We study time evolution of critical fluctuations of conserved charges near the QCD critical point in the context of relativistic heavy ion collisions. A stochastic diffusion equation is employed in order to describe the diffusion property of the critical fluctuation arising from the coupling of the order parameter field to conserved charges. We show that the diffusion property gives rise to a possibility of probing the early time fluctuations through the rapidity window dependence of the second-order cumulant and correlation function of conserved charges. It is pointed out that their nonmonotonic behaviors as functions of the rapidity interval are robust experimental signals for the existence of the critical enhancement around the QCD critical point.


Antiedema effects of basic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that don't inhibit prostaglandin biosynthesis were investigated with carrageenin-induced hind paw edema in rats. Locally administered mepirizole, tiaramide.HCl and aminopyrine, the basic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, didn't show any suppression against the edema formation. In the case of indomethacin, phenylbutazone and ketoprofen, inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis, they inhibited the edema formation. Inhibitory effects of orally and subcutaneously administered basic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as tiaramide.HCl and benzydamine on the edema formation were more potent in fasted rats than in nonfasted rats. In the case of acidic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as indomethacin and ibuprofen, their inhibitory activities were almost the same in both the fasted rats and nonfasted rats. These results suggest that the site of action of the basic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as tiaramide.HCl and mepirizole is not the inflamed site, and certain systemic effects may contribute to the anti-edema effects.


The financial and eurozone crises highlighted the inadequacy of the original governance structures of the eurozone. In response, a range of reforms were launched, including the creation of a European banking union. In practice, some elements of the banking union were delayed by division among member states and the breakdown of the Franco-German motor, such as the question of the operationalization of the single resolution mechanism and fund or the deposit insurance scheme. In addition, eurozone governance—which would once have been regarded as a technocratic issue—became increasingly politicized. The aim of this article is to study the extent to which the banking union was scrutinized by parliament and to what degree this reflects material interests and ideas. For this purpose, it focuses on salience (i.e., how much attention the issue received) and polarization (i.e., the divergence of positions). The analysis of the resolutions and debates of the German Bundestag and French Assemblee Nationale, i.e., the parliaments of two key states in EU decision-making on banking union, finds that the German government was indeed closely scrutinized, whereas the French government was relatively unconstrained.


Neurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension and production of language. It also deals with neurological correlates of language acquisition and language loss. Neurolinguistic research is traditionally based on data from populations with impaired language in order to identify the nature of human language. To this end, the field of aphasiology has made a major contribution towards attainment of empirical knowledge as it has provided linguistic characterization of various types of aphasic syndromes in monolingual and bilingual individuals. With the advent of neuroimaging techniques, neurolinguists can now obtain language processing data from healthy individuals to answer more advanced questions about language in the brain. The neurolinguistic aspects of second language (L2) acquisition have been examined for decades to identify two central issues: the cerebral representation of language in monolinguals and bilinguals, and neurological correlates of sensitive (or critical) period that limits L2 acquisition in adulthood. Nevertheless, recent neurolinguistic research discusses not only what neurological changes lead to constraints in L2 attainment but also what changes L2 attainment generates in brain structures. This brief review aims to highlight these major issues in neurolinguistic and neuropsychological research as it relates to L2 acquisition and L2 pedagogy. Keywords: Neurolinguistics, bilingualism, L2 acquisition


A study of papers on amyloid fibers suggested to us that cylindrical β-sheets are the only structures consistent with some of the x-ray and electron microscope data. We then found that our own 7-year-old and hitherto enigmatic x-ray diagram of poly-l-glutamine fits a cylindrical sheet of 31 Å diameter made of β-strands with 20 residues per helical turn. Successive turns are linked by hydrogen bonds between both the main chain and side chain amides, and side chains point alternately into and out of the cylinder. Fibers of the exon-1 peptide of huntingtin and of the glutamine- and asparagine-rich region of the yeast prion Sup35 give the same underlying x-ray diagrams, which show that they have the same structure. Electron micrographs show that the 100-Å-thick fibers of the Sup35 peptide are ropes made of three protofibrils a little over 30 Å thick. They have a measured mass of 1,450 Da/Å, compared with 1,426 Da/Å for a calculated mass of three protofibrils each with 20 residues per helical turn wound around each other with a helical pitch of 510 Å. Published x-ray diagrams and electron micrographs show that fibers of synuclein, the protein that forms the aggregates of Parkinson disease, consist of single cylindrical β-sheets. Fibers of Alzheimer Aβ fragments and variants are probably made of either two or three concentric cylindrical β-sheets. Our structure of poly-l-glutamine fibers may explain why, in all but one of the neurodegenerative diseases resulting from extension of glutamine repeats, disease occurs when the number of repeats exceeds 37–40. A single helical turn with 20 residues would be unstable, because there is nothing to hold it in place, but two turns with 40 residues are stabilized by the hydrogen bonds between their amides and can act as nuclei for further helical growth. The Aβ peptide of Alzheimer's disease contains 42 residues, the best number for nucleating further growth. All these structures are very stable; the best hope for therapies lies in preventing their growth.


A study was conducted to evaluate the morphological and physical characteristics of a soil devel-oped on a toposequence using fire slope positions. Modal profile pits were dug in each of the slope positions and characterized. Soil samples were collected from each of the pedogenetic horizons and analyzed routinely for particle size distribution of bulk/particle densities and total porosity. Results showed that the landscape had a relative elevation of 0-24. 25 m with a slope gradient value from the crest to valley bottom as: 1.68, 1.55, 1.46, 1.42 and 1.22%. Soil colour from the crest to the valley bottom varied significantly from dominant 5YR to 7.5 YR and 10YR respectively. Soil depth, structure, consistence and rootlets varied significantly (P ≤ 0.05) across slope position. Bulk and particle densities value were higher in the crest and upper-slope positions with mean values of 1.20 gcm-3 and 2.35 gcm-3. There were no significant variations (P > 0.05) in particle size distribution across slope position.


This conceptual paper examines the education of boys through the filter of pedagogy and goodness. In this paper, I posit a distinction between instructional strategies (the toolkit of practical activities and strategies used to support children's learning) and pedagogy (the relational and practical response to the needs of children in the lived moments of teaching). Through a discussion of the role model hypothesis, which posits that like-gender teachers are good for like-gender students, I argue that it is not only a teacher's gender but also a teacher's non-gendered human qualities such as fairness and kindness that are most relevant to students' learning. This paper concludes with discussion on strength and masculinity as being multi-dimensional constructs, and considers the notion of good pedagogy, which endeavours to place a multiplicity of all boys' and all girls' ways of being at the centre of practical and pedagogical thinking in order that they may flourish fully at school and in learning. Keywords : gender; education of boys; pedagogy; goodness; role model


Abstract: Brain is recognized as one of the complex organ of the human body. Abnormal formation of cells may affect the normal functioning of the brain. These abnormal cells may belong to category of benign cells resulting in low grade glioma or malignant cells resulting in high grade glioma. The treatment plans vary according to grade of glioma detected. This results in need of precise glioma grading. As per World Health Organization, biopsy is considered to be gold standard in glioma grading. Biopsy is an invasive procedure which may contains sampling errors. Biopsy may also contain subjectivity errors. This motivated the clinician to look for other methods which may overcome the limitations of biopsy reports. Machine learning and deep learning approaches using MRI is considered to be most promising alternative approach reported by scientist in literature. The presented work were based on the concept of AdaBoost approach which is an ensemble learning approach. The developed model was optimized w.r.t to two hyper parameters i.e. no. of estimators and learning rate keeping the base model fixed. The decision tree was used as a base model. The proposed developed model was trained and validated on BraTS 2018 dataset. The developed optimized model achieves reasonable accuracy in carrying out classification task i.e. high grade glioma vs. low grade glioma. Keywords: High grade glioma, low grade glioma, AdaBoost, Texture Features,


: The correlation between heat production and muscular work with loads from 50 to 500 g was studied in white rats adapted to cold.


This paper situates the ethnography of avian flu within the geo-political context of a new epidemiologic transition. Drawing on anthropological experience and insight, this paper examines areas of enquiry in which an ethnographic approach could contribute to a better implementation of prevention and control measures. Within the context of newly emerging diseases and accelerated globalization, the task of ethnography needs to extend far beyond the local. This paper reveals two major global issues that the ethnography of epidemiologic transition must take into consideration: (1) Global agro-industrial capitalism, and (2) global politics in the context of international health organizations and multi-national drug companies. The case of Thailand poses a question of how the strength of ethnographic practice could be deployed to account for the reality of the global–local interface of the new epidemiologic transition.


Author(s): Piser, Celine | Advisor(s): Alter, Robert | Abstract: This dissertation considers the recent wave of memoir-style fiction by French Jewish authors of Ottoman and North African origin in light of current debates on immigration and French national identity. These authors were raised by immigrant parents who, eager to assimilate into French society, did not focus on transmitting their heritage to subsequent generations. However, their children later attempted to reclaim their lost heritage as adults through literature that revisited their parents' immigration stories, culture, and Judeo-Spanish language. Through the narrative reconstruction of the past, these authors explore how hybrid identity functions within contemporary French society and historiography as an alternative form of French identity. By writing the Judeo-French experience into French literature and history, they revise the nationalist view of French identity to allow for colonial and non-European influences. Through this case study, this project argues that France's new multicultural demographics break down the barrier between "French" and "Francophone" and redefine what it means to be a French national. This not only allows both immigrants in France and French speakers in other countries to claim French culture as their own, but also reconceptualizes French culture to include foreign linguistic, cultural, and national elements.The first two chapters analyze the experience of Mediterranean Jewish immigrants in Paris in the early- to mid-twentieth century. My archival research challenges assumptions about immigrant assimilation, arguing that some immigrants developed a hybrid identity that would allow them to integrate into French society without denying their heritage. Moreover, by writing their stories into French literature, they legitimized their claim to French's cultural capital. My analysis of this work thus urges the revaluation of the Francophone and Jewish literary canons.The following two chapters turn to second-generation Jewish immigrant authors who, though raised disconnected from their ancestral pasts, attempt to reconstruct their parents' immigration narratives in order to gain access to their lost heritages. I analyze this move by reconceptualizing Marianne Hirsch's theory of postmemory, a term that describes the relationship of the second generation to the previous generation's trauma. Through narrative techniques of temporal conflation and multilingualism, these authors rethink their previously monocultural French identities, allowing them to be in conversation with their foreign heritages even as they identify as French nationals. By producing linguistically and culturally bilingual texts, these authors are attempting to alter the current, monocultural conception of French national identity to include the cultural and linguistic traditions of France's postcolonial, post-immigration population. Working simultaneously in minor and major languages, they redefine French identity as multilingual and global, not just for immigrants but also for the dominant culture. The conclusion reconsiders the texts discussed in the dissertation through the lens of contemporary debates in France on immigration and national identity, analyzing the politics of France's controversial new immigration museum to show the relevance of these French-Sephardic literary voices to current issues of French identity and culture. While French national identity has long been based on the idea of a shared past, France's colonial legacy and diverse demographics prove that this past in fact encompasses multiple cultures, languages, and ancestral heritages. By redefining the parameters of French national identity, France's political and cultural policies can better reflect and address its diverse population.


In this paper, we investigate the combination of non-orthogonal multiple access and millimeter-wave communications (mmWave-NOMA). A downlink cellular system is considered, where an analog phased array is equipped at both the base station and users. A joint Tx-Rx beamforming and power allocation problem is formulated to maximize the achievable sum rate (ASR) subject to a minimum rate constraint for each user. As the problem is non-convex, we propose a sub-optimal solution with three stages. In the first stage, the optimal power allocation with a closed form is obtained for an arbitrary fixed Tx-Rx beamforming. In the second stage, the optimal Rx beamforming with a closed form is designed for an arbitrary fixed Tx beamforming. In the third stage, the original joint Tx-Rx beamforming and power allocation problem is reduced to a Tx beamforming problem by using the previous results, and a boundary-compressed particle swarm optimization (BC-PSO) algorithm is proposed to obtain a sub-optimal solution. Extensive performance evaluations are conducted to verify the rational of the proposed solution, and the results show that the proposed sub-optimal solution can achieve a significantly better performance in terms of ASR compared with those of the state-of-the-art schemes and the conventional mmWave orthogonal multiple access (mmWave-OMA) system.


This paper presents research on influence of information and communication technologies on decentralization of organizational structure. An empirical research was conducted, in which decentralization was described by dominant management style was compared to the level of composite index of ICT adoption. Also, consulting experience in four major Serbian companies was used to further elaborate and explain the results in the context of modern literature and practice. Conclusions were that ICT adoption is more frequently expressed in decentralized companies, empirically described by dominant liberal style of management, although ICT adoption can also lead to centralization in some cases, depending on other factors in the organization.


LCL filters are widely used in high-order harmonics attenuation of output currents in grid-connected inverters. However, output currents of grid-connected inverters with LCL filters can become unstable because of the resonance of the filters. Given that the characteristics of output currents in inverters mostly depend on filter performance, the exact analysis of filters by considering parasitic components is necessary for both harmonics attenuation and current control. LCL filters have three or four parasitic components: the series and/or parallel resistance of the filter capacitor and the series resistance of the two filter inductors. Most studies on LCL filters have focused on the parasitic components of the filter capacitor. Although several studies have addressed the parasitic components of the filter inductor at the inverter side, no study has yet investigated the concurrent effects of series resistance in both filter inductors in detail. This paper analyzes LCL filters by considering series resistance in both filter inductors; it proposes an active damping method based on the virtual series resistance of LCL filters. The performance of the proposed active damping is then verified through both simulation and experiment using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulator(HILS).


This study was aimed to investigate the protective effect of bone mesenchymal stem cell-derived microvesicles (BMMSC-MV) on glutamate injured PC12 cells so as to elucidate the mechanism of the neural damage repair. BMMSC were isolated and purified with density-gradient centrifugation method, BMMSC-MV were harvested from the supernatants of BMMSC by hypothermal ultracentrifugation method. The surface markers of BMMSC reacted against different antibodies were detected by flow cytometry. The morphology features of MV were observed under an electron microscope. Experiment was divided into three groups, one was a control group, and the other two were glutamate-injured group and co-culture group of BMMSC-MV and glutamate-damaged cells respectively. MTT test was used to evaluate the proliferative status of PC12 cells and the AnnexinV-FITC detecting kit and Hoechst33342 were used to detect the apoptosis of PC12 cells in different groups. The results showed that BMMSC isolated from rat bone marrow were highly positive for CD29, CD44 and negative for CD31, CD34 and CD45. The morphology of MV was round and the vesicles were homogenous in size. BMMSC-MV exhibited a protective effect on the excitotoxicity-injured PC12 cells, displaying increase of cell viability, decrease of Annexin-V/PI staining positive and nuclear condensed cells. It is concluded that BMMSC-MV can protect PC12 cells from glutamate-induced apoptosis, suggesting that BMMSC-MV may be a potential candidate for treatment of neurological diseases.This study provides the preliminary experimental and theoretical evidence for use of BMMSC-MV in treatment of neural excited damage.


'At first glance one might not think that a book like this one, with its dry and merely formal approach to Scripture, is born out of terror and passion' (p. 137). This is about as explicit as Miskotte allows himself to be in referencing the crisis he and his Dutch brethren were confronting at the time. Written during the early years of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Miskotte was attempting to articulate the 'ground-lines', or fundamentals, of Scripture in order to provide a resistance catechesis. It is, however, a very peculiar form of resistance; one which is only discerned in reading between the lines since more forthright condemnations of the Reich would have been met with censure. Indeed, the English subtitle, The Basics of Christian Resistance, was not part of the Dutch original. The structure of the book is indicated by the chapter headings which announce the 'groundlines' under consideration: Name, The Names of God, The Acts, Word, Sanctification, to name but a few. As these examples suggest, it is clear that the book is pursuing a kind of theological primer or theology in outline, and if one was unaware of the resistance agenda underlying the text, then it could simply be read as an introduction to major biblical themes. Nevertheless, the power of this book is in its subtlety. In Miskotte's efforts to highlight the 'ground words' of scripture, he is demonstrating that the ABCs of the Bible are in every way dependent on the language and themes of the Hebrew scriptures. In so doing, he reminds the church 'how much we are connected with Israel through the holy Instruction that have received from God' (p. 5) which almost certainly is an implicit criticism of the growing Jewish persecution. Furthermore, in an ecclesial context which was potentially uncertain in its loyalties, Miskotte's efforts to remind the church of its fundamental scriptural basis reflects a conviction that attending to the Word revealed in scripture is itself an act of resistance against the 'pagan' Volksreligion of the Nazi regime. The reader is especially well-served by the introduction by Rinse Reeling Brouwer, who provides the necessary background for understanding Miskotte's situation and intellectual development. Those familiar with Karl Barth will undoubtedly discern numerous theological echoes throughout Miskotte's ABCs. The singularity of divine revelation, a reframing of the divine 'perfections', and a theological actualism of sorts, are a few indications of this likely dependence. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that Miskotte's strategy for addressing a world in crisis is not unlike Barth's own commitment to 'carry on theology ... as if nothing had happened' (Theological Existence Today, p. 9). For both Barth and Miskotte, it would be a mistake to view this as a political quietism, but rather a counter-intuitive recommendation that sometimes the best form of resistance comes in being reminded who the church is and to whom it belongs.


In an era of an increasingly diverse national population, researchers have had to turn to expanded models of public health promotion.  In 2009, the University of California established the UC Global Health Institute with three Centers of Expertise. The Center of Expertise on Migration and Health (COEMH) formed with the multidisciplinary mission of to better understand coupled migration and health issues. This special issue represents the work of four scholars who participated in the 2013 COEM...


Written language as a symbolic medium of expression plays an important role in communications. In particular, written words communicated online can provide indications of an actor's behavioral intent. This paper describes an ongoing investigation into the interconnectivity between words and actions for a deceptive insider on group dynamics in virtual team collaboration. An experiment using an online game environment was conducted in 2014. Our findings support the hypothesis that language-action cues of group interactions will change significantly after an insider has been compromised. Deceptive actors tend to use more cognition, inclusivity and exclusivity words when interacting with group members. Future work will employ finely tuned complex Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) dictionaries to identify additional language-action cues for deception in various experimental conditions.


It has been long known that drilling fluid viscoelastic properties have a significant impact on various elements of drilling hydraulics design (e.g., assessment of frictional pressure loss, particle settling velocity, hole cleaning, etc.). However, efforts for considering the viscoelastic fluid properties in drilling hydraulics design are traditionally hindered by the fact that there was no practical methodology to measure these critical fluid properties in the field.
 Previous studies have highlighted the advantages of using the concept of "energy dissipation" for the quantitative evaluation of fluid elasticity. Energy dissipation theory provides a more comprehensive description of the fluid elasticity by considering the two characteristics of the fluid simultaneously; stretchiness (oscillation strain % at the crossover point of G' and G" curves) and the stress corresponding to crossover point (i.e., flow point). In a recent study, we have shown that the "energy dissipation" of viscoelastic fluids can be correlated to fluid physical properties such as apparent viscosity and funnel viscosity, which can be conveniently measured using standard field-testing equipment (i.e., Rotational Viscometer and Funnel viscometer). Based on these findings, a new methodology for the field assessment of drilling fluid viscoelasticity has been developed, opening new opportunities to develop improved hydraulics models.
 In this paper, using the new methodology developed in a recent study, we present a new generalized model for the field assessment of the particle settling velocity in viscoelastic fluids. The main objectives of the study were to: 1) Develop a generalized model for the field assessment of particle settling velocity in shear-thinning viscoelastic fluids by using the energy dissipation concept as an indicator of the fluid viscoelasticity; 2) Investigate the significant factors that influence the particle settling velocity to help provide a solution to the potential problem encountered in field drilling operations.
 We prepared ten different fluids, which were divided into two groups based on their shear viscosity values. In each group, five fluids were having similar shear viscosity and variable elasticity values. Nineteen different spherical particles were used to conduct particle settling experiments with a density range from 2700 kg/m3 to 6000kg/m3 and a diameter range from 1mm to 4mm. Rheological characterizations of the fluids have been conducted by using funnel viscometer, API Rotational viscometer, controlled shear rate, and amplitude sweep test measurements.
 Based on the experimental results and theory of the particle settling in non-Newtonian fluids, we developed a new model that can be used for predicting particle settling velocity in viscoelastic fluids. The statistical analyses had shown that the root means square error and mean absolute percentage error of model predictions were 0.0032 m/s and 4.1 percent, respectively.


This article proposes to give a comparative overview of European youth research findings, focussing on the current youth-specific discourse among researchers in Europe. The aim is to demonstrate whether there is a uniform perception of youth, or at least a point of view shared by the various countries, and whether, furthermore, the research perspectives of the European Union correspond in respective countries. The comparative overview will include countries of the European Union. The analysis is based on selected English language periodicals and on Spanish publications relating to youth in specialised journals. The following limitations have to be borne in mind. No judgements or evaluations are made concerning the state of youth research in individual countries. Nor do we claim to classify empirical youth research in Europe1. The range of publications relating to European youth research is far broader and more extensive than the selection of periodicals we have taken into account. Our investigation of these periodicals is meant to give a representative illustration of the main topics of youth research in Europe.


Goette's Zoology.1-I n its general appearance and make uip this work is oF the familiar type. There are few novelties in it, and it is largely morphological and systematic ini character. It begins with an Introduction 'which, in the inadeqUtte space of twlenty-five pages, discusses the basis of classification, analogy and homology, cells and protoplasm, the history of zofilogy and the theory of evolution. The rest of the volume is devoted to the systematic discussion. In this part the usual treatment is adopted and there are few features which call for comment. It is a pleasure to note that the author has not been ultra conservative. Thus we find a recognition of the close relationships of CrUstacea and Arachnicla, these being united in a group Cephalothoracica. The Phyllopocla are regarded as the primitive Crustacea, and the group of Chorclata is admitted, without how7ever including the Enteropneusta. Even in details the work seems up to date as for instance (p. 343) in the denial of the vertebrate gonotome, and in the recognition of two kinds of ribs. The language is simple and easy, and the illustrations, largely original or redrawn by the author, are clear and illustrative. One feature, however, demands criticism. The author is apparently one of those who thinks it a gain to science to rename things already well named. Thus we find Monoplastida and Polyplasticla for Protozoa and Metazoa, Eucephalica for Insecta, Pinnata for Pisces, Diigitata for Tetrapoda, Ditremlata for Placentalia, etc. Surely such increase in synonymy can serve no useful end. The Metazoa are divided into Radiata, including sponges and ccelenterates, and Bilateralia, and the latter gro up into Hypogastricla, illcluding the Vermes, Mollusca and Arthropocla, and the Ple-urogastricla, composed of Vermiform ia (Sagitta, Balanoglossus) Echinodermiata, and Chordata. The work is devoted almost exclusively to recent forms and extinct groups receive but slight notice. K.


Bernard's thesis that marriage is more beneficial to husbands than to wives is put to a systematic test by using comparative data from several large surveys conducted in Canada and the U. S. Specific hypotheses relating to three aspects of this thesis; namely, global happiness, marital and family hapiness, and psychological distress are examined. Contrary to Bernard's thesis, in the current analysis, married women reported significantly greater happiness than married men. With respect to marital and family happiness, the results were also at variance with those of Bernard's. However, the findings on the mental health component were largely consistent with Bernard's thesis. Married women were found significantly more vulnerable to psychological distress, anxiety and depressive symptoms (as well as physical health problems) than married men. The data also indicated greater use of drugs and pain relievers among women; however, men consumed substantially more alcohol than women. Overall, the results would suggest that marriage is somewhat more health-protective for men than for women. The conditions under which married women showed greater vulnerability to mental illness included lack of social integration, overload of household chores, economic dependency on their husbands, not working in paid jobs, and poor quality of family life. Comparing these findings with the results of the 1960's research cited by Bernard, no significant improvement in women's overal well-being can be observed.


We examined relationships between fragrance and phylogeny using a number of approaches to coding fragrance data and comparing the hierarchical information in fragrance data with the phylogenetic signal in a DNA sequence data set. We first used distance analyses to determine which coding method(s) best distinguishes species while grouping conspecifics. Results suggest that interspecific differences in fragrance composition were maximized by coding as presence/absence of fragrance compounds and biosynthetic pathways rather than when quantitative information was also included. Useful systematic information came from both compounds and pathways and from fragrance emitted by both floral and vegetative tissues. The coding methods that emerged from the distance analyses as best distinguishing species were then adapted for use in phylogenetic analysis. Although hierarchical signal among fragrance data sets was congruent, this signal was highly incongruent with the phylogenetic signal in the DNA sequence data. Notably, topologies inferred from fragrance data sets were congruent with the DNA topology only in the most distal portions (e.g., sister group pairs or closely related species that had similar fragrance profiles were often recovered by analyses of fragrance). Examination of consistency and retention indices for individual fragrance compounds and pathways as optimized onto one of the most-parsimonious trees inferred from DNA data revealed that although most compounds were homoplastic, some compounds were perfectly congruent with the DNA phylogeny. In particular, compounds and pathways found in a few taxa were less homoplastic than those found in many taxa. Pathways that synthesize few volatiles also seem to have lower homoplasy than those that produce many. Although fragrance data as a whole may not be useful in phylogeny reconstruction, these data can provide additional support for clades reconstructed with other types of characters. Factors other than phylogeny, including pollinator interactions, also likely influence fragrance composition.


This essay explores the contradictions posed by states' efforts to exclude immigrants from south of the U.S. border on the grounds that they "burden" the economy, despite the same states' windfall revenue from the taxation of undocumented immigrants. Lawmakers' ongoing anti-immigrant sentiment yields a racialized contradiction in which mostly Mexican and Central American immigrants are derogated as economic burdens. In fact, they are unfairly taxed in addition to being indispensable to the U.S. economy. Based on these and other phenomena, such as racially coded preferences for higher-class immigrants and "antidiversity visas," I contend that contemporary U.S. immigration policy has regressed toward more blatant class and "race" (albeit racially coded) discrimination.


Mechanical Turk provides an on-demand source of human computation. This provides a tremendous opportunity to explore algorithms which incorporate human computation as a function call. However, various systems challenges make this difficult in practice, and most uses of Mechanical Turk post large numbers of independent tasks. TurKit is a toolkit for prototyping and exploring truly algorithmic human computation, while maintaining a straight-forward imperative programming style. We present the crash-andrerun programming model that makes TurKit possible, along with a variety of applications for human computation algorithms. We also present a couple case studies of TurKit used for real experiments outside our lab. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Prototyping. General terms: Algorithms, Design, Experimentation


The structures of the cortical fibers revealed by biochemical technique of de-membrane in Euplotes sp.has been studied by means of scanning electron microscopy.It is observed that:(1)AZM (adoral zone of membranelles) bracket consists of the membranelle brackets ranged in parallel transversally.Each of the membranelle brackets is a rectangular sheet of fibers in which each fiber has a diameter of 40-50 nm.(2) UM (undulating membrane) bracket consists of over sixty strands of fibers in which a portion of fibers are parallel to one another transversally and another portion longitudinally.The two portions of fibers are woven into the shape of a network.(3) There are three layers of fibers,I.e.the longitudinal fibers,the spherule-coiled fibers and the deep fibers.Beneath the pellicle of the FVTC (fronto-ventro-transverse cirri) region,the layer of longitudinal fibers is divided into several sections by longitudinal ditches just lying beneath the pellicle between the cortical shoulders (or,between the shoulder and the lip).(4) There is also a layer of longitudinal fibers beneath the pellicle of dorsal cortex,and there seems to be a layer of spherulecoiled fibers under the layer of longitudinal fibers.The structures of the cortical fibers are evaluated for possible functions of cortex-shaping,support,movement and morphogenesis of ciliary organelles,etc.


Annotation: This article compiles different features of waste management systems, as well as its practical implementation in Mathematic and Geoinformation analysis. Technological basis of information support of waste management and its indicators, such as adverse impact on the natural environment and human health and territorial features of the risk caused by long-term negative impact on the environment and public health, are presented. Population, economy, and environment in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia are strongly affected by thorough decisions made by authorities in the field of waste management, that are: finding places for storage, recycling, and subsequent distribution of waste and its derivatives, that also includes taking measures to influence people's understanding of dealing with waste and environmental problems. In this paper, the focal point is the technology of mathematical-geoinformation modelling, the basis of which, as applied to waste management problems, is a system combination of geoinformation technologies and mathematical-statistical modelling methods. Approaches to solving the problem of classifying areas of the territorial system by state indicators are presented in the article.


Afterpulsing noise in InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) is caused by carrier trapping and can be suppressed successfully through limiting the avalanche charge via sub-nanosecond gating. Detection of faint avalanches requires an electronic circuit that is able to effectively remove the gate-induced capacitive response while keeping photon signals intact. Here we demonstrate a novel ultra-narrowband interference circuit (UNIC) that can reject the capacitive response by up to 80 dB per stage with little distortion to avalanche signals. Cascading two UNIC's in a readout circuit, we were able to enable a high count rate of up to 700 MC/s and a low afterpulsing of 0.5 % at a detection efficiency of 25.3 % for 1.25 GHz sinusoidally gated InGaAs/InP APDs. At a temperature of -30 ∘C, we measured an afterpulsing probability of 1 % at a detection efficiency of 21.2 %.


The increasing interest by the general public in the quality of the environ ment has stimulated several questions con cerning water pollution abatement. The most significant question is what the cost of cleaning up the nation's lakes and rivers will be. In some instances, the addition of secondary treatment will be sufficient to reduce the problem; however, in other areas, one or more of the various advanced waste treatment (awt) processes will be required to eliminate a pollution problem. A knowledge of the costs for the various degrees of awt is essential in planning the nation s water pollution abatement needs. The purpose of this paper is to present in detail the actual costs of awt and to de


Deltas, home to more than 500 million people and the site of vital wetland ecosystems across the world, are of tremendous economic importance to many countries. The physical dynamics at river mouths determines how sediment particles and contaminants are dispersed offshore by mechanisms that include waves, currents, and gravity flows, but how and when particular mechanisms operate are often inferred rather than known. Thus, scientists' understanding of sediment and contaminant dispersal mechanisms is only rudimentary. The problems lie in the intermittent operation of the different mechanisms, which occur on tidal, seasonal, and interannual time scales, and the difficulty of making long time series measurements at high sampling rates in these challenging oceanographic environments.


The seastar Ophidiaster ophidianus is a vulnerable and protected species in the Mediterranean Sea but is common on North Atlantic islands such as the Azores and Madeira archipelagos. This work presents new insights into the phylogeography and genetic diversity of O. ophidianus from the Azores, based on 67 sequences of the 16S mitochondrial gene and 46 sequences of the nuclear ATP intron 5 gene. Twenty-six samples from the Mediterranean and seven samples from Madeira were used as out-groups. The results revealed that there is a lack of genetic differentiation between O. ophidianus from the Azores and the out-groups. All, therefore, belong to the same lineage and argue for a fast and recent range expansion of this species into the Azores. Our results also suggest the existence of distinctive periods of strong gene flow followed by periods of either low or non-existent gene flow between the Mediterranean Sea and this archipelago, which could explain the presence of private haplotypes in all studied areas.


Seismic horizons are geologically significant surfaces that can be used for building geology structure and stratigraphy models. However, horizon tracking in 3D seismic data is a time-consuming and challenging problem. Relief human from the tedious seismic interpretation is one of the hot research topics. We proposed a novel automatically seismic horizon tracking method by using a deep convolutional neural network. We employ a state-of-art end-to-end semantic segmentation method to track the seismic horizons automatically. Experiment result shows that our proposed neural network can automatically track multiple horizons simultaneously. We validate the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed method by comparing automatically tracked horizons with manually picked horizons.


Background: Epidemiologic data of acute respiratory failure (ARF) are limited. This study aims to investigate the underlying diseases and in-hospital mortality of patients with ARF in Indonesia. Materials and Methods: An observational prospective cohort study involving patients with ARF in six hospitals was conducted. Data were collected between January and December 2017. Data on the type of ARF, quick sepsis-related organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score, underlying diseases, and in-hospital mortality were documented. Proportions were compared using Chi-square or Fisher exact tests. Multivariable regression models with variable selection based on a stepwise backward elimination were run to analyze the risk factors for in-hospital mortality. Results: A total of 412 patients (median age: 56-years-old) were included. Most of the subjects were male (66.9%), hypoxemic (55.3%), and acute onset (86.4%). The most commonly encountered underlying diseases were pneumonia (58.7%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (25.5%), lung tuberculosis (25.2%), lung cancer (16.5%), noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (11.9%), congestive heart failure (10.2%), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) (3.2%). There were 65% of patients received only oxygen therapy, invasive mechanical ventilation was utilized for 30.8% of patients, and 4.1% of patients underwent noninvasive mechanical ventilation. There were 201 (48.79%) in-hospital mortality cases. The risk factors of in-hospital mortality were qSOFA ≥2 (odds ratio [OR]: 2.420, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.599–3.662; P = 0.000) and CKD (OR: 3.871, 95% CI 1.024–14.631; P = 0.046). Conclusions: Most of the underlying diseases of ARF in Indonesia are communicable diseases. Patients with qSOFA ≥2 and CKD have a higher risk of death during hospitality.


Preparation of a system of palliative care support is called for by The Basic Act on Anti-Cancer Measures and The Basic Plans for National Cancer Strategy. The Organization of Hospitals for Cancer Treatment should play a very important role in the regional palliative care network. The palliative care team in the Organization of Hospitals for Cancer Treatment should promote palliative care support throughout regional hospitals. In 2007, we established a palliative care team at the National Hospital Organization Osaka Minami Medical Center. We have drawn up a detailed report on the activities of palliative care team in our medical center.


Drugs are useful in the symptomatic treatment of hyperkinetic and perceptually handicapped children, but their administration should be preceded by a careful clinical evaluation. On the basis of present evidence, short-term trials of drugs are justified as an adjunct to remedial methods of education. Central nervous system stimulants are the agents of choice. Chlordiazepoxide and chlorpromazine are recommended as alternative agents in patients who fail to respond to methylphenidate or dextroamphetamine. Diphenylhydantoin sodium or primidone, alone or in combination with a stimulant or antianxiety or antipsychotic agent, is indicated when signs and symptoms of minimal brain dysfunction include seizures or electroencephalographic evidence of epilepsy. Phenobarbital usually exacerbates hyperactivity and is contraindicated. The use of central nervous system stimulants and mood-modifying agents for prolonged periods should await further evaluation by long-term controlled studies.


Our task—no small one at that—is to comprehend the relation between state and society in socialism, not just as it is predicted in Marxist theory but as it has actually developed. It has actually developed under very different conditions from those originally assumed in the theory. It is a relation between state and society where neither the relations of production nor the forces of production are advanced and consequently where social labor does not already exist but must be developed; a relation between such a society and a state not yet of the people though still for and even to a degree by the people that undertakes the herculean project of building (one might almost say "inventing") socialism even though there are no blueprints, only a vision. The task then is to comprehend the relation between state and society in actually existing socialism "which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges." This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Accurate and effective determination of soil bulk density (BD) is needed to monitor soil organic C (SOC) stocks and SOC stock changes. However, BD measurements are often lacking in soil inventories and BD is estimated by pedotransfer functions with substantial uncertainty. In a systematic method comparison, we evaluated different methods for BD determination in the field by comparing the performance of MINI (5 cm3) and BIG (250 cm3) sample rings and of three driving hammer probes differing in diameter, material, and extraction method. Bulk density determined with 100-cm3 sample rings was defined as the reference method (REF). All methods were tested at five depth increments in nine subplots at four sites with differing soil texture and SOC content. All methods determined BD in the depth increments with low systematic error (8% for probes and 2% for sample rings). The random error of the probe samples was, on average, 50% higher than that of the ring samples when the cores of the probes were adequately corrected for compaction or stretching. The BD was significantly overestimated (by 2%) when determined with MINI rings, and the variation in BD was not reduced with BIG sample rings rather than the smaller REF sample rings. The performance of the driving hammer technique varied widely among probe types and sites. The sheath probe had the smallest systematic error of all probes tested and is recommended for soil inventories. All methods for estimating BD had smaller errors than pedotransfer functions.


The antioxidant properties, DNA damage protective activities, and xanthine oxidase (XOD) inhibitory effect of cajaninstilbene acid (CSA) derived from pigeon pea leaves were studied in the present work. Compared with resveratrol, CSA showed stronger antioxidant properties, DNA damage protective activity, and XOD inhibition activity. The IC(50) values of CSA for superoxide radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, nitric oxide scavenging, reducing power, lipid peroxidation, and XOD inhibition were 19.03, 6.36, 39.65, 20.41, 20.58, and 3.62 μM, respectively. CSA possessed good protective activity from oxidative DNA damage. Furthermore, molecular docking indicated that CSA was more potent than resveratrol or allopurinol to interact with the active site of XOD (calculated free binding energy: -229.71 kcal mol(-1)). On the basis of the results, we conclude that CSA represents a valuable natural antioxidant source and may potentially be applicable in health food industry.


A crucial task in scene understanding is 3D object detection, which aims to detect and localize the 3D bounding boxes of objects belonging to specific classes. Existing 3D object detectors heavily rely on annotated 3D bounding boxes during training, while these annotations could be expensive to obtain and only accessible in limited scenarios. Weakly supervised learning is a promising approach to reducing the annotation requirement, but existing weakly supervised object detectors are mostly for 2D detection rather than 3D. In this work, we propose VS3D, a framework for weakly supervised 3D object detection from point clouds without using any ground truth 3D bounding box for training. First, we introduce an unsupervised 3D proposal module that generates object proposals by leveraging normalized point cloud densities. Second, we present a cross-modal knowledge distillation strategy, where a convolutional neural network learns to predict the final results from the 3D object proposals by querying a teacher network pretrained on image datasets. Comprehensive experiments on the challenging KITTI dataset demonstrate the superior performance of our VS3D in diverse evaluation settings. The source code and pretrained models are publicly available at https://github.com/Zengyi-Qin/Weakly-Supervised-3D-Object-Detection.


Aromatic primary amines, activated by P-450-dependent mixed-function oxidases have been shown to be mutagenic and carcinogenic in mammary gland of rodents. In this study, we compared 2-aminoanthracene (2AA) metabolism and inhibition in primary mammary gland cultures of BALB/c and C57BL mice. We sought to establish whether the rate or extent of metabolism was strain dependent as observed with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons even though the metabolic process would be different. Cells from either strain of mouse were uninjured by doses of 2AA up to 20 microM but produced polar metabolites of 2AA, some of which apparently formed covalent bonds with cellular macromolecules. In each case, covalent binding was inhibited by alpha-napthoflavone (alpha-NF), a mixed-function oxidase inhibitor. Any notable strain differences in 2AA metabolism and disposition was not observed. Results indicate that mouse mammary epithelial cells are capable of producing reactive metabolites of 2AA, probably via mixed-function oxidation. Thus, metabolic activation of 2AA in breast tissue may induce mutagenesis in mammary epithelium. The inhibitory effects of alpha-NF suggest that this compound may be of interest as a potential anti-carcinogen for the mammary gland.


Objectives: This study aimed to determine post-traumatic growth and its predictors in female relatives of patients with methamphetamine use disorder.
Methods: The volunteers in our study consisted of 80 adult women who were first-degree relatives of male patients diagnosed with MUD. The Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, the Hospital Anxiety-Depression Scale, the Impact of Events Scale , and the short form of the Coping with Stressful Situations Inventory were given to the relatives of the patients.
Results: In our study, being employed and being married were found to affect task-oriented coping and changes in self-perception positively. Task-oriented coping or seeking emotional support from others predicted higher PTG. Task-oriented coping was positively associated with emotional coping and a change in the philosophy of life. The regression analysis determined that task-oriented and avoidant coping mechanisms were the best predictors of post-traumatic growth.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that environmental and personal factors, such as being married, being employed, and the quality of social relationships that emerge with emotional and instrumental support, influence the experience of life crises. In addition, the duration of methamphetamine uses, the problem's, and the search for solutions were all associated with higher post-traumatic growth. Thus, the results of this study demonstrate that task-oriented coping, seeking emotional support, and the duration of methamphetamine use may contribute to post-traumatic growth.


Purpose: Developmental and/or epileptic encephalopathy with spike-and-wave activation in sleep (D/EE-SWAS) is a spectrum of conditions characterized by various phenotypes of cognitive, linguistic, and behavioral regression associated with spike-and-wave activation in sleep. We aimed to investigate the phenotypic spectrum and treatment outcomes of pediatric patients with D/EE-SWAS. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of pediatric patients diagnosed with D/EE-SWAS and treated at Severance Children's Hospital from 2006 to 2022. We extracted information from their medical records on electroencephalography before and after treatment, types of treatment, seizure frequency, and developmental profiles. The primary outcome was reduction of the spike-wave index on electroencephalography after treatment. Results: Twenty-one patients with a median age of 5.3 years (interquartile range, 4.1 to 6.6) at diagnosis were included. Ten patients had delayed development. The patients received various anti-seizure medications. Fourteen received long-term, high-dose steroid therapy, 10 were placed on a ketogenic diet, four received intravenous steroid pulse therapy, and one each was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin and cannabidiol. The most effective treatments were steroid therapy and a ketogenic diet, which were also effective in reducing seizures and improving cognition. Side effects during treatment were transient and treatable. Conclusion: We described the clinical spectrum of pediatric patients with D/EE-SWAS. Steroid therapy and a ketogenic diet can be considered effective therapeutic options for patients with D/ EE SWAS.


The amount of reactive oxygen species increased in cells of hosts infected with parasites as reported by a number of studies. The excess of free radicals in the parasitised cells depends on the nutritional status of the host, the degree of parasitic infestations and on the destructive effect on tissue, and reported associating blood parasites like Theileriosis, Babesiosis and Trypanosomosis. In addition, external parasites and endoparasites such as Fasciola sp., Trichostrongylus sp. and Eimeria sp. had been reported to be associated with lipid peroxidation. The current review throws light on parasitic infestations associated with oxidative stress and their harmful effect.


Grounded in enterprise financial appraisal theory, the article proposes the index system from four aspects of enterprise's operation capacity, debt paying ability, development ability, profit capacity and also establishes a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model basing on membership conversion. By introducing entropy-based data mining method, this model effectively solves the rational issue of membership conversion between different index layers in hierarchical system. The case analysis presented proves that this model is feasible and simple and the result of appraisal is objective and reliable.


Flap necrosis is a very common complication encountered after cleft palate repair, especially in uni-pedicled flaps. Many causes have been attributed to this complication but very limited data is available in the literature on dental infection as the cause of flap necrosis. This report of a case describes loss of flap caused due to a periapical granuloma of dental origin impinging on the pedicle causing suspected thrombosis of the pedicle resulting in flap necrosis. Since this is an important cause that can be easily prevented, it is reported.


This paper proposes an inventory control model taking advantage of interconnected logistic services in the Physical Internet for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Unlike current hierarchical inventory model where the source of each is pre-assigned, the goods are stored and distributed in an interconnected and open network of PI-hubs which enables storage capacity and transportation sharing among different companies around the network. As a result, theoretically, the suppliers can push their goods all around the network and the retailers can be served by any hub in the network. A non-linear global optimization inventory model to minimize the total logistic costs is proposed and a heuristic using simulated annealing is applied to solve the problem. Numerical experiments are taken to compare the performance of the proposed PI inventory model and classic inventory control model for different settings of a typical supply network. Results suggest that the PI inventory control model can always reduce the total logistic cost while reaching a comparable or improved end customer service level.


This article
reviews: 1) The role of natural and human-induced controls in influencing large
herbivore populations; 2) how human controls (i.e., policy instruments, incentives and provisions) influence
human activities and wildlife conservation; and 3) media framing of wildlife conservation
using Zimbabwe as a case study, in particular Gonarezhou National Park and
adjacent areas. The review shows that droughts are important in influencing
large herbivore populations in semi-arid ecosystems; political instability and
economic collapse does not necessarily lead to increased illegal hunting in
situations where policy instruments, such as laws, are enforced. A higher perceived
effectiveness of Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources
was partly associated with a decline in human-wildlife conflicts and there was
a spill-over effect of frames from the political domain into wildlife
conservation following Zimbabwe's land reforms in 2000. It is concluded that
natural bottom-up processes (e.g., droughts) influence large herbivore
population dynamics whereas policy instruments, incentives, provisions and
societal frames mainly have a top-down effect on wild large herbivore
populations in savanna ecosystems.


Being able to automatically segment 3D models into meaningful parts is an important goal in 3D shape processing. In this paper, we are proposing a fast and easy-to-implement 3D segmentation approach, which is based on spectral clustering. For this purpose, we define an improved formulation of the similarity matrix which allows our algorithm to segment both free-form and CAD (Computer Aided Design) 3D models. In 3D space, different shapes, such as planes and cylinders, have different surface normal distributions. We defined the similarity of vertices based on their normals which can segment a 3D model into its geometric features. Results show the effectiveness and robustness of our method in segmenting a wide range of 3D models. Even in the case of complex models, our method results in meaningful segmentations. We tested our segmentation approach on real data segmentation, in the presence of noise and also in comparison with other methods which provided good results in all cases.


As a study to assess the potential application of milk fat-globule membrane (MFGM), which is of natural origin and expected to be a safer alternative to synthetic emulsifiers, to pharmaceutical dosage forms, the oral absorption of alpha-linolenic acid was evaluated by the analysis of gastrointestinal disposition after oral administration as an MFGM emulsion to rats. A linear model incorporated with first-order gastric emptying followed by first-order intestinal absorption was fitted to the data of the remaining fraction of alpha-linolenic acid versus time profiles for the stomach and small intestine to estimate the rate constants of gastric emptying (kg) and intestinal absorption (ka). The ka (0.045 min-1) was about 4 times larger than the kg (0.011 min-1). The kg was comparable to the apparent oral absorption rate constant estimated by the pharmacokinetic analysis of plasma concentration data. These results suggest that the oral absorption of alpha-linolenic acid administered as MFGM emulsion is gastric emptying-limited and, hence, any change in the intestinal absorption process would only modestly affect its oral absorption.


Alloys of Se-In glassy system obtained by quenching technique and crystallization kinetics has been studied using differential scanning calorimeter. Activation energy of crystallization is determined using well known Kissinger's relation and Friedman methods. Activation energy is also calculated by the modified Kissinger's relation assuming constant activation energy and it is observed that results are in close agreement at smaller values of extent of crystallization. However, at higher extent of crystallization, the activation energy calculated by isoconversional methods is different and is found to decrease with the increase in extent of crystallization. Effect of In concentration on activation energy is also discussed.


Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences have been widely used for the studies on molecular phylogeny, evolutional history, and molecular detections. Bacterial genomes have multiple rRNA operons, of which gene sequences sometimes are variable. In the present study, heterogeneity of the Vibrio 16S rRNA gene sequences were investigated. Vibrio 16S rRNA sequences were obtained from GenBank databases, considering the completion of gene annotation of Vibrio genome sequences. These included V. cholerae, V. harveyi, V. parahaemolyticus, V. splendidus, and V. vulnificus. Chromosome 1 of the studied Vibrio had 7~10 copies of the 16S rRNA gene, and their intragenomic variations were less than 0.9% dissimilarity (more than 99.1% DNA similarity). Chromosome 2 had none or single 16S rRNA gene. Intragenomic 16S rRNA genotypes were detected at least 5 types (V. vulnificus #CMCP6) to 8 types (V. parahaemolyticus #RIMD 2210633, V. harveyi #ATCC BAA-1116). These suggest that Vibrio has high heterogeneity of the 16S rRNA gene sequences.


This review was almost not written. The book was picked up at random—whoever picked out that cheap, purple wrapper?—and my eye fell on this glittering sentence: "The alcoholic marriage can be fairly easily defined as any marriage in which one or both partners suffer from alcoholism." Fortunately, it was too much trouble to box it up and return, so other chapters were glanced at and the volume found to be well worthwhile. Dr. Eleanor Easley writes feelingly and honestly about the stresses of the physician dealing with marital problems: "For the doctor, and especially for the gynecologist, dealing with marriage problems is an unsatisfactory business. Success for a doctor is to cure patients. Amelioration is about the best that one hopes for... this partial result is only obtained by the use of much time. Folks want a quick, easy cure... the last thing they want is to help cure themselves.


The problem of penetration of ?-rays through wide aperture cylindrical collimators, placed close to a body organ for radioisotope uptake studies, is examined. Values for the penetration factors are numerically computed for axial point sources and compared with those given by the radius-independent formulae, normally used, to establish criteria for the use of these formulae. Penetration factors are also measured experimentally, and within the limitations of the experimental method there is good agreement with the computed values, even for sources close to wide aperture collimators.


D-Monellin is a chemically synthesized protein composed of all D-amino acids. It has an amino-acid sequence identical to L-monellin, a natural protein with potent sweetness. Two crystal forms of D-monellin were obtained. Both crystals were grown under conditions similiar to those used to crystallize natural L-monellin. Crystal form I has similar, but not identical, cell parameters to natural L-monellin and diffracts to 2.7 A resolution. Crystal form II is very different and diffracts to 1.7 A resolution using synchrotron radiation.


In this paper, a simple method is presented to design two-channel hybrid filter banks satisfying near-perfect reconstruction. The analog analysis filters to divide the overall system bandwidth are not the low-pass, band-pass or high-pass filters by using conventional methods, but analog filters that satisfy the perfect reconstruction property. The digital synthesis filters are designed by means of the optimization method based on IFFT to ensure the near-perfect reconstruction. A two-channel hybrid filter bank with 2 taps analysis filters and 64 taps synthesis filters, which introduces 0.2times10-3 dB average deviation from 0 dB distortion and -100 dB average aliasing, are suitable for systems up to 12 bit resolution and the HFB has 0.3times10-3 dB max deviation from 0 dB distortion and -90 dB max aliasing


Modern reflexive ledership

The communicative transformation of modernity has made it necessary to formulate a new understanding of leader-ship which is in contrast to the dominating management thinking. The global communication society opens up for a new form of leadership, which could be called reflexive leadership. The reflexive leadership is founded on a radical free communication, where there is no hinderance of the possibility to get information and where all participants have the possibility to have a reflexive relation to communication.
The concept of reflexive leadership is developed both from a sociological and a philosophical perspective. From the sociological perspective it is developed through a critique of Max Weber's three ideal types of leadership, namely the traditional, the charismatic and the legal form of leadership. From the philosophical perspective the concept is developed through a critique of the concept of leader-ship by Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel and Habermas. It is shown that communication has to be in the centre of leadership in a communicative oriented modern society.
On this background it is shown that reflexive leadership has the advantage that it makes possible to reflect normative problems in modern society. Reflexive leadership can be seen as a further development of modern demo-cratic society towards an open society which is building on reflexive social relations in all the institutions of society.


What motivates people is an important consideration for captains of industry, commerce and the public sector - in fact anyone who works with other people - since people are central to the success of organizations. "Leadership and Motivation" explores the subject in depth. Leadership guru John Adair reassesses the theories of Herzberg and Maslow - still the major contributors to our understanding of motivation - in the context of action-centred leadership - the concept pioneered and developed by the author. Central to the book are the fifty-fifty rule and the eight key principles of motivating others. With the fifty-fifty rule, Adair states that half of a person's motivation comes from within and half is due to their environment - especially the leadership they encounter there. His eight key principles of motivating others are: be self-motivated; select people who are also self-motivated; treat everyone as an individual; set challenging yet realistic targets; remember that progress motivates; create a motivating environment; provide fair rewards; and, give recognition.


Mosquito-borne infection, especially Zika virus, is a major public health concern. Infection usually occurs in young adults and asymptomatic infection is more common in older people ( Wiwanitkit and Wiwanitkit 2016 ). Possible natural immunity in older people must be studied further.


This paper proposes a novel method for detecting foreground objects in nonstationary complex environments containing moving background objects. We derive a Bayes decision rule for classification of background and foreground changes based on inter-frame color co-occurrence statistics. An approach to store and fast retrieve color co-occurrence statistics is also established In the proposed method, foreground objects are detected in two steps. First, both foreground and background changes are extracted using background subtraction and temporal differencing. The frequent background changes are then recognized using the Bayes decision rule based on the learned color co-occurrence statistics. Both short-term and longterm strategies to learn the frequent background changes are proposed Experiments have shown promising results in detecting foreground objects from video containing wavering tree branches and flickering screens/water surface. The proposed method has shown better performance as compared with two existing methods.


Single-mode (SM) ultrashort optical interconnections between the fibers and waveguides using self-forming polymeric waveguides with low optical losses at 1300 and 1550 nm were demonstrated. The localized refractive index in the SM regime is estimated by measuring the surface topography induced by monomer diffusion during the waveguide formation. A loss less than -1 dB can be obtained from self-aligning SM-to-multimode (MM) fibers and SM-to-SM fibers interconnections, respectively. A self-formed waveguide-to-fiber interconnection is fabricated and measured with loss less than 0.2 dB at 1550 nm. The polymer waveguide relaxes the positioning requirements for single-mode chip-to-chip optical interconnections, showing great potential to improve the short-term yield and long-term reliability


Abstract Background. The increased incidence of accidental or non-accidental ingestion of corrosive substances or drug compounds leading to postcaustic esophagitis represents a major public health issue. The treatment of postcaustic esophagitides is difficult and long lasting, calling for a complex team trained in this borderline pathology: gastroenterologist, general surgeon, otorhinolaryngologist, anesthesiologist, psychiatrist. In cases when preventive treatment has failed, the only effective therapy remains the surgical one. Material and methods. Our study involved an analysis of the cases treated and/or operated in the Department of General and Esophageal Surgery of the "Sfanta Maria" Hospital in Bucharest, between 1981-2014; respectively 195 patients who benefited from reconstructive esophageal interventions. Of the selected patients, 191 were operated for corrosive pathology produced by ingestion of caustic soda and only four cases by ingestion of acids. The lesion balance showed that, besides the esophagus, the oropharynx (28 patients), the larynx (7 patients) and the stomach (31 patients) had been affected by the corrosion process, requiring particular surgical solutions. The bypass reconstruction (preserving the esophagus) was the standard treatment, esophagectomy having been performed in only 4 patients. Results. The main remote postoperative complaint was feeding inability, a consequence of various causes: cervical anastomosis stenosis, motor dysfunctions of the graft or of the laryngopharyngeal complex, over-time alteration of the graft, technical vices or the degradation of intra-abdominal assemblies, traumatic injuries of the presternal substituent. Conclusion. One of the most important moments during the esophageal reconstruction surgery remains the duration of the cervical anastomosis, since the postoperative complication rate and the remote functional outcome depend on it. Minimizing postoperative risks and complications requires a complete mastery of surgical methods, of the small technical "artifices" and of the necessary therapeutic refinements adapted to each individual case.


A 62-year-old woman underwent a subtotal stomach-preserving pancreatoduodenectomy for ampullary carcinoma (T3bN0M0, Stage Ⅱb). Histopathologically, the tumor was a tubular adenocarcinoma with mixed features, predominantly the intestinal type, following which adjuvant chemotherapy was not performed. Computed tomography performed 32 months after surgery showed a tumor measuring 6.7 mm in diameter at the apex of the right lung. The tumor had gradually increased in size and measured 10 mm in diameter, 47 months postoperatively. Since other metastatic lesions were absent, partial resection of the right lung under video-assisted thoracic surgery was performed 48 months postoperatively. Histopathological testing confirmed a diagnosis of lung metastasis from the resected specimen of ampullary carcinoma without mediastinal lymph node metastasis. Adjuvant chemotherapy was not performed, and recurrence was not observed even after 53 months following the partial lung resection. Previously, 7 resected cases of solitary lung metastasis from ampullary cancer have been reported. The histopathological sub-type of these 7 cases were intestinal type in 5 and pancreatobiliary type in 2 cases, respectively. No mortality or recurrence was observed for 8-119 months in any of the 7 cases(median, 19 months). In conclusion, owing to the good prognosis, solitary lung metastasis from an ampullary cancer can be classified as an oligometastatic disease, based on the concept proposed by Hellman and Weichselbaum.


This collaborative research aims to develop an interactive structurally integrated method for 3D archaeological documentation, architectural reconstruction, and engineering structural analysis of ancient monuments based on state-of-the-art augmented reality display techniques and hardware. Interdisciplinary research combining expertise in archaeology, architecture, geology, material science, structural engineering, and 3D visualization is increasingly needed to insure the preservation of monumental archaeological structures as diverse as the Great Hall of Trajan's Markets in Rome and the Huaca de la Luna in Trujillo, Peru. The inherent complexity of these monuments increases the difficulties that normally exist when data are exchanged and correlated between disciplines. Taking advantage of the collaborations developed at the University of Rochester through the new program in Archaeology, Technology, and Historical Structures, this research builds on existing initiatives and expertise in archaeology, structural and computational mechanics and geometric solid modeling, and in state-of-the-art 3D visualization/augmented reality hardware. The scientifically predictive tool we are developing provides an integrated framework: (a) for detailed 3D reconstruction, visualization, and analysis of the original structural features of a complex monument as built in antiquity; (b) for recording events that affect the physical integrity of the monument, causing structural degradation and collapse; and (c) for planning and recording conservation interventions that alter the structural response of the monument to changing environmental conditions.  (A full abstract will be given later.)


Abstract Three ternary intermetallic phases were revealed in Mg-20 at%Al—20 at%Ag alloy: Mg59Al34Ag7 (body-centered cubic, a = 10.2 Å, probably isotypical to Mg17Al12 phase); Mg62Al11Ag27 (body centered cubic, a = 14.5 Å) and new Mg19Al13Ag6 compound. The geometry and the symmetry of the unit cell of these phases were investigated by electron diffraction methods. It was found that the structure of the new Mg19Al13Ag6 phase belongs to the orthorhombic crystal system with lattice parameters of a = 8.87, b = 16.48 and c = 19.48 Å. The space group was evaluated by Precession Electron Diffraction technique in "descan-off" mode as Pbcm (No. 57).


Containing short-term volatility of the overnight interest rate is normally considered the main objective of central bank standing facilities. This paper develops a simple stochastic model to show how the width of the central bank standing facilities corridor affects banks' day-to-day liquidity management and the volatility of the overnight rate. It is shown that the wider the corridor, the greater the interbank turnover, the leaner the central bank's balance sheet (i.e. the lower the average recourse to standing facilities) and the greater short-term interest rate volatility. The obtained relationships are matched with central bank preferences to obtain an optimal corridor width. The model is tested against euro area and Hungarian daily data encompassing the financial crisis that began in 2007. JEL Classification: E4, E5


Purpose: Preclinical studies have shown that the combination of topotecan and carboplatin is synergistic. To evaluate the schedule dependency of this interaction, the following phase I trial was designed to determine the safety and maximum tolerated dose (MTD), pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of carboplatin and topotecan in patients with malignant solid tumors. Experimental Design: In part 1, patients received carboplatin on day 1 and topotecan on days 1, 2, and 3 (C→T schedule). In part 2, topotecan was administered on days 1, 2, and 3, followed by carboplatin on day 3 (T→C schedule). Pharmacokinetics were determined in plasma and DNA topoisomerase I catalytic activity and Pt-DNA adducts in WBC and tumor tissue. Results: Forty-one patients were included. Dose-limiting toxicities during the C→T schedule were grade 4 thrombocytopenia and febrile neutropenia (MTD: carboplatin target area under the free carboplatin plasma concentration versus time curve, 4 min mg/mL; topotecan, 0.5 mg/m2/d). Dose-limiting toxicities during the T→C schedule included grade 4 neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, neutropenic fever, and grade 4 nausea and vomiting (MTD: carboplatin target area under the free carboplatin plasma concentration versus time curve, 6 min mg/mL; topotecan, 0.9 mg/m2/d). One complete response and five partial responses were observed. The clearance of and exposure to carboplatin and topotecan did not depend on the sequence of drug administration. No schedule-dependent effects were seen in Pt-DNA levels and DNA topoisomerase I catalytic activity in WBC and tumor tissue. However, myelotoxicity was clearly more evident in the C→T schedule. Conclusion: The T→C schedule was better tolerated because both hematologic and nonhematologic toxicities were milder. Other pharmacodynamic factors than the ones investigated must explain the schedule-dependent differences in toxicities.


The extraction of complex urban patterns from Very High Spatial Resolution (VHSR) images presents several challenges related to the complexity of the data. Based on the availability of images of a same scene at various resolutions (Medium to Very High Spatial resolutions), a hierarchical approach has been recently proposed to segment/classify objects of interest in a top-down fashion in order to determine patterns from VHSR images. To perform, this method requires the interactive definition of segmentation examples for each considered resolution image. In the context of large dataset processing, such interactive task becomes time consuming. To deal with this issue, we propose in this article, an extension of the domain adaptation paradigm enabling the transfer of the segmentation examples defined on a source dataset to automatically process a target one. Experiments performed on urban images provide satisfactory results which may be further used for operational needs.


PURPOSE
To investigate early time effect of local radiation on the entire normal bone marrow through microPET.

METHODS
Six 16 week-old BALB/c female intact mice were used for this study. PET acquisition with 18F-FDG was performed on day 2 after 16 Gy of local irradiation to both hind legs while other regions were completely shielded with lead. The delivered dose was verified with TLD and EBT3 film. Inveon small animal scanner (Siemens) was used for microPET scanning. The mean dose of 1 8 F-FDG was 18.8 ± 1.6 MBq. The scan was started at 30 minutes after the injection under anesthesia. About 10 μl of a whole blood sample from the tail vein was taken after the end of the scan. OSEM3D/FastMAP was used for the reconstruction. There are eight region of interest: skull, mandible, humerus, cervical, thoracic, lumber, femur and tibia. The SUV value was normalized by the blood activity to consider individual biological decay difference and compensate injection fluctuation for each mouse. The uptake change in 1 8 F-FDG before and after radiation was analyzed by mixed effects ANOVA, conducted using SAS proc mixed (version 9.2).

RESULTS
Radiation decreases 1 8 F-FDG uptake over the all regions (< 0.0001) on day 2 after irradiation. Though the degree of change is different individually, the uptake after irradiation is 46% of its pre-radiation level. The degree of 1 8 F-FDG uptake of pre-and post-radiation differs among the bony regions (< 0.0001). The irradiated region, especially the tibia, significantly changes 18F-FDG uptake, which is 29% of its pre-radiation level. The uptake pattern over the bony regions is changed before and after irradiation.

CONCLUSION
Local radiation changes 18F-FDG uptake of entire skeleton in this experimental rodent model suggesting that bone marrow functions are significantly affected by the local radiation at an early time point.

FUNDING
R01; Fund: 3002; DeptID: 11328; PCBU: UMSPR; Project: 00021280; Activity: 1.


Abstract Topography‐dependent eikonal equation (TDEE) formulated in a curvilinear coordinate system has been recently established and is effective for calculating first‐arrival travel times in an Earth model with an irregular surface. In previous work, the Lax–Friedrichs sweeping scheme used to approximate the TDEE viscosity solutions was only first‐order accurate. We present a high‐order fast‐sweeping scheme to solve the TDEE with the aim of achieving high‐order accuracy in the travel‐time calculation. The scheme takes advantage of high‐order weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) derivative approximations, monotone numerical Hamiltonians, and Gauss Seidel iterations with alternating‐direction sweepings. It incorporates high‐order approximations of the derivatives into the numerical representation of the Hamiltonian such that the resulting numerical scheme is formally high‐order accurate and inherits fast convergence from the alternating sweeping strategy. Extensive numerical examples are presented to verify its efficiency, convergence, and high‐order accuracy.


With the growing emphasis in higher education on developing character and social responsibility, the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills program commitment to service is of interest as it encourages the development of well-rounded student athletes. In framing the current study, the researchers focused on how the communication of an athletic department's mission impacts the community service activities for athletes. Mission statements are used to communicate the central purposes of organizations (Bart, 1996) to various internal and external audiences. Through website content analysis, this investigation reveals the importance placed upon service across athletic departments through the mission, and determines the effect of such goals on opportunities provided and action taken by members of the athletic department. The findings suggest a connection between the mission and action in regard to community service but indicate that the amount of service performed is not always a reflection of the mission statement in regards to community outreach.


The gas distribution system is used to transfer gas from one place to another. Here, explosion takes place when cracks are present in pipeline. In our project, the main objective is to determine the precise location of cracks present in underground pipelines so that human efforts and financial loses can be reduced. To detect the cracks, robot is used to detect the cracks with the help of ultrasonic sensor. Two dc gear motors of 300 rpm are used for movement of robot. The whole setup is interfaced with Nexys4 using FPGA. Ultrasonic sensor transmits eight 40 KHz ultrasonic burst to inner surface of pipe. The pipe then reflects ultrasonic burst and ECHO signal is in high state. In absence of cracks, ECHO pulse width ranges from 150us to 20us and in presence of cracks, ECHO pulse width is beyond 25ms. LCD in user module displays "crack" or "no crack" depending upon the data received. The whole setup consists of Nexys-4, ultrasonic sensor, LCD, DC motors which are implemented on FPGA due to its reconfigurable nature, low price and marketing speed.


ABSTRACT Endophthalmitis caused by Abiotrophia defectiva has never before been reported in a child. We report a case of a 12-year-old female with a history of penetrating keratoplasty, followed years later by open globe injury and repair, and subsequent anterior vitrectomy, which resulted in endophthalmitis caused by Abiotrophia defectiva. We review previous cases of endophthalmitis by this organism and argue that its detection will become more common with the use of 16S rDNA PCR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.


The challenge of sequencing ancient DNA has led to the development of specialized laboratory protocols that have focused on reducing contamination and maximizing the number of molecules that are extracted from ancient remains. Despite the fact that success in ancient DNA studies is typically obtained by screening many samples to identify a promising subset, ancient DNA protocols have not, in general, focused on reducing the time required to screen samples. We present an adaptation of a popular ancient library preparation method that makes screening more efficient. First, the DNA extract is treated using a protocol that causes characteristic ancient DNA damage to be restricted to the terminal nucleotides, while nearly eliminating it in the interior of the DNA molecules, allowing a single library to be used both to test for ancient DNA authenticity and to carry out population genetic analysis. Second, the DNA molecules are ligated to a unique pair of barcodes, which eliminates undetected cross-contamination from this step onwards. Third, the barcoded library molecules include incomplete adapters of short length that can increase the specificity of hybridization-based genomic target enrichment. The adapters are completed just before sequencing, so the same DNA library can be used in multiple experiments, and the sequences distinguished. We demonstrate this protocol on 60 ancient human samples.


Many hundreds of household and industrial products can be volatilized readily and are subject to abuse. Inhalant abuse research has been hampered by a lack of consensus on whether or not there are subclassifications of abused inhalants based on chemical structure, form or intended use of the product or pharmacological properties. This paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to classification of inhalants and suggests areas for future research in this area. It is concluded that classification of inhalants by form or product types is not useful for scientific purposes; rather, subclassification of inhalants should be based on a yet-to-be-determined combination of chemical and pharmacological similarity and shared patterns of abuse. One of the ways in which we can improve our understanding of inhalant abuse is to obtain more detailed information on individual products and chemicals, their patterns of use and the geographical distribution of their use.


Few areas of geophysics are today progressing as rapidly as basic geomagnetism, which seeks to understand the origin of the Earth's magnetism. Data about the present geomagnetic field pours in from orbiting satellites, and supplements the ever growing body of information about the field in the remote past, derived from the magnetism of rocks. The first of the three parts of this review summarizes the available geomagnetic data and makes significant inferences about the large scale structure of the geomagnetic field at the surface of the Earth's electrically conducting fluid core, within which the field originates. In it, we recognize the first major obstacle to progress: because of the Earth's mantle, only the broad, slowly varying features of the magnetic field within the core can be directly observed. The second (and main) part of the review commences with the geodynamo hypothesis: the geomagnetic field is induced by core flow as a self-excited dynamo. Its electrodynamics define 'kinematic dynamo theory'. Key processes involving the motion of magnetic field lines, their diffusion through the conducting fluid, and their reconnection are described in detail. Four kinematic models are presented that are basic to a later section on successful dynamo experiments. The fluid dynamics of the core is considered next, the fluid being driven into motion by buoyancy created by the cooling of the Earth from its primordial state. The resulting flow is strongly affected by the rotation of the Earth and by the Lorentz force, which alters fluid motion by the interaction of the electric current and magnetic field. A section on 'magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) dynamo theory' is devoted to this rotating magnetoconvection. Theoretical treatment of the MHD responsible for geomagnetism culminates with numerical solutions of its governing equations. These simulations help overcome the first major obstacle to progress, but quickly meet the second: the dynamics of Earth's core are too complex, and operate across time and length scales too broad to be captured by any single laboratory experiment, or resolved on present-day computers. The geophysical relevance of the experiments and simulations is therefore called into question. Speculation about what may happen when computational power is eventually able to resolve core dynamics is given considerable attention. The final part of the review is a postscript to the earlier sections. It reflects on the problems that geodynamo theory will have to solve in the future, particularly those that core turbulence presents.


Mimicking the native three-dimensional microenvironment is of crucial importance when biofabricating a new healthcare material. One aspect of the native tissue that is often omitted when designing a suitable scaffold is its anisotropy. Not only is matching native mechanical properties important when designing implantable scaffolds or healthcare materials, but matching physiological structure is also important as many cell populations respond differently to fiber orientation. Therefore, novel aligned electrospun scaffolds with varying fiber angles and spacing of bundles were created and mechanically characterized. Through controlling the angle between the fibers in each layer of the scaffold, a range of different physiological anisotropic mechanical properties were achieved that encompasses values found in native tissues. Extrapolation of this mechanical data allowed for any native tissue's anisotropic Young's modulus to be mimicked by electrospinning fibers at a particular angle. These electrospun scaffolds were then incorporated with cell-laden hydrogels to create hybrid structures that contain the benefits of both scaffolding techniques with the ability to encapsulate cells in the hydrogel. To conclude, this study develops a novel bundled fiber scaffold that was architected to yield anisotropic properties matching native tissues.


RECOVER is a site-specific decision support system that automatically brings together in a single analysis environment the information necessary for post-fire rehabilitation decision-making. After a major wildfire, law requires that the federal land management agencies certify a comprehensive plan for public safety, burned area stabilization, resource protection, and site recovery. These burned area emergency response (BAER) plans are a crucial part of our national response to wildfire disasters and depend heavily on data acquired from a variety of sources. Final plans are due within 21 days of control of a major wildfire and become the guiding document for managing the activities and budgets for all subsequent remediation efforts. There are few instances in the federal government where plans of such wide-ranging scope and importance are assembled on such short notice and translated into action more quickly. RECOVER has been designed in close collaboration with our agency partners and directly addresses their high-priority decision-making requirements. In response to a fire detection event, RECOVER uses the rapid resource allocation capabilities of cloud computing to automatically collect Earth observational data, derived decision products, and historic biophysical data so that when the fire is contained, BAER teams will have a complete and ready-to-use RECOVER dataset and GIS analysis environment customized for the target wildfire. Initial studies suggest that RECOVER can transform this information-intensive process by reducing from days to a matter of minutes the time required to assemble and deliver crucial wildfire-related data.


This paper explores the gender differences of remittance sending behaviour of internal migrants in Vietnam. This study emerges from the context of rapid economic growth, feminisation of migration and the real potential of remittances for poverty alleviation. This twofold study investigates the determinants of remittances, and then explores if there are differences in proportions of income remitted and motivations between genders. This study uses a sequential mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Each research question is addressed using a different sequence of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.


Knowledge of the severity of an influenza outbreak is crucial for informing and monitoring appropriate public health responses, both during and after an epidemic. However, case-fatality, case-intensive care admission and case-hospitalisation risks are difficult to measure directly. Bayesian evidence synthesis methods have previously been employed to combine fragmented, under-ascertained and biased surveillance data coherently and consistently, to estimate case-severity risks in the first two waves of the 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic experienced in England. We present in detail the complex probabilistic model underlying this evidence synthesis, and extend the analysis to also estimate severity in the third wave of the pandemic strain during the 2010/2011 influenza season. We adapt the model to account for changes in the surveillance data available over the three waves. We consider two approaches: (a) a two-stage approach using posterior distributions from the model for the first two waves to inform priors for the third wave model; and (b) a one-stage approach modelling all three waves simultaneously. Both approaches result in the same key conclusions: (1) that the age-distribution of the case-severity risks is "u"-shaped, with children and older adults having the highest severity; (2) that the age-distribution of the infection attack rate changes over waves, school-age children being most affected in the first two waves and the attack rate in adults over 25 increasing from the second to third waves; and (3) that when averaged over all age groups, case-severity appears to increase over the three waves. The extent to which the final conclusion is driven by the change in age-distribution of those infected over time is subject to discussion.


Out of 6957 deliveries of the years 1987 and 1988 (7.2%) pregnant women have been analysed because premature rupture of fetal membranes. In 23.4 per cent symptoms of amniotic infection could be observed. In 31 per cent pathogenic germs could be identified from cervical swabs. In 33.6 per cent gestational period could be prolonged from 2 to 7 days, in 4.2 per cent more than 7 days. We found upon 32nd week of pregnancy a significant reduction of respiratory adaptation disturbances of 22%. Neonatal sepsis had been found at 50% till completion of 32nd week of pregnancy. Reasons for neonatal mortality are sepsis, immaturity and dysontogenesis. Conclusions have been made for practice in diagnostics and treatment.


This model is an extension of the Tantawi and Towsley (1985) single-job-class model as applied to a multiple-job-class model. Some properties of the optimal solution are shown. On the basis of these properties, a straightforward and efficient algorithm for optimal load balancing of multiclass jobs is derived. The performance of this algorithm is compared with that of two other well-known algorithms for multiclass jobs, the flow deviation (FD) algorithm and the Dafermos algorithm. The authors' algorithm and the FD algorithm both require a comparable amount of storage that is far less than that required by the Dafermos algorithm. Numerical experiments show that for obtaining the optimal solution the authors' algorithm and the Dafermos algorithm require comparable computation times that are far less than that of the FD algorithm.<<ETX>>