Based on. the results in the paper and these advantages, TPC/SPC codes seem like a viable alternative to LDPC codes.


Cosmological N-body simulations are essential for studies of the large-scale distribution of matter and galaxies in the Universe. This analysis often involves finding clusters of particles and retrieving their properties. Detecting such "halos" among a very large set of particles is a computationally intensive problem, usually executed on the same super-computers that produced the simulations, requiring huge amounts of memory. Recently, a new area of computer science emerged. This area, called streaming algorithms, provides new theoretical methods to compute data analytics in a scalable way using only a single pass over a data sets and logarithmic memory. The main contribution of this paper is a novel connection between the N-body simulations and the streaming algorithms. In particular, we investigate a link between halo finders and the problem of finding frequent items (heavy hitters) in a data stream, that should greatly reduce the computational resource requirements, especially the memory needs. Based on this connection, we can build a new halo finder by running efficient heavy hitter algorithms as a black-box. We implement two representatives of the family of heavy hitter algorithms, the Count-Sketch algorithm (CS) and the Pick-and-Drop sampling (PD), and evaluate their accuracy and memory usage. Comparison with other halo-finding algorithms from [1] shows that our halo finder can locate the largest haloes using significantly smaller memory space and with comparable running time. This streaming approach makes it possible to run and analyze extremely large data sets from N-body simulations on a smaller machine, rather than on supercomputers. Our findings demonstrate the connection between the halo search problem and streaming algorithms as a promising initial direction of further research.


Cilnidipine and Valsartan in combined dosage form has been developed and validated. Sample and standard solutions of Cilnidipine and Valsartan were applied to precoated silica gel G 60 F254 HPTLC plates and the plates were developed with Toluene: Methanol: Ethyl acetate: Glacial Acetic acid in the ratio 8:1:1:0.1 (v/v/v/v) as mobile phase. The Rf value for cilnidipine and Valsartan was found to be 0.29 min and 0.56 min respectively. The detection was performed at 240 nm. The calibration curve was found to be linear between 1000 to 6000 ng/band for cilnidipine and 8-48 μg/band for Valsartan with correlation coefficients 0.993 and 0.993 for Cilnidipine and Valsartan respectively. Accuracy and precision of the proposed method was evaluated by recovery studies (% recovery for Valsartan and Cilnidipine was 99.03 % and 99.86 %).The results have been validated statistically as per ICH guidelines.

Keywords: Validation, Valsartan, Cilnidipine, HPTLC


In a previous report we described a human allo-antiserum which showed MHC restricted dual specific inhibition of mixed leukocyte culture (MLC) reactions (de Rooij et al. 1980). Responder cells were preincubated with the antiserum and washed. Inhibition of MLC reactions occurred if HLA-B8 positive responder cells and HLA-B7 or B40 positive stimulator cells were used. The mechanism of inhibition by this antiserum was investigated and described in this report. The results strongly suggested that the observed inhibition was due to HLA-B7 specific antibody molecules cross-reacting with HLA-B8 antigens. We decided on the following mechanism: HLA-B7 specific antibody molecules bind to HLA-B8 antigens on responder cells at 4 degrees C. Bound antibody molecules area readily released at 37 degrees C and the bind preferentially to HLA-B7 or -B40 positive stimulator cells. Stimulator cells are then lysed by antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), resulting in impaired MLC reaction. This conclusion was derived from the following observations: 1. HLA-B7 positive cells could be lysed due to antibody molecules bound to B8 positive cells: a. Cells coated with antibody molecules lysed B7 or B40 positive target cells. b. Antibody molecules released from B8 positive cells lysed B7 or B40 positive target cells in ADCC. 2. The active antibody molecules were HLA-B7 specific: a. The inhibiting antibody molecules in the antiserum could be absorbed on and eluted from HLA-B7 positive platelets (de Rooij et al. 1980). b. Antibody molecules bound to and released from HLA-B8 positive cells carried the same B7 specific inhibiting and cytotoxic activity as the original antiserum. 3. The site of recognition on HLA-B8 positive cells is the HLA-B8 antigen: a. F(ab')2 preparations from HLA-B8 and -Bw6 specific antisera inhibited antibody binding to B8 positive cells. b. Antibody binding was not restricted to B, T, FcR+, FcR- or non adherent cell subpopulations. 4. The antibody molecules bind to B8 positive cells with the antigen binding site and not with the Fc part of the molecule: a. Antibody binding could be blocked partially with a F(ab')2 preparation from the original antiserum but not with a Fc preparation. b. The antigen binding site of antibody molecules bound to HLA-B8 positive cells was not freely available, since the MLC inhibiting activity of sensitised B8 positive cells could not be blocked by soluble HLA-B7 antigens. c. The antiserum was cytotoxic for HLA-B8 positive target cells in ADCC. The observed inhibition of MLC by antibody molecules with apparent dual specificity is thus the consequence of a shared or a similar antigenic determinant of HLA-B7 and HLA-B8 antigen molecules.


BACKGROUND
Plasmodium vivax infections contribute to a significant proportion of the malaria infections in many countries. Primaquine is the most widely used drug for treating the dormant liver stage. Different primaquine dosing regimens are in use.

OBJECTIVES
To compare primaquine regimens for preventing relapses in people with P. vivax malaria.

SEARCH STRATEGY
In 2006, we searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group's Specialized Register (January), CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 3), MEDLINE (October), EMBASE (January), LILACS (January). We also checked conference proceedings and reference lists, and contacted researchers, the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria mailing lists, and pharmaceutical companies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials comparing primaquine plus chloroquine with chloroquine alone, and the standard primaquine regimen (15 mg/day for 14 days) with other primaquine-containing regimens in people with vivax malaria.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
All authors independently assessed trial eligibility and quality, and extracted data. We calculated odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for dichotomous data, and used the random-effects model if there was significant heterogeneity.

MAIN RESULTS
Nine trials (3423 participants) met the inclusion criteria. Compared with chloroquine alone, five-day primaquine plus chloroquine was no better at preventing relapses (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.69, random-effects model; 2104 participants; 3 trials), while 14-day primaquine plus chloroquine was significantly better (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.45, random-effects model; 1071 participants, 6 trials). Limited data suggest the advantage for the 14-day primaquine regimen persisted for over six months (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.60; 585 participants, 2 trials). Direct comparisons of the 14-day and five-day primaquine plus chloroquine regimens also confirm the superiority of the longer course (OR 13.33, 95% CI 3.45 to 51.44; 186 participants, 2 trials). Adverse effects were poorly reported, with three trials reporting skin rash, vertigo, headache, abdominal pain and/or nausea, and two trials reporting that primaquine was well tolerated.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Primaquine (15 mg/kg/day for 14 days) plus chloroquine is more effective than chloroquine alone or primaquine (15 mg/kg for 5 days) plus chloroquine in preventing relapses of vivax malaria. Primaquine (five days) plus chloroquine appears no better than chloroquine. Countries should follow the WHO's recommendation for 14-day primaquine plus chloroquine regimen. Alternative regimens need to be evaluated in randomized controlled trials, which should also consider variations in regional P. vivax strains and the possibility of primaquine resistance, reinfection, and adherence in those who relapse.


Russia's entry into the top five economies of the world depends, among other things, on the development of the financial sector, being a necessary condition for the economic growth of a developed macroeconomic and macro-financial system. The financial sector represents a system of relationships for the effective collection and distribution of economic resources, their deployment according to public demand, reducing the risk of overproduction and overheating of the economy. Therefore, the subject of the research is the financial sector of the Russian economy. The purpose of the research was to formulate an approach to alleviating the risks of increasing financial costs in the real sector of the economy by reducing the impact of endogenous risks expressed as financial asset "bubbles" using the experience of developed countries in the monetary policy. The paper analyzes a macroeconomic model applied to the financial sector. It is established that the economic growth is determined by the growth and, more important, the qualitative development of the financial sector, which leads to two phenomena: overproduction in the real sector and an increase in asset prices in the financial sector, with a debt load in both the real and financial sectors. This results in decreasing the interest rate of the mega-regulator to near-zero values. In this case, since the mechanisms of the conventional monetary policy do not work, the unconventional monetary policy is used when the mega-regulator buys out derivative financial instruments from systemically important institutions. As a conclusion, given deflationally low rates, it is proposed that the megaregulator should issue its own derivative financial instruments and place them in the financial market.


Hydatidosis is a parasitic zoonosis caused by Echinococcus Granulosus, its life cycle includes dogs, sheep and others; liver involvement is the most frequent (65%-75%), followed by the lung (10%-25%), in Peru the pulmonary location is 60%. Its signs and symptoms are produced by the mass effect, its superinfection or anaphylactic reactions secondary to its rupture. We present the case of a 24-year-old insulin-dependent patient with type I diabetes mellitus, hypertension and diabetic retinopathy with bilateral pulmonary hydatidosis. A cystectomy was performed without complications and a lobectomy that was complicated with admission to the ICU until the death of the patient. Diabetes mellitus causes a state of immunosuppression which caused the advanced state of the patient's parasitosis, as well as being related to multiple intra- and postoperative complications and even leading to the death of the patient.


This paper analyzes Chilean research and development (R&D) policy. To do so, it describes the institutions responsible for policy design and implementation as well as those which conduct R&D. In addition, it addresses the R&D policy and the instruments used to carry it out. The analysis is based on market failures justifying State intervention in R&D. The policy instruments used in Chile respond broadly speaking to market failures in R&D. Where there is a greater deficit is at the institutional level as there are many institutions, which are in no way interrelated, that are responsible for defining and conducting the science and technology policy.


The role of cobalt deficiency on the crystal structure, surface chemistry, and electrochemical performance of Ni-rich layered LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) positive electrode materials was experimentally studied possibly for the first time. We synthesized pristine and cobalt-deficient NCM811 samples by solid-state reaction. Using a variety of characterization techniques and electrochemical measurements, we show that cobalt nonstoichiometry can suppress Ni2+/Li+ cation mixing, but can simultaneously promote the formation of oxygen vacancies, leading to rapid capacity fade and inferior rate capability compared to pristine NCM811. This study provides new insights into the effects of cobalt deficiency on the cation mixing and electrochemical performance of a Ni-rich layered NCM compound.


Dental plaque values determined immediately after consuming Sorbitol-containing chocolates were significantly lower than those after consuming Saccharose containing chocolate. These data support indirectly the results of clinical experiments concerning the reduced cariogenicity of Sorbitol-containing sweets.


This study investigated whether rosiglitazone might increase or reduce dementia risk. Taiwan's National Health Insurance database was used to enroll a cohort of 1:1 matched-pairs of ever and never users of rosiglitazone based on propensity score from patients with new-onset type 2 diabetes during 1999-2006. The patients were alive on January 1, 2007 and were followed up for dementia until December 31, 2011. A total of 5,048 pairs of never users and ever users were identified. The incident case numbers were 127 and 121, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio for ever versus never users was 0.895 (95% confidence interval: 0.696-1.151). The adjusted hazard ratios for the first (<12.1 months), second (12.1-25.1 months) and third (>25.1 months) tertiles of cumulative duration of rosiglitazone therapy were 0.756 (0.509-1.123), 0.964 (0.685-1.357) and 0.949 (0.671-1.341), respectively. When cumulative duration was treated as a continuous variable, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.000 (0.992-1.008). Subgroup analyses conducted in ever users and never users of metformin and in patients diagnosed with diabetes during three different periods of time, i.e., 1999-2000, 2001-2003 and 2004-2006, all supported a neutral effect of rosiglitazone. In conclusion, rosiglitazone does not increase or redcue the risk of dementia.


This report describes the game structures implemented in the TOCSIN project to find self-enforcing and stable international environmental agreements. It presents the first results obtained with the use of these models. The document starts with a review of the different approaches that have been proposed in the literature to represent in a game theoretic framework the concept of self-enforcing or stable international environmental agreement.


Hyperspectral remote sensing is a prominent research topic in data processing. Most of the spectral unmixing algorithms are developed by adopting the linear mixing models. Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) and its developments are used widely for estimation of signatures and fractional abundances in the SU problem. Sparsity constraints was added to NMF, and was regularized by Lq norm. In this paper, at first hyperspectral images are clustered by fuzzy c-means method, and then a new algorithm based on sparsity constrained distributed optimization is used for spectral unmixing. In the proposed algorithm, a network including clusters is employed. Each pixel in the hyperspectral images considered as a node in this network. The proposed algorithm is optimized with diffusion LMS strategy, and then the update equations for fractional abundance and signature matrices are obtained. Simulation results based on defined performance metrics illustrate advantage of the proposed algorithm in spectral unmixing of hyperspectral data compared with other methods.


The effectiveness of serum CEA (56 cases), CA-19-9 (53 cases) and TPA (48 cases) in patients with colorectal cancer has been evaluated. The preoperative sensitivity and specificity of CEA and CA 19-9 were found to be almost the same in level but the level of TPA was low. In 20 cases recurrent, the sensitivity of the marker was 66.7% in the liver, 60% in the lung, and 66.7% in the local recurrence of primary foci. In these recurrent cases, serum CEA in initially elevated to 65%, CA 19-9 to 25%, and TPA to only 10%. In diagnostic rate imaging or in our clinical findings, however, the frequency was almost the same as tumor markers.


This work deals with predictions of mortality in landslide disasters by concepts of QZL4 (Quantitative Risk Assessment), widely used in the chemical industry, with proper orientation towards the geotechnical practice. These concepts are further coupled to the principle of maximum entropy to enhance rational predictions of mortality in single slopes, whereas a distribution of extremes is used to predict extreme mortality in multiple slopes. Accordingly, statistically consistent criteria leading to simple formulae for practical applications are presented in this work, based upon the development of specific probability distributions to predict the range of expected mortality in single slopes and the extreme mortality within a region comprising multiple slopes, These are useful information for implementation of preventive actions by civil defense and public safety authorities to reduce fatalities in landslide disasters. Practical applications include predictions of fatalities in landslides in Canada, Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro,


No information is available in the literature about the influence of temperature (T) on Penicillium and Aspergillus spp. growth and mycotoxin production on cheese rinds. The aim of this work was to: (i) study fungal ecology on cheese in terms of T requirements, focusing on the partitioning of mycotoxins between the rind and mycelium; and (ii) validate predictive models previously developed by in vitro trials. Grana cheese rind blocks were inoculated with A. versicolor, P. crustosum, P. nordicum, P. roqueforti, and P. verrucosum, incubated at different T regimes (10–30 °C, step 5 °C) and after 14 days the production of mycotoxins (ochratoxin A (OTA); sterigmatocystin (STC); roquefortine C (ROQ-C), mycophenolic acid (MPA), Pr toxin (PR-Tox), citrinin (CIT), cyclopiazonic acid (CPA)) was quantified. All the fungi grew optimally around 15–25 °C and produced the expected mycotoxins (except MPA, Pr-Tox, and CIT). The majority of the mycotoxins produced remained in the mycelium (~90%) in three out of five fungal species (P. crustosum, P. nordicum, and P. roqueforti); the opposite occurred for A. versicolor and P. verrucosum with 71% and 58% of STC and OTA detected in cheese rind, respectively. Available predictive models fitted fungal growth on the cheese rind well, but validation was not possible for mycotoxins because they were produced in a very narrow T range.


Document clustering is related to data clustering concept which is one of data mining tasks and unsupervised classification. It is often applied to the huge data in order to make a partition based on their similarity. Initially, it used for Information Retrieval in order to improve the precision and recall from query. It is very easy to cluster with small data attributes which contains of important items. Furthermore, document clustering is very useful in retrieve information application in order to reduce the consuming time and get high precision and recall. Therefore, we propose to integrate the information retrieval method and document clustering as concept space approach. The method is known as Latent Semantic Index (LSI) approach which used Singular Vector Decomposition (SVD) or Principle Component Analysis (PCA). The aim of this method is to reduce the matrix dimension by finding the pattern in document collection with refers to concurrent of the terms. Each method is implemented to weight of term-document in vector space model (VSM) for document clustering using fuzzy c-means algorithm. Besides reduction of term-document matrix, this research also uses the cosine similarity measurement as replacement of Euclidean distance to involve in fuzzy c-means. And as a result, the performance of the proposed method is better than the existing method with f-measure around 0.91 and entropy around 0.51.


In an interview, Marcia Lei Zeng, Professor of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, discusses her education, career path, important trends and their implications for digital libraries. Her professional interests are highlighted beginning in the early part of her career with indexing, classification, and information retrieval, and continuing with more recent interests in metadata and knowledge organization systems.


This descriptive study aimed to determine the extent of awareness of various stakeholders on the Vision and Mission Statements of Cavite State University, Teacher Education Department Goals, and Education Program Objectives (VMGO), the acceptability level of the VMGO statements of the University, and the level of perception on the VMGO's congruency and alignment to curricular education activities, operations, and projects. The study which was conducted at Cavite State University Imus Campus was able to yield data from 817 internal and external stakeholders.
Results reveal that both the internal and external stakeholders are highly aware of the VMGO of the University and its dissemination in various forms of media. Moreover, they highly understand and accept the VMGO statements. Likewise, their perceptions include strong agreement that the VMGO statements are clearly stated and highly congruent and aligned with the University policies and curricular activities of the Teacher Education Department programs.


The framework of conflict of law rules in relation to insurance contracts in the European Union is notorious for its complexity. The rules are spread over various Directives and the Rome Convention, and are inconsistent. However, an important development that should improve the current state of affairs is the bringing about of Regulation No 593/2008 on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations, which will replace the Rome Convention, on 17 June 2008. As of 17 December 2009, it will replace the Rome Convention for contracts concluded after this date. The Rome I Regulation includes new conflict of law rules for insurance contracts in Article 7. This contribution will focus on the new conflict rules for insurance contracts, as laid down in Article 7 Rome I. Firstly, the current system of the conflict of laws on insurance is presented in order to illustrate its complexity; these rules also served as the basis for and are partly incorporated in the new rule of Rome I. Secondly, the coming about of the Rome I Regulation and the difficulties in relation to insurance matters is discussed. Thirdly, the new conflict of law rules for insurance contracts provided in Article 7 Rome I are analyzed. It is concluded that the new rule in Article 7 is disappointing. Though it brings nearly all insurance contracts under the the Rome Convention, and in this sense leads to more transparency, the division over contracts covered by Article 7 and those covered by the general rules, as well as the complexity of Article 7 itself, still result in a difficult and unintelligible system. Rather than removing the current divergences, the introduction of Article 7 mainly conceals them. It may be hoped that on the occasion of the evaluation of the Rome I Regulation, the conflict rules on insurance contracts will be carefully reconsidered.


In this work we present a new family of options (mirror options) specially crafted to satisfy the necessities of aggressive speculators. The main ideas behind mirror options are: 1) A product that can be adjusted by the holder to agree with his/her market view at any time during its life. 2) The holder's right to make an arbitrary number of those adjustments without penalizing costs. After defining mirror options as 'super-versions' of standard options we derive general formulae for their value in the case where the payoff is a monotonic function of the underlying (which is the case in calls, puts, futures, spreads etc.). We briefly discuss also their valuation for general payoffs and the American case. Finally we analyze the situation where the number of allowed adjustments is restricted and we point out directions for further developments.


OBJECTIVE The prevailing hypothesis that early subclinical small-fiber injury precedes large-fiber damage in diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSP) is based on lower intraepithelial nerve fiber density in type 2 prediabetic patients despite normal nerve conduction studies (NCSs). We aimed to confirm the same hypothesis in type 1 diabetic patients by examining whether: 1) subjects without DSP include a spectrum with both normal and abnormal small-fiber measures and 2) subjects with DSP have concurrent evidence of abnormal small-fiber measures. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A healthy control population (n = 53) was used to generate threshold values for four small-fiber tests: cooling detection thresholds (CDTs), laser Doppler imaging of heat-evoked flare (LDIflare), heart rate variability (HRV), and corneal confocal microscopy. Based on NCS results, type 1 diabetic patients (n = 131) were dichotomized according to the presence or absence of DSP. RESULTS Threshold values derived from healthy control subjects were 26.5°C, 1.4 cm2, 13%, and 12.9 mm/mm2 for CDT, LDIflare, HRV, and corneal nerve fiber length, respectively. Among type 1 diabetic patients, 57 of 131 had evidence of DSP, and 74 of 133 did not. Using abnormality of any small-fiber test to define small-fiber dysfunction, 55 of 57 (96.5%) DSP patients and 39 of 74 (52.7%) control subjects without DSP had concurrent small-fiber damage. The severity of small-fiber abnormalities worsened with an increasing number of NCS abnormalities (ANOVA, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Our findings in type 1 diabetes support the prevailing hypothesis that small-fiber dysfunction occurs early in DSP. However, further research is required to determine which combination of small-fiber tests is most suitable as a surrogate marker in clinical trials.


A review is presented of major developments infleuncing the conduct, in engineering practice, of settlement analyses for buildings on saturated clays. Beginning with Terzaghi's theory of consolidation, the significant guidelines to this study are delineated. Within this framework, contributions to the ASCE Conference on Design of Foundations for Control of Settlement are examined. Even in this barest outline a number of controversial issues can be noted. A great need exists for field data and research investigations on the settlement of foundations on sands and partially saturated clays. /Author/


Objective. The objective is to analyze the features of sensitization to food allergens in vegetarian children. Methods: 210 children aged from 3 months to 17 years and 11 months old: vegetarians with at least 6 months vegetarian experience (n = 129) and children receiving a traditional diet (n = 81) were examined. The level of specific immunoglobulin E of blood serum to cow milk protein, soy, beef, pork, chicken, fish (cod), egg white and wheat was determined. Results: The rate of sensitization to food allergen in vegetarian children did not statistically differ from that of a comparison group (18.6 against 17.3 %, p>0.05). The correlation analysis showed a slight association between vegetarian diet and the level of specific immunoglobulin E only for soy protein (r = 0.22, p<0.05). Conclusions: The obtained results speak of higher risk of sensitization to soy in vegetarian children.


In the context of adaptive query processing (AQP), several techniques have been proposed for dynamically adapting/redistributing processor load assignments throughout a computation to take account of varying resource capabilities. The effectiveness of these techniques depends heavily on when and to what they adapt processor load assignments, particularly in the presence of varying load imbalance. This paper presents a probabilistic approach to decide when and to what to adapt processor load assignments. Using a simulation based evaluation, it is compared to two other approaches already reported. These two approaches are simpler in their decision making than the probabilistic approach, but the latter performs better under several scenarios of load imbalance.


Dysfunction in mitochondrial dynamics is believed to contribute to a host of neurological disorders and has recently been implicated in cancer metastasis. The outer mitochondrial membrane adapter protein Miro functions in the regulation of mitochondrial mobility and degradation, however, the structural basis for its roles in mitochondrial regulation remain unknown. Here, we report a 1.7Å crystal structure of N-terminal GTPase domain (nGTPase) of human Miro1 bound unexpectedly to GTP, thereby revealing a non-catalytic configuration of the putative GTPase active site. We identify two conserved surfaces of the nGTPase, the "SELFYY" and "ITIP" motifs, that are potentially positioned to mediate dimerization or interaction with binding partners. Additionally, we report small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data obtained from the intact soluble HsMiro1 and its paralog HsMiro2. Taken together, the data allow modeling of a crescent-shaped assembly of the full-length soluble domain of HsMiro1/2. PDB reference Crystal structure of the human Miro1 N-terminal GTPase bound to GTP, 6D71


The Ottawa Ankle Rule shows the areas of tenderness to be evaluated in ankle trauma patients to determine the need for imaging.


ABSTRACT Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia but is undoubtedly underdiagnosed. Isolation of S. pneumoniae from blood is specific but lacks sensitivity, while isolation of S. pneumoniae from sputum may represent colonization. We evaluated a new immunochromatographic test (NOW S. pneumoniae urinary antigen test; Binax, Portland, Maine) that is simple to perform and that can detect S. pneumoniae antigen in urine within 15 min. Urine samples from 420 adults with community-acquired pneumonia and 169 control patients who did not have pneumonia were tested. Urine from 315 (75%) of the pneumonia patients and all controls was tested both before and after 25-fold concentration, while the remaining 105 samples were only tested without concentration. S. pneumoniae urinary antigen tests were positive for 120 (29%) patients with pneumonia and for none of the controls. Of the urine samples tested with and without concentration, 96 were positive, of which 6 were positive only after concentration. S. pneumoniae antigen was detected in the urine from 16 of the 20 (80%) patients with blood cultures positive for S. pneumoniae and from 28 of the 54 (52%) patients with sputum cultures positive for S. pneumoniae. The absence of S. pneumoniae antigen in the urine from controls suggests that the specificity is high. Concentration of urine prior to testing resulted in a small increase in yield. The NOW S. pneumoniae urinary antigen test should be a useful adjunct to culture for determining the etiology of community-acquired pneumonia in adults.


Each time we meet a new person, we draw inferences based on our impressions. The first thing we are likely to notice is a person's face. The face functions as one source of information, which we combine with the spoken word, body language, past experience, and the context of the situation to form judgments. Facial expressions serve as pieces of information we use to understand what another person is thinking, saying, or feeling. While there is strong support for the universality of emotion recognition, the ability to identify and interpret facial expressions varies by individual. Existing scales fail to include the dynamicity of the face. Five studies are proposed to examine the viability of the Facial Expression Intelligence Scale (FEIS) to measure individual ability to identify and interpret facial expressions. Consumer behavior implications are discussed.


As an essential component of a servo system, mechanical properties of high precision planetary servo gearhead direct influence on the validation, stability and accuracy of the servo control system. However, mechanical properties measurement and assessment for high precision planetary servo gearhead is a time-consuming and tedious work, since current methodologies typically rely on various different specified systems. An integrated multifunctional measurement system SFJC-I is developed, which employs a torque sensor and a laser displacement transducer to simultaneously measure torque applied on servo gearhead and its corresponding torsional deformation. The measurement system depends on the accurate measurement of the relative displacement between input clamping system and output shaft of servo gearhead with a lever-type enlarging mechanism, rather than traditional optical dividing head and optical multisurface prism. Using interchangeable fixture system, the developed system capability to measure almost all series and specifications of high precision planetary servo gearhead is demonstrated. With proposed hardware platform configuration and developed measuring software, mechanical properties such as backlash, torsional stiffness, hysteresis plot and emergency stop torque, can be measured accurately and assessed reliably. A torsion test with standard circular specimen is carried out with the multifunctional measurement system. The result of test shows that the measurement error is within ±3σ and the measurement reliability is more than 99.97%. The problem of accurate measurement and reliable assessment of mechanical properties for high precision planetary servo gearhead is fully solved with the developed multifunctional measurement system.


OBJECTIVE
To report ophthalmic findings in the Screech owl (Megascops asio). Sample population Twenty-three, apparently healthy adult captive Screech owls in Maryland.

PROCEDURES
OU of all owls underwent complete ophthalmic examination. One randomly assigned eye of each bird was measured by phenol red thread tear test (PRT), and the other eye by Schirmer tear test (STT). TonoVet rebound tonometry and TonoPen-XL applanation tonometry were performed in each eye to measure IOP. Conjunctival swabs were cultured from one eye of 10 birds, corneal diameter was measured in OU of eight birds, and streak retinoscopy was performed on OU of seven birds. Ten birds were anesthetized, and A-scan ultrasonography using a 15-MHz probe was performed to obtain axial intraocular measurements.

RESULTS
Ophthalmic abnormalities were noted in 24/46 (52%) of eyes. Median STT result was < or = 2 mm/min, ranging < or = 2-6 mm/min, and mean +/- SD PRT was 15 +/- 4.3 mm/15 s. Mean +/- SD IOP were 9 +/- 1.8 mmHg TonoVet-P, 14 +/- 2.4 mmHg TonoVet-D, and 11 +/- 1.9 mmHg TonoPen-XL. Coagulase negative staphylococcal organisms were cultured from all conjunctival swabs. Mean +/- SD corneal dimensions were 14.5 +/- 0.5 mm vertically and 15.25 +/- 0.5 mm horizontally. All refracted birds were within one diopter of emmetropia. Mean +/- SD axial distance from the cornea to the anterior lens capsule was 4.03 +/- 0.3 mm, from cornea to the posterior lens capsule was 10.8 +/- 0.5 mm, and from cornea to sclera was 20.33 +/- 0.6 mm.

CONCLUSIONS
This study reports ophthalmic examination findings in Screech owls, and provide means and ranges for various ocular measurements. This is the first report of rebound tonometry and PRT in owls.


The current systematic review aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of dabrafenib–trametinib with those of other therapeutic alternatives in the treatment of patients with unresectable advanced/metastatic melanoma with BRAF‐V600 mutation. The search was carried out on four databases up to July 2018. Two separate network meta‐analyses (NMA) were performed using the frequentist method (random effects): one with an exclusive population with BRAF‐V600 mutation (NMA‐pBRAFV600) and another with mixed population (with or without the mutation: NMA‐pMixed). An evidence profile was included using the GRADE method for NMA. The validity of the final estimator in the NMA‐pMixed was assessed via a sensitivity analysis. Nine clinical trials were included in the NMA‐pBRAFV600. Dabrafenib–trametinib was found to have a favorable effect on overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS) compared with dabrafenib, vemurafenib, and dacarbazine and on partial response rate (PRR) and overall response rate compared with dacarbazine and vemurafenib. In the NMA‐pMixed, dabrafenib–trametinib was found to have a positive effect on OS versus ipilimumab 3 mg/kg and on PFS and PRR versus ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab. However, dabrafenib–trametinib and vemurafenib–cobimetinib significantly differed in terms of efficacy. In addition, dabrafenib–trametinib has a favorable effect on Grades 3 and 4 adverse events.


More business loans today lack traditional covenants governing borrowers. Does that leave banks with fewer tools to ward off default?


Community healthcare agents are strategic professionals in delivery of Primary Healthcare activities. This article reflects on the role of continuing education in healthcare as a strategic element in ensuring the occupational health of community healthcare agents faced with combating and managing coronavirus 19 disease (COVID-19). In the current scenario, the work of community healthcare agents is undergoing daily reconstruction of professional practice in order to keep pace with the living territories to which they are assigned. Continuing education in healthcare enables construction of feasible scenarios that make problem solving possible, involving a constant reflective analytical perception of professional practices, permitting (re)construction of social skills such as the capacity to mobilize and motivate other actors to participate in political action. Through problematization, identification of needs, and questioning, continuing education in healthcare leads to (de)construction of the working practices of the very actors who are delivering care. Furthermore, continuing education in healthcare reaffirms the importance of the social, technical, and political training of community healthcare agents, thereby confirming their right to dignified and quality work. In a pandemic scenario, an agenda focused on continuing education in healthcare is essential to the continuity of care delivery to communities, facilitating expansion of access to the right to health.


Abstract Objective: Endothelial dysfunction is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events. We aimed to investigate the relationship between endothelial dysfunction and gestational diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance. Methods: Pregnant women who had impaired glucose metabolism in the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and their age- and body mass index-matched controls were included in the study and assessed for flow-mediated vasodilatation to evaluate endothelial dysfunction. Results: A total of 51 patients participated in the study. There were 20 patients in the control group, 13 in the impaired glucose tolerance group and 18 in the gestational diabetes mellitus group. Flow-mediated vasodilatation measured at the 60th and 120th seconds were significantly lower in the impaired glucose tolerance and gestational diabetes mellitus groups than in the control group (8.5 ± 5.7 and 8.9 ± 6.5 versus 14.9 ± 9.0, p = 0.022 and 6.2 ± 6.7 and 5.2 ± 5.0 versus 12.0 ± 8.3, p = 0.011, respectively). Conclusions: Patients with gestational diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance have impaired endothelial dysfunction. Delivery might have protective effects on endothelial functions. The significance of impaired endothelial dysfunction for pregnant women must be investigated, and if needed, lifestyle changes might be suggested, according to the determined importance of the endothelial dysfunction.


A procedure to suppress the ambiguity in the complex dielectric permittivity which arises when using the short-circuited line method is described. Results of the procedure for several organic liquids with low and high losses are presented.


This comprehensive article reviews some of the most common injuries to the ear, nose, and throat, and in addition reviews the relative anatomy of this area of the body. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of the patient with epistaxis, a common presentation to the Emergency Department.


Customer relationship management CRM is essential for the future of the company. The CRM technologies enable the company to realize the best consumer behavior, predict their behavior in the future, thereby offering products to suit their preferences and creating long-term relationships with them. Strategic integration of CRM philosophy in the processes and culture of the company is required to provide services with superior value to the customers and creating loyal customers. As loyal customers are the most important asset of the companies they have directed their attention to retention customers and loyalty programs. The main goal is to create added value for customers, which in turn will bring increased benefits for the company. Creating consumer loyalty is essential for the survival of the company in the highly competitive markets. So it is important to emphasize the importance of marketing strategies for the company retaining customers. Therefore this paper examines the impact of CRM on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p594


Objectives: The effects of snoezelen-based therapy on
emotional status were investigated in Vietnam War veterans with brain injury
suspected to be caused by defoliant exposure. Methods: A single subject A-B-A'-B' experimental design was used to
determine the effects of snoezelen-based therapy. Results: A pegboard test to examine physical changes in a
psychologically stable state, showed a decrease in measured time required from pegboard
test. In the present study, which used an A-B-A'-B' research design, the first test
showed that the snoezelen reduced tension-anxiety, anger-hostility and depression-dejection
while the second test showed similar effects, except for fatigue-inertia and
confusion-bewilderment. Conclusion: Snoezelen
therapy had a positive effect on emotional stability and cognitive ability in a
patient with emotional instability due to combat experience in the Vietnam War
and with stroke caused by defoliant exposure.


There are lively controversy and differences on the definition of nature of information by general information theory, information philosophy, etc. Disputes and differences are rooted in the mystery of information or information mysticism. The reason for the mysticism of information is that philosophy has not accurately solved the philosophical significance of grasping the achievements of scientific and technological information theory. In fact, information is not something transported by carrier and walking in between information source and information sink, nor another mysterious thing different from their masters, information is definitive property of ubiquitous thing interact or retain (reflect) in other things (carrier), or prescriptiveness of something transformed into the form in which it exists.


There are an estimated 8.4 million women today in the U.S. using combined OCs (oral contraceptives). The estrogen component of OCs can either be mestranol or ethinylestradiol. Formulations with high doses of estrogen are thought to be responsible for most of the side effects related to OCs i.e. myocardial infarction venous thrombosis and thrombotic or hemorrhagic stroke. OC users are 3 times more likely than nonusers to have a fatal heart attack. In women who smoke or who are hypertensive who have diabetes or high cholesterol levels or who are in advanced age the risk increases. High-dose estrogen formulations also seem to increase cholesterol and triglycerides levels and suppress insulin after about 2 years of use. The use of ampicillin rifampin or tetracycline may interfere with the contraceptive effect of the formulation. A recent longitudinal study conducted in Walnut Creek California concluded that OCs are safe for young white middle-class American women. It also noted an increased incidence among users of lung cancer cervical cancer and malignant melanoma and attributed these findings to higher rates of smoking sexual activity and sun exposure. There are not any postcoital drugs on the market today which are approved by the FDA. DES (diethylstilbestrol) is widely used as an antidote to unprotected intercourse; 25 mg are taken twice a day for 5 days starting within 72 hours of coitus. The FDA has never been able to induce manufacturers to label the drug noting the severe side effects it can cause. High dosage ethinyl estradiol and conjugated estrogen are also used as postcoital contraceptives. ERT (estrogen replacement therapy) has been proven to increase risk of endometrial cancer and it does alleviate vasomotor sequelae and vaginal atrophy and dryness. The value of ERT in retarding osteoporosis is still a controversial matter. The FDA and most gynecologists recommend prescribing the lowest dose of estrogen for the shortest time possible in patients for whom alleviation of postmenopausal symptoms by ERT seem warranted. The use of subcutaneous implant of estradiol pellets in the treatment of menopause-related vasomotor symptoms and for contraceptive purposes is currently being investigated.


There has been much media speculation and general conversation about the crisis of masculinity, the lack of male role models – in particular, the lack of fathers, and how many boys are becoming a 'lost' generation. An 2002 Australian House of Representatives report 'Boys: Getting it right' investigated this issue in depth and made recommendations to the Australian Minister of Education, Science and Training concerning policy direction and strategies that could be developed for teacher education courses relating to boys and boys educational needs. The research reported here was designed to investigate the needs of male teachers as they enter their professional life in schools. This research is significant because it addresses a major area of concern, namely the retention of newly qualified male teachers in both primary and secondary school environments, as well as issues related to the male identity and the impact of older beginning teachers as they enter the profession.


Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the trade-offs related to the production and consumption of palm oil in Myanmar from a sustainable diets perspective. Design: We used an enhanced value chain analysis approach that included semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders; market analyses to assess edible oils in markets and focus groups as well as surveys with consumers to ascertain their perceptions and practices related to edible oils. Setting: Four settings in Myanmar (upper income urban; lower income urban; middle-income urban; lower income rural). Participants: Key stakeholders (n 12) from government, trade bodies and civil society organisations were included in the interviews. Women from each of the regions participated in four focus groups (n 32), and a convenience sample of male and female consumers participated in the surveys (n 362). Results: We found mistrust of the oil sector overall. Poor production practices, leading to low yields, limit the economic viability of oil palm production in Myanmar and contribute to negative environmental (e.g. deforestation) and social outcomes (e.g. land conflicts). Consumers demonstrated low preferences for palm oil as compared with traditional oils from a taste, health and transparency perspective; however, they indicated that its relative low cost led to its purchase over other oils. Conclusions: The Burmese example suggests that there may be limited benefits, and significant costs, of investing in palm oil production in regions where there are coordinating disincentives from a sustainable diets perspective. However, if oil palm cultivation is to continue, there are opportunities to improve its economic viability and environmental sustainability.


Donatello's Judith and Holofernes was most probably positioned in the garden of the Medici Palace shortly after the palace was completed in the mid to late 1450s. Although rarely noted in the literature, the completion and decoration of the Medici Palace in the 1450s corresponded to a period in which the Medici and their political party struggled to maintain political unity and, in essence, their united control of the city. This article examines this conjunction of artistic and political events by analizing Donatello's statue in relation to the theme of pride that is central to the iconography of the Judith narrative, is at the center of the inscription that once accompanied the statue, and is clearly informative of political circumstances of the 1450s and memory of the Albizzi-Medici struggle of the 1420s and early 1430s. That earlier period became an important period of reference for the Medici and their regime as they worked to maintain their tenuous unity in the 1450s.