PurposeThe city of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará in the north-east of Brazil, presents a paradox as a present-day tourist destination, while also marked by features and processes characteristic of cities in the Global South, such as high levels of social inequality with fragmented urban margins and vulnerabilities. This research problematizes the idea of "historical ruins" proposed by Walter Benjamin as a viable way to understand how the organization process of today's city margins can be "denaturalized" by the past. The objective of this research is to assess how the urban margins of the city were organized as a history of resistance.Design/methodology/approachIn theoretical terms, this research links critical urban studies with critical approaches to organizational history (COH) based on Walter Benjamin's philosophical concepts of "ruins" and "progress". The historical and archival methodology, consisting of 193 documents, suggests the existence of a philosophical–historical nexus that helps explain the spatial fragmentation of the city, and especially the urban margins in the western region of Fortaleza.FindingsThe Benjaminian notion of "historical ruins" has been exemplified by the Brazilian government practices confining migrants fleeing drought in internment camps on the margins of the city of Fortaleza in three waves beginning in 1877, 1915 and 1932 respectively. The effects of such confinement policies put into practice in the name of "progress" influenced the organization of large urban spaces on the city's margins, whereas on the other hand, the analyses advanced in this research reflect on alternatives to re-frame the history of the organization of the margins of Fortaleza through a set of practices of resistance.Originality/valueBased on the concept of "denaturalization", and through re-activation of the memory of a circumstantial past, the gaze of the "ruins", as represented by the belief in "progress" addressed in official reports of government confinement policies, spaces of resistance have emerged where new possibilities for the future of the city can be imagined.


This paper provides an alternate characterization of second-order polynomial-time computability, with the goal of making second-order complexity theory more approachable. We rely on the usual oracle machines to model programs with subroutine calls. In contrast to previous results, the use of higher-order objects as running times is avoided, either explicitly or implicitly. Instead, regular polynomials are used. This is achieved by refining the notion of oracle-poly-time computability introduced by Cook. We impose a further restriction on oracle interactions to force feasibility. Both the restriction and its purpose are very simple: it is well-known that Cook's model allows polynomial depth iteration of functional inputs with no restrictions on size, and thus does not preserve poly-time computability. To mend this we restrict the number of lookahead revisions, that is the number of times a query whose size exceeds that of any previous query may be asked. We prove that this leads to a class of feasible functionals and that all feasible problems can be solved within this class if one is allowed to separate a task into efficiently solvable subtasks. Formally, the closure of our class under lambda-abstraction and application are the basic feasible functionals. We also revisit the very similar class of strongly poly-time computable operators previously introduced by Kawamura and Steinberg. We prove it to be strictly included in our class and, somewhat surprisingly, to have the same closure property. This is due to the nature of the limited recursion operator: it is not strongly poly-time but decomposes into two such operations and lies in our class.


The spatial distribution of sperm within the sperm storage tubules (SST) found in the uterovaginal junction (UVJ) of the turkey is not known. In this study, we inseminated sperm stained with a fluorescent dye (Hoechst 33342) to determine their distribution in SST in the ventral, dorsal, and lateral regions of the proximal, middle, and distal regions of the UVJ. There was no preferential filling in the ventral-dorsal axis of the UVJ. In contrast, preferential filling of the SST was observed in the middle section of the UVJ. Here the individual SST were clearly longer and more pleomorphic than the SST in the more proximal and distal aspects of the UVJ. While no information on the temporal aspect of SST filling by sperm could be gleaned, it is evident that the more morphologically developed SST either accept sperm more readily or store sperm more efficiently than SST elsewhere in the UVJ.


Variation in baseline host immune status contributes to inconsistent donor engraftment and may impede maximal graft-versus-myeloma effects after reduced-intensity allogeneic stem cell transplantation (RI-alloSCT) for advanced multiple myeloma. We performed a phase II study to determine the efficacy of a novel salvage regimen, EPOCH-F, which was designed to provide immune depletion and disease control prior to RI-alloSCT, in 22 patients with advanced multiple myeloma. EPOCH is an infusional chemotherapeutic regimen consisting of etoposide, vincristine and adriamycin, with prednisone, cyclophosphamide and fludarabine and given in 21 day cycles prior to RI-alloSCT. Patients received at least 1 and no more than 5 cycles of EPOCH-F gudied by peripheral blood CD4+ T cell count. Pts achieving adequate lymphodepletion proceeded to RI-alloSCT; otherwise patients proceeded to RI-alloSCT after 5 cycles or if there was disease progression during EPOCH-F, regardless of CD4 count. Median age was 53 years (range, 36–65); median time from initial therapy to transplant was 12 months (range, 2–168). Median number of prior therapies was 2 (range, 1–8), while 63% had chemotherapy sensitive disease. 68% of patients had received a novel agent. Patients received a median of 3 cycles (range, 1–5) of EPOCH-F. Therapy was well tolerated with manageable toxicities, mostly hematologic. Neutropenia (grade IV) was the most common toxicity seen in 77% of the administered cycles with only 6 episodes of neutropenic fever. Median lymphocyte count decreased from 1423/μL (range, 335–2788) to 519/μL (range, 102–1420); CD4 count decreased from 320/μL (range, 130–1366) to 115/μL (range, 30–309). In 21 evaluable patients, the overall response rate to EPOCH-F was 22% and 68% had stable disease. 13% of patients achieved CR/nCR. Only 1 patient progressed while on therapy. 20 patients received allograft from HLA matched sibling donors and were evaluable for engraftment. Median Day 100 chimerism was 100% (range 60–100, mean 95). 70% of patients achieved ≥VGPR including CR/nCR, while CR/nCR was seen in 40% of the patients. Median overall survival was 46.1 months. 10 (50%) patients are currently alive. Acute GVHD (grade II–IV) was seen in 47% and chronic GVHD (grade III–IV) was seen in 52% of patients. Treatment-related mortality at 100 days was 5% and 30% at 60 months. EPOCH-F is an active regimen which facilitates consistent and rapid full donor engraftment following RI-alloHSCT from related donors in patients with advanced multiple myeloma.


This study was set out to examine the influence of owner- manager's competences on the performance of small restaurant businesses in urban Tanzania since there are patchy empirical evidences on the same. To achieve this, criterion and simple random sampling techniques were employed to obtain a sample of three hundred, ninety two (392) small restaurant businesses from the list of all licensed small restaurants in Ilala and Dodoma district. Information was collected from owner-managers of these entities by using structured questionnaires. Data was analyzed both descriptively and by using structural equation modelling for making inference. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to validate the items measuring the owner-manager entrepreneurial, managerial and functional competencies as latent variables. Performance of small restaurant was measured subjectively by considering the number of customer's dynamics and changes in lifestyle of the owner-manager as a result of the business undertaken over past three years of operation. It was found that owner-manager's managerial and functional competencies contribute significantly to the performance of the small restaurant businesses in urban Tanzania. This is true but they cannot be in operation unless entrepreneurial competencies are in place. This implies that, performance relies on base (entrepreneurial) and operational (managerial and functional) that need to be improved. As such, policy makers may not only rely on entrepreneurial aspects but also extend to the managerial and functional aspects of performance.


Fine structrue of the band at 363.52 nm in multiphoton ionization spectrum of SiH4 has. been observed using dye laser with 6×10~(-4)nm scanning step. In the case of three-photon resonant excitation, SiH4 is treated as a a symmetric top. Most rotational lines have been resolved and acounted for as a Q-branch of v2 perpendicular band, and B' = 3.04±0.01 cm~(-1) is thus obtained.


A paradigm shift from fire suppression to fire suppression and prescription requires a shift in emphasis from simply controlling wildfire occurrence and spread to one that includes controlling characteristics of prescribed fire. Suppression focuses on preventing unwanted effects that might result from wildfire occurrence. Prescription promotes desired effects by precisely and properly implementing fire occurrence. The duality of these concepts requires a new research focus. Research must now determine how to control processes that constitute a specific fire event. Each fire event includes specific of fire behavior and simultaneously activated ecosystem processes. Control of a fire event, to the degree needed to reach specific prescribed fire objectives, is complicated. It requires an understanding of many aspects of fire behavior and the complex processes that might be activated by the fire. It also requires knowledge of preconditioning factors that control both the nature of fire behavior and the response of a site to a particular fire event. Needed research is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. It requires contributions from a wide range of backgrounds, including plant physiology, ecology, fire physics, and others. This new research focus will promote a broad array of investigations which address various levels of detail, and will advance the science of prescribed fire.


This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the application of new methods and theoretical approaches to the Roman empire's material culture and historical sources, which are influenced by the socio-anthropological approaches in Howes' series and by sensory archaeologies. The multisensory agency, not only of the human body but also of animals, objects, architecture, spaces, places and landscapes, is being recognised and explored. The book explores the embodied experience of interacting with a specific type of artifact. It considers a signet ring as both a personal object worn upon the body and also a very public symbol of its wearer's status, entwined with their identity and sense of self. The book also considers how a sensory approach to studying these objects can offer a deeper understanding of their function in society, and what they meant to the individuals who owned them.


: Premenstrual disorder (PMS) is a mental and physical problem that occurs only 8 to 11 days before the female cycle. The normal side effects of PMS are emotional episodes, torment and tenderness in the chest, stomach upset, lack of arousal, severe brain pain, back and body torments, cramps, extended affectivity to torments. The severity of the manifestations varies from one individual to another. Late evidence has recommended that disruptive influences on serum calcium levels may extend the side effects of PMS. Our current research was conducted at Lahore General Hospital, Lahore from March 2018 to February 2019. Calcium supplementation may be a powerful treatment for PMS. This investigation was conducted with the evaluation destinations of the various articles identified with the subject. A search on PubMed and Google of different articles containing keywords was conducted.


Early detection of cardiovascular disease (CVD) could initiate appropriate treatment and prevent progression. This study used impedance cardiography (ICG) waveform analysis with postural change to detect functional CVD in women older than 40 years with no history of CVD and >or=2 of the following risk factors: cigarette smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, central adiposity, family history of premature CVD, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. A study group of 32 women underwent ICG in standing and supine positions. An age-matched control group had 20 women with an active lifestyle, no risk factors, and no history of CVD. All women in the control group had normal ICG data. All women in the study group had some abnormal ICG data, with 28 (87.5%) having multiple ICG abnormalities. ICG data indicated that 13 (40.6%) had ventricular dysfunction, 14 (43.8%) had high vascular resistive load, and 30 (93.8%) had elevated vascular pulsatile load. The data suggest that subclinical CVD, detectable by ICG, is prevalent in women older than 40 years with multiple risk factors. Abnormal ICG results could expedite the initiation of customized treatment as part of a preventive approach to CVD.


The managed realignment project Rammegors aims at re-establishing estuarine nature in a formerly freshwater wetland. For this purpose, a tidal inlet was constructed in the Krabbekreekdam to generate a reduced tidal influence that should allow the development of salt marsh area, tidal flat area and low energetic shallow sub-tidal. A central question of the Rammegors tidal restoration project is how the flora and fauna will develop in the area. To understand the biotic and abiotic processes related to the tidal restoration in Rammegors, a monitoring programme is being executed by the Centre of Expertise Delta Technology. The monitoring focuses on the main biotic and abiotic developments in the area. This progress report only focuses on the early colonization of macrobenthic invertebrates in Rammegors. Benthic macrofauna and sediment sampling took place in spring and autumn 2017 at twenty stations along 4 transects with varying distances to the outlet. A fast colonization of the benthic macrofauna was observed in Rammegors. Twenty and twenty-eight taxa were observed in the area in spring and autumn 2017 respectively. The communities significantly differed between spring and autumn. In spring densities reached high values, especially for the brackish mud shrimp Manocorophium insidiosum and mosquito larvae Chironomidae. In autumn these brackish species almost disappeared from the area. Their presence in autumn, even in low numbers, as well as the observation of the brackish cockle Cerastoderma glaucum indicate that, after the tidal restoration, parts of Rammegors are still under influence of brackish water. A relation was found between elevation and the benthic macrofauna development. Species richness showed an optimum around +0.4m NAP with lower values at both lower and higher elevations. Total density significantly increased with elevation, with highest total density at the higher elevations and a gradient in ecological richness was observed with higher richness further from the inlet. As the spring community significantly differs from the autumn community, we will continue sampling in both seasons in 2018


ABSTRACT Purpose: To estimate responses to short-duration (4–6 weeks) group-based physiotherapy after knee replacement in terms of pain, function, and satisfaction. Method: The study used a prospective, observational design. A total of 169 participants (111 women, 58 men) were consecutively recruited to attend a twice-weekly post-operative knee replacement class focused on mobility, strength, balance, and functional retraining. Changes in pain, function, and satisfaction were measured using the P4 pain intensity measure, the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS), a timed stair test (TST), knee range of motion (ROM), the Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), and the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8). Using Stata version 12.1, the data were summarized descriptively, and change scores were calculated with 95% CIs. Results: On average, participants were discharged within 11 classes, having achieved their treatment goals. More than 77% exceeded the minimal detectable change at the 90% confidence level (MDC90) on the LEFS, TST, PSFS, and ROM assessments. The mean CSQ-8 score at discharge was 31.8 (SD 1.46); 66.7% recorded a perfect score of 32. Conclusions: Patients attending a short group-based outpatient knee replacement class demonstrated significant improvements in pain and lower extremity function and were highly satisfied with their physiotherapy treatment.


As the midterm election approaches and Democratic strategists and politicians seek to limit the likely Republican victory, one of the major themes that will continue to emerge is that the Democrats need to mobilize their base. While the Republican base is being activated by Tea Party and other activists, the Democratic base has been discouraged by the relatively modest accomplishments of the Obama administration as well as the failure of the administration to do things which might excite the base and renew their enthusiasm for the president and his party.


This paper describes an innovative learning environment, which integrates the Internet, 3D-CAD, and simulation tools in a web based learning system to ensure a better understanding of light perception in architectural space. The learning system comprises of a virtual laboratory, in which architectural planning examples can be represented three-dimensionally and be changed interactively. A developed semantic scene model ensures that lighting, material and surfaces can be varied and compared, The focus lies on the exploration and evaluation of both visual effects and important interrelations between light, material and form. Hence, the standards for the visual representation of luminaires (check spelling) and light distribution are transformed from the static 2D drawing code to an interactive 3Drepresentation. By using a methodology of learning by exploration the user merges 3D-CAD and simulation programs into a easy-to-use new system, in which the rendered photo-realistic image is regarded as an interactive tool and no longer as a presentation material. Finally the user can (access) sp this system with a standard web browser and no software for CAAD, simulation and presentation needs to be installed on the users PC as he remote controls this software that runs on a specific web server (Wittkopf, S., 2001).


This article describes a community-based Patient Navigation (PN) project conducted to identify potential barriers to seeking follow-up cervical cancer care in southeastern Kentucky. Patient navigators (PNs) were placed in cervical cancer programs within county public health departments where they interviewed patients about their perceived barriers to seeking follow-up care after receiving a positive Pap test result. Participants identified various potential barriers at three levels: the individual/personal level, the health care system level and the community/environmental level. One identified barrier that was unique to this study was a lack of consistency between follow-up recommendations and follow-up guidelines for patients under age 21. Implications are discussed.


Cells react to oxidative stress conditions by launching a defense response through the induction of nuclear gene expression. The advent of microarray technologies allowed monitoring of oxidative stress-dependent changes of transcript levels at a comprehensive and genome-wide scale, resulting in a series of inventories of differentially expressed genes in different organisms. We performed a meta-analysis on hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2))-induced gene expression in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the land plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and the human HeLa cell line. The H(2)O(2)-induced gene expression in both yeast species was highly conserved and more similar to the A. thaliana response than that of the human cell line. Based on the expression characteristics of genuine antioxidant genes, we show that the antioxidant capacity of microorganisms and higher eukaryotes is differentially regulated. Four families of evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic proteins could be identified that were H(2)O(2) responsive across kingdoms: DNAJ domain-containing heat shock proteins, small guanine triphosphate-binding proteins, Ca(2+)-dependent protein kinases, and ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes.


The performance of dams due to high operating costs and irreparable damages caused by failures in the construction phase and during the dewatering and exploitation period should verified and monitored by proper behavioural analysis. Dewatering the dams will result in the saturation of the embankment and supports and, consequently, the reduction of the stability coefficient. Therefore, in order to allow an earth dam to tolerate the new conditions easily and without problems, the rate of dewatering should be within the range. In this study, pore water pressure in the body of Eyvashan earth dam was evaluated. The water level inside the clay core due to changes in the reservoir water level during the first dewatering and using the actual specifications of the materials by Geostudio and Plaxis software and compared with the results of the instrumentation in the dam body. In order to adapt the observed and predicted data, a multi-variable regression was used and the coefficient of determination was used and respectively the value of R2=0.9834 and R2=0.9863 was obtained which shows a very good agreement between the observed and predicted data. Indicating that the cache water pressure values and their occurrence are in good agreement with the initial design conditions and that the barrier behaviour is stable in terms of pore water pressure. Installed piezometers upstream of the core show a higher pressure than the downstream, due to the high saturation state of the phreatic line. Also, the height of pressure in the downstream of cut off in the results of numerical modelling and in the observed results has suddenly decreased, which indicates the correct function of the injection cut off.


The presented work settles attention in the architecture of ambient intelligence, in particular, for the application of mobile vision tasks in multimodal interfaces. A major issue for the performance of these services is uncertainty in the visual information which roots in the requirement to index into a huge amount of reference images. The presented functional component -- the Attentive Machine Interface (AMI) -- enables contextual processing of multi-sensor information in a probabilistic framework, for example to exploit contextual information from geo-services with the purpose to cut down the visual search space into a subset of relevant object hypotheses. We demonstrate results about geo-indexed object recognition from experimental tracks and image captures in an urban scenario, extracting object hypotheses in the local context from both (i) mobile image based appearance and (ii) GPS based positioning, and verify performance in recognition accuracy (> 14%) using Bayesian decision fusion, verifying the advantage of multi-sensor attentive processing in multimodal interfaces.


Stochastic bounds and deterministic bounds (for instance network calculus) are promising methods to analyze QoS requirements for high speed networks. Indeed, it is sufficient to prove that a bound of the real performance satisfies the guarantee. However, stochastic bounds are quite difficult to prove and often require some sample-path proofs. We present a new method based on stochastic ordering, algorithmic derivation of simpler Markov chains, and numerical analysis of these chains. The performance indices defined by reward functions are stochastically bounded by reward functions computed on much simpler or smaller Markov chains. This leads to an important reduction of numerical complexity.


In dealing with the one-dimensional lattice model, we replace the traditionally needed Born-Von-Karmann periodic boundary condition with two additional Hamiltonian terms to make up a ring-lattice. In so doing, a unitary phase operator and the corresponding Hermite phase angle operator can be introduced as those in quantum optics theory. The new Hamiltonian is invariant under the phase shift transformation. Moreover, the lattice Green's function in the pth nearest interaction approximation can also be easily derived from the new Hamiltonian, which becomes the well-known lattice Green's function when the ring is infinite.


Creating a device where cell reactions to nanoscale topographies and a control (usually planar) surface can be monitored simultaneously is advantageous from a biological perspective. Through the utilization of both natural lithography and conventional photolithography techniques, it has been possible to create a structure where planar and nanopillared surfaces lie collaterally on one device. By patterning an optical resist, exposing this to the desired mask pattern, developing and coating in poly-L-lysine, a surface adhesive to gold colloidal particles is presented. Following immersion in a colloidal sol, in this case a 20 nm diameter gold colloidal sol, colloids adhere to the poly-L-lysine across the primed surface. In a subsequent dry etch step, the colloids that are present where the resist has been removed act as an etch mask, resulting in pillars being etched into the surface of a base substrate, in this instance either silicon or quartz. By removing the resist and also the colloids, a device results where planar and nanopillared areas lie collaterally. This allows cell reactions on the two surfaces to be monitored simultaneously.


BACKGROUND
The healthcare sector needs to deliver evidence-based care and be cost-effective. This can be monitored in part via a national quality registry containing individualized data concerning patient problems, medical interventions, outcomes of treatment, and patient-reported outcomes. With this aim, WebRehab Sweden was launched in 1997 and has been available online since 2007. The aim of this paper is to discuss the design, some results, and possible use of such a registry.

METHODS
Data entered into the registry online since 2007 were used in this paper. The registry contains information from 7,458 patients. Data from the first 3 years were used to show differences between genders and among diagnostic groups. Non-parametric statistics were used to analyse the differences between groups.

RESULTS
The registry coverage of the country is 95%, and completeness is 81%. Data from hospitals/units have been accessible to the general public since 2009, but no data from individuals can be accessed. Length of stay has varied over the years, becoming significantly shorter between 2007 and 2012.

CONCLUSION
A quality registry presents an opportunity to improve rehabilitation processes at participating units, provides data for use in benchmarking between units, and enables hospital management to utilize resources wisely.


Recent research has indicated that victim and perpetrator sex can negatively influence perceptions and attitudes towards domestic violence. Research has also indicated that police officers are more unwilling to arrest perpetrators of domestic violence if the altercation is not in concordance with traditional gender stereotypes (male on female).
One hundred and thirty eight participants from police courses vs. non police courses completed a questionnaire booklet involving a real life domestic violence vignette where sex of the perpetrator and the victim were manipulated.
Two 2 X 4 ANCOVA's and one 2 X 4 X 2 ANCOVA identified that perpetrator and victim sex can influence people's perceptions of the believability, severity and prospective sentence for perpetrators.
No significant main effect was found for course type and domestic violence attitudes. Bivariate correlations indicated negative correlations for knowledge and perceived severity in the male/female condition and negative correlations for homophobia on perceived believability in the male/male scenario.
The potential interest of the findings from this research is to ensure the equality of both heterosexual and homosexual domestic violence cases in the eyes of the law.


The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which culture, in six European and two North-American countries, affects CEO compensation. If differences in culture between countries can provide an explanation for cross-national differences in CEO compensation, it may increase multinational corporations understanding of how to design CEO compensations in the countries where they operate. Acquiring such knowledge would maximize the effect of their compensation plans. The study relates cultural dimensions to total CEO compensation and the ratio between variable compensation and total CEO compensation. Cultural data, which comprises the study's theoretical foundation, is based on the GLOBE study (House et al., 2004). Of the GLOBE study's nine cultural dimensions, the study examines the five dimensions found most relevant to CEO compensation practices; performance orientation, uncertainty avoidance, institutional collectivism, future orientation and power distance. The research has been conducted through a regression analysis of 240, both private and publically listed companies. Companies with a turnover above €49 million or at least 250 employees were randomly chosen in Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, United States, Canada, France, Ireland and United Kingdom. The study's results shows that the cultural dimensions examined, to different extent do affect CEO compensation. The results show total CEO compensation to be negatively related to institutional collectivism, power distance and performance orientation. Further, total CEO compensation is positively related to future orientation. The proportion of variable compensation to total CEO compensation is negatively related to institutional collectivism and uncertainty avoidance. The proportion of variable compensation to total CEO compensation is positively related with future orientation. Thus we conclude that culture can contribute to understand cross-national differences in CEO compensation.


Aim To assess the individual effects of overweight/obesity and tobacco exposure, and their combined effects on hypertension in children. Methods This cross-sectional study included 6,339 children aged 6–17 years from National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1999–2018. Participants' height, weight and blood pressure (BP) were measured by trained technicians. Hypertension was defined as: mean systolic BP (SBP) and/or diastolic BP (DBP) ≥ 90th percentile for sex, age, and height (for children aged 1–13 years), and SBP ≥120 mmHg and/or a DBP ≥80 mmHg (for adolescents aged 13–17 years); or self-reported having been diagnosed with hypertension or taking antihypertensive medication. Gender- and age-specific body mass index (BMI) cut-points were used to define overweight/obesity: "overweight" was defined as a BMI > 1 standard deviation (SD); "obesity" was defined as BMI > 2SD; and "thinness" was defined as BMI < −2SD. Tobacco exposure was defined as having serum cotinine levels >0.05 µg/L or reporting the presence of at least one smoker in the household. Weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess overweight/obesity and tobacco exposure with the odds of hypertension, and the combined effects of overweight/ obesity and tobacco exposure on hypertension, followed by strata-specific analyses. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Results The prevalence of overweight/obesity and tobacco exposure was significantly higher in the hypertension group than in the non-hypertension group. Overweight/obesity (OR = 1.67, 95%CI: 1.26–2.21/ OR = 2.38, 95%CI: 1.67–3.39) and tobacco exposure (OR = 1.58, 95%CI: 1.16–2.14) were associated with a higher odd of hypertension in children, respectively. Additionally, we also observed the combined effect between overweight (OR = 3.05, 95%CI: 1.96–4.75)/obesity (OR = 3.68, 95%CI: 2.24–6.03) and tobacco exposure were related to hypertension odds in children, with a significant effect in different populations. Conclusion There may exist joint effect of overweight/obesity and tobacco exposure on the odds of hypertension in American children. These findings offer an insight that early weight control and reduction of tobacco exposure may be important to reduce odds of hypertension in children.


The incidence of goiter and its dependence on the size of the locality are examined in a cross-section of 3.933 people living in South Baden (2.202 natives, 1.731 immigrants) and the results compared with our findings in 1963 obtained under the same conditions. In 1973 only 24.3% of the native population examined had a euthyroid goiter compared with 47.0% in 1963. The incidence of goiter has also decreased by about half among the immigrant population. In 1973 9.4% more people with goiter could be found among the native population than among the immigrants. In the larger towns, the frequency of goiter among the native population fell between 1963 and 1973 from about 40% to less than 20% and in country areas from about 60% to 40%. The total frequency of goiter cases among the immigrant population in country areas fell from about 40% to 30% and in the immigrants to towns from 20% to 10%.


: Dysarthria is a speech disorder that belongs to the group of neurologically based communication disorders. It can occur at any age – at birth or after an injury or even after an illness. Dysarthria may range in severity from minimal impairment to that which make the speech practically unintelligible. Excessive nasalization, disordered speech prosody, imprecise articulation, and variable speech rate are often associated with damage to neuromuscular systems regulating speech. Disorders in speech physiology may result in distortion of the acoustic signal and reduced speech intelligibility. Reduced speech intelligibility affects all aspects of life. Individuals with intelligibility deficits experience difficulties with social interaction, academic performance, and vocational placement. The purpose of this article is to present some of the results obtained after conducting a study to assess the Intelligibility of speech in persons with dysarthria. The methodology that was used is Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment Second edition (FDA-2). The test is translated and adapted into Bulgarian language according to its phonetic rules. The test is also used to determine the form of dysarthria. The participant of the study are total of 80 people aged between 20-90 years old with acquired dysarthria. All of them have a confirmed neurological diagnosis such as stroke, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, epilepsy, etc. The participants are divided into five groups according to the form of dysarthria – flaccid, spastic, ataxic, extrapyramidal and mixed dysarthria. The assessment of intelligibility of speech is carried out at three levels - words, sentences and conversation. Each person is required to read 10 words, 10 sentences and to have a 5-minute conversation on the topic of favorite activities and hobbies. The results obtained of all five groups of dysarthria are analyzed by statistical methods. They show that there is a statistically significant difference in terms of intelligibility of speech in the different forms of dysarthria. The most difficult to understand for the listener is the speech of the mixed type of dysarthria. This group of people have unintelligible speech at all three levels – words, sentences and conversation. The first part of the FDA-2 requires reading of ten words. The persons demonstrate similar results in reading words. The listener can understand more than six words from the participants' utterances with ataxic, flaccid and extrapyramidal type of dysarthria. The second task of the test evaluates intelligibility at sentence level. The highest scores show persons with the ataxic dysarthria. This means that their speech is understandable at the sentence level. The most difficult task for all participants is the conversation. The speech of persons with dysarthria when having a conversation is most difficult to understand by the listener. The results confirm the hypothesis that the severity of dysarthria has a negative influence on the degree of intelligibility of speech according to the different forms of dysarthria.


In his introduction to A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1941), T. S. Eliot describes Rudyard Kipling's positive attitude towards British imperialism: He believed the British Empire to be a good thing [...] he wished to set before his readers an idea of what it should be [...] He believed that the British have a greater aptitude for ruling than other people, and that they include a greater number of kindly, incorruptible and un-self-seeking men capable of administration. (29-30) In his day, Kipling's work won the Nobel Prize and earned him a place in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. Yet his support for imperialism makes him unpopular with readers today. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, for example, decries his regard for "the conquest of India [...] as a historically appropriate event" (Critique 157). Kipling, however, was neither blind nor insensitive to the horrors of the British presence in India. George Orwell, who calls him a "jingo-imperialist" (271), and describes his work as "morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting," nevertheless concedes "few people who have criticized England from the inside have said bitterer things about her than this gutter patriot" (275). For example, Kipling's famous poem, "The White Man's Burden" (1899), coins the phrase that to this day codifies a colonial mentality. At the same time, however, his famous lines, "the blame of those ye better,/ The hate of those ye guard" (Rudyard Kipling's Verse 321), can be taken as an implicit critique of colonialism, as the poem articulates a cankered, cranky perspective on the now-proverbial "silent, sullen" natives, "half-devil and half-child." Representing the view of someone who would consider insurgency a form of ingratitude, and revealing this view unvarnished, in the manner of Robert Browning, Kipling leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Kipling's treatment of the Norman Conquest, a subject to which he returns throughout his career, reveals the hidden depths of anxiety and irony in his attitude to empire. The Norman Conquest provided England with a model of cultural imperialism. It was celebrated, retrospectively, as a cultural boon, with the Normans bequeathing their rich literary and artistic heritage to the English. Kipling regarded the Norman Conquest as a major event in the history of translatio imperii et studii: where once the English were conquered, now they conquer; where once the English were educated, now they educate. Yet even as it constitutes a historical precedent for English colonial imaginings, the Norman Conquest undermines the legitimacy of English imperial self-fashioning. Recalling a time when the English were themselves conquered, the Norman Conquest complicates and limits English claims to racial superiority and cultural purity. Moreover, from the seventeenth century on, the idea of resisting the legacy of the Norman Conquest was a key element of English national identity. The longstanding English fantasy of rejecting the "Norman Yoke" produces the image of plain-speaking, plain-dealing English pluck and courage that contests the effete tyranny of the Normans. (1) Within the setting of colonial India, Kipling's stories lionize the stereotypically English virtues that were originally established in dialogue with the persistent presence of Frenchness in England: as Kingsley Amis puts it, "there is one type, usually a subaltern, who keeps coming up in the stories: brave, modest and artless" (53). As a mouthpiece for British imperialism, Kipling identifies with the Norman Conquerors. At the same time, however, he pursues the Whig historical myth of Anglo-Saxon masculinity that was formulated as a means of opposing this legacy. The profound English ambivalence towards the Norman presence, sometimes eulogized, and at other times lamented, ensured that Kipling's attitudes toward colonialism were far from straightforward, even contradictory. …


Mesoporous In2O3 nanocrystals (INS) were successfully prepared using SBA-16 as the template. The sample INS-3, synthesized from a 0.3 M In(NO3)3 solution, had a 7.27 nm mean pore size and 82.32 m2 g−1 specific surface area. The mesoporous In2O3 nanocrystals were interconnected In2O3 small grains (∼5 nm) with a pore wall thickness of about 5–10 nm, and the natural pores provided effective gas adsorption–desorption and fast transportation of carriers, resulting in better diffusivity of the analyte gases. Therefore, the INS-3 sensor exhibited sensing properties with a high response of 158.7 and a low detection limit of 970 ppb to 97 ppm NOx at room temperature (RT), which can be attributed to the synergistic effect between its unique mesoporous and well-crystalline structure. The INS-3 sensor has significant applications for gas sensing.


A biofilter does not operate as a true filter, but removes chemicals from gases by sorption and biologically degrades them. The objective of the research reported in this paper was to investigate the effect of periods of non-use on biofilter performance. The concept of non-use had two meanings in this research: "no chemical loading," which indicated that humidified air was passing through the biofilter with no chemicals, and "stagnant," which reflected that no flow at all was passing through the biofilter. Both instances of nonuse can require the microorganisms in the biofilter to reacclimate to differences in loading and type of chemical when a chemical load is re-applied. Acclimation time was compared with three different chemicals, initial acclimation was compared with re-acclimation following different periods of non-use, and the effect of humidification during the period of non-use was examined. Bench scale testing produced results indicating that acclimation times ranged from several hours to longer than a day. Longer periods of biofilter non-use resulted in longer reacclimation periods and transition between different chemicals resulted in acclimation periods shorter than initial acclimation periods. Stagnant periods produced longer re-acclimation periods than periods of no chemical loading.


In this article, a psychologist and an artificial-intelligence (AI) researcher speculate on the future of social interaction between humans and androids (robots designed to look and act exactly like people). We review the trajectory of currently developing robotics technologies and assess the level of android sophistication likely to be achieved in 50 years time. On the basis of psychological research, we consider obstacles to creating an android indistinguishable from humans. Finally, we discuss the implications of human-android social interaction from the standpoint of current psychological and AI research and speculate on the novel psychological issues likely to arise from such interaction. The science of psychology will face a remarkable new set of challenges in grappling with human—android interaction.


Intratissue injection of 1 to 20 micrograms of L-5 HTP in numerous areas of the cat brainstem failed to reverse P-chlorophenylalanine induced insomnia. On the other hand, injection of 2 to 7 micrograms of L-5 HTP in the ventrolateral hypothalamus induced both slow wave sleep and paradoxical sleep after 36 and 76 min.


Two majors linguistics and literature in the schools of letters both in the state and private universities throughout Indonesia are commonly separated sharply. Courses of literature in the Department of Linguistics are offered minimally, such that the students of linguistics are not given a conducive atmosphere to express their literary appreciation. Likewise, courses of linguistics in the Department of Literature are very restricted, so that the students of literature are unable to analyze literary works from the points of linguistic view. This paper tries to bridge linguistics and literature. The attempt to bridge linguistics and literature is based on three postulates: (I) literature consists of linguistic objects designed with an artistic end, (2) linguistic objects are formal objects, and (3) a formal account of linguistic object designed with an artistic end approximates a formal account of that artistic design. Two major directions in the approaches and emphases will be presented in the paper exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous approach tries to search for adequate description of (1) poetic language as contrasted with ordinary language, (2) language of a particular author contrasted with that of other authors, and (3) a particular literary work contrasted with other works of the same author. This part touches upon three areas of exogenous approach isolation, description, and characterization. Endogenous, on the hand, is based upon an assumption that a writer exhibits, probably without realizing it, certain systematic preferences for particular aspects of linguistic patterns. Planning a bridge between linguistics and literature is by no means without problems. Therefore, this paper also presents some possible solutions.


@explorebandung is an account provider of Bandung tourist destination that has the largest number of followers in Instagram. @explorebandung provides content such as interesting photos about a palce or location which can be the reference for Instagram users when travelling in Bandung. The methodologhy of this research is descriptive qualitative with Stuart Hall's reception analysis. The purpose of this research is to know the position of audience in accordance with Stuart Hall's three positions readout about the content of tourist destination that served in @explorebandung. These three positions are dominant reading, negotiated reading and oppositional reading. Then, researcher will measures how far the response of @explorebandung's followers after reading Bandung tourist destinaion's message. The result of this research shows that from the three element of tourist destination's message in @explorebandung, three informants is in negotiated reading position on the photo's element, while the other one is in dominant reading position. Furthermore, on the caption's element, two informants is in dominant reading position, while the other two is in negotiated reading position. Then, on the hashtag's element, three informants is in dominant reading position, while the other one is in negotiated reading position.


Deterministic systems are used to model time dynamics of mosquito populations undergoing human intervention. The models can have a spatial, compartmental or phentoypical structure. This study focuses on two kinds of intervention relying on releases of mosquitoes from the same species as the wild population: incompatible males for population elimination or males-and-females together for population replacement (there the released individuals have a phenotype different from that of the wild population). These methods aim at reducing the nuisance in highly infested areas and more importantly at limiting (or even stopping) vector-borne disease circulation.
Mathematical result are concerned with: asymptotic behavior of solutions to parabolic systems modeling the frequency of the introduced phenotype in the population, motivated by population replacement; a qualitative property of solutions to some ordinary differential systems (convergence to a periodic limit cycle) stemming from a compartmental structure; optimal control by males-and-females releases of an ordinary differential system modeling population replacement in a homogeneous environment, and the control to 0 of a model of population elimination by incompatible males releases; lastly time dynamics of the phenotypical structure in a sexual population.
As often as possible these results are specified using experimental data parametrization and illustrated through numerical simulations. Practical conclusions are drawn and the relevance with respect to the application is systematically highlighted.


Since the beginning of Islam, there were two groups among the Muslim scholars in defining iman. The first group understood iman exclusively to faith and defined it as accepting the articles of iman whole-heartedly while other group understood iman inclusively and defined it as something related to faith and actions. This difference continued and provided foundation for modern theological schools. Secular school of thought considers iman as faith devoid of any actions. Hence, they rejected religious worships and sharia rules. Contrary to this group, the extremists who argue the actions as condition of iman, rejected the iman of people who have different view on iman and allow them to kill on the basis of infidel. In this juncture, present research discuss the definition of iman, its nature and characteristics through investigating the meaning of the verses of the Quran and hadith that provided foundation for Muslim scholars to have different definition of iman. Hence this study uses linguistic and textual analysis. The textual and linguistic analysis found two schools of thought in the history in understanding the meaning of Iman: the first group called iman al-`aqdi. Imam Abu Hanifah, Ashairates and some other scholars stressed faith dimension of iman while other group is called iman al-shar'i, who stressed action -`amal in iman. Shafiate and Salafites are popular in this group. Hence this article argues the difference between two schools of thoughts in defining iman is linguistic.


MIL-L-23699 lubricants that are composed principally of trimethylolpropane triheptanoate (TMP) and tricresyl phosphate (TCP) have been shown to form a neurotoxicant, trimethylolpropane phosphate (TMPP), during pyrolysis and/or combustion. Mechanistically, TMPP is thought to irreversibly inhibit the GABA-mediated inhibitory response and thereby produce epileptiform clonic/tonic seizures with convulsions followed by death. Thermal decomposition of MIL-L-23699 lubricant produces TMPP under laboratory conditions, but this product has not been detected in the workplace following actual fires. This study has examined whether TMPP is produced during an actual shipboard fire by placing the synthetic lubricant in a fire environment aboard the ex-U.S.S. Shadwell, Mobile, Alabama. Both biological and chemical analyses were performed on the thermally decomposed lubricant to ensure detection of the neurotoxic material. Under the conditions of this study, the formation of TMPP during a shipboard fire was confirmed. The implications of this finding for safe management of post-fire cleanup are discussed.


Objective: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus that can be transmitted to a developing child before birth. For most healthy persons who acquire CMV after birth, there are few symptoms. Once a person becomes infected, the virus remains alive, but usually dormant within that person's body for life. There are two different types of infection: primary CMV and recurrent CMV infection. Primary infection can cause more serious problems in pregnancy than recurrent infection can. However, if a person\'s immune system is seriously weakened in any way, the virus can become active and cause CMV disease. The aim of this study is to evaluate CMV infection, antisperm antibodies in infertile women and its relation to other parameters.
Method: Fifty infertile women who presented at the Infertility Clinic of Kammal Al-Sammaree Hospital from May 2008 to July 2009 and thirty fertile control group were included in this study. CMV IgG and IgM measurements were performed by ELISA and antisperm antibody was measured by immunofluorescence test. High vaginal and cervical swabs taken for wet mount, Gram stain and culture.
Results: There was no significant difference between infertile and control group regarding CMV IgG. The presence of CMV IgG in the serum was significantly related with previous genital infection of infertility (p


Authentication of safety messages in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET) plays a major role. The time take for signature generation and verification should be very less, to provide a secure and comfortable transportation to the public. Several signature generation and verification schemes are proposed in the literatures. This paper focusses on the usage of Cha Cheon's ID based signature scheme for authentication in vehicular networks. Experimental analysis shows that this signature scheme incurs less signature size, less delay and less overhead in transmission when compared to the existing schemes.


SUMMARY Orchid endophyte fungi are known to utilize cellulose and translocate carbon compounds into protocorms. Evidence is presented which indicates that cellulose is an excellent carbon source for protocorm growth in a variety of orchid-fungus systems including both temperate and tropical orchids. One per cent cellulose powder as compared with I% dextrose as a carbon source enhanced the development of protocorms and led to a more sparse, controlled growth of the fungal endophyte and, subsequently, a diminished tendency to parasitism and death of the protocorms. It is not yet known whether cellulose is equally useful for root-bearing mature orchids but it may be the principal carbon source in nature for orchids in the symbiotic protocorm stage.


Campaigns, Movements, and Games for the Development of Reading Culture

Nowadays we can often hear that the young ones of today do not read (enough), they do not read the right texts, they do not read them in the right way and if they read something at all, they do not understand them properly (or at all). In our study we would like to present part of the initiatives which could be effective concerning the education of readers, the 'accustoming' of the younger and the older ones to reading. We mention native and foreign examples as well which have worked on the internet, which have been found out like quiz shows, but there are facebook campaigns and lightning throngs among the chosen 'good practices', too. Naturally, the examples from Kaposvar have been stressed a lot, from among several practices have fortunately become well-known throughout the country.

 Keywords: Campaigns • movements • games for the development of reading culture


OBJECTIVE To review the general surgical management of mentally handicapped persons with pica. DESIGN A study of hospital records and a review of the current literature. SETTING A community hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-five patients from a large institution for the mentally handicapped were treated for well-documented pica on 56 occasions at the Orillia Soldiers Memorial Hospital between 1976 and 1991. INTERVENTIONS Endoscopy and laparotomy for the removal of foreign bodies or to close perforations. RESULTS Fourteen (25%) cases of pica were managed by observation only, but 42 (75%) cases required surgical intervention. There were 34 laparotomies. The complication rate was 30% and the death rate 11%. CONCLUSIONS Pica is a serious health risk for mentally handicapped patients. Diagnosis and postoperative care can be difficult. Pica should be suspected in mentally handicapped patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.


The unambiguous identification of Central Valley spring-run chinook salmon has become imperative since their proposed listing in 1998. The accuracy of methods used to assign individuals to their stock of origin is critical for understanding juvenile migration patterns and determining the success of protection measures. Existing microsatellites discriminate between the endangered winter-run and other chinook but are insufficient to characterize phylogenetically less distinct runs. Here, we isolated and developed highly variable tetranucleotide microsatellites for the specific goal of increasing discriminatory power among closely related populations, providing a new power towards the reliable differentiation of nonwinter runs


Nowadays, there is a growing awareness that higher education is called to help young people to develop their personal and professional future. The university mission is not only to increase opportunities for employability and for better matching of labour market requests and graduates' skills, but also to prepare people to positively live in local and global communities as well as to actively contribute to personal and community well-being. Therefore, a more holistic approach to education is required, which overcomes the traditional idea of promoting logical, cognitive and linguistic intelligence and which promotes multiple intelligences, including emotional, interpersonal, creative skills. Scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education and educational research have shown that there is a variety of strategies and methods that can foster not only the development of knowledge, but also soft skills. This Issue offers some perspectives and innovative experiences in different subject areas within this framework and moves towards more general visions of educational issues.Published online: 31 May 2018


Background : Adverse reaction to food has increased around the world in last years. Prevalence of food allergy raises between 2-4% in adults, and 6-8% in children. The clinical presentation is heterogeneous and varies from mild symptoms to anaphylactic reactions. Even the clinical history focused in the food is important; demonstration of allergen sensitization is mandatory. Objective : To describe the profile of the patients with suspicion of food allergy and the regular clinical practice followed in Mexico. Material and method : An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out from March 2013 to March 2014 using a convenience sample of allergic patients who were treated in the office, both private and public, of those physicians who seen food allergy patients. Results : Clinical, epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic data were collected from 1,971 suspicious food allergic patients presenting for the first time in the departments of the researchers involved in the study. No difference was found in relation to gender. In relation to age, a bimodal distribution, with peaks at 2 and 35 years old, was found. A history of respiratory allergy was present in 75% of cases; 80% of patients had had any previous symptoms before seeking consultation and the most frequent clinical manifestations were cutaneous, 5% reported anaphylaxis. Conclusion : The foods involved in reactions change with age. The clinical presentation changes with the food, although the skin is the most frequently affected organ. Even if the suspicious were high, the confirmation with specific diagnostic tools is strongly recommended.


The review discusses problems relating to the technique of optical measurements on the surface of a metallic electrode in an electrolyte solution. Methods for the measurement of the thickness of oxide films on the electrode surface and of the extent of adsorption at the metal–electrolyte interface are examined. A number of examples of spectroscopic studies on metal–electrolyte and metal–oxide–electrolyte systems are quoted. The usefulness of optical methods for the investigation of the processes on the surface of a metallic electrode in solution is demonstrated on the basis of the data presented. The bibliography includes 72 references.


Yeast glutamine synthetase was purified and shown to be an octameric globular protein (s= 15.4, f/f
0= 1·29, mol. wt= 390000). It consists of two weakly-bound half molecules (s= 8·7, f/f
0= 1·35, mol. wt= 180500) and relatively harsh treatment is required to dissociate these octamers into component monomers (s= 3·8). Deactivation of the enzyme in vivo may include changes in the conformation of the native enzyme with its separation into two 'tight' tetramers, followed by their dissociation into component monomers and dimers. In the presence of Mg2+ and glutamate, monomers re-aggregate to oligomers which, although having transferase activity, are devoid of synthetase activity. The relevance of these observations in relation to control of glutamine synthetase activity in yeast is discussed.


ABSTRACT The vacuolar-type H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) is a multi-subunit proton pump that regulates cellular pH. V-ATPase activity modulates several cellular processes, but cell-type-specific functions remain poorly understood. Patients with mutations in specific V-ATPase subunits can develop sensorineural deafness, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, we show that V-ATPase mutations disrupt the formation of zebrafish neuromasts, which serve as a model to investigate hearing loss. V-ATPase mutant neuromasts are small and contain pyknotic nuclei that denote dying cells. Molecular markers and live imaging show that loss of V-ATPase induces mechanosensory hair cells in neuromasts, but not neighboring support cells, to undergo caspase-independent necrosis-like cell death. This is the first demonstration that loss of V-ATPase can lead to necrosis-like cell death in a specific cell type in vivo. Mechanistically, loss of V-ATPase reduces mitochondrial membrane potential in hair cells. Modulating the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, which regulates mitochondrial membrane potential, improves hair cell survival. These results have implications for understanding the causes of sensorineural deafness, and more broadly, reveal functions for V-ATPase in promoting survival of a specific cell type in vivo.


To the Editor: The Perspective article by Parens et al. (May 20 issue)1 misleads, misinforms, and is missing relevant facts. The authors imply that the increase in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder was due to a cabal of child psychia trists rather than the increase in published, peer reviewed research. They argue that "no existing DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] diagnosis conveys the appropriate severity" of the moods and behaviors of children "who can be explo sively angry, irritable, frantically active, suicidal, or even homicidal." An adult with these symp toms would very likely be diagnosed with bipo lar disorder, and 65% of adults with bipolar disorder report an early onset of the condition.2 Research from multiple sites supports the valid ity of pediatric bipolar disorder.3 The authors cite "sparse" evidence supporting the efficacy of medications. Largescale pediat ric trials documenting safety and efficacy have led to Food and Drug Administration approval of two agents.4 They describe nonmedical treat ments as "firstline," even though few studies document the usefulness of these resourcecon suming therapies; those that do consider them adjuncts to medication, not replacements.5


Tumor infiltrating immune cells often show a skewed phenotype that reflects attenuation of anti-tumor activity and enhancement of pro-tumor activities, including angiogenesis. Natural Killer (NK) cells are effectors lymphocytes of innate immunity, primarily involved in immunosurvelliance against tumors through their cytotoxic activity. We previously reported that NKs from Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) show the decidual-like CD56brightCD16-VEGFhighPlGFhighIL-8+IFNγlow phenotype [Bruno et al, Neoplasia, 2014; Bruno et al, JNCI, 2014]. Here we investigated whether tumor associated (TANKs) and tumor infiltrating (TINKs) NK cells undergo an angiogenic-switch in colorectal cancer (CRC). NK subset distribution and cytokine profiling were performed by multicolor flow cytometry, using peripheral blood and tissue samples from CRC patients. Conditioned media (CM) from FACS-sorted NKs were used either for secretomic profiling, by antibody membrane array or angiogenesis functional assay on human umbilical endothelial vein cells (HUVECs) We found that CD56brightCD16− NK cells predominate in CRC adjacent and tumor tissues, produce VEGF, PlGF, IL-8 and show impaired cytotoxicity. Further, TINK/TANKs from CRC patients express the decidual NK markers CD9 and CD49a. Secretomic analysis on CRC peripheral blood NKs revealed up regulation for several pro angiogenic factors, including Angiogenin, Angiopoietin-1/2, TIMP-1/2, Tie-2, MMP1, MMP9. Media conditioned by FACS sorted NK cells from peripheral blood and tumor tissue of CRC patients were able to induce HUVEC proliferation, migration and the formation of capillary like structures. Our data demonstrate that TINK/TANKS from CRC patients are switched toward a pro-angiogenic/pro-tumor phenotype and function. We propose that TINK/TANKs could represent the hallmark for a new paradigm in CRC inflammation. 1. Bruno A, Focaccetti C, Pagani A, Imperatori AS, Spagnoletti M, Rotolo N, Cantelmo AR, Franzi F, Capella C, Ferlazzo G, Mortara L, Albini A, Noonan DM. The proangiogenic phenotype of natural killer cells in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Neopla sia. 2013 Feb;15(2):133-42. 2. Bruno A, Ferlazzo G, Albini A, Noonan DM. A think tank of TINK/TANKs: tumor infiltrating/tumor-associated natural killer cells in tumor progression and angiogenesis. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2014 Aug;106(8):dju200 Citation Format: Antonino Bruno, Barbara Bassani, Davide Giuseppe D'Urso, Silvia Zanellato, Elisabetta Gini, Elisa Cassinotti, Luigi Boni, Lorenzo Mortara, Adriana Albini, Douglas M. Noonan. Tumor infiltrating (TINKs) and tumor-associated (TANKs) natural killer cells (TINKs): A new paradigm in colorectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3244.


Today scene graphs are ubiquitous in computer graphics: since they provide both a well suited data structure and an abstraction layer, almost all modern graphics applications employ some sort of scene graph. Unfortunately most scene graphs do not support higher order primitives (such as trimmed NURBS) adequately, even though in Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems the de facto standard surface representation is trimmed NURBS surfaces. This thesis describes how the trimmed NURBS representation can be seamlessly integrated into a scene graph system. For rendering purposes, geometries in the trimmed NURBS representation are almost always transformed into a polygonal representation. However, since this process is quite complicated if trimming is involved, creating a robust implementation is not straightforward. Another related problem is that when exporting complex NURBS models from CAD/CAM systems the topology information is sometimes lost and is usually very hard to reconstruct. This may result in annoying rendering artifacts when two adjacent surfaces do not join seamlessly. If rendering is fillrate-limited (e.g. because of the usage of expensive fragment shaders) overdraw can also become a significant problem. One solution for example is to use the occlusion culling capabilities of modern graphics hardware. However, due to the fact that occlusion queries require a complete pipeline flush using too many such queries can even slow down rendering, if the depth complexity of the scene is low. This thesis focuses on these problems: First a robust tessellation method for individual trimmed NURBS surfaces is presented which guarantees a geometric error threshold between the polygonal representation and the original analytic surface. For dealing with the rendering artifacts caused by incompatible patch boundaries two methods are presented: the first method is based on reconstructing the topological information using the guaranteed geometric tolerance of the tessellation method, and sewing the adjacent surfaces together, producing a watertight (but possibly non-manifold) mesh. The second presented method avoids rendering artifacts between adjacent surfaces by rendering small billboards at surface boundaries using programmable graphics hardware. This method keeps the scene graph hierarchy intact and allows further modifications, but does not produce a single watertight mesh. To deal with the overdraw problem an occlusion culling method is presented, which performs well even in extremely low depth complexity situations and performs at least on par with state of the art occlusion culling methods for high depth complexity scenes. Finally an overview is given on how the most widely used scene graphs support high level primitives (e.g. trimmed NURBS) and the integration into the OpenSG scene graph is discussed.


We isolated endophytic fungi from the coniferous leaves of Abies koreana and Taxus cuspidata inhabiting Mt. Hallasan, Korea. The isolated fungal strains were identified based on a phylogenetic analysis using nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region, large subunit region of ribosomal DNA, and translation elongation factor region. Results confirmed four prevously unreported endophytic fungi in Korea: Lachnellula hyalina, Ochrocladosporium elatum, Phacidium lacerum, and Phyllosticta cussoniae. In this report, we describe the morphological characteristics of these fungi and the results of the phylogenetic analysis.


ABSTRACT The microstructures of building materials from the archaeological complex of Huaca de la Luna on the northern coast of Peru is assessed for the first time by a multiscale approach. The multiscale microstructural characterization used laboratory techniques including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microtomography, and both gas and powder pycnometry. Optical microscopy revealed the presence of organic matter and shell fragments and X-ray microtomography showed differences in the sizes and connectivity of pores. The BET (N2 gas adsorption) specific surface areas showed greater presence of clayey matrix in the mortars. No significant differences among mortars and brick fragments mineralogy were detected by X-ray diffraction, so the larger amount of fine binding matrix in the mortars suggests that they were produced blending raw material with different grain sizes. The aim of this study is to provide data that can be used for a better understanding of the Moche culture, its construction techniques, and to support conservation strategies of the archaeological heritage.


STUDY OBJECTIVE This study describes educational differences in decreases in leisure time physical activity among an adult, physically active population and additionally attempts to identify predictors of these differences from information on health status and individual and environmental factors. DESIGN Prospective population based study. Baseline measurement were carried out in 1991 and follow up in 1997. SETTING South eastern part of the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS The study included 3793 subjects who were physically active in 1991 and who participated in the follow up. METHODS Potential predictors of decreasing physical activity were measured in 1991. Logistic regression analyses were carried out for two age groups (<45 years; ⩾45 years) separately. MAIN RESULTS Lower educated respondents experienced statistically significant higher odds to decrease physical activity during follow up, compared with respondents with higher vocational schooling or a university degree. Perceived control was the main predictor of educational differences in decreasing physical activity in both age groups. In the older group, material problems and a poor perceived health experienced by lower educated people additionally predicted educational differences in decreases in physical activity during leisure time. CONCLUSIONS These findings have important implications for health promotion practice and policy to prevent socioeconomic differences in physical inactivity and health. There is a need for evidence-based interventions that improve perceived control and reduce material problems in lower educated groups.


Temporal patterns within complex sound signals, such as music, are not merely processed after they are heard. We also focus attention to upcoming points in time to aid perception, contingent upon regularities we perceive in the sounds' inherent rhythms. Such organized predictions are endogenously maintained as meter— the patterning of sounds into hierarchical timing levels that manifest as strongand weakevents. Models of neural oscillations provide potential means for how meter could arise in the brain, but little evidence of dynamic neural activity has been offered. To this end, we conducted a study instructing participants to imagine two-based or three-based metric patterns over identical, equally-spaced sounds while we recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG). In the three-based metric pattern, multivariate analysis of the EEG showed contrasting patterns of neural oscillations between strong and weak events in the delta (2–4 Hz) and alpha (9–14 Hz), frequency bands, while theta (4–9 Hz) and beta (16–24 Hz) bands contrasted two hierarchically weaker events. In two-based metric patterns, neural activity did not drastically differ between strong and weak events. We suggest the findings reflect patterns of neural activation and suppression responsible for shaping perception through time.


Background The COVID-19 pandemic forced many health systems to proactively reduce care delivery to prepare for an expected surge in hospitalizations. There have been concerns that care deferral may have negative health effects, but it is hoped that telemedicine can provide a viable alternative. Objective This study aimed to understand what type of health care services were being deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the role played by telemedicine to fill in care gaps, and changes in attitudes toward telemedicine. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of survey responses from 1694 primary care patients in a mid-sized northeastern city. Our main outcomes were use of telemedicine and reports of care deferral during the shutdown. Results Deferred care was widespread—48% (n=812) of respondents deferred care—but it was largely for preventive services, particularly dental and primary care, and did not cause concerns about negative health effects. In total, 30.2% (n=242) of those who delayed care were concerned about health effects, with needs centered around orthopedics and surgery. Telemedicine was viewed more positively than prior to the pandemic; it was seen as a viable option to deliver deferred care, particularly by respondents who were over 65 years of age, female, and college educated. Mental health services stood out for having high levels of deferred care. Conclusions Temporary health system shutdowns will give rise to deferred care. However, much of the deferrals will be for preventive services. The effect of this on patient health can be moderated by prioritizing surgical and orthopedic services and delivering other services through telemedicine. Having telemedicine as an option is particularly crucial for mental health services.


Phylogeny reconstruction is fundamentally crucial for molecular evolutionary studies but remains computationally challenging. Here we present CloudPhylo, a tool built on Spark that is capable of processing large-scale datasets for phylogeny reconstruction. As testified on empirical data, CloudPhylo is well suited for big data analysis, achieving high efficiency and good scalability on phylogenetic tree inference.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
https://github.com/XingjianXu/cloudphylo CONTACT: firstname.lastname@example.com information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Several computer-aided tools could be used to support a broad area of architectural design. The intention of this paper is to give an overview of possible tools that support the analysis, synthesis, or evaluation processes underlying architectural design. We evaluate these tools and elicit their requirements as tools for computer-aided architectural design. Potential improvements are a broadening of the solution-space of the architect (stimulate inspiration), an increasing speed or ease of generating and evaluating design alternatives, a better accessibility of required information, and verification of the rules and demands of the brief. In developing a tool for the very early design stage, an overview of existing tools, including their potential advantages and drawbacks, that could somehow support these ideas is a necessary stepping-stone.


Conflicts over extractive development often center around predicting future profits and economic growth, and estimating industrial pollution. How these projections are understood and seen as legitimate and trustworthy depends on social actors' environmental imaginaries and timescapes. Thus, I examine the temporal and cultural dynamics of natural resource politics, particularly how affective connections to the past and future mobilize support and opposition to new mining. I use the case of proposed copper mines in the rural Minnesota Iron Range region to explore the different environmental imaginaries and timescapes that mining opponents and proponents use to understand the potential socio-environmental impacts, and to legitimate their positions. Proponents, including long-time and working class Iron Range residents and mining corporations, view the region as an industrial landscape built by mining and hope new proposals will renew the past to create a prosperous future. Meanwhile, environmental groups who oppose mining view the region through an environmental imaginary based on outdoor recreation, and draw on collective memories of family and youth trips to understand new extractive projects as a rupture to their vision of the future. I show that resource extraction is understood through temporalities that differ across intersections of class and region, and that emotional meanings of the past and visions of the future animate contemporary political action. Keywords: Resource extraction, mining, environmental imaginaries, timescapes, collective memory, environmental politics, emotions


Networked learning and learning networks are commonplace concepts in most contemporary discourse on learning in the 21st century. This special issue provides a collection of studies that address the need for a growing body of empirical work to extent the limited understanding of the use and benefits of networks in relation to learning and professional development. In this article we attempt to offer a synthesis of the studies presented in this special issue and reflect on their findings. The studies in this issue present a rich combination of networked professional learning research addressing issues related to the composition and structure of learning networks, their content and activities, showing how multi-faceted research in the field of networked learning really is. Based on the findings and methods used in the articles in this issue, we articulate some recommendations for further research. The recommendations are focused on the need for advanced multi-level analysis to understand the complexity of learning ties, the need for employing a multi-method research approach to triangulate and contextualize findings, the need to conduct process and time-based analysis and finally the need to further develop a theory and toolkit for applying Social Network Analysis in the context of networked learning.


This paper presents a dual band low noise amplifier (LNA) for 1.8 GHz DECT and 2.4 GHz WLAN applications employing positive feedback technique. This LNA exploits a positive feedback capacitor connected to a conventional cascaded inductive source degenerated LNA whereby the connection of a capacitor determines the operating frequency of the LNA. For operation at 1.8 GHz DECT, the capacitor is feedback to both transistors of the cascaded LNA and as for 2.4 GHz WLAN application, the capacitor is feedback to only one of the transistors. Two switches are employed to control the connection of the feedback capacitor to the LNA. By switching the connection of the feedback capacitor, the narrow-band gain and impedance matching are achieved at both 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz frequency bands. The LNA has been simulated using 0.18 mum CMOS technology and results attained for both two bands are as followed; gain, S21=21 dB, noise figure, NF=0.8 dB and linearity with third-order intercept point, IIP3=-0.13 dBm. Simulation results prove that the technique works and a dual-band LNA with a chip size comparable to a single-band LNA is realized with the proposed topology.


A new hospital development in Campbeltown has received the approval of Health Minister for the Scottish Office, Mr Michael Forsyth. The £4.4 million hospital to be built by Argyll and Clyde Health Board will replace the three existing hospitals and it is hoped that the development will alleviate deficiencies within the existing accommodation and improve [illegible word] vices for patients and staff in [illegiblel word] Kintyre area.


BACKGROUND
Over a 16-year period, we conducted a clinical study of malaria acquired worldwide in adults from malaria-nonendemic countries, to determine risk factors for severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

METHODS
All patients with confirmed malaria who were managed by our unit from 1991 to 2006 were prospectively evaluated. Factors predicting disease severity according to (1) strict World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, (2) a composite measure of unfavorable outcome, and (3) length of hospital stay were identified by logistic and linear regression analyses.

RESULTS
We evaluated 676 episodes of malaria, 482 (71%) due to P. falciparum and 194 (29%) due to nonfalciparum parasites. Black patients had a significantly reduced risk of developing WHO-defined severe falciparum malaria, with Asian patients having odds of severe falciparum malaria that were 8.05-fold (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.93-22.1-fold) higher and white patients having odds that were 8.20-fold (95% CI, 2.94-22.9-fold) higher. Black patients also had a reduced risk of an unfavorable outcome and of a prolonged stay in the hospital, compared with the risks for white or Asian patients. Of 6 patients with falciparum malaria who died, none were black. In univariate analysis, patients with parasitemias of >or= 2% had odds of severe falciparum malaria 12-fold higher than those of patients with parasitemias of <2% (73% vs. 19%). Patients with a history of previous clinical malaria, regardless of ethnicity, had a significantly reduced risk of WHO-defined severe falciparum malaria (odds ratio, 0.35 [95% CI, 0.15-0.80]).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study demonstrate that ethnicity and parasitemia are important independent risk factors for severe falciparum malaria in adults from malaria-nonendemic countries and that a history of previous clinical malaria significantly reduces the risk of WHO-defined severe falciparum malaria.


We obtain a combinatorial proof that the number of points of the space $\overline{{\mathcal M}_{0,n}}({\mathbb F}_q)$ satisfies the recurrent formula for Poincare polynomials of the space $\overline{{\mathcal M}_{0,n}}({\mathbb C})$.


ABSTRACT The possibility of encoding regulation to make it processable automatically by computers has been gaining attention within the legal discipline. With it, an abundance of terms has emerged as much as an array of academic discussions providing different examples, raising different concerns, while, unfortunately, having different premises in mind. This makes contributions within the field of what we refer to as 'automatically processable regulation' difficult to compare with each other and research results hard to transfer among different research projects and groups. To overcome this problem, we propose a typology that enables researchers to locate and position research projects within the domain of automatically processable regulation, understand what issues might arise depending on where within the typology a project falls, and determine the relationship between projects. The typology revolves around three dimensions: the primary aim of the project, the potential for divergence of interests amongst stakeholders, and the degree of mediation by computers.


Objective—Changes in blood rheology, especially increased erythrocyte aggregation (EA) might play an important part in the development of arterial and venous thrombotic lesions. A prospective study was designed to evaluate EA in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) and to see if this parameter is predictive for the future development of vascular complications, such as deep vein thrombosis of various organ systems and uveitis. Methods—EA was measured by a photometric Myrenne aggregometer in 38 patients with BD at the time of initial diagnosis and in 40 age and sex matched healthy controls (HC). Results—During a median follow up period of 13.5 months, 13 patients developed vascular-ocular complications (eight deep vein thrombosis, nine uveitis, and four both deep vein thrombosis and uveitis). Patients were further divided into two groups: BD-a with mucocutaneous symptoms and arthritis only; BD-b with associated vascular-ocular complications. EA values at high shear rate (M) and at low shear rate (M1) were compared among the


OBJECTIVE
To study the impact of surgically verified endometriosis and serum and peritoneal fluid antiendometrial antibodies (AEA) on pregnancy outcomes in gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

STUDY DESIGN
Surgical evaluation of endometriosis and collection of serum and peritoneal fluid was performed at the time of laparoscopy. For patients who did not undergo laparoscopy, only serum samples were obtained. Sera and peritoneal fluid were tested by indirect immunofluorescence for AEA.

RESULTS
There was no correlation between surgically verified endometriosis, serum or peritoneal fluid AEA and clinical pregnancy in patients undergoing ART. There was no significant difference in surgically verified endometriosis in patients who delivered and those who miscarried (p < 0.0594), whereas serum (p < 0.0223) and peritoneal fluid (p < 0.0032) AEA showed differences. In the total group of 352 ART patients, positive serum AEA was statistically significant in those who miscarried vs. those who delivered (p < 0.0000).

CONCLUSION
Endometriosis does not significantly impair the pregnancy potential of ART patients, but it may be associated with miscarriage. The presence of serum and peritoneal fluid AEA correlate better with miscarriage than surgically verified endometriosis.


An experience with different approaches to treatment of acute cholecystitis under conditions of multifield hospitals is described. On the basis of comparative data of treatment of 10518 patients the optimal strategy of treatment of acute cholecystitis was determined.


Purpose of reviewRadiographic progression in the axial skeleton is considered as an important outcome in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and in the whole group of axial spondyloarthritis (SpA). Recently new data on the rates and predictors of radiographic progression from observational cohorts have become available. Here we summarize recent data and discuss their clinical relevance and directions for further investigations. Recent findingsNonradiographic axial SpA progresses to AS with a rate of about 12% over 2 years; elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important predictor of such a progression. The rate of radiographic progression in the spine is strongly dependent on the presence of the following risk factors: syndesmophytes at baseline, elevated acute phase reactants (CRP and/or erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and smoking. The presence of radiographic damage in the spine has a strong impact on spinal mobility and functional status, although the association of radiographic sacroiliitis progression with the functional status remains unclear. SummaryRadiographic progression in the spine and, to a lesser extent, in the sacroiliac joint represents a clinically relevant clinical outcome and treatment target in AS/axial SpA.


A new complete hallucal metatarsal (SKX 5017) was recovered from the "lower bank" of Member 1 at Swartkrans (ca. 1.8 m.y. BP). The new metatarsal is attributed to Paranthropus robustus, the predominant hominid found in Member 1 (greater than 95% of hominid individuals). SKX 5017 is similar to Olduvai Hominid 8-H from bed I, Olduvai (ca. 1.76 m.y. BP), and both resemble humans most closely among extant hominoids. The base, shaft, and head of SKX 5017 suggest human-like foot posture and a human-like range of extension (= dorsiflexion) at the hallucal metatarsophalangeal joint, while at the same time the distal articular surface indicates that a human-like toe-off mechanism was absent in Paranthropus. The fossil evidence suggests that Homo habilis and Paranthropus may have attained a similar grade of bipedality at roughly 1.8 m.y. BP.


The present work introduces a mathematical model of a cracked pipeline conveying liquid. This model uses governing equation of Euler – Bernoulli beam theory for a pipe conveying liquid. The crack introduced in the model is represented by two identical torsional springs and a sinusoidal excitation force was applied to one of the pipe ends for the purpose of crack detection. The model is solved numerically using MATLAB code bvp4c to solve linear, ordinary fourth order differential equations (boundary value problem) for the detection of the crack position. To group the variables in the dimensionless form, Buckingham Pi-theorem was used. The effects of the dimensionless parameters on crack position were examined. The results show that the value of dimensionless parameters of stiffness at crack and support has considerable effect on crack position. It also shows that the force amplitude and fluid flow properties has no effect on crack position which demonstrates the capacity of using the present technique with small force magnitude to avoid stress-strain problems on the pipeline and any excitation frequency can be used.


Polymorphisms of HLA-DRB1* and HLA-DQB1* in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is model of multiple exposure of HLAclass II towards abundant exogenous antigen. This can be the evidence of balancing selection in molecular evolution, particularly for HLA class II. The objectives of this study was to determine the frequencies of homozygosity of HLADRB1* and HLA-DQB1* in patients with RA, in order to estimate balancing selection. Genomic DNA of 89 RA cases (ACR Criteria 1987) from 6 hospitals in Java and Bali, and 93 healthy controls were analyzed for HLA-DRB1* through PCR-SSO. Descriptive statistics were used. The results of this study showed lower frequencies of HLA-DRB1*, lower HLA-DRB1* homozygosities (e.g. 2.2%), HLA-DRB1*04 in RA cases, 0% in controls. It can be concluded that lower frequencies of HLA-DRB1* homozygous reveals that balancing selection may exist in Indonesian population.


The induction of eddy currents in a conducting, non-magnetic plate containing a through-the-thickness crack is considered in the limit where the plate thickness (h) is small compared with the electromagnetic skin depth (δ). The plate is represented by a current sheet and the crack by a distribution of generalized current vortices. The current density for these vortices must differ from that of conventional hydrodynamic vortices so as to be consistent with Faraday's law for self-induction. The vortex density, and hence the induced current in the cracked plate, can be obtained by solving a one-dimensional singular integral equation involving the current density for the uncracked plate which is assumed to be known. The case where the induced currents are produced by a probe coil, as in eddy-current non destructive inspection, is investigated in detail and a simple expression is derived for ∆Z, the change in coil impedance due to the crack. The formalism is applied to the specific problem of an infinite plate containing a straight crack. Analytical results are presented for the limiting cases of long and short cracks, and a numerical method based on Gauss-Chebyshev quadrature is used for intermediate crack length. These theoretical results are compared with experimental measurements of ∆Z and the thin-plate theory is found to be in excellent agreement with experiment (to within 5% or better) for values of h/δ up to 0.4.


Spin chains have been proposed as quantum wires in many quantum-information processing architectures. Coherent transmission of quantum information in spin chains over short distances is enabled by their internal dynamics, which drives the transport of single-spin excitations in perfectly polarized chains. Given the practical challenge of preparing the chain in a pure state, we propose to use a chain that is initially in the maximally mixed state. We compare the transport properties of pure and mixed-state chains and find similarities that enable the experimental study of pure-state transfer via mixed-state chains. We also demonstrate protocols for the perfect transfer of quantum information in these chains. Remarkably, mixed-state chains allow the use of Hamiltonians that do not preserve the total number of single-spin excitations and are more readily obtainable from the naturally occurring magnetic dipolar interaction. We discuss experimental implementations using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance and defect centers in diamond.


The term 'hegemony' tends to suggest socio-ideological multitasking – because the hegemonic group uses the best of his resources to exercise its power, and are at the same time does its best to keep its design undetected by other group. The concept of hegemony was introduced by Gramsic in 1971. The process of hegemonic control has five dimensions ranging from gross to subtle. The most obvious dimensions of hegemonic domination is power of military. The domination group has strongest military. Alliance military is stronger than Military Blocs. The hegemony group has strong base of economy and technology; it has good. At the ideological level, such a group controls the term of relations-international, intergroup and interpersonal. Ideas of powerful overpower all the ideas. The acceptance is so effortless that they never realize the fact that the ideas were never their own and were designed to serve the interesting of controlling groups. The target values are treated as natural way of life. The myth or image of a happy family with a women as  a housewife is best example of continual courting which has became naturalized over centuries.


Carrier dynamics of flexible organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) films under various strains after photoexcitation were characterized by using time-resolved spectroscopy. The time-resolved photoluminescence study demonstrated that the charge carrier lifetime increases with increasing tensile strain, while it decreases with increasing compressive strain. This balanced optical response to tensile and compressive strains sheds light on the origin of ultra-stable optoelectric properties and overall film flexibility performance, which is further corroborated by transient absorption measurements. Moreover, the stability of flexible MAPbI3 films was enhanced by doping a tiny amount of rubrene molecules in an MAPbI3 precursor, without influencing the film structure or carrier dynamics. Our study provides new insights into the outstanding optoelectric properties and flexibility of the films and offers a novel method to improve the stability of organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite based flexible devices.


An algorithm which combines the merits of statistical classification- and estimation-theory-based approaches is proposed for textured image segmentation. The texture regions are modeled by noncausal Gaussian Markov random fields (GMRF). The algorithm is comprised of two stages. In the first stage, the image is partitioned into small blocks of pixels. GMRF parameter estimates are extracted as the feature vector for each block. A maximum likelihood spatial classifier, which explores the class conditional correlation properties among neighboring feature vectors, is proposed for classifying each block into one of m-possible texture classes. The result of classification is a coarse segmented image. The locations of the edges are estimated in the second stage using a line-by-line maximum likelihood edge-estimation technique. Each detected edge sequence is further modeled as an autoregressive (AR) process and processed by a Kalman filter in order to smooth the detected boundary.<<ETX>>


Title Labor induction by transcervical balloon catheter and cerebral palsy associated with umbilical cord prolapse Author(s) Yamada, Takahiro; Cho, Kazutoshi; Yamada, Takashi; Morikawa, Mamoru; Minakami, Hisanori Citation Journal Of Obstetrics And Gynaecology Research, 39(6): 1159-1164 Issue Date 2013-06 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/56244 Right The definitive version is available at Wiley Online Library , www.wileyonlinelibrary.com.


Background: Chronic diseases are currently the main cause of morbidity and mortality and represent a major challenge to healthcare systems. The objective of this study is to know Spanish public opinion about chronic disease and how it affects their daily lives. Methods: Through a telephone or online survey of 24 questions, data was gathered on the characteristics of the respondents and their knowledge and experiences of chronic diseases. Results: Of the 2522 survey respondents, 325 had a chronic disease and were carers, 1088 had a chronic disease and were not carers, 140 did not have a chronic disease but were carers, and 969 did not have chronic disease and were not carers. The degree of knowledge on these diseases was good or very good for 69.4%, 56.0%, 62.2%, and 46.7%, respectively, for each group. All the groups agreed that chronic diseases mainly affect mood, quality of life and having to make sacrifices. Conclusions: Knowledge about chronic diseases is relatively good, although it can be improved among the Spanish population, especially among patients who report having a chronic disease and play the role of carers. However, it is important to continue maintaining the level of information and training concerning these diseases.