A wideband low-noise amplifier (LNA) with ESD protection for a multi-mode receiver is presented. The LNA is fabricated in a 0.18-μm SiGe BiCMOS process, covering the 2.1 to 6 GHz frequency band. After optimized noise modeling and circuit design, the measured results show that the LNA has a 12 dB gain over the entire bandwidth, the input third intercept point (IIP3) is −8 dBm at 6 GHz, and the noise figure is from 2.3 to 3.8 dB in the operating band. The overall power consumption is 8 mW at 2.5 V voltage supply.


In post-apartheid South Africa there has been a proliferation of public protests occurring in various contexts. While public protests are common globally, in South Africa they appear to be uniquely characterised by extreme forms of violence. The current analysis of public protests suggests that the root causes of public protests are socio-economic and political. However, the role of gendered identities is missing in analyses of violence in public protests. In this perspective, we argue that violent public protests in post-apartheid South Africa are linked to gendered identities in their intersection with race, socio-economic status and social class. First, we contend that public protest violence is due to the gendered division of public and private spaces. In line with this, we claim that, public protests as public phenomena become masculinised such that women are represented as virtually absent or with insignificant contribution to public protests while men tend to be more visible, take the lead, and draw from hypermasculine practices in their approach. Second, we argue that public protests become violent due to the ongoing marginalisation of unemployed and working-class men, which tend to be race based in South Africa. Last, we argue that violence in public protests is due to protection of privilege status by hegemonic groups which invokes radical attempts for inclusion by protesters. This perspective concludes that there needs to be a shift, in both the media and the scholarship on men and masculinities, in how violence of men in public protest is viewed. Much of the work on violence in South Africa is often attributed to problematic aspects of masculinity, yet what is needed is a political project that seeks to dismantle the structure that produces inequalities and, in its resistance to change, provokes frustrations that escalate to violence among protesters. Keywords : public protests, violence, gender identities, structure, South Africa


Summary A total of 350 nursery pigs (PIC 1050 barrows, initially 33.2 lb and 49 d of age) were used in a 21-d study to determine the aP release curve for a novel phytase product (Microtech 5,000, VTR Bio-tech Co., Guangdong, China). Pigs were randomly allot-ted to pens at arrival to the facility, and on d 0 of the trial pens were allotted to 1 of 7 treatments in a randomized complete block design. There were 5 pigs per pen and 10 pens per treatment. Pigs were fed corn-soybean meal-based diets formulated to 1.25% SID lysine. A single batch of the basal diet (0.12% aP) was manufactured and subsequently divided and used as the major ingredient in experimental diet manufacturing. Experimental diets were formulated to contain increasing available P supplied by either an inorganic source (0.12%, 0.18%, and 0.24% aP from monocalcium P) or from increased phytase (250, 500, 750, 1000 FTU/kg). Diets were analyzed for phytase using the AOAC method, and analyzed concentrations were lower than formulated. Diets formulated to contain 250, 500, 750 and 1000 FTU/kg had analyzed concentrations of 155, 335, 465, and 780 FTU/kg, respectively. On d 21, one pig per pen was euthanized and fibulas were collected to determine bone ash weight and percentage bone ash. From d 0 to 21, increasing P from inorganic P or increasing phytase resulted in increased (linear, P < 0.01) ADG, improved (quadratic, P < 0.02) F/G, and heavier (linear P < 0.01) ending BW. Bone ash weight and percentage bone ash were increased (linear, P < 0.01) with increasing inorganic P and increasing phytase. Response criteria, which remained in the linear portion of the quadratic phytase curve (ADG, bone ash weight, and percentage bone ash), were used to calculate aP release curves. When analyzed phytase values and percentage bone ash are used as the response variable, aP release percentage for up to 780 FTU/kg of Microtech 5,000 phytase can be predicted by the equation (y = 0.000002766761x - 0.000000002225x 2 - 0.000201841391), where x is the phytase concentration in the diet (FTU/kg).


Intracerebral injections of the Gepon drug were shown to be non-toxic when administered to outbred white mice, 0.01-0.1 micrograms. The drug protects 30-40% of mice (p < 95-99%) in contamination by street rables virus. The animals' protection depends on a dose and drug application scheme. The most pronounced protection was observed in its intramuscular administration, 0.1 microgram in the virus locus (infection opening). It should be necessarily pointed out that such pronounced protection (40%; p < 0.01) was noted within the therapeutic scheme of drug administration after virus infected the animals. A new method is described, which is related with evaluating the antiviral drugs' quality, i.e. with registering the dynamics of morbidity and death of infected animals.


This study examines vertical coordination in the wine industry emerging in Illinois. We find that quality matters as temporal issues related to grape perishability increase the probability of written contracts being used to procure grapes. Holdup concerns related to sourcing adequate quality grapes and at-risk investments in grape storage and winemaking equipment lead to vertical integration. In general, larger wineries must obtain some grapes from outside vineyards and sell wine predominantly through tasting rooms and distributors. Smaller wineries rely more on direct sales to retailers, festivals, and farmers' markets. Marketing outlet selection also reflects the types of wine produced.


Background: Thalassaemias and haemoglobinopathies have been found sporadically in every ethnic group and geographic region, they occur with particularly high frequency from the shores of the Mediterranean and Africa through the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Burma and Southeast Asia. Objective : The study was designed to find out the incidence of HbE/beta thalassaemia in BSMMU. Method : A total of 700 patients suspected to have been suffering from haemolytic anaemia were included in the study. Patients having evidence of haemolysis in peripheral blood film were selected for reticulocyte count and haemoglobin electrophoresis in cellulose acetate membrane at pH 8.6. Result: The study group of 700 patients underwent Hb-electrophoresis of which only 52 (7.4%) cases were diagnosed as HbE/beta thalassaemia. Out of 52 cases, 34 (65.4%) patients were found symptomatic and the remaining 18 (34.6%) patients were asymptomatic. Out of 34 symptomatic cases of HbE/beta thalassaemia, only 14 cases needed blood transfusion. Among the 14 patients, only 8 patients needed more than 10 units of transfusion and 6 patients needed frequent transfusion that is two units of blood in every month. Conclusion: It is clearly evident from the present and other studied so far carried out in this Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia that hereditary haemolytic anaemia due to globin chain defects are quite common in this region, especially in Bangladesh and are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Key words: Thalassaemia; Haemoglobinopathies; HbE/beta thalassemia. DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v2i2.4762 BSMMU J 2009; 2(2): 78-80


Software designed to acquaint the user with some of the basic statistics that can be used for analyzing data from a research study and help the user to present the results of that study.


Objectives The primary objective of this paper was to independently evaluate the currently available web-based software options for virtual consultations in a secondary care setting. Design Comparative study. Setting UK. Participants Web-based software options for virtual consultations in a secondary care setting. Main outcome measures Eight predetermined measures of functionality were assessed including time to setup, availability of a diary system, ability to book appointments in advance, ability to send patient reminders, ability to add a second caller, text messaging functionality, need for the patient to download an app and web browser compatibility. Results Nine platforms met the inclusion criteria for web-based standalone video consultation solutions. Four offered immediate access via an nhs.net email address. Six platforms used an appointment diary system, with five allowing clinicians to see which patients were ready and waiting for consultation at any particular time. Four of the platforms had the facility to book appointments in advance and send appointment details via text message or email. Five of the platforms had the ability to add a second caller. One platform required the patient to download a mobile phone app. All platforms were compatible with Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Microsoft Edge (Chromium or Blink versions). Conclusions The uptake of virtual online consultations has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the National Health Service (NHS) has become a forced 'early-adopter'. Many of the solutions do well to address the demand; however, more work is required for it to be embedded into routine service and fulfil the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan: allow patients more choice and flexibility in their care. It is vital that once normality resumes, research focuses on the outcomes of virtual online consultations, with focus on factors such as patient satisfaction, length of appointment, time to diagnosis and initiation of management.


The contact temperature plays an important role in the polishing process, which essentially is a surface contact abrasion process. This paper reports a contact temperature model to predict the temperature rise of both the abrasive-workpiece and pad-workpiece interfaces in a polishing process. In this analysis, the forces acting on an abrasive particle and an asperity of the pad are derived from a mechanistic analysis of abrasive-workpiece and pad-workpiece contact. Our results elucidate that polishing with a rigid, smooth plate is a special case of our purposed model. Theoretical predictions indicate that the temperature rise of abrasive-workpiece contact increases with an increase in particle size and density of particles, hardness of workpiece, hardness of pad, and with a decrease in thermal conductivity of workpiece. The temperature of pad-workpiece contact increases with an increase in hardness of pad and surface roughness of pad, and with a decrease in thermal conductivity of workpiece. The contact temperature rise of the pad-workpiece interface is independent of the hardness of workpiece. For a metal polishing process, the maximum contact temperature occurs at the pad-workpiece contact point for small abrasive particles and rough polishing pad with high hardness.


The European Plate Observing System (EPOS, www.epos-eu.org) is a multidisciplinary pan-European research infrastructure for solid Earth science. It integrates a series of domain-specific service hubs (Thematic Core Service, TCS) such as the Geological Information and Modelling, which provides access to data, data products and services on European boreholes, geological maps, mineral occurrences, mines and 3D models. TCS GIM services are hosted by a group of European Geological Surveys and a couple of national research organizations. This paper presents novel data discovery and integration, facilitated using borehole logging information with on-demand web services to produce 3D geological structures. This domain interoperability across EPOS was created for the purpose of research, but it is also highly relevant for the response to societal grand challenges such as natural hazards and climate change. European and international interoperability implementation frameworks are well described and used (e.g., INSPIRE, ISO, OGC, and IUGS/CGI). It can be difficult for data providers to deploy web services that support the full semantic data definition (e.g., OGC Complex Feature) to expose several millions of geological entities through web-enabled data portals as required by pan-European projects. The TCS GIM group implemented and innovatively extended two standardized descriptions, i.e. GeoSciML-Lite and EarthResourceML-Lite, with an important reuse of content from Linked Data Registries. This approach was applied to design and implement the European Borehole Index and associated web services (View-WMS and Discovery-WFS), extended to 3D models, geological maps as well as mineral occurrences and mines. Results presented here apply the Linked Data approach ensuring optimal semantic description and enriching the data graphs, with complex descriptions and contents. In this way, it is now possible to traverse from one Borehole Index instance to linked richer information such as the borehole geological log, groundwater levels, rock sample description, analyses, etc. All this detailed information is served following international interoperability standards (Observations & Measurements, GroundWaterML 2.0, GeoSciML4, amongst others).


Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, multisystem, autoimmune disorder with a broad range of clinical presentations. One of the main factors, proposed to contribute to the development of clinical manifestations of SLE is accumulation and impaired clearance of immune complexes. The aim of the present study was to investigate lipid and anti-lipid antibody profiles in SLE patients' plasma using ELISA and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The SLE cohort employed in this study is composed of 24 subjects and disease monitoring was undertaken with serial BILAG disease scoring. The blood was collected at three time points: at the moment of flare; and 3-months/12-months after treatment had started. For oxysterols (7α-hydroxycholesterol, 7β-hydroxycholesterol, 7-ketocholesterol) we report a trend where lipid levels and corresponding anti-lipid IgG concentrations are significantly reduced during the course of treatment. For phospholipids (oxidized phosphatidylcholine, cardiolipin) we also show high levels of anti-lipid IgG during flare or active disease. Using GC-MS and ELISA we have confirmed an association of high lipid levels and high anti-lipid IgG level with disease flare in comparison to 12 months after the commencement of treatment. We propose that auto anti-lipid IgGs should now be considered a component of the accumulated immune complexes in SLE and thus may contribute to disease pathogenesis.


With the evolution of Network Function Virtual-izaiton (NFV), enterprises are increasingly outsourcing their network functions to the cloud. However, using virtualized network functions (VNFs) to provide flexible services in today's cloud is challenging due to the inherent difficulty in intelligently scaling VNFs to cope with traffic fluctuations. To best utilize cloud resources, NFV providers need to dynamically scale the VNF deployments and reroute traffic demands for their customers. Since most existing work is reactive in nature, we seek a proactive approach to provision new instances for overloaded VNFs ahead of time based on the estimated flow rates. We formulate the VNF provisioning problem in order that the cost incurred by inaccurate prediction and VNF deployment is minimized. In the proposed online algorithm, we first employ an efficient online learning method which aims at minimizing the error in predicting the service chain demands. We then derive the requested instances with adaptive processing capacities and call two other algorithms for new instance assignment and service chain rerouting, respectively, while achieving good competitive ratios. The joint online algorithm is proven to provide good performance guarantees by both theoretical analysis and trace-driven simulation.


In computer based fish identification from otolith images, recent techniques such as Curvature Scale Space (CCS) and Wavelets have been used to locate the position of singular features. On the other hand, automated fish ageing methods use Fourier Transform (FT), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or Peak Based Representation (PBR) to enhance classifier performance. In this work we use the Local Discriminant Bases algorithm (LDB). In ageing applications, is necessary to employ an optimization method to demodulate growth effects before using the LDB. LDB can also be used for fish identification after filtering and resampling the otolith contour. The proposed methods have been tested with otolith contours from a web-base database and with images of cod otolith sections. In both cases results show that only a few bases are needed to represent class features accurately.


Deals with the control of uncertain discrete time linear systems with constrained state and control. Bounds on the structured perturbations are obtained to maintain stability using a Lyapunov approach matrix equation solution. The obtained bounds are shown to be restricted for systems with bounded controls and states. An approach is suggested to find a state constraint set for which the polyhedral is given in terms of the interaction of many maximal state constraint sets obtained from the nominal matrix system, including the vertices of the disturbance polyhedral. An interesting set is also given by using the /spl Omega/-invariant concept, thereby avoiding the solution of the Lyapunov equations.<<ETX>>


Ultraviolet light is essential for disinfection, fluorescence excitation, curing, and medical treatment. An ultraviolet light source with the small footprint and excellent optical characteristics of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) may enable new applications in all these areas. Until now, there have only been a few demonstrations of ultraviolet-emitting VCSELs, mainly optically pumped, and all with low Al-content AlGaN cavities and emission near the bandgap of GaN (360 nm). Here, we demonstrate an optically pumped VCSEL emitting in the UVB spectrum (280–320 nm) at room temperature, having an Al0.60Ga0.40N cavity between two dielectric distributed Bragg reflectors. The double dielectric distributed Bragg reflector design was realized by substrate removal using electrochemical etching. Our method is further extendable to even shorter wavelengths, which would establish a technology that enables VCSEL emission from UVA (320–400 nm) to UVC (<280 nm).


ABSTRACT This study investigates the multi-sensory responses experienced by consumers in consuming and evaluating wine, and further identifies the differences in wine consumption experiences by novice wine consumers versus those of wine experts. How those experiences are shaped by consumer levels of knowledge regarding wine, and are defined by emotion, memory, and responses to the aesthetic experience of wine consumption, are identified via a multi-year ethnographic study. Through interviews, observations, and wine tastings with novices and experts, the authors examine the role of embodiment in wine consumption, whose impact is lacking in extant literature. Embodiment processes in wine consumption can be understood at the conscious level using Merleau-Ponty's [(1962). The phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Kegan Paul] concept of perception and virtual enactments. At the unconscious level, as the authors report, consumers and wineries alike use conceptual metaphors and conceptual blending to understand the wine consumption process. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of embodiment processes through the application of Merleau-Ponty's theory of perceptions/virtual enactments, as well as through metaphor and conceptual integration analysis.


Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the immunosuppressory compounds applied in the prophylaxis and treatment of several diseases, including: rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, graft-versus-host disease and, in combination with other drugs, neoplastic diseases. Studies in humans and in animal model, of clinical disease, have demonstrated that MTX diminishes the clinical symptoms of various immunological disorders. MTX, an antagonist of folic acid synthesis, causes apoptosis in activated cells, primarily in the G1 and S phases of the cell cycle. One of its actions, is inhibition of the synthesis or activity of several proinflammatory cytokines. At high doses, MTX is cytotoxic to hemopoietic cells; low doses, however, promote hemopoiesis. MTX also induces the differentiation of monocytic tumor cells, which may explain, in part, its therapeutic effects in the treatment of some disorders. The compound suppresses both cellular and humoral immune response and mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation. These effects are dose- and time-dependent. The strongest suppressory activity is exerted when MTX is applied 24 or 48 hours after immunization or mitogen stimulation. Administration of MTX in unfavorable conditions such as stress or other diseases, diminishes its tolerance and increases its toxicity. Side-effects of MTX may be ameliorated by application of pharmacological synthetic agents and plant extracts. In summary, MTX has been an effective agent in suppressing immunological disorders (for 50 years) and is still finding many applications.


Background: Raising immunization coverage against COVID-19, in particular in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), is crucial in addressing the current pandemic. Additionally, in Africa reaching the necessary herd immunity threshold is jeopardized by factors, such as vaccine hesitancy. To build confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, it is important to understand and address the reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Yet, few studies for rural and urban Sub-Saharan Africa exist, which have analyzed these factors. Methods: This study reports on a cross-sectional survey in five West African countries (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone) to identify and describe factors influencing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural and urban settings. The survey was conducted at a time when in these countries the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines had not yet or only just begun. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression models, with robust standard errors. The general protocol is registered on clinicaltrial.gov (protocol number: NCT04912284)Results: Findings show that in West Africa COVID-19 adult vaccine acceptance ranges from 60% in Guinea and 50% in Sierra Leone to 11% in Senegal. This is largely congruent with acceptance levels of COVID-19 vaccinations for children. Multivariable regression analysis shows that perceived effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines increased the willingness to get vaccinated, rather than socio-demographic factors, such as educational attainment and rural/urban residence. Primary sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines, include television, radio, and social media. Conclusions: Communication strategies addressed at the adult population using mass and social media, which emphasize COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety, could encourage greater acceptance also of COVID-19 child vaccinations in Sub-Saharan countries.


The promise of the short text: writing risk into visual arts practice In this study I aim to see if writing can enhance visual arts practice. Much UK Quality Assurance Agency and Higher Education visual arts documentation recommends risk, as do many practitioners. I hypothesise that very short, tightly-structured essays will foster risk by combining radical format, content demand and writing's esteem. I experimented with essays by Foundation visual arts students at Coventry University in 2011. Half the group was assigned a short essay as above, the other half a 1,000-word, conventional essay. Both groups had the same essay topic choices; both were taught in the same way as far as possible; both assignments were individual. Practice-based presentations took place shortly after the essays, and students were advised of potential connections between the tasks. Quantitative data was taken from all essay and presentation grades; qualitative data from essay drafts, questionnaires and interviews with selected 128-word essay students. The grades show the 128-word essay students slightly outperforming the others. Four themes emerged from the qualitative data: provisional meaning, risk, practice parallels and project process. Drafts and questionnaires showed improvisation and keen engagement; interviews (loosely following Bryman's 'unstructured' model) considered content, form, convention, risk and transferability of writing to practice. The main problems students faced when writing the short essays were how to say enough and how to mix tradition with innovation. There was evidence that some students connected the short essay with their practice – but to connect is not necessarily to enhance. The short essays were very diverse, some radically inventive, others less so – yet the study recommends caution when rethinking traditional writing assignments because some students respect traditional writing, and may find the extreme form of the very short essay patronising unless it can promise more. The study's contribution to knowledge is to promise more by making writing a metaphor for practice and evaluated as such, taking writing beyond mimicking or analysing practice. The study also induced a supporting theory that absolutes and variables need careful balance, extending the bisociative notion of mixing tradition with innovation. The study showed that these short essays could enhance practice by fostering risk, but also that risk is very variable. This questions how such risks are evaluated, and even whether an enforced risk is a risk at all, and not just ingenuity. The thesis has six chapters: Introduction; Literature review; The short story in visual arts practice; The short essay in action; Student responses; Conclusion. Appendices contain three associated papers and all drafts with comments, questionnaires with responses, and full interview transcripts annotated to demonstrate emerging themes and connections to research questions. The study draws on reader-response as a theoretical framework, and is informed by the study of visual arts academic writing, risk-taking in visual arts practice, Koestler's bisociative understanding of creativity, provisional meaning and the short story. The promise of the short text: writing risk into visual arts practice Simon Bell August 2013 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University's requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy


AIM
The aim of this study was to trial the methodology and administration processes of a public paediatric capitation programme provided in the period 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2011 through a Bachelor of Oral Health programme in rural New South Wales (NSW), Australia, where access to public dental services is limited.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN
The principal structure of the programme was the development of three diagnostic pathways: active caries and pain (Pathway A); active caries and no pain (Pathway B); and no active caries and no pain (Pathway C). In 2011, de-identified treatment data for NSW public dental services' patients under 18 years of age were analysed to identify the top 10 dental treatment items. These items were clustered according to the mean decayed and/or filled surface of patients under 18 years of age who had decayed, filled or missing teeth. Each treatment item was allocated 60% of the 2011 Australian Government Department of Veteran Affairs Schedule of Fees.

CLINICAL SETTING
The programme was trialled in Charles Sturt University dental facility in Wagga Wagga, NSW.

PARTICIPANTS
The programme targeted patients in the following age groups: 0-5 years; 6-11 years; and 12-17 years.

RESULT
The 6-month trial provided 361 patients with a capitation pathway, at a total cost of $47,567.90, averaging $131.76 per capitation pathway. The total number of items provided (n=2,070) equated to an average of 5.7 items per capitation diagnostic pathway.

CONCLUSION
This model offered an early entry point for paediatric patients to access dental care that addressed their needs, whilst being flexible enough to be fiscally attractive.


This paper presents an alternative approach to power up unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system using inductive approach. The main issue of utilizing UAV in any application especially in precision agriculture is the lifetime of the battery. This limits the flight time of the UAV which makes the system is unable to be efficiently applied for precision agriculture purpose. Hence, this paper proposes a new approach of powering UAV system by using so called inductive power transfer (IPT) technology. Through this approach, the system can be powered up wirelessly with no physical link in between transmitter and receiver. To be specific, class E inverter circuit has been designed together with impedance matching circuit to ensure higher efficiency is obtained. Finally, a prototype of IPT system for powering up the UAV system was successfully developed, which is able to transmit 23.32 W of power at 1 MHz operating frequency from 12 V input supply. The system achieved up to 95.73% efficiency.


Drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant phyto-reclamation plants such as Maksar and White corn should be planted as secondary crops to prevent the devastation of grain-free areas and the deterioration of the reclamation status of these areas. We think these are good results. For example, white corn can be harvested as a minor crop while maintaining good soil moisture until the fall months and reducing soil salinity.


In this paper, we report on the advanced technique of distal tendon stump repair of a digit. A K-wire is used lengthwise to fix the distal and medium phalanxes, with the pull-out suture fixed on it. None of the cases repaired using this method was complicated with regional necrosis or tendon re-laceration. The advantages of advanced pull-out suture tied on a K-wire is that finger-tip pressure, which can lead to tissue necrosis, is avoided.


Aim Biogeographic regionalization has fascinated biogeographers and ecologists for centuries and is endued with new vitality by evolutionary perspectives. However, progress is scant for most insect groups due to shortfalls in distribution and phylogenetic information, namely Wallacean and Darwinian shortfalls respectively. Here, we used the western Palearctic ants as the case to tackle these shortfalls and test their biogeographic structure through novel distribution data and phylogenetic approaches. Location Western Palearctic realm. Taxon Ants (Formicidae). Methods Firstly, we developed a refined database integrating the occurrences of 747 ant species across 207 regions of the western Palearctic realm, based on newly expert-validated records derived from the existing global ant biodiversity informatics. Using range estimates for these species derived from polygons and species distribution modelling, we produced species assemblages in 50 × 50 km grid cells. We calculated taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover of ant assemblages, performing hierarchical clustering analysis using the Simpson dissimilarity index to delineate biogeographic structure. Results At both the regional list- and grid assemblage-levels, the Mediterranean has higher turnover and more biogeographic regions than northern Europe, both taxonomically and phylogenetically. Delineations based on grid assemblages detected more detailed biogeographic transitions, while those based on regional lists showed stronger insularity in biogeographic structure. The phylogenetic regionalization suggested closer but varied affinities between assemblages in comparison to the taxonomic approach. Main conclusions Here, we integrated expert-validated regional lists, species distribution modelling, and a recent phylogeny to tackle Wallacean and Darwinian shortfalls for an important insect group by developing a next-generation map of biogeographic regionalization for the western Palearctic ants. The results of this study suggest strong constraints from geographic barriers and potential effects of climatic history on ant distributions and evolutionary history, and also provide baseline spatial information for future investigations of regional insect distributions.


Summary The Contour is a promising new device designed to treat large-neck intra-cranial aneurysms. We describe a first case of Contour device displacement 18 months after initial treatment. A patient with a 10 mm unruptured right middle cerebral artery bifurcation aneurysm was treated with a 9 mm Contour. The device was correctly positioned at the neck during treatment and at the 6 month angiography follow-up. At 18 months follow-up we noticed a full displacement of the device into the aneurysm dome. The Contour had a reversed shape and the aneurysm was still fully opacified. No neurological event occurred during the whole follow-up. Contour may be a promising tool but needs to be assessed over a long-term period.


We study the gathering problem to make multiple agents initially scattered in arbitrary networks gather at a single node. There exist $k$ agents with unique identifiers (IDs) in the network, and $f$ of them are weakly Byzantine agents, which behave arbitrarily except falsifying their identifiers. The agents behave in synchronous rounds, and each node does not have any memory like a whiteboard. In the literature, two algorithms for solving the gathering problem have been proposed. The first algorithm assumes that the number $n$ of nodes is given to agents and achieves the gathering in $O(n^{4}\cdot\vert \Lambda_{good}\vert \cdot\ X(n))$ rounds, where $\vert \Lambda_{good}\vert$ is the length of the largest ID among non-Byzantine agents, and $X(n)$ is the number of rounds required to explore any network composed of $n$ nodes. The second algorithm assumes that the upper bound $N$ of $n$ is given to agents and at least $4f^{2}+8f+4$ non-Byzantine agents exist, and achieves the gathering in $O((f+\vert \Lambda_{good}\vert)\cdot X(N))$ rounds. Both the algorithms allow agents to start gathering at different times. The first algorithm can terminate agents simultaneously, while the second one not. In this paper, we seek an algorithm that solves the gathering problem efficiently with the intermediate number of non-Byzantine agents since there is a large gap between the numbers of non-Byzantine agents in the previous works. The resultant gathering algorithm works with at least $8f+8$ non-Byzantine agents when agents start the algorithm at the same time, agents may terminate at different times, and $N$ is given to agents. To reduce the number of agents, we propose a new technique to simulate a Byzantine consensus algorithm for synchronous message-passing systems on agent systems. The proposed algorithm achieves the gathering in $o(f\cdot\vert \Lambda_{good}\vert \cdot X(N))$ rounds. This algorithm is faster than the first existing algorithm and requires fewer non-Byzantine agents than the second existing algorithm if $n$ is given to agents, although the guarantees on simultaneous termination and startup delay are not the same.


Competitive adsorption of three human plasma proteins: albumin (HSA), fibrinogen (Fgn), and immunoglobulin G (IgG) from their ternary solution mixtures onto a sulfhydryl-to-sulfonate gradient surface was investigated using spatially-resolved total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) and autoradiography. The concentration of each protein in the ternary solution mixture was kept at an equivalent of 1/100 of its physiological concentration in blood plasma. The three proteins displayed different adsorption and desorption characteristics. Each protein adsorbed less to the sulfonate region than to the sulfhydryl region of the gradient. The adsorption-desorption kinetics revealed large differences in the adsorption and desorption rates of three proteins. By fitting the experimental data to a simple model of competitive protein adsorption, the affinity of each protein to the surface at the gradient center position was ranked as: Fgn > HSA ≫ IgG. Competitive exchange of adsorbed proteins was related to the magnitude of desorption rate constants. Such competitive adsorption of the three major human plasma proteins illustrates the complex dynamics of blood proteins - biomaterials interactions.


This paper presents a novel physical-layer approach to information security. Unlike conventional mathematical-based encryptors, a secret key is generated from a natural phenomenon, i.e., the multi-path fading of a radio wave. The reciprocity in wave propagation is exploited to share the key with a party on the air. An array of electronically steered parasitic radiators provides time variation in the faded amplitude. This variation exhibits strong spatio-randomness which can never be practically solved by any other party. We show proof-of-concept experiments carried out in an actual indoor environment.


Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical method which has been used widely to measure the change in the blood chromophores. Abrupt change in blood chromophore viz, oxyhemoglobin [hbo2] and deoxyhemoglobin [hb] happens in ischemia stroke condition, which occurs due to impairment of the oxygenated compounds viz, oxygen and glucose. The current study presents measurement and analysis of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) based regional oxygenation level biomarkers Viz., change in regional blood volume index $(\Delta \text{rBVI})$ and change in regional oxygen saturation $(\Delta \text{rSO}2)$. To measure these NIRS biomarkers dynamic phantom has been designed in such a way that, it mimics the ischemic stroke condition in-vitro by continuously changing (decrease, increase) the oxygenation level of human blood sample in the closed loop arterial system of dynamic phantom. Continuous decline of the $(\Delta \text{rBVI})\ 22$ % $(\mathrm{p} < 0.001)$ and $(\Lambda \text{rSO}2)$ 5% $(\mathrm{p} < 0.001)$ has been observed of the average reading of the samples in an ischemic stroke condition, while 15% and 2% increment has been recorded in reversal of ischemic stroke condition, by increasing the oxygenation level of the arterial system. Correlation between biomarkers in ischemic stroke condition has been found strongly positive (r=56%) and regular residual percentage error in measurement has been measured which has found under 10%. Clinical Relevance— This help in understanding and characterizing the ischemic stroke. Biomarker's trend can be use for classification of stroke types.


I read the article by Ahmed et al.1 and generally agree with their comments. However, I offer some insights. First, Yuasa2 reported a case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with dementia who presented impairment of personality, forgetfulness, and forced grasp before presenting muscle weakness. The patient showed brain atrophy in the frontal lobe. Following reports—including autopsies and neuroimages that supported ALS with dementia or motor neuron disease (MND) with dementia—showed atrophy, reduced blood flow, or hypometabolism characterized demonstrated in the central region and in the frontal lobe. The authors suggested that emotion processing and behavior disturbance had been considered core deficits in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and believed to be less prominent in ALS-FTD. However, other studies including Yuasa's suggested behavioral changes in patients with ALS-FTD in their early stages. To elucidate these differences, the morphological study does not have enough power, but functional imaging studies may hold advantages.3 We studied patients with ALS with dementia by using SPECT and concluded ALS and ALS with dementia made a wide spectrum of a disease.4 The authors' indication of atrophy in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) might be a key for differential diagnoses of variant types of ALS-FTD. I recently had a patient with ALS-FTD who showed dominant bulbar palsy with forgetfulness but preserved personality. His SPECT showed reduced uptake in the central and prefrontal cortex not in the DLPFC. I agree that further studies of ALS, ALS-FTD, and bvFTD are needed, but I suggest that function studies should be included in future projects.


In India, food habit is profoundly influenced by traditions, cultural choices, and religions. For years traditional Indian foods have been prepared, and preparation varies across the country. The wisdom about processing of food, its preservation techniques, and their therapeutic effects has been established for many generations. Starch is the most commonly consumed type of carbohydrate which is found deposited in many crops, such as wheat, corn, rice, and potato, and it serves as the most important source of energy for humans. Starch is classified as complex carbohydrates, and traditionally, complex carbohydrates have been viewed as healthier options. India harbors many plants, out of which traditional starchy tubers and roots which have the potential to be used as sources of flours and starch are also recognized as functional foods because of the presence of functional components such as body-healing chemicals, antioxidants, dietary fibers, and probiotics.


Recent studies have confirmed the existence of microbiota in the lungs. The relationship between lung ground-glass opacity (GGO) and microbiota in the lung microenvironment is not clear. In this study, we investigated the microbial composition and diversity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of diseased lung segments and paired contralateral healthy lung segments from 11 GGO patients. Furthermore, lung GGO and paired normal tissues of 26 GGO patients were explored whether there are microbial characteristics related to GGO. Compared with the control group, the community richness of GGO tissue and BALF of GGO lung segment (α-diversity) and overall microbiome difference (β-diversity) had no significant difference. The microbiome composition of BALF of GGO segments is distinct from that of paired healthy lung segments [genus (Rothia), order (Lachnospiraceae), family (Lachnospiraceae), genus (Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Faecalibacterium), and species (Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Bacteroides uniforms)]. GGO tissue and adjacent lung tissue had more significant differences at the levels of class, order, family, genus, and species level, and most of them are enriched in normal lung tissue. The area under the curve (AUC) using 10 genera-based biomarkers to predict GGO was 91.05% (95% CI: 81.93–100%). In conclusion, this study demonstrates there are significant differences in the lower respiratory tract and lung microbiome between GGO and the non-malignant control group through the BALF and lung tissues. Furthermore, some potential bacterial biomarkers showed good performance to predict GGO.


The study of feature propagation at initialization in neural networks lies at the root of numerous initialization designs. An assumption very commonly made in the field states that the pre-activations are Gaussian. Although this convenient Gaussian hypothesis can be justified when the number of neurons per layer tends to infinity, it is challenged by both theoretical and experimental works for finite-width neural networks. Our major contribution is to construct a family of pairs of activation functions and initialization distributions that ensure that the pre-activations remain Gaussian throughout the network's depth, even in narrow neural networks. In the process, we discover a set of constraints that a neural network should fulfill to ensure Gaussian pre-activations. Additionally, we provide a critical review of the claims of the Edge of Chaos line of works and build an exact Edge of Chaos analysis. We also propose a unified view on pre-activations propagation, encompassing the framework of several well-known initialization procedures. Finally, our work provides a principled framework for answering the much-debated question: is it desirable to initialize the training of a neural network whose pre-activations are ensured to be Gaussian?


PROBLEMS/OBJECTIVES
A child's immune system cannot depend on a memory-type immune response and it also induces cytokine responses less efficiently. Biological conditions like allergy or cystic fibrosis, immune deficiency or gastrooesophageal reflux can induce and maintain background inflammation in children's upper airways, making newborns and children more susceptible to upper airway infections and inflammations. This paper will describe in brief how allergy, cystic fibrosis, immune deficiency, nasal and paranasal anatomical variants, and gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) can affect the immune and inflammatory responses in upper airways and how they could interfere with immunity development and maturation in children.

METHODOLOGY
Literature review.

RESULTS
Chronic inflammation induced by infection, allergy, cystic fibrosis or immune deficiency is multifactorial in origin and is strongly influenced by physiological, immunological, anatomical, environmental and, above all, genetic parameters. Finally, the direct role played by nasal and paranasal anatomical variants and GOR is also discussed.

CONCLUSIONS
These conditions should be screened systematically in all children presenting chronic clinical features of upper airway inflammation.


Cloning of An Intron of the Gene Coding for Porcine Acid-Labile Subunit(pALS) of the 150-kDa Insulin-like Growth Factor Complex and the 3' Untranslated Region of pALS Complementary DNA and Confirmation of pALS Gene Expression in Multiple Tissues ABSTRACT The aims of this study were as follows: 1) identification and cloning of an intron of the gene coding for porcine acid-labile subunit(pALS), a component of the 150-kDa ternary insulin-like growth factor(IGF) complex, and amplification and cloning of 3' untranslated region(3' UT) of pALS complementary DNA, 2) identification of pALS gene expression in porcine tissues by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction using an intron-spanning primer pair and 3) identification of ALS gene expression in porcine hepatocytes. Following nucleotide sequencing after amplification of pALS gene by PCR using genomic DNA as template with a primer pair spanning the expected intron region and insertion of the PCR product into a plasmid vector, a 1,371-base pair(bp) intron of pALS gene has been identified at a site of pALS gene identical to those of other ALS genes of known species. Also identified and sequenced in the present study was a 147-bp 3' UT following 3' rapid amplification of cDNA end(3' RACE) using RNA isolated from the liver as starting template. Results of the RT-PCR have exhibited that pALS gene is expressed not only in the liver but in other internal organs(kidney, lung, spleen), female reproductive organs(ovary, oviduct, uterus) and skeletal muscle. Moreover, in the liver, the ALS gene was found to be expressed in hepatoctytes by in-situ hybridization. These results suggest a possibility that in addition to the known major role as plasma IGF reservoir/regulator, ALS may also have unknown role(s) in the extra-vascular space.


Malignant tumour of the stomach is not common in young adults. When it does occur, it is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. The objective of this report is to document our experience with three cases of gastric adenocarcinoma in young adult Nigerians seen over a period of 18 months in our centre.


This work presents a fast additive manufacturing (AM) protocol for fabricating multi-network hydrogels. A gas-permeable PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) film creates a polymerization-inhibition zone, enabling continuous stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing of hydrogels. The fabricated multi-bonding network integrates rigid covalent bonding and tough ionic bonding, allowing effective tuning of elastic modulus and strength for various loading conditions. The printed triply periodic minimal structures (TPMS) hydrogels exhibit high compressibility with up to 80% recoverable strain. Additionally, dried TPMS hydrogels display novel energy/impact absorption properties. By comparing uniform and gradient TPMS hydrogels, we analyze their energy/impact absorption capability of the 3D-printed specimens. We use simulation studies to reveal the anisotropy and quasi-isotropy behavior of the TPMS structures, providing insights for designing and controlling TPMS structures for energy absorption. Our findings suggest that gradient TPMS hydrogels are preferable energy absorbers with potential applications in impact resistance and absorption.


We develop a scoring rule tailored to a decision maker who makes simultaneous bets on events that occur at times that require bets to be placed together. The rule proposed captures the economic benefit to a well-defined bettor who acts on one set of probabilities p against a baseline or rival set q. To allow for simultaneous bets, we assume a myopic power utility function with a risk aversion parameter tailored to suit the given user or application. Our score function is "proper" in the usual sense of motivating honesty. Apart from a special case of power utility, namely, log utility, the score is not "local," which we excuse because a local scoring rule cannot capture the economic result that our score reflects. An interesting property of our rule is that the individual scores from individual events are multiplicative, rather than additive. Probability scores are often added to give a measure of aggregate performance over a set of trials. Our rule is unique in that scores must be multiplied to reach a meaningful aggregate.


Abstract Best estimates suggest that the number of households with same-sex male couples is increasing. One option for family building by same-sex male couples is gestational surrogacy. Embryos would be generated in vitro, using the biologic father's sperm with donor oocytes, and another woman (the gestational carrier) would undergo an embryo transfer to bear a child. Conceiving via gestational surrogacy requires advance planning, not only to coordinate the oocyte donor and gestational carrier but also to comply with regulations set forth by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has also published recommendations for practices using gestational carriers, which, in many cases, are more stringent than the FDA regulations. This article will review the FDA regulations and ASRM recommendations and their implications for same-sex male couples who plan to conceive via gestational surrogacy.


Abstract. We introduce a current development in optical design for vehicle forward lighting based on solid-state lighting, in particular, phosphor-converted white LEDs. The vehicles include bicycles, bikes, and automobiles. Although the requirements regulating different vehicles are different, the low beam always requires a high-contrast cutoff line. Three optical design approaches are discussed; these include a projection lens incorporated with a baffle or beam shaper, multisegment reflectors, and complex lenses. A new design approach called light field management technology for the multisegment reflector is introduced. In addition, the possible related manufacturing errors and the robustness of different optical approaches are analyzed. Finally, we introduce three approaches to adaptive forward lighting that provide a driver with brighter and clearer vision without inducing glare to people on the roadway. The application of video projection technology to roadway illumination could be a trend of vehicle forward lighting based on solid-state lighting.


In the UK today, it is estimated that 1 in every 100 people have autism. One aspect which is a significant challenge for those with autism, is the ability to feel included within social situations. It is therefore important to consider the effects that the education system has upon children with autism with regards to promoting inclusion, as this is likely to impact upon a child's academic achievement and general well-being. This dissertation provides an insight into inclusion for children aged 8-12 within educational settings, focusing on various influencing factors such as: government policies and national strategies aimed at supporting those with autism; limitations and challenges autistic children may face; and the types of schooling and teaching methods which can influence how the success to which a child is included within their school. This dissertation is supported by secondary sources of literature, which provide current arguments for which environment best promotes inclusion for children aged 8-12 in a variety of settings. It concludes that despite a strong move towards promoting inclusion, many educational settings are yet to reach full inclusion. It has, however, highlighted that through recent government legislation and school policies, strategies have been put in place to help ensure that the process to reach full inclusion is advanced.


More than anything else, this book is a tribute to Edsger W. Dijkstra, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, by just a few of those fortunate enough to be influenced by him and his work and to be called his friend or relation, his master, colleague, or pupil. This book contains fifty-four technical contributions in different areas of endeavor, although many of them deal with an area of particular concern to Dijkstra: programming. Each contribution is relatively short and could be digested in one sitting. Together, they form a nice cross section of the discipline of programming at the beginning of the nineties. While many know of Dijkstra's technical contributions, they may not be aware of his ultimate goal, the mastery of complexity in mathematics and computing science. He has forcefully argued that beauty and elegance are essential to this mastery. The title of this book, chosen to reflect his ultimate goal, comes from a sentence in an article of his on some beautiful arguments using mathematical induction: "... when we recognize the battle against chaos, mess, and unmastered complexity as one of computing sci- ence's major callings, we must admit that 'Beauty Is Our Business'."


Rapidly increasing growth and demand in various Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have pushed governmental regulation development and numerous technology research activities toward integrating unmanned and manned aircraft into the same civil airspace. Safety of other airspace users is the primary concern; thus, with the introduction of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS), a key issue to overcome is the risk of a collision with manned aircraft. The challenge of UAV integration is global. In this paper, the authors present the operational concept and benefits of an airborne collision system for UAS based on a modified automatic dependent surveillance — broadcast (ADS-B) system, a promising technology under development globally. With the affordable Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) Beacon Radio developed by The MITRE Corporation and the hybrid estimation approach for resource-limited UAS, the ADS-B radar concept appears to be an economically viable solution to detect both cooperative and non-cooperative targets using a single avionics package.


The tales of the prophets are among the most popular textual traditions across the Islamic world and Java proves no exception. Beginning with the first human and first prophet Nabi Adam, these often vast collections recount the biographies of all those viewed as prophets in Islam, ultimately leading up to the "seal of the prophets", Muhammad. Many manuscripts of this genre were composed and copied in Javanese, in different periods, locales, and milieus, opening a window to how these core Islamic stories and the messages they carry were understood and transmitted in Java. The essay explores one example, a Layang Ambiya composed in the pĕsantren milieu in the mid-nineteenth century and written in pegon (MSB L12), currently housed in the Museum Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta.


Cochlear synaptopathy refers to a subclinical hearing pathology which could potentially explain hearing difficulties within the normal hearing threshold; it is also called "hidden hearing loss". We hypothesized that a temporary threshold shift in sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) also affects the function in the synapse. The aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of cochlear synaptopathy in patients who had completely recovered from unilateral SSNHL Nineteen patients who had completely recovered from ISSNHL from January 2018 to June 2021 were assessed. Complete recovery was established by pure tone audiometry (PTA) 3 months after treatment, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery criteria. Subjects completed the pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry and auditory brain stem response (ABR) test, and completed a questionnaire regarding hearing loss after hearing recovery. The ABR amplitudes of wave I and wave V, and the ratio of wave I/V of both ears (recovered side and healthy side) were assessed. A visual analog scale (VAS) and a hidden hearing loss questionnaire were used to evaluate subjective hearing difficulty. The ABR waves I of the recovered ears had a significantly lower amplitude (p = 0.002) than those of the healthy side, whereas there was no difference in wave V (p = 0.985) or in the ratio of wave I/V (p = 0.107). Some patients still felt mild hearing difficulty although their PTA results were normal, but there was no clear relationship between the VAS score, wave I amplitude and speech recognition scores. The present findings point to the possible existence of cochlear synaptopathy in ears that have completely recovered from unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss. We suggest that the causes of cochlear synaptopathy and of idiopathic sudden hearing loss may have something in common.


A series of surfactant-encapsulated and organically grafted polyoxometalates (SEOPs) were prepared through a co-precipitation procedure. Through a rational selection of the molecular components in the structure of the complex, SEOP complexes self-assemble into ordered aggregates with two different hierarchical self-assembled structures in an organic solvent mixture of dichloromethane and methanol in different volume ratios. FTIR, (1)H NMR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to characterize the self-assembly process and the involved driving forces. In a weakly polar solvent, SEOPs aggregated into fibers with a lamellar structure. When the solvent polarity was increased, SEOPs formed ribbonlike aggregates with a tetragonal structure. The change of the hierarchical self-assembled structure was deduced in regard to the arrangement of alkyl chains, electrostatic interactions, and hydrogen bonding between the pyridyl groups and terminal oxygen atoms of the polyoxometalates. The ribbonlike aggregates exhibit birefringence due to the ordered arrangement of SEOPs in the microstructure.


A precise knowledge of permeability is crucial for accurate simulation of reservoir performance and enhanced reservoir management. At present permeability is measured by taking a core sample to a lab and measuring flow rates, but this is both expensive and less accurate because there can be significant problems with measurement error, and the value is measured only at the point of the sample. The best way to resolve this problem is to obtain in-situ permeability with the aid of reservoir characteristics by means of solving differential equations which govern the fluid flow in porous media.


When nursing turnover is greater than the national average, professional development of nursing staff increases job satisfaction and employment retention. One approach that can address the professional development is mentoring. Purpose The evidence-based practice (EBP) project's aim was to determine whether a short-term structured mentorship program led by a clinical nurse specialist increased work engagement among staff nurses within 8 to 10 weeks. Description The EBP project was implemented on 2 adult acute care inpatient units. Using Wagner's caring mentorship model, a mentorship program using the organization's clinical ladder criteria was established where nurses were able to participate and complete selected professional development activities based on personal interests and perceived strengths. The clinical nurse specialist provided guidance and advice based each participant's identified activity. Outcome Since the completion of the initial pilot, the organization has expanded the mentorship program to include mentorship of nursing leaders as well as staff on the clinical units. With this expansion, the organization has trained an additional 167 mentors and has a consistent 27% overall advancement of nurses on the clinical ladder. In addition, advanced practice registered nurses have implemented mentorship as part of their onboarding practice for advanced practice nursing. Conclusion The EBP project demonstrated that a mentorship program using an established clinical ladder can increase elements of work engagement and satisfaction with the mentor and program among hospital nursing staff. Sustaining and expanding the program can facilitate with increased nursing job satisfaction and employee retention.


The Court held that a husband who, after intensive advice and warning, signs a waiver of his right to contest the legitimacy of a child born through artificial insemination of his wife with the semen of another man must be held to the waiver. It pointed to the extensive counseling received by the husband, concluding that his behavior constituted exceptional circumstances that were against faith and credit, and it noted the difficulties that would be encountered by the child because it would not know the identity of its father. On this basis, it distinguished its decision from the 1983 judgment of the Federal High Court, which had allowed a husband to contest the paternity of a child born through artificial insemination.


Cat's eye lens make the laser beam retro-reflected exactly to the opposite direction of the incidence beam, called cat's eye effect, which makes rapid acquiring, tracking and pointing of free space optical communication possible. Study the influence of cat's eye effect to cat's eye retro-reflector at large incidence angle is useful. This paper analyzed the process of how the incidence angle and focal shit affect effective receiving area, retro-reflected beam divergence angle, central deviation of cat's eye retro-reflector at large incidence angle and cat's eye effect factor using geometrical optics method, and presented the analytic expressions. Finally, numerical simulation was done to prove the correction of the study. The result shows that the efficiency receiving area of cat's eye retro-reflector is mainly affected by incidence angle when the focal shift is positive, and it decreases rapidly when the incidence angle increases; the retro-reflected beam divergence and central deviation is mainly affected by focal shift, and within the effective receiving area, the central deviation is smaller than beam divergence in most time, which means the incidence beam can be received and retro-reflected to the other terminal in most time. The cat's eye effect factor gain is affected by both incidence angle and focal shift.


Macrophages play an important role at the implant-tissue interface. Their activity is extremely complex but above all they are phagocytic cells. Phagocytosis is accompanied by a sequence of biochemical reactions known as "the oxidative burst" (BO). The fundamental physiological significance of this phenomenon is to provide the phagocytes with an efficient microbicidal mechanism. Our aim was to prepare an objective method for screening biomaterials that could influence macrophagic defence mechanisms against a possible implant contamination.


I intended to end the great debate about whether "masking" is preferred to "blinding" when describing clinical trials in which group assignment is concealed from patients, data collectors, and sometimes statisticians. I conducted a highly unscientific survey, mostly of medical journal editors from the World Association of Medical Editors, but also of several strangers and distant relatives. Respondents were asked whether they preferred masking, blinding, or had no preference or considered the distinction to be unimportant. More than 80 people responded, representing 6 continents and several languages. Masking was preferred to blinding 3 to 1. However, the number of people reporting that either term is acceptable or that the issue is unimportant was about the same as the number who voted for masking. I conclude that both terms are acceptable in the context of reporting clinical research and that either may be used without confusion. I pronounce the great debate dead.


Kidney transplantation induces a lesser anesthetic, surgical, and physiological alterations than other solid organ transplantation. Concomitant valvular pathologies expose these patients to poor postoperative outcome. There is a critical gap in knowledge and lack of coherence in the guidelines related to the management in patients with end‐stage renal disease with valvular heart disease. The individualized diagnostic and management plan should be based on the assessment of perioperative outcomes. Similarly, pulmonary hypertension in end‐stage renal disease poses a unique challenge, it can manifest in isolation or may be associated with other cardiac lesions, namely left‐sided valvular heart disease and left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Quantification and stratification according to etiology are needed in pulmonary hypertension to ensure an adequate management plan to minimize the adverse perioperative outcomes. Lack of randomized controlled trials has imposed hindrance in proposing a unified approach to clinical decision‐making in these scenarios. In this review, we have described the magnitude of the problems, pathophysiologic interactions, impact on clinical outcomes and have also proposed a management algorithm for both the scenarios.


Information on termite assemblage in a young eucalypt plantation in Kerala was generated by running a single line transect and monthly sampling for 1 year. Through the transect sampling, 11 species were recorded under two families and four subfamilies. The subfamily Macrotermitinae dominated with eight species while the other three subfamilies were represented by a single species each. A temporal pattern of abundance was observed for the different active foraging species of termites in the monthly sampling. During April-November, a single species, Odontotermes obesus (Rambur), was the most abundant. During December-lanuary, Microcerotermes fletcheri Holmgren & Holmgren was dominant, while Odontotermes feae (Wasmann) dominated during February and March. Rainfall was found to have a negative influence on the diversity of the active/foraging species of termites. Among the 14 species of termites collected, only four were found attacking eucalypt seedlings. Of the total termite samples collected, 40% belonged to the single species O. obesus, which was the major pest species representing 12 out of the 18 recorded incidences of termites feeding on roots of eucalypt seedlings. Among the species recorded, one was a new species and two were new records for Kerala State. The large number of non-pest species of termites indicates the beneficial role of these termites as efficient decomposers.


Both secondary and tertiary difluoromethylated carbinols were found to readily react with acetonitrile under the catalysis of concentrated sulfuric acid to give the corresponding difluoromethylated acetamides in good yields, which is remarkably more efficient than the previously reported Ritter reactions with corresponding trifluoromethylated carbinols. Similarly, monofluoromethylated and (benzenesulfonyl)difluoromethylated carbinols have shown good reactivity in the Ritter reactions. Since the acetamides can be mildly deacetylated to give amines, the present methodology provides a convenient way for the synthesis of both difluoromethyl- and monofluoromethyl-containing amines starting from simple carbonyl compounds.


Abstract The provisions of the geodetic law contain the term "Structures permanently attached to buildings". These are elements that make up a set of attributes of buildings. At present, attributes of buildings are very complex, giving rise to discussion in the surveying environment. Many of them are impossible to be unambiguously and immediately defined by the surveyor. The surveyor is obliged to identify structures permanently attached to buildings, to define them, and to enter these structures with all their attributes into appropriate databases. This research paper presents the analysis consisting of certain aspects related to an attempt to define these attributes and to determine the principles of assigning their definitions to construction realities. For this purpose, the legal regulations and case-law concerning the studied attributes were referred to. Then, symbolic representation for the presented structures was analysed, as regards its use on geodetic maps. An important element influencing the introduced changes was identified, which is a sign of the times, i.e. digitization of the geodetic and cartographic documentation database. Finally, the Author proposed what changes should be made with respect to the amount of the information collected on structures permanently attached to buildings, as well as to the methods of their presentation on maps.


The properties of the speech production process and the auditory periphery have led to the usage of similar speech signal representations for various processing tasks such as speech and speaker recognition, speech synthesis, and speech coding. The representation is generally divided into a description of the vocal-tract transfer function and the excitation source. For recognition purposes, the biased characterization of the vocal-tract transfer function by a time sequence of low-dimension cepstral vectors performs well. For coding and synthesis, we argue that for the vocal-tract transfer function autoregressive (AR) models are more effective than filter banks, while for the excitation source pitch-synchronous filter banks and modulation-domain filters are most effective. A clear trend exists towards the exploitation of the time variation of both the vocal-tract transfer function and the excitation source.


Background Diabetes, osteoporosis, and Vitamin D deficiency are interrelated. The association of the Vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene with bone density is not established in different populations. This study analyze the association between five VDR gene polymorphisms (Fok1 (rs2228570), Taq1 (rs731236), Bsm1 (rs1544410), Apa1 (rs7975232), and EcoRV (rs4516035)) and the occurrence of low bone density (LBD)/osteopenia/osteoporosis in Iranian type 2 diabetics (T2D).Methods This study contained 165 patients with T2D. Separated for gender and polymorphism, crude and adjusted (for age and BMI), logistic regression analysis provided odds ratios (ORs). The most common haplotype was used as the reference for each type of VDR gene polymorphism.Results The occurrence of T2D was 13.03% (165/1266) for the people dwelling in the city of Sanandaj in 2012, until 2013. 13.92% and 81.29% of participants with T2D had osteoporosis and vitamin D deficiency, respectively. In women, tt genotype significantly decreased the risk of LBD/osteopenia/osteoporosis versus Tt genotype, after adjusting for BMI and age (OR=0.18, CI: 0.03-0.97). Conversely, the EE genotype increased the risk of LBD/osteopenia/osteoporosis versus Ee genotype (OR=7.64, CI: 2.03-28.72).Conclusions Among the patients with T2D, Vitamin D deficiency and osteoporosis were prevalent, and some genetic variations in VDR were significantly associated with osteoporosis. In women, a weak protective role in LBD/osteopenia/osteoporosis was found for tt variant of TaqI polymorphism. More importantly, EE variant of EcoRV polymorphism had a strong significant association with increasing the risk of LBD/osteopenia/osteoporosis. Further ethnicity-based cohort studies based on a large study group of T2D patients are recommended.


This thesis explores the actual circumstances of Korean nursing by investigating its present situations. Ultimately, the intent of this study aims to establish a future direction of Korean Nursing. As such, the current conditions of Korean nursing is analyzed in the following categories: education, practice, research, nursing policy, expansion of nursing field, and entrepreneurship. In the final conclusion, an appropriate orientation of the future of Korean nursing is discussed. There are two primary Nursing programs, a three-year(63) and a four-year(53), in Korean Nursing education. Master's programs are available at 32 nursing schools or 32 professional graduate schools. A total of 15 nursing schools have a doctoral program in Korea. The ratio of graduates between the three-year and four year programs is 76:24. Hence, it is highly encouraged to expand four-year nursing programs, because it will help raise the social status of nursing professionals as well as the quality of nursing. In the clinical nursing field, independency and self regulation are critical. As such, organizational change, implementation of a standardized nursing m information system, appropriate workforce, and improvement of the reimbursement system in nursing is recommended. In community nursing, the following should be resolved to provide better nursing services: improvement of working condition and benefits, establishment of a law enforcing the hiring of nurses, and providing continuing education. The number of nursing research has increased and nursing studies are in great quantity. However, research in practices and theories are more in demanded. Hence, research that integrates theories and practices are very significant. Ultimately, it is critical to support nursing studies that will influence nursing policy. The Korean Nurses Association(KNA) is an organization that supervises the nation's nursing policy. The primary focus of KNA is to combine the three and four year undergraduate education systems into 4 years and to establish the Nursing Practice Act. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has adapted a system to educate and certify nurse specialists in 10 nursing areas in 21 nursing graduate schools expecting high-quality nursing services and a decrease of cost. The government also allowed nurses to operate facilities for health management or welfare agencies.


Inharmonious region localization aims to localize the region in a synthetic image which is incompatible with surrounding background. The inharmony issue is mainly attributed to the color and illumination inconsistency produced by image editing techniques. In this work, we tend to transform the input image to another color space to magnify the domain discrepancy between inharmonious region and background, so that the model can identify the inharmonious region more easily. To this end, we present a novel framework consisting of a color mapping module and an inharmonious region localization network, in which the former is equipped with a novel domain discrepancy magnification loss and the latter could be an arbitrary localization network. Extensive experiments on image harmonization dataset show the superiority of our designed framework.


Mikhail israelevich was born on December 20, 1924 in Minsk. He lived in the cities of Borisov, Gomel and Vitebsk. With the beginning of the war he went to the Caucasus, where in 1941 he entered the North Ossetian medical Institute (Vladikavkaz), moving to study in Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl. From 1944 to 1951 he worked as an assistant of the departments of normal anatomy, topographic anatomy and operative surgery, hospital surgery of Yaroslavl medical Institute, doctor of the regional station of sanitary aviation. In the summer of 1947 he worked in the hospitals of Kologriv, Rybinsk. From 1954 to 1955-assistant of the Department of operative surgery and topographic anatomy of the 1st Moscow medical Institute, and then associate Professor at the course of surgery of pulmonary tuberculosis at the Department of tuberculosis of the Central Institute of advanced medical. From 1958 to 1962-head of the Department of surgery of the small circle of blood circulation in the research Institute of experimental biology and medicine of the Siberian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk), from 1963 thoracic surgery research Institute of clinical and experimental surgery of the USSR Ministry of health (now rsch RAMS), which led for 18 years. In 1964 he was awarded the title of Professor and this year he is a consultant of the 4th Main Directorate of the Ministry of health of the USSR. Since 1966-Chairman of the problem Commission "Thoracic surgery" Of the scientific Council on surgery of RAMS. From 1969 to 1991-General Secretary of the all-Union society of surgeons. Since 1971-member Of the international society of surgeons. In 1980 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1986 academician of the Academy of medical Sciences of the USSR. In 1981, he moved to the position of head of the Department, and then Director of the Institute of Phthisiopulmonology of the Moscow medical Academy. I. M. Sechenov, became a consultant Of the Russian scientific center of surgery RAMS. M. I. Perelman author of 24 monographs and books, 32 chapters in domestic and foreign manuals and books, 35 articles in encyclopedias, 250 articles in the Central domestic and foreign journals, author or consultant of 9 scientific and educational films, was the supervisor of 68 candidate and scientific consultant in the preparation of 25 doctoral dissertations. Mikhail was the editor-in-chief of the journal "problems of tuberculosis and lung diseases", Deputy editor-in-chief of the "medical referral journal", a member of the editorial Board of the multi-volume edition of "International Trendsin" General Thoracic Surgery", magazines of" world of Surgery"," Pulmonology "and"world of Surgery". In 2013, Mikhail Perelman died and was buried at Novodevichy cemetery.


[Abstract] The genus Lavandula comprises of several economically important lavender species that are mainly cultivated worldwide for essential oil production. Identification of lavender species and their cultivars has been a huge bottleneck in lavender industries due to lack of appropriate identification mechanisms. Recent advances in modern technologies would help to address these identification issues through development of potential molecular markers, including simple sequence repeats (SSRs). SSRs can be developed from specific species, and can be potentially used for related species, which lack the source sequences to develop species-specific SSRs. Here, we describe the guidelines and steps of identifying and analyzing SSRs from expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences of lavender species. We also detail the validation procedures of selected EST-SSRs in distinguishing source (donor) species as well as related species.


The article is devoted to the problem of bladder decompensation and related complications in patients with BPH.
The objective: to study the effectiveness of certain methods of restoring the functional capacity of the detrusor in patients with BPH with bladder decompensation.
Materials and methods. The results of treatment of 149 patients with BPH with bladder decompensation aged 47 to 83 years (68,3±7,9) were analyzed, the proportion of which was 39,11 % of the total number of operated on BPH. Two groups of patients were formed by random sampling – every 2–3 patients. Group I included 30 people who underwent cystostomy. Group II included 30 people who, in addition to cystostomy, underwent metabolic-corrective and anticholinesterase therapy. The complex of drugs included B vitamins: octothiamine – 25 mg, riboflavin – 2,5 mg, pyridoxine hydrochloride – 40 mg, cyanocobalamin – 0,25 mg 3 times a day for 4 weeks; Anticholinesterase drug – ipidacrine 20 mg 3 times a day for 4 weeks.
Results. According to the results of pathomorphological examination in both groups of observation there was desquamation of the urothelium, growth of connective tissue, bundles of nerve fibers with the phenomena of dystrophy. Degenerative changes in smooth muscle cells were accompanied by a decrease in the proportion of muscle tissue and a decrease in the diameter of leiomyocytes. However, in patients who underwent preoperative metabolism-corrective therapy, the diameter of the lumen of the arterioles was 20.21 % larger (p<0,05), the wall thickness of the arterioles – 31,73 % smaller (p<0,05), the Kernogan index is 28,22 % lower (p<0,05), the diameter of the capillaries is 3,52 % higher (p>0,05). The diameter of leiomyocytes was 45,26 % larger (p<0,05), the proportion of connective tissue in the bladder wall – 29,14 % lower (p<0,05). Compared with patients who underwent only cystostomy, after metabolic-corrective and anticholinesterase therapy in the short and long postoperative period were better indicators of functional capacity of the detrusor. 6 months after the second stage of the operation according to uroflowmetry Qmax was higher by 32,92 % (p<0,05), Qave – higher by 62,27 % (p<0,05), IPSS – lower by 33,18 % (p<0,05) and the QoL index is better by 29,54 % (p<0,05).
Conclusions. Bladder decompensation due to untimely removal of the obstructive component is the main cause of unsatisfactory treatment results in patients with BPH. Anticholinergic exercise may be an additional factor in bladder decompensation in patients with BPH. Metabolism-correcting and anticholinesterase therapy permit to restore detrusor function by eliminating microcirculatory disorders and energy deficiency, stimulating neurotransmitter, neuromuscular conduction and smooth muscle contraction. In patients with megacystis, additional surgical correction by duplication allows the bladder to be emptied.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether field photodynamic therapy (PDT) of actinic keratoses (AKs) using a novel preparation of 5-aminolevulonic acid (ALA) would result in fewer subsequent invasive skin cancers developing on the face.

DESIGN
A prospective multi-center randomized controlled trial. The protocol was approved by the Bond University Human Research Ethics Committee in accord with the TGA's Clinical Trial Notification Scheme. The trial was registered (12609000025235) on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry.

SETTING
Six centers in four states in Australia.

PROTOCOL
Two treatments of ALA PDT, 2 weeks apart for each patient. Controls were observed. Patients were followed up with biopsies of any suspicious lesions every 6 months for 2 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Development of new skin cancers.

RESULTS
The trial was suspended after 3 months and closed after 6 months after ethics committee approval was withdrawn on the basis of a breakdown in trial governance. Over the following 2 years, some investigators noted and formally reported the continued occurrence of serious adverse events in excess of those described with other approved cutaneous PDT treatments. USA dermatologists with experience managing AKs with FDA approved ALA products subsequently confirmed prolonged and severe adverse events in 6 of the former trial intervention patients.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Adverse effects experienced by patients using the investigational ALA PDT appeared more severe than those experienced when an FDA-approved ALA product is used. We believe the former should be further evaluated for safety. It is of concern that this ALA product and lamp could be promoted and used widely in Australia following these reports of significant adverse events and continued lack of TGA approval.


Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) are having dynamic nature of its network infrastructure and it is vulnerable to all types of attacks. Among these attacks, the routing attacks getting more attention because its changing the whole topology itself and it causes more damage to MANET. Even there are lot of intrusion detection Systems available to diminish those critical attacks, existing causesunexpected network partition, and causes additional damages to the infrastructure of the network , and it leads to uncertainty in finding routing attacks in MANET. In this paper, we propose a adaptive risk-aware response mechanism with extended Dempster-Shafer theory in MANET to identify the routing attacks and malicious node. Our techniques find the malicious node with degree of evidence from the expert knowledge and detect the important factors for each node.It creates black list and all those malicious nodes so that it may not enter the network again


Dairy cows are often in a state of negative energy balance (NEB), because of decreased dry matter intake and increased energy requirements, initiating lipid mobilization and leading to high serum β-hydroxybutyrate and nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels, which can induce ketosis and fatty liver in dairy cows. We all have known that inflammation and insulin resistance are also common diseases in perinatal period of dairy cows. So what is the relationship between negative energy balance, insulin resistance and inflammation in cow? In order to study the role of NEFAs in the NF-κB inflammatory and insulin signaling pathways through TLR4, we cultured bovine primary hepatocytes and added different concentrations of NEFAs to test the mRNA and protein levels of inflammatory and insulin signaling pathways. Our experiments indicated that NEFAs could activate the NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway and influence insulin resistance through TLR4. However, an inhibitor of TLR4 alleviated the inhibitory effects of NEFAs on the insulin pathway. In conclusion, all of these results indicate that high-dose NEFAs can activate the TLR4/NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway, and reduce the sensitivity of the insulin pathway through the TLR4/PI3K/AKT metabolic axis.


Abstract - We established that regenerated plants of Panax ginseng were directly transplanted into the soil without the acclimatization process. When regenerated plants were treated at the concentration of 0.4 mg l -1 for 9 hr before transplantation into the soil, our results showed that the survival rate of them was the highest. The optimal size of the root was above 4 cm in length and 0.4 g by weight before transplantation into the soil. The highest survival rate increased to 59.6%. After 4 years of cultivation in the fields, our results sh owed that there were no significant morphological differences between regenerated plants and wild-type ginseng. Also, we obtained healthy seeds from regenerated plants. This study provides the basis for a relatively rapid multiplication of selected genotypes and will allow a much more rapid evaluation of the germplasm of the unexplored and unstudied Korean ginseng. Key words - Acclimatization, Gibberellic acid, Ginseng, Tissue culture * 교신저자(E-mail): email@example.com


Assistive devices and systems for the hard-of-hearing (ADs) have been used in varying degree in Norway since the early 1970s. The impression is that these devices offer excellent assistance in addition to hearing aids. This investigation included 100 persons who were recommended devices in 1985. Of these, 81 persons, mainly elderly with sensorineural hearing loss, were visited in their homes. Most of the devices were functioning well, and the users were satisfied. There was, however, a considerable need for supplementation. The need for a system to help the hard-of-hearing to acquire ADs is stressed. Domiciliary visiting by audiologically trained personnel some time after the installation of devices is also recommended.


Magnesium alloys of AZ31, AZ31 + (0.5, 1, 1.5)wt.% CaO were cast, hot rolled, and oxidized between 450 and 650 o C in atmospheric air. The added CaO enabled to cast the AZ31 alloy in air. It decomposed and precipitated along the grain boundaries of the AZ31 alloy as Al2Ca. The more the amount of CaO was, the more Al2Ca formed. The oxidation limit was about 450 o C for the AZ31 alloy. But, It increased to 650 o C in the CaO-added alloys. Hot rolling destroyed the precipitates that formed along the grain boundaries of the AZ31 alloy. During oxidation, MgO oxide scales that incorporated CaO formed at the outer surface of the formed oxide layer.


The selective passively compensated pulsed alternator has wide applications in military and civil areas such as power source for electromagnetic launch, electrothermal chemical gun and plasma sprayed coating. It can produce wide range of current waveforms realized by shorted compensating windings. In this paper, two cases of winding arrangements and their corresponding circuit models are presented to further discuss on the power waveform regulations. The effects of the phase angles between different windings and the switching time on the pulsed power are presented in this paper as well. The results indicate that the output power waveform is possible to be regulated flexibly especially through the new winding arrangements proposed in this paper. This work may extend the applications of selective passively compensated pulsed alternator where different output waveforms are required.


Purpose

Although previous studies have analyzed the affective reaction of employees toward benefits, results remain inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to pay specific attention to the flexibility of benefit systems and analyze whether the effect of this flexibility on employee's benefit satisfaction is moderated by employees' personality traits.

Design/methodology/approach

The data of this study have been collected from a sample of 874 employees working in Spanish firms, through survey. The data were analyzed using partial least squares modeling.

Findings

The results of this study show how self-efficacy has a negative moderating effect on the relation between benefit flexibility and benefit-level satisfaction. Similarly, the authors find a negative moderating effect of internal locus of control on the relationship between benefit flexibility and benefit determination satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

Future studies should consider other personality traits that have an even stronger moderating effect.

Practical implications

This paper sheds some light on how the flexibility of benefit systems can be an effective source of satisfaction and what kind of employees can be more satisfied with them. For human resource managers, it is necessary to know how differently employees react to human resource practices in order to be able to effectively adjust these practices to the appropriate employees.

Originality/value

This work contributes to human resource literature by analyzing some personality traits that may condition the effectiveness of benefit systems. In this sense, it responds to recent calls asking for more studies aimed at analyzing the role of the employees on the effectiveness of human resource practices.


Reconstruction of the conductivity of a medium from a set of known values of the boundary potential and boundary normal current is described. The geometry is general, two or three dimensional. The method is applied to two cases, a circular medium and an infinite medium under a plane. In both cases the conductivity is found as an expansion on a system of orthogonal functions. In a linear approximation the conductivity may explicitly be reconstructed. The problem is an ill posed one, the condition numbers are found. Some numerical examples are included.


Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) are a powerful probe of the expansion history of our Universe and are typically measured in the two-point statistics of a galaxy survey, either in Fourier space or in configuration space. In this work, we report a first measurement of BAOs from a joint fit of power spectrum and correlation function multipoles. We tested our new framework with a set of 1000 mock catalogs and showed that our method yields smaller biases on BAO parameters than individually fitting power spectra or correlation functions, or when combining them with the Gaussian approximation method. Our estimated uncertainties are slightly larger than those from the Gaussian approximation, likely due to noise in our sample covariance matrix, the larger number of nuisance parameters, or the fact that our new framework does not rely on the assumption of Gaussian likelihoods for the BAO parameters. However, we argue that our uncertainties are more reliable since they rely on fewer assumptions, and because our method takes correlations between Fourier and configuration space at the level of the two-point statistics. We performed a joint analysis of the luminous red galaxy sample of the extended baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey (eBOSS) data release 16, obtaining D H / r d = 19 . 27 ± 0 . 48 and D M / r d = 17 . 77 ± 0 . 37, in excellent agreement with the o ffi cial eBOSS consensus BAO-only results D H / r d = 19 . 33 ± 0 . 53 and D M / r d = 17 . 86 ± 0 . 33.


The European records from distances 36°-50° of the deep Hindu Kush earthquake of March 4, 1949 were studied. The many clearly recorded deep-focus reflections lend to the records a characteristic appearance which is repeated in many other shocks from the same focal region. The ratios of the amplitudes of these phases vary somewhat from one shock to another. In the shock here considered sP and sPP are exceptionally large at most stations; in the Italian stations they are not so large, while pP is a clear phase. pP is not very well defined at most other stations.

Most of the 1949 records were from the old type long-period instruments having their highest magnification for periods from about 5 sec to 12 sec. Present day instruments of quite short or of very long proper period while admirable for many purposes do not record waves in this period range very well and therefore do not produce a satisfactory picture of the forerunners of earthquakes. The difference between the records obtained on different instruments is illustrated.

It is shown in examples that the amplitude ratio PP : P may differ strongly at the same epicentral distance and also that pP may vary greatly with azimuth.

The deficiency of station readings is noted.

Travel times and their residuals are tabulated and travel times plotted versus epicentral distances.


Based on examination of expressed opinions and views, online or offline, this essay attends to talks or discussion about democracy. These talks are taken as discursive manifestation of sociocultural aspirations revealed in a sample of contemporary deliberative rhetoric in China. A selective, small survey of related discourses identifies three arguments for two positions about China and democracy. Historical events, analogy and comparison are shown to remain favored rhetorical strategies in such deliberation.


Background Iron-refractory iron deficiency anaemia (IRIDA) is a rare disorder which was linked to mutations in two genes (SLC11A2 and TMPRSS6). Common polymorphisms within these genes were associated with serum iron levels. We identified a family of Serbian origin with asymptomatic non-consanguineous parents with three of four children presenting with IRIDA not responding to oral but to intravenous iron supplementation. After excluding all known causes responsible for iron deficiency anaemia we searched for mutations in SLC11A2 and TMPRSS6 that could explain the severe anaemia in these children. Methodology/Results We sequenced the exons and exon–intron boundaries of SLC11A2 and TMPRSS6 in all six family members. Thereby, we found seven known and fairly common SNPs, but no new mutation. We then genotyped these seven SNPs in the population-based SAPHIR study (n = 1,726) and performed genetic association analysis on iron and ferritin levels. Only two SNPs, which were top-hits from recent GWAS on iron and ferritin, exhibited an effect on iron and ferritin levels in SAPHIR. Six SAPHIR participants carrying the same TMPRSS6 genotypes and haplotype-pairs as one anaemic son showed lower ferritin and iron levels than the average. One individual exhibiting the joint SLC11A2/TMPRSS6 profile of the anaemic son had iron and ferritin levels lying below the 5th percentile of the population's iron and ferritin level distribution. We then checked the genotype constellations in the Nijmegen Biomedical Study (n = 1,832), but the profile of the anaemic son did not occur in this population. Conclusions We cannot exclude a gene-gene interaction between SLC11A2 and TMPRSS6, but we can also not confirm it. As in this case candidate gene sequencing did not reveal causative rare mutations, the samples will be subjected to whole exome sequencing.


In developed and development contexts, change is an increasingly central theme for water professionals. Growing populations, rapid urbanization and increasing demands for water, food and energy, are set against a backdrop of changing rainfall patterns and emerging trade-offs between the water required for water supply, energy provision, food production, livelihoods and ecological support. Building the capacity of water professionals to lead the changes in policy, planning, management and communities required to tackle these issues systemically is an essential component of our collective response to global water challenges. This paper provides a contribution to the fields of water leadership and capacity development by outlining, then critically discussing how a concept, the T-shaped professional, is being used as a framework to guide the design and delivery of postgraduate education programs to build leadership capacity in the water sector. The T-shaped concept integrates insights from leadership, learning theory, collaboration, critical thinking and praxis. In doing so, the concept and the way in which it has been applied in the context of postgraduate education provide an intellectually coherent and practical approach to developing the skills and knowledge required by water professionals to stimulate and lead change.