Background: Executive functions constitute the core deficit in schizophrenic illness and have been related to structural and functional deficits, cognitive impairments and final outcome. Aim: To study the various dimensions of executive functions such as goal formulation, planning, behavioural programming and effective performance. Methods: By using direct and indirect clinical neuropsychological methods, 31 patients were studied neuropsychologically by the trail-making test (TMT), Raven matrices and fluency tests, and their symptom patterns were quantified using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results: The patients had varying degrees of involvement of different dimensions of executive functions. There was an inverse relationship to TMT and a positive correlation with Raven matrices and fluency tests. Conclusion: The dimensions of executive functions did not show any significant relationship with age, duration of illness or most scores in PANSS. Our findings are relevant for remediation and rehabilitation measures.


: Hierarchies of knowledge can be noticed in feminist studies, particularly between dominant/ mainstream feminisms, generally from the Global North, and subaltern feminisms from the Global South. Subaltern feminisms seek to unmask the social-racial-geopolitical limitations of mainstream feminisms, forging feminisms more plural and inclusive. María Lugones is considered one of the most important representatives of subaltern feminisms in the Latin American decolonial debate. The purpose of this paper is to present the trajectory of María Lugones, particularly focusing on the discussion of her works and theories on Coloniality of Gender and Decolonial Feminism. Her works are fundamental for gender discussions from a decolonial perspective, and further debate is necessary on her important contributions.


On-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection design becomes a major design challenge as IC technologies continue to migrate into very-deep-submicron (VDSM) regime. However, trial-and-error approaches still dominate in ESD protection circuit design. This paper discusses a new mixed-mode ESD protection simulation-design methodology, aiming to design prediction, which involves multiple-level coupling in ESD protection simulation by solving complex electrothermal equations self-consistently at process, device, and circuit levels in a coupled fashion to investigate ESD protection circuit details without any pre-assumption. Practical ESD protection design examples, implemented in commercial 0.18/0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS and BiCMOS processes, are presented.


INTRODUCTION
Surgical therapy of carcinoma of the esophagus or cardia by transthoracic esophageal resection is associated with a high morbidity in which nosocomial infections have a great importance. This study investigates the influence of prophylactic selective bowel decontamination on the course and results of transthoracic resection of the esophagus.

METHODS
Seventy patients with carcinoma of the esophagus and cardia were included in this prospective and partially randomized study at the University of Heidelberg. Twenty-five patients received prophylactically selective bowel decontamination with tobramycin, polymyxin B and amphotericin B. The treatment course was documented uniformly. In addition, microbiological screening was performed by swab examinations of nose, throat and anus, by urine and blood cultures, and the documentation of results of additional microbiological diagnostic studies.

RESULTS
Bacteriological screening confirmed a reduction in infectious agents and a change of their spectrum in the respiratory and digestive tract without an increase in multiresistant bacteria. Patients who received selective bowel decontamination had a lower infection rate, a shorter artificial respiration period and a shorter intensive care stay without statistically significant differences. The mortality rate was 4% vs 9% in the control group (95% confidence interval -0.172-0.116).

CONCLUSION
This study confirms the feasibility and microbiological effectiveness of selective bowel decontamination in the context of surgical therapy which is associated with a high nosocomial infection rate. The result of the clinical treatment seems slightly more favorable in the treatment group. Decisive are complications caused by surgery which fundamentally determine the clinical course and frequently cause infectious complications. The prophylactic use of selective bowel decontamination may be useful in patients with an increased risk of prolonged ventilation support or colon interposition but it is not to be generally recommended.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing with the change of the diet habit. This study was to analyze the incidence of colorectal cancer in Guangzhou City, thus to provide references and information for the prevention and treatment of this disease.

METHODS
Data of colorectal cancer patients during 2000-2002 were collected from Guangzhou population-based cancer registry. Incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer were calculated and analyzed.

RESULTS
The crude incidence and mortality of colon cancer in Guangzhou from 2000 to 2002 were 13.4 per 100000 (13.5 per 100000 in males, 13.3 per 100000 in females) and 7.1 per 100000 (7.3 per 100000 in males, 6.9 per 100000 in females), respectively. The crude incidence and mortality of rectal cancer in Guangzhou from 2000 to 2002 were 9.6 per 100000 (10.8 per 100000 in males, 8.2 per 100000 in females) and 5.0 per 100000 (5.5 per 100000 in males, 4.5 per 100000 in females), respectively. The incidence of colon cancer and rectal cancer ranked the fifth and seventh respectively among all cancers. The incidence of colorectal cancer was increased with age.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence rate of colorectal cancer is high in Guangzhou. Studies on prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer should be enhanced.


Abstract Coumarin and its nitrogen analogue 1-aza coumarin are a class of lactones and lactams, respectively, which are indispensable heterocyclic units to both chemists and biochemists. 1-Aza coumarin derivatives, which ultimately metabolize as the corresponding 8-hydroxy coumarins in the biological system are therefore found to be very good anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and analgesic agents. A series of hybrid substituted coumarin and azacoumarin-3-carboxylic acid derivatives (8-methoxycoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (4a), 8-methoxyazacoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (4b), 5-bromo-8-methoxycoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (5a), 5-bromo-8-methoxyazacoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (5b), 2-acetoxy-5-bromo-8-methoxyquinoline-3-carboxylic acid (6), and 5,7-di(phenylazo)-8-methoxycoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7) were synthesized and structurally proved using spectral and elemental analysis data. Substituted coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (4a and 5a) and Substituted azacoumarin-3-carboxylic acid (4b, 5b and 6) were tested for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and HepG-2 cell lines.


This qualitative research sought to do a comparative analysis of social fragmentation in Things Fall Apart and Maru. Textual analysis was employed to analyse, interpret and evaluate the two novels in the light of postcolonial criticism, focusing on otherness. The researchers engaged the texts in multiple readings to gain a descriptive understanding of them and take descriptive notes at every stage of reading. Excerpts were purposefully sampled from the novels and analysed thematically. The study revealed that in pre-colonial Africa, social fragmentation resulted from classism, patriarchy and bad tradition; hence, the society operates in a binary relationship. In colonial Africa, social fragmentation resulted from religion and racism. However, post-colonial Africa experienced the deepest form of social fragmentation; spiced by tribalism and other pre-colonial factors. The study concluded that both novels confirm the concept of 'otherness'. So, future research can focus on emotional and structural fragmentations.


BACKGROUND Cystic fibrosis related diabetes (CFRD) has become increasingly common with the increasing longevity of patients with cystic fibrosis. The diagnosis of CFRD is important as its development may lead to a clinical deterioration which may be reversed with treatment. The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is the method of choice in the diagnosis of CFRD, but performing OGTTs on all patients is inconvenient for patients and labour intensive for staff. The aim of this study was to identify a more selective approach in performing OGTTs in the diagnosis of CFRD based on the use of a combination of clinical and biochemical criteria. METHODS Clinically stable adult patients with cystic fibrosis not known to be diabetic attending the Royal Brompton Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Clinic for their annual review were invited to return within a month to have an OGTT. The result of the OGTT was compared with the results of tests performed during the annual review. The sensitivities and specificities of various methods used in the screening or diagnosis of CFRD were determined using OGTT as the "gold standard" diagnostic method. The combination of clinical and biochemical criteria which resulted in the highest sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of CFRD was determined. RESULTS Between August 1996 and May 1997 122 patients became eligible for the study, 91 of whom agreed to take part. The number of patients with normal, impaired, and diabetic glucose tolerance was 58 (64%), 21 (23%), and 12 (13%), respectively. When used alone, abnormal glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) was found to have the highest sensitivity (83%; 95% CI 62 to 100) in the diagnosis of CFRD. The combination of an abnormal random blood glucose and/or abnormal HbA1c and/or symptoms of hyperglycaemia or weight loss was found to have the highest sensitivity (92%; 95% CI 76 to 100) in the diagnosis of CFRD. The specificity of this combination in the diagnosis of CFRD was 79% (95% CI 70 to 88). By selectively performing OGTTs in patients with one or more of the criteria cited above, 11 of the 12 patients with OGTT defined diabetes would have been identified. CONCLUSIONS Patients with cystic fibrosis already have to undergo a large number of routine investigations. The selective approach in performing OGTTs described here has the potential to identify the majority of patients with CFRD without the need to perform this investigation on all patients. This approach is likely to be welcomed by patients and will lead to significant savings in terms of time and resources for patients and staff. Further larger studies are warranted to validate this selective approach in the diagnosis of CFRD.


This work analyzes the behaviour of a broad area edge emitter laser pumped slightly below threshold. This study shows the formation of isolated intensity peaks induced by the injection of pulses in the transverse section and persisting after the passage of the pulse. The total intensity response is characterised as a function of the intensity and frequency of the holding beam. The authors explore mainly the conditions under which a bistable behaviour is observed. The existence of a two peaks distribution is shown as well. Furthermore, this study considers a model describing a laser diode with a large transverse section. The basic equations describe the coupled dynamics of the electric field and of the carrier density. The field equation includes a 1D transverse Laplacian which describes diffraction in the paraxial approximation, while the carrier equation includes carrier diffusion. The radiation-matter interaction is described by the semiconductor Bloch equations. The authors integrate numerically the dynamical equations assuming a top-hat profile for the current in such a way to simulate the finite extension of the gain region. This boundary condition is fundamental for the agreement between theory and experiments. Experimental and theoretical results can be compared as a specific parameter is changed. The sequence of bifurcations generated is in perfect agreement with the experimental results.


Souza M.B., Mota Filho A.C., Sousa C.V.S., Monteiro C.L.B., Carvalho G.G., Pinto J.N., Linhares J.C.S. & Silva L.D.M. 2014. Triplex Doppler evaluation of the testes in dogs of different sizes. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 34(11):1135-1140. Laboratório de Reprodução de Carnívoros, Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Campus do Itaperi, Av. Doutor Silas Munguba 1700, Itaperi, Fortaleza, CE 60714-903, Brazil. E-mail: email@example.com This study aimed to assess whether there are differences in Doppler velocimetry parameters between different sizes. Twenty dogs were equally divided into small and large groups used in this study. The dogs were evaluated using Triplex ultrasound. Testicular artery was located by Colour Doppler in the spermatic cord, marginal to the testes and intratesticular segments and then, spectral Doppler were used to calculate: peak systolic velocity (PSV), end diastolic velocity (EDV), resistance index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI). The mean testicular volume in the left side was significantly higher than the right side, in both groups. Doppler examination showed higher velocities (EDV) at spermatic cord in large dogs; marginal to the testes was observed higher velocities in small dogs; intratesticular region no differences were observed (P < 0.05) and within the groups differences between segments of the artery were also observed for each parameter. The results showed that there are differences in Doppler velocimetry parameters between different sizes.


Both in developed and in developing countries, the construction industry is regarded as an economic investment activity without forgetting its significant relationship with national economic development due to its great contributions to the national gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Concerning construction processes, both risk management (RM) and value engineering (VE) techniques have commonalities from the beginning up to the completion of the project due to enhancing the project value/quality, meeting the project deadline, and reducing overall project cost. VE includes resolving the uncertainty of project objectives and ensuring that the project is delivered in a value for money way. The key point of RM is to solve the uncertainty of the project itself and its results to ensure that the specifications are achieved within the prescribed time, cost, and quality constraints. This review work is comparatively and collectively focused on assessing the role of RM and VE tools for project successful delivery. It studies the points of difference and common features of the two aspects in terms of construction project delivery. So, this study concluded that in construction RM tool cannot be the chief aim of the all parties involved in the project execution because sometimes it produces itself negative results and reduces project management success. Therefore, RM needs a strong combination with VE due to the dependence of the target in identifying and assessing risks by considering the highest performance and lowest cost. The integration of RM and VE combination in a single study would avoid duplication of work and deliver better value for money thereby leading to better project outcomes.


The python of Indonesian Sundaland has been traded for its distinct skin colour and patterns. The need for rapid method in cross-species amplification for Indonesian Sundaland python is useful to contribute in management of sustainability harvesting system. In this research, we screened 10 microsatellite primers which are previously used for Australian, New Guinean, Chinese and Burmese pythons and 7 potentially amplifiable primers for African and Asian reptiles. Python breitensteini showed a greater number of alleles (2-8 alleles) than Python bivittatus (1-3 alleles) and Python brongersmai (1-2 alleles). The observed and expected heterozygosity for all species were ranged from 0 to 1.00 and 0 to 0.79, respectively. According to the high cross-species amplification rates, 15 out of 17 primers were useful in assessing the genetic diversity and conservation genetic of Indonesian Sundaland python. Among the 15 primers, MS3 generated the highest number of allele for P. breitensteini (8 alleles), P. bivittatus (3 alleles), and P. brongersmai (2 alleles). We proposed MS3 locus as a suitable marker for Indonesian Sundaland python. Keywords: microsatellite, Python, Sundaland.


The structural health monitoring (SHM) system being developed for the Eurofighter Typhoon is resident on each aircraft and is integrated within existing aircraft and ground-based systems. The system will enable the operators to accurately monitor fatigue life consumption, usage information and significant structural events, thereby safeguarding the structural integrity of the aircraft. The information obtained can be used to plan maintenance actions effectively, and to manage the fleet fatigue life proactively (Hunt S R and Hebden I G, Eurofighter 2000 structural health and usage monitoring: an integrated approach 2nd Joint NASA/FAA/DoD Conf. on Aging Aircraft (Williamsburg, VA, August 31-September 3 1998)). This paper gives an overview of the philosophy and techniques involved in the validation of the Eurofighter SHM system, together with some preliminary results.


This paper mainly studied to building multivariate control charts of multi-dots alarm rules. For different multi-dots alarm rules, control limit parameters can be given by a kind of method of calculating average run length. Then the performances of those kinds of multivariate control schemes under different alarm rules were compared with Hotelling T2 chart, MCUSUM and MEWMA. We can find from this compare that those charts under different alarm rules have advantage in detecting small changes in the mean vector of a multivariate process. At last, an example is used to illustrate how this method can be used in practice.


Export is a top priority for Sweden's economy but for Swedish companies it may involve uncomfortable risks of exporting without sincere consideration. When the United Nations Security Council puts an embargo against a country, this often mean an import and export restriction. The thought is to push undemocratic regimes into respecting human rights. When the embargo is in force, however, the parties are not able to fulfill their contractual obligations, which practically means that the agreement will be suspended. The problem is what happens when an embargo is in force for a longer period of time. After the embargo is withdrawn, the price on the market may have changed significantly, which indicates a financial sacrifice for a seller if he has to provide specific performance to the buyer. The question thus is whether the seller, after a prolonged economic sanctions is withdrawn, still is obliged to provide specific performance?The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is applicable where both parties are signatories to CISG or by rules of international private law. To require performance as a buyer is a general right in Article 46 CISG, but there are exceptions to this rule in Article 28 CISG. Article 28 CISG states that if one party is entitled to require performance of any obligation by the other party, a court is not bound to enter a judgment for specific performance unless the court would do so under its own law in respect of similar contracts of sale not governed by this Convention. Since CISG advocates a harmonized application of international trade, the right to specific performance cannot be waived just on the basis of Article 28 CISG alone. With regard to good faith in international trade in Article 7 (1) CISG, the principle of reasonableness, which is a general principle that the CISG is based upon in accordance with Article 7 (2) CISG and 7.2.2 (b) UPICC, and with the support of international usage regularity observed in the trade concerned in Article 9 CISG, the right to specific performance does not exist anymore after a prolonged embargo has been withdrawn.


The emergence of spilled markets and dense residential neighborhoods on the river banks in AstanaAnyar, is one of the impacts that caused by land crisis phenomenon occurred in the city center of Bandung. AstanaAnyar market and dense housing conditions fueled the emergence of a slum environment. Standing between tworivers and low land contours causes Astana Anyar market and the surrounding housing environment have a hugethreat of flooding due to river floods during heavy rains and exacerbate existing environmental conditions.Standing in the city center of Bandung, Astana Anyar market and the surrounding housing location areahave an opportunity of building structures toward vertical buildings and development feasibility on high-valueland locations that meet market prices in the city center.Degradation of environmental conditions that occur, causing housing conditions to be unfit and unhealthyfor the community. In addition, Astana Anyar market also experienced a decline in its quality as one of theimportant economic drivers. In this condition, Astana Anyar market and the surrounding housing environmentneed an innovative solution to structuring the dense residential and market environment.By conducting direct observation and interviews to the local community and market users, this researchattemps to examine deeper about the problems and potential that exist, so that could be used as a referenceformulation of design innovation solutions that could be done as an effort to structuring the dense housing andmarket to be sustainable environment.


Future lensing surveys will be nearly full-sky and reach an unprecedented depth, probing scales closer and closer to the Hubble radius. This motivates the study of the cosmic shear beyond the small-angle approximation and including general relativistic corrections that are usually suppressed on sub-Hubble scales. The complete expression of the reduced cosmic shear at second order including all relativistic effects was derived in [1]. In the present paper we compute the resulting cosmic shear bispectrum when all these effects are properly taken into account and we compare it to primordial non-Gaussianity of the local type. The new general relativistic effects are generically smaller than the standard non-linear couplings. However, their relative importance increases at small multipoles and for small redshifts of the sources. The dominant effect among these non standard corrections is due to the inhomogeneity of the source redshift. In the squeezed limit, its amplitude can become of the order of the standard couplings when the redshift of the sources is below 0.5. Moreover, while the standard non-linear couplings depend on the angle between the short and long mode, the relativistic corrections do not and overlap almost totally with local type non-Gaussianity. We find that they can contaminate the search for a primordial local signal by f_NL>10.


A current trend in power electronics is the integration of power supplies. In this field, electromagnetic transformers may be replaced by piezoelectric transformers (PT). In a PT, the input electrical energy is transferred to the output through a mechanical wave using the direct and converse effects of piezoelectric materials. It has been proved that PT exhibit suitable characteristic, good integration capability and several advantages (high insulation, gain ...), but it also shows the difficulty to work with variable load. It is very difficult to make it functioning at its maximum power point because the resonance frequency, which corresponds to a maximum power, depends strongly on the load. In this paper, two methods of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) are presented: the first one is the classical method of frequency regulation with a phase locked loop (PLL), and the second one is a new method, it is based on a phase regulation between the output voltage and the mechanical vibration velocity of the PT. This is an innovative non-linear processing technique derived from the so-called 'synchronized switch damping' technique (SSD) that was developed to address the structural damping problem. A comparison of the performances of these two kinds of MPPT is presented. The study and comparisons are carried out with the same transformer in two DC-DC converters.


It was in the early 1990s that an appeal was made, both in India and globally, for access to palliative care to be treated as a human rights issue. Over the past few years, India has witnessed robust advocacy efforts which push for the consideration of palliative care and pain management as a human right. Central to this paper is India's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985: its genesis, its critique, and the amendments aimed at enhancing access to the NDPS for medical care and research. I refer to the advocacy efforts in India, particularly the most recent ones, which led to the amendments to the NDPS Act, 1985 in February 2014; and the contribution of the global and local human rights discourse on palliative care to these efforts. This I situate in the overall status of palliative care in India. Towards the end, I briefly set out the agenda that should be pursued in the coming years to enhance access to controlled medicines for pain management and palliative care.


Over the past four decades, the clinical care of people living with HIV (PLWH) evolved from treatment of acute opportunistic infections to the management of chronic, non-communicable comorbidities. Concurrently, our understanding of adipose tissue function matured to acknowledge its important endocrine contributions to energy balance. PLWH experience changes in the mass and composition of adipose tissue depots before and after initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART), including regional loss (lipoatrophy), gain (lipohypertrophy), or mixed lipodystrophy. These conditions may coexist with generalized obesity in PLWH and reflect disturbances of energy balance regulation caused by HIV persistence and ART drugs. Adipocyte hypertrophy characterizes visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue depot (SAT) expansion, as well as ectopic lipid deposition that occurs diffusely in the liver, skeletal muscle, and heart. PLWH with excess VAT exhibit adipokine dysregulation coupled with increased insulin resistance, heightening their risk for cardiovascular disease above that of the HIV-negative population. However, conventional therapies are ineffective for the management of cardiometabolic risk in this patient population. Although the knowledge of complex cardiometabolic comorbidities in PLWH continues to expand, significant knowledge gaps remain. Ongoing studies aimed at understanding interorgan communication and energy balance provide insights into metabolic observations in PLWH and reveal potential therapeutic targets. Our review focuses on current knowledge and recent advances in HIV-associated adipose tissue dysfunction, highlights emerging adipokine paradigms, and describes critical mechanistic and clinical insights.


In the article the author considers the actual problem of the modern economy the possibility of application of management technologies to increase the efficiency of management of the organization. In the article presents basic definitions and characteristics, which characterize the technology management as a system and process. The author gives the classification of management technologies, determine the possibility of their application in modern economic conditions.


Time-dependent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and combustion modeling is used to predict burning velocity of fuel-air mixtures in a closed vessel and swirlstabilized reacting flow in a representative turbine engine fuel nozzle. The purpose of the modeling is the development of analysis techniques for studying the effect of fuel flexibility in gas turbine engines. In the closed-vessel case, the fuel burning velocity is computed from the spherically propagating flame in the same way that an equivalent experiment would be performed using premixed gases. This model can be used as a guide for designing and performing flame speed experiments at gas turbine conditions. In the turbine engine fuel nozzle, an experimentally characterized, swirl-stabilized reacting flow is investigated with regard to ignition, piloting, flame stability, and pollutant emissions. Simulations using both unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes' (URANS) and Large -Eddy Simulation (LES) techniques, together with accurate geometry modeling, establish the aerodynamic and combustion flow environment and provide good agreement with experimental data for pollutant emissions. It was found that modeling the full geometry of the fuel injector produced the best agreement with available data and was superior than assuming an axisymmetric geometry with premixed fuel and air. The model can be used as a starting point for parametric studies related to fuel flexibility simulations.


ABSTRACT The interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) binds to IL-1 receptors and inhibits IL-1 activity. However, it is not clear whether IL-1Ra plays a protective role in periodontal disease. This study was undertaken to compare experimental periodontitis induced by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans in IL-1Ra knockout (KO) mice and wild-type (WT) mice. Computed tomography (CT) analysis and hematoxylin-and-eosin (H&E) and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining were performed. In addition, osteoblasts were isolated; the mRNA expression of relevant genes was assessed by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR); and calcification was detected by Alizarin Red staining. Infected IL-1Ra KO mice exhibited elevated (P, <0.05) levels of antibody against A. actinomycetemcomitans, bone loss in furcation areas, and alveolar fenestrations. Moreover, protein for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and IL-6, mRNA for macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), and receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) in IL-1Ra KO mouse osteoblasts stimulated with A. actinomycetemcomitans were increased (P, <0.05) compared to in WT mice. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), bone sialoprotein (BSP), osteocalcin (OCN)/bone gla protein (BGP), and runt-related gene 2 (Runx2) mRNA levels were decreased (P, <0.05). IL-1α mRNA expression was increased, and calcification was not observed, in IL-1 Ra KO mouse osteoblasts. In brief, IL-1Ra deficiency promoted the expression of inflammatory cytokines beyond IL-1 and altered the expression of genes involved in bone resorption in A. actinomycetemcomitans-infected osteoblasts. Alterations consistent with rapid bone loss in infected IL-Ra KO mice were also observed for genes expressed in bone formation and calcification. In short, these data suggest that IL-1Ra may serve as a potential therapeutic drug for periodontal disease.


In this paper, study of dielectric properties of two types of nanocomposites are (PVA-PEG-PVP-MgO) and (PVA-PEG-PVPCoO) in frequency range (100 Hz5 MHz). The (PVA-PEG-PVP-MgO) and (PVA-PEG-PVP-CoO) nanocomposites have been prepared by casting technique. The dielectric parameters (dielectric constant, dielectric loss and A.C electrical conductivity) are increasing with the increase of concentrations of magnesium oxide and cobalt oxide nanoparticles. Also, the dielectric properties change with increasing of the frequency of applied electrical field.


A simple model of the low temperature phases of the diatomic molecular solids is examined. The model consists of molecules, interacting via a Lennard-Jones atom-atom potential and quadrupole-quadrupole interactions. The internal energy of any crystallographic structure (excluding thermal effects) can then be given in terms of two dimensionless parameters, which describe the deviation of the molecular shape from a sphere and the relative importance of the quadrupole energy. The minimum energies and optimum molecular configurations in several structures are computed, for values of these dimensionless variables which span the values appropriate to the actual homonuclear diatomic molecular solids, H2, N2, O2, F2, Cl2, Br2 and I2. Despite its great simplicity, the model is able to explain several features of these structures. These are (i) o-H2 and N2 have the optimum quadrupole structure, Pa3; (ii) β-O2 is one of the optimum van der Waals' structures, R3¯m; (iii) the monoclinic α-F2 structure is the most stable structure for parameter values very close to those appropriate to F2; (iv) the ortho-rhombic Cmca structure (observed for Cl2, Br2 and I2) is the most stable structure for a large range of quadrupole moments which may be appropriate to these molecules. The model, is, of course, unable to take into account intermolecular bonding or spin-dependent interatomic forces. The former is important for the halogens and the latter for the (magnetic) oxygen molecule. The case of α-O2 is treated in the following paper.


Genital tuberculosis is considered an unusual disease in our country. Mainly, we are dealing with post-primary forms, usually asymptomatic. Before the appearance of tuberculostatics, the most frequent and serious form of disease was peritoneal tuberculosis. The expectations during the eighties about pulmonary tuberculosis and extra pulmonary forms were mostly concerned with a progressive reduction on the incidences, to reach a disease control. However, the tuberculosis rates in Mexico are currently high, mostly due to the enormous reservoir in the general population (people infected but lacking treatment), and the marginal population (baciliferous patients with no possibility of registration or being part of contact studies). The increasing incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis can explain the increase of extra pulmonary forms, such as urogenital disease.


Effects of ionizing radiation on single event transients are reported for Fully Depleted SOI (FDSOI) technology using experiments and simulations. Logic circuits, i.e. CMOS inverter chains, were irradiated with cobalt-60 gamma radiation. When charge is induced in the n-channel FET with laser-probing techniques, laser-induced transients widen with increased total dose. This is because radiation causes charge to be trapped in the buried oxide, and reduces the p-channel FET drive current. When the p-channel FET drive current is reduced, the time required to restore the output of the laser-probed FET back to its original condition is increased, i.e. the upset transient width is increased. A widening of the transient pulse is also observed when a positive bias is applied to the wafer without any exposure to radiation. This is because a positive wafer bias reproduces the shifts in FET threshold voltages that occur during total dose irradiation. Results were also verified with heavy ion testing and mixed mode simulations.


Partial molar thermodynamic quantities for oxygen in sub-stoichiometric cerium oxides (Ce00 ), plutonium oxides (PuO, ) and mixed uranium -plutonium oxides ((U, PuJO, ) were determined by thermogravimetric analysis in atmospheres of controlled oxygen pressures (COn/CO mixtures) in the temperature range 900-1450 C. Detailed analysis of the data obtained showed that the non-stoichiometric phase ranges for the three oxide-systems, which were previously described as a single, grossly nonstoichiometric phase, can be divided into several subregions each consisting of an apparent non-stoichiometric single phase. The finer details of the thermodynamic data, however, suggest that some of these subregions can be further split into ordered intermediate phases with compositions following the series ML02 2In order to verify some of the thermodynamic findings, supplementary high-temperature X-ray diffraction studies were made on C eO" at temperatures up to 855 C. At the higher temperatures between 790 and 855 C, a new phase of low symmetry was obtained. Indexing the powder pattern for this phase showed it to be isostructural with Pr eO., and with a monoclinic unit cell with a = 6. 78! 10.006 A, b = 11. 893-0.009 A, c * 15.823 0.015 A and p" 125.04 0.04°. The CegO.. phase observed in the X-ray studies corresponds to one of the intermediate phases inferred from the thermodynamic data. Supplementary high resolution electron microscopy studies were also conducted on reduced single crystals of CeO«. On some particles reduced by beam heating in the microscope, a lamellae structure was observed and a model involving crystallographic shearing is proposed to explain this observation. In other beam-heated particles diffraction patterns were observed corresponding to the monoclinic superstructure found in the high-


In this review, the standard medical treatment of patients with colorectal cancer in Denmark is outlined in a pragmatic way. Three typical patient scenarios are described: the post-operative adjuvant setting, the patient with curable metastasis and the patient in palliative treatment. The biomedical knowledge about the disease and treatment options should always be combined with a patient-centered approach in order to individualise the treatment according to the patient's values. Furthermore, suggestions for the timing of rehabilitation, palliative care and advance care planning are given.


A stability indicating RP-HPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of Salicylic acid in Trilisate tablets using Xorabax XBD C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with mobile phase consisting of Phosphate buffer (pH 3.0), methanol (80:20 v/v) with a flow rate of 1ml/min. Detection was carried out at 230 nm. Retention time was found to be 4.6 min. Linearity was observed over the concentration range of 5-30 μg/ml (R2=0.999) with regression equation y=30.55x+5.302. Salicylic acid was subjected to stress conditions including acidic, alkaline, photolysis and thermal degradation. The drug is more sensitive towards alkaline degradation. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines.


D-Amino acids are now increasingly recognized as physiologically functional molecules and biomarkers in mammals. However, the amounts of D-amino acids are extremely low in most cases, thus highly sensitive and selective analytical methods are practically essential. In the present review article, enantioselective two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatographic (2D-HPLC) methods are introduced and their applications to the determination of D-amino acids in mammalian samples are described. For the sensitive determination, amino acid enantiomers are derivatized with 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-F), and are determined by a fluorescence detector. The 2D-HPLC system consists of the reversed-phase non-enantioselective, but chemoselective separation of NBD-amino acids in the first dimension, and the sequential chiral separation in the second dimension. By using the system, neuroactive D-amino acids (D-Ser and D-Ala) were determined in the brain of various mammalian species and the regulation of their intrinsic amounts are also demonstrated. The physiological and diagnostic meanings of the trace amounts of D-Ser are also discussed. The 2D-HPLC systems for the acidic D-amino acids (D-Asp and D-Glu), proline analogues (D-Pro, transand cis-4-hydroxy-D-Pro) and hydrophilic D-amino acids (D-Arg, D-Asn, D-Asp, D-Gln, D-Glu, D-His, D-Ser, D-allo-Thr and D-Thr) are also shown.


Routine laboratory testing is done throughout the year to determine the quality of forest seeds. This raises the question of how the results are affected by possible seasonal effects on germination energy and germination capacity of seeds. To answer this question, fluctuations in germination energy (GE) and germination capacity (GC) of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) seed was determined throughout the year. The test seeds had been stored for either a short time (2 months and 1 year) or a long time (12 and 13 years). Seed testing was done according to ISTA rules two times (in the first year T1 and the second year T2) in each month during a year. Ten seed lots from five Norway spruce seed zones in Slovakia were used for each treatment. Obtained data were processed by analysis of covariance (independent factors – T and months, covariate – altitude of seed origin). The monthly germination indicators were compared to annual average (using absolute differences and relative seasonal indexes). The results showed that GE and GC of short-term stored seeds were 59% and 92%, and 35% and 81% for long-term stored seeds. Compared to the annual average, the monthly germination indicators fluctuated very differently: for GE three times more than for GC, for long-term stored seeds 2–3 times more than for short-term stored seeds. For GE, significant deviations were found in six months during a year (in the range 11–23%), for both variants of seed storage. In contrast, for GC values such deviations were confirmed only for short-term stored seeds in February and March, but the differences (–2%) were very small and can be neglected. For use in forestry practice, three methods that eliminate existing seasonal fluctuations are proposed. Seasonal indexes seem promising since they enable converting the observed germination indicators at any one time to a value characterising the entire year average (formula 3).


BACKGROUND
the red cell distribution width (RDW), an automated measure of variability in the red blood cell size on full blood count (FBC) is an independent predictor of mortality in several disease states and in healthy older people.

OBJECTIVE
we wanted to determine the prognostic value of RDW in patients following a hip fracture-a condition associated with high mortality.

DESIGN
we examined the relationship between admission RDW and mortality in 698 consecutive patients admitted with hip fracture.

METHOD
regression analysis was used to examine admission RDW and subsequent mortality, adjusting for admission haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, age, gender, pre-morbid residence and independence level, Charlson co-morbidity index and post-operative complications.

RESULTS
the mean age was 78 ± 13 years. Unadjusted 1-year mortality was 12, 15, 29 and 36% across quartiles of increasing RDW. Along with age and post-operative complications, RDW remained significantly associated with in-hospital, 120-day and 1-year mortality [adjusted hazard ratios: HR: 1.119, 95% CI: (1.000-1.253), P = 0.05, 1.134 (1.047-1.227), P = 0.004 and 1.131 (1.067-1.199), P < 0.001, respectively]. These relationships remained significant at all three time points on repeat analysis in non-anaemic patients (n = 548).

CONCLUSION
RDW, a widely available parameter on FBC, is independently associated with an increased risk of short- and long-term mortality following hip fracture.


The native TRH receptor (TRH-R), which is a G protein-coupled receptor that signals via the phosphoinositide transduction pathway, has been assumed to be inactive in the absence of agonist. In contrast, a mutant mouse TRH-R (C335Stop TRH-R) was shown previously to exhibit constitutive (or agonist-independent) signaling activity. In this report, we measured signaling activity of TRH-Rs using a protein kinase C-responsive reporter gene instead of formation of inositol phosphate second messenger molecules. Using this more sensitive system, we show that native mouse TRH-Rs exhibit agonist-independent signaling activity that is directly proportional to the number of receptors expressed in COS-1 cells and is inhibited by negative antagonist benzodiazepine drugs. As expected, the basal signaling activity of native TRH-Rs is lower than C335Stop TRH-Rs. Constitutive activity of native TRH-Rs is not peculiar to COS-1 cells in which receptor density is markedly elevated, because it can also be demonstrated in Madin Darby canine kidney cells stably expressing mouse TRH-Rs and GH4C1 cells endogenously expressing rat TRH-Rs. These findings support the thesis that native TRH-Rs oscillate between active and inactive states. We suggest that demonstration of constitutive activity of native receptors may depend on the sensitivity of the signaling assay employed.


Finishing operations represent a crucial stage in manufacturing, where it is necessary either to remove unwanted material from a part, or provide aspect features to it. This includes smoothing, polishing and machining-alike solutions. In this paper, a new methodology to approach the automation of finishing processes in manufacturing, is presented. Four main steps are defined: part measuring, path creation, finishing operation, and part verification. Two use cases, belonging to real workplaces in an automotive factory of the Stellantis group, are presented as validation scenarios. One of these, a cyber-physical system to deburr a weld beam between two parts of complex geometry, has been successfully working in-line for the last ten years. This represents an improvement of the ergonomics of the operators and their working conditions, as well as a reduction of costs. This shows that the automation of finishing process means an opportunity to increase productivity, quality and efficiency in the factory.


Elevations in branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in human obesity were first reported in the 1960s. Such reports are of interest because of the emerging role of BCAAs as potential regulators of satiety, leptin, glucose, cell signaling, adiposity, and body weight (mTOR and PKC). To explore loss of catabolic capacity as a potential contributor to the obesity-related rises in BCAAs, we assessed the first two enzymatic steps, catalyzed by mitochondrial branched chain amino acid aminotransferase (BCATm) or the branched chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKD E1alpha subunit) complex, in two rodent models of obesity (ob/ob mice and Zucker rats) and after surgical weight loss intervention in humans. Obese rodents exhibited hyperaminoacidemia including BCAAs. Whereas no obesity-related changes were observed in rodent skeletal muscle BCATm, pS293, or total BCKD E1alpha or BCKD kinase, in liver BCKD E1alpha was either unaltered or diminished by obesity, and pS293 (associated with the inactive state of BCKD) increased, along with BCKD kinase. In epididymal fat, obesity-related declines were observed in BCATm and BCKD E1alpha. Plasma BCAAs were diminished by an overnight fast coinciding with dissipation of the changes in adipose tissue but not in liver. BCAAs also were reduced by surgical weight loss intervention (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass) in human subjects studied longitudinally. These changes coincided with increased BCATm and BCKD E1alpha in omental and subcutaneous fat. Our results are consistent with the idea that tissue-specific alterations in BCAA metabolism, in liver and adipose tissue but not in muscle, may contribute to the rise in plasma BCAAs in obesity.


Background. The drive for muscularity in men is associated with a negative body image, psychosocial, and physiological outcomes. The aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of the Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS-LT) and associated characteristics in the sample of young adults (men). Methods. The sample consisted of 763 male students. The ages ranged from 18 to 32 years, with a mean age of 20.4 ( SD = 3.1). Participants completed the Lithuanian translation of DMS-LT alongside with the measures of disordered eating, sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire, body mass index, self-esteem, and participation in sports. Results. The instrument showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .92) and test-retest reliability ( ICC = .87). The two-dimensional factor structure of the proposed original scale was not confirmed. DMS-LT was negatively correlated with self-esteem. Positive associations were observed between DMS-LT, muscular/athletic body ideal internalization, and disordered eating. Drive for muscularity attitudes and behaviors were more expressed in male students attending sports clubs. Conclusions. The results of the present study support the psychometric properties of the DMS-LT and its' use in Lithuanian samples of young men. The instrument might also be used in clinical practice. It is important to develop prevention programs that decrease body image concerns and prevent disordered eating in young men. Keywords: drive for muscularity, body image, psychometric properties of the scale, students.


A survey was conducted in Auckland, New Zealand to obtain some information about exnuptial conception. The study subjects came from 2 main sources: antenatal clinics at the teaching obstetric hospital; and a hostel/hospital catering to unmarried mothers only. The clinic group was comprised of all unmarried primagravida attending over a 3 month period--Group 1 (n=92). Toward the end of this 3-month period it was decided to obtain contrast groups by interviewing all married primigravidae under the age of 23. About half of those interviewed in the married group had participated in "shotgun" weddings--Group 3 (n=22). Those who successfully avoided pregnancy before marriage formed Group 4 (n=23). The hostel group--Group 2 (n=22)--was necessarily somewhat different. The authorities allowed only volunteers to be interviewed, and the sample turned out to be ethnically and educationally advantaged over the clinic group. The hostel group was analyzed separately at all times. The data concerning conception was in the main retrospective and is subject to an unknown reminiscence error. Although not statistically significant, the study suggested that females who continue unmarried throughout their pregnancy are younger than those who marry because of the pregnancy (pregnant/married), and this latter group in turn are younger than those who manage to avoid pregnancy until after marriage (married/pregnant). If one excludes the highly selected hostel population, there was little difference across groups except that Catholics in general appear to be least successful in avoiding extranuptial conceptions, particularly those leading to "shotgun" weddings. The 3 clinic groups did not differ markedly in educational attainment or socioeconomic status as judged by the women's father's occupation so that advantaged status did not appear to protect against exnuptial preg nancy. Most had had some sex education, and mother and school were the primary sources of the information. Only 4 women, all in the single group, seemed not to have known clearly that unprotected sexual intercourse is the cause of pregnancy. Although over 1/3 of the women or their partners had used contraceptive methods at some time, mostly oral contraception and the condom, only 15-20% were using a method at the time of conception and unreliable methods dominated with the pill failures being due mostly to failure to take it regularly. At a conscious level at least, the prospect of pregnancy was simply not considered as a risk in the 2 extranuptially confined groups; the 2 married groups had better realization of the possibility of pregnancy.


During the last 20 years many technological advances have inundated the entire spectrum of our everyday lives. None of these advances has had such an impact like the IT revolution which can only compare with the Industrial Revolution of the 18 th Century. The advent and acceptance of Information Technology as the norm rather the exception has seen this sector move from a tedious and cumbersome manually managed and run sector, to an almost paperless industry that is almost entirely dependent on Information Systems. With the growth of the dependency on IT, the impact of risk concerns on the development and exploitation of information systems has also increased exponentially. Within the financial services industry, risk management involves assessing and quantifying business risks, then taking measures to control or reduce them. These methods are generally built around a well structured process. However, the product coming from the different risk management steps is still largely informal, and often not analytical enough. This lack of formality hinders the automation of the management of risk-related information. Furthermore, these risk management system focuses on specific phases of the software life cycle, without recognizing that risks in one stage can have an impact on other stages. This necessitates the proposed study in order to propose a generic approach that may be deployed to mitigate risks from the early stages of financial information systems development for daily financial institution operations until the post-implementation phases. This paper proposes a new approach for performing a risk analysis study of financial information systems. It is aimed at developing a generic approach for Risk Analysis and Management applicable from the early phases of information system development unlike in the existing models which are applied after the development process. It can be utilized for identifying and valuating the assets, threats, and vulnerabilities of the information system, followed by a graphical modeling of their interrelationships using Bayesian Networks. The proposed approach will exploit the results of the risk analysis for developing a Bayesian Network model, which presents concisely all the interactions of the undesirable events for the system. Based on "what–if" studies of system operation, the Bayesian Network model identifies and prioritizes the most critical events. Keywords: Riks, risk management, Bayesian Network model


To be effective for automation, in practice, system models used for performance prediction and behavior checking must be robust. They must be able to cope with component upgrades, misconfigurations, and workload-system interactions that were not anticipated. This paper promotes making models self-evolving, such that they continuously evaluate their accuracy and adjust their predictions accordingly. Such self-evaluation also enables confidence values to be provided with predictions, including identification of situations where no trustworthy prediction can be produced. With a combination of expectation-based and observationbased techniques, we believe that such self-evolving models can be achieved and used as a robust foundation for tuning, problem diagnosis, capacity planning, and administration tasks.


Ligamentum flavum hematoma is a rare cause of root or spinal cord compression. It has been defined in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar segments of the spine. Patients may present with the following symptoms radicular pain, hypoesthesia, loss of muscle power, and cauda equina syndrome due to the anatomic level of the lesion. Magnetic resonance imaging may provide helpful clues in the differential diagnosis of the disease. However, its diagnosis is established with intraoperative and pathological findings. Surgical decompression is the only therapeutic approach reported in the literature. Herein, we present a new case of ligamentum flavum hematoma as a possible cause of failed back in a 75-year old a man who had been operated three times before. After the last surgery, the complaints of the patient were resolved and the histopathological diagnosis was consistent with ligamentum flavum hematoma.


There have been very few empirical studies investigating the value enhancement effects of refurbishment and most rely on cross‐sectional data, which cannot show the before and after effects conclusively because of the heterogeneous nature of the properties. The problem of refurbishment is more complicated in buildings or housing estates with multiple‐ownerships, since refurbishment is a collective decision, which can sometimes be difficult to achieve. Uses panel data in Hong Kong to estimate the impact of refurbishment on the market value of properties in a large housing estate. The results show that the refurbishment brought about approximately a 9 per cent increase in the market value of the properties, which far exceeds the cost of refurbishment. Suggests that property owners of a housing estate will benefit if they can reach a collective decision on renovation.


This article examines the meaning and nature of goodwill in several tax contexts. It examines the concept of goodwill as it relates to the relevant areas of tax legislation, rather than examining these areas of legislation themselves. First the legal concept of goodwill is examined based on relevant case law in the United Kingdom and Australia, and consideration is given to the important High Court case of FCT v Murry, as well as to the accounting concept of goodwill where appropriate. Goodwill is then examined in the following contexts: stamp duties; income tax including capital expenditures; the consolidation regime; and the goods and services tax. While the legal concept is found to apply generally in taxation, accounting and other conceptions also play a part in appropriate circumstances.


Biochar amendment to agricultural soil is regarded as a promising option to mitigate climate change and enhance soil quality. It could sequester more carbon within the soil system and increase plant yield by changing soil physicochemical characteristics. However, sustainable use of biochar requires comprehensive environmental assessment. In this sense, it is important to measure additional greenhouse gas emission from soils after biochar addition. We investigated emissions of CO2, N2O, and CH4 from incubated soils collected from rice paddy and cultivated grassland after amendment of 3% biochar (wt.) produced from rice chaff. During incubation, soils were exposed to three wet-dry cycles ranging from 5~85% soil gravimetric water content (WC) to investigate the changes in effect of biochar when influenced by different water levels. The CO2 emission was reduced in biochar treatment compared to the control at WC of 30~70% both in rice paddy and grassland soils. This indicates that biochar could function as a stabilizer for soil organic carbon and it can be effective in carbon sequestration. The N2O emission was also reduced from the grassland soil treated with biochar when WC was greater than 30% because the biochar treated soils had lower denitrification due to better aeration. In the rice paddy soil, biochar addition resulted in decrease in N2O emission when WC was greater than 70%, while an increase was noted when WC was between 30~70%. This increase might be related to the fact that available nutrients on biochar surface stimulated existing nitrifying bacterial community, resulting in higher N2O emission. Overall results imply that biochar amendment to agricultural soil can stabilize soil carbon from fast decomposition although attention should be paid to additional N2O emission when biochar addition is combined with the application of nitrogen fertilizer.


The Tatary district is located in the central-east part of Lublin. It includes the first Lublin's multi-dwelling residential estate neighbouring buzzing streets and large industrial facilities, built according to modern architectural and urban concepts. The residential estate, erected starting in the 1950', served as a model for subsequent large residential estates of Lublin. The technical solutions introduced in the Tatary buildings translated into a new standard of living and functional solutions that were unique within the traditional city tissue, shaping it permanently. After almost 60 years, the estate is facing a number of problems due to political, planning and architectural decisions. This article aims at describing and evaluating these past solutions.


Many crop genetic resources collections have been established without a clearly defined conservation goal or mandate, which has resulted in collections of considerable size, unbalanced composition and high levels of duplication. Attempts to improve the composition of collections are hampered by the fact that conceptual views to optimize collection composition are very rare. An optimization strategy is proposed herein, which largely builds on the concepts of core collection and core selection. The proposed strategy relies on hierarchically structuring the crop gene pool and assigning a relative importance to each of its different components. Comparison of the resulting optimized distribution of the number of accessions with the actual distribution allows identification of under- and over-representation within a collection. Application of this strategy is illustrated by an example using potato. The proposed optimization strategy is applicable not only to individual genebanks, but also to consortia of cooperating genebanks, which makes it relevant for ongoing activities within projects that aim at sharing responsibilities among institutions on the basis of rational conservation, such as a European genebank integrated system and the global cacao genetic resources network CacaoNet.


Diffusion of platinum at low temperatures is a convenient way to characterize vacancy profiles in silicon. This article summarizes the experiments performed to find a standard procedure, discusses the pitfalls and limitations, and shows the applicability of the method. The results of experiments with float-zone and Czochralski-grown samples in the temperature range from 680 to 842 °C were found to disagree with the predictions of models published in the literature. Therefore, parameters governing the diffusion of point defects and platinum in silicon were determined for this temperature range.


In practice, there are several applications in which logistics service providers determine the service time windows at the customers, for example, in parcel delivery, retail, and repair services. These companies face uncertain travel times and service times that have to be taken into account when determining the time windows and routes prior to departure. The objective of the proposed robust vehicle routing problem with time window assignments (RVRP-TWA) is to simultaneously determine routes and time window assignments such that the expected travel time and the risk of violating the time windows are minimized. We assume that the travel time probability distributions are not completely known but that some statistics, such as the mean, minimum, and maximum, can be estimated. We extend the robust framework based on the requirements' violation index, which was originally developed for the case where the specific requirements (time windows) are given as inputs, to the case where they are also part of the decisions. The subproblem of finding the optimal time window assignment for the customers in a given route is shown to be convex, and the subgradients can be derived. The RVRP-TWA is solved by iteratively generating subgradient cuts from the subproblem that are added in a branch-and-cut fashion. Experiments address the performance of the proposed solution approach and examine the trade-off between expected travel time and risk of violating the time windows.


Purpose: To assess the clinical course of patients diagnosed as having "epiploic appendagitis" who are given only NSAIDs without antibiotic treatment. Materials and Methods: Between December 2010 and November 2013, twelve patients were presented to the Emergency Surgery Department, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul University with abdominal pain and were diagnosed having "epiploic appendagitis". The diagnoses were made using the information gathered from patients' complaints, physical examination, biochemical results, and radiologic images (Abdominal X-Ray, Abdominal Ultrasonography [USG], and Contrast-Enhanced Computerized Tomography [CT]). We evaluated and recorded the patients' age distribution, sex difference, laboratory results, radiologic images, length of hospital stay, and control exams after discharge. Results: Twelve out of 35,574 (0.033%) patients who were presented to our Emergency Surgery Department with abdominal pain and were hospitalized as "epiploic appendagitis". Of these 12 patients, 7 were male (58.3%), and 5 were female (41.7%). The mean age of the patients was 43.5 (range: 22 to 60). The mean time passed between the beginning of the symptoms and presentation to the hospital was 1 day. The length of hospital stay was 1 to 2 days with a mean of 1.3 days. All patients were followed-up non-invasively under NSAID treatment without antibiotherapy. No complications were observed throughout the hospitalization period. The follow-up period of the patients was between 2 to 31 months with a mean of 16 months. Conclusion: Epiploic appendagitis is a self-limiting, benign disease, but differential diagnosis should be done carefully. Patients who are diagnosed with epiploic appendagitis may be followed-up with NSAIDs alone without hospitalization or antibiotherapy.


We have re-evaluated the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) 12C/13C ratios in the upper atmosphere of Titan based on new calibration sensitivities and an improved model for the NH3 background in the 13CH4 mass channel. The INMS measurements extrapolated to the surface give a 12C/13C in CH4 of 88.5 ± 1.4. We compare the results to a revised ratio of 91.1 ± 1.4 provided by the Huygens Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer and 86.5 ± 7.9 provided by the Cassini Infrared Spectrometer and determine implications of the revised ratios for the evolution of methane in Titan's atmosphere. Because the measured 12C/13C is within the probable range of primordial values, we can only determine an upper boundary for the length of time since methane began outgassing from the interior, assuming that outgassing of methane (e.g., cryovolcanic activity) has been continuous ever since. We find that three factors play a crucial role in this timescale: (1) the escape rate of methane, (2) the difference between the current and initial ratios and the rate of methane, and (3) production or resupply due to cryovolcanic activity. We estimate an upper limit for the outgassing timescale of 470 Myr. This duration can be extended to 940 Myr if production rates are large enough to counteract the fractionation due to escape and photochemistry. There is no lower limit to the timescale because the current ratios are within the range of possible primordial values.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the case of a patient with paratesticular hemangiopericytoma and to perform a bibliographic review.

METHODS
We describe the case of a patient with paratesticular hemangiopericytoma. We conducted an exhaustive literature review in different databases to support the case discussion.

RESULTS
We present the case of a 64 year old male with a progressively growing mass in the right scrotum that underwent complete resection of the mass. The result of the pathology report was hemangiopericytoma / solitary fibrous tumor and we present the treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
We present a rare case of paratesticular hemangiopericytoma. Most of these have a benign outcome, but one must take into account the criteria of malignancy to make decisions regarding their management.


This article reports on some of the research findings of a major, multi-site case study of character formation in young people in England. Religion was not the focus of this research, but emerged as significant in each case study. In particular, the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices of young people were positively connected with their level of community involvement. The research provides evidence that indicates an association between young religious believers and those who are constructively engaged in both their communities as well as being politically minded. The main methods of data collection for this article included semi-structured discussions/interviews together with semi-structured individual and questionnaire surveys.


Plane fitting is a fundamental operation for point cloud data processing. Most existing methods for point cloud plane fitting have been developed based on high-quality Lidar data giving equal weight to the point cloud data. In recent years, using low-quality RGB-Depth (RGB-D) sensors to generate 3D models has attracted much attention. However, with low-quality point cloud data, equal weight plane fitting methods are not optimal as the range errors of RGB-D sensors are distance-related. In this paper, we developed an accurate plane fitting method for a structured light (SL)-based RGB-D sensor. First, we derived an error model of a point cloud dataset from the SL-based RGB-D sensor through error propagation from the raw measurement to the point coordinates. A new cost function based on minimizing the radial distances with the derived rigorous error model was then proposed for the random sample consensus (RANSAC)-based plane fitting method. The experimental results demonstrated that our method is robust and practical for different operating ranges and different working conditions. In the experiments, for the operating ranges from 1.23 meters to 4.31 meters, the mean plane angle errors were about one degree, and the mean plane distance errors were less than six centimeters. When the dataset is of a large-depth-measurement scale, the proposed method can significantly improve the plane fitting accuracy, with a plane angle error of 0.5 degrees and a mean distance error of 4.7 cm, compared to 3.8 degrees and 16.8 cm, respectively, from the conventional un-weighted RANSAC method. The experimental results also demonstrate that the proposed method is applicable for different types of SL-based RGB-D sensor. The rigorous error model of the SL-based RGB-D sensor is essential for many applications such as in outlier detection and data authorization. Meanwhile, the precise plane fitting method developed in our research will benefit algorithms based on high-accuracy plane features such as depth calibration, 3D feature-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and the generation of indoor building information models (BIMs).


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of USA sets the Maximum Contamination Level (MCL) for 222Rn in drinking water to be 11.1000 Bq/l and for 226Ra to be 0.1100 Bq/l. This study was conducted to determine the levels of 222Rn and 226Ra in private well water in the state of Kelantan. A total of 25 samples of well water were collected from various districts in the state. The levels of 222Rn and 226Ra dissolved in well water were measured using the liquid scintillation counting technique. 222Rn activity concentrations were found within the range of 0.0491 to 4.3127 Bq/l for both unfiltered and filtered samples. Meanwhile, activity concentration of 226Ra measured is between 0.0278 to 1.9670 Bq/l for both unfiltered and filtered samples, exceeding the MCL value. The annual effective doses due to the intake of natural radionuclide from well water for three different age groups were estimated based on the amount of water consumed. The average annual effective dose of 226Ra calculated for babies in the range of 0.12 to 1.79 µSv/y. The average annual effective dose of 226Ra for children was in the range of 0.11 to 0.34 µSv/y while, for the adults, it was in the range of 0.11 to 0.33 µSv/y for 226Ra. The annual effective dose intake for the babies was found to be higher than other groups but within the limit recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). The doses for the other two groups are below the recommended value.


Hydrogels are the biomaterials comprising network of natural or synthetic polymers capable of absorbing large amount of water. Hydrogels are "Smart Gels" or "Intelligent Gels" which can be made to respond to the various environmental conditions like temperature, pH, magnetic/electric field, ionic strength, inflammation, external stress etc. There are numerous potential applications of hydrogels in modern day life ranging from a diaper to gene delivery. This review succinctly describes the classification, properties and preparation methods along with numerous diverse applications of hydrogels like agricultural hydrogels, hydrogel for drug delivery, sensing, dental adhesives, wound healing and tissue regeneration, diet aid and gastric retention and in tissue engineering etc. Hydrogels can be regarded as highly valuable biomaterials for human-beings.


Speech synthesis is an artificial production of human speech by utilizing computer systems called a speech synthesizer. Several statistical parameters are used in previous works to perform the speech synthesis process, but the vocoder is combined only the simpler model. Due to the lack of sequence of modeling, the quality degrading process is reducing the speech synthesis. Therefore, the Pulse model in log-domain vocoder with whale optimized deep convolution recurrent neural network is applied to investing the vocoder in this work. During this analysis, Mel-Generalized Cepstrum (MGC), maximum voice frequency (MVF), and F0 are applied to processing the signal to extracting the features, and the vocoder is generated successfully. The system's effectiveness is then evaluated using experimental results compared to deep neural networks and traditional recurrent networks.


While the world's attention is focused on Russia's war against Ukraine and the intensifying conflict between the US and China, the security situation on the Korean Peninsula has continued to deteriorate. North Korea is steadily advancing the expansion of its military capabilities and recently undertook significant changes in its nuclear doctrine. At the same time, the rapidly changing geopolitical context makes a resolution of the North Korean nuclear conflict even less likely. North Korea's unilateral change of the status quo on the Korean Peninsula poses a serious challenge to the international community, which has few options to counter this threat that is far too dangerous to ignore.


The authors measured susceptibility, resistivity and specific heat of the S=1/2 anti-ferromagnetic triangular lattice LiNiO2. In addition to the formerly recognized characteristic temperatures TN1( approximately 210 K) and TN2( approximately 20 K), they found another characteristic temperature TN3( approximately 70 K) from the susceptibility measurement, at which three-dimensional short-range order presumably sets in at the expense of the planar frustration. In the range between TN1 and TN3, an exponentially increasing susceptibility with decreasing temperature was disclosed, which is believed to be one of the characteristic features of the planar frustration in this system. The specific heat results revealed that the magnetic entropy gradually decreases from R In 2 without any pronounced anomalies corresponding to a long-range magnetic order down to 0.4 K. The nature of the ordering process of LiNiO2 is discussed by referring these characteristic temperatures.


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Abstract In this paper, the instability of shallow-water shear flow with a sheared parallel magnetic field is studied. Waves propagating in such magnetic shear flows encounter critical levels where the phase velocity relative to the basic flow, $c-U(y)$, matches the Alfvén wave velocities $\pm B(y)/\sqrt {\mu \rho }$, based on the local magnetic field $B(y)$, the magnetic permeability $\mu$, and the mass density of the fluid $\rho$. It is shown that when the two critical levels are close to each other, the critical layer can generate an instability. The instability problem is solved, combining asymptotic solutions at large wavenumbers and numerical solutions, and the mechanism of instability explained using the conservation of momentum. For the shallow-water magnetohydrodynamic system, the paper gives the general form of the local differential equation governing such coalescing critical layers for any generic field and flow profiles, and determines precisely how the magnetic field modifies the purely hydrodynamic stability criterion based on the potential vorticity gradient in the critical layer. The curvature of the magnetic field profile, or equivalently the electric current gradient $J' = - B''/\mu$ in the critical layer, is found to play a complementary role in the instability.


ABSTRACT The six Naupliar, three Protozoea, three Mysis and first post-larval forms of the western school prawn Metapenaeus dalli Racek, 1957 were cultured in the laboratory. These stages were described in detail and compared to those of other metapenaeids. The ontogenetic development occurred in 12 days at 26°C, with both the growth rate and morphological patterns of development in M. dalli broadly following those recorded for other metapenaeids. Differences were found between M. dalli and other metapenaeids at corresponding stages of larval development, with these being the number, location and composition of individual setae and other minor spinal development.


Treatment-related changes can mimic brain tumor progression both clinically and radiographically. Distinguishing these two entities represents a major challenge in neuro-oncology. No single imaging modality is capable of reliably achieving such distinction. While histopathology remains the gold standard, definitive pathological criteria are also lacking which can further complicate such cases. We report a patient with high-grade glioma who, after initially presenting with histopathologically confirmed pseudoprogression 10 months following treatment, re-presented 3 years following concurrent chemoradiation with clinical and radiographic changes that were most consistent with progressive disease but for which histopathology revealed treatment effects without active glioma. This case highlights the potential late onset of treatment-related changes and underscores the importance of histopathologic assessment even years following initial therapy.


Human interaction, including psychotherapy, is systematically responsive; therapists' and clients' behavior is influenced by emerging context, including perceptions of each other's characteristics and behavior. Feedback and mutual influence occur on a wide range of time scales, including treatment assignment, strategy, and tactics, -and even within the delivery of interventions. Consequently, research that assumes linear relations among psychotherapeutic variables may not be trustworthy. The concept of responsiveness helps show how client characteristics, therapist characteristics, and process components may be important in psychotherapy despite a lack of linear relations to outcomes. Research strategies that incorporate responsiveness include the use of evaluative measures, systems approaches, and qualitative and narrative approaches.


OBJECTIVES
The initial and long term outcome of stenting in the iliac vein were investigated in patients with iliac compression syndrome.

METHODS
Iliac compression syndrome was diagnosed with venography and intravascular ultrasonography that demonstrated severe stenosis at the iliac venous compression site. Fourteen patients with symptomatic iliac compression syndrome were treated with stent implantation. The patency of the stents was examined at short and long term follow-up examinations.

RESULTS
Thirteen patients presented with left iliac venous compression and only one patient presented with right iliac venous compression. Twelve of the 14 patients had acute deep venous thrombosis, so temporary vena cava filter implantation was performed during the procedure in these 12 patients. Procedural success was defined as less than 50% stenosis after stent implantation with good flow and without major complication (death, surgical repair for vein, or symptomatic pulmonary embolization). Procedural success was achieved in 13 of 14 patients, and these 13 patients showed improvement of symptoms. In the unsuccessful case, the compression site was resolved by stenting, but good flow was not obtained due to remaining femoral vein occlusion. The self-expandable stent was used for 6 patients, and the balloon-expandable stent was used for 8 patients. Angiographic or ultrasonographic follow up was performed in 10 patients at mean follow up of 8 months, but no restenosis was documented.

CONCLUSIONS
Stent implantation for symptomatic iliac compression syndrome is a safe and effective procedure to resolve venous disease symptoms. Despite the small number of patients, long term outcome has been excellent in this study.


Hospital-based physicians (HBPs) have been the recipients of considerable attention in health policy debates in recent years. This paper discusses issues and trends concerning HBPs and presents evidence on practice characteristics, compensation methods, and incomes of anesthesiologists, pathologists, and radiologists. Some comparisons with office-based MDs are included. The primary data source is composed of physician surveys sponsored by the Health Care Financing Administration and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center in 1977 and 1978. Findings generated from these surveys support past research showing that radiology is the most lucrative HBP specialty, followed by pathology and anesthesiology; hospital-based practice tends to be considerably more lucrative than office-based practice, taken as a whole. Survey findings are discussed in light of current policy developments in the health services sector.


Laser induced breakdown and shock wave propagation are nonlinear phenomena. The high temperature and high pressure associated with plasma formation offering a lot advantages in industrial and scientific research.  However not many realized that the end  product of nonlinear effect such as the generation of acoustic wave will also attribute to significant impact. Thus the intention of this study is to materialize the usefulness of such acoustic wave for determination the sound speed of metal element like Pb, Hg and K in aqueous solution. In this attempt a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was focused to induce optical breakdown and its associated shock wave generation which later  follow by the generation of acoustic wave. The phenomenon is observed in conjunction with high speed photography based shadowgraph technique. The experimental results of sound speed for K, Hg and Pb is found in good agreement with the standard value from references. This confirmed that laser induced acoustic wave will be other alternative method for measuring sound speed for metal element in periodic table.


Estimating motion from images is a well-studied problem in computer vision and robotics. Previous work has developed techniques to estimate the motion of a moving camera in a largely static environment (e.g., visual odometry) and to segment or track motions in a dynamic scene using known camera motions (e.g., multiple object tracking). It is more challenging to estimate the unknown motion of the camera and the dynamic scene simultaneously. Most previous work requires a priori object models (e.g., tracking-by-detection), motion constraints (e.g., planar motion), or fails to estimate the full $SE\ (3)$ motions of the scene (e.g., scene flow). While these approaches work well in specific application domains, they are not generalizable to unconstrained motions. This paper extends the traditional visual odometry (VO) pipeline to estimate the full $SE\ (3)$ motion of both a stereo/RGB-D camera and the dynamic scene. This multimotion visual odometry (MVO) pipeline requires no a priori knowledge of the environment or the dynamic objects. Its performance is evaluated on a real-world dynamic dataset with ground truth for all motions from a motion capture system.


This study examines the impact of external debt on the level of economic growth and the volume of investment in Nigeria between 1980 and 2008. We adopt the Debt Cum-Growth model along with the Investment model while the econometrics analysis techniques of multiple regressions were employed. The result of the analysis indicates that there exists a positive relationship between external debt, economic growth and Investment; this was confirmed by the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of about 79.8% .While the findings reveal that the current external debt ratio of GDP stimulates growth in the short term, the Private Investment which is measure of real and tangible development shows a decline. The study recommends among others that government should ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to achieve optimal use of borrowed funds so that servicing such funds will not invoke economic crises and erode the level of private investment which is central to the overall economic growth and development. KEYWORDS : Debt overhang, debt rescheduling, debt burden, Investment, Consumption, Illiquidity


BACKGROUND
One of the causes of postdischarge adverse events is poor discharge communication between hospital-based physicians, patients, and outpatient physicians. The value of hospital discharge software to improve communication and clinically relevant outcomes is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To measure effects of a discharge software application of computerized physician order entry (CPOE).

DESIGN
Cluster randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
Tertiary care, teaching hospital in central Illinois.

PATIENTS
A total of 631 inpatients discharged to home with high risk for readmission.

INTERVENTION
Seventy internal medicine hospital physicians were randomly assigned (allocation concealed) to discharge software versus usual care, handwritten discharge.

MEASUREMENTS
Blinded assessment of patient readmission, emergency department visit, and postdischarge adverse event.

RESULTS
A total of 590 (94%) patients provided 6-month follow-up data. Generalized estimating equations gave intervention variable coefficients with 95% confidence interval (CI). When comparing patients assigned to discharge software versus usual care, there was no difference in hospital readmission within 6 months (37.0% versus 37.8%; coefficient -0.005 [95% CI, -0.074 to 0.065]; P = 0.894), emergency department visit within 6 months (35.4% versus 40.6%; coefficient -0.052 [95% CI, -0.115 to 0.011]; P = 0.108), or adverse event within 1 month (7.3% versus 7.3%; coefficient 0.003 [95% CI; -0.037 to 0.043]; P = 0.884).

CONCLUSIONS
Discharge software with CPOE did not affect readmissions, emergency department visits, or adverse events after discharge. Future studies should assess other endpoints such as patient perceptions or physician perceptions to see if discharge software has value.


Abstract : The nonlinear motion of a small F-region barium release electrostatically coupled to the E-region is studied in the presence of a neutral wind with differing values for the E- and F-regions. In a reference frame with the E-region neutral wind, an F-region neutral wind transverse to the background E sub 0 field is shown to retard or accelerate the evolution of the cloud without otherwise altering the development of the system. When the relative neutral wind has a component parallel to the background E sub 0 field, there is also a change in the direction of the axis of elongation of the cloud as a function of time, although the final direction is independent of the relative neutral wind. Barium cloud and image behavior are shown to be substantially identical for periodic and Dirichlet boundary conditions.


A categorical course curriculum was introduced at Brooke Army Medical Center to focus the content of daily conferences and lectures according to radiology subspecialties. Our goal was to improve the traditional uncoordinated conferences and apprenticeship approach to resident learning. After one-year's experience, resident performance has improved, and residents and staff greatly prefer this style of teaching. The format has been adopted.


Time series data stream is widely concerned in industry engineering, finance, economy, traffic and many other fields, and data stream prediction is the important work. An efficient method for prediction of time series data stream using wavelet transform and least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) is presented, which can provide high accuracy and cost less time. Sliding window model is used to follow the data changing, incremental algorithms for LS-SVM is used to save time. Simulation experiment using real power load dataset show the effectiveness of proposed method.


MicroRNAs (miRs) can function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes in different types of human malignancy, and may provide an effective therapy for cancer. The expression and functions of miR-592 have previously been studied in relation to cancer. However, the expression and potential functions of miR-592 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still unknown. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, MTT assays, cellular migration and invasion assays, bioinformatics software, western blot analysis and dual-luciferase report assays, the present study explored the expression and roles of miR-592 in HCC. It was identified that miR-592 was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. The statistical analysis revealed that low expression of miR-592 was evidently associated with tumor node metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis. Additionally, the present study provided the first evidence that miR-592 was likely to directly target the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor in vitro. The present results indicated that miR-592 could be investigated as an efficacious therapeutic target for HCC in the future.


Background Thalassemia is the most common inherited disease in southern China. However, this disorder is usually ignored by Jiangxi provincial health system and government due to lack of epidemiological data. Materials and Methods A total of 9489 samples from Hakka Han and Gan-speaking Han in three geographical areas of Jiangxi Province were analyzed for both complete blood cell (CBC) count and reverse dot blot (RDB) gene chip for thalassemia. Results 1182 cases of suspected thalassemia carriers with microcytosis (MCV<82 fL) were found by CBC count, and were tested by RDB gene chip to reveal a total of 594 mutant chromosomes, including 433 α-thalassemia mutant chromosomes and 172 β-thalassemia mutant chromosomes. Our results indicated a higher prevalence of thalassemia with the heterozygote frequency of 9.49% in southern Jiangxi province, whereas the low frequency was found in middle (3.90%) and northern Jiangxi (2.63%). Conclusions Based on the epidemiological data, the estimated numbers of pregnancies in Jiangxi province in which the fetus is at risk for β-thalassemia major or intermedia, Bart's hydrops fetalis and Hb H disease are 34 (95% CI, 16 to 58), 79 (95% CI, 50 to 114) and 39 (95% CI, 27 to 58) per year, respectively. We suggested that prevention network of thalassemia should be established, especially in high prevalent southern Jiangxi (Hakka Han), including establishment of thalassemia database collection, hematological analysis laboratories, genetic counselling clinics, prenatal diagnosis centers and neonatal screening centers.


Previous work has shown that Property-based Testing (PBT) can be successfully applied to testing synchronous software. For example, it has been demonstrated that PBT can be applied to testing cloud services, web services and telecoms software. But less research has been carried out to evaluate this approach to testing asynchronous code as in automotive software. In the work presented in this Master thesis, the data generation feature of PBT is exploited to test the functionality of a software module based on the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform. Properties are defined considering the system as a black-box targeting its functionality on an abstract level. First, we apply stateless properties to test a single functionality and thereby find the communication delay needed to incorporate in our testing at system level. Later, we implement a test infrastructure based on stateful properties using the Python tool Hypothesis for the demonstration of research based on PBT. The testing framework is interfaced with the runtime environment to integrate the former with the system being tested. The test inputs generated in this approach are evaluated for their effectiveness and efficiency in testing the software module under test. Finally, experts in the testing field have been interviewed to draw comparisons between PBT and traditional methods of testing.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the eukaryotic expression of arresten in CHO cells and to investigate its basic biological activities.

METHODS
CHO cells were divided into three groups: transfected pSecTag-arresten group, transfected pSecTag group and control group without transfection. PSecTag-arresten was transfected into CHO cells by Lipofectamine 2000 method. The arresten mRNA in CHO cells was assayed by RT-PCR. The protein expression of arresten gene was examined by Western-Blot. The cells expressing arresten were screened out by Zeocin. The effect of arresten on huvec cell migration and anchoring to three-dimensional vascular structures was measured.

RESULTS
The result of RT-PCR and Western-blot showed that arresten gene has been successfully transfected into CHO cells and expressed in those cells. Arrssten inhibited huvec cell migration and anchoring to three-dimensional vascular structures.

CONCLUSION
CHO cells expressing arresten have been obtained successfully. Arresten can inhibit huvec cell migration and anchoring to three-dimensional vascular structures, indicating that it might be one of its anti-angiogenetic approaches.


A procedure is presented for designing supercritical gas extraction processes using a pure solvent fluid to effect the separation. The necessary conditions for the procedure to be applicable are the existence of crossover behavior and separable crossover pressures in the fluid phase mixture. Data are presented to support the existence of such phenomena in ternary systems, and an actual separation process has been designed and operated based upon the data. For systems exhibiting this behavior, process synthesis principles are developed to illustrate the evolution of a process flowsheet for the separation of a mixture into its pure components.


We report a patient with increased intracranial pressure occurring after unilateral neck dissection. Subsequent vascular studies reveal a hypoplastic contralateral transverse sinus drainage and occlusion of the ipsilateral jugular bulb. We review the literature on the etiology of this vascular malformation and conclude that vascular anomalies of the venous drainage of the head be considered whenever postoperative signs of increased intracranial pressure occur after unilateral radical neck dissection. HEAD & NECK 1991;13:359-362


An inappropriate structure for a decision analytic model can potentially invalidate estimates of cost-effectiveness and estimates of the value of further research. However, there are often a number of alternative and credible structural assumptions which can be made. Although it is common practice to acknowledge potential limitations in model structure, there is a lack of clarity about methods to characterize the uncertainty surrounding alternative structural assumptions and their contribution to decision uncertainty. A review of decision models commissioned by the NHS Health Technology Programme was undertaken to identify the types of model uncertainties described in the literature. A second review was undertaken to identify approaches to characterise these uncertainties. The assessment of structural uncertainty has received little attention in the health economics literature. A common method to characterise structural uncertainty is to compute results for each alternative model specification, and to present alternative results as scenario analyses. It is then left to decision maker to assess the credibility of the alternative structures in interpreting the range of results. The review of methods to explicitly characterise structural uncertainty identified two methods: 1) model averaging, where alternative models, with different specifications, are built, and their results averaged, using explicit prior distributions often based on expert opinion and 2) Model selection on the basis of prediction performance or goodness of fit. For a number of reasons these methods are neither appropriate nor desirable methods to characterize structural uncertainty in decision analytic models. When faced with a choice between multiple models, another method can be employed which allows structural uncertainty to be explicitly considered and does not ignore potentially relevant model structures. Uncertainty can be directly characterised (or parameterised) in the model itself. This method is analogous to model averaging on individual or sets of model inputs, but also allows the value of information associated with structural uncertainties to be resolved.


Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Haemophilus pleuropneumoniae 1536, serotype 2, was isolated and purified by a procedure designed to be equally satisfactory for both smooth- and rough-type LPS. The LPS yield was 53%. Analysis of the preparations revealed that protein, nucleic acid, and cellular phospholipid contamination was negligible (less than 0.1%). Analysis of the sugar content of the LPS by gas-liquid chromatography and colorimetric analysis revealed the presence of rhamnose, mannose, galactose, glucose, heptose, glucosamine, galactosamine, and 3-deoxy-D-manno-2-octulosonic acid. The heptose and glucose contents appeared to be unusually high. The fatty acids of the LPS consisted of a mixture of C14:0 and C16:0 in a ratio of about 4.5:1 (50% of the total) and 3-hydroxy C14:0. When used as a preparatory dose for the dermal Shwartzman reaction, as little as 10 micrograms of the LPS injected intradermally in rabbits produced reddening and swelling. After intravenous injection of a 100-micrograms LPS provoking dose, necrosis was observed at all intradermal injection sites. Limulus amebocyte lysate gelation was observed with an LPS concentration as low as 0.5 ng/ml. A typical biphasic fever response was noted in rabbits injected with as little as 0.25 ng of LPS per kg of body weight.