This paper describes a procedure for making short term predictions by examining trajectories on a reconstructed attractor that correspond to a dynamical feature of interest, namely, the trajectories near a spiral saddle xed point in the attractor. Reasonable predictions can be made from short time series records and very good predictions from longer records using local linear approximations of the dynamics, if the dimension of the attractor is not too large. Two methods are described. The rst uses nearest-neighbor comparisons similar to E. N. Lorenz' \method of analogues." The second method uses a collection of closely matched trajectories to compute a basis of singular vectors. The observations can be projected onto a subset of the new basis with little loss of information. In the new coordinates, good predictions can be made by nding the slope of a certain least squares line through the origin.


The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a fundamental change in learning and teaching in (higher-) education [HE]. On short notice, traditional teaching in HE suddenly had to be transformed into online teaching. This shift into the digital world posed a great challenge to in-service teachers at schools and universities, and pre-service teachers, as the acquisition of digital competences was no longer an option but a real necessity. The previously rather hidden or even neglected importance of teachers' digital competences for successful teaching and learning became manifest and clearly visible.
In this work, we investigate necessary digital competences to ensure high quality teaching and learning in and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic. Based upon the European DigComp 2.1 (Carretero et al., 2017), DigCompEdu (Redecker, 2017) frameworks, the Austrian Digi.kompP framework (Virtuelle PH, 2021), and the recommendations given by German Education authorities (KMK 2017; KMK 2021; HRK 2022), we developed a curriculum consisting of 5 modules: 2 for individual digital media competence, and 3 for media didactic competence. For each module, competence-oriented learning goals and corresponding micro-learning contents were defined to meet the needs of teachers while considering their time constraints.
Based on three online workshops, the curriculum and the corresponding learning goals were discussed with university teachers, pre-service teachers, and policymakers. The content of the curriculum was perceived as highly relevant for these target groups; however, some adaptations were required. From the university teachers' perspective, we got feedback that they were overwhelmed with the situation and urgently needed digital competences. Policymakers suggested that further education regarding digital competences needs to offer a systematic exchange of experiences with peers. From the perspective of in-service teachers, it was stated that teacher education should focus more on digital competences and tools.
In this paper, we will present the result of the workshop series that informed the design process of the DIGIVID curriculum for teaching professionals.


Identification criteria of the tsunami deposits have frequently been discussed by many researchers (e.g., Morton et al., 2007; Goff et al., 2012). As Goto et al. (2014) noted, it is generally agreed that there is no single criterion that can be used to identify a tsunami deposit but rather that multi-proxy analyses of criteria, such as sedimentology, micropaleontology and geochemistry are required. Identification criteria may be different in countries and local regions because of the difference of geological, historical, and cultural backgrounds. For example, Japan has ̃1,300 years historical records of earthquake and tsunami. Therefore, many tsunami deposits up to 1,300 years can be correlated to the historically described tsunami events and this is used as one of the most important identification criteria in Japan (e.g., Komatsubara et al., 2006). This study investigated previously published research papers that discussed about candidate tsunami deposits along the Japanese coast to explore the identification criteria of the tsunami deposits specifically for Japan. We found that the identification criteria that were used in the previous papers can be classified into 40 to 50 categories. Some of them are used to specify whether the candidate deposit is the event deposit and thus those are not straightforward ones to identify tsunami deposit. On the other hand, there are some categories that would be useful to identify the tsunami deposit. These information would be valuable to assign the validity to the tsunami deposit identification for the future researches.


Natural-ventilation systems in sustainable buildings rely on wind and buoyancy effects to ensure sufficient airflow though the building. To promote airflow, these buildings have openings that connect rooms and common spaces. These openings are usually made as large as possible to maximize airflow across connected spaces. Large openings result in noise ingress between these spaces, leading to poor noise isolation and speech privacy. The performance of these openings needs to be optimized – meaning the sound isolation of these openings has to be improved, with minimal impact on the airflow performance. Previous work by Bibby investigated openings in thin partitions. This study addresses the problem of openings in thick partitions, which essentially are short ducts, as well as long ducts that deliver air-flow to different building levels. Simple surrogate models were developed from symbolic regression; they can be used as a provisional tool for predicting the sound and airflow performance of ducts with absorptive lining and baffle inserts. This tool can be used in the design phase to build optimal ducts, or for retrofit noise control. Predicted results from 2D Finite Element Analysis were used as the input data-set to build these surrogate models. Novel methods were used to extend the surrogate model into the 3D domain and to model complex duct configurations. Different configurations of sound absorbers (duct lining and baffles) were tested to identify optimal designs. The use of scale-models of ducts to study their real-life performance was also investigated. The surrogate models were validated experimentally in a 1:4-scalemodel facility, by applying appropriate scaling laws, and were found to capture


Early weaned Simmental steers (n = 192) were individually fed in a 4-yr study to determine expected progeny differences, performance, and carcass factors explaining variation in carcass value and profitability across various pricing scenarios. Steers were weaned at 88.0 ± 1.1 d of age, pen-fed a high-concentrate diet for 84.5 ± 0.4 d, individually fed for 249.7 ± 0.7 d, and harvested at 423.3 ± 1.4 d of age. Input cost and output prices were standardized using 5-yr averages. Variable dressed prices ($96, 108, 120, and 132/45.4 kg), Choice-Select spreads (Ch-Se; $4, $8, $12, $16, and $20/45.4 kg), and feed costs [corn = $58.93, $78.57, $98.21, $117.86, and $137.50/tonne; soybean meal (SBM) = $165, $220, $275, $330, and $385/tonne) were evaluated. Independent variables were weaning and yearling BW, marbling, expected progeny difference, DMI, ADG, feed efficiency, hot carcass weight (HCW), calculated yield grade (YG), and marbling score (MS). With rising dressed prices, HCW importance increased, and MS decreased, for value; HCW increased for profit. With an expanding Ch-Se, MS importance increased, and HCW decreased, for value; MS increased, and ADG, HCW, and YG diminished, for profitability. With escalating feed cost, HCW and MS importance tended to decrease for profitability, and YG and performance exhibited modest non-linear changes. Second-order interactions were also analyzed. Models represent relative importance of factors contributing to value and profitability in early weaned Simmental steers based on historical pricing scenarios. Factors would be expected to change with different cattle types, management, and future marketing conditions, but may be used as a benchmark for future research.


Findings from a previous study indicate that dominance was a key inhibitor of creativity in virtual teams. This study extends understanding of dominance through an in-depth, qualitative analysis of eight virtual teams. Two research questions are addressed: (1) how is dominance manifested in virtual teams? and (2) why does dominance occur in some teams, and not others? Findings indicate that dominance occurred in three different patterns. Although both males and females dominated, a commonality across patterns was that the dominant individual belonged to the majority sex in each team. Furthermore, dominance was driven by a combination of a few team member status traits. When one or more status markers belonged to a single person - the dominant member - and were absent in other team members, dominance was pronounced. In teams that did not experience dominance, these status indicators were spread across multiple members. Additionally, even though all teams communicated strictly via asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC), equalization was not evidenced in the majority of teams. Status characteristics theory and proportional representation theory provide a basis to explain the prevalence, as well as the absence, of dominance in these virtual teams.


Silicon-based nonlinear metasurfaces were implemented only with third-order nonlinearity due to the crystal centrosymmetry and the efficiencies are considerably low, which hinders their practical applications with low-power lasers. Here, we propose to integrate a two-dimensional GaSe flake onto a silicon metasurface to assist high-efficiency second-order nonlinear processes, including second-harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation (SFG). By resonantly pumping the integrated GaSe-metasurface, which supports a Fano resonance, the obtained SHG is about two orders of magnitude stronger than the third-harmonic generation from the bare silicon metasurface. In addition, thanks to the resonant field enhancement and GaSe's strong second-order nonlinearity, SHG of the integrated structure could be excited successfully with a low-power continuous-wave laser, which makes it possible to further implement SFG. The high-efficiency second-order nonlinear processes assisted by two-dimensional materials present potentials to expand silicon metasurface's functionalities in nonlinear regime.


Climate change presents a serious threat to many global ecosystems. Warming is predicted to be greatest at high latitudes, where increased temperatures are expected to lead to a longer growing season and an increased incidence of potentially damaging winter freeze-thaw events. The impact of these environmental changes on the native flora is not yet fully understood. The bryophytes are an ancient group of non-vascular plants which often form a large proportion of the plant community in the arctic and boreal regions. The response of these organisms to climate change has often been overlooked, despite the significant role they play in carbon uptake and storage in many ecosystems.
The study used infra-red gas analysis to measure the change in net photosynthesis and respiration rates in several bryophyte species in response to changing microclimate. Experiments were conducted under controlled laboratory conditions using samples of the common moss species Polytrichum juniperinum, Hylocomium splendens and Aulacomnium palustre, collected from the North Pennines, UK. Additional measurements of gas exchange rates in the species Hylocomium splendens, Aulacomnium turgidum and Tomentypnum nitens were taken at a site near Inuvik, NWT in the Canadian arctic.
The results of the study support the existing evidence that many bryophyte species are adapted to photosynthesis at low temperatures (<10°C), and are therefore unlikely to benefit from an increase in summer temperatures in terms of carbon uptake and growth. The study also found evidence that cycles of freezing and thawing during the winter and early spring cause a significant reduction in carbon uptake in both P. juniperinum and H. splendens compared to a single period of sub-zero temperatures. This damage was reduced in P. juniperinum when the plants were air-dry at the time of freezing. The data arising from this study are important to improve existing models of carbon exchange in bryophyte-dominated ecosystems.


[1] A new methodology is proposed to identify folds of the dynamical tropopause (taken as the 2 potential vorticity (PV) units (pvu) isosurface) from global analysis data sets from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). It consists of a three-dimensional subdivision of the atmosphere into stratospheric and tropospheric parts and a subsequent examination of multiple tropopause crossings in vertical profiles of the analyses. The method is applied to a 1-year period starting in March 2000. Seasonal mean fold frequency distributions show that folds occur preferentially in the subtropics, with maximum frequencies of about 30%. Pronounced maxima are located in the subtropical bands that extend from 20°E to 120°E on both hemispheres during summer. Generally, subtropical folds are comparatively shallow. Deep folds occur most frequently in midlatitudes during winter (over eastern North America and the western North Atlantic), with maximum frequencies of about 1%. Detailed investigation of the relationship between individual folds and cross-tropopause exchange events reveals that, on the average, individual folds in the extratropics are associated with larger exchange mass fluxes compared to the subtropics. However, due to the much higher frequency of subtropical folds, the percentage of exchange events that are associated with tropopause folds is larger near 20°–40° latitude (50–70%) than further poleward (20–30% during winter and 10–20% during summer). This indicates that tropopause folds are the key feature for cross-tropopause exchange in the subtropics, whereas in the extratropics other tropopause structures are at least of equal importance.


Rationale. Home health care (HHC) has been developed more than any other industry in the past decade. Conflict between nurse and family can diminish the aid produced to the home care patients. Objective. This research was guidance to explore the nature of conflicts between the patient's families and nurses in homes of dangerous care patients, in an Iranian context. Methods and results. Using the qualitative comfortable study system and the purposive sampling, 15 participants including 7 nurses (4 males and 3 females) operating in houses and 8 members of family who had a care receiving mechanical ventilation at house, were interviewed during 2013 and 2014. The main sources of conflict were due to nurse expectations, family belief, and personal qualities of nurses. The team guider tried to prevent the conflict by different measures, but in some samples, the conflict arose. Both members of family and nurses accepted the team leader as the judge. At first, he tried to keep the situation stable and gave some notification to the nurse and some descriptions to the members of family. In some samples, that the family could not adapt to the position and efforts to solve the conflict were unsuccessful, the team relation with the family being cut. Conclusion. Home care situation is prone to conflict due to various factors. The mentioned sources of conflict in home trial were changed from the ones of the hospital. Based on these results appropriate interventions suitable for home conditions should be implemented.


This special issue of Presence on High-Fidelity Telepresence and Teleaction presents selected research results from the Collaborative Research Center (SFB453) on High-Fidelity Telepresence and Teleaction located in München, Bavaria, Germany (see http://www.sfb453.de for more information). The interdisciplinary research center, sponsored by the German Research Council (DFG), was established in 1998, and after 12 years, the maximum possible time for such a center to be funded, it will conclude its research program in 2010. It includes the following institutions: Technische Universität München, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversität München, the German Aerospace Center— DLR, and the German Heart Centre, all located in München and vicinity. Telepresence and Teleaction is understood as the generalization of classical (bilateral) teleoperation and telemanipulation systems, where high fidelity is achieved using advanced technologies to realize multimodality including the visual, auditory, and haptic senses of human operators. Telepresence is achieved when the human operator of a technical system has the impression of actually being present in a remote environment. Teleaction emphasizes the aspect that the operator is not only present passively, but also able to interact actively with the remote environment. High fidelity means that the operator can hardly distinguish immediate actions in a local environment from interactions with a remote environment utilizing a multimodal telepresence and teleaction system. The main research goals of the collaborative research center are to significantly improve the immersiveness and fidelity of telepresence and teleaction systems with an emphasis on multimodality and haptics targeting various teleapplications, including telesurgery, teleassembly, telemaintenance, e-commerce, and so on. The haptic sense is understood to be composed of tactile (pressure, temperature, roughness, and vibration), and kinesthetic information (proprioception, torques, and forces). Recent research activities in the center focused on the creation of (remote) haptic-visual-auditory workspaces, where the telepresent cooperation of multiple geographically distributed operators is supported by providing appropriate visual, haptic, and auditory impressions to all of them. Another important aspect of recent research in the area of telepresence and teleaction, also one of the key research directions within the SFB453, is the psychophysical understanding of (tele-)presence, the evaluation on the basis of these insights, and eventually systematic system design in a psychophysically inspired way to achieve (optimal) high fidelity in (tele-)presence. During the past 12 years, substantial advances have been made concerning the methodological and technological foundations of highly integrated multimodal human-system interfaces and teleoperators including mobile and bimanual telepresence and teleaction systems, multimodal communication over unreliable and limited transmission channels, crossmodal interactions, and the substitution of individual sensory modalities to overcome typical technological limits, as well as semiautonomy, shared control, and skill transfer for applications like automatic knot tying in minimal invasive surgery. The developed approaches have been successfully implemented and evaluated in highly integrated experimental testbeds such as for minimally invasive surgery, on-orbit servicing, microassembly, and a multiuser, multiteleoperator system. The research results of the center could only be achieved through the tight cooperation of multiple disciplines: electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, and psychology. The seven articles on selected research projects within the Collaborative Research Center on High-Fidelity


Purpose: Japan is now the world's first 'super-ageing' society. We analysed the effect of occupational therapy (OT) sessions in addressing issues related to the elderly population, in comparison with other services. Methods: We studied 136 elderly patients receiving at-home care. Seventy-four patients received weekly OT and 62 did not. We assessed quality of life (QOL) and its trajectory over 1 year using the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGC) to quantify changes in QOL and the Function Independence Measure (FIM) to measure changes in activities of daily living. Results: Patient progress fell within five different trajectories, which was influenced by psychosocial factors. OT correlated with significantly greater improvement in PGC and FIM scores than other home care services. Conclusion: There is a significant benefit associated with OT and is expected to become increasingly more important in the growing elderly population. Tailoring of OT will be required to benefit those trajectory groups that showed unsatis-


A nine-month-old Labrador retriever was referred to the Clinica Veterinaria Privata San Marco because of frequent headshaking and downward turning of the right ear. Clinical examination revealed that there was no external acoustic meatus in the right ear. Computed tomography confirmed that the vertical part of the right auditory canal ended blindly, providing a diagnosis of external auditory canal atresia. Cytological examination and culture of fluid from the canal and the bulla revealed only aseptic cerumen; for this reason, it was assumed that the dog was probably affected by a congenital developmental deformity of the external auditory canal. Reconstructive surgery was performed using a "pull-through" technique. Four months after surgery the cosmetic and functional results were satisfactory.


Bayesian network (BN) has important applications in disaster risk analysis due to its unique causal structure and probabilistic characteristics. This research begins with a detailed introduction to probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) for China, and the utilization of BN-based modeling for seismic hazard and risk assessment. Subsequently, a comprehensive theoretical exposition of PSHA for China based on BN is presented. This includes a clear explanation of the three-level subdivision of seismic sources and the employment of the elliptical ground-motion model (GMM) in China. Regarding BN modeling, the values, conditional probabilities, and the impact of subdivisions of the nodes are carefully discussed with the assistance of a specific example from China. The advantages of BN in terms of both holistic and probabilistic computation are then demonstrated through the disaggregation of seismic hazard and various sensitivity analyses. Finally, the article concludes by summarizing its content, highlighting the advantages of BN, and outlining future work.


There is a long history of drainage of blanket peat but few studies of the long-term hydrological impact of drainage. This paper aims to test differences in runoff production processes between intact and drained blanket peat catchments and determine whether there have been any long-term changes in stream flow since drainage occurred. Hillslope runoff processes and stream discharge were measured in four blanket peat catchments. Two catchments were drained with open-cut ditches in the 1950s. Ditching originally resulted in shorter lag times and flashier storm hydrographs but no change in the annual catchment runoff efficiency. In the period between 2002 and 2004, the hydrographs in the drained catchments, while still flashy, were less sensitive to rainfall than in the 1950s and the runoff efficiency had significantly increased. Drains resulted in a distinctive spatial pattern of runoff production across the slopes. Overland flow was significantly lower in the drained catchments where throughflow was more dominant. In the intact peatlands, matrix throughflow produced by peat layers below 10 cm was rare and produced <1% of the runoff. However, in drained peatlands, matrix throughflow in deeper peat layers was common and provided around 23% of the runoff from gauged plots. Macropore flow, the density of soil piping, and pipeflow were significantly greater in drained peatlands than in intact basins. Gradual changes to peat structure could explain the long-term changes in river flow, which are in addition to those occurring in the immediate aftermath of peatland drainage.


Climate change and natural disasters have brought threats to humanity greater than ever. The built environment is a critical part of the climate action plan in terms of its resilience and sustainability. The growing awareness of sustainability in the built environment has led to the increased uptake of sustainable buildings and infrastructure projects. However, a growing number of studies reported some forms of performance gaps in achieving sustainability, in which the actual outcomes and performance of buildings were far from the expected goals. Researchers started to question the alleged benefits of the sustainable built environment. Apart from being overoptimistic in setting the environmental goals, some studies suggested that the gaps could arise from a negligence of the interplay between humans and the environment for delivering the sustainability goals. Hence, this paper intends to highlight opportunities in optimizing sustainability performance in the built environment via human-centric approaches. By placing human needs at the focal point, human-centric solutions would empower stakeholders to harness sustainable goals in the built environment effectively. A conceptual framework has been proposed to consolidate the findings and highlight human-centric solutions in between research gaps and opportunities in sustainable built environment research.


An aerobic, Gram-stain-negative ovoid, designated as strain A21T, was isolated using the dilution-to-extinction method from a soil sample taken from Rambla Salada, an athalassohaline habitat located in Murcia (south-eastern Spain). Strain A21T is non-motile, has a respiratory metabolism and grows at NaCl concentrations within the range 0.5-15 % (w/v) [optimum, 5 % (w/v)], at 5-35 °C (optimum, 28 °C) and at pH 6-8 (optimum, pH 7.0). This strain is positive for catalase activity, oxidase activity and nitrate reduction. The 16S rRNA gene sequence indicates that it belongs to the genus Roseovarius in the class Alphaproteobacteria. The most closely related species are Roseovarius pacificus and Roseovarius halotolerans to which the strain A21T shows 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity values of 98.06 and 97.7 %, respectively. The average nucleotide identity in blast and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain A21T and R. pacificus LMG 24575T are 76.8 and 21 %, respectively. The DNA G+C content based on the genome is 61.28 mol%. The major fatty acids (>5 % of the total fatty acids) of strain A21T are C18 : 1 ω7c/C18 : 1 ω6c and C16 : 0. The only detected isoprenoid quinone in strain A21T is ubiquinone 10 (Q-10). The polar lipid profile contains phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and three unidentified polar lipids. Based on the phylogenetic, genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic data, the strain represents a novel species of the genus Roseovarius, for which the name Roseovarius bejariae sp. nov. is proposed. Strain A21T (=CECT 9817T=LMG 31311T) is the type strain.


In addition to the on-going exciting physics program at LHC, there have been quests on expanding LHC to include an LHeC with electron-proton collisions. The potential of studying new physics in high precision QCD, substructure etc. at LHeC requires polarized electrons with spin aligned longitudinally at the collision point [1]. One option for the LHeC is based on an energy recovery linac, for which the electron beam can be generated with 80-90% polarization using a photocathode source. To avoid the polarization loss of the high energy electron beam, the spin vector needs to be aligned vertically during the acceleration in a re-circulating linac and then brought into the longitudinal direction for collision. This paper reports possible design choices for the LHeC spin rotator.


In cooperative spectrum sharing-based cognitive radio systems, the secondary user (SU) acts as a cooperator of the primary user (PU) to assist the PU's transmission and is allowed to simultaneously transmit at the same spectrum only if it is not harmful to the primary transmission. Here the authors studies a power minimising problem of the SU with real-time services for this system under constraints on the SU's quality-of-service requirement and guaranteeing the PU's instantaneous rate unchanged if the SU allocates part of its power for its own transmissions. Superposition coding (SC) is further employed by the SU to eliminate the interference caused by the PU. The problem is formulated as an optimisation problem. Owing to its high complexity, this problem is then converted into a single variable optimisation problem, and a greedy-based power minimisation method with low complexity is thus proposed. Numerical comparison shows that the proposed method can lead to reductions in the secondary transmission power of about 30 and 14% against for the non-SC one and the equal bit allocation-based one, respectively.


The presence or absence of orbital frequencies in the palaeomagnetic field spectrum is the subject of intense discussions. While palaeoclimatic variations, i.e. glacial/interglacial alternation periods, are known to be governed by insolation variations via orbital frequencies, the link between such frequencies and the geomagnetic field maintenance processes (convection and rotation in the fluid metallic core) remains unclear. The study of frequency behaviour of long time-series proxy records requires a robust and linear time-frequency method with local and scale analysis properties. For these reasons, we use algorithms based on complex continuous wavelet theory and the stationary phase method, first developed in acoustics in the years 1988-1991, for extracting frequency and amplitude modulation laws of arbitrary signals from the phase of their wavelet transform. This method is robust in the presence of noise and does not require restrictive conditions on the energy of signals. After introducing the basis of the method with some illustrations on periodic signals, we show the efficiency of our algorithms on a synthetic insolation signal (Milankovitch cycles), by extracting the main three orbital frequencies (precession, obliquity and eccentricity); then we show its robustness in the presence of a high level of noise. Finally, we apply this method to various proxy records of (i) past climate variations (δ18O) , (ii) the past geomagnetic field intensity variations recorded by ocean sediments and (iii) along the deep-seafloor basalts and (iv) variations of the production of cosmogenic nuclide (10Be/9Be) . Our results confirm the presence of orbital frequencies in all these palaeoproxy records and suggest an orbital forcing of geomagnetic field variations via geodynamo processes.


The roots of cryptolepis, also known as nibima, kadze, gangamau, Ghanaian quinine and yellow-dye root (Cryptolepis sanguinolenta) have been used in Ghanaian traditional medicine for treatment of malaria for many generations. A Ghanaian drug company developed an herbal tea formulation trademarked as Phyto-Laria based on this plant, and the clinical evaluation of its potential as a herbal drug treatment for malaria was conducted, with the results published in this issue of the journal by Bugyei, et al (page 3). The active antiplasmodial components found in the root are known to be the indoquinoline alkaloids, which independently have been to have shown to have both in vitro and in vivo activity against Plasmodium falciparum, including chloroquine-resistant strains.1–5 A previously published open label anti-malarial clinical study on the water extract of this plant containing the Cryptolepis alkaloids taken orally indicated efficacy comparable to chloroquine.6 Therefore, the authors expected that the tea bag formulation, which contains significant amounts of the Cryptolepis alkaloids, would also be clinically efficacious.

An herbal tea bag preparation, free of preservatives (including chloroform found on other herbal preparations), based on 2.5 grams of dried ground roots of C. sanguinolenta, was studied in forty four patients with clinical features of uncomplicated malaria. Potential patients who had taken chloroquine or sulfadoxine/pyremethamine within the previous two and four weeks, respectively, where excluded from this study. In three open label out-patient settings in Ghana, the patients were dosed three times daily for five days under the WHO extended seven day test, and followed for 28 days post-treatment. More than half of the patients were cleared of P. falciparum parasitaemia within 72 h, with mean clearance of 82.3 h. The mean fever clearance time was 25.2 h compared to 48 h typical for chloroquine treatment, which is consistent with the previously reported antipyretic activity of C. sanguinoleta. Besides fever, the other symptoms of chills, vomiting and nausea were cleared totally in 72 h. The majority of biochemical parameters were not significantly modified following treatment, although ALP (alkaline phosphatase) and uric acid levels where elevated during the treatment period, with uric acid levels returning to normal by day 28. In comparison, halofantrine has also been reported to produce elevated levels of ALP during treatment.7 Overall, Phyto-Laria appears to be quite safe when taken orally, which is consistent with numerous animal toxicity testing data (mice, rats and rabbits) reported previously).8

It should be noted that there were two cases of late recrudescence on days 21 and 28, which may be attributed to reinfection, due to the out-patient trial design. However, as no genetic testing was included as part of the study design, this remains a hypothesis. Any further testing of Cryptolepis should include this a part of the trial design if an out-patient clinical setting is used.

Overall, the antimalarial cure rate in this patient population was 93.5%, and suggests that Phyto-Laria could be used as a safe effective treatment of acute uncomplicated malaria, and may also be useful in treatment of patients infected with chloroquine-resistant strains of P. falciparum as well.

Michael S. Tempesta, PhD

Phytica, Inc. P.O. Box 2439 El Granada, CA 94018-2439 USA

E-mail: moc.loa@dorptan


Summary
The Blacklane Brook profile, first published in 1964, has been re-examined and given firm dating in the light of the archaeological and fossil tree-line interest that the profile has generated. A much fuller record of the open vegetation of Flandrian I is presented, and many new pollen types for the site are indicated. The recession phase noted in 1964 is found in this profile also and is dated to begin ca. 7760 BP. It is thus placed well within the Mesolithic cultural period. The resolution of the pollen diagram and the difficulties of interpretation of upland sites do not make it possible to make firm statements about the location of the tree-line at different periods.


We are proposing a simple, but efficient basic approach for a number of multilingual and cross-lingual language technology applications that are not limited to the usual two or three languages, but that can be applied with relatively little effort to larger sets of languages. The approach consists of using existing multilingual linguistic resources such as thesauri, nomenclatures and gazetteers, as well as exploiting the existence of additional more or less language-independent text items such as dates, currency expressions, numbers, names and cognates. Mapping texts onto the multilingual resources and identifying word token links between texts in different languages are basic ingredients for applications such as cross-lingual document similarity calculation, multilingual clustering and categorisation, cross-lingual document retrieval, and tools to provide cross-lingual information access.


Basement membranes were separated from rat glomeruli and purified by mild procedures, which led to a highly enriched basement membrane fraction. Here, the production and characterization of five monoclonal antibodies against tubular and glomerular basement membranes are described. These antibodies were analyzed immunohistochemically on frozen sections of rat, bovine, and human kidneys as well as on rat embryos. One monoclonal antibody (BM O II) exclusively recognized the glomerular basement membranes, another one (BM O VII) bound to tubular basement membranes and to Bowman's capsule. Three antibodies (BM O IV, BM M II, BM M III) recognized their antigens in both glomerular and tubular basement membranes as well as in mesangial cells. The BM O II antibody showed a stringent species specificity and bound only to glomerular basement membranes of the rat. The other four antibodies cross-reacted with human and bovine glomerular basement membrane and mesangial antigens; they also bound to other tissues in the developing rat embryo. Antibody binding to specific purified components of the basement membranes such as collagen type IV, laminin, heparan sulphate proteoglycan, and fibronectin was investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). None of these antibodies reacted with any of these known basement membrane components, indicating that the antibodies may serve as useful tools in future investigations of so far unidentified components of basement membranes.


We explain recent experimental findings on Tl-doped Bi2Se3 by determining the electronic and transport properties by first-principles calculations and semi-classical Boltzmann theory. Though Tl-doping introduces a momentum-dependent spin-orbit splitting, the effective mass of the carriers is essentially not modified, while the band gap is reduced. Tl is found to be exceptional in this respect as other dopants modify the dispersion, which compromises thermoelectricity. Moreover, we demonstrate that only after Tl-doping strain becomes an efficient tool for enhancing the thermoelectric performance. A high figure of merit of 0.86 is obtained for strong p-doping (7 × 1020 cm−3, maximal power factor) at 500 K under 2% tensile strain.


- This paper identifies the issues of contingency analysis for restoration in distribution systems. Contingency analysis has been applied to transmission systems but not to distribution systems. The distribution system is different from transmission system. So it is hard to apply for existing contingency analysis to distribution system. In this paper, a new contingency analysis method for distribution systems is proposed. The proposed method is based on service restoration capability. It aims to minimize outage left after service restoration in case of a fault in advance. The method estimates the vulnerability which is represented by zone restoration index proposed in [1]. Applying the proposed method, operators could change the system so that it does not leave any outage left after restoration. Case study has been carried out on a five feeder system and its results show effectiveness of the method.


Summary
Cotransfection of Rachiplusia ou nuclear polyhedrosis virus (RoMNPV) and BamHI or SmaI fragments from the genome of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) yielded a high frequency of virus recombinants in Galleria mellonella larvae. When larvae were cotransfected either with the entire genome of AcMNPV and RoMNPV restriction fragments or with a mixture of the two viruses, only AcMNPV was produced. In the virus recombinants, the prevalence of certain regions from the genome of the donor virus (AcMNPV) varied considerably, e.g. from 0% in the 35 to 41 map unit region area to a high level in the 20 to 23 map unit region. The AcMNPV polyhedrin gene was shown to be inherited preferentially.


Competent cell transformation with DNA obtained by the gentle lysis of protoplasts (LP transformation) was used to replace a large genomic region in this study. Discontinuity was detected in the replacement of the donor region tested, probably due to multiple crossover events involving a single donor genome fragment. To overcome discontinuous replacement, we inverted the genomic region to be replaced in the donor used for LP transformation. The replaced region in the transformant was identified to have a continuous genomic region originating from the donor genome. Furthermore, the genome region to be replaced was inverted in the recipient, and the same region and the flanking 10 kb region of both ends was inverted in the donor genome. LP transformation was conducted with the two inversion mutants and it is possible to restrict homologous recombination to the 10 kb flanking regions. Using this method, the 99 kb yxjG-yxbA region, the 249 kb pbpG-yxbA region and the 602 kb yvfT-yxbA region were suggested to be replaced continuously and accurately.


In article questions of formation of general-theoretical concepts and legal categories of municipal service of regulation of legal institute of municipal service are considered. It is shown that the municipal service represents special legal institute which norms regulate a certain kind of the public relations arising in the course of revenues to municipal service, its passing's and the terminations.


Summary: Between January 1989 and September 1991, 117 consecutive open tibial shaft fractures were treated at our institution. Of these, 64 (55%) met the inclusion criteria and were prospectively treated according to protocol using unreamed interlocking intramedullary nails as definitive fixation. Wounds were classified according to the method of Gustilo et al., and included 10 type I, 16 type II, and 38 type III (17 type IIIA, 21 type IIIB) wounds. Contraindications to intramedullary nailing included (a) fractures involving the proximal or distal one fifth of the tibia, (b) patients with open physes, and (c) an associated vascular injury (type IIIC). Proximal locking was routinely performed, whereas distal locking was used as needed for axial and/or rotational stability. Soft-tissue coverage was obtained after adequate debridement within 7 days: 26 of 64 fractures (41%) required a soft-tissue procedure (17 split-thickness skin grafts, eight free-tissue transfers, one rotational muscle flap). Patients were encouraged to bear full weight in a short leg cast or Sarmiento brace as soon as other injuries or pain permitted. Average follow-up time was 24.8 months (range 12–44) and was possible in 46 fractures (71.875%; nine of 10 type I, 12 of 16 type II, 10 of 17 type IIIA, and 15 of 21 type IIIB). Mean time to healing was as follows: type I, 4.8 months; type II, 4.7 months; type IIIA, 8.28 months; and type IIIB, 9.30 months. Twenty fractures exhibited a delay in healing (>6 months). This included two of 12 type II (16%), six of 10 type IIIA (60%), and 12 of 15 type IIIB fractures (80%). Nine received no treatment, five underwent exchange nailing with a reamed nail, and six were bone grafted. All but one went on to uneventful healing. There were no malunions in either rotation, angulation, or length. Clinically, patients complained of only occasional pain. All had full range of motion of the knee and ankle unless associated with other pathology. Complications included one bent nail and 12 broken screws in 10 fractures (15%). There were six acute infections (13%), all in type III fractures (one IIIA, five IIIB). Two of these patients developed chronic osteomyelitis requiring saucerization; both had type IIIB fractures. Our data indicate that unreamed tibial nailing is an acceptable technique for use in all open tibial shaft fractures (excluding type IIIC). Our overall chronic infection rate was 4%, with no chronic infections in types I, II, and IIIA open fractures and a 13% rate in type IIIB open fractures. In addition, this series was not associated with any malunions. Although delayed union was prevalent, it appeared to be related to the amount of soft-tissue stripping and nail stiffness. The fact that all but one fracture healed with excellent alignment and a minimal infection rate makes this technique suitable for the stabilization of open tibial shaft fractures.


The pain of diabetic peripheral neuropathy responds poorly to current modes of treatment. We treated eight patients with this disorder whose pain was refractory to standard regimens but who experienced remarkable pain relief within two to five days after treatment with fluphenazine hydrochloride, amitriptyline hydrochloride, or a combination of the two. In four patients whose regimens were discontinued, pain recurred within two days and again remitted on reinstitution of the drug regimens. These findings suggest that fluphenazine alone or in combination with amitriptyline may be of benefit in treating the painful peripheral neuropathy associated with diabetes.


The tectonic movement that occurred since the Neogene has been the major developmental and evolutional stage of the latest global crustal deformation and orogenic movement. Being located in a triangular area bounded by the Indian landmass, west Siberian landmass and Pacific plate, China has been characterized by relatively active tectonic movements since the Neogene, and natural gas will be very easy to dissipate, or difficult to be preserved. Therefore, the characteristics of the tectonic movements since the Neogene are considered as an unnegligible and important geological factor in the research of the formation and preservation of gas reservoirs in China. Through summarizing the generation processes of the gas fields in China one can see that although there are some differences in various basins, they are all affected by tectonic movements occurring since the Neogene. The tectonic movements since the Neogene have caused certain damages to the generation and distribution of natural gas in China, resulting in a certain dissipation of natural gas in some basins. As a whole, however, they are favorable for the generation of reservoirs and accumulation of natural gas. (1) A series of China-type foreland basins have been formed between basins and ridges in western China, where favorable conditions would be formed to the formation of large and medium gas fields, as well as controlling the finalization of gas reservoirs in the basins. (2) Rows and belts of anticlines have been formed in the Sichuan basin in central China, which was in the major stage of the generation and finalization of gas reservoirs in the Sichuan basin; the integral and quick rising and lifting, and further west dipping in the Ordos basin have resulted in a further accumulation of natural gas in the gas fields from Jingbian to Uxin B. (3 ) In eastern China, the Bohai movement that happened at the end of the Pliocene created a favorable geological condition to the lately formed gas reservoirs in the Bohai Sea area composed mainly of the Bozhong depression; it also resulted generation of secondary hydrocarbon and secondary gas reservoirs in other basins, as well as the formation of a lot of inorganic origin carbon dioxide gas fields. (4) In the offshore area, such movements promoted not only the generation of gas reservoirs of organic origin, but also the formation of non-hydrocarbon gas reservoirs of inorganic origin, as well as natural gas of organic-inorganic-mixed origin, which would resulted in relatively complicated characteristics of gas reservoirs in the area. In short, the tectonic movements that have been active since the Neogene resulted in a reservoir-forming model characterized mainly by late and super late hydrocarbon generation and accumulation. It is an important geological history that should not be neglected while doing researches of the formation of gas reservoirs in China.


Network steganography describes all the methods used for transmitting data over a network without it being detected. Several methods for hiding data in a network have been proposed, but the main drawback of most of them is that they do not offer a secondary layer of protection. If steganography is detected, the data is in plain text. This article proposes an implementation called SCONeP (Steganography and Cryptography over Network Protocols) that offers the protection of hidden data by encrypting it. Furthermore, it describes two less utilized protocols for data hiding, ICMP and UDP, and presents the performance of two scenarios that use SCONeP, in comparison to other steganography tools. Finally, a proof-of-concept active warden used for preventing network steganography is described.


This paper aims to estimate efficiency of the Slovak commercial banks in the period 2001-2005. The paper uses data obtained from annual reports of 13 Slovak banking institutions. For the practical estimation we applied the parametric Stochastic Frontier Approach and Cobb-Douglas production function. The results suggest that the initial hypothesis was confirmed as the average efficiency increased. This is also evident in results of individual banks as 11 banks recorded increase in efficiency. The results point out a better ability of Slovak banks to use the inputs in the production process.


Cancer is a major health concern in both developed and developing countries, second leading cause of mortality worldwide. Among the different types of cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer found in females worldwide. Studies have shown that salicylic acid decreases cell viability and potentially used in cancer therapy. This research aim is to analyze the cytotoxicity effect of alkylated salicylic acid towards breast cancer cells T47D. Samples used are methyl salicylate, ethyl salicylate, butyl salicylate, isoamyl salicylate, and octyl salicylate. Thin layer chromatography was done to samples and MTT test was done against T47D cancer cells to obtain cancer cell growth and IC50 value. QSAR analysis were carried out to predict the theoretical activity of the alkylated salicylates. Based on MTT result, there was shown an increase of cytotoxicity effect with higher concentration. IC50 value of alkylated salicylic acid showed more significant cytotoxicity effect (p<0,05) when compared to IC50 value of salicylic acid, except octyl salicylate. This shows that addition of alkyl group enhances cytotoxicity effect of salicylic acid due to increase of affinity. The IC50 value of alkylated salicylic acid showed lower results compared to salicylic acid. The QSAR equation is Log (1/IC50) = -1236.21871 - 236.42806 *logP(o/w) -1186.53810 * AM1_LUMO +251.55826* mr ((n = 7 r = 0,94 RMSE = 4,08). The QSAR showed the descriptors which has effect towards inhibition activity of breast cancer cell line are log P, mr, and AM_1LUMO.


An original device for the epidural pressure measurement in the rat is presented. The reliability of epidural pressure as an index of intracranial pressure is discussed and several possible causes of error are examined. The device has been tested under conditions both of transient and prolonged cerebral blood volume increase, obtained by venous outflow obstruction.


Professor Bronislaw Buras: the energy-dispersive method and synchrotron radiation Abstract: In this note I am giving an account of my collaboration with Professor Bronislaw Buras during the early years of synchrotron radiation in the 1970's and 80's. In particular, I am focusing on the development of the energy-dispersive method for X-ray diffraction and its use in high- -pressure structural studies. I also describe Buras' role in establishing the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).


Effects of sucrose supplement on the pattern of VFA production and microbial protein synthesis in the rumen were examined in sheep consuming basal diet of grass silage (2.5 kg fresh wt/d) that was provided in 24 equal meals each day by an automatic feeder. Four mature wethers were allocated to four experimental treatments in a 4×4 Latin square design with periods lasting 14 days. The treatments were (1) the basal diet, (2) supplemented with 150 g sucrose and 7.0 g urea, (3) 300 g sucrose and 13 g urea, and (4) 450 g sucrose and 20 g urea given as a continuous intraruminal infusion for 24 h. All infusions were given in 2 litres of aqueous solution per day using a peristaltic pump. The effect of sucrose level on rumen mean pH was significantly linear (p<0.01). There were not significant differences in the concentration of ammonia-N, total VFA and the molar proportions of acetate, propionate and butyrate with the level of sucrose infusion. The molar proportions of isobutyric acid (p<0.05) and isovaleric acid (p<0.001) were significantly reduced when the infused amount of sucrose was increased. The flow of microbial N was linearly (p<0.001) increased with sucrose and urea level. High levels of readily fermentable carbohydrate in a ration reduced the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in the rumen. It was demonstrated that of the individual fatty acids, only the molar proportion of isovalerate showed a significant negative correlation (R2=0.3501**) with the amount of microbial N produced and a significant positive correlation (R2=0.2735**) with the efficiency of microbial growth. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 3 : 350-353)


During meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, DNA replication occurs 1. 5 to 2 hours before recombination initiates by DNA double-strand break formation. We show that replication and recombination initiation are directly linked. Blocking meiotic replication prevented double-strand break formation in a replication-checkpoint-independent manner, and delaying replication of a chromosome segment specifically delayed break formation in that segment. Consequently, the time between replication and break formation was held constant in all regions. We suggest that double-strand break formation occurs as part of a process initiated by DNA replication, which thus determines when meiotic recombination initiates on a regional rather than a cell-wide basis.


Abstract : As U.S. Armed Forces draw down in Iraq, there is increasing concern about the possibility of resurgent ethnic and sectarian tensions. Many Iraqis believe that the United States may be making a grave mistake by not fully using its remaining leverage to insulate the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) from the political influence of the incumbent Iraqi sectarian political parties. U.S. efforts to rebuild the ISF have focused on much needed training and equipment, but have neglected the greatest challenge facing the forces' ability to maintain security upon U.S. withdrawal: an ISF politicized by ethno-sectarian parties. These ties pose the largest obstacle to the ISF in its quest to become genuinely professional and truly national in character. U.S. leaders may not realize that by not doing more to ensure that incumbent parties stay away from influencing ISF behavior, the United States risks training and arming security forces that will be the instrument for provoking, rather than preventing, future ethno-sectarian conflict. In the end, supporting and strengthening the national character of the ISF is the best hope for a stable and integrated Iraq.


The study analyzes the telecom company Ericsson's supply model, named Mobile Inventory by the author, focusing on the customer's point of view. Mobile Inventory involves specially designed carts with electronic components required for production that circulate between a third-party logistics provider (3PLP) and Ericsson. The carts are transported by trucks and rolled out close to the assembly line at Ericsson, where they work as production storage sites. The inventory level inside the cart is kept at a certain maximum level, which covers the requirements until a new cart is delivered. The supply model works without a traditional purchase ordering process, operating instead as a variant of a periodic ordering system with fixed delivery days and where the 3PLP is responsible for the replenishment of the carts. The system runs to a large extent by itself. Mobile Inventory could be an uncomplicated supply model for manufacturing companies to manage some of their products like noncritical/standard and leverage parts, demanding only limited resources and providing a high level of customer service. This study intends to increase the knowledge of an alternative approach for materials supply that could be applied to manufacturing companies other than Ericsson.


Introduction H. pylori are gram-negative, microaerophilic helical-shaped bacteria with multiple flagella and commonly exist in the stomach. This infection may cause significant mucosal inflammation and damage, leading to ulcers in the stomach. It can also affect organ systems external to the gastrointestinal tract. To assess cardiovascular risk factors and to predict cardiovascular disorders, we are evaluating and comparing lipid profile and inflammatory marker between H. pylori-positive and negative patients. Objective To evaluate and compare lipid profile (TC; TG; LDL; HDL) and inflammatory marker (hs-CRP) in dyspeptic patients with and without H. pylori infection. Methods Comparative cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021 at Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Debre Markos Health Center, and Hidassie Health Center, Ethiopia. Each of 50 H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients were studied. The data were checked for completeness and analyzed by SPSS version 25.0 Software. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Serum mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) values were 37.54 ± 7.98 mg/dL and 43.12 ± 7.86 mg/dL (p < 0.05) for H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients, respectively, and median serum high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were 6.29 mg/L (1.66–41.34) and 3.35 mg/L (0.39–10.01) (p < 0.05) for H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients, respectively. Conclusion H. pylori infection significantly alters serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in dyspeptic patients, as a result, increase the potential risk of cardiovascular diseases.


To research the effect of a deposited SiO2 insulating layer on the resonance frequency modulation of an SOI nanowaveguide ring cavity during integration fabrication, a rib waveguide ring resonator was systematically designed and fabricated. SiO2 insulating layers with different thicknesses were deposited for analysis of the frequency shift characteristics. By testing the resonance transmission spectrum power of this structure, it is found that there are blue shifts after SiO2 deposition, and the frequency shift value of a structure with a 500 nm SiO2 insulating layer deposited is 0.8 nm, that is 0.24 THz at the resonance point where wavelength is around 1550 nm. Taking advantage of this conclusion, efficient optical modulation is available by choosing different frequency band resonance wavelengths to narrow the frequency modulation range.


The biomotometer, an electronic device which simultaneously measures motor activity and provides auditory feedback, was used in combination with material reinforcers in an experiment to reduce children's activity level in a classroom setting. Subjects were nine boys and two girls, aged 9--13, from a day hospital program for emotionally disturbed children. After five baseline trials, each child had five contingent reinforcement trials in which he/she received feedback "beeps" from the biomotometer and was given toy or candy rewards after each trial in which activity fell at least 20% below mean baseline level. Then five noncontingent reinforcement trials were run in which children received rewards for wearing the apparatus without the feedback attachment. Results indicated that the intervention "package," including instructions, feedback, and contingent reinforcement, was successful in all five trials for 8 of 11 children. Activity levels increased during the final noncontingent phase.


The article examines the relationship between the traditional group relations (intrafamily, clan, etc.) in the Arab society, which provide access to the political rent, and the processes of socio-political modernization and the building of civil institutions. The Arab governments usually explain the inefficiency or "deviations" in the work of such institutions by national characteristics, adherence to the idea of nation-building, etc., but never by the desire to preserve power and assets of the traditional elites that are based on group loyalty. One of the most common ways of accessing power in order to acquire and redistribute tangible and intangible benefits in the Arab world is Wasta, or a system of connections, based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships. Loyalty to one's group that almost everyone belongs to by birth or due to certain life circumstances ensures the interests of the individual in the broadest sense. Wasta's network and group ties, based on the principles that are at odds with those that the civil society is built upon, impede the development and modernization of social and political institutions. While researchers have studied Wasta relations as such rather structurally, both at the micro-level (from the social network point of view) and at the macro-level (from the institutional point of view), the attempts to build a holistic model that considers Wasta simultaneously from both viewpoints have not yet been crowned with success. The article proposes the conceptualization of Wasta as social capital, which makes it possible to represent this type of relationship as one actor's "investment" and the other actor's "loan". One can also use this holistic model in the analysis of other informal ties inherent in other cultures but also based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships and provide fertile soil for maintaining conservative order.


AIM
To evaluate the value of 18F-fluorodeoxy-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET/CT) in myeloma in patients presenting with a solitary plasmacytoma of bone (SPB).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Fourteen consecutive patients studied since 2006, all having a diagnosis of SPB before PET/CT imaging took part in this study. In 3 patients PET/CT was performed for staging while in the remaining 11 it was used to monitor therapy. PET/CT was performed using a dedicated tomograph 60-90 minutes after intravenous injection of 53 MBq/kg of 18F-FDG and the results were compared to other diagnostic procedures [radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)], biopsy, and other available follow-up data.

RESULTS
In 8/14 patients, PET/CT scans showed previously unsuspected sites of increased FDG accumulation. In 6/8 patients, FDG uptake was considered pathologic, depicting myeloma involvement in bone, while in the remaining cases, findings were considered incidental and not related to myeloma. PET findings attributed to myeloma were confirmed (i.e. true positives) in 6/6 cases (100%) and in all patients with findings reported as non-pathologic, myeloma was excluded (100% true negatives).

CONCLUSION
Our preliminary data in a small number of cases suggests that there are a group of patients with SPB (local disease) in whom FDG PET/CT may detect other unsuspected sites of bone involvement, upstaging the extent of the disease. In these cases, SPB may be a local manifestation of multiple myeloma where other sites of involvement have eluded detection by other less sensitive imaging modalities (i.e. skeletal surveys) or anatomically restricted imaging (i.e., less than total body MR or CT). Finding other sites of involvement have significant implications for appropriate treatment of myeloma.


Malaysia is a tropical country that gets high rainfall throughout the year that can be utilized for various activities including water conservation. Water conservation initiatives in Malaysia are mainly concentrated in commercial and residential buildings but public buildings such as schools have been underutilized. Thus, this study aims to conduct a water conservation initiative in a primary school in Malacca (Malaysia). Water audit were conducted to identify the highest water usage location and the most suitable water conservation method in a school setting. Lastly, the sustainability performance of the rainwater harvesting system was evaluated via the Sustainable Development Analytical Grid (SDAG) assessment tool. Water footprint findings demonstrated that approximately 60% of total water use was due to toilet use. The rainwater harvesting system was selected as this method enables the use of a renewable source (rainwater) and it conveniently fit with the existing building rooftop and plumbing system to engender high sustainability potential and collaboration opportunities. After several months of operation, environmental, social, and economic benefits were observed. Sustainable assessment has indicated that all the six dimensions were well balanced with scores greater than 50% and continued improvements will increase the project's sustainability in the future. This study approach is generalizable to any school worldwide with a similar water footprint as a water restoration at both local and global contexts to achieve United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.


The association of atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) and mycosis fungoides (MF) has never been reported. We report a 77‐year‐old female who was referred for Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) of an AFX on the right hand. At the time of presentation, this patient had stage III MF, with erythroderma and palpable lymph nodes. Our patient's AFX measured 1.5×2.8 cm. The tumor was removed by MMS with clear margins. The pathologic specimen revealed a relatively well‐circumscribed neoplasm in the upper dermis composed of atypical spindle cells with pleomorphism, hyperchromatic nuclei, and brisk mitotic activity. Immunohistochemical stains were focally positive for CD68, and negative for S‐100, Melan‐A, desmin, smooth muscle actin and neurofilament. Perilesional skin revealed epidermal hyperplasia, parakeratosis, and multiple epidermotropic lymphocytes with enlarged and hyperchromatic nuclei. One year after the initial MMS, our patient developed another tumor on the right hand, which measured 4×6 mm. This neoplasm underwent a fusiform excision with clear margins. Histological examination revealed evidence of MF and an AFX. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an AFX arising in a patient with MF.


The occurrence of candidiasis, including superficial infections, has recently increased dramatically, especially in immunocompromised patients. Their treatment is often ineffective due to the resistance of yeasts to antimycotics. Therefore, there is a need to search for new antifungals. The aim of this study was to determine the antifungal effect of clove essential oil (CEO) and eugenol (EUG) towards both reference and clinical Candida spp. strains isolated from the oral cavity of patients with hematological malignancies, and to investigate their mode of action and the interactions in combination with the selected antimycotics. These studies were performed using the broth microdilution method, tests with sorbitol and ergosterol, and a checkerboard technique, respectively. The CEO and EUG showed activity against all Candida strains with a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) in the range of 0.25–2 mg/mL. It was also found that both natural products bind to ergosterol in the yeast cell membrane. Moreover, the interactions between CEO and EUG with several antimycotics—cetylpyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, silver nitrate and triclosan—showed synergistic or additive effects in combination, except nystatin. This study confirms that the studied compounds appear to be a very promising group of phytopharmaceuticals used topically in the treatment of superficial candidiasis. However, this requires further studies in vivo.


The paper describes pedagogical students practical training in modern Russian Teacher Training Universities. The new requirements to higher education in Russian Federation are viewed. On the basis of the requirements the state of practical training system is analyzed. The system characteristics is accomplished on the basis of the aim and requirements of each practical training type; the principles of practical training; the content of students' work; the competencies to be taught. Practical training structure is shown. Practical training system modeling is described. Practical training process is viewed. Problems and perspectives of pedagogical students practical training are presented.


Twenty eight populations of Podophyllum hexandrum Royle were selected to study genetic relationship using RAPD and ISSR markers from north-western Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh, India. Nineteen RAPD primers and 11 ISSR primers amplified a total of 131 and 68 scorable bands, of which 92.37% and 83.82%, respectively, were polymorphic. The mean coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) was 0.6933 and 0.6296, indicating that Nei´s gene diversity of 33.77% and 29.44% reside in all the populations. Estimated value of gene flow for RAPD (Nm = 0.11059), for ISSR (Nm = 0.1470) individually, and the combination of RAPD+ISSR (Nm = 0.1211) markers indicated that there was limited gene flow among the populations. The dendrogram obtained from UPGMA analysis revealed grouping of populations with respect to their forest division, except with Kullu forest division. The existence variation among 28 populations based on percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) was proved to be coupled with geographical altitude (r = 0.474). The genetic similarity matrices generated by ISSR and RAPD markers were highly correlated (r = 0.721 at P = 0.001), showed similar estimation between the 2 systems. Both markers were equally useful in providing some understanding about the genetic relationship of different populations in Podophyllum L.


The majority of publications have concentrated on individual psychological interventions with a limited focus on manualized group-based approaches for those presenting with mental health difficulties following a history of trauma. Survive & Thrive (S&T) is a psychoeducational course designed for survivors of interpersonal trauma which utilizes cognitive behavioural skills training while delivering psychoeducation on how a history of victimization can impact on the survivors' life. This qualitative study was designed to gain an insight into female survivors of interpersonal trauma experience of S&T and the associated group dynamics component to evaluate this psychological intervention. The participants described their experience of S&T as a journey towards recovery. The study highlights the benefits of group-based interventions in regard to learning experience within a social context whilst also identifying areas for further development based on the participants' feedback.


Current generation of industrial MPC technology has two main disadvantages: 1) it is very costly to implement and to maintain an MPC system; 2) the performance in disturbance reduction is low. To solve these two problems, an adaptive MPC technology is introduced. It consists of three modules, a Control Module, an Identification Module and a Monitor Module. It can perform various steps of an MPC project automatically and in a parallel manner. Thus, the efficiency of MPC commissioning and maintenance can be increased by a factor of 3 or more. In the MPC Control Module, an adaptive disturbance model is used to improve control performance and robustness. A prototype of the adaptive MPC system has been applied successfully to a PTA unit. Due to its simplicity and user friendliness, this technology may change the way MPC is applied and can make MPC feasible for all process industries, not just the refining/petrochemical industry. Recent tests have shown that the adaptive disturbance model can increase control performance considerably. A traditional adaptive MPC controller performs sample-wise identification and adaptation of both process models and disturbance models without monitoring the test condition and model quality. The new adaptive MPC system is very different from the traditional adaptive control: the process model is adapted on demand (when activated by the Monitor Module) where test signals are used in model identification; the disturbance model is adapted sample-wise without using test signals. We believe that this new scheme is more adequate for the control of large scale industrial processes than the traditional adaptive controller.


The objective of software design is to build a system that meets the customer's requirements. Often requirements can be achieved by a set of different design alternatives. Identifying the impacts of various design alternatives on requirements thus become very important. In this paper, we proposed a formal framework to identify and reason impacts of design alternatives on imprecise requirements. Our approach captures the elasticity of imprecise requirements using fuzzy logic and represents design alternatives directly based on the representation of requirements. Based on these representations, we can: (1) identify relationships between requirements and between design alternatives; (2) reason implicit impacts of the design alternatives on requirements based on the identified requirement-requirement relationships, and design-requirement relationships; and (3) facilitate capture of the design rationale. The goal of identifying the impacts of design alternatives on requirements is to guide design engineers in evaluating design alternatives, to reduce design errors, to facilitate design rationale capture, and to build a system that better satisfies the customer.


A new multiuser detector for synchronous code-division multiple-access channels is developed, and the performance is compared with other multiuser detectors. The proposed multiuser detector is based on spatial-temporal filtering and decision-feedback techniques, hence the name spatial-temporal decorrelating decision-feedback (STDF) detector. An optimum STDF detector is expected to have an exponential complexity as the number of users grow. A suboptimum STDF detector shows a better performance in terms of probability of error (or SNR) and asymptotic efficiency as compared to the other suboptimum detectors. Simulation results under diverse channel conditions show that STDF is a bandwidth efficient technique, which is an essential requirement for modern wireless communications. Also the results indicate that STDF performance gains are more significant for relatively weak users.


Although fish health may influence key population-level processes, particularly those dealing with natural mortality, reproduction, and growth, which, in turn, affect stock productivity, little emphasis has been placed on the links between fish health and the management of marine fisheries. This article addresses this gap and illustrates how knowledge of fish health could provide insight for marine fisheries biologists, stock assessment modelers, and managers. The study proposes ways in which the consideration of condition indicators (energy reserves) and parasitism improves stock assessment and fisheries management, especially in situations of data shortage when standard methods cannot be applied, as is the case in many Mediterranean fish stocks. This article focuses on seven case studies of different fish species from the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Overall, and although the relationship between fish health and productivity cannot always be found or quantified, the article emphasizes the importance of the physical health of exploited stocks, particularly during critical life periods of the fish (e.g., prior to spawning, migration, or in the early life stages), as an essential element of sustainable and profitable fisheries. On the basis of these results, stock assessment and fisheries management implications are discussed.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Rise in prevalence of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in tubercle bacilli is a serious cause of concern. As mutations with two house keeping genes rpoB and katG are associated with resistance to two important anti-tubercular drugs rifampicin and isoniazid respectively, there is a need to understand the growth kinetics of organisms with such mutated genes in experimental animals. This study was undertaken to study the growth kinetics of susceptible as well multi-drug resistance Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in mice.

METHODS
Two MDR (having mutations in rpoB and catG) and two drug susceptible isolates of M. tuberculosis along with H37Rv were grown in mice after aerogenic infection.

RESULTS
The MDR isolates grew slowly up to 3 wk though the growth was significantly different from sensitive strains. However, after 3 wk, the growth in sensitive as well MDR strains was similar, suggesting that even the mutations in the MDR strains did not have any impact on the growth kinetics.

INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION
The effect of mutations in other parts of these genes need to be studied. Retention of property of MDR strains to establish infection after aerogenic infection has epidemiological significance in terms of the transmission of MDR tuberculosis.


The article analyzes the role of 'the thick journal' in the national literary process and, in a wider sense, the spiritual life of the Russian society. For nearly two centuries, the literary periodical press was the focusing mirror of the national literary process, but under the influence of sociocultural circumstances (washing out of the intellectuals as a socially significant structure, falling of authority of the word, development of the Internet, etc.) there was an essential decrease in the reader's attention to the journal format. At the same time in modern conditions 'the thick journal' in Russia as it is reasoned in the paper, seeks to uphold the ideals of culture in accordance with the traditions of national literature.


Background & Aims

Gamma-delta (γδ) T cells are involved in the development of diverse liver and autoimmune diseases, whereas the role of γδ T cells in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) remains unclear.
Methods

We analyzed the number, phenotypes, and functional molecules of γδ T cells in PBC patients (n = 74) and sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs) (n = 74) by flow cytometric analysis.
Results

We identified two distinct functional subsets of circulating γδ T cells according to the CD3/TCRγδ complex: the TCRγδhigh and TCRγδlow subsets. Approximately three-quarters of cells in the TCRγδhigh subset were Vδ1 T cells, while Vδ2 T cells were enriched in the TCRγδlow subset in HCs. The frequency and absolute number of circulating TCRγδlow cells was significantly decreased in PBC patients compared with HCs (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the frequency of TCRγδlow cells was negatively correlated with disease severity and positively correlated with the ursodeoxycholic acid response. TCRγδlow cells exhibited a similar apoptotic and proliferative phenotype but enhanced liver-homing chemokine receptor (CXCR6) expression in PBC patients compared with HCs. In addition, both TCRγδhigh and TCRγδlow subsets were more activated in PBC compared with HCs, characterized by elevated expression levels of CD69 and HLA-DR. Finally, we found an increased granzyme B (GZMB) production and similar IFN-γ and TNF-α production of TCRγδlow cells in PBC patients compared with HCs.
Conclusion

The TCRγδlow subset might be a potential marker for disease progression and treatment response in PBC, which may play a crucial role in liver injury through increased CXCR6 expression and GZMB production.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of enteral immunonutrition (EIN) on the nutritional status of patients during the perioperative period of digestive system surgery.

METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN
The clinical data of 102 patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery between August 2017 and February 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the nutritional support regimen, the patients were divided into an enteral nutrition (EN) group (50 patients) and an EIN group (52 patients).

RESULTS
The times (in hours) to return of the first bowel sound, first postoperative flatus, and first bowel movement, as well as the length of postoperative hospital stay were shorter in the EIN group than in the EN group (p<0.05). The concentrations of hemoglobin, prealbumin, albumin, and transferrin, as well as the concentrations of immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin M (IgM), complement C3, and complement C4 were higher in the EIN group than in the EN group at 1 and 7 days after surgery (p<0.05). The concentrations of endotoxins, D-lactic acid, and diamine oxidase were lower in the EIN group than in the EN group (p<0.05). The tolerance to enteral feeding was better in the EIN group than in the EN group (p<0.05). The incidence of complications was lower in the EIN group (5.77%) than in the EN group (10.0%) (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
EIN can promote gastrointestinal function recovery, improve the nutritional status, enhance the humoral immune function, regulate intestinal flora balance, improve intestinal permeability, prevent enteral feeding intolerance, and reduce complications in patients undergoing surgery for digestive system diseases.


Reducing disparities among regions within European countries together with economic development is the aim of European and national structural policies. In particular, a European grant contributes to the German governmental program for reducing and equalizing regional unemployment. The goal is to bring unemployment down to the national average by creating new and/or by safeguarding existing jobs, which also contributes to decreasing national unemployment and to GDP growth. The distribution of available aid among 271 German labor market regions is considered as an econometric decision problem with three targets: (1) minimization of unemployment, (2) maximization of GDP, and (3) equalization of regional unemployment rates, subject to the budget constraint and some administrative restrictions. To prepare grounds for optimization, econometric predictions are made for the year 2004 from regional data 1994-2001. The model can be regarded as a prototype of decision-aid for designing regional policy at national and European levels.


Parental involvement is a critical component of early childhood education (ECE) programming with the aim to support child development. However, the efforts designed to support this aim are challenged by the increasing diversity in race/ethnicity in ECE classrooms. First, parents from different racial/ethnic backgrounds seem to have different patterns and levels of parental involvement, and the effects of multifaceted parental involvement on child outcomes seem to differ by race/ethnicity. Second, within ECE classrooms, it remains challenging to support meaningful parental involvement for children and families from diverse racial/ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This dissertation aimed to address these issues by investigating the within- and between-group variations regarding the effects, attributes, and predictions of parental involvement on child readiness and growth during early transition. Two independent but related studies were conducted. The first study examined the moderation effect of race/ethnicity and multifaceted parental involvement on child outcomes. The second study tested the moderation effect of race/ethnicity and ECE attributes (i.e., teacher and classroom characteristics) on multifaceted parental involvement. The aim was to understand what ECE programs can do to support child development via investing in meaningful parental involvement for all children and families. Data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) were used because these families are at higher risk of school failure. Four groups were included: White, Black, English-speaking Hispanic, and Spanish-speaking Hispanic. Three facets of parental involvement were investigated (i.e., school-based involvement, home-based involvement in cultural activities, and home-based involvement in learning activities). The theory of ecology, social capital, and cultural capital were applied to guide the theoretical frameworks. Findings of the first study revealed that home-based involvement in cultural activities emerged as a stronger predictor of child outcomes within the White and Black samples; whereas school-based involvement was a stronger predictor within the Hispanic groups. In the second study, ECE attributes had positive effects on most groups except the Black sample. This dissertation has significant implications for policy issues related to the readiness gap during early transition as well as parental involvement practices within the Head Start framework.


A cobalt-catalyzed reductive coupling of terminal alkynes, RC≡CH, with activated alkenes, R'CH=CH(2), in the presence of zinc and water to give functionalized trans-disubstituted alkenes, RCH=CHCH(2)CH(2)R', is described. A variety of aromatic terminal alkynes underwent reductive coupling with activated alkenes including enones, acrylates, acrylonitrile, and vinyl sulfones in the presence of a CoCl(2)/P(OMe)(3)/Zn catalyst system to afford 1,2-trans-disubstituted alkenes with high regio- and stereoselectivity. Similarly, aliphatic terminal alkynes also efficiently participated in the coupling reaction with acrylates, enones, and vinyl sulfone, in the presence of the CoCl(2)/P(OPh)(3)/Zn system providing a mixture of 1,2-trans- and 1,1-disubstituted functionalized terminal alkene products in high yields. The scope of the reaction was also extended by the coupling of 1,3-enynes and acetylene gas with alkenes. Furthermore, a phosphine-free cobalt-catalyzed reductive coupling of terminal alkynes with enones, affording 1,2-trans-disubstituted alkenes as the major products in a high regioisomeric ratio, is demonstrated. In the reactions, less expensive and air-stable cobalt complexes, a mild reducing agent (Zn) and a simple hydrogen source (water) were used. A possible reaction mechanism involving a cobaltacyclopentene as the key intermediate is proposed.


In recent years, with the advancement of China's labor laws and regulations, especially the strengthening of workers' awareness of legal rights protection, enterprise labor risk is rising. It is essential for trade unions to help enterprises establish and improve the risk assessment mechanism of labor and employment on time, work hard from the four links of prediction, preexamination, forecast, and prevention urge enterprises to employ workers under the law, effectively reduce labor disputes, avoid the rise of conflicts, and maintain the stability of enterprises and society. In the background of building a harmonious society, the employment of enterprises has been paid more attention by the government, industry, and schools. Particularly for enterprises, market competition largely comes down to talent competition. In the global talent shortage, legal employment and risk prevention have been placed in front of enterprises. This is especially true for state-owned enterprises. More, under the prevailing situation of protecting workers' rights, interests, and increasing legal awareness of enterprises and workers, it is more prominent for state-owned enterprises to carry the mission and responsibility of building a harmonious society. Its employment plays a leading role in the whole society or industry. The pragmatic purpose of this work is to deal with the risk management-related theory to the study of legal risk prevention and control of employment using the method of risk identification related to the current domestic and foreign through decision tree algorithm (DTA) about the ocean enterprise employee to assess international agreements and legal rules. Given the ocean enterprise employee specifically the seafarers' employment combined with industry norms, the ideas, and measures of legitimate employment, this study has a strong theoretical and practical guiding importance for practical work.


Domain walls are minimizers of energy for coupled one-dimensional Gross--Pitaevskii systems with nontrivial boundary conditions at infinity. It has been shown that these solutions are orbitally stable in the space of complex $\dot{H}^1$ functions with the same limits at infinity. In the present work we adopt a new weighted $H^1$ space to control perturbations of the domain walls and thus to obtain an improved orbital stability result. A major difficulty arises from the degeneracy of linearized operators at the domain walls and the lack of coercivity.


The influence of Foucault on studies of social movements, dissent and protest is not as direct as might be imagined. He is generally regarded as focusing more on the analysis of power and government than forms of resistance. This is reflected in the governmentality literature, which tends to treat dissent and protest as an afterthought, or failure of government. However, Foucault's notion of 'counter-conducts' has much to offer the study of dispersed, heterogeneous and variegated forms of resistance in contemporary global politics. Using the protests that have accompanied summits including Seattle, Johannesburg, Prague, London and Copenhagen to illustrate an analytics of protest in operation, this article shows how a Foucauldian perspective can map the close interrelationship between regimes of government and practices of resistance. By adopting a practices and mentalities focus, rather than an actor-centric approach, and by seeking to destabilize the binaries of power and resistance, and government and freedom, that have structured much of political thought, an analytics of protest approach illuminates the mutually constitutive relationship between dominant power relationships and counter-conducts, and shows how protests both disrupt and reinforce the status quo, at the same time.


Thirty-five consecutive patients with the clinical diagnosis of fenestral otosclerosis were evaluated with high-resolution computed tomography (CT). Twenty-six were diagnosed as having this disorder by CT evidence of abnormal bony excrescences at or adjacent to the oval window. The diagnosis was made upon examination of 1.5-mm-thick targeted sections obtained at 0.5-mm intervals in the axial projection. Coronal sections were also included. Sections were also evaluated for evidence of plaque formation elsewhere in the lateral wall of the labyrinth and for surgical obstacles such as an abnormally wide cochlear aqueduct, a high jugular vein, and a dehiscent facial nerve. It is concluded that fenestral otosclerosis may be accurately diagnosed with proper CT techniques.


Electrically conductive stainless steel wire and synthetic polyester filament are selected as the materials for this study. Composite wrapped yarns and composite woven fabrics are successfully manufactured by* wrapping and weaving processes. The breaking strength, tenacity, elongation and work of composite wrapped yarns exhibit the optimum value at 7-D, 7-S, 14-S and 14-D, which the corresponding value are 149.3(N), 1.6(cN/dtex), 19.5(%) and 46.7(N*cm), respectively. The surface resistivity of 4 composite woven fabrics presents similar results with various weft yarns that are composed of various wrapped counts and wrapped layers. Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of composite woven fabric, which varied laminated angles and laminated numbers, significantly reveal different results. The EMSE of composite woven fabrics is considerably enhanced after varying laminated angles of 45° or 90° and laminated numbers, and that of composite woven fabric (14-D-W) with a laminated angle of 90°and a laminated number 3 shows the optimum value -46 dB at 2450 MHz.


Although the viscosity of aqueous solution of high methoxyl pectin is known to increase drastically when sugars coexist, the detailed mechanism for the increase in viscosity was not fully understood. Therefore, the viscosity of citrus and apple pectin solutions with various sugars compositions was measured with temperature varying from 5 to 40°C to analyze the intermolecular interactions among pectin molecules. For single-composition pectin solutions, the activation energy for viscosity, Ea, increased from 17.5 to 31.9 kJ/mol with an increase in pectin concentration up to 2% for the case of citrus pectin, reflecting the increase in pectin-pectin interaction. For pectin solutions with coexisting sugars, Ea increased more with increasing sugar concentration. When compared at the same water activity, the increase in Ea is also dependent on the type of sugar. Sugars with stronger solvent-ordering activity produced greater increases in Ea. These results suggest that sugars increase the pectin-pectin interaction both through their own hydration effect, which enhances the hydrogen bonding among pectin molecules, and through the solvent-ordering effect to enhance the hydrophobic interaction.


Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in westernized populations. An increased concentration of plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol constitutes a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. Several lines of evidence support a role for oxidatively modified LDL in atherosclerosis and for its in vivo existence. Antioxidants have been shown to decrease atherosclerotic lesion formation in animal models and decrease LDL oxidation; the evaluation of LDL oxidation in vivo is therefore very important. However, there is a paucity of methods for direct measurement of LDL oxidation. Of the direct methods currently available, the preferred ones seem to be the measurement of F2-isoprostanes, autoantibodies to epitopes on oxidized LDL, and the assessment of antioxidant status. Of the indirect measures, the most uniformly accepted procedure is examining the oxidative susceptibility of isolated LDL by monitoring conjugated diene formation.


Identifying and understanding how excess oxygen atoms affect the adsorption of water on metal oxides is crucial for their use in water splitting. Here, by means of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy and density-functional calculations, we show that excess oxygen atoms on the stoichiometric RuO2(110) significantly change the clustering, conformation, and deprotonation equilibrium of adsorbed water. We considered two reactive scenarios during which the stoichiometric surface was exposed (i) first to oxygen, followed by water, and (ii) first to water, followed by oxygen. In both cases, the [OH-OH] complex on Ru rows is the dominant species, showing a significant difference from water-only adsorption on the stoichiometric surface in which the [OH-H2O] species is found to be prevalent. Surface reactivity at almost full O coverage is also addressed; there we show that site selectivity of the surface for H adsorption and dissociation of H2O is hindered, notwithstanding the increase of the dynamic moti...


The advent of computers with a very dynamic run-time behaviour, such as the SGI Origin 2000 series, makes it very dicult to asses the runtime behaviour of programs in order to compare eciency of implementations. Here we empirically investigate some simple statistical measures for estimating CPU usage under such circumstances, ending up with a very simple and seemingly accurate estimation technique: the minimum run-time of 3-5 executions of the program when the machine is lightly loaded.


Advanced Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) processes allow the growth of oxide thin film heterostructures on large area substrates up to 4-inch diameter, with flexible and controlled doping, low dislocation density, and abrupt interfaces. These PLD processes are discussed and their capabilities demonstrated using selected results of structural, electrical, and optical characterization of superconducting (YBa 2Cu 3O 7−δ), semiconducting (ZnO-based), and ferroelectric (BaTiO 3-based) and dielectric (wide-gap oxide) thin films and multilayers.
Regarding the homogeneity on large area of structure and electrical properties, flexibility of doping, and state-of-the-art electronic and optical performance, the comparably simple PLD processes are now advantageous or at least fully competitive to Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition or Molecular Beam Epitaxy. In particular, the high flexibility connected with high film quality makes PLD a more and more widespread growth technique in oxide research.


Backgrounds: To investigate the association between intraretinal fluid (IRF) or subretinal fluid (SRF) persistence and response to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injection in age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). Methods: Eighty-nine eyes of ARMD patients with VA ≤ 20/100 or persistent subretinal hyper-reflective material were retrospectively assessed. Each injection's efficacy was classified, and fluid accumulation prior to each injection was evaluated. Effect changes within the longest persistent IRF period (≥ 10 months) and their association with previous treatment and accumulated IRF and SRF were determined. Results: Injection span was shorter and the polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy and occult choroidal neovasculopathy (CNV) proportions were higher among patients with diminished than among those with maintained effects. Throughout observation, acquired refractoriness appeared rarely associated with increased IRF or SRF. VA differed significantly with IRF duration, but not accumulated fluid. Conclusions: Diminishing effect of injections during long- standing IRF was associated with highly active CNV rather than with undertreatment. The mechanism underlying acquired refractoriness remains unknown; the effect change demonstrated various patterns, including diminished and improved responses. Persistent IRF duration was associated with VA decline. To shorten the duration of persistent IRF, it may be necessary to ensure strict control in refractory patients with high CNV activity.


. For an infinite compact set K and for any Banach space X we show that the unit ball of the space of X -valued functions that are continuous when X is equipped with the weak topology, has no denting points.