The paper approaches the problematic related to the role played by the proportionality principle in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, through the lens of the Billerud case. When conducting the proportionality analysis, the Court employs different standards of the examination, depending on the subject matter in question. In this sense, the paper focuses on three distinctive fields: discretionary policy choices, penalties, and fundamental rights. The paper addresses the Billerud case from all three perspectives. The Court's ruling was approached from the perspective of discretionary policy choices and was thus deprived of an in-depth proportionality examination. In this sense, the paper argues that if the case were approached from a different angle, namely from the fundamental rights perspective, it could have been ruled differently, as the Charter would have called for a stricter standard of the Court's review.


Copper occurs naturally in the aquatic environment as a result of weathering of soils and rocks and land drainage. Copper is a micronutrient at low level and highly toxic to fish at high concentrations above 0.4 ppm can kill some species of fishes in few hours. The reduction of toxic elements in aquatic system by some acceptable methods is needed urgently. The present work was designed to study the effect of selenium on the reduction of copper toxicity in tissues and improvement of growth haematology and proximate composition in the freshwater fish, Labeo rohita.


We investigated the metabolic defect(s) of four children who presented with isolated cryptogenic chronic liver disease, coagulopathy, and abnormalities of several unrelated serum glycoproteins. Analysis of the patients' serum glycoproteins and fibroblasts suggest they have a novel congenital disorder of glycosylation (CDG). All had abnormal transferrin (Tf) isoelectric focusing (IEF) profiles. More detailed analysis of Tf by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) showed a plethora of abnormal glycosylations that included loss of 1-2 sialic acids and 1-2 galactose units, typical of Group II defects. Tf from two patients also lacked 1-2 entire oligosaccharide chains, typical of Group One disorders. Total serum N-glycans were analyzed by HPLC and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry and also showed increased proportion of neutral glycan chains lacking sialic acids and galactose units. Analysis of patient fibroblasts eliminated CDG-Ia, through CDG-Ih, -IL and CDG-IId. Our results suggest that a subset of children with clinically asymptomatic, cryptogenic hypertransaminasemia and/or liver steato-fibrosis may represent a novel type of CDG-X with an unknown defect(s). Clinicians are encouraged to test such patients for abnormal Tf glycosylation by ESI-MS.


A laterally averaged nonhydrostatic model for stratified flow in dynamically narrow domains is presented. Averaging laterally yields the computational efficiency of a two-dimensional model, while retaining some effects associated with variable domain width, such as flow acceleration through contracting channels. The model may be run in both hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic modes, and in the latter case it converges rapidly if the flow is approximately hydrostatic. The model's strengths and weaknesses are illustrated with a series of test cases of increasing complexity. Side-by-side comparisons with laboratory observations show the ability of the model to simulate the structures of nonhydrostatic flows, including shear instabilities and overturning internal waves, with discrepancies becoming apparent mainly for transition to three-dimensional turbulence. Similar results are demonstrated in an application to the stratified sill flow in Knight Inlet, British Columbia. The model reproduces nonhydrostatic features thought to be dynamically important to this system, including the generation of largeamplitude lee waves and shear instabilities.


To determine the thermosensitive periods and physiological processes in tomato flowers exposed to moderately elevated temperatures, tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., cv. NC 8288) were grown at 28/22 degrees C or 32/26 degrees C day/night temperature regimes and then transferred to the opposite regime for 0-15 d before or 0-24 h after anthesis. For plants initially grown at 28/22 degrees C, moderate temperature stress before anthesis decreased the percentage of fruit set per plant, but did not clarify the thermosensitive period. The same level of stress did not significantly reduce fruit set when applied immediately after anthesis. For plants initially grown at 32/26 degrees C, fruit set was completely prevented unless a relief period of more than 5 d was provided before anthesis. The same level of stress relief for 3-24 h after anthesis also increased fruit set. Plants were most sensitive to 32/26 degrees C temperatures 7-15 d before anthesis. Microscopic investigation of anthers in plants grown continuously at high temperature indicated disruption of development in the pollen, endothecium, epidermis, and stomium. This disruption was reduced, but still observable in plants relieved from high temperature for 10 d before anthesis.


The paper is concerned with pressure waves generated by a flame during the initial phase of its acceleration in a detonation tube filled with a stoichiometric hydrogen + oxygen mixture. The process was observed by means of streak schlieren photography with simultaneous pressure measurements at several stations in the tube. Experimental records revealed in considerable detail the characteristics of pressure waves and yielded information on the structure of the reaction zone with a noticeable effect of the transition from a wrinkled laminar to a turbulent flame. Marked influence of the mode of ignition (electrical obtained by spark discharge, chemical by pilot flame, and thermal by glow coil) on the process of flame acceleration was demonstrated. It is shown that the generation of pressure waves by the flame can be accounted for by the change in the rate of heat release brought about by the increase in the surface area of the combustion front. The computed acceleration of the flame and the structure of the pressure wave ahead of it were in a satisfactory agreement with experimental observation.


Data from Argo floats equipped with Iridium communications are used to obtain a global map of the total amplitude (or variance) of the M2 internal tide. The results are confirmed by a comparison with the High Resolution Empirical Tide (HRET) model, based on satellite altimetry. While HRET only contains the stationary component, with a fixed phase difference to the astronomical tide, the present results capture the total amplitude, including the nonstationary component. The time scale over which the nonstationary component is decorrelated is also obtained. We estimate the global average ratio of total to stationary semidiurnal internal tide variance to be more than 10. In terms of the ratio of nonstationary to total semidiurnal internal tide variance, the semidiurnal nonstationary variance fraction (SNVF), this translates into a global average ratio of about 90%. The Argo in situ observations provide a valuable ground-truth for the geographical variability of the internal tides. The latter is key to predicting the magnitude and distribution of the mixing that ultimately results from the tides.


We propose a framework for removing redundant context management services in contextual composition frameworks, with focus on Enterprise JavaBeans. It is expected that by applying our framework, performance can be improved without the loss of modularity.


Background: As the use of CGM in type 1 Diabetes (T1D) becomes more prevalent, it is important to develop less invasive technologies to improve diabetes health outcomes and reduce burden. Optical glucose sensing (OGS) offers a non-invasive option to measure sub-dermal glucose levels by shining a laser beam of light onto the skin. The aim of this study was to gather preliminary data on the accuracy of OGS technology using a prototype device.
 Methods: Eighteen adults with T1D (32 ± 11yrs.; 83% white, 17% Latinx) using Dexcom G6 or Libre CGM used an OGS prototype device for 5 days, scanning the palm of their hand up to eight times per day to measure glucose levels. Paired CGM values obtained from Clarity or Libreview CSV files were used for comparison. Outliers due to user-error were removed by leave-one-out cross-validation (20% of values).
 Results: Paired CGM and OGS values (n=599) resulted in a MARD of 19% ±13% with 99% of values within the Clarke Error Grid A&B Zones (Figure 1). The % within 15/15, 20/20, or 30/30 were 44%, 59%, and 80%, respectively.
 Discussion: OGS may be a promising, non-invasive alternative to current CGM devices on the market. Further research and development of the sensing algorithm is needed to lower the MARD closer to current factory calibrated CGMs. In addition, increased recruitment of people with diabetes who have darker skin tones is needed to evaluate accuracy across all populations.

 L. Geiser: None. H. Leung: None. C. Berget: Consultant; Insulet Corporation, Dexcom, Inc. Other Relationship; Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. C. Gong: None. Q. Liu: None. X. Zhou: None. G. P. Forlenza: Advisory Panel; Medtronic. Research Support; Medtronic, Abbott. Consultant; Dexcom, Inc. Research Support; Dexcom, Inc. Consultant; Insulet Corporation. Research Support; Insulet Corporation. Consultant; Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. Research Support; Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. Consultant; Lilly Diabetes.

 National Science Foundation (ECCS-2037267)


Voltage source multicell multilevel converters (VSMMCs) have been extensively exploited in medium-voltage high-power fed industrial applications. One of the typical breeds of the VSMMCs is flying-capacitor multicell converter (FCMC). This study presents an improved configuration for FCMCs, accompanied by its analysis, modelling and implementation. The main advantage of the proposed converter, in comparison with the conventional one, is that the number and voltage rating of the required dc voltage sources are halved in the improved topology which results in reducing the cost, size, installation area and weight of the FCMCs effectively. This amelioration is attained by adding four power switches to the conventional topology of an FCMC without making any amendments to the number and voltage rating of high-frequency power-switches and flying capacitors (FCs). The proposed switching and control methodology for the adopted FCMC is based on the phase-shifted carrier pulse width modulation technique with applying some amendments; therefore the natural balancing phenomenon of the FC voltages, one of the critical advantages of the FCMCs, is preserved in the proposed VSMMC. Experimental measurements taken from the 3-cell-four-level and 4-cell-five-level laboratory prototype systems of the proposed converter are presented in order to validate and corroborate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed topology, its switching and suggested control strategy. Furthermore, experimental studies are accomplished on an 8-cell-nine-level prototype system of the proposed FCMC to peruse its feasibility and viability for higher number of cells and voltage levels. In addition, comparison of the proposed converter with the other types of multilevel converters is carried out to underline the advantages of the proposed structure profoundly.


Dynamical processes determining the time evolution of difference kinetic energy (DKE) in a limited-area domain are investigated with the convection-permitting ensemble model COSMO-E for a forecasting period of 4 days. DKE is quantified by means of ensemble variance of the irrotational and nondivergent horizontal wind. For three case studies characterized by contrasting predictability levels of precipitation, it is shown that DKE of the irrotational wind strongly increases during periods of solar-forced moist convective activity and decreases when the latter ceases. The response of DKE of the nondivergent wind is also clearly related to the convective activity, but delayed by a few hours, pointing to interactions between both wind components. Apart from the impact of moist convection, DKE of the nondivergent wind is primarily governed by large-scale advection, imposed at the lateral domain boundaries of the limited-area ensemble. This forcing may also sustain or increase DKE of the irrotational wind when moist convection is absent. Consequently, the large-scale flow and diurnal solar forcing, associated with higher spatiotemporal predictability, determines the overall evolution of the limited-area ensemble variance of the horizontal wind, which increases in the presence of moist convective activity or strong synoptic-scale forcing, and stagnates or decreases otherwise, rendering forecasts of convection-permitting ensembles valuable beyond the very short forecast range.


In recent years, research on emergency traffic evacuation has increased intensively. Detection of the optimal discharge route is one of the most important parts of crisis management due to the large number of effective measures. In this research, we have used the Analytical Hierarchy Process, taking into account three criteria, road capacity, population density, and structural parameters, and several sub-criteria, and taking into account the actual weight of the criteria for traffic emergency evacuation routing . The method presented in this research is not limited to these three criteria, and can be done with other criteria, based on the conditions of the case study area. The study area in this research is the region of Sabzemeydan, a region in Zanjan city (capital of Zanjan province, northwest of Iran), which has been studied based on the above criteria. The proposed route for emergency traffic evacuation in the studied area, using the proposed method in this research, has all the effective parameters in traffic evacuation, in times of crisis, and is the most optimal route for simultaneous examination based on their real impact.


Background. The efficacy of valganciclovir used as preemptive therapy for cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in liver transplant recipients is not known. Methods. Between 1996 and 2004, surveillance testing using CMV antigenemia was performed at weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 posttransplant. A total of 28.8% (17/59) of the patients from 2001 to 2004 with antigenemia who received valganciclovir as preemptive therapy were compared with 26.2% (21/80) of the patients from 1996 to 2000 who received oral ganciclovir as preemptive therapy. Results. The mean decline in the antigenemia level after initiation of valganciclovir and oral ganciclovir was 80.5% versus 50.7% at 1 week, 99.5% versus 89.4% at 2 weeks, and 100% versus 97.7% at 4 weeks, respectively. A higher proportion of patients who received valganciclovir (64.7%) belonged to the high-risk group (R−/D+) than patients who received oral ganciclovir (33.3%, P=0.10). Recurrent shedding was documented in 47.1% (8/17) of the patients in the valganciclovir group and 28.6% (6/21) of the patients in the oral ganciclovir group (P>0.20). Recurrent shedding correlated significantly with R−/D+ CMV serostatus and baseline CMV antigenemia level, regardless of the study group. No patient in either group developed CMV disease during or after the period of surveillance monitoring. The incidence of opportunistic infections and patient outcome did not differ for the valganciclovir group versus the oral ganciclovir group or patients without CMV infection (P>0.20). Conclusion. Antigenemia-directed valganciclovir as preemptive therapy seems to be effective for the prevention of CMV disease in liver transplant recipients, including high-risk patients.


Securitization theory has paid extensive attention to transnational issues, actors, and processes. Surprisingly, however, only little attention has been paid to the securitization of diaspora communities, defined as overseas citizens or co-nationals abroad. This article fills this gap by developing an analytical framework to study the securitization of diasporas, focusing on three discursive formations: diasporas as threatening actors, as objects under threat, or as security resources. Building upon the recent literature on state–diaspora engagement and drawing on an analysis of Israeli elite discourse (from 1948 to 2022), this article demonstrates how the securitization of diasporas serves as a discursive mechanism that naturalizes and legitimizes extra-territorial policies towards Jews abroad. Thus, the article complements structural and rational explanations of state–diaspora engagement by examining the intersubjective process that endows diaspora policymaking with meaning. Against the backdrop of extensive securitization scholarship that focuses on attempts to keep "foreigners" out, this article shows how securitization justifies bringing certain people in or governing their national identity abroad.


This chapter examines the wedding of Jason and Medea in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, arguing that the marriage ceremony held in book 8 is a charged moment for Roman epic itself, serving as a microcosm for a much deeper reflection on the role of marriage in constituting Roman epic. It starts by framing Valerius' marriage within the epic tradition, within which, I argue, Valerius' wedding exaggerates the power of the disruptive female, drawing together the troubling hints of Medea's tragic identity from her introduction in the epic. But Valerius also uses Argonautica's status as 'first' epic to provide an origin story for the role of coniugium which valorizes her epic role. It is Medea's deeds which constitute labor (V. Fl. 5.453), not Jason's, her flight rather than his quest memorialized in song. Re-purposing Virgil's flirtation with and avoidance of coniugium—a 'marriage' to Dido that is a dead end for the narrative but is of crucial importance for the rise of Rome itself via its conflict with Carthage—the 'Roman' Medea who confronts Jason at the end of the Argonautica, fighting for her rights as a Roman wife, is a truly appropriate symbol for a tradition of epos. The result—not just a deeply disturbing wedding ceremony in Argonautica 8, but also an epic that attributes empire and epos to the survival of the disruptive female—offers its Flavian readers a revisionary origin-story for epic itself.


Purpose of the study. To analyze the world experience of the functioning of medical and rescue systems for providing emergency medical care to victims in emergency situations on the highways of republican significance. The study included publications from the MEDLINE, CyberLeninka, eLIBRARY.RU databases, regulatory documentation on the provision of EMF. We analyzed studies published over the past 5 years. All other articles have been deleted.Experience shows that the lives of victims often depend on the kind of assistance they will receive in the first minutes after an accident, which directly depends on the speed of response and the experience of providing medical assistance by the teams of the route-medical rescue center.Considering the importance of preventing and reducing deaths due to an emergency on the highways of republican significance, the article presents an analysis of the literature, revealing the experience of the functioning of medical rescue systems for providing emergency medical care to victims in road traffic accidents.Further improvement of the disaster medicine service for the provision of emergency medical care is one of the most important conditions for ensuring the preservation and strengthening of the health of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan


Introduction: Hemostatic alterations of patients with acute Covid-19 are well described, while post-Covid-19 clinical and laboratory consequences are less clear. Survivors of Covid-19 exhibit a complex array of symptoms, whose underlying pathology is still to be elucidated. The term 'long-Covid' is used to describe this condition developing after acute Covid-19. Materials Methods: the fi rst pandemic, we started an ad hoc multidisciplinary follow-up project for Covid-19 patients discharged our Institution (ACCORDI STUDY). The program from to November 2020. Patients were reassessed one time for clinical, instrumental, and laboratory parameters. Blood samples were collected from each participant for the measurement of hemostatic biomarkers. Here we present the fi rst interim analysis of the biomarkers study.Thelaboratory study included complete blood cell count, liver and renal functional tests, LDH, C-reactive protein, fi brinogen, D-dimer (DD), von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF:Ag), thrombomodulin (TM), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor PAI-1, prothrombin fragment 1+2 (F1+2). onset (n=184), i.e. the post-Covid syndrome patients, had signi fi cantly (p<0.05) higher levels of vWF:Ag as compared to symptoms-free subjects (n=159). No signi fi cant differences were observed in the levels of tPA, DD, fi brinogen, F1+2 of symptomatic vs asymptomatic individuals. In a model of logistic regression analysis corrected for age and gender, having at least one among TM and PAI-1 biomarkers above the 75 th percentile within 12 weeks from the disease onset, was signi fi cantly associated with a diagnosis of long-Covid (OR 2.425; 95% CI:1.037-5.671; p=0.041). Conclusions: In conclusion, in this study cohort, patients with long-Covid syndrome are characterized by the persistence of cardiopulmonary symptoms. Preliminary results on hemostatic biomarkers analysis show that endothelial (TM and vWF:Ag) and fi brinolytic (PAI) biomarkers are associated with long-Covid symptoms and may be useful for the identi fi cation of affected subjects.


This paper analyses the social and cultural influence of slavery in the Roman Empire. It investigates the frontiers between liberty and slavery in their public and private dimensions. It focuses on the concept of a trajectory of slave lives to set the freed slave in its proper dimension, something between slavery and liberty, a social condition that creates a zone of indetermination that affects society as a whole.


The use of Student Resource Centres to support L2 students' language learning is a very recent pedagogical innovation at the post-secondary level in language-teaching institutions in Canada. In this study the author reports very briefly on how to set one up and, then, goes on to survey student opinion on the role of self-directed learning in learning a second language. Information on topics such as type and suitability of material used, frequency of use, relation of self-study to classroom teaching gathered through a series of questionnaires and formal and informal interviews is analyzed and interpreted in a descriptive manner. The paper concludes with comments on the role of self-directed learning in L2 teaching and learning.


in this study, twenty four individual Awassi male lambs (mean body weight 17.05 kg and 3-4 months of old) were used to investigate the effect of three ratios of alfalfa hay to reed silage (40:0, 20: 20 and 0: 40 AH: RS ratios) fed with two levels of Iraqi probiotic (IP) (0 and 7.5 g IP / kg DM) on blood cholesterol concentration (BCC), blood urea nitrogen concentration (BUNC) and blood globulin concentration(BGC). The diets were formulated as DM to give a 40 parts alfalfa hay or/and reed silage and 60 parts concentrate. Within 2-3 days before end of the period trial, blood samples were taken during 0, 6, 12 and 24 hr. post morning feeding for measuring BCC, BUNC and BGC. No differences among treatments were found in daily feed intake for all nutrients. Different AH: RS ratios have no effect on live weight gain (LWG), BCC, BUNC and BGC. However, lambs fed diets supplemented with IP tended to increase in their LWG and significantly reduce BGC and BUNC (P<0.05 and P<0.01 respectively) as compared with those fed diets without IP. While, IP supplementation had no effect on BCC. In conclusion, during 0, 6, 12 and 24 hr. post morning feeding AH: RS ratios had no effect on BCC, BUNC and BGC. Inconclusion, IP supplementation was associated with higher LWG and lower BUN concentration.


A careful density functional theory reexamination of the geometric and electronic structures of reduced main-group porphyrin complexes E(Por)L2 (E = Si or Ge; L = pyridine or tetrahydrofuran), B2(Por), and C2(Por) has confirmed these as pure isophlorin derivatives with normal-valent coordinated central atoms. Only axially unligated Ge(Por) and the dications [B2(Por)]2+ and [C2(Por)]2+ feature aromatic porphyrin ligands. The calculations faithfully reproduce the strong bond-length alternation along the outer rim of the macrocycle in the reduced complexes, consistent with antiaromatic character, as well as much stronger ruffling in the reduced group 14 complexes relative to their nonreduced counterparts such as E(Por)X2 (E = Si or Ge; X = F or Cl). The latter is thought to reflect the lower barrier to nonplanar deformation for the antiaromatic systems. In addition, unlike B2(Por) and its dication, which are planar, C2(Por) and its dication are predicted to be strongly ruffled, reflecting the smaller size of the central C2 unit. The calculations also predict characteristically low ionization potentials and singlet-triplet gaps for the antiaromatic complexes. A brief exploratory study of the as-yet-unknown group 15 complexes E(TPP)(Ph)(py), where E = P and As, also indicated an antiaromatic isophlorin macrocycle coordinated to a pentavalent group 15 center.


The availability of low-cost consumer camera device that use standardCMOS sensor technology enabled us to investigate the possibility of usingsuch device to detect ionizing radiations. A CMOS with active-pixel sensorfrom a webcam with built-in electronics was evaluated in this early prelim-inary works for the detection ofγphotons from137Cs source. A computerprogram was written in Python utilizing the openCV library to record thedigitized data from the webcam. The CMOS sensor with a simple systemsetup was found able to detect theγphotons.


Traditionally, people ought to come to a face-to-face or in-class training, whether arranged by company through in-house training or set up by a public provider. This conservative mechanism has its drawbacks for employees as in-class training require them to be in one location at a certain time. It becomes a challenge specifically for an employee in Oil & Gas company with its various working hour and working schedule (rotational or residential). This paper describes the breakthrough effort in PT Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM) where training is delivered using online blended learning methods in which employees can participate actively in a learning program conducted from any region of the world without leaving the workstation or residence. Online blended learning does not require any fancy equipment or tools, as a participant only needs a laptop or desktop with speakerphone and of course, good internet connection. Besides, online blended learning may also worth to consider in terms of cost that might be lesser than conducting in-class training or sending people to conventional public training.


In recent years, the countries of Latin America have introduced a series of reforms aimed at strengthening and modernizing their tax systems. While the reforms are part of an ongoing process carried over from earlier periods, the objectives pursued place a renewed emphasis on distribution issues, in clear contrast with the spirit of the tax reforms implemented in the region in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper identifies the stylized facts that have characterized Latin American tax systems over the past two decades. Although there is a lot of heterogeneity among countries, the tax burden has increased in almost all cases, and the tax structure has, on average, become more concentrated on the value added tax and the income tax. Nevertheless, certain structural weaknesses have been maintained over time, such as the bias in favour of indirect taxation and the low weight of personal income taxes, which determines the low redistributive impact of taxation at the regional level. Moreover, the high degree of informality, the high level of tax expenditures (or concessions) and the unacceptable levels of tax evasion hinder the consolidation of tax systems based on sufficiency, equity, and efficiency. As the objectives of tax policy expand beyond the merely fiscal, as has been the case in some recent experiences, it is becoming increasingly important to establish new guidelines for tax reform in the countries of the region.


Future applications of wireless power transfer will include powering various devices in a room, charging electric vehicles in a parking area, charging moving robots and so on. Therefore practical wireless power transfer must be able to support complicated configurations for example combination of multi-receiver and repeaters. Many past works have discussed on methods for improving efficiency and more recently extended the methods to multi-receiver system. However controllable power division among receivers is also an important feature as receivers nearer to the transmitter tend to absorb more power compared to further antennas. In this paper, a new impedance matching and power division method utilizing impedance inverters only at receiver sides is proposed. The mathematical equations in the proposed method are then generalized for arbitrary number of receivers and arbitrary number of repeaters.


A new generation of nonionic surfactants that are widely applicable and simultaneously ecologically compatible has been developed in the alkyl polyglycosides. Their production from the renewable resources glucose and fatty alcohol and their ultimate biodegradation into carbon dioxide, water, and assimilated bacterial biomass is an example for a closed cycle. As a result of their physico-chemical properties and ecotoxicological evaluation, they have become very important as high-performance components of detergents and cosmetic preparations.


The spiritual journey of many greatly influential figures throughout history has been subject to physical journeys. The enlightening visions and experiences that prophets, poets and thinkers have witnessed have given birth to new intellectual horizons that might not have been achieved, but for the challenges and adventures entwined with the nature of migration. The musical journey of my life, too, has been affected by the physical and spiritual journey I have made by leaving Iran. The nature of Persian music, also, takes one on a mystical journey of self--?analysis and awareness. Inevitably, my music is the product of the culture I was raised in and the ones I have had the privilege of living in. My interpretation of these cultures, hermeneutics of humanities and understanding of music, is also strongly influenced by my personality and psychological characteristics. As a composer, I have always refrained from commenting on my own music. I find the experience somewhat challenging, yet amusing, non--?musical, yet poetic and unnecessary, yet fruitful. In writing this commentary, I have re--?visited some of the most intimate compositional experiences I have had and I am grateful for the depth of insight provided by this experience.


Communication technology for vehicles has become an important topic for research. IEEE standards including IEEE 802.11p and IEEE P1609.1-4 have emerged to provide a framework for intervehicular communication (IVC). However, due to particular characteristics of IVC, such as high mobility, unstable connectivity, and network partitioning, information routing becomes inevitably challenging. This article reviews the recent research progress to highlight research challenges in vehicular routing protocol as a guideline for future development of IVC applications. The article focuses on the IEEE DSRC/WAVE standard. The state of the art in IVC routing protocols is surveyed, and open issues for further research are highlighted in the article.


A physical Cauer circuit is used to model skin effect in a conductor or eddy currents in a magnetic lamination. A physical lumped element model was chosen, because equivalent circuits are inconvenient for nonlinear materials such as magnetic materials. Approaches to discretize the used circuit are presented and compared. An iterative fitting technique is suggested that requires fewer elements and yields higher accuracy than an exponential discretization.


Until now, most of the computer games are played with a controller. But there is a big difference between pushing a button to jump and jumping yourself. Currently we are developing new tools which allow players to get rid off controllers and play games using intuitive body movements and poses. In this demo, we illustrate real-time pose tracking and recognition applied to pose-driven spatial game.


ABSTRACT Despite advances in biomedical technology, endometriosis remains a disease that is inefficiently diagnosed and treated. American women often suffer from debilitating symptoms for a decade before being diagnosed. Addressing this deficiency is crucial if women are to live well with endometriosis. Framed by relational dialectics theory 2.0, the current study analyzes women's experiences of endometriosis diagnoses via online narrative postings. Results reveal two centripetal (dominant) discourses: (a) the discourse of psycho-abnormality, and (b) the discourse of biological normality. Narrators' invocation of the discourse of psycho-abnormality disqualifies women's suffering as imagined and "all in their heads," whereas invocation of the discourse of biological normality naturalizes women's suffering as "just part of being a woman." The discourse of psycho-abnormality and the discourse of biological normality, both rooted in patriarchal influences, hinder diagnosis and subsequently treatment and rehabilitation of endometriosis. Encouragingly, a third (though marginalized) discourse emerged: the discourse of reclaiming expertise. Narrators' invocation of this discourse directly opposes the discourses of psycho-abnormality and biological normality by inciting validation of embodied knowledge in medical encounters and urging patients to enact agency in healthcare settings. This project discusses the interplay of these three discourses, and aims to improve diagnostic efficacy as a result.


Denote by $K_p(n,k)$ the random subgraph of the usual Kneser graph $K(n,k)$ in which edges appear independently, each with probability $p$. Answering a question of Bollobas, Narayanan, and Raigorodskii, we show that there is a fixed $p<1$ such that a.s. (i.e., with probability tending to 1 as $k\rightarrow\infty$) the maximum independent sets of $K_p(2k+1, k)$ are precisely the sets $\{A\in V(K(2k+1,k)): x\in A\}$ ($x\in [2k+1]$). We also complete the determination of the order of magnitude of the "threshold" for the above property for general $k$ and $n\geq 2k+2$. This is new for $k\sim n/2$, while for smaller $k $ it is a recent result of Das and Tran.


Background: The coronavirus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome has infected over 2 million people worldwide, killed thousands, and triggered a global pandemic. There is a scarcity of information about pregnant and non-pregnant women who have coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This study's aim was to determine whether the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was present in the vaginal fluid of infected women. Also, their platelet counts were examined to see whether they were higher in severe versus moderate cases of the COVID-19 disease. Methods: Our Obstetrics Clinic treated 31 women with confirmed COVID-19 (23 pregnant and 8 non-pregnant women) between 1 September 2020 and 30 September 2020). The existence of syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in vaginal fluid samples was used to determine evidence of genital transmission of the virus. A clinical laboratory procedure, including taking blood samples, IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette was performed to validate SARS-CoV-2 infection. Vaginal swabs were retrieved from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients between seven and 10 days of onset. Swabs were inserted two or three centimetres into the vagina and rotated three or five times. The swabs were immediately sent to the lab for RT-PCR, and the patients' COVID-19 status was verified. The real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (BIORON Diagnostics GmbH's - RealLine SARS-CoV-2 (B-Format) BI1020-96 Tests). Results: Patients' vaginal fluids tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had normal platelet counts. Discussion: Our findings indicate that SARS-2 virus was not present in the vaginal fluid of the 31 patients, meaning that sexual transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely. ©2021 The Author(s).


This paper describes the design rules of a compact microstrip patch antenna with polarization reconfigurable features (right-handed circular polarization (CP)/left-handed CP). The basic antenna is a circular coplanar-waveguide (CPW)-fed microstrip antenna excited by a diagonal slot and the CPW open end. This device is developed for short-range communications or contactless identification systems requiring polarization reconfigurability to optimize the link reliability. First, experimental and simulated results are presented for the passive version of the antenna excited by an asymmetric slot. A reconfigurable antenna using beam-lead p-i-n diodes to switch the polarization sense is then simulated with an electrical modeling of the diodes. Finally, the efficiency reduction resulting from the diode losses is discussed


The influence of thymus factor X--TFX (Polfa) and an anti-TFX rabbit gammaglobulin (RATFX) on the growth of Lewis lung carcinoma in mice was studied. The preparations were administered subcutaneously into the peritumoral region. Tumor growth was significantly retarded in the RATFX-treated groups, while a low dose TFX therapy was ineffective. No significant differences in peritumoral inflammatory reaction in treated and untreated mice were found.


The feasibility was determined of influencing Ae. aegypti sensitivity to bird malaria agent P. gallinaceum by sublethal concentrations of herbicides (ordram and propanide) and fungicides (fundozol and blue vitriol) introduced into the larvae habitation medium or into the imago feed. No stable changes in the infectivity of test female individuals, as compared to the control, have been observed. Specific action of the group of preparations under study has been noted. It has been shown that the use of herbicides causes a decrease in some parameters of the vector potential (survival and aggressiveness) of the survived insects, however, it is accompanied by a tendency towards enhanced invasion by malaria plasmodia. The treatment of larvae with fungicides has less effect on the viability of the imago and their reaction to the prey, however, unlike herbicides, fungicides are associated with a tendency towards reduced Ae. aegypti sensitivity to P. gallinaceum. When fungicides are added to the imago feed the indexes of test female individuals infectivity do not differ from the control ones.


Content of 16 essential elements was determined in three kinds of frankfurters by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The element content of frankfurter batter was compared with processed frankfurters. There were larger (P<0.05) amounts of sodium in beef; colbalt, manganese and sodium in chicken; and manganese, potassium and sodium in meat frankfurters (beef and pork) after processing. Chicken samples contained less (P<0.05) chloride and potassium after processing. All frankfurters studied were superior sources of iron and zinc and fair sources of potassium when compared to other foodstuffs. Element retention ranged from 80.9% to over 100%. Data suggest that processing had minimal effects on element loss.


Active citizens can become a powerful driver of development by holding to popular account those who traditionally wield decision-making power at the local and national levels. Active citizenship draws from a long history of understanding the importance of community participation and ownership of development interventions. However, in spite of its inherent strengths, active citizenship may not be a possible (or optimal) outcome in all circumstances. This article argues for the realistic expectation of active citizenship (and indeed participation) of one specific sub-population in Thailand, where the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants (of an estimated total of 800,000–1.5 million) are Burmese. Their precarious existence as illegal migrants compounds the development needs that confront any poor community. This in turn hinders their ability to engage actively in the development process. This article reviews the lessons learned by a Thai-based NGO that has worked with illegal Burmese migrants for more than 15 years. It discusses the unique strengths and weakness of these illegal communities, whether or not it is appropriate to seek to engage them as active citizens, and the implications for NGOs working with such communities. It suggests that the unique role that NGOs must play, in cases where public participation could endanger the lives of community members, is that of advocate-guardians, whereby they assume the role of active citizen on behalf of the community in question and simultaneously provide development interventions and advocate on its behalf.


Metabolic reprogramming is a central hallmark of cancer, enabling tumor cells to obtain the macromolecular precursors and energy needed for rapid tumor growth. Understanding how oncogenes coordinate altered signaling with metabolic reprogramming and how cancer cells harness cellular metabolism and its metabolites for their survival may yield new insights into tumor pathogenesis. Here, we review the recently identified central regulatory role for mTORC2, a downstream effector of many cancer‐causing mutations, in metabolic reprogramming and cancer drug resistance in glioblastoma. We further consider the emerging concept that mTORC2 may connect genetics with environmental alterations in brain cancer.


The pervasive worldwide phenomenon of gender-based violence in schools poses a threat to education as a vehicle of economic development and economic freedom. Gender violence in and around schools is a global problem with serious implications for the educational attainment, health and wellbeing of both girls and boys. This paper explores the gendered nature of violence in selected schools in six provinces in South Africa. A qualitative study following a communitycentred, capacity-building approach used focus group interviews to collect data from a purposive sample of learners aged between 13 and 17 years who were perpetrators or victims of violence. The aim was to give voice to learners about their experiences of violence in schools. Findings indicated a high incidence of gender-based violence in schools. Boys mainly drew on genderbiased discourses to orchestrate demeaning gendered comments, sexualised gestures, sexual harassment and bullying. Teachers' assault of learners in the form of corporal punishment was also deeply implicated in both girls' and boys' reports of gender-based violence. Recommendations are made for gender-based awareness campaigns, which involve learners, parents and teachers, and the setting up of school-based structures for learner peer support as critical strategies for combating gender-based violence in schools. Keywords: Femininities, masculinities, power, management, gender, school violence


People dependent on heroin who do not respond to other treatments have been treated by a combination of heroin and methadone. In this Policy Forum,
 Bammer
 et al.
 argue that the debate about the merits of this treatment could be substantially informed by clinical trials that meet rigorous scientific standards. Because of the complexities of working with the dependent user population and the social and individual risks associated with this potential treatment, a series of interlocking trials with various designs and control groups are essential, and social impacts must also be monitored. Heroin will always be a second- rather than first-choice treatment, and if trials show that it has any value, the political outcome will be medicalization, not legalization.


Eastern Andalusian Spanish neutralises consonants in coda, although despite the neutralisation of most coda consonants, phonemic value has only been given to vowels preceding deleted /s/. The present paper expands on this traditional view and shows a more complex reality. This study will analyse differences between word-final /e/ and /e/ preceding deleted word-final /s/, /r/, and /θ/ in Western Almeria (Eastern Andalusia) to determine if the deletion of each of these consonants causes consistent changes of quality to /e/, creating a system of four mid front vowels. A perception analysis will then determine if Western Almeria speakers can distinguish between each of those vowels, which will confirm whether these realisations of /e/ have allophonic or phonemic value. An analysis shows consistent F1 and F2 values depending on whether /e/ is in coda or whether it precedes word-final /s/, /r/, or /θ/ deletion. Furthermore, perception tests show an ability to distinguish between some of those four mid front vowels.


Introduction: Few studies are available till date on the pattern of neuro-psychiatric illnesses in geriatric population in Nepal. Objective: The study was aimed to know the demographic and clinical profiles of geriatric outpatients in our neuropsychiatry OPD. Method: This study was conducted at the Department of Psychiatry, Universal College of Medical Sciences-Teaching Hospital (UCMS-TH), Bhairahawa, Nepal. We screened through our 'OPD case registrar', which maintains few demographic and clinical data of all the new and old cases registered daily in the OPD. Socio-demographic and clinical data of all the patients in the age of 60 years and above were noted in a data sheet specially designed for the present study. This is a retrospective study by chart review. Descriptive analysis of these data were undertaken by using simple frequency distribution. Result: During the one year study period total number of new patients registered were 3711. Two-hundred and fifty-seven (6.9%) among them were in the geriatric age group (≥60 years age). Psychoses form the biggest diagnostic entity with 71 patients (27.6%) followed by Depression in 39 patients (15.2%), Chronic headache in 33 (12.8%), Alcohol Dependence Syndrome in 27 (10.5%), Anxiety disorders in 25 (9.7%) and Dementia in 23 (8.9%) elderly patients. We also recorded 11 patients (4.3%) with symptoms of Mania. 'Psychosis' and 'Depression', were more represented amongst female elderly while 'Alcohol dependence' and 'Mania' and were more frequently prevailed among male elderly patient population. Conclusion: Present study is expected to add some more light on this sub-specialty in Psychiatry and hope to induce more interest among young researchers to carry our further research among geriatric psychiatric patients in Nepal.


Spondyloarthropathies are closely related to genetics and certain bacteria. The ability to study these relationships at the molecular level has revealed increasing complexity in the interplay of genetics, microbes, and the diseases. Advances have been made in the genetics at the major histocompatibility complex. The mediators of inflammation in spondyloarthropathies have begun to be elucidated. The role of bacterial pathogenesis in the joints is being better defined and implies that viable organisms are in the joints of persons with reactive arthritis at some point in the illness. Disease-prone transgenic animals have been developed that demonstrate the need for an environmental trigger. The nature of the interaction of HLA-B27 with the microbes associated with the disease is unclear. Several hypotheses are being rigorously investigated.


Capturing vertical profiles of the atmosphere and measuring wind conditions can be of significant value for weather forecasting and pollution monitoring however, collecting such data can be limited by current approaches using balloon-based radiosondes and expensive ground-based sensors. Multirotor vehicles can be significantly affected by the local wind conditions, and due to their under-actuated nature, the response to the flow is visible in the changes in the orientation. From these changes in orientation, wind speed and direction estimates can be determined, allowing accurate estimation with no additional sensors. In this work, we expand on and improve this method of wind speed and direction estimation and incorporate corrections for climbing flight to improve estimation during vertical profiling. These corrections were validated against sonic anemometer data before being used to gather vertical profiles of the wind conditions around Volcan De Fuego in Guatemala up to altitudes of 3000 m Above Ground Level (AGL). From the results of this work, we show we can improve the accuracy of multirotor wind estimation in vertical profiling through our improved model and some of the practical limitations of radiosondes that can be overcome through the use of UAS in this application.


Finitely-branching and unlabelled dynamical systems are typically modelled as coalgebras for the finite powerset functor. If states are reachable in multiple ways, coalgebras for the finite bag functor provide a more faithful representation. The final coalgebra of this functor is employed as a denotational domain for the evaluation of such systems. Elements of the final coalgebra are non-wellfounded trees with finite unordered branching, representing the evolution of systems starting from a given initial state. This paper is dedicated to the construction of the final coalgebra of the finite bag functor in homotopy type theory (HoTT). We first compare various equivalent definitions of finite bags employing higher inductive types, both as sets and as groupoids (in the sense of HoTT). We then analyze a few well-known, classical set-theoretic constructions of final coalgebras in our constructive setting. We show that, in the case of set-based definitions of finite bags, some constructions are intrinsically classical, in the sense that they are equivalent to some weak form of excluded middle. Nevertheless, a type satisfying the universal property of the final coalgebra can be constructed in HoTT employing the groupoid-based definition of finite bags. We conclude by discussing generalizations of our constructions to the wider class of analytic functors.


This study was carried out for the functional investigation of the Ulmus pumila L. extracts for use in functional-food processing. Extracts of Ulmus pumila L. were obtained using distilled water and 70% ethanol, and the extracts were tested for their electron-donating ability, SOD-like activity, nitrate-scavenging ability, and anticancer (MDA and A 549 cells) activity. The extraction yields of the water and ethanol extracts were 12.7 and 12.0%, respectively; the polyphenol contents were 623.5 ± 2.4 and 710.5 ± 2.1 mg/100 g; the electron-donating ability was high in proportion with the density; and the water extract was higher than the ethanol extract (76 and 64%, respectively) at 1,000 ppm. In all the 1,000 ppm densities, the SOD-like activity of the water extract was far higher than thatof the ethanol ex tract (53 and 38%, respectively), and the nitrite- scavenging ability of the ethanol extract was higher than that of the water extract (47 and 43%, respectively). As for the anticancer ability at 1,000 ppm, it was 62% in the water extract and 42% in the ethanol extract in the MDA cell, and 60% in the water extract and 45% in the ethanol extract in the A 549 cell. Thus, the proliferation inhibition ability of the water extract against cancer cells was found to be far higher than that of the ethanol extract (60 and 45%, respectively).


The continuous rotation electron diffraction (cRED) method has the capability of providing fast three-dimensional electron diffraction data collection on existing and future transmission electron microscopes; unknown structures could be potentially solved and refined using cRED data collected from nano- and submicrometre-sized crystals. However, structure refinements of cRED data using SHELXL often lead to relatively high R1 values when compared with those refined against single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. It is therefore necessary to analyse the quality of the structural models refined against cRED data. In this work, multiple cRED data sets collected from different crystals of an oxofluoride (FeSeO3F) and a zeolite (ZSM-5) with known structures are used to assess the data consistency and quality and, more importantly, the accuracy of the structural models refined against these data sets. An evaluation of the precision and consistency of the cRED data by examination of the statistics obtained from the data processing software DIALS is presented. It is shown that, despite the high R1 values caused by dynamical scattering and other factors, the refined atomic positions obtained from the cRED data collected for different crystals are consistent with those of the reference models refined against single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The results serve as a reference for the quality of the cRED data and the achievable accuracy of the structural parameters.


Teacher plays important role to enhance learning quality. As professional teacher, there are some of competencies that should be mastered while doing structured and planned teaching. The first, a teacher should have an appropriate knowledge for taught lesson. The second, a teacher should be able to plan a flexible lesson depend on various conditions. The third, a teacher should always keep an eye to the students in the classroom for identifying how far the students learn and understand the topic. However a teacher is expected to collaborate with other teacher. One alternative to enhance teacher professionalism is by implementing Lesson study. Based on the previous study, Lesson study could foster teacher quality on applying the learning strategy. Lesson study comprises of three steps, Plan, Do and See. In Plan stage, teacher analyzed the curriculum, learning purpose and student development, including the lesson instrument made by the team teaching in ecosystem topic. In Do stage, the teacher implemented the teaching based on the lesson planned. In See stage or reflection, all of the involved stakeholder discuss the learning process that has been done and suggest for corrections. Based on the observation result, it can be concluded that overall the stages, Lesson study can foster teacher's pedagogical competencies and science learning quality in MTs. Madani Alauddin. Keywords: Learning Quality, Team Teaching, Lesson Study, MTs. Madani Alauddin


This paper primarily uses archival and oral sources to examine the origins and dynamics of relations between Botswana and the Union of Soviet and Socialist Republic (USSR) within the context of the Cold War. The USSR or the Soviet Union applied for the diplomatic relations with Botswana in March 1967 and the request was accepted in March 1970 after protracted and tense negotiations. At Independence in 1966, the poverty-stricken Botswana was desperate to court many friends. But its diplomatic relations with the socialist Soviet Union incensed apartheid South Africa, which believed that the Soviet Union wanted to use Botswana to spy on South Africa. Before Botswana's Independence, a handful of Left-leaning young Batswana had already secured Soviet Union scholarships through the help of the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) and the Botswana National Front (BNF). After Botswana attained Independence, the sending of some Batswana to the Soviet Union for study was not appreciated by the capitalist-inclined and ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). The latter branded the opposition leaders as irresponsible hot-heads hellbent on indoctrinating the youth with the Marxist or communist ideology. The issue of Batswana students studying in the Soviet Union dominated the diplomatic negotiations.


A total of 135 cell lines was examined for mycoplasma contamination using two techniques: isolation and specific DNA-staining with DAPI or "Hoechst 33258". The two techniques showed similar results in 64% of the cases of cell contamination while the remainder was detected only by one or the other techniques: 12,82% by the staining technique and 23% by the isolation technique, which shows that the 2 techniques are complementary. The staining technique is very quick, easy to execute, very sensitive, and should be the method of choice to detect contamination when the mycoplasma do not grow in acellular media.


Deproteinated human bone with hydrazine indicated that percentage of bone mass mineral increased with individual age in the range of child to adult, and then slowly decreased with ageing. Type of bone and sex also influenced the proportional of mineral in bone. Several information was obtained from infrared spectroscopy measurements. Calcium phosphate in bone mineral was a mixture of amorphous calcium phosphates and apatite crystals that rich of carbonates. Most crystals were carbonate apatite type B, with additional small amount of type A and AB. The splitting factor of υ4 phosphate bands indicated that crystalline degree was regulated by age, increases in the range of child to adult, then decrease up to a certain value (0.16) and finally almost constant. It is predicted that apatite crystals that was formed with less calcium phosphate will accompanied by the insertion of crystallization water in order to maintain the constancy of bone volume.


A picture is worth a thousand words. Albeit a cliche, for the fashion industry, an image of a clothing piece allows one to perceive its category (e.g., dress), sub-category (e.g., day dress) and properties (e.g., white colour with floral patterns). The seasonal nature of the fashion industry creates a highly dynamic and creative domain with evermore data, making it unpractical to manually describe a large set of images (of products). In this paper, we explore the concept of visual recognition for fashion images through an end-to-end architecture embedding the hierarchical nature of the annotations directly into the model. Towards that goal, and inspired by the work of [7], we have modified and adapted the original architecture proposal. Namely, we have removed the message passing layer symmetry to cope with Farfetch category tree, added extra layers for hierarchy level specificity, and moved the message passing layer into an enriched latent space. We compare the proposed unified architecture against state-of-the-art models and demonstrate the performance advantage of our model for structured multi-level categorization on a dataset of about 350k fashion product images.


Background Cigarette smoking has a very detrimental effect on the course of Crohn's disease (CD) while data on ulcerative colitis (UC) are conflicting with some studies suggesting a potential protective effect. Smoking trends have changed dramatically changed over the last decades in the United Kingdom with the introduction of a smoking ban in public buildings and the advent of e-cigarettes. We aimed to describe current smoking rates in IBD patients compared to the general population and to ascertain any effects of smoking on disease course. Methods Self-reported smoking status was elicited in consecutive IBD out-patients and clinical data (phenotype, demographics, treatment history, current disease status) were extracted from the electronic hospital patient record. Office of national statistics 2015 data for the general population were used as the comparator. Results Of 375 patients (mean age 44.7 years; mean disease duration 10.7 years) 50% suffered from CD, 42% from UC and 8% from IBD-U. Current drug exposure included: 157 mesalazine, 109 thiopurine, 8 methotrexate, 44 infliximab, 34 adalimumab, 6 Vedolizumab and 45 patients were on steroids. Current disease activity was remission (42.4%), mild (41.1%), moderate (14.9) and severe (1.6%). Of 200 ever cigarette smokers 144 had stopped and 56 continued cigarette use, while of 30 ever e-cigarette users 14 had stopped and 16 continued. All e-cigarette users had previously smoked cigarettes and 10 had stopped smoking completely after e-cigarettes. Crohn's disease patients were more likely to smoke cigarettes (19.9% vs 8.1%) or e-cigarettes (4.1% vs 3.4%) compared to UC/IBD-U patients (p=0.026). Infliximab use was more common in cigarette smokers (13.2%) and e-cigarette users (21.4%) vs non-smokers (11.2%); p=0.016. Adalimumab use was more common in cigarette smokers (16.9%) and e-cigarette users (7.1%) vs non-smokers (7.6%); p=0.023. The need for previous surgical resection was higher in cigarette smokers (44.2%) and e-cigarette users (35.7%) vs non-smokers (26.8%); p=0.035. Compared to the general population the proportion of current cigarette smokers (14.9% vs 17.2%) and e-cigarette users was similar in our cohort (4.26% vs 4%). Conclusion IBD patients show similar smoking behaviour as the general population with 4% using e-cigarettes. The detrimental effect of smoking remains evident in out cohort. IBD patients use e-cigarettes as replacement for cigarettes or as an intermediate step for smoking cessation with no de-novo e-cigarette use in our cohort. Some health authority propose that e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than cigarettes. There are however little data on the effect in IBD. Large scale, prospective studies examining the effects of e-cigarette use are required.


Parks are well-visited sites of an urban nature in our cities where users can gain positive social and ecological benefits from vegetation including trees, grass, flowering plants and shrubs. However, ongoing financial public sector budget pressure is adversely affecting the management and quality of parks in the UK, resulting in changing vegetation and planting practices. It is not clear how such changes might affect park users, indicating scope for better understanding of how planting in urban parks is perceived. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by exploring perceptions held by users who experience vegetation in parks and those involved in the decision-making about planting therein. It examines the feasibility and acceptability of three different planting practices according to different stakeholders in Sheffield, UK. This paper calls on empirical data collected via questionnaire surveys with residents around six district parks, and interviews and focus groups with community groups and professionals to gain an understanding of stakeholders' perceptions. The paper illustrates different attitudes towards formal and naturalistic (informal) planting, exploring a prevalent shift towards low-maintenance practices in green space management. The findings suggest a range of influences on feasibility and acceptability of planting practices, including the local park context and stakeholder perceptions of public opinion.


With the number of available VGOS (VLBI Global Observing System) sessions rising, precise coordinates for the participating stations become more important. While station coordinates can be estimated during the VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) analysis, the definition of the geodetic datum via Not-Net-Rotation (NNR) and No-Net-Translation (NNT) conditions requires at least three participating stations with precise a priori coordinates. The VGOS station network is currently independent of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), as none of the stations have participated in a solution for the ITRF in VGOS mode. By estimating the VGOS station coordinates based on ITRF coordinates, originating from local surveying and solutions of S/X observations by now converted stations, a link to the ITRF can be established. First a global solution, which is the combination of individual sessions on the normal equation level, of the five VGOS CONT17 sessions was calculated. The datum was defined by WESTFORD, ISHIOKA and WETTZ13S whereby the coordinates of the first two stations are known from S/X observations and of the latter from local surveying. With velocities from adjacent stations, the estimated coordinates were used to calculate a global solution of the 2019 VGOS sessions. The obtained coordinates were assessed on basis of formal errors, coordinate repeatability and comparisons of estimated Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) time series with fixed station coordinates to the 14 C04 a priori dataset.


Nutritionists need to make commercial decisions about the optimal nutrient content broiler feeds. In order to demonstrate that broiler prices may influence dietary nutrient density, this study developed quadratic feed intake and weight gain equations, according to broiler sex and feeding phase, to be applied in a nonlinear feed formulation model. Four hundred and eighty Cobb broilers were allotted to a completely randomized experimental with six treatments, each with four replicates of 10 birds each, from 1 to 56 days old. Treatments consisted of diets containing 2800, 2900, 3000, 3100, 3200, or 3300 kcal metabolizable energy (ME)/kg and constant nutrient to ME ratio. A nonlinear version of the PPFR feed formulation software (http://www.fmva.unesp.br/ppfr) was developed with the objective of optimizing energy density and bird performance. According to the results, when the models are applied in the PPFR nonlinear spreadsheet, the most favorable nutrient density content is defined by mathematical models, as optimized by the Excel Solver tool by means of cost/benefit comparisons and as a function of rearing phase (starter, grower, and finisher) and sex. This contradicts the recommendations of genetic company manuals and published requirement tables, whose goal is to maximize weight gain and do not necessarily guarantee maximum economic efficiency.


Robots and humans receive partial, fragmentary hints about the world's state through their respective sensors. These hints}tiny patches of light intensity, frequency components of sound, etc.}are far removed from the world of objects which we feel and perceive so effortlessly around us. The study of infant development and the construction of robots are both deeply concerned with how this apparent gap between the world and our experience of it is bridged. In this paper, we focus on some fundamental problems in perception which have attracted the attention of researchers in both robotics and infant development. Our goal was to identify points of contact already existing between the two fields, and also important questions identified in one field that could fruitfully be addressed in the other. We start with the problem of object segregation: how do infants and robots determine visually where one object ends and another begins? For object segregation, both the fields have examined the idea of using 'key events' where perception is in some way simplified and the infant or robot acquires knowledge that can be exploited at other times. We propose that the identification of the key events themselves constitutes a point of contact between the fields. Although the specific algorithms used in robots do not necessarily map directly to infant strategies, the overall 'algorithmic skeleton' formed by the set of algorithms needed to identify and exploit key events may in fact form the basis for mutual dialogue. We then look more broadly at the role of embodiment in humans and robots, and see the opportunities it affords for development. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The purpose of this study was to examine how parental homework completion, session attendance, and treatment knowledge influenced parenting practices and confidence in using learned skills during behavioral parent training (BPT). Parents of 54 preschoolers (Mage = 5.07, 82% Hispanic/Latino) with externalizing behavior problems participated in an 8-week group BPT program. Pre-and posttreatment measures included parent-reported parenting practices and a treatment knowledge quiz. Parental homework completion, or home practice of skills, was reported by parents and collected weekly. Increases in positive parenting and decreases in negative parenting were observed (Cohen's d = .63 and .70, respectively), as well as increases in treatment knowledge (d = 1.46). Treatment knowledge moderated the association between parental homework completion and negative parenting as well as parenting skill-use confidence. Increased parental homework completion was only associated with decreases in negative parenting and increases in skill-use confidence for families with high treatment knowledge. Parental homework completion also moderated the association between session attendance and negative parenting, such that lower session attendance was only associated with higher negative parenting for families that had low parental homework completion. Findings highlighted the potential impact that parents' reports of home practice may have on improving parenting.


As planning an R&D project named ORIGIN addressing global software development (GSD) foundations, the authors soon became aware of the need for all the participants to share the same vision of GSD projects. The authors therefore reached the conclusion that one of the first steps should be to set up a shared and consistent GSD project-related vocabulary, since this would help to improve communication between the five companies involved in ORIGIN. After analysing existing GSD initiatives, the authors discovered that none of them really satisfied our specific needs. As a consequence, they decided to develop a new ontology, which was named O-GSD. This paper describes not only how the ontology was developed -including the reasons which led us to include each term in O-GSD- but also its usage in real contexts -what allowed us to extract some insights to refine and validate the ontology. The main contribution of this paper is the O-GSD ontology which is used and to be used in real GSD projects with the aim of helping project managers to better describe their particular GSD projects.


We theoretically investigate the dielectric properties of a granular metal–dielectric composite with negative effective permittivity capable of creating band gaps in a wide range of frequencies. When the effective permittivity of the composite is negative, the electromagnetic (EM) waves will be reflected. The results show that for a given volume fraction lower than the percolation threshold, the effective permittivity of the whole composite can be negative for a certain range of frequencies during which the EM waves are forbidden to propagate in the composite. Considering the different geometrical structure, we discuss the possibility of artificially preparing materials with negative permittivity that would create frequency band gaps. Furthermore, we also investigate a metal–dielectric system with non-spherical inclusion, which leads to multiple frequency gaps for the EM waves.


Endocrine disrupting chemicals, among them many pesticides, alter the normal functioning of the endocrine system of both wildlife and humans at very low concentration levels. Therefore, the importance of method development for their analysis in food and the environment is increasing. This also covers contributions in the field of ultra-trace analysis of multicomponent mixtures of organic pollutants in complex matrices. With this fact conventional capillary gas chromatography (CGC) and fast CGC with mass spectrometric detection (MS) has acquired a real importance in the analysis of endocrine disrupting pesticide (EDP) residues. This paper provides an overview of GC methods, including sample preparation steps, for analysis of EDPs in a variety of matrices at ultra-trace concentration levels. Emphasis is put on separation method, mode of MS detection and ionization and obtained limits of detection and quantification. Analysis time is one of the most important aspects that should be considered in the choice of analytical methods for routine analysis. Therefore, the benefits of developed fast GC methods are important.


The advantages of cold-formed thin-walled steel studs are many and their applications in building constructions continue to grow. They are used as load-bearing members. An example is lightweight wall panel assemblies which consist of channel steel studs with gypsum plasterboard layers attached to the two flanges, often with interior insulation. At present, expensive fire tests or advanced numerical modelling methods are necessary in order to discover the fire resistance of such wall assemblies. For common practice this is not effective and a simplified method, suitable for use in daily design, is necessary. The aim of this research is to develop such simplified methods.The first main objective of this study is to develop a simple approach to calculate the temperature distributions in the steel section, in particular the temperatures on both the exposed and unexposed sides when the panel is exposed to fire exposure from one side. These two temperatures are the most influential factors in the fire resistance of this type of wall assembly. The proposed method calculates the average temperatures in the flanges of the steel section and assumes that the temperature in the web is linear. The proposed method is based on a simple heat balance analysis for a few nodes representing the key components of the wall panel. The thermal resistance of these nodes are obtained by the weighted average of thermal resistances in an effective width of the panel within which heat transfer in the panel width direction is assumed to occur. The proposed method has been extensively validated by comparison with numerical parametric studies.In order to calculate the ultimate capacity of steel studs, the traditional method is by using effective width. However, this method is now being questioned as it considers elements of section in isolation and does not consider interaction between the elements. In addition, this method is not appropriate to be extended to steel studs under fire conditions. The cross-section under fire conditions has non-uniform temperature distribution which results in the non-uniform distribution of mechanical properties. Using an effective width method to deal with this problem will require many assumptions whose accuracy is uncertain. Recently, the direct strength method (DSM) has been developed and its accuracy for ambient applications has been comprehensively validated. This method calculates cross-sectional plastic resistance and elastic critical loads for local, distortional and global buckling modes with the aid of simple computer programs. The elastic and plastic resistances are then combined to give the ultimate resistance of the structure using interaction equations. This method is suited to steel studs with non-uniform temperature distribution in the cross-section.The second main objective of this study is to extend the direct strength method for application to thin-walled steel studs having non-uniform elevated temperature distributions in the cross-section. It has been found that the DSM concept is applicable, but the interaction equations should be modified to allow for the effects of elevated temperature (non-uniform temperature distribution and changes in stress-strain relationships). Also the effects of thermal bowing should be included when calculating the plastic resistance and the elastic buckling loads of the cross-section. This research has proposed new interaction equations and has developed design tools. By comparing the results of the proposed method with validated Finite Element simulations over a very large range of parametric studies, the proposed method has been demonstrated to be valid. The validation studies include both standard and parametric fire exposures and are generally applicable.


Recently, we showed that the use of thin-film superconducting washers as secondaries in inductive fault current limiters may have considerable advantages when compared with the more conventional bulk rings or cylinders. Here we extend those previous works to determine if the cooling atmosphere plays a significant role on the recovery time, τR, of the inductive fault current limiter based on thin film superconductors. We have used helium as a cooling gas, from primary vacuum to atmospheric pressure. We have found that gas pressure has an appreciable influence on the recovery time of our inductive fault current limiter. For instance, our results show that τR under atmospheric pressure is almost thirty per cent shorter than when measured in primary vacuum. A numerical simulation realized by the finite element method shows that just after the fault the substrate is thermalized and, therefore, during the recovery convection is the only working heat exchange mechanism. To avoid this undesirable thermalization and to further reduce the recovery time the substrate should either be much more thicker or be in good contact with a thermal sink capable of removing the heat by conduction.


Summary

Garlic is used in many dishes but some of its bioactive compounds are lost when exposed to heat. This study evaluated bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity and Maillard reaction products of raw (RG), boiled (BG) and fried garlic (FG). Total phenolic compounds, flavonoids, allicin and phytosterol were quantified as well as dietary fibres and mineral content. Antioxidant activities of RG, BG and FG were evaluated by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), oxidation of β-carotene/linoleic acid and Rancimat methods. The main results were the following: thermal processing of RG decreased both bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity, boiling was found to be less aggressive than frying, and strong correlations were obtained between total phenolic compounds and the antioxidant assays. However, phytosterol content was higher in FG than in RG and BG and higher temperatures increased the formation of Maillard reaction products. It was concluded that RG and BG should be preferred for human consumption as they present higher antioxidant capacity.


Objective: To evaluate the outcomes of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were treated with natalizumab in Kuwait. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study using the MS registry to identify patients who were treated with natalizumab was conducted. Patients' demographics, clinical characteristics and treatment parameters were collected at baseline and last follow-up visit. Primary outcome was the proportion of relapse-free patients at the last follow-up while secondary outcomes were the change in the mean annual relapse rate, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and the proportion of patients with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) activity at the last follow-up visit. Forty-four patients were included in the study. Results: Of the 44 patients, 27 (61.4%) were females and the remaining 17 (38.6%) males. Mean age of patients and mean disease duration were 29.05 ± 7.25 and 5.71 ± 3.37 years, respectively. The mean number of natalizumab infusions was 18.14. The proportion of relapse-free patients significantly increased from 11.36 to 90.91% (p < 0.0001). The EDSS significantly improved from 4.76 to 3.15 (p < 0.0001) over the observational period. There was no significant difference between patients with EDSS <3 compared to those with EDSS ≥3 (p < 0.67). The proportion of patients with MRI activity was significantly reduced from 95.5 to 18.2% (p < 0.0001) at their last visit. Six patients discontinued the drug, 5 due to positive JC virus and 1 due to pregnancy. Conclusions: Natalizumab induced a suppression of disease activity and was responsible for a significant improvement in disability status in highly active MS patients.


The study was conducted, in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh. Random sampling technique was used for the selection of blocks, villages and proportionate random sampling for selection of growers. From the list, 200 growers were selected, using proportionate sampling method i.e. 90 small, 70 medium and 40 large farmers respectively. The primary data were collected from the respondents by using interview schedule, while secondary data were collected from the official records, published data, magazines etc. The marketable surplus for Aonla in the area was found to be 140, 160 and 180 quintals per farm which constituting (99.10%), (99.48%) and (99.48%) to their total Aonla production. Channel-I, Marketing cost when producers sold their produce to consumer in the market was Rs.90/quintal. Net price received by the producer is 410/quintal. Producer share in consumer price was 82 per cent. Price spread is Rs 90. Marketing efficiency was 5.55 per cent. Channel-II, Marketing cost when producers sold their produce to retailers was Rs.105/quintal. Among these cost transportation charges was most important which accounted for Rs.15/quintal, followed by loading and unloading cost Rs.10/quintal, market cost Rs.10/quintal, labour cost was Rs.10/quintal and miscellaneous cost Rs.50/quintal respectively. Sale price of the producer to retailer was Rs.500/quintals inn different farms size group. Channel-III, this is identified as the longest channel. The producer sells his produce to the commission agents, who in turn sell it to retailer in the market. Finally, the produce reaches to the consumer after collecting margin. Average marketing cost when producer sold their produce to commission agents, in the market was Rs.165. Among these grading, cleaning etc. was Rs. 10 and 10 per Qts. loading and unloading cost Rs. 10 per Qtl. Transportation cost Rs. 20per Qts, Miscellaneous charges Rs. 25/qts, respectively.


SUMMARY This paper presents a novel architecture to solve two problems of existing FPGAs: the large delay and area due to complex programmable switch blocks, and the large area due to coarse-grain logic blocks that are underutilized to a great degree. A mesh-connected cellular array based on a bit-serial pipeline architecture is introduced to minimize complexity of switch blocks. A fine-grain logic block architecture with a functionality of a bit-serial adder is presented to minimize the number of inputs and outputs of the logic block since increase in the number of inputs and outputs directly increases the complexity of a switch block. For an area-efficient design, the logic block is implemented based on a hybrid of a programmable logic gate and a dedicated carry logic. The hybrid architecture allows us to use a small lookup table to implement the logic gate. Moreover, the carry logic uses a functional pass-gate that merges both logic and storage functions compactly. The performance of the fine-grain fieldprogrammable VLSI (FPVLSI) is evaluated to be more than 2 times higher than that of a coarse-grain FPVLSI.


One of the main components of the CMS experiment is the Silicon Tracker. This device, designed to measure the trajectories of charged particles, is composed of approximately 16,000 planar silicon detector modules, which makes it the biggest of its kind. However, systematic measurement errors, caused by unavoidable inaccuracies in the construction and assembly phase, reduce the precision of the measurements significantly. The geometrical corrections that are therefore required have to be known to an accuracy that is better than the intrinsic resolution of the detector modules. The Kalman Alignment Algorithm is a novel approach to extract a set of alignment constants from a large collection of recorded particle tracks, and is applicable for a system even as big as the CMS Tracker. To show that the method is functional and well understood, and thus suitable for the data-taking period of the CMS experiment, two case studies are presented and discussed here.


Absmct -The conversion matrix of self-oscillating mixers is derived from the bias-, amplitude-, and frequency-dependent admittance of the active device together with its dynamic current-voltage characteristic. Components at the image frequency are also taken into account. With this matrix and the circuit admittances at the different frequencies involved, the conversion gain can be expressed. For better insight into the relevant mechanisms, the conversion gain is subdivided into the amplitude response of the self-excited oscillation to an input signal and the demodulation caused by the device internal rectification. The formalism is applied to a simplified model of an oscillating BARITT diode. The resulting analytical expressions allow a discussion of the influence of different device and circuit parameters as well as a qualitative and quantitative comparison with experimental results from a self-oscillating BAIUlT-diode mixer operating in the V band at 60 GHz.


We assessed pulmonary function and exercise tolerance in 10 BMT patients. Their underlying disorders were as follows; chronic myeloid leukemia 5 cases, acute lymphoblastic leukemia 2 cases, aplastic anemia, acute myeloid leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma one case each. Their mean age was 26 +/- 9 years old. When the patients were healthy and free of serious complications and anemia, arterial blood gas examination, pulmonary function tests and incremental treadmill exercise test were examined repeatedly. Although %VC and FEV1.0% kept within normal range, PaO2 at rest, %DLCO, VO2max, VO2max/kg and O2-pulsemax remained low at one year after BMT. There were significant correlations between VO2max and O2-pulsemax [r = 0.955 (p < 0.001)], %VC [r = 0.758 (p < 0.02)], VE/VO2max [r = -0.749 (p < 0.02)] and delta SaO2/VO2/kg [r = -0.731 (p < 0.02)], suggesting that exercise intolerance in BMT patients may be based on both cardiac and gas exchange abnormalities. To evaluate cardiac dysfunction, we compared exercise parameters obtained at an exercise level of 75% predicted heart rate max in five age-matched normal subjects to those in six BMT patients who did not demonstrate desaturation during exercise. As a result, the mean values of VO2max/kg and O2-pulse/m2 in BMT patients were significantly lower than those in normal subjects, suggesting that cardiac dysfunction may be due to insufficiency of stroke volume during exercise. It is concluded that exercise intolerance in BMT patients may be mainly due to cardiac dysfunction.


Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are considered promising materials for low-cost solar energy harvesting technology. An electron transport layer (ETL), which facilitates the extraction of photogenerated electrons and their transport to the electrodes, is a key component in planar PSCs. In this study, a new strategy to concurrently manipulate the electrical and optical properties of ETLs to improve the performance of PSCs is demonstrated. A careful control over the Ti alkoxide-based sol-gel chemistry leads to a craterlike porous/blocking bilayer TiO2 ETL with relatively uniform surface pores of 220 nm diameter. Additionally, the phase separation promoter added to the precursor solution enables nitrogen doping in the TiO2 lattice, thus generating oxygen vacancies. The craterlike surface morphology allows for better light transmission because of reduced reflection, and the electrically conductive craterlike bilayer ETL enhances charge extraction and transport. Through these synergetic improvements in both optical and electrical properties, the power conversion efficiency of craterlike bilayer TiO2 ETL-based PSCs could be increased from 13.7 to 16.0% as compared to conventional dense TiO2-based PSCs.


Bellessa is found in central Gondar, which is affected frequently by drought thanks to spatial and temporal failure of rainfall. Therefore, the agriculture in this area has to be supported by surface irrigation. For this, land suitability analysis for surface irrigation is extremely important to scale back food security problem. GIS-based land suitability analysis was conducted using analytical hierarchy process methods. Eight factors like slope, elevation, distance to water source, land use, soil texture, type, depth, and drainage are considered and therefore the weight of every parameter was estimated using 8x8 pairwise comparison matrix. After all, final land suitability map was generated using weighted overlay method under GIS tool. the ultimate map was classified into four land suitable classes using natural break classification method as highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3), and not suitable class (S4). The result showed that highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable and not suitable class are covered 13.9%, 46.9%, 26.9%, and 12.2% of the whole area, respectively. This study finding will features a vital role in conducting surface irrigation considering the input parameters and therefore the final demarcated suitable land classes.


The phenotypic relationships between body mass index (BMI) and cold-heat patterns have been frequently reported, but the etiology of these relationships remains unknown. We previously demonstrated that the cold pattern (CP) and the heat pattern (HP) were heritable traits. In the present study, we explored underlying genetic and environmental structures of the relationships among BMI and the CP and the HP. Twins (N = 1,752) drawn from the South Korean twin registry completed a cold-heat pattern questionnaire via a telephone interview. The phenotypic correlations among the three phenotypes were moderate but significant. Cross-twin, cross-trait correlations among BMI and the CP and the HP were consistently greater in monozygotic than in dizygotic twins, suggesting the presence of genetic effects on the relationships between BMI and the two patterns. A trivariate Cholesky model was applied to the raw data. The results indicated that the phenotypic relationship between the HP and BMI was completely determined by common genetic influences, while the relationship between the CP and BMI was explained by both common genetic and common individual-specific environmental influences. The genetic correlation between the HP and the CP was not significant, suggesting that the two patterns may be genetically independent from each other. Genetic correlations were 0.31 between the HP and BMI, and -0.22 between the CP and BMI. The individual-specific environmental correlation was -0.22 between HP and CP, and between CP and BMI.


Background/Aim: Lymph node density is a parameter used to more accurately predict tumor recurrence and patient survival. However, its association with surgical outcome in pyriform sinus carcinoma remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to assess the prognostic value of lymph node density in advanced pyriform sinus carcinoma. Patients and Methods: A total of 87 patients with pyriform sinus carcinoma treated between 2008 and 2015 were enrolled. Then, 5-year overall survival, 5-year disease-specific survival, 5-year disease-free survival, and 5-year regional recurrence-free survival were utilized to assess the prognostic significance of lymph node density. Results: With a median follow-up period of 31.8 months, 5-year overall survival, disease-specific survival, disease-free survival, and regional recurrence-free survival were 37.9%, 46.0%, 41.4%, and 54.0%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that lymph node density ≥ 0.093 was a significant predictor of poor 5-year overall survival (P = .005), disease-specific survival (P = .008), disease-free survival (P = .0013), and regional recurrence-free survival (P = .003). Furthermore, multivariate analysis demonstrated that lymph node density was negatively associated with adverse 5-year overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.15-2.29, P = .006), disease-specific survival (hazard ratio = 1.86, 95% CI: 1.24-2.80, P = .003), disease-free survival (hazard ratio = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.24-0.85, P = .014), and regional recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.43-6.17, P = .004). Conclusion: Taken together, these results reveal that lymph node density is a powerful prognostic factor for patients with T3 and T4 pyriform sinus carcinoma, and the median lymph node density cutoff values ≥ 0.093 are associated with a greater risk of recurrence and poorer survival.


The present article is devoted to the actual problem of determining the functional possibilities and social significance of the ethnic component of the content of education. The object of study of authors is ethnopedagogical training of future teachers in the pedagogical college. The purpose of the undertaken article is to identify what tasks to be carried out by the ethnic component of the content of education and to predict the socially significant results expected from its implementation. The reasons for including the ethnic component in the content of pedagogical education and the principles of its formation are considered, the role, importance and functional purpose of the ethnic component in the content of pedagogical education are determined. The representation of ethnic component in the structure of professional training of future teacher in the conditions of college is analyzed and the adequacy of ethnic component for the formation of polycultural personality of the future teacher is revealed on the example of the qualification curriculum 0111083 "Teacher of foreign language".


Choosing a shrinkage method can be done by selecting a penalty from a list of pre-specified penalties or by constructing a penalty based on the data. If a list of penalties for a class of linear models is given, we provide comparisons based on sample size and number of non-zero parameters under a predictive stability criterion based on data perturbation. These comparisons provide recommendations for penalty selection in a variety of settings. If the preference is to construct a penalty customized for a given problem, then we propose a technique based on genetic algorithms, again using a predictive criterion. We find that, in general, a custom penalty never performs worse than any commonly used penalties but that there are cases the custom penalty reduces to a recognizable penalty. Since penalty selection is mathematically equivalent to prior selection, our method also constructs priors. The techniques and recommendations we offer are intended for finite sample cases. In this context, we argue that predictive stability under perturbation is one of the few relevant properties that can be invoked when the true model is not known. Nevertheless, we study variable inclusion in simulations and, as part of our shrinkage selection strategy, we include oracle property considerations. In particular, we see that the oracle property typically holds for penalties that satisfy basic regularity conditions and therefore is not restrictive enough to play a direct role in penalty selection. In addition, our real data example also includes considerations merging from model mis-specification.


Despite the overall decline in tuberculosis (TB) incidence in the United States to a record low, outbreaks of TB among homeless persons continue to challenge TB control efforts. In January 2010, public health officials recognized an outbreak of TB after three overnight guests at a homeless shelter in Illinois received diagnoses of TB disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates with matching genotype patterns. As of September 2011, a total of 28 outbreak-associated cases involving shelter guests, dating back to 2007, had been recognized, indicating ongoing M. tuberculosis transmission. The subsequent investigation found that all patients were homeless and had been overnight shelter guests. Excess alcohol use was common (82%), and two bars emerged as additional sites of potential transmission. Patients with outbreak-associated TB were treated successfully for TB disease. To prevent future cases of TB, public health officials are implementing a program to offer 12 once-weekly doses of isoniazid and rifapentine under direct observation for treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in this high-risk population. Although the United States has made progress toward TB elimination, this outbreak demonstrates the vulnerability of homeless persons to outbreaks of TB, highlighting the need for aggressive and sustained TB control efforts.


Extensive chest wall resection and chest wall reconstruction are surgically challenging, but also potentially critical for the survival of the patient. For these reasons, careful patient selection is important. A multidisciplinary approach towards patient selection, along with perioperative and post-operative therapy, is essential for achieving the best and earliest possible recovery. The timing and treatment should be individually planned. Chest wall defects can be full-thickness or partial-thickness, while reconstruction can be divided into chest wall stabilization and soft tissue reconstruction with flap. The choice of the flap reconstruction method is based on the location and size of the defect, availability of the local and pedicled options, patient history of previous operations, scars or radiotherapy, and the general condition and prog¬nosis of the patient. Pedicled myocutaneous flaps remain the most popular choice for reconstruction of the soft tissue of the chest. However, sometimes the required pedicled or local flaps are inadequate in size and dimension, or are unavailable. In these cases, microvascular reconstruction can be mandatory. This article focuses on soft tissue flap reconstruction of the chest wall after oncological resection.


The basic aim of the present investigation is to formulate and evaluate colon specific press coated tablets of Esomeprazole .Esomeprazole tablets were successfully prepared using enteric coated polymers ethyl cellulose and HPMC pthallate by first preparing the core tablets and then press coated with polymers. study of the preformulation charcteristics and FTIR studies indicates that there was no interaction between Esomeprazole and excipients used  in the formulation .Invitro release profiles of optimized form of F6 were found to showed delayed release pattern in a very customized manner which was very much required for the colon specific drug delivery. . In vitro release profiles of optimized formulation of Esomeprazole controlled release tablets (F-6) were found to be improvised and followed zero - order kinetics, hence the release of the drug from the dosage form was independent of concentration and followed Higuchi model, and hence release of drug from press coated tablet was by diffusion mechanism. The drug delivery system was designed to deliver the drug at such a time when it was needed nocturnal time.