In order to compensate for the scarcity of events at very high energy the LHC has to provide a luminosity of 10 cm s. This is obtained with a large beam current distributed over 2835 particle bunches, and a large transverse bunch density so as to perate close to the beam-beam limit. The beam-beam interaction has two components, the head-on interaction as in previous colliders and the long range interaction due to multiple unwanted cro ssings which occur before the beam separation is sufficient. The single bunch and multibunch collective instabilities are kept under control by a proper design of the beam enclosure and by feedback systems. The una voidable imperfections of the high field superconducting magnets create non-linear field errors which limit the useful range of particle betatron amplitudes where the motion is stable, the so-called Dynamic Aperture. An extended set of corrector magnets is foreseen to compensate for the ffects of the strongest multipoles of low order. The machine lattice is designed with the aim of leaving sufficient freedom in the choice of the operating conditions to optimize performance.


Large igneous provinces (LIPs) resulted from intraplate magmatic events mobilizing volumes of magma up to several million cubic kilometers. LIPs and lavas with deep mantle sources have compositions ranging from komatiites found in Archean greenstone belts to basalts and picrites in Phanerozoic flood basalt and recent oceanic islands. In this study, we identify the mantle conditions appropriate to each type of lava based on an experimental study of the melting of pyrolite. The depth of the mantle source decreases from 600 to 700 km for the oldest komatiites to 100 to 300 km for picrites and basalts, and the extent of mantle melting ranges from 10 to 50%. We develop a geodynamical model that explains the origin of the hot mantle plumes capable of generating these melting P-T conditions. Within a superadiabatic temperature gradient persisting in the deep mantle, the ascent of hot mantle plumes creates excess temperatures up to 250 to 300 K by adiabatic decompression.


A library of 4 chain-extended homo- and 12 diblock copoly(2-oxazoline)s was prepared from 2-methyl-, 2-ethyl-, 2-nonyl-, and 2-phenyl-2-oxazoline within less than a day (total net reaction time). The living cationic ring-opening polymerization was initiated by methyl tosylate and performed in acetonitrile at 140 °C in a single-mode microwave reactor. A total number of 100 (50 + 50) monomer units was incorporated into the respective polymer chains; the thus-obtained 16 polymers exhibited narrow average molecular weight distributions (PDI < 1.30). All compounds were stable up to temperatures of (at least) 300 °C. The subsequent determination of the glass-transition temperatures and the specific heats revealed a significant influence of the type of substituents attached to the polymers' backbones: the glass-transition temperature as well as the corresponding specific heat increased with an increasing rigidity of the substituents in the polymer (phenyl/methyl vs nonyl/ethyl).


Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term for a group of neurodevelopmental impairments caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. FASD pathogenesis often implicates the mother, largely focused on maternal alcohol consumption prior to or during pregnancy. As such, most FASD interventions are geared towards the mother. However, an array of risk factors within the family environment, notably paternal alcohol consumption and attitudes toward maternal consumption during pregnancy, can impact FASD development in the offspring. This paper sheds light on the paternal role in FASD pathogenesis that is rarely discussed and promotes the importance of family-centred interventions. FASD is a preventable disorder: prophylactic measures such as increasing the information and educational resources to reach a larger population could greatly reduce the risk and incidence of FASD.


Since the fall of 2008, the amount of outstanding reserves on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet has increased from about 100 billion dollars to more than 1 trillion dollars. There is some concern that the magnitude of outstanding reserves might affect the ability of the Federal Reserve to conduct monetary policy through an interest rate policy. In this article I argue that the ability of the Federal Reserve to pay interest on reserves, also introduced in the fall of 2008, should lessen this concern. For an appropriately modified baseline model of money, I show that, with the payment of interest on reserves, the interaction of monetary and fiscal policy in the determination of the price level is not affected in a quantitatively meaningful way by the amount of outstanding reserves.


Our Translation Assistant applies common sense logic to the problem of translating speech in real time from one language to another. Using speech recognition combined with a software translator to do word-by-word translation is not feasible because speech recognition is notorious for poor results. Word-by-word translation requires grammatically correct input to translate accurately. Therefore, translation of speech that is potentially already fraught with errors is not expected to be good. Our Translation Assistant works around these problems by using the context of the conversation as a basis for translation. It takes the location and the speaker as input to establish the circumstances. Then it uses a common sense knowledge network to do topic-spotting using key words from the conversation. It only translates the most likely topics of conversation into the target language. This system does not require perfect speech recognition, yet enables end-users to have a sense of the conversation.


The analysis of the translation of Paul's Epistle to the Romans in the manuscript MS. 4971 shows us, that the Andalusian Christians used for their translation of the Pauline Epistles a Hispanic Vulgate as model. The ideal language of this translation is the Classical Arabic, but unlike other Andalusi Christian translations there is no influence of Islamic conceptions.


High-resolution photoinduced transient spectroscopy and the modulated photocurrent technique are compared in terms of possible application to the investigation of defect levels in semi-insulating monocrystalline materials. After a description of the theoretical and experimental aspects, the advantages, drawbacks and limitations of each method are discussed. The two techniques complement each other and their potentialities are exemplified by the measurements of trap parameters in the same samples of semi-insulating Cr-doped and undoped GaAs. From these results we deduce a possible model for the properties of the Cr defect in GaAs.


Test roads were constructed near el paso, buffalo and brownsville under study 2-9-83-347. All test roads were designed as statistical experiments such that analysis of effects due to asphalt rubber formulation could be determined. Asphalt rubber was formulated using various rubber concentration, rubber type, digestion conditions, and interlayers were applied at various shot rates. In addition, aggregate grade was varied, and single and double binder applications were studied. Based on field performance to date, the interlayer which is performing the best in the el paso test road contains 26 per cent rubber and was applied at 0.40 Gallons per square yard. The brownsville test road is experiencing bleeding from the interlayer in half of the test sections due to excessive interlayer binder application rates. The buffalo test road is not experiencing any distress at this time. Long term monitoring of these test roads will be continued under study no 1-10-77-187 (a).


NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS is a fixed-target experiment pursuing a rich physics program including measurements for heavy ion, neutrino and cosmic ray physics. The main goal of the ion program is to explore the most interesting $T, mu_{B}$ region of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. We plan to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and to search for the signatures of the critical point. The search is performed by varying collision energy (13A-158A GeV/c) and system size (p+p, Be+Be, Ar+Ca, Xe+La).
Thanks to its large acceptance and excellent particle identification capability NA61/SHINE is well suited for performing high-precision particle production measurements as well as for studying event-by-event fluctuations in p+p, p+nucleus and nucleus+nucleus collisions.
Preliminary results on p+p interactions at 20, 31, 40, 80 and 158 GeV/c are presented. They include inclusive spectra of pi+, pi-, K- and protons as a function of transverse momentum/mass and rapidity as well as event-by-event fluctuations of transverse momentum, azimuthal angle and chemical composition. The new NA61 measurements are compared with the corresponding results of NA49 on central Pb+Pb collisions and with predictions of Monte Carlo models.
Finally, the future plans of NA61/SHINE are summarised.


This research examined the expression patterns of 94 stress-related genes in seven maize inbred lines with differential expressions of resistance to aflatoxin contamination. The objective was to develop a set of genes/probes associated with resistance to A. flavus and/or aflatoxin contamination. Ninety four genes were selected from previous gene expression studies with abiotic stress to test the differential expression in maize lines, A638, B73, Lo964, Lo1016, Mo17, Mp313E, and Tex6, using real-time RT-PCR. Based on the relative-expression levels, the seven maize inbred lines clustered into two different groups. One group included B73, Lo1016 and Mo17, which had higher levels of aflatoxin contamination and lower levels of overall gene expression. The second group which included Tex6, Mp313E, Lo964 and A638 had lower levels of aflatoxin contamination and higher overall levels of gene expressions. A total of six "cross-talking" genes were identified between the two groups, which are highly expressed in the resistant Group 2 but down-regulated in susceptible Group 1. When further subjected to drought stress, Tex6 expressed more genes up-regulated and B73 has fewer genes up-regulated. The transcript patterns and interactions measured in these experiments indicate that the resistant mechanism is an interconnected process involving many gene products and transcriptional regulators, as well as various host interactions with environmental factors, particularly, drought and high temperature.


In order to help with the application of laser Doppler velocimetry to turbulent systems which include moving convoluted phase boundaries - e. g. turbulent flames - the interaction of the test beams with such interfaces is analysed. It is shown that there are two effects, one due to the changing phase difference, the other due to varying deflections, both of which cause the fringe grid to move in response to the velocity of the boundary. This is confirmed experimentally by recording an apparent velocity of a particle held stationary at the point of intersection of the two beams. The analysis indicates that the effect is serious only for near-tangential incidence to boundaries between hot and cold gas, when it tends to produce short bursts of large apparent velocities. Experimental methods of correction, or inactivation, of the system during such bursts of unreliability, are proposed.


War is defined as armed situations, the implementation of all forms of violence targeted at individuals and society, distorting anatomical and psychological integrity. So the war is considered as a direct expression of hate. Wars are inevitable events in human history. Whatever the technology used in the war and gets evaluated according to the criteria war is destructive. This destruction begins long before the time the war began, and shows itself in all areas of life as a biological, psychological and ecological destruction until long after the end of the war. War is common theme in the literature as are the events that are subject to many and different kind of works. Literary works are too much about war. So these produced a kind of book which is called war literature. The Balkan Wars which is still a bleeding wound of Turkish history due to bring pains in its wake and damages posed on social fabric, is also one of the important events that happened in the Balkans after the 19th-century Crimean War and the OttomanRussian War (93 War). For the Balkan wars "real end of the Ottoman state" to say, it would not be wrong. In as much as the lands of the Ottoman Empire had lost in 1912-1913, the state can be seen as the central region. These wars, in terms of the Turkish nation, are the only one ring of disaster in the 20th century. Balkan Wars which is deeply influenced Turkish history as politically and socially has affected many of our authors, poets and artists. Looking at the works of writers in this context, it is seen dominated by epic approach, glorified of The Turkish military, intended to give moral to army, and maligned of the enemy by those written at the beginning of war yet. In the texts written at the end of the war, with effect from defeat, it is seen came into prominence of sadness, pessimism, hatred and revenge. Also in these works it is stood out vigorously handling the subject of massacre and migration.


Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is a dynamic process involving joint as an organ and causing successive loss of structural integrity of different joint compartment constituents. OA is not a single disease entity but it is a group of overlapping disorders in which articular cartilage and subchondral bone are disturbed. Synovitis and formation of granulation tissue in subchondral bone take place in many patients with OA. Therefore at least some OA forms may be classified rather as inflammatory disease rather than degenerative disease. It is also a process where different biochemical factors besides mechanical take place.1 Objectives To elucidate the participation of some cytokines in OA pathological processes and to compare their values with those of bone markers. Methods In sera of 32 OA patients in early as well as late stages with levels of Il-1b, Il-6, Il-8 and TNFa were established in Immulite (DPL, Los Angeles, CA, USA). Because serum levels of Il-1b and Il-6 were normal in all patients, in extracts from tissues obtained in TEP installation, only IL-8 and TNFa levels concentration were determined. Urinary pyridinoline (UPD) and deoxypyridinoline (UDPD) were determined with HPLC in the equipment of Spectra Physics (San Jose, CA, USA, type SP).2 Chondrex (YKL-40) and bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP) were measured with ELISA test (Metra Biosystems, CA, USA). Values of Il-8 and TNFa don't correlate with Upyr and chondrex levels. Results Concentration of cytokines in sera, synovial fluids and tissue extracts were increased only in some patients and mainly in synovial fluid. Markers of activity were increased in the both sera and tissue extracts. Conclusion According to the results obtained Il-1b and Il-6 do not play any role in OA processes. On the other hand tissue concentrations of Il-8 and TNFa do not correlate with bone markers and therefore they not reflex activity of pathological process. References Westacott CI, Sharif M. Cytokines in osteoarthritis: mediators or markers of joint destruction? Semin Arthritis Rheum. 1996;25(4): 254–72 paèek P, Hulejová H, Adam M. Ion exchange HPLC determination of pyridinium crosslinks in urine as markers of bone resorption. J Liq Chem Rel Technol. 1997;20(12):1921–30


Chronic Kidney disease is one of the eminent diseases which is commonly seen the patients which the various ailments which results in the step by step failure of kidneys which may result in the fatality of the human. The Chronic Kidney disease which is precisely called as CKD in medical terms is predicted with various symptoms that evolves in the human body. Strategically predicting the CKD using the machine learning algorithm is the challenging proportion. This paper solves the issues of predicting the CKD using the Hierarchical Decision-Tree Projection Algorithm which takes the various clinical study results of the human body into the dataset format and is algorithmically evaluated. Through this method the whole study in completely evaluated with the various parameters which is obtained from the human study. The variations in the whole study with respect to the parametrical correlation are taken into consideration. The results are obtained from each parametrical evaluation and with the results the prediction and presence of the Chronic Kidney disease is evaluated. The Experimental results show the algorithmic evaluations are showing the comparatively high accuracy and performance.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Though the exact mechanisms of cancer metastasis are not known, it is widely believed that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that have broken off from the primary tumor flow through the blood stream until ligands on their surface recognize receptors present on the vascular endothelium. From there, CTCs loosely attach to the endothelium surface and roll until they become firmly adherent. Cells then migrate through the blood vessel walls to establish metastatic colonies in a distant organ. Therefore, identifying the molecular structures available for adhesion on the surface of the CTCs is compulsory to fully understanding the ubiquitous and unique natures of cancer metastasis. We have previously shown that the adhesion of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) to human umbilical vascular endothelium cells (HUVECs) under flow is mediated by E-selectin present on the endothelium surface. In this study, we investigated the interaction of E-selectin with ligands present on the HNSCC surface. Protease-treated cells of the JHU-011-SCC, JHU-013-SCC, and FaDu cell lines perfused through the parallel-plate flow chamber tethered to and rolled on the HUVECs at a greater incidence rate compared to untreated control cells. These binding interactions were sialidase and fucosidase sensitive. Altogether, these results indicate that sialofucosylated glycolipids on HNSCC cells predominantly contribute to the adhesion of these cells to endothelium. This observation was further confirmed by probing western blots of SDS-PAGE resolved HNSCC lysates with HECA-452 mAb and E-selectin chimera. Neither probe was reactive with protein species. We also tested if a shielding effect of hyaluronic acid (HA) prevented glycosphingolipid engagement to E-selectin. When HNSCC cells were treated with HAse and when hyaluronic acid synthase-3 was silenced by shRNA, there was an increase in cell adhesion events. These results clearly demonstrate that proteins and HA exert shielding effects on the E-selectin glycolipid ligands, thus affecting the overall metastatic ability of the HNSCCs.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1547. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1547


A rabies virus strain 3aG-V adapted to Vero cell line had been characterised in pathogenicity and immunogenicity as wellPathogenicity of the virus strain was observed in mice,rabbits,Guinea pigs and caninies infected with this virus through different routesImmunogenicity in mice,rabbits,Guinea pigs had also been investigated by determining the protection indexMeanwhile,the virus strain was identified by rabies virus neutralizing antibody and the Negri body formation in mice central nervous system was observedBy comparing with rabies virus 3aG-5 strain,the 3aG-V possessed weak pathogenicity,longer incubation period, inclusion bodies forming in neurocells,and good immunogenicity in laboratory animalsThe 3aG-V was proven to be a fixed rabies virusThe results suggested that this strain can be used in preparation of purified Vero cell rabies vaccine in our country


The seasonal occurrence of Riptortus pedestris Fabricius was investigated using pheromone traps baited with its aggregation pheromone in the fields with various crop composition (mixture culture of barley and hairy vetch in Asan, Chungnam; monoculture of hairy vetch in Yuseung, Daejeon) from mid-May to mid-July of seed gathering season in 2010. The invasion of R. pedestris into the experimental fields began to increase rapidly from late-June in which period hairy vetch and barley reach the beginning of seed formation stage. After seed gathering season in mid-July, the invasion rate of R. pedestris decreased, and the activity was continually observed till early-November. In addition to dominant R. pedestris species, 33 species of hemiptera including Apolyaus watajii, Dolycoris baccarum, Adelphocoris suturalis, and Yemma exlis were collected, which indicated abundant species diversity in the hairy vetch fields. In the laboratory, R. pedestris did not developed successfully to adult stage on food sources of hairy vetch, with decreasing survival rate after 4th instar and the failure of emergence to adult stage. Also, R. pedestris showed higher preference on soybeans than hairy vetch. Consequently, hairy vetch may be not true host for the development and survival of R. pedestris. It is considered that R. pedestris is a temporary visitor at the season of seed formation in hairy vetch fields.


To evaluate the role of the complement system in skin inflammation accompanying leukocyte infiltration induced by UVB irradiation, the response of guinea pigs decomplemented with cobra venom factor was compared with that in saline-treated animals. Complement-depleted animals showed a weaker clinical response in the late phase (12-48 h) of UVB-induced inflammation (p less than 0.05). However, complement activation, detectable as a decrease in CH50 and generation of chemotactic anaphylatoxin, did not occur after in vitro irradiation of guinea pig serum. These results suggest that although the complement system does not play a key role in initiating leukocyte chemotaxis to the UVB-induced inflammatory site, it contributes to the amplification of the late inflammatory reaction.


Steady, planar propagation of a condensed phase reaction front is unstable to disturbances corresponding to pulsating and spinning waves for sufficiently large values of a parameter related to the activation energy. This paper considers the nonlinear evolution equations for the amplitudes of the pulsating and spinning waves in a neighborhood of a double eigenvalue of the problem linearized about the steady, planar solution. In particular, near a degenerate Hopf bifurcation point, closed branches of solutions which represent new quasi-periodic modes of combustion are described.


Ring1 and YY1 Binding Protein (RYBP) is a member of the non-canonical polycomb repressive complex 1 (PRC1), and like other PRC1 members, it is best described as a transcriptional regulator. Previously, we showed that RYBP, along with other PRC1 members, is also involved in the DNA damage response. RYBP inhibits recruitment of breast cancer gene 1(BRCA1) complex to DNA damage sites through its binding to K63-linked ubiquitin chains. In addition, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase serves as an important sensor kinase in early stages of DNA damage response. Here, we report that overexpression of RYBP results in inhibition in both ATM activity and recruitment to DNA damage sites. Cells expressing RYBP show less phosphorylation of the ATM substrate, Chk2, after DNA damage. Due to its ability to inhibit ATM activity, we find that RYBP sensitizes cancer cells to poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. Although we find a synergistic effect between PARP inhibitor and ATM inhibitor in cancer cells, this synergy is lost in cells expressing RYBP. We also show that overexpression of RYBP hinders cancer cell migration through, at least in part, ATM inhibition. We provide new mechanism(s) by which RYBP expression may sensitize cancer cells to DNA damaging agents and inhibits cancer metastasis.


Surgical and interventional therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in appropriately selected patients have the potential to dramatically improve or, in some cases, cure PAH. These include atrial septostomy, a palliative procedure or bridge to transplantation in patients with refractory right heart failure, pulmonary thromboendarterectomy for pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic thromboembolic disease, and closure of congenital systemic-pulmonary shunts in patients with PAH but without significant pulmonary vascular disease. Lung transplantation should be considered for patients with all forms of PAH who demonstrate advanced or progressive disease.


In the present article we aim to critically analyze the proposal of the school mental hygiene clinics created in the first decades of the 20th century by Durval Marcondes in Sao Paulo and Arthur Ramos in Rio De Janeiro. The objective of the school clinics was to receive the children deemed as incapable to learn. The study of the respective proposals of intervention in the school by means of mental hygiene and psychoanalysis allowed the identification of the concept of infancy, family and education. As research sources, this investigation used the published intellectual production of the authors. By retrieving the thought and practices of Marcondes and Ramos we can recover the intellectual memory of that historical period especially regarding the fields of history and education.


The book, an expansion of a thesis for an advanced degree in economics at the Gothenburg School of Economics, concerns itself with methods of measuring the audience in print media. Television is omitted because newspapers and magazines constitute the most important advertising medium in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to "contribute to methods of readership research practice." The author draws on the experience of three countries -Sweden, Great Britain and the United States. His knowledge of the subject is extensive and his handling of the material is excellent. Illustrative of this are Chapters 4 and 5, which review developments in audience research from the pioneer study by Life in 1938 to the present. A focal point of the book is an account of three surveys conducted under the author's supervision, to investigate problems of audience measurement. But only one has immediate relevance to American advertising practitioners. This study, in 1957, compares audience estimates derived by the time and issue methods. The latter is the most widely used method in the United States for measuring magazine audiences. The former has been used mainly in newspaper audience research. In Europe, however, the time method has enjoyed the greater popularity in all print audience research, both magazine and newspaper. According to Mr. Schyberger, the time and issue methods produced similar audience estimates for newspapers only. For magazines the readership levels were quite different. Even more disturbing, the disparities followed patterns which were neither internally consistent nor logically expected. The author recommends the issue method, employing the "interest" interviewing technique, as the best way of measuring magazine audiences. But this conclusion is subjective, not based on the survey findings. After all, the study merely showed that the time and issue methods, employed under substantially similar conditions, yielded dissimilar results; it gave no indication as to which method was more accurate. An occupational hazard of marketing research is to hedge one's conclusions with so many qualifications and reservations as to render them virtually devoid of meaning. At times Schyberger seems to suffer from this 425


Background: To date, several studies conducted to assess the role of genetics in the pathophysiology and treatment of asthma. Objectives: However, the findings were not consistent and remain uncertain. Thus, it is the need of the hour to assess the recent literature, observe limitations and finally propose future research directions in this field. Methodology: The relevant literature published in the English language was retrieved by using different electronic databases including Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, Ovid, EMBASE, and MEDLINE. Results: Leukotriene modifiers, β-adrenergic receptor agonists, and inhaled corticosteroids are the three most important classes. Data suggested that the heterogeneity in the treatment response among asthma patients is partly due to genetic factors. Conclusion: Large-scale genetic investigations can be improved by using the high throughput technologies that could have promising potential for personalized treatment of asthma, which in turn will minimize side effects, better therapeutic outcomes, and finally lead to more cost-effective care.


Low‐level alcohol consumption is associated with reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population. It is unclear whether this association is seen in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) who have an increased risk of CVD. We examined the association between alcohol consumption and CVD‐related outcomes in subjects with NAFLD from a general population cohort. Subjects participating in the 1994‐1995 Busselton Health survey underwent clinical and biochemical assessment. NAFLD was identified using the Fatty Liver Index of >60, and alcohol consumption quantified using a validated questionnaire. CVD hospitalizations and death during the ensuing 20 years were ascertained using the Western Australian data linkage system. A total of 659 of 4,843 patients were diagnosed with NAFLD. The average standard drinks per week was 8.0 for men and 4.0 for women. Men consuming 8‐21 drinks per week had a 38% (hazard ratio [HR] 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.43‐0.90) lower risk of CVD hospitalization as compared with men consuming 1‐7 drinks per week. With both men and women combined, consumption of 8‐21 drinks per week was associated with a 32% (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.49‐0.93) reduction in CVD hospitalization in minimally adjusted and 29% (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.51‐0.99) in fully adjusted models. No protective association was observed with binge drinking. There was no association between alcohol consumption and CVD death. Conclusion: Low to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with fewer CVD hospitalizations but not CVD death in subjects with NAFLD.


Ascites is a common sign of decompensated cirrhosis of the liver. In order to improve the patient's quality of life, it is essential to treat him systematically. The authors present an algorithm of therapeutic procedures. The basis is major rest, restricted water and sodium intake. First choice diuretics are aldosterone blockers. The basic diuretic is furosemide. The authors mention also the most important complications of treatment with diuretics. They evaluate contemporary views on paracentesis and therapy by return of ascites into the circulation. Ascites refractory to treatment is an indication for transplantation of the liver.


High-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOCs) contain CA125-negative cancer-initiating cells resistant to standard platinum therapy. High expression of cellular inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (cIAPs) in these platinum resistant HGSOC initiating cells causes resistance to apoptosis despite platinum-induced DNA damage. cIAPs can be degraded with the addition of birinapant, a SMAC-mimetic, sensitizing cancer initiating cells to carboplatin and resulting in their elimination. Using in vitro drug assays, we demonstrate that more than half of human HGSOCs (13/23 independent samples) can be targeted with birinapant and carboplatin co-therapy. Importantly, treatment with this co-therapy eliminated tumor cells irrespective of their clinically-defined platinum sensitivity suggesting that this therapeutic approach could be efficacious with patient who have platinum sensitive and/or resistant disease. Pre-clinical trials in mice bearing intra-peritoneal low-passage human-derived HGSOC cell lines demonstrate that birinapant and carboplatin co-therapy significantly improves overall survival. A vast majority of co-therapy treated mice are still alive, 5 months after all animals treated with vehicle or carboplatin monotherapy have succumbed to tumor. Given that co-therapy was efficacious in approximately 50% of HGOSCs, evaluation of biomarkers that can predict this response are clinically relevant. The expression of cIAP levels were quantified using western blot and then immunohistochemistry in the CA125 negative fraction of our 23 clinical samples. We found that expression of ≥24ng of cIAP in the CA125-negative HGSOC cell lysate could accurately predict response to co-therapy with 100 percent accuracy. Detection and quantification of cIAP in CA125 negative cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC) could also predict a response to co-therapy with 95 percent accuracy. We report on careful analysis of two sets of biomarkers specifically measuring druggable targets in ovarian cancer initiating cells that could predict a response to co-therapy with birinapant and carboplatin. This therapeutic approach, that can overcome platinum resistance in ovarian cancer initiating stem cells, will be tested in an upcoming clinical trial alongside our proposed companion diagnostic biomarkers of response. Citation Format: Vincent La, Rachel Fujikawa, Deanna Janzen, Liat Bainvoll, Sanaz Memarzadeh. Birinapant and carboplatin co-therapy can effectively target platinum resistant ovarian cancer initiating cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-131.


Provided are: an acetylene-generating apparatus that can more precisely control the supply of water to an acetylene generator; a method for controlling the acetylene-generating apparatus; and a method for producing acetylene gas. The apparatus is provided with: an acetylene generator (1) that generates acetylene gas by reacting water and calcium carbide; a supply tank (2) that supplies calcium carbide to the acetylene generator (1); a water supply unit (3) that supplies water to the acetylene generator (1); a gas flow-rate detector (4) that detects the amount of generated acetylene gas that is discharged from the acetylene generator (1); a gas temperature detector (5) that detects the temperature of the acetylene gas discharged from the acetylene generator (1); and a control device (6) that controls the amount of water flow supplied to the acetylene generator (1) on the basis of the temperature of the acetylene gas and the amount of acetylene gas generated.


As humans' loyal friends, pets have a widely acknowledged positive effect on humans' physical and mental health. The researches on pet personality have revealed that pets, rather than merely a kind of animal, were human-like companions who could interact with their owner like human friends. Pets are one part of the owners' social support system, but they are neither compensation or competitor against human relationship. They function independently. The behavior evidence implied that the bond between pets and their owners is similar with the parental relationship, where pets elicited the parental behavior and the owners also benefit from caring the pets. This review revealed the limitation of former researches in sample selection and the lack of experimental evidence. Further researches should have more concern on the integrity of research samples, develop the behavioral experiment paradigm and introduce the neural cognition method to examine the inner mechanism by which pets affect the owners.


Abstract:
 Transport is a major component of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in travelling. Understanding changes in the energy efficiency of tourism transport (EETT) and factors affecting this is important to the promotion of low-carbon tourism. This paper established a new method following the top to bottom principle and analyzed EETT variation characteristics and influencing factors from 1994 to 2013 in China. We found that the energy consumption of tourism transport (ECTT) increased from 178.21 PJ in 1994 to 565.82 PJ in 2013 at an average annual growth rate of 6.27%; CO2 emissions of tourism transport (CETT) went up from 14.96×106 t to 47.94×106 t due to person-trip and trip distance growth. EETT went from 3.22×106 person-trips PJ-1 in 1994 to 5.99×106 person-trips PJ-1 in 2013 at an average annual growth rate of 4.90%, and the CO2 emissions of tourism transport unit person-trips (CETTU) shifted from 26.07 kg person-trips-1 in 1994 to 14.01 kg person-trips-1 in 2013. Energy intensity decline, scale effects and policy promotion were key factors that enhanced EETT. Meanwhile, trip mode changes and enjoyment-oriented transport hindered EETT. Based on our analysis, we suggest methods to decrease ECTT and CETT, and enhance EETT.


Since point clouds require a large amount of data to be visually pleasing, they tend to be voluminous. Hence, hardware with limited computational and memory capabilities may not be able to handle such large data structures. Here, we propose a light VR client to explore a static point cloud, stored in a remote server, through 360∘ images. The client visualizes in an HMD the omnidirectional rendering of the point cloud and moves to another position with a teleportation metaphor. The main advantage of our proposition is the ability to work on modest hardware without a continuous high bandwidth.


This article is written on the occasion of the bicentennial of the first state banks in North Carolina, and reviews the first one hundred years of banking in the state. The article is part of a larger project exploring the reasons for the remarkable success of North Carolina banks and attempting to identify important themes that may have fostered this rise to national prominence. The article describes the role of state banks in issuing state bank notes (which served as paper currency), the demise of state banks following the Civil War, and the rebirth of banking in North Carolina with the newly created national banks and newly formed state banks. It is ironic that the state that is now second only to New York in banking assets located in a state, was the last of the original thirteen states to charter a bank, and in 1931 was the last of the forty-eight states to establish a state bank regulatory agency. The liberal attitude of the state's legislature towards branching - which may have been fostered by the state's rural character - is, however, certainly an important backdrop for the later national success.


In the paper the forward conduction characteristics of the GTO thyristor are studied. A two-dimensional simulation is performed which solves the semiconductor device equations self consistently with the equation for lattice heat conduction. The significance of the different recombination mechanisms and spatially varying lifetime is considered, along with the relative effects of different mobility models. An experimental comparison with a 2.5 kV device is made and good agreement is found. The effects of heat dissipation in the structure are also considered.


We report experimental and theoretical investigations on quantum noise fluctuations in the microwave frequency range on InGaAsP/InP BH lasers (1.3 and 1.5 μm wavelengths), taking into account lateral carrier diffusion. The theoretical analysis shows that carrier diffusion effects play an important role in the noise behavior (in particular, predicting a smoothed noise resonance-like peak), and that the RIN peak height at constant frequency is minimum when the stripe width is around the carrier diffusion length. These theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental observations up to 4 GHz, performed with an automated noise measurements system.


OBJECTIVES
Boceprevir is a first-generation direct-acting antiviral licensed for the treatment of hepatitis C infection. Sildenafil is an oral therapy for erectile dysfunction. As boceprevir is a potent inhibitor of CYP3A4, potential pharmacokinetic interactions may occur when it is coadministered with sildenafil. The aim of this study was to assess the pharmacokinetic profile of sildenafil and boceprevir when dosed separately and together in healthy volunteers.

METHODS
Thirteen male subjects completed the following study procedures: phase 1 (Day 0), a single dose of 25 mg of sildenafil was administered; washout period (Days 1-9); phase 2 (Days 10-15), 800 mg of boceprevir three times a day was administered; and phase 3 (Day 16), 800 mg of boceprevir and 25 mg of sildenafil were administered. All drugs were administered in the fed state. Intensive pharmacokinetic sampling was undertaken on Days 0, 15 and 16. Differences in the pharmacokinetic parameters of sildenafil, N-desmethyl-sildenafil and boceprevir between phase 3 and the earlier phases were evaluated by changes in the geometric mean ratios (GMRs).

RESULTS
All the drugs were well tolerated with no safety concerns arising. In the presence of boceprevir (phase 3 versus phase 1), the GMR for the plasma Cmax and the AUC24 for sildenafil increased by 1.9-fold (95% CI 1.5-2.4) and 2.7-fold (95% CI 2.1-3.4), respectively, whereas a reduction in the Cmax of N-desmethyl-sildenafil was observed (GMR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4-0.7). No significant changes in boceprevir exposure were observed between phases 3 and 2.

CONCLUSIONS
Exposure of sildenafil is increased in the presence of boceprevir. A dose adjustment of sildenafil is therefore necessary. An initial dose of 25 mg of sildenafil is suggested.


The specification of the low rigidity parts machining process is consider by introducing suitable equations of constrains, which describe additional elastic deformations in one of equations describing the force controlling influence. This paper introduces general and detailed mathematical models of the DS of turning the longitudinal, low rigidity shafts. Research results and examples of their approximation were introduced. Some method of synthesis and examples structure of regulator P were shown for one detailed model of DS under received approximated operational transmittance of DS. The way of controlling the accuracy of shafts turning in the elastic deformable condition and controlling system was described.


Ridge deficiency is an unfortunate obstacle in the field of implant dentistry. Many techniques are available to rebuild the deficient ridge. Some of these techniques are associated with significant morbidity and often require a second surgical site. With the advent of guided bone regeneration (GBR), one may now graft the deficient ridge with decreased morbidity and without a second surgical site. The purpose of this retrospective consecutive case series from 5 private practices is to report on the outcomes of a composite material of demineralized freeze-dried allograft, mineralized cortical cancellous chips, and a biologically degradable thermoplastic carrier (Regenaform RT) when combined with a resorbable membrane for GBR of lateral ridge defects in human patients. The specific aim was to quantify clinical results through direct measurement. Data were obtained from 73 consecutively treated lateral ridge augmentations performed on 67 partial and/or completely edentate patients. Clinical data (presurgical ridge width, ridge width at implant placement, and bone density at implant placement) were obtained retrospectively from 5 private practices via an exhaustive retrospective chart review, which was pooled and averaged for analysis. The average gain in horizontal ridge width was 3.5 mm (range, 3-6 mm). The density of the bone was noted to be type 2 to 3, with type 3 being the predominant finding. This retrospective case series from 5 clinical private practices suggests that the use of a composite material of demineralized freeze-dried allograft, mineralized cortical cancellous chips, and a biologically degradable thermoplastic carrier, when covered by a resorbable collagen membrane for GBR, is an effective means of horizontal ridge augmentation.


Objective: To explore the clinical efficacy and safety of edaravone dexborneol combined with tirofiban in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction.
Methods: This is a retrospective study. A total of 80 patients with acute cerebral infarction (ACI) treated in Cangzhou People's Hospital from March 2018 to December 2021 were selected, and randomly divided into the routine group(n=40) and intervention group(n=40) according to the principle of random draw. Neurological deficits in the two groups were evaluated and compared before and after treatment using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). The quality of life of the patients was evaluated by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS).
Results: Before treatment, NIHSS and mRS scores of the two groups were not statistically significant(p>0.05); the levels of Vmin and Qmin in the two groups showed no statistical significance(p>0.05); no statistical significance was found in CRP or IL-6 levels between the two groups(p>0.05). After treatment for 14 days, the NIHSS and mRS scores of the two groups both decreased, which was more significant in the intervention group(p<0.05); Vmin and Qmin levels increased in both groups, which was more obvious in the intervention group(p<0.05); CRP and IL-6 levels reduced in both groups, which was more remarkable in the intervention group(p<0.05). The incidences of relevant adverse drug reactions presented no differences between the two groups during treatment(p>0.05).
Conclusion: Edaravone dexborneol combined with tirofiban in the treatment of ACI can effectively improve patients' neurological deficits, quality of life and cerebral blood flow, and reduce inflammatory factor levels, have significant clinical efficacy and high clinical treatment safety.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.7630
How to cite this: Mi Y, Hou Z, Liu J, Zhang C. Clinical study of Edaravone Dexborneol combined with Tirofiban in treatment of Acute Cerebral Infarction. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(1):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.7630
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


BACKGROUND
Vitrification is a fast and effective method to cryopreserve ovarian tissue, but it might influence mitochondrial activity and affect gene expression to cause persistent alterations in the proteome of oocytes that grow and mature following cryopreservation.

METHODS
In part one of the study, the inner mitochondrial membrane potential (Ψ(mit)) of JC-1 stained oocytes from control and CryoTop vitrified pre-antral follicles was analyzed by confocal microscopy at Day 0, or after culture of follicles for 1 or 12 days. In part two, proteins of in vivo grown germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes were subjected to proteome analysis by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, tryptic in-gel digestion of gel slices, and one-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography of peptides on a multi-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography system followed by mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and Uniprot Gene Ontology (GO) analysis. In part three, samples containing the protein amount of 40 GV and metaphase II (MII) oocytes, respectively, from control and vitrified pre-antral follicles cultured for 12 or 13 days were subjected to 2D DIGE saturation labeling and separated by isoelectric focusing and SDS gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE), followed by DeCyder(Tm) analysis of spot patterns in three independent biological replicates. Statistical and hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to compare control and vitrified groups.

RESULTS
(i) Mitochondrial inner membrane potential differs significantly between control and vitrified GV oocytes at Day 0 and Day 1, but is similar at Day 12 of culture. (ii) LC-MS/MS analysis of SDS gel fractionated protein lysates of 988 mouse GV oocytes revealed identification of 1123 different proteins with a false discovery rate of <1%. GO analysis assigned 811 proteins to the 'biological process' subset. Thirty-five percent of the proteins corresponded to metabolic processes, about 15% to mitochondrion and transport, each, and close to 8% to oxidation-reduction processes. (iii) From the 2D-saturation DIGE analysis 1891 matched spots for GV-stage and 1718 for MII oocyte proteins were detected and the related protein abundances in vitrified and control oocytes were quantified. None of the spots was significantly altered in intensity, and hierarchical cluster analysis as well as histograms of p and q values suggest that vitrification at the pre-antral stage does not significantly alter the proteome of GV or MII oocytes compared with controls.

CONCLUSIONS
Vitrification appears to be associated with a significant transient increase in Ψ(mit) in oocyte mitochondria, which disappears when oocyte/cumulus cell apposition is restored upon development to the antral stage. The nano-LC-MS/MS analysis of low numbers of oocytes is useful to obtain information on relevant biological signaling pathways based on protein identifications. For quantitative comparisons, saturation 2D DIGE analysis is superior to LC-MS/MS due to its high sensitivity in cases where the biological material is very limited. Genetic background, age of the female, and/or stimulation protocol appear to influence the proteome pattern. However, the quantitative 2D DIGE approach provides evidence that vitrification does not affect the oocyte proteome after recovery from transient loss of cell-cell interactions, in vitro growth and in vitro maturation under tested conditions. Therefore, transient changes in mitochondrial activity by vitrification do not appear causal to persistent alterations in the mitochondrial or overall oocyte proteome.


Abstract Interest in crevasses and associated ice-fracture processes has recently increased due to recognition of the importance of calving glaciers to the mass balance of the cryosphere, as well as the importance of fractures in glacier hydrology. Recently developed calving criteria make use of models which predict crevasse depth from surface strain rates, but these models have rarely been tested against observations. In this study, we present data on crevasse depth and surface strain rates, and compare the measured values with results of two crevasse-depth models: a simple function proposed by Nye and a linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) model developed by Van der Veen. Our results indicate that both models predict crevasse depths within the correct order of magnitude. The LEFM model, incorporating measured values of crevasse spacing and tuned for fracture toughness, performs better in predicting crevasse depths, but where lack of input data precludes such tuning, the results are similar to Nye's model predictions. We conclude that both models may be used to calculate crevasse depths in calving models, although the Nye function is undoubtedly much simpler to implement within an ice-dynamics model.


The traditional elementary science education setting in the Philippines mainly focuses on using macro-organisms as a biological model. To introduce the fundamental environmental concepts of microbial predation and other related environmental concepts such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and species interaction to the young elementary Filipino students, an initial pilot study was conducted in a small class-sized setting of one international school in the Philippines. Our goal was to (i) design an activity-based teaching program utilizing the constructivist 5E (engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate) method using solely slime moulds as an example organism and (ii) obtain the impression of the students regarding the activity-based teaching program. A purposive sampling size with a total of 45 number of students aging from 10-12 years old were divided into control (16) and experimental (29) groups. Likert scale survey was also given to the student experimental group to assess their overall impression about the newly developed teaching program. Significant differences on test scores between the control and experimental group and the high priority mean scores given by the experimental group points out the effective facilitation of the program. Hence, innovations in teaching pedagogies for difficult science concepts such as the development of the Slimy Business teaching program improves not only the learning quality of the young learners but as well as their environmental appreciation. Applying such novel teaching approach in the conservative Philippine elementary schools is recommended.


T East Huntington Bridge is a cable stayed structure over the Ohio River connecting West Virginia and Ohio at East Huntington. The stayed girder has a main span of 900 ft (274 m) and a side span of 608 ft (186 m) with approach spans at both ends (Fig. 1). This is a two-lane bridge with a total deck width of 40 ft (12 m) at the cable stayed portion and 33 ft6 in, (10.2 m) at the approaches, The actual curb to curb roadway is 30 ft (9.1 m) wide. The cable stayed portion of the bridge girder has a concrete slab supported by steel floor beams spaced at 9 ft (2.7 m) on center, These floor beams are framed transversely into the two longitudinal concrete edge girders. The cables are anchored in the edge girders. The 33 ft 6 in. (10.2 m) wide approach at the Ohio side is a single cell concrete box girder. A transition piece connects the box girder to the stayed girder. The construction plans specified that the cable stayed portion of the girder shall be built in precast segments while the box sections are to be cast in place. The pylon is also cast in place.


To verify the influence of the functional elements particular size for the radiation attenuation coefficients and mechanical properties radiation shielding material based on epoxy resin, we prepare two WO3/E44 samples with different particular sizes of WO3 by a solidified forming approach. The linear attenuation coefficients of these samples are measured for γ-ray photo energies of 59.6, 121.8, and 344.1 keV, etc. using narrow beam transmission geometry. It is found that the linear attenuation coefficients would increase with the decreasing particle size of the WO3 in the epoxy resin based radiation shielding material. The theoretical values of the linear attenuation coefficients and mass attenuation are calculated using WinXcom, and good agreements between the experimental data and the theoretical values are observed. From the studies of the obtained results, it is reported that from the shielding point of view the nano-WO3 is more effective than micro-WO3 in the epoxy resin based radiation shielding material.


Abstract : Why GAO Did This Study. DOD requested $168 billion in fiscal year 2014 to develop, test, and acquire weapon systems and other products and equipment. About 40 percent of that total is for major defense acquisition programs or ACAT I programs. DOD also invests in other, non-major ACAT II and III programs that are generally less costly at the individual program level. These programs typically have fewer reporting requirements and are overseen at lower organizational levels than ACAT I programs, although they may have annual funding needs that are just as significant. GAO was asked to examine ACAT II and III programs. This report addresses, among other issues, (1) the extent to which information is available on the number, cost, and performance of ACAT II and III programs and (2) factors that affected the performance of selected ACAT II and III programs. GAO collected program and cost data on current ACAT II and III programs from five DOD components. GAO also selected a non-generalizable sample of 15 programs based on program cost and other criteria and reviewed documentation and interviewed officials about program performance. What GAO Recommends. GAO recommends that DOD establish guidelines on what constitutes a current ACAT II and III program, take steps to improve data reliability, and determine how to measure cost and schedule performance. DOD partially concurred with the recommendations and described actions it plans to take. However, as discussed in the report, DOD s planned actions may not fully address the issues that GAO identified.


Currently, there are many components produced by a metal injection molding process in automotive, consumer goods, medical, and electronics. Metal Injection Molding process (MIM process) consists of four stages, mixing, injection molding, debinding, and sintering. Feedstock plays critical roles in the MIM process since the feedstock's low quality cannot be corrected later. Feedstocks, which are a mixture of powder and binder, are mixed at an elevated temperature. A feedstock should be homogeneous and has a pseudo-plastic behavior. In the MIM process, the shear rate during injection molding is usually 10 to 10 000 s-1. Within the shear rates range, a maximum viscosity for injection molding was 100 Pas at molding temperatures. In this paper, the rheological characteristic of feedstocks was analyzed using the torque rheometer. The objective of this research was to find the value of viscosity and compare to the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of the commercial feedstock by using torque mixing data. All the three feedstocks had pseudo-plastic behavior and below 100 Pas within shear rates range. Form the validation of injection molding experiment, feedstock B with solid loading 60 %, and binder system consists of 35 % PP, 64% PW, and 1 % SA showed a good flowability and moldability.


A biological experiment was conducted to study utilization of poultry whole carcass meal, as protein supplement in pig rations. Eighteen weaned Large White Yorkshire growing pigs were randomly divided in to three groups, having six pigs in each group viz., T1 (Control ; pigs fed with balanced grower ration containing dry fish as animal origin protein source), T2 (pigs fed with balanced grower ration containing 5% poultry whole carcass meal) and T3 (pigs fed with balanced grower ration containing 10% poultry whole carcass meal). All experimental diets were iso-caloric iso-nitrogenous; and were fed adlibitum to all pigs (T1, T2 and T3 groups) throughout the experimental period of 2 to 8 months of age and general performance of pigs was recorded. Total body weight gained (kg.) during experimental period was significantly (P<0.05) higher in pigs under T2 as compared to pigs under treatments T1 and T3 ; The total feed intake (kg) and feed efficiency during experimental period (180 days) did not differ significantly amongst treatment groups. The decrease in cost of feeding for each kg. weight gain was 4.86 and 10.62 percent in pigs fed experimental diets containing PWCM @ 5 (T2) and 10 percent (T3) levels. From this study, it was concluded that, poultry whole carcass meal can be incorporated in grower rations of pigs at 5% level without any depression in feed intake and feed.


This booklet presents two papers on educational quality and reform. "Pedagogical Practice and the Philosophy of Education: The Experience of Ukrainian In-Service Teacher Education," explains that most Ukrainian inservice teacher education is provided through regional institutes. It focuses on the Poltava Ostrogradsky Teachers' Recertification Institute, discussing the kinds of teachers who come to the institute for training (anti-theoretical and anti-innovative), looking at the theory-practice relationship, and examining philosophy of education courses in Ukrainian inservice training. The second paper, "Knowledge Management: Enriching of Intellectual Capital and Transition to Knowledge Society," explains that the shift from an industrial to a knowledge society changes the nature of the relationship between society, knowledge, and technology. To be successful in the modern world, it is necessary to be capable of producing metaproduct and meta-technologies. The Ukraine must answer the meta-challenge of how to transfer knowledge to effectually utilize intellectual capital. Ten appendixes discuss: integrative education and polymorphism of knowledge; list of recent publications by the author; Poltava Ostrogradsky Regional Inservice Teachers Training Institute; Ostrogradsky (famous educator and mathematician, 1801-61); Inset-Poltava takes part in NASA education program, Moonlink; the development of economic school education in the Poltava region; and postmethods. (Contains about 25 endnotes.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 1 TO THE BEST SOLUTION


Abstract The temporal and spatial relationships of tectonic and magmatic features on the Vøring volcanic margin show that continental break-up occurred in association with significant magmatic activity about 18 Ma after initiation of lithospheric extension. From the distribution of extension across the margin and the volumes of melt produced, a thermal anomaly of 50–80°C is estimated, in agreement with predictions from recent plume models. A tectono-magmatic model is proposed in which the ascending proto-Iceland plume released the rifting, over a > 300 km wide zone, by uplift-induced extension of the NE Atlantic lithosphere already affected by tensional stresses. Initial rifting took place without decompressional melting when the plume, carrying the thermal anomaly, was still 600–700 km beneath the lithosphere. Subsequently, widespread magmatism occurred when the plume impinged on, spread out beneath and infilled the rift-defined relief at the base of the lithosphere. Break-up is suggested to be a consequence of melt-induced weakening of the lithosphere, whereas the anomalously thick igneous crust at the continent-ocean transition along the NE Atlantic margins is explained by melt focusing towards the uplifted break-up axis.


Leptospirosis is a widespread infection of man and animals, and locally it assumes considerable importance as a public health and economic problem. It is an important occupational infection among persons working with animals or in environments that may be contaminated by infected animals. In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to this infection but efforts to control and eliminate it, especially from natural foci, are hindered by gaps in our knowledge. This memorandum is a review of recent progress and current problems in leptospirosis research, with special reference to taxonomy, epidemiological methods, and control measures. Certain aspects of the basic biology of leptospires that are relevant to these topics are also discussed.


This article situates at the interstice of post qualitative inquiry and child participatory video research, in responding to the need for more work around child, camera and researcher relations, where bodies (human and otherwise) coexist and agency is not bounded in one human subject. The article makes its contribution by describing affective methodologies for dealing with vast amounts of digital video data whilst displacing dominant framings for knowing children. The author offers the technique of Video data sensing (Caton, 2019) to recognise how child subjectivities emerge out of the movements and rhythms of bodies, formlessness and chaos. The technique works in conjunction with digital software, as a way for researchers and practitioners to move beyond simply labelling children and their capacities in new and alternate ways, as light, pattern, colour and texture become sites of knowledge production within the child and camera assemblage (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987/2014).


THE following epidemiological research is valuable to the military , service because it deals with the saliva-borne infections. These, caused the highest disease mortality in the World War, and will be equally devastating in the next if adequate control measures are not instituted. There will first be discussAd, as a background for the research here reported, four epidemiological factors which determine infectious disease prevalence. These are: first, transmission rate; second, healthy carrier rate; third, susceptibility rate; and fourth, the degree of contact. The field observations, the laboratory and statistical research presented here are based on these factors. To the conclusions drawn from this work there will then be applied the three control factors leading to eradication: continuity of control, percentage of transmission blocked, and the evaluation of the various avenues of distribution.


The ability to capture good quality images in the dark and near-zero lux conditions has been a long-standing pursuit of the computer vision community. The seminal work by Chen et al. [5] has especially caused renewed interest in this area, resulting in methods that build on top of their work in a bid to improve the reconstruction. However, for practical utility and deployment of low-light enhancement algorithms on edge devices such as embedded systems, surveillance cameras, autonomous robots and smartphones, the solution must respect additional constraints such as limited GPU memory and processing power. With this in mind, we propose a deep neural network architecture that aims to strike a balance between the network latency, memory utilization, model parameters, and reconstruction quality. The key idea is to forbid computations in the High-Resolution (HR) space and limit them to a Low-Resolution (LR) space. However, doing the bulk of computations in the LR space causes artifacts in the restored image. We thus propose Pack and UnPack operations, which allow us to effectively transit between the HR and LR spaces without incurring much artifacts in the restored image. We show that we can enhance a full resolution, 2848 x 4256, extremely dark single-image in the ballpark of 3 seconds even on a CPU. We achieve this with 2 - 7x fewer model parameters, 2 - 3x lower memory utilization, 5 - 20x speed up and yet maintain a competitive image reconstruction quality compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms.


The research world has moved faster than many would have suspected possible in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In five months, a volume of work has been generated that even the most intensive of emergent fields have taken years to create.In our new report, How COVID-19 is Changing Research Culture, we investigate the research landscape trends and cultural changes in response to COVID-19. The report includes analysis of publication trends, geographic focal points of research, and collaboration patterns.VIEW KEY FINDINGS IN OUR BLOG POST:https://www.digital-science.com/blog/news/new-digital-science-report-how-covid-19-is-changing-research-culture/


In recent years, many disasters due to earthquakes and tsunamis occurred in various countries, including Japan. Two triple junctions exist below the Japanese archipelago and around Japan, where three plates meet to form a complicated crustal structure. To conduct research on the Tohoku earthquake, which accompanied the tsunami that devastated northern Japan in March 2011, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) constructed the scientific deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu. To understand the mechanism of the earthquakes, a direct access to the fault zone is necessary. During drilling operations, the drill pipes are stressed by different forces and the occurrence of drill-string failures is high, which causes significant loss of money and time. This study focused on the definition of a practical fatigue assessment procedure useful to avoid failures during drilling operations. In this paper the proposed procedure is outlined, and the sensitivity analysis carried out to highlight most influencing parameters is presented.


A key issue in countries where human rights charters have been constitutionally enshrined is the extent to which those rights apply. Intertwined with this is the question, crucial to the rational evolution of the interrelationship of public international and private law, of what role should be played by human rights law in governing the relationships between private individuals or groups. In the South-West Pacific, where human rights charters were embodied in constitutions at independence, there has been little discussion of this issue, despite its particular relevance to the wider debate on the suitability of human rights agendas developed in the West to newly emerging nations. This article considers the vertical versus horizontal debate in the context of small island countries of the South Pacific, and particularly those countries where there has been friction between human rights and other laws and/or where there has been recent conflict between the State and individuals or sections of civil society. The purpose of this inquiry is not only to establish where those countries now stand with regard to this aspect of applicability, but also to illustrate the necessity of accounting for locally and or culturally specific factors when establishing a human rights regime in any part of the world. The article identifies distinguishing factors in the legal and social systems of South-West Pacific States and puts forward suggestions for the development of South Pacific jurisprudence on human rights.


Abstract Objective The incidence of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a major complication of prematurity, may be reduced by restricting fluid administration. Prophylactic fresh frozen plasma (FFP) transfusion may reduce the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage in these infants, but risks transfusion-related volume overload. We conducted a retrospective study to investigate whether FFP transfusion is a risk factor for hemodynamically significant PDA (hsPDA) in very low birth weight (BW) premature infants. Study Design From January 2009 to December 2014, 102 premature infants with gestational age (GA) less than or equal to 30 weeks were admitted to a level III neonatal intensive care unit, and 88 patients were enrolled. Patients were further divided into non-hsPDA (n = 29) and hsPDA groups (n = 59). We retrospectively reviewed demographic characteristics and various perinatal and postnatal variables. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to identify risk factors for hsPDA. Results Compared with non-hsPDA patients, hsPDA patients had lower mean BW and GA, a higher incidence of severe respiratory distress symptoms, perinatal infection, use of surfactant, and need for FFP transfusion. However, multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that only FFP transfusion remained an independent risk factor for hsPDA (adjusted odds ratio = 3.880, 95% confidence interval: 1.214–12.402, p = 0.022) after adjusting for confounding factors. Conclusion FFP transfusion is a significant risk factor for the subsequent development of hsPDA in our study population. FFP transfusion may complicate the fluid management of premature infants and increase the risk of hsPDA. Key Points Hemodynamic significant PDA is an important complication of preterm infant. FFP transfusion may complicate the fluid management of premature infants. FFP transfusion is an independent risk factor for hsPDA in very low birth weight premature infants.


Telephone Interpreting (TI) is a long established professional practice, however there is a paucity of observational studies aimed at eliciting challenges and limitations as experienced by telephone interpreters, which could contribute to the development of effective interpreter education. There is a popular belief that training in dialogue interpreting can be applied to TI. The focus of this study is to gain an understanding of the specific features and situations that make TI trouble-free or challenging. We have elicited the various ways in which they have learned to grapple with difficult interactions over the years: from novices to advanced practitioners to seasoned interpreters. Responses from telephone interpreters from two different countries (Spain and Sweden) were also used to identify challenges that are culture-specific from the ones that seem to be universal. Our findings point to challenges that go far beyond the ones described in the TI literature, such as the lack of visual cues or complex and lengthy exchanges. Rather, navigating the client's emotions, providers' lack of awareness of interpreting needs and technical issues seem to be more central to an effective practice. The differences linked to levels of expertise and cultural backgrounds are analyzed and implications for training are extracted. From the phone to the classroom: categories of problems for telephone interpreting training


Let $k$ be a perfect field of characteristic $p > 2$, and let $K$ be a finite totally ramified extension over $W(k)[\frac{1}{p}]$ of ramification degree $e$. Let $R_0$ be a relative base ring over $W(k)\langle t_1^{\pm 1}, \ldots, t_m^{\pm 1}\rangle$ satisfying some mild conditions, and let $R = R_0\otimes_{W(k)}\mathcal{O}_K$. We show that if $e < p-1$, then every crystalline representation of $\pi_1^{\text{\'et}}(\mathrm{Spec}R[\frac{1}{p}])$ with Hodge-Tate weights in $[0, 1]$ arises from a $p$-divisible group over $R$.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the association between different pelvic floor disorders and the presence of sexual dysfunction in women.

METHOD
An observational study of non-pregnant women was carried out in Spain in 2021 and 2022. To assess the presence of pelvic floor problems, the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20) was used, consisting of the subscales Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory-6 (POPDI-6; prolapse symptoms), Colorectal-Anal Distress Inventory (CRADI-8; colorectal symptoms), and Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6; urinary symptoms). The validated tool, Female Sexual Function (FSF), was used to evaluate female sexual function.

RESULTS
In total, 1008 women participated. Of these, 288 (28.6%) had some type of sexual dysfunction. Regarding symptoms, 52 (5.2%) stated that they do not reach orgasm and 172 (17.1%) said they had never or occasionally felt sexual desire in the last month. Women with sexual dysfunctions had higher mean scores on the POPDI-6, CRADI-8, and UDI-6 subscales than those who did not have sexual dysfunction (P ≤ 0.005). Risk factors identified included being postmenopausal, with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 2.98 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.12-4.18), and a greater impact of the symptoms of pelvic floor problems as assessed by the PFDI-20 scale, in such a way that for each point increase the probability of sexual dysfunction increases with an aOR of 1.008 (95% CI 1.005-1.011).

CONCLUSION
Women with pelvic floor disorders and postmenopausal women present sexual dysfunction more frequently.


A coupled acoustic- and language-modeling approach is presented for the recognition of spontaneous speech primarily in agglutinative languages. The effectiveness of the approach in large vocabulary spontaneous speech recognition is demonstrated on the Hungarian MALACH corpus. The derivation of morphs from word forms is based on a statistical morphological segmentation tool while the mapping of morphs into graphemes is obtained trivially by splitting each morph into individual letters. Using morphs instead of words in language modeling gives significant WER reductions in case of both phoneme- and grapheme-based acoustic modeling. The improvements are larger after speaker adaptation of the acoustic models. In conclusion, morphophonemic and the proposed morpho-graphemic ASR approaches yield the same best WERs, which are significantly lower than the word-based baselines but essentially without language dependent rules or pronunciation dictionaries in the latter case. Index Terms: spontaneous speech recognition, morphology.


This wheel-driving motor is provided with: a motor shaft (35) having one axial side having a smaller diameter than the axial center section of the motor shaft (35); a bearing (36b) for rotatably supporting the small-diameter section (35b) of the motor shaft, which is located on the one axial side; and a rotor (24) affixed to the outer peripheral surface (35j) of the large-diameter section (35d) of the motor shaft, which is located at the axial center section of the motor shaft, and facing a stator. The wheel-driving motor outputs a drive force from the motor shaft, the drive force rotating a wheel. The wheel-driving motor is characterized in that one axial end section (24p) of the rotor axially protrudes further toward the axial small-diameter section (35b) than one axial end surface (35e) of the large-diameter section.


Over the last half century, the Indian Ocean (IO) and the North Atlantic Ocean (NA) have shown strong warming trends that affected global and regional climates. Here, we investigate a closed linkage mechanism in warming between the two oceans by performing an Earth system model simulation. On the one hand, IO warming increases sea surface temperature (SST) over the NA by enhancing the warm oceanic advection around South Africa along with longwave radiative fluxes through upper tropospheric teleconnection. On the other hand, the warmer NA SST-induced atmospheric teleconnection leads to anomalous easterlies over the western Pacific, where sea level increases. The enhanced contrast in the sea levels of the Pacific and IO intensifies Indonesian throughflow, which increases ocean heat transport from the Pacific and warms the IO. This positive interaction (the IO-NA warming chain) reinforces further warming over both ocean basins. The IO-NA warming chain is projected to intensify due to a higher background SST under future climatic conditions with strong anthropogenic forcing, reducing precipitation over the western U.S. by 20%–50%.


Deconstruction is a term identically to the Jacques Derrida's figure. As one of postmodernsime-post-structuralism figure, he loudly challenges the logocentrism metaphysics of presence, included in the tradition of Semitic religions. This paper—using Derrida's deconstruction approach—wants to look at the phenomenon of the denial of religious reasoning that has recently occurred in Indonesia. More precisely the phenomenon of "berhala kontemporer". "Berhala kontemporer" is the attitude of the single truth and condemns the possibility of another truth. The logic used is the binary-opposition; iam right and others are wrong. As if the others were not given the opportunity to simply ask, or digest speech and writing because there was absolutely no room for the others.The author concludes that Derrida's thinking is still contextually applied in the present era, even as long as there are people who are trapped in rigid logocentrism then deconstruction will never die.


In a special project area of rural India, the age-specific mortality rates of a birth cohort 0-59 months old were calculated from 1991 to 1999. The mortality rates were lower than the national average, but the common causes of child deaths were similar. Since 1985, when the Universal Immunization Programme of India introduced routine measles vaccination, there has been a proportionate decline in child deaths unlike other parts of India. The absolute numbers of child deaths from 'all' causes have also declined significantly over the same period of time. The vaccination coverage in the project area is higher than the national average. This suggests a possible 'beneficial' non-specific effect of measles vaccination on child survival over this time period.


Abstract Contemporary theology has realized the importance of integrating what we know from the "new physics"-quantum mechanics and relativity theory-into the metaphysical and ontological categories used by theology to consider God, the world, and the God-world relationship. The categories of subjectivity and relationality have risen to prominence in these discussions. Both academic and popular presentations can obscure the vital distinction between what physicists agree on concerning quantum mechanics and the contested interpretation of quantum mechanics, or what quantum mechanics reveals about reality. After (1) summarizing the significant distinction between quantum mechanics per se and the interpretations of quantum mechanics and (2) the agreed upon quantum mechanical experimental procedure and its attendant mathematical formalism, as well as a few of the foremost interpretations, this paper (3) attempts a minimalist culling of some rudimentary but clear ontological principles and categories from what is agreed upon in quantum mechanics, without appeals-tacit or explicit-to one of the many controversial interpretations or to contestable philosophical assumptions and deductions, and these are: experience, subjectivity, relationship, and event. The paper closes by (4) commending one speculative scheme that is especially conducive to developing an interpretation of quantum mechanics consonant with the ontological principles and categories so derived, that of Alfred North Whitehead


Summary
The incidence of congenital uterine malformations is 3-5%. Often they lead to reproductive loss and other complications of pregnancy. The correct and timely diagnosis and surgical correction of abnormalities of the Mullerian duct is one of the important and rather difficult problems of contemporary gynecology. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the ultrasonographic (USG) criteria of uterine malformations and reproductive complications. In accordance with the purpose and objectives of the study, a retrospective study was carried out on a control group of 88 patients who underwent USG-3D and then the reproductive results were evaluated in the Obstetrics Service no. 1, 2, 3 of PMI MCH no. 1, during the 2016-2019 years. The study demonstrated the diagnostic importance in the evaluation of the α angle within the USG-3D, effectuated in 100% cases (Se-100%, Sp-100%), allowing correct diagnosis of uterine malformations and redirection, if necessary, to hysteroscopic or laparoscopic surgery. The efficacy of Jones surgery has been demonstrated in 5 patients (5,68%) with bicorn uterus in obtaining term birth. Both groups were found to have low reproductive results. The high incidence of caesarean operation was demonstrated in the studied groups, reaching 84,31% in the first group and 94.59% in the second, the found premature births being 12,51%, caused by premature rupture of the amniotic bag and the onset of premature labor. However, the incidence of severe preterm births is 2 times more frequent in the second group (septate uterus) and the Apgar score 2 times lower, respectively, caused by the vicious insertion of the placenta on the septum, found during cesarean surgery. The statistical difference of 2 times greater in the second lot and the septum insertion of the placenta demonstrate the need to widen the hysteroscopic surgery on the uterine septum.
Keywords: uterine malformations; reproductive complications; USG-3D; surgical correction.


In 15 women on oral contraceptives containing 30 microgram oestrogen, mean values for factors II, VII, and X, fibrinogen, fibrinolytic activity, antithrombin III, cholesterol, and fasting triglycerides were intermediate between values for 63 women on preparations containing 50 microgram oestrogen and those for 243 premenopausal women not on oral contraceptives. Mean blood-pressure levels, however, were higher in women on 30 microgram than in those on 50 microgram preparations. In 28 women on 50 microgram preparations containing 3 mg or 4 mg norethisterone, mean values of factor VII, fibrinogen, fibrinolytic activity, cholesterol, fasting triglycerides, and systolic blood-pressure were higher than in 15 women whose preparations contained only 1 mg of norethisterone. A less consistent picture was found in women on 30 microgram oestrogen preparations containing either 250 microgram (10 women) or 150 microgram (5 women) d-norgestrel. It is concluded that 30 microgram oestrogen preparations probably result in smaller hemostatic and lipid changes than 50 microgram preparations but that they may have a blood-pressure-raising effect attributable to the particular progestagen, d-norgestrel, used in 30 microgram preparations. The safety of these 30 microgram oestrogen preparations may thus depend partly on the balance between these two sets of effects. It is also concluded that norethisterone may have effects similar to those attributed to oestrogens.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are subject to various attacks because of the vulnerable environment, limited recourse and open communication channel. To protect WSNs, in this paper, we present a secret sharing-based key management (SSKM). SSKM utilizes the advantages of hierarchical architecture and adopt two-level key mechanism, which can efficiently protect the allover network security and survivability. Different from previous works, the SSKM distributes keys based on secret sharing mechanism by the clustered architecture, which not only localizes the key things but also keeps scalability. The SSKM provides various session keys, the network key for base station (BS) and cluster heads (CHs); the cluster key between the cluster head and member nodes. The SSKM dynamically generates different keys based on different polynomials from BS in different periods which can protect the network from the compromised nodes and reduce the high probability of the common keys. The security analysis shows the SSKM can prevent several attacks effectively and reduce the energy consumption.


Voice conversion (VC) is to convert the source speaker's voice to sound like that of the target speaker without changing the linguistic content. Recent work shows that phonetic posteriorgrams (PPGs) based VC frameworks have achieved promising results in speaker similarity and speech quality. However, in practice, we find that the trajectory of some generated waveforms is not smooth, thus causing some voice error problems and degrading the sound quality of the converted speech. In this paper, we propose to advance the existing PPGs based voice conversion methods to achieve better performance. Specifically, we propose a new auto-regressive model for any-to-one VC, called Auto-Regressive Voice Conversion (ARVC). Compared with conventional PPGs based VC, ARVC takes previous step acoustic features as the inputs to produce the next step outputs via the auto-regressive structure. Experimental results on the CMU-ARCTIC dataset show that our method can improve the speech quality and speaker similarity of the converted speech.


ABSTRACT In two places, Irenaeus of Lyon explains the word "pascha" as meaning "liberation" or "deliverance". As this tradition also occurs in the Onomastica Sacra, it can be identified as an etymology (and not merely an association). The two well-known etymologies of the word "pascha" drawn upon in early Christian literature, i. e., passio and transitus, are thus complemented by a third one, meaning liberatio. The appearance of this etymology in Irenaeus dates it back to the 2nd century. Later on, it not only persistently holds its place in various versions of the Onomastica Sacra but is also attested to by Theodoret of Cyrus. As a secondary finding, πάσΧα (and not πάθoς) is shown to be the lost original Greek reading of Demonstratio praedicationis 25.


The purpose of this research is to study any effects of managerial strategies on prevention of ketosis metabolic disorder in transition period in Shahroud commercial dairy farms. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared in order to obtain required information about the performance of these managerial strategies, performance costs, involvement situation with disorders relying upon clinical signs and treatment and health records, producing and economic situation, and fertility rate and its costs. The considered managerial guidelines include body condition score management or type evaluation in transition period, increase in dry matter intake close to parturition, using propylene glycol, using niacin, and high-quality feeding (the importance of feed quality) in transition period. Finally and upon arrangement of data, it was possible to study any effects of mentioned managerial strategies on related variants through multiple linear regressions. Furthermore, in order to study any relation among variables, we considered Pearson correlation coefficients as well. Finally, it was revealed that any application of managerial strategies for prevention from Ketosis in transition period has a significant effect in betterment of managerial and economic parameters.


The study aimed to identify the sexual practices of the Costa Rican students to acquire the infection by HIV with the purpose of promoting a sexual life and the improvement of the quality of life. An anonymous survey was conducted in the student population, during the school year of 2008 in the different venues with the nationwide University of Costa Rica . At the end of the field work, it was managed to collect a total of 497 questionnaires. The distribution by sex and age represented in suitable form the student population of the University of Costa Rica where great differences by sex do not occur. The 86% of the students indicated to have been sexual relations and the average of age of beginning of the sexual was18 in both sex. A higher percentage of women (43%) with respect to men (38,7%) have been the last sex in less than a week. Monogamy and condom use are considered by most of the students as safe sex. When consulting to the students where they had received information on sexuality or sexual education, the educative system was the main source on the subject. This information takes to us to formulate a series of recommendations like the necessity to execute informative days for the students especially women through the media of the University of Costa Rica.


This paper is intended to provide the reader with a quick review of the VOR/DME/TACAN system as it exists today. Thus it serves to introduce the series of more detailed articles that treat various specific aspects of the system. Comprehensive technical descriptions of the VOR and DME/TACAN systems were published some 10 years ago. This paper describes briefly the present VOR and DME/TACAN systems — both ground and airborne components — in terms of the changes since then. The paper concludes with a series of overall comments about the present VOR/DME/TACAN system and its potential.


1. The possible role of nicotinamide‐adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and cyclic adenosine diphosphate ribose (cADPR) as regulators of M‐type K+ currents (IK(M)) has been studied in whole‐cell patch‐clamped NG108‐15 mouse neuroblastoma x rat glioma cells that had been transformed to express m1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs). 2. Pre‐incubation of NG108‐15 cells for 6‐8 h with streptozotocin (2‐5 mM) reduced NAD+ levels by 40‐50%. Nicotinamide (2‐5 mM) increased NAD+ levels and prevented depletion by streptozotocin. 3. Streptozotocin pretreatment reduced the inhibition of IK(M) produced by 100 microM acetylcholine (ACh) from 51.6 +/‐ 7.0 to 29.1 +/‐ 7.5%. This was prevented by simultaneous pre‐incubation with 2 mM nicotinamide or by adding 2 mM NAD+ to the pipette solution. Neither procedure significantly affected the initial amplitude of IK(M). 4. Inclusion of 2 microM cADPR in the pipette solution induced a slow loss of IK(M) with a time constant of about 20 min. 5. It is concluded that mAChR‐induced inhibition of IK(M) requires intracellular NAD+. This might be needed for the formation of cADPR as a regulator or messenger for IK(M) inhibition.


BACKGROUND
Sagittal craniosynostosis (SC) is associated with scaphocephaly, an elongated narrow head shape. Assessment of regional severity in the scaphocephalic head is limited by the use of serial CT imaging or complex computer programing. Three-dimensional measurements of cranial surface morphology provide a radiation-free alternative for assessing cranial shape. This study describes the creation of an Occipital Bulleting Index (OBI), a novel tool using surface morphology to assess the regional severity in patients with SC.

METHODS
Surface imaging from CT scans or 3D photographs of 360 individuals with sagittal craniosynostosis and 221 normocephalic individuals were compared to identify differences in morphology. Cartesian grids were created on each individual's surface mesh using equidistant axial and sagittal planes. Area under the curve (AUC) analyses were performed to identify trends in regional morphology and create measures capturing population differences.

RESULTS
The largest differences were located in the medial regions posteriorly. Using these population trends, a measure was created maximizing AUC. The Occipital Bullet index has an AUC of 0.72 with a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 61%. When the Frontal Bossing Index is applied in tandem, the two have a sensitivity of 94.7% and a specificity of 93.1%. Correlation between the two scores in individuals with SC was found to be negligible with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.018. Severity was found to be independent of age under 24 months, sex, and imaging modality.

CONCLUSIONS
This index creates a tool for differentiating control head shapes from those with sagittal craniosynostosis, and has the potential to allow for objective evaluation of the regional severity, outcomes of different surgical techniques, and tracking shape changes in individuals over time, without the need for radiation. .


The object of this investigation was to study cases of child abuse and neglect presented to the Danish Medico-Legal Council during 1970 through 1979. A total of 38 children were registered in this retrospective study. The material consisted of 17 boys, 19 girls and two cases where the sex was not stated. The perpetrator was the biological father in ten cases, the mother in 13 cases, in two cases the stepfather, in two cases a babysitter, four cases where the perpetrator was known to the family, one case unknown to the victim and six cases where the perpetrator was not identified. The questions to the Medico-Legal Council where 24 cases were concerned were a discrepant history and evaluation of the lesions, six cases of a pharmacological nature, six cases where evaluation of the perpetrators mental state was required and two cases where the Council was asked to estimate whether the child would have survived, if correct treatment had been instituted in time. Evaluation was multidisciplinary, the expedition time fair and the answers to police and judicial system relevant, even though some of the doctors were reluctant to state definitely, whether child abuse was concerned. It is recommended that a forensic officer and a pediatrician should always participate in the evaluation.


For distributed fiber Raman amplifiers (DFRAs), stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) can deplete the pump once occurring and consequently generate gain saturation. On the basis of such a theory, theoretical gain saturation powers in DFRAs with various pump schemes are obtained by calculating SBS thresholds in them, and the experimental results show that they are in excellent agreement with the calculation results. The saturation power of the DFRA with a 300 mW forward pump is as low as 0 dBm, which needs to be enhanced by phase modulation, and the effect is quantitatively studied. A simple model taking both modulation frequency and index into consideration is presented by introducing a correction factor to evaluate the effect of phase modulation on the enhancement of saturation power. Experimentally, it is shown that such a correction factor decreases as the modulation frequency increases and approaches zero when the modulation frequency becomes high enough. In particular, a phase modulation with a modulation frequency of 100 MHz and a modulation index of 1.380 can enhance the saturation power by 4.44 dB, and the correction factor is 0.25 dB, in which the modulation frequency is high enough. Additionally, the factor is 1.767 dB for the modulation frequency of 25 MHz. On this basis, phase modulations with various indexes and a fixed frequency of 25 MHz are adopted to verify the modified model, and the results are positive. To obtain the highest gain saturation power, the model is referable. The research results provide a guide for the design of practical DFRAs.


Part I: Introduction 1. Isaac Abravanel, the Man and his Works 2. Hasdai Crescas and the Crisis of 1391 3. Crescas' Philosophical Legacy Part II: Isaac Abravanel's Philosophy of Judaism 1. The Nature of Religious Belief 2. Creation of the World 3. Miracles 4. Prophecy 5. Divine Omniscience and Human Choice 6. Immortality of the Soul 7. Resurrection of the Dead 8. Divine Providence 9. The Messiah 10. Isaac Abravanel: Anti-rationalist, Mystic or Philosophical-Theologian? Part III: "An Inheritance For Your Children" - Judah Abravanel 1. Jewish Philosophy in an Italian Key 2. "Judah in Exile" 3. The Circle of Love 4. "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" - A Neoplatonic midrash Conclusion Notes Bibliogrpahy Index


Abstract This paper employs a contingent valuation (CV) study to estimate the value of the economic benefits generated by the Akrotiri wetland in Cyprus. It aims to show how CV estimation results can inform efficient, effective and sustainable wetland conservation policies, as required by the European Union's Water Framework Directive, and to suggest economic instruments that can facilitate the implementation of such policies. The results indicate that the design of these instruments require the capturing of both the use and non-use values generated by wetland services and functions.


One-dimensional fragment of first-order logic is obtained by restricting quantification to blocks of existential (universal) quantifiers that leave at most one variable free. We investigate this fragment over words and trees, presenting a complete classification of the complexity of its satisfiability problem for various navigational signatures, and comparing its expressive power with other important formalisms. These include the two-variable fragment with counting and the unary negation fragment.


The history of magnetic field reversals has been described as one of the best known, but least understood, geophysical records on Earth. In contrast, it is only recently that attempts have been made to quantify the history of mantle plume activity. Mantle plumes consist of large volumes of material from the lower mantle that occasionally rise, by buoyancy, from just above the core/mantle boundary.

There is no agreement on the cause of magnetic field reversals, nor on how processes above the core/mantle boundary might influence processes below in the outer core, or even if such influence is possible [Loper, 1992]. However, the suggestion by Larson and Olson ]1991[ that mantle plume activity controls magnetic reversal frequency follows a trail of thermodynamic logic that could shed light on these questions, and thus it is important to understand the basis of such a premise, and how it might be tested.