ABSTRACT Kowalski, J.L.; DeYoe, H.R.; Boza, G.H., Jr.; Hockaday, D.L., and Zimba, P.V., 2018. A comparison of salinity effects from hurricanes Dolly (2008) and Alex (2010) in a Texas lagoon system. Hurricanes are not uncommon along the Gulf of Mexico coast, but there are few studies of the effects they have on coastal embayments. Hurricanes Dolly (2008) and Alex (2010) were both Category 2 storms affecting the Lower Laguna Madre (LLM) of Texas. Surveys were performed to assess poststorm water quality after landfall of both storms at up to 18 sample stations. The main difference between storm effects was salinity reduction because of stormwater input from the watershed. Effects from Hurricane Dolly were of short duration and small magnitude, whereas the effects from Hurricane Alex were extensive and lasted more than a month. Differences in spatial patterns in salinity were significantly more pronounced across the LLM than were temporal differences. Precipitation of 50–100 cm caused stormwater discharge to exceed 1000 m s−1 to the LLM during the Alex event and depressed salinity over more than three-fourths (ca. 500 km2) of the estuary for 2 months. Storm-related effects on water-column physiochemistry were persistently lowest near freshwater drains (Arroyo Colorado). Salinity remained less than 5 for more than 2 months during the Alex freshet. Freshwater input from Hurricane Dolly was relatively minor because the storm precipitation was largely restricted to the small Arroyo Colorado watershed. Effects from Alex were delayed but were greater because of the bulk of the precipitation falling in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo drainage basin in México. The greatest impact from that freshwater disturbance was the loss of seagrasses after prolonged exposure to hyposalinity. Hurricanes Dolly and Alex both affected the LLM but with contrasting impacts that reflected spatial and meteorological differences between the two storms.


The grouping behaviour of animals is governed by intrinsic and extrinsic factors which play an important role in shaping their social organization. We investigated the influence of ocean climate variation on the grouping behaviour of two widely separated populations of cetaceans, inhabiting north Atlantic and north Pacific coastal waters. The group size of both bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth, UK, and killer whales in Johnstone Strait, Canada, varied from year to year in relation to large-scale ocean climate variation. Local indices of prey abundance were also related both to climate indices and predator group sizes. The cetaceans tended to live in smaller groups when there was less salmon available in both areas which seem to occur 2 years after a lower phase of the North Atlantic and Pacific Decadal Oscillations. These findings suggest that, even in highly social mammals, climate variation may influence social organization through changes in prey availability.


AIMS
The aim of our study in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and present, or absent, myocardial ischaemia during coronary occlusion was to test whether (i) left ventricular (LV) filling pressure is influenced by the collateral circulation and, on the other hand, that (ii) its resistance to flow is directly associated with LV filling pressure.

METHODS AND RESULTS
In 50 patients with CAD, the following parameters were obtained before and during a 60 s balloon occlusion: LV, aortic (Pao) and coronary pressure (Poccl), flow velocity (Voccl), central venous pressure (CVP), and coronary flow velocity after coronary angioplasty (V(Ø-occl)). The following variables were determined and analysed at 10 s intervals during occlusion, and at 60 s of occlusion: LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), velocity-derived (CFIv) and pressure-derived collateral flow index (CFIp), coronary collateral (Rcoll), and peripheral resistance index to flow (Rperiph). Patients with ECG signs of ischaemia during coronary occlusion (insufficient collaterals, n = 33) had higher values of LVEDP over the entire course of occlusion than those without ECG signs of ischaemia during occlusion (sufficient collaterals, n = 17). Despite no ischaemia in the latter, there was an increase in LVEDP from 20 to 60 s of occlusion. In patients with insufficient collaterals, CFIv decreased and CFIp increased during occlusion. Beyond an occlusive LVEDP > 27 mmHg, Rcoll and Rperiph increased as a function of LVEDP.

CONCLUSION
Recruitable collaterals are reciprocally tied to LV filling pressure during occlusion. If poorly developed, they affect it via myocardial ischaemia; if well grown, LV filling pressure still increases gradually during occlusion despite the absence of ischaemia indicating transmission of collateral perfusion pressure to the LV. With low, but not high, collateral flow, resistance to collateral as well as coronary peripheral flow is related to LV filling pressure in the high range.


In the modern society, owing the developed industry and the increased standard of living, the desire for beauty became more strong and verified and also the environment of beauty industry is changing rapidly. At present the beauty industry is classified as hair, skin care, make-up, and nail art and also this detailed area becomes specialized as the need of consumers. Recently as the interest and the need increased, the job of nail artist got to take a place of attractive occupation creating high value-added. The purpose of this study is to assist nail-related workers to understand customers and to suggest the direction to develop design, and for this purpose I investigated and analysed the customer`s preference for nail art design with the subjects who were interested in the beauty and fashion by taking advantage of nail art industry`s popularization and specialization.


The gender pay gap is a persistent feature of the labour market however evidence indicates that women are often more satisfied with their pay than men, suggesting a 'paradox of the contented female worker'. There is a range of theories which hypothesise that women's behaviour or characteristics are the 'cause' of this paradox and which simultaneously neglect how the workplace might contribute towards pay satisfaction. This body of work has adopted a positivist, 'top down' and quantitative approach but has failed to provide convincing evidence to support the theories proposed.

Arguing that there are weaknesses in the approach previously adopted, the research presented in this thesis adopted an alternative ontological position. Utilising social constructionism to conceptualise gender, work and pay, a mixed method approach was used, comprising of a survey and follow up qualitative interviews with staff at two UK universities. Influenced by feminist research methodology, the research aimed to ensure that pay satisfaction was approached and understood from the point of view of those being researched. As well as examining previous theories, the research also investigated alternative approaches to understanding this paradox.

The findings indicated that women were often more satisfied with their pay than men. However, both male and female low paid workers were also often more satisfied than higher paid workers. Support was not found for previous theories of the paradox which had focussed upon female behaviour, but did find that beliefs about the 'value' of different occupations affected expectations of pay and influenced satisfaction levels. In addition, amongst higher paid staff, a high workload and the perception of a lack of autonomy contributed to relatively low pay satisfaction whilst lower paid staff were reassured that their own pay, although low, was reasonable given their lighter workload.


Rapid infiltration of surface water and contaminants occurs in karst aquifers because of extensive conduit development, but contamination of ground water supplies requires loss of conduit water to the matrix. This process is also important for ground water management and for dissolution and diagenetic reactions. Many factors control exchange between conduits and matrix including the head gradient between matrix and conduits, the permeability of the matrix, the gradients of the regional water table and the conduits, and the relative elevation of the conduits and regional water table. The Floridan Aquifer, which is characterized by high matrix porosity and permeability, provides several examples.


In contemporary Ukrainian agrarian and urban folk communities, demonological beliefs are as popular and vital as they were a century ago. In order to understand their popularity among contemporary urban Ukrainians, we must look closely at traditional agrarian folk communities and their folk beliefs. In cities, demonological prose functions as a set of beliefs and superstitions corresponding to the traditional plots and pagan beliefs of previous generations. In urban communities, traditional plots do not function within artistic communicative events as actively as they do in village communities, due to the specific nature of urban (as opposed to agrarian) folk communities.


Parotid carcinoma is relatively rare in head and neck cancer, and its treatment is still controversial because of its diverse histology. A total of 37 cases of parotid carcinoma were treated in our hospital between 1991 and 2005. In terms of the therapeutic strategy, patients with low-grade carcinoma were treated by surgery alone with preservation of the facial nerves, whereas those with high-grade carcinoma underwent surgery with facial nerve resection and full-dose radiotherapy. We performed neck dissection in only N+ patients. The 5-year, cause-specific survival rate in the 37 patients with parotid carcinoma was 67.5%, being 76.0% for those with low-grade cancer and 58.0 % for those with high-grade cancer. Our study suggests that more extensive surgery is required for those with high-grade malignancy in order to improve the 5-year survival rate.


Background: Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we analyzed clinical characteristics of acute lung injury (ALI) in COVID-19 patients and reported their similarity and dissimilarity to those of non-COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: We reported on 90 COVID-19 and 130 non-COVID-19 ALI patients in the ICUs of multiple centers. Demographic data, medical histories, laboratory findings, and radiological images were analyzed and compared between the two cohorts and within each cohort between survivors and non-survivors. For ALI survivors, clinical characteristics before and after treatment were also compared. Findings: Aberrations in blood parameters, such as leukocytosis, neutrophilia, and thrombocytopenia, were observed in both cohorts. More characteristic abnormalities, including significantly higher red cell distribution width (RDW), C-reactive proteins, and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) but lower troponin (TnT) and procalcitonin, were observed in the COVID-19 cohort than in the non-COVID-19 cohort, whereas D-dimer levels showed a similar elevation in both cohorts. The COVID-19 cohort also showed more diversified CT patterns where severe features such as consolidations and crazy paving patterns were more frequently observed. Multivariate analysis indicated that age, fever symptom, prothrombin time, procalcitonin, partial pressure of carbon dioxide, oxygenated hemoglobin, and crazy paving patterns in CT scans were independent risk factors associated with COVID-19. Interpretation: Comparison of ALI characteristics between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients in the ICU setting provided insight into the pathogenesis of ALI induced by different risk factors, suggesting distinct treatment plans.


Karst aquifers are productive groundwater systems around the world, supplying approximately 25% of the world's drinking water. However, they are highly vulnerable to contamination due to rapid groundwater transit in the transmission zone (KWI 2006). The epikarst, also known as the subcutaneous zone, is an interface between the soil overburden and the transmission zone. The epikarst is considered a critical zone as it can control hydrologic and geochemical characteristics of recharge to the underlying karst aquifer. The overall goal of this thesis is to utilize time series hydrologic and geochemical data collected at James Cave, Virginia, to examine the influence of epikarst on the quantity, quality, and rates of recharge to aquifers in Appalachian karst. Results of this study indicate a strong seasonality of both the hydrology and geochemistry of recharge. The conceptual model of the epikarst developed in this study identifies three hydrologic seasons: recharge, recession, and baseflow. Seasonality of recharge geochemistry coincides with these three hydrologic seasons. These results have implications for management of karst aquifers. First, recharge to Appalachian karst aquifers is seasonal, reaching a maximum during the winter-early spring; the onset of recharge depends on antecedent climatic conditions. Second, water that infiltrates into the epikarst will have seasonally variable residence times due to changes in hydrologic storage; these variations in attenuation affect geochemical reactions in the epikarst, which can influence recharge quality. Overall, these results point to the complex influence of epikarst on karst recharge, which necessitates collection of long-term and high resolution datasets.


This study presents a modified constructive training algorithm for multilayer perceptron (MLP) which is applied to face recognition problem. An incremental training procedure has been employed where the training patterns are learned incrementally. This algorithm starts with a small number of training patterns and a single hidden-layer using an initial number of neurons. During the training, the hidden neurons number is increased when the mean square error (MSE) threshold of the training data (TD) is not reduced to a predefined value. Input patterns are trained incrementally until all patterns of TD are learned. The aim of this algorithm is to determine the adequate initial number of hidden neurons, the suitable number of training patterns in the subsets of each class and the number of iterations during the training step as well as the MSE threshold value. The proposed algorithm is applied in the classification stage in face recognition system. For the feature extraction stage, this paper proposes to use a biological vision-based facial description, namely perceived facial images, applied to extract features from human face images. Gabor features and Zernike moment have been used in order to determine the best feature extractor. The proposed approach is tested on the Cohn-Kanade Facial Expression Database. Experimental results indicate that a good architecture of neural network classifier can be obtained. The effectiveness of the proposed method compared with the fixed MLP architecture has been proved.


A synthetic fragment 31-35 of beta-amyloid peptide was used in cultured cortical neurons to examine whether this smaller sequence could trigger apoptotic degeneration in vitro by using morphological, biochemical and flow-cytometric examinations. The results showed that: (i) neurons treated with fragment 31-35 of beta-amyloid peptide exhibited membrane blebbing, compaction of nuclear chromatin, nuclear shrinkage and nuclear fragmentation; (ii) a typical DNA ladder was revealed by agarose gel electrophoresis following fragment 31-35 of beta-amyloid peptide exposure; (iii) the internucleosome DNA fragmentation was also detected by flow-cytometric examination following fragment 31-35 of beta-amyloid peptide exposure; and (iv) the DNA fragmentation induced by fragment 31-35 of beta-amyloid peptide in the above two examinations could be blocked by co-treatment with aurintricarboxylic acid or actinomycin D. It is suggested that fragment 31-35 of the beta-amyloid peptide may be a shorter sequence of beta-amyloid peptide responsible for triggering an apoptotic process in cultured neurons.


Effects of the surface curvature on the electronic states of a cylindrical conducting surface with a variable diameter are theoretically investigated. The quantum confinement of electrons normal to the curved surface results in an effective potential energy that affects the electronic structures of the system at low energies. This suggests the possibility of controlling the electric conductivity of low-dimensional nanostructures by inducing a local geometric deformation.


As cloud computing grows rapidly and virtualization techniques become more widely-used, it is critical and important to allocate limited resources to various applications on demand for the cloud service environments. In this article, we propose an adaptive resource management approach considering multi-resource transformation to fully utilize extra resource capacity. The definition of the optimization problem concerning resource co-allocation is presented and then an optimization algorithm is developed and described, which carries out stochastic and directional search step by step to jointly schedule different resources. The evaluation results of simulation experiments demonstrate that by using the resource co-allocation approach we designed, the performance of different applications deployed in the cloud environment could be guaranteed subject to the QoS (Quality of Service) specification, despite of the significant fluctuation of workloads.


Evaluation on the physicochemical property of "tempe-dumbo" sausage made from meat of Clarias gariepinus and tempeh flour has been carried out. Randomized design with tree replications were used. Sausages were prepared from tempeh flour and fish meat in the proportion of: 1:0; 1:0,2; 1:0,3; 1:10,4 and 1:0,5 (w /w). Hardness, total volatile bases (TVB), and taste were evaluated. The results showed that the proportion of flour tempeh influenced the content the quality of "tempe-dumbo" sausage in term of protein quality, TVB.and taste. The addition of tempeh flour had significant effect the decrease essential amino acids, of total amino acids content, and organoleptic ascore (taste and flavor). . "Tempeh-dumbo" sausage contained essential amino acid of 27,354 mg/ g, protein which was consisted of 7 essential amino acid. Key words : Sausage, tempeh, clarias gariepinus, protein quality.


Over the past decade, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has developed into a powerful technique for studying the surface chemistry of solids. The technique has been successfully employed in studying a wide range of materials, including those of particular interest in the electronics industry. The versatility of the SIMS technique in its three major modes (static, dynamic and scanning) is demonstrated in examples of the surface characterisation of semiconductor materials.


This aim of this paper is to evaluate the accuracy of long-term weather data models for performance prediction of grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) systems. The analyses were done for a 6-year old metal deck roof retrofitted GCPV system located in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The monthly and annual energy yield of the actual field data for three consecutive years were compared with the predicted yield using the long-term weather data models. These models were the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY), Model Year Climate (MYC), Microclimate data, and statistical Long-Term Mean for ground station data at Subang. The findings can be a reference for photovoltaic (PV) system designers on the range of accuracy when using the weather data models for performance predictions of GCPV system in Malaysia.


Abstract New multiphysics coupling capabilities for molten salt reactor (MSR) analysis have been developed in the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA). This development consisted of two main efforts. First, a generic species transport module was added in the CTF code, which is the thermal-hydraulics (TH) code for VERA. This module uses the velocity fields for which CTF solves during the TH calculation to transport species through the core and around the primary loop. Additionally, a gas sparging model has been added to CTF to model the movement of certain species, namely, fission products such as xenon gas, to transport between the molten salt and gas bubbles present in the salt. The second effort in this development was coupling this capability to VERA's neutron transport code MPACT. This effort focused on coupling the detailed TH transport models in CTF to MPACT to account for feedback effects in the neutron transport calculations. Finally, the thermochemistry code Thermochimica has also been coupled to VERA. Thermochimica performs pointwise calculations for chemical potential and Gibbs free energy and determines what phases are produced by the temperature, pressure, and elemental concentrations at different locations in the primary loop. These capabilities are demonstrated using a model of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). This reactor operated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s, providing sources of experimental data that were used to develop the model. Various combinations of species were modeled using VERA's new multiphysics coupling capabilities. Species distributions and reactivity effects behaved as expected for the MSRE model, demonstrating that the coupling is behaving correctly and causing appropriate feedback. The results of these calculations show the potential for VERA to be used for a wide variety of MSR analyses.


The purpose of this study is to evaluate, in terms of process integration, the centralised and decentralised pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass for its thermo-chemical conversion into liquid fuels through gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis (biomass to liquids, BtL). The aim is to quantify the process integration benefits of a centralised configuration in comparison to the energy savings obtained through the transportation of a higher energy density fuel, in this case torrefied biomass instead of raw biomass. The analysis is carried out through the detailed energy and mass balances, and the pinch analysis of the centralised and decentralised configurations.


CONTEXT
This paper makes the case for a family perspective on population health and specifically focuses on how children's health can impact family health and well-being.

OBJECTIVE
To review and synthesize the diverse set of papers that has examined the associations and linkages between children's health and family health.

RESULTS
Based on the synthesis of the existing literature, additional research is needed that focuses on (1) the longitudinal impact of childhood chronic illness on the family using national samples, (2) the application of interdisciplinary methodologies to studying childhood chronic illness in the family, and (3) understanding the psychobiology of caring for a child with a chronic illness and the concordance of such measures with self-reported stress and burden.

CONCLUSIONS
We propose a new integrated conceptual framework for better understanding the mechanisms that influence children's health and health care.


The author suggests that fantasy holds creative potential when it remains intertwined with reality, meaning shaped and altered by interpersonal experience. Sustaining the tension between these two realms (fantasy and reality) allows the fantasy to remain engaged and present in our interactions with others. The sensory and visual dimensions of fantasy are highlighted, more specifically the mental imaginings, daydreams, or the conjuring up of images, imaginings that may not yet have nuanced descriptions or narratives. The author argues that it is shared, co-constructed fantasies between analyst and patient, ones born from the analytic couple, that symbolize undeveloped aspects of our selves and unarticulated affective experience. The destructive edge of fantasies is also examined with regard to the emergence of erotic fantasies in relation to trauma, including those occasions when fantasy breaks down, ruptured beyond repair.


Traditionally, nephroureterectomy is the gold standard therapy for upper tract recurrence of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) following cystectomy and urinary diversion. With advances in endoscopic equipment and improvements in technique, conservative endourologic management via a retrograde or antegrade approach is technically feasible with acceptable outcomes in patients with bilateral disease, solitary renal units, chronic renal insufficiency, or significant medical comorbidities. Contemporary studies have expanded the utility of these techniques to include low-grade, low-volume disease in patients with a normal contralateral kidney. The aim of this report is to review the current outcomes of conservative management for upper tract disease and discuss its application and relevance in patients following cystectomy with lower urinary tract reconstruction.


A theoretical method is presented for predicting the relative skin surface ionization for x-ray or gamma -ray beams for different energies, collimation systems, field sizes, and treatment distances. The mechanism of the subcutaneous build-up of ionization is discussed. Applications of the data in reducing skin reactions during radiotherapy are suggested. (C. H.)


The latest epidemiologic enquiries realized in West Africa and Central Africa have shown that real prevalence of leprosy is far greater, at least twice the number of patients than are actually listed in the medical records. This data proves that the fight against leprosy is highly inefficient and stresses the partial failure of the anti-hansenian strategy that has been adopted for over 10 years in this area, in spite of the use of rifampicin in multidrug therapy which would normally cure leprosy. Therefore we suggest that the fight against leprosy should be re-organised and reinforced in high endemic areas. The anti-hansenian programmes should be carried out by specific services composed of mobile and specialised teams whose task would be to aim for the early detection and continual testing for new cases. Only with this kind of organisation can chemotherapy be administered at the beginning, therefore arresting the disease before it reaches the multi-neuritis stage. This strategy offers great epidemiologic and economic advantages and would also give hope and dignity to the patients assured of a permanent cure. Leprosy would then be classed as a disease "just like any other".


Motivated by the reprisal of 'wicked problems' in Australian public policy discourse we make the case for understanding climate change adaptation, water and river managing, and other complex, uncertain, natural resource issues as 'wicked problems'. This 'framing' of social planning dilemmas dates back 40 years yet public policy practitioners still do not seem well equipped in terms of understandings and practices to engage with these situations and to effect systemic improvements. Drawing on a decade of research in Europe we make the case for investing in social learning as an alternative governance mechanism and as a form of praxis for managing in 'wicked problem' situations. We outline our main research findings to explain how we understand and enact social learning. In doing so, we also draw on the Open University UK's 35 years of experience of teaching systems thinking and practice for managing 'wicked problems'. We conclude by opening up an invitational space to explore the commonalities and differences in research on social learning with that on deliberative practices and governance.


The presence of phosphorus is known to deteriorate the mechanical properties of cast steel and other metallic products. Ferromanganese, used as the last additive during steel making, is one of the main sources of phosphorus contamination. Therefore phosphorus has to be removed from the ferromanganese before it is used as a deoxidizing and alloying agent. The bulk of high carbon ferromanganese produced in India continues to have more than 0.35% phosphorus since they are produced by carbothermic reduction process. A systematic study by NML showed that it was possible to remove phosphorus from high carbon liquid ferromanganese successfully from 0.56% to 0.18% using BaCO3 based fluxes at the rate of 16-wt% of the ferromanganese charged. However, the Mn loss varied in the range of 2-5%.
 The objective of the present study was to optimize the flux consumption as well as minimize the Mn loss with effective dephosphorization by using BaO based calcined pellets instead of BaCO3 based powders. It is easier to handle pellets under plant conditions and eliminate the loss of flux as a dust, which occurs when powder is added. These pellets can be forced towards the bottom of the melt for better efficiency. Another advantage of using pellets is that it utilizes manganese ore fines, which is a waste material in the ferromanganese industry. The results have shown that the addition of moderate amount of MnO into the pellets reduces the Mn loss while it helps dephosphorization. The results achieved indicate that it is possible to achieve more than 60% phosphorus removal using flux addition at 5% by weight of the ferromanganese charged.


Inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, has a potential risk of developing into colorectal cancer. However, there is little relationship between intestinal tuberculosis and colon cancer because intestinal tuberculosis is a curable disease and has a relatively short disease course. Nevertheless, there have been a few case reports of intestinal tuberculosis associated with colon cancer. There was a case report in which the carcinoma facilitated entry of tubercle bacilli with development of a secondary infection, and ulcerative lesions of tuberculosis may be precursors of carcinomas. We experienced a 77-year-old woman who had intestinal tuberculosis combined with ascending colon cancer. She visited our hospital because of abdominal pain and constipation. Colonoscopy showed a luminal obstruction mass in the ascending colon. Histologic examination revealed an adenocarcinoma. After surgery, the surgical specimen disclosed an adenocarcinoma in the cecum and ascending colon and intestinal tuberculosis around the cancer site of the cecum. Herein, we report a rare case of colon cancer co-existing with colonic tuberculosis with a review of the literature.


A 42-year-old woman with a long-standing diagnosis of schizophrenia experienced two toxic reactions to 1200 mg of chlorpromazine while awaiting surgery for a locally metastatic carcinoma of the cervix. These reactions, which involved fever, increased pulse and respirations, and acute onset of obtundation, and which cleared after several hours, were produced by a medication and dose which had been well tolerated prior to the preoperative period. These reactions, typical of an acute anticholinergic syndrome, were precipitated by an interaction of the drug and a stress-induced change in her psychological state, due to anxiety about her cancer and impending surgery. This type of reaction has not been reported previously in a clinical setting.


Since its first appearance in Germany in 1911, "Jews and Modern Capitalism "has provoked vehement criticism. As Samuel Z. Klausner emphasizes, the lasting value of Sombart's work rests not in his results-most of which have long since been disproved-but in his point of departure. Openly acknowledging his debt to Max Weber, Sombart set out to prove the double thesis of the Jewish foundation of capitalism and the capitalist foundation of Judaism. Klausner, placing Sombart's work in its historical and societal context, examines the weaknesses and strengths of "Jews and Modern Capitalism."


This Study aims to isolation and identification of Streptococcus pneumonia from patients' sputum in Najaf governorate. Among 120 samples were collected from patients that are expected to have pneumonia acquired from community in the Center for Respiratory and Thoracic diseases in the Najaf governorate in Al-Sadder medical city. All samples taken from patients after diagnosis by physicians based on the clinical symptoms as well as photographic radiography. Samples were divided into five groups according to the age of patient and the samples collected between April 2018 and the end of March 2019 from both males and females. The results showed the pneumonia rates varied among the months of period study. The highest rate was in November 2018 .But the lowest percentage in the march 2019. The highest number was 24 patients in the age of more than 50 years. But the lowest number was 12 in the age of 20-30 years. The results of the current study showed that number of males infected was superior by 51cases in contrast 29 in females. The current study results also showed different antibiotics sensitivity patterns. All isolates were resistance towards gentamicin, ampicillin, amoxicillin and tetracycline. And one isolate which was sensitive to polymyxin.


Despite increasing attention to conservation of natural resources and Aboriginal heritage, relics of the European pastoral industry in the semi-arid rangelands have been neglected. Fences are ubiquitous relics of the pastoral industry and show a rich variety in styles, techniques and technological change. Examples from Wilcannia in western New South Wales illustrate the variety that can be found. Legislation in New South Wales prohibits disturbance of relics (items > 50 years old) but has not been applied. The key step is assessing the significance of the item or place. Criteria adopted under The Burra Charter are listed and briefly discussed. Costs of conservation should be borne by society, not individual graziers; and grazier cooperation is essential for conserving cultural heritage.


TCP Vegas is usually used in Space Communication Protocol Standard-Transport Protocol(SCPS-TP) and satellite networks due to its larger performance gain such as throughput, network utilization, stability, and packet-loss rate. However, the performance of TCP Vegas is inefficient in GEO satellite networks. The burst during slow-start phase causes Vegas to change from slow-start phase to congestion avoidance phase too early, and it also has disadvantage that can not distinguish link changing and congestion. In this paper, TCP Vegas-W is presented based on route surveillance and bandwidth estimation, and with surveillance of bandwidth and Round-Trip Time (RTT), congestion level is estimated much more correctly and precisely. Simulation results show that Vegas-W algorithm can get much better performance in GEO satellite networks.


Abstract Reduced tillage methods such as strip tillage are often combined with cover crop mixtures to provide agronomic benefits which can support crop and soil health. However, reduced tillage and cover crop species/arrangements effects on arthropods is less understood and results of previous studies have varied. In this study, we examined how agriculturally relevant pest and beneficial arthropod species were impacted by tillage and cover crop methods in USDA-certified organic Cucurbita (L.) (Cucurbitales: Cucurbitaceae). Aphididae were the most observed foliar pests and abundance was highest in full tillage treatment plots while foliar herbivores overall, excluding Aphididae, were more abundant in strip tillage treatment plots regardless of cover crop arrangement. Formicidae was also observed more on foliage, flowers, and in pitfall traps in full tillage, similarly to Aphididae. Parasitica were the most observed foliar natural enemies with increased abundance in strip tillage treatments. Activity densities of several epigeal natural enemies were also higher in strip tillage compared to full tillage. No significant effects of tillage and cover crop treatments were observed on flower visitation rates of Eucera pruinosa (Say) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), an important pollinator of Cucurbita, while the highest visitation rates of Apis mellifera (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Bombus spp. (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) were in strip tillage treatments. These results suggest that reduced tillage methods can support greater abundances of natural enemies and possibly pollinators. This may lead to enhanced biological control and pollination, but impacts may vary for different arthropod species and crops.


In the recent decades, as the development of global industry and economy, design management is making disruptive changes according to mass customization and globalization, in line with the change of business model and consumer behavior. The demands from consumers and the supplies of production are increasingly global distributed, thus leading to the experience of intercultural impact on both consumers and designers. It is transformed accordingly not only the way of product and service design but also the role of designers. As the tendency of disruption and innovation, design management and strategy transformed for the creation of value and meaning. On one side, the innovation of communication technologies makes it possible for distributed intercultural product creation and development, on the other side, the effectiveness and efficiency of team communication for information has impact on distributed intercultural design teamwork. This paper is designed to investigate the impact of team communication in distributed intercultural design teams and explore the communication issues and design challenges for distributed intercultural design teamwork. Three different design teamwork modes (cooperation, collaboration, competition) are introduced to investigate the impact of team communication and improve the process and result of design teamwork. To achieve the research objective, the research questions are: how different design teamwork modes affect team communication in distributed intercultural design teams? What are communication issues and design challenges for distributed intercultural design teamwork? This research conducts a distributed intercultural design course and related co-creation workshop with design students from China and the Netherlands as a case study, working in different design teamwork modes and interacting with different communication tools during the design teamwork. In the case study, design teams take on the design case of design for health and make use of different ways of communication for different design teamwork modes. In the context of cultural and geographical difference, interview observation and diary reflection are used for research data collection and related analysis. This study analyzes the strength and weakness of different communication tools in distributed intercultural design teams, so as to interpret the advantage and disadvantage of different design teamwork modes for distributed intercultural design teamwork. In the distributed intercultural design teams, team communication is important but difficulty for design teamwork, and team composition with cultural difference also has impact on distributed intercultural design teamwork. In order to improve distributed intercultural design teamwork, it is necessary for designers to be aware of cultural difference and make use of communication tools for all the design teamwork modes. As a result, different aspects of communication issues in distributed intercultural design teams are stated and discussed as design challenges for distributed intercultural design teamwork. Based on the discussion and related results of the case study, this research shows the importance and relative difficulty of distributed team communication and intercultural teamwork, in order to help designers facilitate team communication and improve design teamwork in distributed intercultural teams.


We present a unique variation in the arterial pattern of superficial palmar arch in which it was completed by one of the large terminal branches of radial artery. The origin of the arteria radialis indicis was also peculiar that it was arising from the communicating branch of the radial artery and further reinforced by the first dorsal metacarpal artery that joined it after reaching the volar aspect. Pertinent anatomical knowledge regarding the variations of the palmar arch is significant for the purposes of microvascular repairs and re-implantations.


INTRODUCTION
Ethnic differences may influence diabetes selfcare practices and glycaemic control among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. This qualitative study explored goals, beliefs about treatment effectiveness, knowledge, and barriers to and facilitators for diabetes self-care among the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia.

METHODS
Patient focus group discussions were conducted in three different ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese, and Indians. Participants were recruited from the primary-care clinic of a university medical centre located in an urban area. Focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a thematic approach.

RESULTS
A total of 31 patients participated in the study: Malays (n=12), Indians (n=10), and Chinese (n=9). There were three sessions for each ethnic group. Reported goals primarily related to quality of life and glycaemic control. Participants expressed the belief that the combination of diet, exercise, and medications is effective for controlling diabetes. Groups described their obtaining information external to a healthcare system and reported a need for more specific, practical counselling from health professionals on diet, exercise, and medications. Barriers to and facilitators for diabetes self-care practices were categorised into three major themes: having discipline, social habits, and "other" themes.

CONCLUSION
Emerging themes were similar across the ethnic groups and included quality-of-life goals, confidence in combination treatment, common use of complementary and alternative medicine, need for further counselling, and the challenge regarding self-discipline.


Pitayas (Hylocereus spp.) is an attractive, highly nutritious and commercially valuable tropical fruit. However, low-temperature damage limits crop production. Genome of pitaya has not been sequenced yet. In this study, we sequenced the transcriptome of pitaya as the reference and further investigated the proteome under low temperature. By RNAseq technique, approximately 25.3 million reads were obtained, and further trimmed and assembled into 81,252 unigene sequences. The unigenes were searched against UniProt, NR and COGs at NCBI, Pfam, InterPro and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, and 57,905 unigenes were retrieved annotations. Among them, 44,337 coding sequences were predicted by Trandecoder (v2.0.1), which served as the reference database for label-free proteomic analysis study of pitaya. Here, we identified 116 Differentially Abundant Proteins (DAPs) associated with the cold stress in pitaya, of which 18 proteins were up-regulated and 98 proteins were down-regulated. KEGG analysis and other results showed that these DAPs mainly related to chloroplasts and mitochondria metabolism. In summary, chloroplasts and mitochondria metabolism-related proteins may play an important role in response to cold stress in pitayas.


Abstract The Temple of the Tooth Relic of the Buddha is the most sacred Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The Temple complex is on the World Heritage List. It was bombed on 25th January 1998 by Tamil terrorists who are fighting for a separate state within the country. As an actively used monument belonging to a living religious tradition, comprehensive restoration was considered necessary. Yet the restoration process became much more than a technical job, guided by professional conservation ethics. Because of its symbolic value within the Buddhist community, the conservators were faced with negotiating a host of political, social and religious issues. The author, who was the Conservator in charge of the project, describes how underlying cultural values affected the restoration process.


Salmeterol inhaled twice-daily is now being used more frequently as additional treatment in asthma insufficiently controlled by inhaled corticosteroids. We compared oral bambuterol in a dose of 20 mg taken once daily in the evening with inhaled salmeterol at 50 microgram taken twice daily in 126 asthmatic patients (60 bambuterol, 66 salmeterol) aged 18 to 74 yr who were treated for at least 4 wk with inhaled corticosteroids at a constant dose of 400 to 2,000 microgram/d or with oral corticosteroids at </= 20 mg/d. The patients were able to use a pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) efficiently, and had an FEV1 of 40 to 85% of the predicted normal value. During a run-in period, patients had to show at least one nocturnal or early awakening caused by asthma symptoms that required rescue medication, and a >/= 15% overnight decrease in peak expiratory flow (PEF) on 3 of the preceding 7 d, in order to be randomized into this double-blind, double dummy, multicenter parallel group study (2-wk run-in period and 6 wk of treatment). There was no significant difference between bambuterol and salmeterol in morning change from baseline in PEF (p = 0.53). The median increases in morning PEF were 50 L/min for bambuterol and 55 L/min for salmeterol. Other variables (evening PEF, percent of overnight decrease in PEF, number of awakenings, percent of nights with an awakening, number of puffs of rescue medication, asthma symptoms during the day and night, and mean tremor score) also showed no significant difference between bambuterol and salmeterol. Both treatments, at the doses given, were well tolerated. Once-daily oral bambuterol is a convenient, effective, and less expensive alternative to twice-daily inhaled salmeterol for treating nocturnal asthma.


Abstract: Endothelial progenitor cells were initially considered to radically alter the concepts of adult tissue angiogenesis for their contribution of incorporation into new blood vessels. Nevertheless, controversy arises over their mechanism of action due to rare cell population and decreased number and impaired activity under pathological changes. Recent studies show that endothelial progenitor cells also function in a paracrine manner by secreting multiple cytokines and growth factors, but the beneficial paracrine signals remain partially unidentified. In this review, we provide an overview of varieties and signal pathways of factors secreted by endothelial progenitor cells and further present the prospect of new ways to encourage cardiovascular protection such as neovascularization, reendothelialization of larger vessels, and myocardial remodeling based on the paracrine factors.


We investigate the problem of scalable video multicast in emerging cognitive radio (CR) networks. Although considerable advances have been made in CR research, such important problems have not been well studied. Naturally, 'bandwidth hungry' multimedia applications are excellent candidates for fully capitalizing the potential of CRs. We propose a crosslayer optimization approach to multicast video in CR networks. Specifically, we consider an infrastructure-based CR network collocated with N primary networks and model CR video multicast over the N channels as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. The objective is three-fold: to optimize the overall received video quality; to achieve proportional fairness among multicast users; and to keep the interference to primary users below a prescribed threshold. We propose a sequential fixing algorithm and a greedy algorithm to solve the MINLP, while the latter has low complexity and proven optimality gap. Our simulations with MPEG-4 fine grained scalability (FGS) video demonstrate the efficacy and superior performance of the proposed algorithms.


Circulating antibodies (Ab) that specifically bind polyethylene glycol (PEG), a biocompatible polymer routinely used in protein and nanoparticle therapeutics, have been associated with reduced efficacy of and/or adverse reactions to therapeutics modified with or containing PEG. Unlike most antidrug antibodies that are induced following initial drug dosing, anti-PEG Ab can be found in treatment-naïve individuals (i.e., individuals who have never undergone treatment with PEGylated drugs but most likely have been exposed to PEG through other means). Unfortunately, the true prevalence, quantitative levels, and Ab isotype of pre-existing anti-PEG Ab remain poorly understood. Here, using rigorously validated competitive ELISAs with engineered chimeric anti-PEG monoclonal Ab standards, we quantified the levels of anti-PEG IgM and different subclasses of anti-PEG IgG (IgG1-4) in both contemporary and historical human samples. We unexpectedly found, with 90% confidence, detectable levels of anti-PEG Ab in ∼72% of the contemporary specimens (18% IgG, 25% IgM, 30% both IgG and IgM). The vast majority of these samples contained low levels of anti-PEG Ab, with only ∼7% and ∼1% of all specimens possessing anti-PEG IgG and IgM in excess of 500 ng/mL, respectively. IgG2 was the predominant anti-PEG IgG subclass. Anti-PEG Ab's were also observed in ∼56% of serum samples collected during 1970-1999 (20% IgG, 19% IgM, and 16% both IgG and IgM), suggesting that the presence of PEG-specific antibodies may be a longstanding phenomenon. Anti-PEG IgG levels demonstrated correlation with patient age, but not with gender or race. The widespread prevalence of pre-existing anti-PEG Ab, coupled with high Ab levels in a subset of the population, underscores the potential importance of screening patients for anti-PEG Ab levels prior to administration of therapeutics containing PEG.


OBJECTIVES
Inhibitory FcγRIIB/CD32B on B cells are critical for immunity regulation to help maintain peripheral tolerance. Altered FcγRIIB expression on B cells has been observed in several autoimmune diseases, and animal studies suggested that FcγRIIB on B cells participates in the pathogenesis of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Here, we investigated the expression of FcγRII (FcγRIIB) on various B cell subsets and the correlation of FcγRII/CD32 expression with disease activity in AAV patients.

METHODS
Blood samples of patients with AAV in active stage and in remission were collected. FcγRII/CD32 expressions on various B cell subsets of the whole blood were detected by flow cytometry, and their correlation with clinical and pathological data was analyzed.

RESULTS
The expression of FcγRII/CD32 on plasma cells was significantly lower in AAV patients in active stage than those in both AAV patients in remission and healthy donors. Furthermore, the expression of FcγRII/CD32 on plasma cells negatively correlated with Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Scores and percentages of cellular crescents in renal biopsies.

CONCLUSION
Hence there is a down-regulation of FcγRIIB/CD32B expression on B cells in patients with AAV, which is associated with the disease activity of AAV.


In the present article, the authors describe a new chondrocutaneous island flap from the ear helix for nose reconstruction. Anatomic studies showed that helix vascularization depends mainly on the superficial temporal vessels. The presence of vascular communications between the anterior frontal branch of the superficial temporal system and the supraorbital and supratrochlear arterial systems allows this flap to be used in a reverse vascular flow fashion. This new flap has been used successfully in seven cases for reconstructing composite defects of the nasal tip and ala. The donor-site defect is repaired with an advancement and rotation flap from the helical rim, leaving an inconspicuous scar and giving an acceptable cosmetic result of the donor area.


Cloud computing is a new technology recently being developed seriously. Scheduling is an essential issue in the area of cloud computing. There is an extensive literature concerning scheduling in the area of distributed systems. Some of them are applicable for cloud computing. Traditional scheduling methods are unable to provide scheduling in cloud environments. According to a simple classification, scheduling algorithms in the cloud environment are divided into two main groups: batch mode and online heuristics scheduling. This paper focuses on the trust of cloud-based scheduling algorithms. According to the literature, the existing algorithm examinee latest algorithm is related to an algorithm trying to optimize scheduling using the Trust method. The existing algorithm has some drawbacks, including the additional overhead and inaccessibility to the past transaction data. This paper is an improvement of the trust-based algorithm to reduce the drawbacks of the existing algorithms. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can execute better than the previous method. The efficiency of this method depends on the number of nods and tasks. The more trust in the number of nods and tasks, the more the performance improves when the time cost increases


Using a Green function technique combined with the transfer-matrix method for the study of surface phenomena, we have investigated a three-dimensional s-d(f) model with modified surface exchange. The surface layer-magnetization exponent is obtained as βs = 0.781±0.006 (which is different compared with the bulk β = 0.361±0.006) and at the multicritical transition it is βsm = 0.171±0.016. The critical exponents are consistent with results using the renorm-group and the Monte Carlo methods.


Abstract Characteristic features of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) are the opposing risks of bleeding (due to consumptive coagulopathy and hyperfibrinolysis) and organ failure (due to widespread microvascular thromboses). The purpose of anticoagulation in DIC is to attenuate excessive thrombin generation and fibrin deposition. While heparins have been shown to be beneficial in this context, the safety and efficacy of direct oral anticoagulants have not yet been sufficiently addressed. Here, we report two patients in whom chronic DIC was stabilized upon administration of apixaban: an elderly male with aortic dissection presenting with significant mucocutaneous bleeding and a younger female with Klippel–Trénaunay–Weber syndrome presenting with multiple superficial vein thromboses (SVTs). In addition to an improvement in DIC parameters, both patients benefited clinically with resolution of bleeding symptoms and prevention of further SVTs, respectively. Oral apixaban thus showed promising safety and efficacy in the management of DIC caused by vascular abnormalities; still further investigations are needed to support these findings.


Objective This study was to investigate the effects of dietary cotton stalk on nitrogen and free gossypol in sheep. Methods Treatments included 25% cotton stalk (Treat 1), 50% cotton stalk (Treat 2), and a control (no cotton stalk). Six Xinjiang daolang wethers were cannulated at the rumen and duodenum and fed one of these diets. The effects of these diets on nitrogen and free gossypol absorption and metabolism were determined. Fifteen healthy Xinjiang daolang wethers were assessed for daily gain, tissue lesions, and free gossypol accumulation. Results Dry matter intake decreased with increasing dietary cotton stalk. Total tract dry matter digestibility did not significantly differ among treatments. Dietary cotton stalk significantly decreased volatile fatty acids and increased ammonium nitrogen in the rumen. Nitrogen intake was significantly higher in Treat 2 than in the control or Treat 1. Nitrogen retention and free gossypol intake increased with dietary cotton stalk. Duodenal free gossypol flow did not increase, and free gossypol almost disappeared from the rumen. The free gossypol content of plasma and tissue was increased with dietary cotton stalk with liver free gossypol> muscle free gossypol>kidney free gossypol. Elevated dietary free gossypol decreased platelets, hemoglobin, and serum iron. Aspartate aminotransferase and γ-glutamyltransferase increased in Treat 2. With high long-term dietary cotton stalk intake, liver cells were swollen, and their nuclei dissolved. Renal cells were necrotic and the interstitia were enlarged. Conclusion With short-term cotton stalk administration, only a small amount of free gossypol is retained in the body. In response to long-term or high free gossypol cotton stalk feeding, however, free gossypol accumulates in, and damages the liver and kidneys.


The interfascial thoracic wall blockades Pecs I and Pecs II are increasingly applied in breast and axillary surgery. Despite the clear anatomical demarcations depicted at their introduction, the clinical outcome is more variable than would be expected based upon the described anatomy. In order to elucidate factors that explain this variability, we evaluated the spread of each injection—medial Pecs I, lateral Pecs I, the deep injection of the Pecs II—separately. A correlation of in vivo landmarks and ultrasound images with ex vivo ultrasound, reconstructed anatomical planes, histology and magnetic resonance imaging. The medial Pecs I, similar to the sagittal infraclavicular block positioning with needle position medial to the pectoral branch of the thoracoacromial artery, reaches the medial and lateral pectoral nerves. The lateral Pecs I, below the lateral third of the clavicle at the level of the third rib with needle position lateral to the pectoral branch of the thoracoacromial artery, additionally spreads to the axilla and reaches the intercostobrachial nerve. The deep Pecs II injection spreads to the lateral cutaneous part of the III–VI intercostal nerves and reaches the long thoracic nerve. The variability of the Pecs anesthetic blockades is driven by the selected Pecs I approach as only the lateral approach stains the intercostobrachial nerve. The pectoral branch of the thoracoacromial artery can serve as the landmark to differentiate the needle position of the medial and lateral Pecs I block. Clin. Anat. 32:421–429, 2019. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Enhanced distributed control function (EDCF) can guarantee inter-AC (access category) differentiation for wireless ad hoc networks. However, it ignores the intra-AC differentiation. This paper proposes a new function to adjust the contention window in 802.11e to guarantee both inter-AC differentiation and intra-AC one. Our goal is to alleviate the delay, collisions and increase the throughput by decreasing collisions when the loads of the network are heavy. The main contribution of our algorithm, which takes flow priority and nodes density into consideration and can be adaptively adjusted according to recent network conditions, is to smooth the collision by tuning the contention window. We also present a theoretical throughput analysis on our new function. The experiment results indicate that our scheme outperforms IEEE802.11e EDCF in terms of packet delay, throughput and collisions.


A microscopic theory to study the combined dynamics of a quantum dot exciton coupled to a single cavity mode as well as acoustic phonons is presented. By considering the phonon subsystem in the coherent state representation, the phonon's impact on the emitted photons is investigated. The single photon emission probability and phonon effects on this quantity are studied. On the other hand, we illustrate that while a quantum dot interacts with a single cavity mode, the collapse and revival phenomenon will occur. It is demonstrated that acoustic phonons have a pronounced impact on the collapse and revival of the quantum dot exciton. Our finding reveals that at elevated temperatures the phonon interaction decreases the Rabi frequency. Moreover, the cavity mode possesses non-classical features such as sub-Poissonian statistics.


Given the emphasis on providing services in the community, it is likely that there will be an increase in research into various aspects of the community. It is important that the way in which 'community' is defined in research will provide valid and reliable data and facilitate comparisons with other work on the subject. This paper discusses how the problems of defining the community were approached in a longitudinal study of the careers of people qualifying from the pre-registration diploma course in nursing.


The Mediterranean region is projected to be extremely vulnerable to global change, which will affect the distribution of typical forest types such as native oak forests. However, our understanding of Mediterranean oak forest responses to future conditions is still very limited by the lack of knowledge on oak forest dynamics and species‐specific responses to multiple drivers. We compared the long‐term (1966–2006) forest persistence and land cover change among evergreen (cork oak and holm oak) and deciduous oak forests and evaluated the importance of anthropogenic and environmental drivers on observed changes for Portugal. We used National Forest Inventories to quantify the changes in oak forests and explored the drivers of change using multinomial logistic regression analysis and an information theoretical approach. We found distinct trends among oak forest types, reflecting the differences in oak economic value, protection status and management schemes: cork oak forests were the most persistent (62%), changing mostly to pines and eucalypt; holm oak forests were less persistent (53.2%), changing mostly to agriculture; and deciduous oak forests were the least persistent (45.7%), changing mostly to shrublands. Drivers of change had distinct importance across oak forest types, but drivers from anthropogenic origin (wildfires, population density, and land accessibility) were always among the most important. Climatic extremes were also important predictors of oak forest changes, namely extreme temperatures for evergreen oak forests and deficit of precipitation for deciduous oak forests. Our results indicate that under increasing human pressure and forecasted climate change, evergreen oak forests will continue declining and deciduous oak forests will be replaced by forests dominated by more xeric species. In the long run, multiple disturbances may change competitive dominance from oak forests to pyrophytic shrublands. A better understanding of forest dynamics and the inclusion of anthropogenic drivers on models of vegetation change will improve predicting the future of Mediterranean oak forests.


This paper presents a wind power generation system (WPGS) with battery energy storage system (BESS) based on the Z-source inverter (ZSI) with simple boost control. Wind turbines using the squirrel cage induction generator (SCIG) are widely accepted due to their robustness, simplicity, light weight and low cost. The SCIG is connected to the power grid through voltage source converters VSC, and the WPGS is reinforced by the BESS in order to keep grid power balance. The BESS has a battery bank, which is integrated with the system through a bidirectional DC-DC converter (buck-boost). Moreover, the ZSI is an alternative power conversion topology that can both (buck-boost) the input voltage using passive components. The operation of ZSI is analyzed, and the active and reactive power decoupling method is proposed for a double closed-loop control system, which ensures the stability in voltage capacitor of ZSI. Also, the traditional sine pulse width modulation technique is modified to achieve the shoot through characteristic of ZSI. The proposed system has high performance, minimal component count, increased efficiency and reduced cost. Simulation results verify the efficacy of the proposed control strategies.


This study seeks to investigate recent rampant financial frauds and their impact on financial performance of the four mobile payment companies in Ghana. The study used secondary data obtained from the consolidated financial statements for the past ten years (2010-2019) of the mobile payment companies operations around the world. The population for the study consisted of all the subsidiaries of the five companies around the world that were used to prepare the consolidated financial statements. The sample consists of the subsidiaries of the four companies whose consolidated financial information are available for public use. Methodologically, factor analysis, pair sample t-test and principal component analysis were exploited in the analyses to estimate and predict the relationship between fraud and its impact on financial performance indicators. The results revealed that Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin result of .546 indicates that factor analysis used was very useful. The paired samples correlation gave the results that are significantly positively correlated between pair 1 MTN and Vodaphone (p=.872) and pair 2 Airtel and Tigo (p=.234) at an alpha level of 0.05. In the principal component analysis, only one factor has eigenvalues greater than 1 which account for almost 99% of the variability in the profit Margin as an indicator .The combined results offer theoretical contributions in the area of adoption of multiple fraud theories within the framework of neoclassical growth model. The application of the outcome to practice is the use of the result for predictability and financial sustainability of the mobile companies over future periods. Policy makers can use the findings to formulate and amend policies that regulate the operation of mobile payment companies to the benefit of all the stakeholders.


The design of a building is a complicated process, having to formulate diverse components through unique tasks involving different personalities and organisations in order to satisfy multi-faceted client requirements. To do this successfully, the project team must encapsulate an integrated design that accommodates various social, economic and legislative factors. Therefore, in this era of increasing global competition integrated design has been increasingly recognised as a solution to deliver value to clients.----- The 'From 3D to nD modelling' project at the University of Salford aims to support integrated design; to enable and equip the design and construction industry with a tool that allows users to create, share, contemplate and apply knowledge from multiple perspectives of user requirements (accessibility, maintainability, sustainability, acoustics, crime, energy simulation, scheduling, costing etc.). Thus taking the concept of 3-dimensional computer modelling of the built environment to an almost infinite number of dimensions, to cope with whole-life construction and asset management issues in the design of modern buildings. This paper reports on the development of a vision for how integrated environments that will allow nD-enabled construction and asset management to be undertaken. The project is funded by a four-year platform grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK; thus awarded to a multi-disciplinary research team, to enable flexibility in the research strategy and to produce leading innovation. This paper reports on the development of a business process and IT vision for how integrated environments will allow nD-enabled construction and asset management to be undertaken. It further develops many of the key issues of a future vision arising from previous CIB W78 conferences.


Values-engagement in evaluation involves both describing stakeholder values and prescribing certain values. Describing stakeholder values is common practice in responsive evaluation traditions. Prescribing or advocating particular values is only explicitly part of democratic, culturally responsive, critical, and other openly ideological traditions in evaluation, but we argue that it is implicit in all evaluation approaches and practices. In this article, we discuss various conceptualizations of values-engagement in evaluation. We further present a specific form of values-engaged evaluation that is committed to descriptive and prescriptive valuing, with an emphasis on its prescriptive advancement of the values of inclusion and equity. Examples from field experience illustrate these two countenances and underscore the multiple challenges invoked by intentional engagement with the values dimensions of evaluation. The examples come from evaluations of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational programs.


Digitally Ayurveda totally can spoil evil proteins, virions , microbes mere foreign-proteins , unlike multi-cellulars, can easily get denatured with plants acids (pH < 6.5) or with plants alkaloids (pH > 8.0) and Isoprene may in between. This research study found in fisheries and mankind The very well known fact to mankind is that pathogenic or foreign-proteins, namely virus and bacteria can be denatured with mild Ayuyrvedic acids or Alkaloids. Ground-truth microbial counts and digital parameters of ecology can find relations viz . machine learning techniques, of departing hydrophilic viruses, microbes with hydrophobicity of hydrocarbons or else reactive Isoprene. In earlier studies author found that hydrocarbon Isoprene the smallest unit of essential Authors are running Ayurveda gardens with fascinating plant specieses namely Justicia spp and Citrus plants those are releasing plants acids, Isoprene etc can protect and prevent any viruses with Isoprene instant proofs. May be gene editing of of all evil viruses with Isoprene remains be pre historic and established since Ayurvedic era Modern digital-research of Chromatography, Distillations or digital electronics can find that Isoprene and few others when emitted by plants or algae can prevent viruses and with a fact that oldest prescription of Ayurveda may be the worthiest to the mankind. Also natural gene-editing possible with Ayurveda science since pre- historic era and re-invented. Today Ayurveda science may be as advanced and authentic with perspective to gene editing or gene-therapy. In recent years we find whole world is full panicked with every word- goes starting with viruses, their all kind of mutants etc. However once we take very worthy Isoprene to Terpenoids from plants and Fatty bio-molecules etc. this may be God gifted bio-molecules that prevent and cure virus attack or even its mutants by damaging their genetic traits. Modern Ayurveda says any anomaly in mankind caused by viruses or its mutants can be cured with natural gene-editing plants i.e. Justicia spp, with stated Ayurveda science containing Isoprene, acting gene-editing enzyme, non conventional and non protein bio-molecule by forming isoprene phosphate reversibly, along with all the precursors of desiring genetic-base materials such as Purine and Pyrimidine obtainable from very popular Alkaloid biomolecules namely Vasicine, Vascineone and Quinazoline, respectively sourced from Justacia spp, or else simply fed them with Citrus spp or Switenia mahagony leaves all this containing Isoprene and hence animals fed gets escaped from any kind of virus diseases. All this Ayurvedic plants since pre-historic era and proven true Ultra natural all the mentioned biomolecules also obtainable at their respective temperature of vapour point (vp) from individual plant extracts. Whereas examples are given with aquatic data of fisheries environments.


The paper reports the relative acidification potential of 10 N2-fixing grain legume species grown in nutrient solution for 35 days after nodule appearance. The legumes studied were pilosus (Lupinus pilosus Murr. P23342), yellow lupin (Lupinus luteus L. R1171), white lupin (Lupinus albus L. Kiev mutant), narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L. Gungurru), faba bean (Vicia faba L. Fiord), field pea (Pisum sativum L. Dundale), grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L. S453), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. T1587), common vetch (Vicia sativa L. Blanchefleur), and lentil (Lens culinaris Med. ILL6002). The species varied considerably in their acidifying ability; proton production ranged from 77 to 136 cmol/kg dry matter. Chickpea and narrow-leafed lupin had the largest acidification potential and field pea the least. The specific acidification (amount of protons produced per kg dry matter) was best correlated with concentrations of excess cations, ash alkalinity, and calcium in plant across the species but was not correlated with plant nitrogen concentration. Total ash alkalinity or total excess cations in shoots provided a good indicator for estimation of total proton production in these species, which were reliant on N2fixation for their source of N. The results have implications for the selection of legumes to be used in sustainable farming systems.


This paper explores the generic structure of avionics beyond the Pave Pace system architecture. Projected constraints, opportunities and trends in several pervasive system building blocks which should be mature by this time frame are discussed and an example of the form this architecture might take is offered. In developing these projections, the author interviewed several technology experts in Industry and Government to help in forecasting the future of military avionics. General conclusions are: (1) costdriven sensor solutions will drive the avionics designs for most military avionics applications in order to meet demanding situation awareness goals, (2) the most pervasive and highest-leveraged building blocks used to build this advanced system will be commerciallyavailable data and signal processors along with advanced A/D converters and digital and RF photonics, (3) a continued increase in time sharing and physical integration at every level of the avionics architecture is projected, including multifunction EO and RF apertures, RF support electronics and a highly integrated digital system, (4) distributed high-speed photonic switches will permeate the architecture to achieve a unified interconnect network across RF, IF, data and signal processing modules built from families of printed wiring boards, (5) advances in packaging and microelectronics will result in the need for liquid immersion cooling and 3-dimensional stacking of RF, digital and photonic circuitry to support integrated apertures, digital receivers and data and signal processors to accomodate the needed speed and functional integration, (6) the digital boundary will move closer to the apertures to enable IF digital receivers for electronic warfare and radar applications (digital receivers up through L-band will have occurred during the Pave Pace era) and will extend the use of photonics beyond the digital arena to where photonically-controlled beam steering for phased arrays, RF signal distribution and hetereodyning will be possible. INTRODUCTION Predicting the characteristics of the next military avionics system beyond Pave Pace, which is not yet demonstrated, is obviously difficult because many assumptions must be made about the future direction of military priorities, budgetary constraints and the degree of success researchers will have in maturing several key technologies. This paper assumes the drive for low cost avionics will continue and that the 20 year system will evolve from the Pave Pace system introduced around the 200710 time frame. Therefore, one of the tasks at hand is to identify pervasive, highly-leveraged building block technologies, unavailable to the Pave Pace system that can further reduce avionics costs. For the 20 year design, these technologies should be in the early stages of prototype device development and significant funding interest must be shown by DoD departments such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). FUTURE AVIONICS NEEDS In the author's opinion, the greatest challenge facing future military avionics is to contain costs while providing the sensor and processing capability that will enable situation awareness and survivability against mobile threats in a system configuration which is ultra-reliable and supportable for austere base operation. The flyaway costs of fighter avionics (measured as a percentage of weapon system flyaway cost and exclusive of software costs) has increased steadily since the 1960s from about 12% for the F-4 to almost 40% today. Looking at cost, weight, volume, failure rates and electrical power requirements for advanced fighter avionics, Pave Pace studies showed that almost 60% of the values of these parameters could be attributed to RF sensors while about 20 % of "the problem" is attributed to processing and its associated networks (the remaining 20% being the electronic portion of stores management, vehicle management and controls and displays).


Palliative care, special medical care for a person maintaining his/her life with a severe illness, is a philosophy of care and clinical specialty that improves the life quality of the patient and his/her family, providing relief from the symptoms and stress of life-threatening diseases. For families and healthcare professionals, caring for COVID-19-infected patients require complex symptom management, specific care goals, and psychosocial support. There are studies in the literature showing many favorable aspects of palliative care enabling achievements such as improvements in the quality of life, a shortened length of hospital stay, and reduced costs of care. Palliative care should be provided to all patients in need, regardless of their prognosis, and patients should have access to such life-supporting interventions.


Topical and subconjunctival therapy with gentamicin sulfate were compared in rabbits following the induction of Pseudomonas and lye corneal ulcers. The concentrations of antibiotic in the cornea were significantly higher with the subconjunctival than with the topical route for Pseudomonas ulcers. In the case of lye ulcers, however, the difference was not statistically significant. Therapeutic levels of gentamicin were maintained in corneal ulcers for at least six hours after a subconjunctivally given injection. In contrast, less than 1μg of the agent was detectable per gram of cornea one hour after cessation of topical application. This study suggests that bacterial ulcers of the cornea might best be managed with a combination of subconjunctival and frequent topical treatment.


This slightly enlarged second edition now includes a description of diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia which had been omitted from the first edition. Essentially, the book remains a highly-outlined form of Dr. Danowski's well-known four-volume textbook on endocrinology. There is a rather alarming paucity of discussion of physiology and pathophysiology, the basic emphasis being on diagnosis and treatment. Discussion of growth both in the pediatric and adolescent age group is given short shrift. Despite an apparent preoccupation with the more esoteric manifestations of endocrinopathy, there is a disappointing lack of discussion of chromosomal abnormalities and intersex. Although the comments above indicate shortcomings, one must evaluate this text in terms of its title. It fulfills this rather admirably and it is unbelievable to see the amount of endocrinology that is covered in a relatively short space. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the book in addition to its basic content is the


Objective: The objective was to study the effectiveness and safety of super-selective bronchial arterial infusion (SBAI) chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: The clinical data of 120 advanced NSCLC patients were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 60 NSCLC patients were treated with SBAI method, another 60 NSCLC patients received systemic intravenous chemotherapy as the control group. The efficacy and safety between two groups of patients were compared. Results: The objective response rate and disease control rate of NSCLC patients treated with SBAI were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05). The 3-month progression-free survival (PFS) rate (96.67%) and 6-month PFS rate (86.67%) of the SBAI group were significantly higher than those of the control group (73.33% and 56.67%) (p < 0.01). After treatment, the FACT-L scores of patients in the SBAI group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05). The scores of all the 13 core symptom items and six symptom interference items of NSCLC patients in the SBAI group were lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). The adverse reactions rate in the SBAI group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The short-term efficacy of SBAI chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC is significantly higher than that of traditional peripheral intravenous chemotherapy, and it can significantly improve patients' quality of life and reduce the incidence of adverse reactions.


Four kinds of cultured human tumor cell lines sensitive or resistant to bleomycin (BLM) were examined for the effect of filipin, a polyene antibiotic, on peplomycin (PEP)-induced cell killing. Although PEP was more effective than BLM against BLM-resistant HeLa cells (HeLa-BLMr), neoplastic cells derived from salivary gland (HSG) and melanoma cells (MEC), these three cell lines were still at least ten times more resistant to PEP than epidermoid carcinoma cell lines including HeLa cells by comparison of IC50, and showed lower cellular accumulation of 3H-PEP as compared with HeLa cells. When these lines were pretreated with filipin, 3H-PEP accumulation by the cells was increased 1.33-, 2.34-, 1.91- and 1.14-fold in HeLa, HeLa-BLMr, HSG and MEC cells, respectively. Combination use of PEP and filipin resulted in a remarkable enhancement of cytocidal effect in HeLa-BLMr and HSG cells (100- and 25-fold decrease of IC50, respectively), and a slight enhancement in HeLa cells, but not in MEC cells. It is therefore suggested that there are differences among cell types in the potentiation of PEP-induced cell killing by filipin.


In this paper, we propose an access control method with a secret key for object detection models for the first time so that unauthorized users without a secret key cannot benefit from the performance of trained models. The method enables us not only to provide a high detection performance to authorized users but to also degrade the performance for unauthorized users. The use of transformed images was proposed for the access control of image classification models, but these images cannot be used for object detection models due to performance degradation. Accordingly, in this paper, selected feature maps are encrypted with a secret key for training and testing models, instead of input images. In an experiment, the protected models allowed authorized users to obtain almost the same performance as that of non-protected models but also with robustness against unauthorized access without a key.


[ABSTRACT] Telecine images are special TV signals converted from film images, and the original frame rate is lower than that of ordinary TV signals. In this paper, two signal processing schemes for telecine images are proposed. These schemes are based on the technique of making a group of scan-lines which is synchronized with the original film frames. In these schemes, several signals can be transmitted without crosstalk while keeping compatibility with NTSC standards. la) Film images cine-film (24 frarnesis)


Judge Learned Hand's opinion in United States v. Carroll Towing Co. (1947) is canonized in the law and economics literature as the first use of cost-benefit analysis for determining negligence and assigning liability. This paper revisits the original case in which the famous Hand formula was born, and examines whether Judge Hand's ruling in that case would truly provide correct incentives for efficient precaution. We show that the original rule specified by Judge Hand is different from the usual application of the Hand formula by modern law-and-economics theorists in the standard continuous care model. Through a game theoretic analysis of the case, we show that Judge Hand's negligence rule from United States v. Carroll Towing Co. may in fact produce games with inefficient equilibria. Such a possibility of inefficiency does not depend on the specific liability rule that governed the original case. It is even more ironic that there exist cases where the equilibrium is efficient, but the equilibrium requires that the victim not have a "bargee" on board, which flies in the face of Judge Hand's opinion.


Background: As the cost of health care continues to rise, the role of medical providers has evolved to include the duties of an operations manager. Two theories of operations management can be readily applied to health care—lean management, the process of identifying and eliminating waste; and Little's law, the idea that throughput is maximized by changing the capacity to host patients or the time they spend in the system. Equipped with theories of operations management, providers are better able to identify and address flow limitations in their own practices. Methods: Operations flow data were collected from three areas of care—clinic, surgical booking, and the operating room—for one provider. Variables of interest included visit or procedure characteristics and operations flow characteristics, such as different time points involved in the sector of care. Results: Clinic data were collected from 48 patients. Variables with a significant relationship to total clinic visit time included afternoon appointments (p = 0.0080) and visit type (p = 0.0114). Surgical booking data were collected for 127 patients. Shorter estimated procedure length (p = 0.0211) decreased time to surgery. Operating room data were collected for 65 cases. Variables with a significant relationship to total operating room time were patient age (p = 0.0325), Charlson Comorbidity Index (p = 0.0039), flap type (p = 0.0153), and number of flaps (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: This brief single-provider study provides examples of how to apply operations management theories to each point of care within one's own practice. Although longitudinal data following patients through each point of care are the next step in operations flow analysis, this work lays the foundation for evaluation at each time point with the goal of developing practical strategies to improve throughput in one's practice.


How to find information on designers past and present--biographies, business history and current marketing info, and design/visual research--all listed in one guide


We analyzed the number and organization of collagen genes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Genomic Southern blot hybridization experiments and recombinant phage library screenings indicated that C. elegans has between 40 and 150 distinct collagen genes. A large number of recombinant phages containing collagen genes were isolated from C. elegans DNA libraries. Physical mapping studies indicated that most phage contained a single small collagen gene less than 3 kilobases in size. A few phage contained multiple collagen hybridizing regions and may contain a larger collagen gene or several tightly linked small collagen genes. No overlaps were observed between phages containing different collagen genes, implying that the genes are dispersed in the C. elegans genome. Consistent with the small size of most collagen genes, we found that the predominant class of collagen mRNA in C. elegans is 1.2 to 1.4 kilobases in length. Genomic Southern blot experiments under stringent hybridization conditions revealed considerable sequence diversity among collagen genes. Our data suggest that most collagen genes are unique or are present in only a few copies.


Phenotypic and genetic characterization indicated that Hup+ bean rhizobial strains are type IIA and type IIB Rhizobium tropici. The Hup+ strain USDA 2840, which did not cluster with either of the two types of R. tropici in a restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, had electrophoretic patterns of PCR products generated with primers for repetitive extragenic palindromic and enterobacterial repetitive intergeneric consensus sequences similar to those of three reference strains of R. tropici type IIA. The Hup+ strain USDA 2738, which clustered with the reference strain of R. tropici IIB in a restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, had electrophoretic patterns of PCR products generated with primers for repetitive extragenic palindromic and enterobacterial repetitive intergeneric consensus sequences more closely resembling those of the reference strains of R. tropici type IIA than those of type IIB. DNA amplification with the Y1 and Y2 primers to generate a portion of the 16S rDNA operon was useful to distinguish R. tropici type IIA strains from other bean rhizobial strains. The phylogenetic position of the type IIA strain of R. tropici USDA 2840, determined from the partial 16S rDNA sequence, indicated a more distant relationship with the type IIB strain of R. tropici CIAT899 than with the as yet unnamed rhizobial species of Leucaena leucocephala, TAL 1145. Therefore, we suggest that it may be appropriate either to separate R. tropici types IIA and IIB into two different species or to identify TAL 1145 to the species level as a third type of R. tropici.


Introduction The current prevalence of IBD in UK is said to be 400/100,000 (0.4%). Anaemia is a common problem in IBD, contributing to tiredness and lethargy, and has multifactorial causes. Current ECCO guidelines recommend that all patients with IBD should be assessed for iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and that iron supplementation be given as indicated in their European Consensus Guidelines [2]. Objective To assess the prevalence of Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) in our IBD cohort,. The frequency these patients presented with IDA was also reviewed, along with the appropriate provision of intravenous (IV) iron, where needed. Method The Luton and Dunstable (L and D) University Hospital serves a catchment of 3 30 000 and has a database of 3014 IBD patients (0.9%). This is made up of 186 Proctitis, 1447 UC, 1037 Crohn's, 71 Microscopic colitis, 273 Indeterminate colitis patients. A 7 year retrospective database was also created, documenting each occasion a patient to the hospital with blood tests confirming iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). For the purposes of this study we defined iron deficiency anaemia as a haemoglobin level of <13 g/L for men and <12 g/L for women, in the presence of a ferritin of <50 ng/ml. The two databases were compared and the number of presentations with IDA over that 7 year period was assessed, along with the demand for IV iron. Results The prevalence of IBD is high in the local area (almost 1%). Over the 7 year review period, 633 (21%) of our local IBD patients were found to have IDA, with an median Hb level of 118 (130-47) g/L and ferritin count of 16.9 (49.8–2.4) ng/ml (median for men and women for Hb was 114 and 119 respectively, and for ferritin was 18.3 and 15.2 g/L, respectively). Of these, just 71 (11.3%) with a median Hb level of of 109 (130-35) g/L and ferritin count of 12.7 (40–1) ng/ml, received IV iron infusion. These 71 patients had presented 764 times (average 10.7 times) over 7 years with IDA that had not been appropriately corrected before they received an iron infusion. Conclusion Iron deficiency anaemia was common (21%) in our local IBD cohort. Iron replacement therapy was mostly administered in the oral form. Current practice in our trust does not comply with ECCO guidelines. Just 11.3% were considered for IV iron therapy, despite these patients repeatedly presenting with IDA (on average 10.7 times over 7y), and ferritin counts below 30 ng/ml. Closer adherence to ECCO guidelines is needed, in order to improve the general well being of our patients and prevention of recurrent attendances. References . Loftus EV. Clinical epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease: Incidence, prevalence, and environmental influences. Gastroenterology 2004;126:1504–1517. . Dignass AU et al. Journal of Crohn's and Colitis 2015;1:1–12. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are a class of medications utilized for the treatment of diabetes mellitus by mechanisms promoting incretin release and insulin production. Although poorly understood, cases of acute pancreatitis have been observed in patients taking GLP-1 RAs. Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2is) are another class of diabetic medications inhibiting renal glucose reabsorption which have been associated with rare cases of euglycemic ketoacidosis. Acute pancreatitis itself has been an observable cause of diabetic ketoacidosis, although typically in a hyperglycemia state. In this case report, we present a patient on SGLT-2is and GLP-1 RAs who developed acute pancreatitis, which may have precipitated euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis (eu-DKA).


The article presents which conceptions of higher education quality are most acceptable to first-year students of the study field of pedagogy. It is significant to analyse students' opinions as more than 10 years ago the EU member states agreed that higher education institutions bear responsibility for the quality of higher education. Being members of an academic community, students are also an important integral part of this process. There is a lack of research that would focus on which conception of higher education quality students believe to be the most acceptable to them. Respondents (students of the study field of pedagogy) are currently important actors in the system of higher education quality assurance and once they become teachers, they will be an important part of the system of teaching quality assurance. The article introduces the following conceptions of higher education quality: 1) quality as improvement; 2) quality as excellence; 3) quality as transformation; 4) quality as conformance to set requirements, norms and criteria; 5) quality as fulfilment and/or exceeding clients'/consumers' needs; 6) quality as fitness for purpose; 7) quality as value for money. An empirical research conducted in 2012 and 2013 helped to identify which conceptions of higher education quality are most appropriate to the first-year students from the study field of pedagogy. 326 first-year students from three Lithuanian higher education institutions participated in the research. The research revealed that the two most acceptable conceptions of higher education quality to first-year students of the field of pedagogy are quality as continuous improvement and quality as excellence.


A total of 607 isolates were obtained and chosen to represent the different colonial types of presumptive streptomycetes isolated from suspensions of two extraction methods. Five hundred and fifty- six isolates obtained using the DDC method were assigned to 37 multi-membered (451 isolates) and 105 single-membered colour groups. In addition, 51 isolates derived from tumble shaking procedure were assigned to 7 multi-membered (42 isolates) and 9 single-membered colour groups. The properties of these multi-membered colour groups were identical to those shown by corresponding colour groups that encompassed strains derived from the DDC procedure. Representatives of 31 out of 37 multi-membered had chemical and morphological properties consistent with their classification in the genus Streptomyces. The generic assignment of these organisms was underpinned by 16S rDNA sequence data which also suggested that most of the strains represented new centres of taxonomic variation. The taxonomic data indicate that diverse populations of streptomycetes are associated with the roots of Paraserianthes falcataria.


Taking into account the international policies in the field of environmental protection in the world in general, and in the European Union in particular, the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and primarily of carbon dioxide, has become one of the most important objectives. This can be obtained through various renewable energy sources and non-polluting technologies, such as the mixing of hydrogen and natural gas. Combining hydrogen with natural gas is an emerging trend in the energy industry and represents one of the most important changes in the efforts to achieve extensive decarbonisation. The importance of this article consists of carrying out a techno-economic study based on the simulation of annual consumptions regarding the construction and use of production capacities for hydrogen to be used in mixtures with natural gas in various percentages in the distribution network of an important operator in Romania. In order to obtain relevant results, natural gas was treated as a mixture of real gases with a known composition as defined in the chromatographic bulletin. The survey presents a case study for the injection of 5%, 10%, and 20% hydrogen in the natural gas distribution system of Bucharest, the largest city in Romania. In addition to conducting this techno-economic study, the implications for final consumers of this technical solution in reducing greenhouse gas emissions—mainly those of carbon dioxide from combustion—are also presented.


Scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. They have been facing problems since colonial India to the present times. Scheduled castes, who are also known as 'dalits,' have been suffering from social, religious, legal, political, economic, educational, and other problems. Scheduled tribes live in various ecological and geo-climatic conditions ranging from plains and forests to hills and inaccessible areas and are at different stages of social, economic and educational development. Problems of tribes are mainly related to forest rights, land alienation, exploitation by money lenders, mining and displacement in tribal areas. Development projects, such as industrial projects, dams, roads, mines, power plants and new cities, displace the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes from their homes resulting in destitution and unemployment. Today, displacement is the main problem confronting these communities. Therefore, the present paper outlines the contemporary problems of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes of India.


This paper investigates a wearable approach to facial electromyography and electrooculography. The aim is to reduce discomfort and setup time in electromyographic research, rehabilitation, and computer control. A screen and stencil printed passive electrode network is fabricated on a textile headband. When this headband is worn, an array of stencil printed electrodes makes contact with the skin. The electrodes are connected to external electronics by screen printed flexible conductive tracks. The printed electrode headband is used in a facial electromyographic control system to evaluate performance. The system can be used to control a mouse cursor or simulate keyboard functions. It was found that 50 Hz noise levels in the printed textile electrodes were similar to commercial disposable electroencephalography electrodes. The effect of a wearable approach on pressure variations and motion artefact is examined. The way in which this influences the design and performance of the control system is discussed.