APG Group is a financial services company that offers asset management and administration services to Dutch pension funds. Additionally it provides life and disability insurance to pension holders via insurer Loyalis. The Corporate Risk Control (CRC) department of APG wanted to investigate the possibilities to implement Economic Capital (EC) as a tool for risk management and capital planning on APG Group level, also because new regulation requires APG to reassess capital adequacy. EC is a risk measure that represents an economic view on the risks an organisation is exposed to and translates risk into capital buffers needed to survive these risks materialising at a specified confidence level and time horizon. EC can enable APG CRC to translate different risk sources into one common risk currency so that risk levels and risk appetite can be compared between the activities of APG Group.
The risk profile of APG Group consists of operational risks originating from asset management and pension administration activities. Additionally insurance company Loyalis is exposed to specific market, credit and insurance risks. Because only a preliminary EC-model for Loyalis is available this research is exploratory and focuses on bringing operational risk into the EC-framework because this is the most important risk category at APG.
Methodologies developed by the banking sector are used to quantify operational risk. These methods estimate capital buffers via statistical analysis and simulation of losses. These approaches use information about historical losses as an input. Therefore data on operational losses at APG was collected from different sources, combined and analysed. This analysis showed operational losses at APG have the same characteristics as losses in banking or insurance. This result is only indicative since data on losses is scarce. Because the data driven approach did not produce robust results, structural assessment of experts, is used as input to estimate operational risk via a procedure known as expert elicitation. Using expert opinions on severity and frequency of operational losses lead to a capital estimate 5% off of the internal capital estimate.
The EC-model that was already present, but not actively used, for the financial risks of Loyalis was analysed leading to the conclusion that it contains outdated assumptions and methodology to provide useable capital estimates. If APG CRC wants to further implement EC as a risk measure to use in management information, scenario analysis and capital planning the current EC-model has to be updated. Considerable effort of management and experts is needed to bring the model up to market standards.
Considering the focus of APG risk management on risk control on process level, EC might provide another perspective on the risk profile of APG. Any new risk measurement methodology should leverage existing procedures and available information so the risk control framework and available data should be part of any new quantitative risk measure, be it EC or other. As follow up from this research the registration and collection of information on operational events is improved. The proposed expert elicitation and loss simulation methodology to quantify operational risk can be implemented in the risk control framework to become a standard part of risk management procedures. This research can serve as a starting point for capital calculation and allocation at APG since this aspect becomes more and more important due to a new regulatory regime APG is subject to.


Background: Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is an useful alternative to endotracheal tube for airway management. The risk of life-threatening adverse respiratory events during its use is rare, but we need to know about the risk-adjusted prediction of its insertion failure requiring rescue tracheal intubation and its impact on patient outcome. Materials and Methods: Five hundred patients; 6 months to 12-year-old, American Society of Anesthesiologists I and II scheduled to undergo elective surgical procedures that require general anesthesia were included in this study. LMA was inserted after induction of anesthesia. The insertion conditions, intra, and postoperative events were recorded. Our primary outcome variable was trial success from the first time. Results: We recorded 426 cases (85.2%) of first trial success with clear airway compared to 46 case (9.2%) of second trial success (P ≤ 0.001). Predictors of failure of first attempt of LMA insertion include abnormal airway anatomy (91%), body weight <16 kg and age below 5 years (44%), the use of LMA size of 1 and 1.5 (3.8%), the intraoperative lateral position (3.8%). Conclusion: The data obtained from this study support the use of the LMA as a reliable pediatric supraglottic airway device, demonstrating relatively low failure rates. Predictors of LMA failure in the pediatric surgical population should be independently considered. Trial Registration: The study is registered in the Australian and New Zealand clinical trial registry with the allocated trial number: ACTRN12614000994684. Web address of trial: http://www.ANZCTR.org.au/A CTRN12614000994684.aspx.


Walking treads not only on the palpable site but also through the stroller's imaginary territory. This dual nature of walking is frequently illustrated in historical literature and pictures. These two forms of walking create a liminal and absorptive movement between the palpable and imaginary landscapes through the body-mind as a living medium. The essay examines this subject in three folds: first, discerning three modes of liminal experiences in a range of selected historical materials: namely, approaching, lingering, and wandering in reverie, following an increasing extent in the scale of absorption; second, presenting the three effects of absorption and their agencies and media; third, assessing how these effects were received by the historical walkers. Overall, this cross-cultural reading shows that walking in imagination is not a theoretical idea but an empirical form of absorptive experience that involves both external and internal media. The essay further implies that, with adequate studies on this subject, we could rethink the rapport between materials and their meanings and associations in Landscape Architecture and envision a humanistic landscape of constructed imagination that not only appeals to the senses but also touches our soul and mind.


Upward mining of the residual coal seam over an abandoned pillar working is one of the effective measures to alleviate the contradiction between limited resources and increased consumption. Interburden stability over an abandoned pillar working plays a significant role in guaranteeing the safety of upward mining; however, it has not yet been extensively studied and understood. In this study, the vertical stress of the interburden over an abandoned pillar working was first investigated. The mechanical model of the interburden was established and the damage conditions were analysed. Then, the stability of the interburden over 38502 abandoned workings in Baijiazhuang coal mine was determined by mechanical analysis and field monitoring. The results show that: (i) Vertical stress of the interburden over abandoned mining zones is clearly lower than the initial stress, indicating the existence of a de-stressed effect. Moreover, vertical stress of the interburden over residual coal pillars is greater than the initial stress, which is the evidence of a stress concentration effect. (ii) The interburden over an abandoned pillar working should be regarded as an elastic rectangular plate supported by generalized Kelvin bodies in mechanical modelling. (iii) The interburden over abandoned mining zones may experience two damage stages. In the first stage, initial plastic damage appears at the central region of interburden. In the second stage, the plastic damage evolves from the central point to the surrounding areas. (iv) The mechanical analysis and field monitoring both indicate the initial damage occurred at the central region over 38502 abandoned workings in Baijiazhuang coal mine before upward mining. Related rock control measures should be implemented in that region to guarantee the safe mining of the residual coal seam.


Adult adoptees are at increased risk for mental health problems compared to nonadoptees. However, little is known about subsets of adoptees that may be more or less vulnerable to mental health problems. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of mental health problems of American Indian (AI) persons compared to White persons who were separated from their birth families during childhood by foster care and/or adoption. Family systems theory guided the study. AI adoptees reported higher percentages of problems than White adoptees on all mental health problems measures (e.g., substance abuse, mental health, self-injury, and suicide). Data analysis included a series of chi-square statistics and logistic regression models. AI adoptees were more likely to report mental health problems, including alcohol addiction, alcohol recovery, drug recovery, self-assessed eating disorder, eating disorder diagnosis, self-harm, and suicidal ideation than were whites.


A pipelined time digitizer CMOS gate-array has been developed using 0.5 /spl mu/m Sea-of-Gate technology. Precise timing signals which are used to sample input signals are generated from 32 taps of an asymmetric ring oscillator. The frequency of the oscillator is controlled by a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit which runs in the 10-50 MHz frequency range. A test chip has been developed and tested; a time resolution of 250 ps rms at 40 MHz clock was measured. The chip has 4 channels and encoding circuits for both the rising and the falling edges of the input signals. The chip has 128-word dual-port memories, allowing the histories of the input signals to be stored and causing no deadtime for the conversion.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the proportion of patients who are accompanied by another person (ie, partner, child, relative, friend) during visits to their doctors; to describe the demographic characteristics and role(s) assumed by the main accompanying person and the nature of the presenting dyads; and to describe the influence of the main accompanying person on the patient-doctor interaction.

DESIGN
Prospective observational survey.

SETTING
Family practices in London, Ont, and surrounding area.

PARTICIPANTS
Eight family physicians completed surveys on 100 consecutive patients attending for both regularly scheduled and emergency visits.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Roles and influence of the main accompanying person.

RESULTS
Approximately one third (30.4%) of patients were accompanied during visits to their doctors. Children and patients older than 75 years most frequently had another person with them. Most patients (74.1%) were accompanied by one person who most often was female (72.6%) and between the ages of 21 and 40 years (53.6%). The accompanying person's role was most frequently described by doctors as an advocate for the patient (n = 235, 68.5%). If the accompanying person was a child, however, the role was most often described as a silent observer (n = 36, 68.6%). The influence of the main accompanying person on the patient-doctor encounter was usually described as positive (95.1%).

CONCLUSIONS
Physicians report that people accompanying patients usually have a positive influence on medical encounters. Future studies need to include patients' and accompanying persons' perspectives.


The administration of diuretic drugs increases the nephrotoxicity of aminoglycosides. Muzolimine is a new diuretic which acts on the ascending limb of the loop of Henle and on the distal tubule. It differs from frusemide in its strong lipid binding and in its action at the antiluminal cellular pole. We attempted to determine whether muzolimine increases the nephrotoxicity of gentamicin. Four groups of Wistar rats were studied: one control group, one group treated with muzolimine (15 mg/kg), one group treated with gentamicin (20 mg/kg), and one group treated with gentamicin and muzolimine. Muzolimine induced a moderate but significant decrease in creatinine clearance, increased urinary excretion of n-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, and a slight decrease in lysosomal latency. The action of muzolimine did not reduce enzyme activities of the renal cortex (AAP, NAG, sphingomyelinase). Gentamicin induced functional renal modifications known to characterise nephrotoxicity of aminoglycosides. The association of muzolimine and gentamicin did not provoke a greater decrease of creatinine clearance or a greater decrease in enzyme activities of the renal cortex. In conclusion, muzolimine does not seem to potentiate the nephrotoxic action of gentamicin. However, we note that the association of muzolimine and gentamicin provoked a greater decrease in mitochondrial oxygen consumption than that provoked by gentamicin alone. It also induced more marked reduction of the activity of renal sphingomyelinase. This point is important when it is considered that the appearance of myelin bodies in the renal cortex is secondary to the decrease of this enzyme.


Purpose
Consumers are worried about sharing their sensitive information during online shopping due to the e-tailer's unethical practices and hacking-related concerns. Prior research has established the country of origin (COO) as a trust-building cue; however, it requires empirical testing in the online retailing context. The present study aims to examine the e-tailer COO's effect on consumer privacy, trust and purchase intention.

Design/methodology/approach
An online survey floated a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire and invited the receivers to participate in the investigation over e-mails and text messages. A total of 355 usable responses were analyzed using R programming.

Findings
This study empirically validated a proposed conceptual model examining the influence of COO on consumer privacy, trust and purchase intention. The findings suggest that COO influences consumer privacy, trust and purchase intention. This study further found that the privacy practices of online retailers positively impact consumer trust. Trust acts as a mediating factor in influencing purchase intention.

Practical implications
This study offers valuable insights for advancing the research agenda and actionable inputs to e-commerce managers for alleviating consumer privacy concerns in emerging economies. Future researchers can test the proposed model in other demographic and e-commerce settings.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the present knowledge on consumer privacy in online retailing in the Indian context. This paper also examines the relationship of COO with consumer privacy, trust and purchase intention, an underexplored research area in emerging markets.


The award-winning fiction of Katherine Paterson has, for decades, warmed the hearts of children and adults alike. From Bridge to Terabithia and Come Sing, Jimmy Jo to Jacob Have I Loved and The Great Gilly Hopkins, her stories are taught in classrooms and read by librarians eager to share her moral-driven fiction to inspire young minds. Bridges for the Young is a book of essays written by reputable critics of children's literature, including many established Paterson scholars, who examine the various themes of hope, peace, and story, as well as other important issues that grow out of her work. In addition to the assortment of perspectives on her writing, Paterson herself offers a detailed essay written specifically for this collection that discusses the allegorical bridges that she builds for her readers.


The editorial "Via Padua" (The Journal, March 26, 1960) appeared a lure for the historically minded. Indubitably "Padua claims the lion's share of medieval and Renaissance heritage, particularly in the evolution of medicine and anatomy." It was at the University of Padua, as Professor Primarius in Medicine, that Bernardini Ramazzini ended a fruitful career. He wrote the first comprehensive textbook on occupational disease and thereby qualifies as the "Father of Industrial Medicine." Originally practicing in Modena, Ramazzini made a reputation through his controversies and correspondence with other physicians on exceptional cases which came to his attention. A dissertation on an epidemic of tertian malaria in 1690, dedicated to a Florentine librarian, Magliabecchi, appears to have been the basis for Ramazzini's election in 1691 to the Viennese Academy of the Curiosi Naturae and investment with the title of "Hippocrates III" (the Curiosi named and numbered their members on admission to membership).


Purpose
Auxetics are the class of cellular materials with a negative Poisson's ratio. This paper aims to study the low-cost 3D printing capabilities and printing variations and improve the indentation performance of the re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial by tuning the structural parameters that have not been reported.

Design/methodology/approach
The design of experiment strategy was adopted to study the influence of re-entrant angle, diamond angle and thickness-to-length ratio on relative density, load, stiffness and specific energy absorption (SEA) during indentation experimentally. Grey relational analysis was chosen as a multi-objective optimisation technique to optimise structural performance. Surrogate models were proposed to uphold the metamaterial's tailorability for desired application needs. The fit and efficacy of the proposed models were tested using specific statistical techniques. The predominant deformation mechanisms observed with the alteration in structural parameters were discussed.

Findings
The improvements noticed are 48 times hike in load, 112 times improvement in stiffness and 10 times increase in SEA for optimised structures. The surrogate models are proven to predict the outputs accurately for new input parameters. In-situ displacement fields are visualised with an image processing technique.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, the indentation performance of the re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterials has not been reported and reported for the first time. The influence of geometrical parameters on the newly developed structure under concentrated loading was evaluated. The geometry-dependent printing variations associated with 3D printing have been discussed to help the user to fabricate re-entrant diamond auxetic metamaterial.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the views of primary care physicians (PCPs) in Spain regarding the purpose of inspection validation of prescriptions (IVP) and its impact on prescription and patients, as well as doctors' acceptance of this measure.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study through a telephone survey.

SETTING
Primary care centres.

PARTICIPANTS
PCPs prescribing oral diabetes drugs requiring IVP, or who were familiar with IVP.

METHODS
Telephone survey conducted in October-November, 2003, of 1471 PCPs. Sample size was calculated to ensure accuracy to 10% in each autonomous region.

RESULTS
91.9% of the 1600 PCPs contacted who agreed to participate in the study met the inclusion criteria. On average, they prescribed 30.6 drugs requiring IVP per month (95% CI, 28.0-33.2), requiring an additional 4.6 minutes per prescription (95% CI, 4.4-4.8). 64.7% of PCPs increased their clinical work-time for this reason. 71.3% of PCPs (95% CI, 69.0-73.6) considered IVP an obstacle when prescribing a drug that requires it and 44.5% (95% CI, 42.0-47.0) believed that the IVP puts patients' right to receive the appropriate treatment at risk. PCPs considered that inspectors refuse authorization of their prescriptions requiring IVP for administrative (43.3%), economic (36.5%), or clinical (13.2%) reasons. 87.1% of PCPs stated that medical prescription is a sufficient control system and that IVP is not necessary for medicines for diseases managed in primary care such as Type-2 DM. 76.2% believed that the health authorities imposed the IVP requirement for some oral diabetes drugs in order to control expenditure on drugs, and 75.4% supported its withdrawal.

CONCLUSION
According to PCPs, the objective of the IVP is mainly economic and may affect negatively their clinical practice and patients. Therefore, in general, they do not support it, at least for drugs for diseases mainly managed in primary care.


Recent guidelines issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for the examination of medical diagnostic claims are contrary to jurisprudence. The guidelines instruct examiners to actively vary the literal wording of the claims under the aegis of a supposedly "purposive" approach that is itself at variance with the tenets of purposive construction. The guidelines indicate that examiners should identify an underlying technical problem and cast aside as purportedly "non-essential" any claim features deemed superfluous to its solution, or part of the common general knowledge. The "essential" features, thus distilled, are assessed for subject matter eligibility. The result is that diagnostic claims are now routinely objected to for being mere correlations, and are absurdly said to have no practical application. The approach is contrary to the Free World Trust, Whirlpool, and Shell Oil decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, and to industry realities. The outcome is identical to contribution analysis.


Adaptation almost invariably accompanies the cross-border transfer of firm-specific practices. The existing literature contains two conflicting approaches to adaptation. The first, more traditional approach, following institutional, motivational, and pragmatic efficiency considerations, presumes that a modified practice can be fine tuned, stabilized, and institutionalized without consulting a working example and that practices should thus be adapted as quickly as possible to create fit with the local environment. The second approach argues, instead, for the need to maintain the diagnostic value of the original practice by adapting cautiously and gradually. In this paper, we report an in-depth field investigation of the relationship between presumptive adaptation, adaptation that removes the diagnostic value of the original practice, and transfer effectiveness. The setting is the transfer of franchising knowledge across borders. We investigate how adherence to recommended practices affects the rate of network growth in the host country. We find that presumptive adaptation stalls network growth while a conservative approach to adaptation, which basically entails close adherence to the original practice, results in remarkably rapid network growth. We conclude that presumptive adaptation of knowledge assets could be detrimental to performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Neuroendocrine tumors arise from cells that originate in the neural crest. Although these cells have a common embryological origin, they are distributed to various sites and organ systems throughout the body, where they can give rise to a variety of tumor types that are related by their common embryological origin. These cells share a characteristic feature of the ability to produce peptide hormones and the ability to synthesize amines from certain precursors, which gave rise to the concept known as Amine Precursor Uptake and Decarboxylation.[1] These cells were referred to as APUD cells. Collectively, the tumors that arose from these cells were classified by Pearse as APUDomas, currently more commonly referred to as neuroendocrine tumors.


Introduction: many researches have studied the short and long term effects of whole body vibration on muscle strength and proprioception. The effect of this modality in athletes and healthy population have been studied by several researchers; however, to accept it as a therapeutic procedure, it needs more studies.  In knee osteoarthritis, muscle weakness and joint instability can affect proprioception. Since some researchers reported the effect of whole body vibration on kinematic and neuromuscular control and some others have rejected this effect, the purpose of this study is to investigate the short term effect of whole body vibration on proprioception of the knee joint in patients with knee osteoarthritis and healthy individuals. Materials and Methods : In this experimental study, two groups of the same size (21 in healthy and patient groups) went through whole body vibration ( 60 Hz frequency, low amplitude and 25 Hz frequency , high amplitude) and the knee joint properioception accuracy was assessed ( by joint angle replication test) and was compared with the no-vibration baseline results. Results The joint angle reconstruction error was different between two groups and also before and after whole body vibration. Whole body vibration with 25Hz frequency and high Amplitude was ineffective in improvement of knee properioception in osteoarthritis patients (p=0.09). But the vibration with 60 Hz and low amplitude was effective significantly in properiception improvement and decrease of joint angle reconstruction error in healthy (p=0.01) and patients groups. (p=0.02). Discussion: This study shows that the whole body vibration with proper frequency and amplitude (60 Hz and low amplitude) can have immediate effect on the knee joint properioception in patients with knee osteoarthritis and healthy people. Key words: Whole Body Vibration; Knee; Osteoarthritis; Properioception


We report on the experimental observation of nonlinear localization of light in azimuthally modulated Bessel photonic lattices. These lattices are optically induced in a photorefractive crystal and resemble multiple-core highly nonlinear micro-structured fibers.


Leave-one-out green fluorescent protein (LOOn-GFP) is a circularly permuted and truncated GFP lacking the nth β-strand element. LOO7-GFP derived from the wild-type sequence (LOO7-WT) folds and reconstitutes fluorescence upon addition of β-strand 7 (S7) as an exogenous peptide. Computational protein design may be used to modify the sequence of LOO7-GFP to fit a different peptide sequence, while retaining the reconstitution activity. Here we present a computationally designed leave-one-out GFP in which wild-type strand 7 has been replaced by a 12-residue peptide (HA) from the H5 antigenic region of the Thailand strain of H5N1 influenza virus hemagglutinin. The DEEdesign software was used to generate a sequence library with mutations at 13 positions around the peptide, coding for approximately 3 × 10(5) sequence combinations. The library was coexpressed with the HA peptide in E. coli and colonies were screened for in vivo fluorescence. Glowing colonies were sequenced, and one (LOO7-HA4) with 7 mutations was purified and characterized. LOO7-HA4 folds, fluoresces in vivo and in vitro, and binds HA. However, binding results in a decrease in fluorescence instead of the expected increase, caused by the peptide-induced dissociation of a novel, glowing oligomeric complex instead of the reconstitution of the native structure. Efforts to improve binding and recover reconstitution using in vitro evolution produced colonies that glowed brighter and matured faster. Two of these were characterized. One lost all affinity for the HA peptide but glowed more brightly in the unbound oligomeric state. The other increased in affinity to the HA peptide but still did not reconstitute the fully folded state. Despite failing to fold completely, peptide binding by computational design was observed and was improved by directed evolution. The ratio of HA to S7 binding increased from 0.0 for the wild-type sequence (no binding) to 0.01 after computational design (weak binding) and to 0.48 (comparable binding) after in vitro evolution. The novel oligomeric state is composed of an open barrel.


The purposes of this research were to explore the role of selected marketing communications on the perceived identity of wood among architects and to define informational needs left unaddressed by those communications. The research was based on an experimental design implemented among architects designing nonresidential structures in the United States. The perceived identity of wood used structurally, using concepts from the branding literature, was not altered by any of the three stimuli (brochures categorized as Advertising, Case Study, and Technical Data). The case study was deemed more influential than the technical brochure with the advertisement ranking in between. Important informational needs identified related to design possibilities, regulations and standards, environmental footprints, and sustainable design. However, it must be noted that the experiment was limited temporally. It covered only one type of communications, although this type is the most common. Research results imply that the development of the nonresidential market should involve a long-term strategic commitment as opposed to a "quick fix" in the form of an advertising campaign.


The current study aims to assess the trace metals concentration in water and sediments from rivers entering Saguling Dam and calculate their pollution load. Water and surface sediment samples were collected in September 2017 during the dry season. Seven rivers which are Citarum, Cihaur, Cijere, Cimerang, Cipatik, Cijambu, and Ciminyak. Trace metals were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma/Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Based on the measurement of the total discharge that enters the Saguling Dam from 7 rivers of 20.074 m3s-1. Cr and Cu pollute river water. Seminyak River has the highest Cr concentration of 0.096 mg-1, and the lowest is Cimerang River 0.054 mgL-1. High Cu concentration does not meet the Citarum River, Cimerang, and Cipatik with respective concentrations of 0.038, 0.029, and 0.031 mgL-1. River sediments have heavy metal content that exceeds the standard. These metals are derived from anthropogenic sources in the catchment area. Pollution load of all the rivers that go into Saguling Dam for parameter Cd, Cr and Cu respectively 7.654, 149.128, and 63.435 kg.day-1. The most significant contributor comes from the Citarum River, which is the largest river in this area. The results obtained would help develop more effective dam management.


Many of Raya Dunayevskaya's articles, letters, and lectures are published in this volume for the first time. Dunayevskaya's unique approach to ideas once prompted Daniel Bell, with the tone of an insiders' joke, to remark in The Coming of Post-Industrial Society that Dunayevskaya made, "a major theoretical effort to convince workers that a knowledge of Hegel's Science of Logic was necessary to understand Lenin." Bell's caricature of Dunayevskaya's efforts to include into her philosophic discussions rank-and-file workers, women, Blacks, and youth who took oppositional stances toward the given social order, does not help much in answering the real question here: What is Dunayevskaya's Marxist-Humanism, where did it come from, and where is it going? There are both easy and elaborate answers to these questions. The easy answer is that Marxist Humanism originated during that brief period in the 1950s and 1960s when some dissident Marxists in Eastern Europe as well as African socialists active in the anti-colonialist struggles found strong points of affinity with the writings of the young Marx on Hegelian dialectics, alienation, and humanism. During the time when the ideas of the young Marx were the subject of great debate among Western European intellectuals, Dunayevskaya was among the first to translate the key writings into English and make them available in the U.S. Marxism and Freedom: From 1776 Until Today was published in 1958. It included, as appendices, translations of Marx's key 1844 manuscripts – the humanist essays that were virtually unknown until the 1930s when they were first published in German – and Lenin's Philosophic Notebooks on Hegel's Science of Logic. The easy answer as to where Dunayevskaya's Marxist-Humanism is going has to do with the fact that, since her death in 1987, The Power of Negativity now represents the second book-length collection of her writings, most of them unpublished during her lifetime. As such, and with additional volumes in the planning stages, it would certainly appear that Dunayevskaya's Marxist-Humanist philosophy is, for the time being at least, here to stay. The more elaborate answer (one that can be traced through this collection) as to what that philosophy really is, involves an 1844 manuscript penned but


Light fields become a popular representation of three-dimensional scenes, and there is interest in their processing, resampling, and compression. As those operations often result in loss of quality, there is a need to quantify it. In this work, we collect a new dataset of dense reference and distorted light fields as well as the corresponding quality scores which are scaled in perceptual units. The scores were acquired in a subjective experiment using an interactive light-field viewing setup. The dataset contains typical artifacts that occur in light-field processing chain due to light-field reconstruction, multi-view compression, and limitations of automultiscopic displays. We test a number of existing objective quality metrics to determine how well they can predict the quality of light fields. We find that the existing image quality metrics provide good measures of light-field quality, but require dense reference light-fields for optimal performance. For more complex tasks of comparing two distorted light fields, their performance drops significantly, which reveals the need for new, light-field-specific metrics.


Introduction The audit was undertaken to provide accurate success and complication rates to patients undergoing ERCP. Although PTC is available within the Health Board it is not practiced in the endoscopist's base hospital. Laparoscopic bile duct exploration is normally reserved for cases of failed endoscopic stone clearance. Method Consecutive procedures from a single endoscopist's practice were included. Data on indications, results and early complications were collected prospectively. Results 162 procedures from an 8 months period were studied. In 119 (73%) the ampulla was intact (no earlier sphincterotomy). The majority of cases, 112 (69%), were undertaken for gallstone disease, 36 (22%) for cancers and 9 (6%) for post surgical biliary leaks. One each was performed for sphincterotomy stenosis, stent within the CBD and blood clot. In 2 cases cholangiography showed no pathology but in each there had been concern of choledocholithiasis and MRI was contraindicated by cardiac pacemaker. In 10 cases biliary cannulation failed; 6.2% of all cases and 8.4% of intact ampullae. Only four were repeated, each with success. Of the remaining 6, 3 had massive duodenal distortion from cancers and required PTC. For one the treating surgeon elected surgery in the form of cholecystectomy and choledocho-duodenostomy. One was during stent removal after treatment of cystic duct stump leak and was not pursued when the patient became restless. The last died of unrelated causes awaiting repeat procedure. There were no deaths during the immediate post-operative period. Complications occurred in 19 (12%) of procedures. The commonest complication was acute pancreatitis. It occurred in 13 (8.0%) cases of which 12 were mild and quickly self-limiting. In the other, respiratory failure responded to conservative measures. No surgical or radiological intervention was required. In 3 (1.9%) cases bleeding occurred requiring laparotomy, endostasis and transfusion in one case each. Two (1.2%) cases had post-operative sepsis requiring intravenous antibiotics. There was one iatrogenic perforation of a hiatus hernia that was successfully managed conservatively. Complications occurred in 7.0% (3 complications) of procedures with earlier sphincterotomy compared to 13.4% (16 complications) of procedures where the ampulla was intact. Bleeding, perforation and severe pancreatitis only complicated those cases where the ampulla was intact. Conclusion ERCP can be practiced successfully in a DGH setting but complication rates are not insignificant. Complications are twice as common in those having an intact ampulla and may be more severe in this group. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


The composite nanoparticle consisted of zinc ferrite and hematite (ZnFe2O4∙Fe2O3) was prepared through a simple co-precipitation method. Then ZnFe2O4∙Fe2O3 was modified with polyaniline (PANI) via UV-assisted chemical oxidation polymerization to fabricate the composite photocata- lysts (ZnFe2O4∙Fe2O3/PANI). And the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample mag- netometer. Besides, the effect of the aniline amount on composition, absorption, morphology and photocatalytic efficiency of the composite photocatalysts was investigated. The results show that with the increase of the amounts of aniline in the synthetic process the composites present vari- ous morphologies including small nanoparticle, big granular nanoparticle, and nanofiber. At the same time, the mass content of PANI in the composite is enhanced, and the composite owns im- proved visible light-harvesting ability and photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. The degradation rate of rhodamine B (RhB) was up to 75.5% after 120 min. Ferromagnetism ma- kes ZnFe2O4∙Fe2O3/PANI susceptible to magnetic field and easy to be collected magnetically for iterative use. 64.4% RhB was degraded when the photocatalyst was used after 4 times.


Background and aim: North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) is one of Organizations of Nursing in the world to developed nursing process, NANDA began in 1973 by Kristine Gebbie and MaryAnn in Clearinghouse for Nursing Diagnoses-established at (St. Louis University) to develop a diagnostic classification system (Taxonomy) and to identify and approve nursing diagnosis, while the first conference proceedings edited by Gebbie and Lavin are published.The objectives of the study are to assess the knowledge of fourth class students of nursing colleges in Kurdistan Region regarding Nursing Process, to describe the demographic data of the study sample, to know the Source of student's information, and to determine which college of nursing be the first in the rank. Materials and method: A descriptive (cross sectional) study was carried out at the colleges of nursing / universities of Kurdistan Region. The study started at 10/3/2015 up to the end of December 2015. To achieve the objectives of the study, a non- probability (purposive) sample of all forth class students of colleges of nursing. Data were collected through the use of constructed questionnaire, which included of three parts. The content validity of instrument was established through penal of (7) experts. Reliability of instrument was determined through the Internal consistently reliability, (r=0.81). Data was collected by (Self-Report) method, using the questionnaire formal and data was analyzed by the application of descriptive and inferential statistical method. Results: The result of the study indicated that the highest percent of the students was female graduated from secondary school, and they have an intermediate level of knowledge, while the findings of the study indicated that most of student's information's sources were from their teachers. On the other hand the study findings were showed that there was highly significant relationship between student's knowledge and their demographic information. Recommendations: the study recommended that the teachers of nursing at the colleges and schools in Kurdistan rejoin have to focus on the Conference proceedings edited of (NANDA), farther more nursing process must teach by nursing specialty teachers not physicians.


Growth of biological tissue is considered in the present paper. A mathematical model based on metabolism intensity conception is proposed. The proposed mathematical model gives an opportunity to consider multicomponent environmental media and to analyze an influence of every component on the growth process, based on its influence on metabolism process, known from some experimental research. As a result, the growth process is described as parabolic initial-boundary-value problem in domain with moving boundary. Since the growth process is, generally speaking, enough slow, the special methods, developed for slow phase transition calculation and based on small parameter method are applied to the problem. Using mentioned approach it is managed to build analytical solutions in one-dimensional (in space) case and numerical solutions are obtained in twoand in three-dimensional cases with additional application of boundary element method.


ABSTRACT Global sumoylation, SUMO chain formation, and genome stabilization are all outputs generated by a limited repertoire of enzymes. Mechanisms driving selectivity for each of these processes are largely uncharacterized. Here, through crystallographic analyses we show that the SUMO E2 Ubc9 forms a noncovalent complex with a SUMO-like domain of Rad60 (SLD2). Ubc9:SLD2 and Ubc9:SUMO noncovalent complexes are structurally analogous, suggesting that differential recruitment of Ubc9 by SUMO or Rad60 provides a novel means for such selectivity. Indeed, deconvoluting Ubc9 function by disrupting either the Ubc9:SLD2 or Ubc9:SUMO noncovalent complex reveals distinct roles in facilitating sumoylation. Ubc9:SLD2 acts in the Nse2 SUMO E3 ligase-dependent pathway for DNA repair, whereas Ubc9:SUMO instead promotes global sumoylation and chain formation, via the Pli1 E3 SUMO ligase. Moreover, this Pli1-dependent SUMO chain formation causes the genome instability phenotypes of SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase (STUbL) mutants. Overall, we determine that, unexpectedly, Ubc9 noncovalent partner choice dictates the role of sumoylation in distinct cellular pathways.


In this paper, citizen's reportage of corruption means a citizen's readiness to report a witnessed corruption incident to the anticorruption agencies. Citizens' reportage of corruption is largely conditioned by a free will decision. In this study, the decision to report corruption or not, noted as a critical concern in anti-corruption efforts. The influence of the social-psychological factors, particularly a powerdistancing mind-set on a citizen's intentional behaviour to report a corruption event, has been utilized as a method to establish factors that would affect citizens to report witnessed corruption incidents in Tanzania. A case study was used. This paper used qualitative data collected in Lindi Municipal Council and Mwanza City Council to show, how a power-distance mind-set hinders citizens' readiness to report witnessed corruption incident in Tanzania. The study determined that, Ethnic traditional values of displaying the elderly as untouchable and uncriticised may influence a social practice of remaining silent on those seen with power. The implications of this mentality may extend to different levels in the public sectors domain. The study sees a need for mediating the conceptualization of a power-distancing mentality to citizens' reportage of corruption as an imperative (an avoidable reality.


The aim of this study is to investigate oxidative stress and leptinlevel in obese women. Fifty obese women with BMI value of ≥ 30.0 kg/m 2 and thirty healthy women with BMI<24.9 kg/m 2 were involved in the study during their attendance at Gastroenterology and Liver Hospital/ Medical city in Baghdad province from October 2018 to February 2019. The age range for all women was 30-50 years. Blood samples were collected from each participant for the evaluation of the levels of leptin hormone, Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD), and Malondialdehyde (MDA). The results of BMI, leptin hormone, MDA and SOD showed highly significant increase (P<0.01) in obese women in comparison with the control group. Results: The results show that BMI value were significantly higher (P<0.01) in obese women (41.90 ± 0.87kg/m 2 ) in comparison with the control (23.58 ± 0.28kg/m 2 ). The level of leptin hormone was significantly higher(P<0.01) in obese women (1444.00 ± 10.67pg/ml) in comparison with the control (932.26 ± 25.92pg/ml). Also, MDA level was significantly higher(P<0.01) in obese women (6.81 ± 0.29mg/dl) in comparison with the control (4.53 ± 0.44) mg/dl. The level of SOD was significantly higher(P<0.01) in obese women (15.67 ± 1.42mg/dl) in comparison with the control group (3.75 ± 0.60mg/dl). Conclusions: Obesity is detected by the level of leptin Hormone; leptin is regarded as a good parameter for monitoring obesity,showing a high increasewith increasing BMI.Theincrease in obesity causes oxidant stress and formation of MDA that is considered as a major risk factor in obesity,where adecrease in antioxidants was also recorded.


he National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is one of the largest nutrition assistance programs in the United States, providing free and reduced-price lunches for income-eligible students as well as minimally subsidizing paid lunches for students that do not qualify to receive free or reduce-price lunches. Although the levels of nutrient deficiencies vary slightly across studies, the majority of the research concedes that NSLP participants consume more fats and sodium than non-participants, which may lead to higher rates of overweight and obesity. Furthermore, differences across income in dietary intake among NSLP participants may be an underlying cause of the previous mixed results. In this study, we investigate the relationship between income-eligibility status (Free, Reduced, or Paid) and entree selection. Using a unique dataset tracking daily entree choices and their nutritional value among elementary students at a suburban school district, this paper provides a novel approach to understanding the healthfulness of the NSLP. We find that while controlling for age, gender, and race, students that purchase free lunch choose entrees with less sodium than students purchasing either reduced-price or paid lunches. Relative to students purchasing free-lunches, students purchasing paid lunches also choose entrees with more protein and fat and entrees with fewer carbohydrates.


Everyone agrees that members of parliaments (MPs) should keep in touch with the people they represent. Yet some MPs invest more in communication with their constituency than others. We approach this problem with data from the parliamentary communication allowance in the United Kingdom, where all MPs had the same amount of budget to reach out proactively to their electors. We base our analysis on two fundamental assumptions: that re-election is the main goal of legislators and that communication to signal trustworthiness is one way of securing their re-election. We then examine the impact of electoral prospects, constituency characteristics, and parliamentary behaviour on communication to constituents. We find evidence that, even in the absence of budgetary constraints, MPs' constituency communication depends on challenges to their re-election.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Background. Autophagy maintains energy metabolism and enables tumor cell survival during cellular stress. Beclin 1 is involved in autophagosome formation during which membrane-bound LC3 binds to p62/sequestosome 1. We reported that ectopic p62 can promote 5-fluorouracil-induced cell death (JBC 286:40002-12, 2011). It is unknown whether these autophagy markers can predict clinical outcome. Materials & Methods. Beclin 1, LC3B, and p62 proteins were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays containing stage II and III colon carcinomas (N=151) from patients receiving 5-FU or surgery alone. The mean weighted score (intensity x extent) was dichotomized for survival analysis using Cox models. Results. Increased levels of cytoplasmic LC3, Beclin 1, and p62 expression were detected in 21%, 14%, and 68% of cancers, respectively, and were not associated with tumor site, stage or grade. By multivariable analysis, increased LC3 was significantly associated with worse disease-free survival (DFS) (p=0.022), but not overall survival (OS) \[p=0.069\](Table). Beclin 1 was not prognostic, but increased p62 was significantly associated with improved DFS (p=0.038), but not OS (p= 0.176)[Table]. When restricted to 5-FU-treated patients, increased LC3 was associated with worse DFS [HR= 2.38 (1.19, 4.75, p=0.020), elevated Beclin 1 predicted worse OS [HR=2.83 (1.27, 6.34), p = 0.019], and p62 was not prognostic. Conclusion. LC3 and Beclin 1 overexpression were independently associated with adverse outcome. Increased p62 was associated with better outcome consistent with its ability to promote cell death. These data support strategies to inhibit autophagy for therapeutic advantage.

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Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4112. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4112

 [1]: pending:yes


AIM To assess the possible roles of cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-8) in liver damage of hepatitis B.

METHODS The serum TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-8 were detected by ELISA in 66 patients with hepatitis B and 20 healthy blood donors.

RESULTS TNF-α and IL-6 in all types of clinical hepatitis B were significantly higher than those in healthy blood donors (P < 0.05 ); meanwhile the levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-8 in the patients with fulminant hepatitis B were much higher than those in the patients with acute hepatitis B(P < 0.05); the level of TNF-α was positively correlated with the levels of IFN-γ, Il-6 and IL-8 in all types of hepatitis B (rIFN = 0.24, rIL-6 = 0.35, rIL-8 = 0.44) and the TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-8 were positively correlated with serum bilirubin (P < 0.05). Dynamic changes of these cytokines were observed in the course of acute and fulminant hepatitis. The level of IFN-γ peaked in the initial period of acute hepatitis and early stage of hepatic coma in fulminant hepatitis; TNFα, IL-6 and IL-8 increased with exacer-bation, and reached a peak when the liver da-mage was most serious, then decreased when patient conditions were improved.

CONCLUSION The increased cytokines were re-lated to the inflamm ation of liver cells and multi-ple factors may play certain roles in liver dam-age.


On 17 November 2011 the Competition Authority of Bosnia & Herzegovina (KV) closed its investigation into the alleged existence of anticompetitive agreement between the incumbent telecom…


The pharmacokinetics and relative bioavailability of diclofenac sodium from a new sustained-release formulation (Effekton-100) and from a standard sustained-release formulation (Voltaren-Retard) were compared in 11 healthy adult male volunteers. After a single oral dose of 100 mg Effekton-100, a mean maximal plasma concentration (Cmax) of 497 +/- 120 ng/ml was obtained after 7.4 h (tmax). After an identical dose of Voltaren-Retard, a peak plasma concentration of 654 +/- 329 ng/ml was obtained after 6.4 h. Plasma levels of diclofenac were determined by a new HPLC assay which was developed as part of this study and makes possible monitoring plasma levels of diclofenac for 24 h after a single dose. The mean bioavailability of diclofenac from Effekton-100 was 0.97 +/- 0.28 relative to that of Voltaren-Retard. As the rate and the extent of absorption of diclofenac sodium was not significantly different after the administration of the two investigated formulations, it can be concluded that Effekton-100 is bioequivalent to Voltaren-Retard.


Elite dancers have a higher rate of injury than college athletes. This may be due, in part, to improper alignment during dance movements. Electromyography (EMG) can be an important indicator of such activity. This study aimed to examine how turnout (maximal hip external rotation) impacts activation of the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) and vastus lateralis (VL) muscles during fundamental dance movements. Thirty female collegiate dancers were recruited from intermediate and advanced ballet and modern technique classes. Surface EMG was used to examine activation of the VMO and VL during maximal isokinetic knee extension in demi-pliés and sautés in parallel and turned-out positions. The mean VMO:VL ratio was determined as a percentage of the highest repetition of maximal extension. The ratio was significantly lower during parallel sautés (0.921 ± 0.258) in comparison to turned-out sautés (1.008 ± 0.384; p = 0.033) and parallel pliés (1.185 ± 0.509; p = 0.002). No significant relationships were found between the VMO:VL ratio and injury history or predominant style of dance. Further investigation is warranted to examine the relationships between VMO:VL activation, patellofemoral alignment, and risk of pathology during simple and complex dance movements.


The major role of occupational physicians is to facilitate workers' communication with managers and primary physicians. In other words, occupational medicine is similar to consulta- tion-liaison psychiatry. Psychiatrists should not decide whether patients can return to the workplace solely based on their symptoms of mental disorder; their work performance and potential to cooperate with other workers in the workplace should also be considered. In order to achieve this, it is important to promote close cooperation between occupational physicians and psychiatrists. The aim of the stress check system in Japan is the primary prevention of mental disor- ders. However, it is necessary to provide care for groups and individuals, which is in accor- dance with the concept of first aid. It is useful for occupational physicians to liaise with psychi- atrists when they encounter the critical case of a patient with mental health problems.


The Story of the First-Ever Round-the-World Balloon Flight As Told by the Pilots "Both of us were being driven on by a colossal charge of hope, which sometimes became so strong that we had to take deep breaths and physically choke it down. The important thing, now, was to concentrate and not make any mistakes." -- Brian Jones, March 4, flying over the Sahara Desert "This is exactly my definition of adventure...a point at which you cannot avoid confronting the unknown, so that you have to dig inside yourself to find the courage and resources to deal with what may lie ahead, and to succeed." -- Bertrand Piccard, diary entry March 10, heading out over the Pacific


Organizational citizenship behavior (OCBs) be characterized with going beyond formal role requirements and wide participation for organizational interests. Previous research on organizational citizenship behavior draw a general conclusion that organizational citizenship behavior had a critical relation with organizational functioning. But little work recovers the internal mechanism by which organizational citizenship behavior facilitate organizational performance and effectiveness. Based on social embeddedness theory, this paper proposes that organizational citizenship behavior, especially, the social participation, advocacy participation, functional participation and focus on tasks contribute to internal learning, explorative learning, emergent learning, and exploitation learning between individual, and consequently enhance organizational functioning and performance. In the last section the paper briefly discussed the theoretical contributions of the analysis framework and give suggestion about future research direction.


A questionnaire assessing attitudes toward small‐group teaching (SGT) was administered to 442 elementary and secondary school teachers from 26 randomly selected schools in Israel. Data was collected on teachers' prior experience with SGT, their knowledge of the basic characteristics of this approach and their perception of colleagues' support for the use of innovative teaching techniques. Teachers expressed somewhat negative attitudes toward SGT on a scale dealing with teacher control of the class, but they were distinctly positive on a scale about the efficiency of SGT for presenting subject matter, and most positive regarding the effect of SGT on pupil development. Teachers experienced with SGT were more positive on 2 out of 3 attitude scales than were those with no experience. Data from measures of teachers' understanding of SGT characteristics, their perception of colleagual support for innovative teaching and prior experience with SGT accounted for 30 per cent of the variance (canonical R = 0.55) in ...


The four-switch inverter, having a lower number of insulated gate bipolar transistors(IGBTs), has been studied for the possibility of reducing the inverter cost. But it has a limited performance in the low-frequency region, because the balance among the phase currents collapses due to the fluctuation of the center tap voltage of the DC-link capacitors. This problem could be solved if the DC-link capacitance is infinitely large, but it is a costly solution. In this paper, this problem is looked at from the perspective of source impedance and the voltage variation caused by the current flow through the capacitors. The source impedance of the center tap is large compared with other normal IGBT arms. This causes an asymmetry among the three voltage sources, resulting in phase current distortion and unbalance. Second, the capacitor voltage change caused by current flow is another source of current distortion and unbalance. The voltage errors are derived, and based on them, a compensation method is proposed. Effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by the simulation and experimental results.


Flexibility, waterproof and breathability of substrates are the key issues restricting the application of electronic skin. Composite nanofibrous membranes (CNFMs) as substrates of electronic skin are prepared from polyvinylidene fluoride and silver nitrate blended solution by electrospinning technique. The microstructure and performances of the CNFMs are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, capillary pore size analyzer, gravimetric method, water vapor permeability tester, optical contact angle tester, water permeability tester, intelligent electronic strength tester, hand-held electronic thickness meter and seveneasy conductivity meter. The results indicate that with the introduction of silver nitrate, the waterproof and breathability of CNFMs are balanced and optimized. The moisture permeability increases by 22%–69% from 2915.9 g · m−2 · 24 h−1 of pristine nanofibrous membrane (PNFM) to 3801.2–4151.5 g · m−2 · 24 h−1 of CNFMs and the hydraulic pressure decreases from 23.4 kPa to 21.6–16.5 kPa. However, the change of contact angle is irregular, which depends on the presence of like lotus-leaf-papillae morphology on fiber surface. The tensile strength of CNFMs decreases greatly and the elongation increases by 3–8 times from 7.7% of PNFM to 25.1%–63.2% of the CNFMs. The improvement of CNFMs flexibility is attributed to the hierarchical roughness of nanofiber surface, the unlock bonding between fibers and various combination forms of silver particles in CNFMs. Thus it was suitable to be applied as the substrate of electronic skin.


The demand for data exchange is ever growing. Internet of Things (IoT), industry 4.0, smart city and next-generation interconnected vehicles are some examples of scenarios in which a high volume of nodes share data across networks. Hence, the data protection plays a fundamental aspect to avoid disclosure or manipulation of sensitive information and disruption of services, particularly in safety critical applications. On the other hand, also the compute power at disposal of possible attackers and hackers is growing, and next-future post-quantum capabilities will require the usage of longer keys, certificates and digital signatures, to preserve the security level offered by cryptographic functions. This will affect not only the amount of exchange data, but also the computational resources to secure data, increasing processing time, latencies and power consumption, and lowering data rates. In this work, we investigate different implementation strategies to overcome such performance limitations. This work provides a comparison among pure software approach (both on 32b and 64b processors) and hardware-based solutions we developed for FPGA and ASIC System-on-Chip platforms, for the most common symmetric-key and public-key cryptographic algorithms. The proposed hardware accelerators feature one order of magnitude higher throughput (and lower latency) and more than two orders lower power consumption than their software counterparts. A highly configurable cryptographic suite is proposed that can be customized according to the application requirements and thus able to increase as much as possible the efficiency in terms of energy per enciphered bits per second.


The motivation for this work comes from the development of a 3D quasi-geostrophic Contour Advective Semi-Lagrangian model for vortex interaction in the ocean. The existing code is limited to circular cylindrical geometry and uses polar coordinates. We wish to extend the method to more general cross-sections. The crucial aspect is the solution of the Poisson equation that allows the determination of the stream function from the potential vorticity at each time-step, as this is the part of the algorithm that must be performed on a grid: the advection of potential vorticity contours is fully Lagrangian and hence is easily modified for irregular domains. We develop a 2D algorithm for inverting the Poisson equation for the stream function on an arbitrarily shaped domain, in the special case when the boundary is a streamline, as is the case for our problem. However, the method is also valid for non-zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. The approach uses finite differences with the domain embedded in a rectangular Cartesian grid. We show that the algorithm is second-order accurate and provide several numerical examples.


The optical oscillator strengths of the resonance lines of Kr were measured by means of the self-absorption. An electron beam through low pressure Kr gas was used as a light source for the resonance lines. The results obtained are 0.155+or-0.011(4p6 1S-5s(11/2) degrees , 1235.8 AA) and 0.139+or-0.010(4p6 1S-5s'(1/2) degrees , 1164.9 AA).


The molluscan fauna of southwestern Brazilian Amazonia is poorly known due to the lack of focused collection areas in the region since the early 20th century. The present study provides an inventory of the terrestrial gastropods from a forest fragment in the eastern Acre state, Brazil: the Humaita Forest Reserve ("Reserva Florestal Humaita"). Live specimens and empty shells were collected between August 2018 and January 2019. A total of 20 species were identified, distributed in 11 families. Most (13) of these species were recorded in Acre for the first time. Furthermore, we confirm the occurrence of Systrophia helicycloides (d'Orbigny, 1835) in Brazil, reiterate the synonymy of Plekocheilus pentadinus (d'Orbigny, 1835) with P. floccosus (Spix in Wagner, 1827), and synonymize Solaropsis peruviana Haas, 1951 with S. juruana Ihering, 1905.


A promising technology of nanofibrous composites is studied nowadays as an alternative method to the well-known dielectric nanocomposites filled by various nanofillers like a metallic oxides, alumina, silica, carbon nanofibers or nanotubes. All of these nanofillers are known, more or less. The use is to improve some of the electrical, mechanical and thermal properties of nanocomposites. Unfortunately, its expensiveness and tendency to agglomeration remain as their main disadvantage. In the contrary, the nanofibers can be applied as a nonwoven fabric over the surface of the composite with no tendency to create the cluster agglomeration as the nanocomposites with nanoparticles. It was prepared experimental specimens of nonwoven nanofibers composites based on the modification of commonly used three-component mica-based electrical insulating material (epoxy, glass fibers and mica). The modification of these, well known, mica composites was done by incorporation of the nonwoven nanofibers layers (1, 2 and 3) to its structure always with different area density (1, 3 and 5 g/m2) of the nanofibers. The tested material was delivered in the form of resin-rich sheets on which the layers of the nanofibers made from Polyamide 6 were applied and specimens were subsequently cured using typical resin rich curing process. The influence of prepared modifications on the partial discharge characteristics and magnitudes of the resulting nanocomposites was studied. Partial discharges results show differences between the specimens' variations depending on nanofibers presence, the number of layers and surface density of nanofibers. The decreasing of the partial discharge activity is recognisable when the nanofabrics is incorporated into the composite. The obtained results proved that the nonwoven nanofibers based on Polyamide 6 seem to be a perspective material with certain resistance to partial discharge activity.


The molecular basis of pathogenesis by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae has been partly elucidated by the identification of a gene, hrpXo, required for bacterial blight on rice. A mutation in hrpXo results in the loss of pathogenicity on rice and the loss of hypersensitivity on nonhosts such as Datura stramonium and radishes. Pathogenicity and its ability to cause the hypersensitive reaction is restored by complementing the mutant with the heterologous hrpXc gene derived from X. campestris pv. campestris. Conversely, hrpXo complements nonpathogenic mutants of X. campestris pv. campestris and X. campetstris pv, armoraciae. Mutants bearing the heterologous hrpX gene are restored in their abilities to cause diseases typical of their chromosomal background and not the hypersensitive reaction on their respective hosts. The hrpXo and hrpXc genes are therefore functionally equivalent, and this functional equivalence extends into X. campestris pv. armoraciae and possibly into other X. campestris pathovars, since this gene is highly conserved among eight other pathovars tested. Sequence analyses of hrpXo revealed an open reading frame of 1,452 bp with a coding capacity for a protein of 52.3 kDa. The protein contains a consensus domain for possible protein myristoylation whose consequence may result in a loss of recognition by host defense and surveillance systems.


Early diagnosis of a pandemic disease like COVID-19 can help deal with a dire situation and help radiologists and other experts manage human resources more effectively. In a recent pandemic, laboratories perform diagnostics manually, which requires a lot of time and expertise of the laboratorial technicians to yield accurate results. Moreover, the cost of kits is high, and well-equipped labs are needed to perform this test. Therefore, other means of diagnosis is highly desirable. Radiography is one of the existing methods that finds its use in the diagnosis of COVID-19. The radiography observes change in Computed Tomography (CT) chest images of patients, developing a deep learning-based method to extract graphical features which are used for automated diagnosis of the disease ahead of laboratory-based testing. The proposed work suggests an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based technique for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 from given volumetric chest CT images of patients by extracting its visual features and then using these features in the deep learning module. The proposed convolutional neural network aims to classify the infectious and non-infectious SARS-COV2 subjects. The proposed network utilizes 746 chests scanned CT images of 349 images belonging to COVID-19 positive cases, while 397 belong to negative cases of COVID-19. Our experiment resulted in an accuracy of 98.4%, sensitivity of 98.5%, specificity of 98.3%, precision of 97.1%, and F1-score of 97.8%. The additional parameters of classification error, mean absolute error (MAE), root-mean-square error (RMSE), and Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC) are used to evaluate our proposed work. The obtained result shows the outstanding performance for the classification of infectious and non-infectious for COVID-19 cases. © 2021 Tech Science Press. All rights reserved.


Man-made air pollutants are a recent phenomenon in the evolutionary experience of plants and animals although natural air pollutants from volcanic eruptions, forest fires and dust storms have accompanied evolution for geological eras. Plants have responded to increasing concentrations of such pollutants as sulphur dioxide, fluorides, photochemical oxidants and acid rain at the community, species, population and individual levels. The lichens and bryophytes have shown particularly dramatic changes in urban and industrial areas. Many species have had their distribution severely limited. Tolerances to sulphur dioxide have evolved in populations of a number of grasses and herbs, and some sulphur dioxide-tolerant lichens have invaded inner city areas. Sensitivity to pollutants is partly a function of substrate chemistry. Synergistic interactions occur between various pollutants and also between pollutants and pathogens. A good deal of genetic variation occurs within crops, and this allows for selection of pollution-tolerant varieties. The nature of specific adaptations is not generally well known although, for sulphur dioxide, recent studies in poplar and spinach strongly suggest that increased production of the enzyme superoxide dismutase may be a key factor. In other adaptations, morphological and anatomical features play a part.


Introduction Multimodal techniques for pain management involve using two or more analgesic drugs with different mechanisms of action working in synergy. These drugs may be given by either the same or different routes of administration preoperatively, intraoperatively, and/or postoperatively [1]. By targeting different pain pathways within the central and peripheral nervous systems, the use of multiple agents with different mechanisms of action allows for lower doses of individual agents, which in turn results in a lower risk of adverse effects. Aim We have conducted this study to compare the effect of opioid-free anesthesia (OFA) with opioid-based anesthesia (OA) on postoperative pain relief as a primary outcome and hemodynamic variables, including mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation%, total pethidin consumption 24 h postoperatively, and postoperative complications developed in postanesthetic care unit (PACU), such as hypoxia, shivering, nausea, and vomiting as secondary outcomes in morbid obese patients. Patients and methods A total of 40 patients (morbidly obese) aged 25–50 years with BMI of at least 35, having ASA status II scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy were divided into two groups in a randomized controlled fashion: group 1 was the OA group (n=20), which received general anesthesia with propofol, muscle relaxant (rocuronium), and fentanyl as the main anesthetic adjuvant and analgesic, and group 2 was the OFA group (n=20), which received general anesthesia with propofol, muscle relaxant (rocuronium), dexmedetomidine, magnesium sulfate, and lidocaine as anesthetic adjuvant and analgesic. Hemodynamic variables such as MAP, HR, and oxygen saturation% were recorded preoperatively, postintubation, and every 15 min till the end of surgery. Postoperative visual analog scale done immediately postoperatively, and at 2, 6, 12, and 24 h postoperatively; total pethidine consumption in 24 h postoperatively; and postoperative complications developed in PACU such as hypoxia, shivering, nausea, and vomiting were also recorded for each patient. Results There were no differences between the two groups regarding demographic data. There was a statistically significant decrease in HR in OFA group compared with OA group from 15 min after induction to 15 min postoperatively and a statistically significant decrease in MAP in group II (OFA) compared with group I (OA) from 30 min after induction to 90 min postoperatively in PACU. Visual analog scale for pain postoperatively was lower in nonopioid group than opioid group. The postoperative pethidine consumption was significantly lower in OFA versus OA. Postoperative complications like nausea, vomiting, shivering, and hypoxia were significantly higher in the OA group. Conclusion OFA provides postoperative pain relief and intraoperative hemodynamic stability without significant associated adverse effects compared with OA.


During the course of investigations on biological properties of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, strains Ac-0156 and Ac-0181, which grew diffusely on blood agar, were obtained. When strain Ac-0181 was cultured on soft-agar medium containing 0.5% agar, the surface colonies were large. On 0.3% soft-agar, root-like colonies were formed, looking as if the medium had been dug by the organisms. Such growth propertis were shown also by strain Ac-0156, being different from those of a strain of Proteus mirabilis used for control. Strain Ac-0234 did not show diffuse growth on blood agar plates, but localized growth around the inoculated site as did a strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae use for control.


Think you have the next great Windows 8 or RT app idea? The Surface App Sketch Book is an essential tool for any aspiring Windows 8 or RT-based Surface Pro or Surface tablet app developer. This sketch book makes it easy to centralize and organize your ideas, featuring enlarged Surface and Surface Pro templates to write on. Professionally printed on high-quality paper, it has a total of 150 gridded templates for you to draft ideas and doodle designs while providing ample room to make notes and document the app name and screen name. This book is an invaluable tool for bringing your next great Surface app idea to life! What youll learn The Apress Surface App Sketch Book makes it easy to keep design ideas organized in one central place Includes 150 magnified templates for easy use, with plenty of room on the gridded page to jot notes and doodle designs This professional notepad gives your design a finished look from which to share ideas with colleagues and clients Who this book is for Any aspiring Windows RT or Windows 8 apps developer, building for the Surface or Surface Pro tablets.


All disorders that affect general nutrition of the body may affect the mind. The brain, the organ of the mind, is sensitive to nutritional changes, and when these are profound they may permanently affect the mind's nature. The imperceptible fluctuations of brain nutrition have concomitant fluctuations of mental action, and these physical processes, if carefully studied, reveal to us that there is physical basis to mind. The physiology of mind need not be discussed here nor need we wander into the psychologic labyrinths to study the relationship of body to mind. It is only necessary to state, whatever is the organic process of mental action, its basis is, like that of other elements, in the cell. The brain-cell has its organization and its nutrition; perversion of either causes disturbance of function. This disturbance when changing the routine and characteristics of an individual mental life, we sometimes call insanity. But do


X-Ray diffraction, micro-Raman and static magnetization data at room temperature from epitaxial undoped anatase and rutile TiO2 thin films are reported. Films are deposited by RF-magnetron sputtering on different substrates and at different deposition parameters. A weak ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature is observed in each film series, often superimposed to a linear contribution. The different dependence of the magnetization on the oxygen content observed for the different TiO2 phases is discussed in relation to the tensile strain induced by the different substrates. A complex interplay between oxygen sub-stoichiometry and the interface structural arrangement should be invoked to account for the observed magnetic behaviours.


Manual tracing of ventricular borders in MRI images is a tedious process. The goal of this research was to develop an algorithm for tracking the borders of the left ventricle (LV) in a cine-MRI gradient-echo temporal data set. The algorithm was validated on healthy volunteers and patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) before and after surgical remodeling of the LV. A full tomographic set (/spl sim/11 slices/case) of short axis images were obtained through systole. Initial endocardial and epicardial contours for the end-diastolic (ED) and end-systolic (ES) phases were manually traced on the computer by an expert. The initial tracing of the ED borders were used as starting point. These borders were then temporally tracked through each phase of the temporal data set, until the ES phase was reached (/spl sim/7 phases/slice). Peak gradients along equally spaced chords calculated perpendicular to centerline determined midway between the endocardial and epicardial borders were used for border detection. This approach was tested by comparing the LV epicardial and endocardial volumes calculated at ES to those based on the tracings by an expert. The LV volumes based on the borders obtained from the automated algorithm correlated well with those calculated from the expert manual tracings.


Secure communication based on message encryption might be performed by combining the message with controlled noise ( called pseudo-noise ) as performed in spread-spectrum communication used presently in Wi-Fi and smartphone telecommunication systems. Quantum communication based on entanglement is another route for securing communications as demonstrated by several important experiments described in this work. The central role played by the photon in unifying the description of classical and quantum noise as major ingredients of secure communication systems is highlighted and described on the basis of the classical and quantum fl uctuation dissipation theorems.


In most cases, water system design is based on a demand forecast at the end of some planning horizon based on the final configuration of the system at that time. This design approach (aimed at designing all the network at a time) is incompliant with its actual development, which instead takes place in phases. As a consequence, in order to follow the network demand and layout growth in time, practitioners prefer to sub-divide the whole construction life into various time phases thus including the different phases of construction in the network design. This work is aimed at analyzing and comparing three different phased approaches for constrained minimum-cost design of water distribution networks: the single-phase design with demand feedback, the multi-phase design without demand feedback and the multi-phase design with demand feedback. The difference between the single-phase design and the multi-phase design lies in the fact that whereas the former entails optimizing a single construction phase at a time, i.e. the current construction phase, the latter is based on the phasing of construction and then is aimed at optimizing the current construction phase and all the subsequent phases, included inside a certain temporal horizon, simultaneously. The demand feedback is here used as a pragmatic tool for updating the forecast at some specific time instant of the future demand growth: such an update is performed by setting the future demand growth equal to that really observed in the previous time phase. Alternatively, the predicted demand growth rate at the generic time instant can be kept equal to the value assumed at the time instant when the generic node appears, without taking account of the demand variation really observed in time in the node (absence of demand feedback). Applications to a real case study show that the multi-phase design with the demand feedback is the most reliable because it makes it possible to reduce the overall construction costs while attenuating the occurrence of pressure deficits in the various construction phases of the network. Optimal design for a single phase will virtually guarantee a sub-optimal solution over the long run.


Abstract The species of genus Varroa mites parasitize on the honey bees of genus Apis. Unlike the well-studied V. destructor and V. jacobsoni mites, V. underwoodi remain less known. According to English language publications, the proven V. underwoodi distribution area of A. cerana colonies covers Nepal, South Korea, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and China, but not Russia even though it had been described morphometrically in Russian language publications in Russia's Primorsky Territory. According to Vavilov's law (1920) of a homologous series, all the species of V. underwoodi, V. destructor and V. jacobsoni have the ability to spill over onto new hosts. Thus, V. underwoodi is a potential parasite of A. mellifera that should be carefully studied. In this study, V. underwoodi mites in colonies of honey bee subspecies A. c. ussuriensis native to Russia's Primorsky Territory are first proven using both morphometry and mitochondrial COX1 gene sequencing. The genetic divergence and p-distances between V. underwoodi and other Varroa species ranged from 7 to 10% and from 0.072 to 0.099, respectively, which matched the intraspecific level of differences. Two identical northernmost V. underwoodi samples from Russia's Primorsky Territory and China's Jilin province with GenBank accession number MH205176 were assigned as COX1 haplotype China 1 MH205176. The first discovery of V. underwoodi in the Primorsky Territory in northern Asia outlined the northern border of its range.


Aim: In December 2019, there were reports of a new type of coronavirus that affects the different health systems of the world We have carried out a systematic review of the possible antivirals studied that could be useful in this public health catastrophe Data Sources: A search strategy with MESH terms was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus Also, RCTs published in clinicaltrials gov were reviewed The databases were searched between April and June 2020 Study Selection: We selected all Randomized Controlled Trials evaluating the effects of antivirals and 5 studies were included from a research database of 280 articles collected between After removing duplicated articles, 43 were selected for review Finally, 5 articles were eligible for full-text review and included in the article Results: Current randomized controlled trial data showed no clinical improvement in terms of mortality, need for oxygen support or need for intubation in patients who used antivirals versus those who did not No clinical improvement was demonstrated It was observed that there is difficulty in calculating clinical improvement, this large difference makes the eligible studies difficult to compare Conclusion: These predictors, however, need further work to validate reliability More clinical trials involving antivirals are needed to observe a relationship between clinical improvement or mortality from SARS-CoV-19


Cucumbers were propagated in rockwool cubes in a climate cell for four weeks. The complete root system of each cucumber was enclosed in an airtight box. Each box was connected to an air bag, which acted as an air reservoir. A peristaltic pump ensured air circulation in the system. Treatments included maintenance of oxygen levels at 21%, 7% and 2% in specific box-bag systems. The goal of this experiment was to measure the critical oxygen supply rate for normal production. An additional goal was to characterize plant and root growth affected by sub optimal oxygen avail¬ability. With a fiber optic oxygen meter it proved possible to measure and monitor the oxygen level in the box-bag system in time at various points. A critical oxygen maintenance level between 8 and 12% was found for this system. A maximum oxygen use of 5.8 mg.h-1.plant-1 was reached by plants with a growth equal to the reference plants. The above ground growth reaction to mild but prolonged sub-optimal oxygen supply rates included a 20-50% reduction in leaf area, fresh and dry above ground and below ground mass production and, less pronounced, a reduction in plant length. The dry mass root/shoot ratio remained constant despite widely different oxygen supply. The root oxygen use rate during the light period was 5-10 times higher than during the dark period. It is argued that the growth reduction is not so much related to a critical oxygen level in the air but to local oxygen depletion in the substrate. Local oxygen depletion might be the result of the interaction of oxygen supply rate and substrate diffusivity or the accumulation of gasses as carbon dioxide and ethylene to phytotoxic concentrations.


This study was undertaken to investigate the synergistic interaction between amphotericin B (AmB) and acteoside, isolated from the aerial parts of the shrub Colebrookea oppositifolia (Lamiaceae). Acteoside alone exhibited no intrinsic antifungal activity but showed a potent synergism in combination with AmB against selected pathogenic species, with fractional inhibitory concentration indices in the range of 0.0312-0.1562. The combination of acteoside at 3.12 and 12.5 µg ml(-1) with subinhibitory concentrations of AmB resulted in a potent fungicidal effect and also exhibited a significantly extended post-antifungal effect. Furthermore, the combination also reduced the minimum biofilm reduction concentration values of AmB (2-16-fold) in preformed biofilms of Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigatus. There was decreased viability of the cells, increased uptake of propidium iodide and enhanced leakage of 260 nm-absorbing material by Candida albicans cells when exposed to AmB in the presence of acteoside. The reason for potentiation is likely to be that the subinhibitory concentrations of AmB facilitated the uptake of acteoside, which resulted in increased killing of the fungal cells. Administration of acteoside in mice at up to 2000 mg (kg body weight)(-1) by the intraperitoneal or oral route produced no overt toxicity. The data presented here support synergism between acteoside and AmB, and it is therefore proposed that a prospective new management strategy for therapeutic application of this combination should be explored.


Abstract Objectives: Continuing deinstitutionalisation has led to growing concern about the availability and accessibility of services for people with learning disabilities transferring to community living. This study was undertaken in order to assess the configuration of services in terms of availability and uptake for people with learning disabilities who have left long-stay hospital care and to identify gaps or barriers to service provision within the unique integrated health and social services structure in Northern Ireland. Method: The 'keyworkers' of 195 people – most of whom were aged 40-59 years with a diagnosis of moderate intellectual impairment – were interviewed by a researcher one year after discharge using the Service Interview. Results: While a wide range of generic and specialist services was available, 'packages' of care consisted largely of public sector services (eg. GPs, chiropodists and social workers) and relied, to some extent, on the type of community accommodation. Although services appeared well co-ordinated in terms of care reviews and keyworker arrangements, 40% of people required more one-to-one support particularly in areas related to integration. However, services were perceived by care staff to be satisfactory Conclusions: The development of community care has been slower in Northern Ireland than elsewhere and a large proportion of resources remain tied up in hospital care. However, existing community-based services appear to be addressing individual needs. Some former patients, though, may have been subject to transinstitutionalisation in the sense that their choice of accommodation was restricted mainly to large private sector homes and work and daytime opportunities were insufficient to facilitate integration. Service planners and providers need to give further consideration to the likely effects of different forms of rehabilitation, reprovision and resettlement and to be aware that the pattern of service provision is likely to be different for the more dependent cohorts of people who leave hospital in the future.


A right-handed 59 year old man who presented difficulties in the performance of complex acts (praxic) and spatial disorientation is described. Neurophysical exploration showed deterioration of the capacities linked to perceptive and spatial organization preserving the verbal capacities including the memory. After two years and a half of follow up practically no variation has been observed in his clinical manifestations with no implication of other superior mental function. CAT and MR findings revealed important posterior atrophy with an increase in the occipital loops. SPECT demonstrated cold images due to a bilateral parietal-temporal perfusion deficit. Discussion of the case leads to the needs of unifying the criteria and terminology for these focal degenerative processes.


Hedonic valuation of urban amenities often requires estimating housing and labor market regressions. It is difficult to get both types of data for all survey respondents. We show that the common practice of conducting two separate regressions with unbalanced data causes inconsistent covariance matrix estimation and improper inference regarding amenity values. We demonstrate how two easily implementable yet consistent techniques can be used for hedonic valuation with an application in valuing temperature increases in urban Brazil. (JEL C31, Q51)


Background: Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is associated with high rates of long-term cardiovascular mortality. Exercise stress testing to detect obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) can be difficult in this subset of patients due to inability to undergo exercise testing, presence of balanced ischemia and severe coronary artery calcification (CAC). Aim: To test the feasibility of regadenoson stress dynamic perfusion computed tomography (DPCT) in CLTI patients. Methods: Between 2018 and 2023, coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) and, in the case of a calcium score higher than 400, DPCT, were performed in 25 CLTI patients with a history of endovascular revascularization. Results: Of the 25 patients, 19 had a calcium score higher than 400, requiring DPCT image acquisition. Obstructive CAD could be ruled out in 10 of the 25 patients. Of the 15 CTA/DPCT+ patients, 13 proceeded to coronary angiography (CAG). Revascularization was necessary in all 13 patients. In these 13 patients, vessel-based sensitivity and specificity of coronary CTA/DPCT as compared to invasive evaluation was 75%, respectively. At follow-up (27 ± 21 months) there was no statistically significant difference in all-cause mortality between CTA/DPCT- positive and -negative patients (p = 0.065). Conclusions: Despite a high prevalence of severe CAC, coronary CTA complemented by DPCT may be a feasible method to detect obstructive and functionally significant CAD in CLTI patients.


We study stability of gas accretion in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our grid-based simulations cover a radial range from 0.1 to 200 pc, which may enable linking the galactic/cosmological simulations with small-scale black hole (BH) accretion models within a few hundreds of Schwarzschild radii. Here, as in previous studies by our group, we include gas radiative cooling as well as heating by a sub-Eddington X-ray source near the central supermassive BH of 108 M☉. Our theoretical estimates and simulations show that for the X-ray luminosity, LX ∼ 0.008 LEdd, the gas is thermally and convectively unstable within the computational domain. In the simulations, we observe that very tiny fluctuations in an initially smooth, spherically symmetric, accretion flow, grow first linearly and then nonlinearly. Consequently, an initially one-phase flow relatively quickly transitions into a two-phase/cold–hot accretion flow. For LX = 0.015 LEdd or higher, the cold clouds continue to accrete but in some regions of the hot phase, the gas starts to move outward. For LX < 0.015 LEdd, the cold phase contribution to the total mass accretion rate only moderately dominates over the hot phase contribution. This result might have some consequences for cosmological simulations of the so-called AGN feedback problem. Our simulations confirm the previous results of Barai et al. who used smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations to tackle the same problem. Here, however, because we use a grid-based code to solve equations in one dimension and two dimensions, we are able to follow the gas dynamics at much higher spacial resolution and for longer time compared with the three-dimensional SPH simulations. One of the new features revealed by our simulations is that the cold condensations in the accretion flow initially form long filaments, but at the later times, those filaments may break into smaller clouds advected outward within the hot outflow. Therefore, these simulations may serve as an attractive model for the so-called narrow-line region in AGNs.


High penetration of photovoltaic generators in active distribution networks (ADNs) causes overvoltage due to reverse power flow. Smart inverter (SI) functionalities can be configured to provide efficient voltage regulation and reactive power support in ADNs. Distribution grid optimal power flow (DOPF)-based models are typically employed to obtain setpoints of inverters and/or legacy control devices. However, existing works do not consider Volt-VAr and Volt-Watt droop functionalities of SI in a system-wide optimization framework, making the inverter dispatch solutions potentially unsuitable at the local inverter controller level. Therefore, in this work, we propose the inclusion of local piecewise Volt-VAr and Volt-Watt droop functions (as per the IEEE-1547) as constraints in the DOPF formulation. We adopt a well-known LinDistFlow version of DOPF and with the inclusion of piecewise Volt-Watt and Volt-VAr droop functions, the resulting DOPF becomes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem. Simulations on a 730-node MV/LV feeder with 20 utility-scale inverters validate the efficacy and scalability of the proposed formulation. The simulation results confirm the capability of SI droop functions to provide reactive power and voltage regulation support in ADNs.


(ABSTRACT] In this paper the author explored the future of East Asian civilization, focusing on its cultural identity in the age of globalizaton. To do this, first, a preliminary examination of core concepts and phenomena such as "globalization," "Westcentrism," and the "Rise of East Asia" was made, for these factors brought the issue of the cultural identity of East Asia to the fore since the early 19908. Then, in order to understand the cultural identity of East Asia in light of globalization more concretely, the cultural and economic impact of globalization upoo East Asia was investigated by discussing theories regarding the cultural effect of globalization and the tri..,polar regiona1ization of the global capitalism with speciaJ focus upon ongoing sub-regionalzation in the Great South China and the Bohai Rim regions. Finally, on the basis of the preceding discussions the Asian values discourse which is more directly related to the cultural identity of East Asia was reviewed and some prospective suggestions for building viable cultural identity were made.


Predictors of Job Satisfaction among Physiotherapists in Turkey: Levent Eker, et al. Mother and Child Health Care and Family Planning General Directorate, Ministry of Health, Turkey— The aim of this study was to investigate the level of job satisfaction among physiotherapists, and to identify the best predictors of job satisfaction. A self‐administrated questionnaire survey was conducted in September 2003. Data were collected from 198 physiotherapists in 13 health care settings (five university hospitals, seven government hospitals, and one municipality hospital) located in Ankara, Turkey. Respondents were asked to complete a 31‐item job satisfaction questionnaire. The response rate was 79.8%. The percentage of satisfied physiotherapists was 45.5%. There were no significant satisfaction differences between genders or between age groups. There was a positive relationship between the global satisfaction and domain scores (all ps<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that the most important predictors of job satisfaction were: (1) Leadership (OR=1.03, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.06), (2) Interpersonal relationships (OR=1.03, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.05), (3) Advancement (OR=1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.05), and (4) Salary (OR=1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.04). Specific job satisfaction dimensions indicate that highest dissatisfaction levels occur in the area of salary and advancement. Areas of dissatisfaction are signals for change.


Patient-specific rehearsal (PsR) is a new concept whereby a procedure can be rehearsed virtually using the exact patient's anatomical data prior to performing the real procedure. The aim of this study was to ascertain if endovascular virtual-reality PsR simulation enhanced performance in real life. This was done by performing a systematic review following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science concerning PsR in endovascular procedures. All publications were handled using Covidence. Reference lists were also screened. Data extracted from the studies were realism rating, procedure time, fluoroscopy time, contrast volume, number of angiograms and reduction of errors. Kirkpatrick's four-level model for measuring the efficiency of training was used for guidance of the relevance of studies. The search yielded 1155 results after the exclusion of duplicates, and 11 studies were included. Four studies had a control group, including one randomized trial; the remaining seven were feasibility studies. The realism was rated high, and overall, the studies showed improvements in procedure time, fluoroscopy time and contrast volume after PsR. One study assessed and confirmed the reduction in errors after PsR. Only two studies included more than 15 patients in their cohort. Kirkpatrick's model was applied to all studies, with one study reaching level 4. All studies found the concept of PsR to be feasible and realistic. The studies with a control group showed a reduction of overall procedure time, radiation exposure and potential errors in endovascular procedures following PsR.