We report on a project of combined teaching of probability and statistics in the Italian secondary schools. The aim is to bring a group of secondary school teachers u p to-date, without getting involved with complicated arguments and frying to overcome the barriers created by prevailing opinions (such as the combinatonal or frequentist approaches) concerning the teaching of probability and statistics. The project involves the study of specific teaching patterns, which aim at inculcating the idea of inductive reasoning as complementaj to deductive reasoning, and not providing a kit of statistical tools for use in practice. In fact, teaching based on subjective probability and Bayesian statistics allows the coverage in a short time of some of the most significant aspects of statistical thinking. This can be done through an inferential model based on the iterative use of Bayes' theorem: hundreds of experiments can be simulated on a computer using elementary software. New statistical data can be used to evaluate current (posterior) probability; then taking this as the starting point (prior probability), further experiments produce another posterior probability, and so on.


Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an acceptable and effective adjunctive therapy for pharmacoresistant epilepsy. It is generally well tolerated and the most frequent side effects reported include respiratory dysfunction. We report the case of a female patient with intractable epilepsy who was implanted with the device and achieved a significant reduction in the number of her seizures. However, she developed central-type sleep apnea documented polysomnographically. Upon reduction of her VNS parameters, the apnea resolved and her sleep study reverted to normal. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported with polysomnographic evidence of VNS induction of central-type sleep apnea.


Banyumas basin is part of South Java Fore Arc Basin. Tectonically, Banyumas basin also included in South Central Java Region, where the main structure are trending Northwest – Southeast and Northeast – Southwest. Stratigraphically, the formation sequence from the oldest to the youngest are : Gabon Formation, Pemali Formation, Kalipucang Formation, Rambatan Formation, Halang Formation, Tapak Formation and Alluvium a Volcanic deposits. Banyumas basin and surrounding area have several oil and gas seep. This seep indicating there are mature source rock that had been migrate to the surface. The factor required for existing of hydrocarbon is called petroleum systems, and the factor are : mature source rock, reservoir rock, cap rock/seal rock, trap and proper timing of migration. The study of shallow oil potential is a preliminary step to find the suitable exploration concept for Banyumas basin. This step is used after the discovery of shallow oil accidentally in about 90 meters depth in Tipar Village, Ajibarang sub-district. This study using the surface geological data and secondary data available and also scientific paper, related to Banyumas basin. Statistical method approaching is using the assumption of minimum probability (P10) to estimate the reserves potential of shallow oil that probably exist in Banyumas basin, and the result is the reserves potential about 2,181,937 barrels oil.


The traditional teaching methods used for training civil engineers are currently being called into question as a result of the new knowledge and skills now required by the labor market. In addition, the European Higher Education Area is requesting that students be given a greater say in their learning. In the subject called Construction and Building Materials at the Civil Engineering School of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, a path was set three academic years ago to lead to an improvement in traditional teaching by introducing active methodologies. The innovations are based on cooperative learning, new technologies, and continuous assessment. The writers' proposal is to offer their experience as a contribution to the debate on how students can be encouraged to acquire the skills currently demanded from a civil engineer, though not overlooking solid, top-quality training. From the outcomes obtained, it can be concluded that using new teaching techniques to supplement a traditional approach provides more opportunities for students to learn while boosting their motivation. In our case, the introduction of these changes has resulted in an increased pass rate of 29% on average, when such a figure is considered in the light of the mean value of passes during the last decade.


As we enter the twenty-first century, the organizational role of IS continues to expand and evolve at a dizzying pace. An understanding of and appreciation for that role is becoming mandatory for all managers and executives, not just IS professionals. This paper first determines a generally agreed upon high-level conceptualization of the strategic role IS plays in organizations. It then proceeds to develop and empirically test an instrument designed to measure college students' normative perception of that role. The contributions are twofold. First, the instrument can be used as an indicator of educational quality by assessing the extent to which a concept has crystallized within students (deep learning), as opposed to short-term retention and recall (surface learning). This has immediately applicable implications for designing MIS curricula and learning materials and, more widely, in e-Learning in general, where feedback loops allow interaction to be adjusted and refocused in process based on progress toward established goals like, in this case, the recognition of underlying principles. Second, the instrument can be used to help evaluate how well future business managers and executives truly understand and recognize the value of IS to the organization. This has long-term implications for organizational productivity.


Purpose of review Refractory hypertension is a recently proposed phenotype of antihypertensive treatment failure. As such it represents an extreme subtype of resistant or difficult-to-treat hypertension. Resistant hypertension is relatively common with an estimated prevalence of 10–20% of treated hypertensive patients. It is typically defined as having an uncontrolled blood pressure on three or more antihypertensive medications, including a diuretic. Refractory hypertension is rare with a prevalence of approximately 5% of patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension. It is defined as an uncontrolled blood pressure with the use of five or more antihypertensive medications, including a long-acting thiazide diuretic, such as chlorthalidone, and a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist such as spironolactone. Recent findings Persistent excess fluid retention is thought to commonly underlie development of resistant hypertension, recent studies suggest that refractory may be more likely attributable to heightened sympathetic output as opposed to inappropriate fluid retention. Summary Treatment recommendations for resistant hypertension are generally based on intensification of diuretic therapy, especially with combined use of chlorthalidone and spironolactone. Although fuller elucidation is needed, such an approach may not be appropriate for refractory hypertension, which instead, may require effective sympathetic inhibition, either with medications or device-based approaches.


We studied the therapeutic effects of human urinary trypsin inhibitor (UTI) in 5 cases with acute renal failure, resulting from traumatic shock in 1 case, post-operative shock in 2 cases, septic shock in 1 case, and dehydration in 1 case. We administered 300,000 u/day of UTI intravenously at the initial phase of acute renal failure for 7 days. We measured the activities of urinary N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), alanine aminopeptidase (AAP) and the activities of serum beta-glucuronidase, PMN-elastase serially. As a control, we also studied same markers in 5 cases with acute renal failure without the administration of UTI. We could obtain the following results. 1) Urinary activities of NAG and AAP were already elevated markedly at the onset phase of acute renal failure. 2) The administration of UTI caused a significant decrease of the activities of NAG and AAP in the urine as compared with those in the controls. 3) The administration of UTI caused also the significant suppression of the activities of beta-glucuronidase and PMN-elastase in the serum. These results suggested that UTI has the protective effects on the tubular epithelial cell injuries in cases of acute renal failure.


This paper summarizes geochemical and palaeopedological investigations of the Upper Pleistocene loess-palaeosol sequences at the Kolodiiv site. The Kolodiiv 2, 3 and 5 profiles were selected for this study. The Kolodiiv 2 profile contains loesses, interglacial (Eemian) and interstadial (Vistulian) palaeosols. A set of Early Vistulian soils overlying Eemian gyttja and peat is exposed in the Kolodiiv 3 and 5 profiles. The mineral composition of the 50-2 mm silt fraction was analysed using non-oriented powder samples by means of X-ray diffraction. The total concentrations of nine major (Si, Ti, Al, Fe, Mn, Mg, Ca, K and Na) and nine trace elements (Zn, Pb, Ni, Rb, Cr, Sr, Ba, Co, V) as well as the humus content and loss on ignition were measured. The major elements concentrations in mineral deposits from the Kolodiiv 2 loess-palaeosol sequence indicate that the loess particles were derived from poorly weathered source rocks that have undergone at least one sedimentary cycle. Climatic conditions have strongly influenced the mobilization and accumulation of elements in the palaeosol horizons due to the changes in the intensity of weathering and pedogenic processes. For the micromorphological study, ten samples from the Kolodiiv 3 and 5 profiles were used. Thin sections representing the Kolodiiv and Dubno set of palaeosols from Early Vistulian and Middle Pleniglacial show, besides palaeopedologic characteristics, significant evidence of redeposition of sediments and soils.


Temperature warping stress and vehicle load will lead the fatigue failure of the concrete pavement. Simulation of the finite element model with different parameters was obtained, and analyzed the effect of the concrete pavement with different parameters. The temperature stress in the concrete pavement slab is increasing notably by the increasing of the length and thickness of the slab and foundation course rebound modulus. The longitudinal tensile stress is increasing by the slab thickness and length increase while it is suffered by the positive temperature gradient and vehicle load combination. Increase the foundation course rebound modulus will lead the longitudinal tensile stress decrease which is generated by the temperature gradient and vehicle combination load.


The aim of the article is to propose a new method of valuation of a company, considering its ownership relations with other companies. For this purpose, the concept of the Shapley value from cooperative game theory is used as the basis for assessing such dependent companies. The paper presents proposals for Shapley value calculation algorithms for our model. We expand our model by discussing personal relations in addition to ownership relations and point out how intuitionistic fuzzy sets may be helpful in this context. As a result, we propose two new expanded models. In the first probabilistic model, we apply Pearson's correlation coefficient, in the second, we use a correlation coefficient between intuitionistic fuzzy sets to determine the personal relationships. Finally, we present and interpret results for a real-world economic network with 17 companies.


The synthesis and coordination chemistry of two chiral tetradentate pyridylimine Schiff base ligands are reported. The ligands were prepared by the nucleophilic displacement of both bromides of 1,3-bis(bromomethyl)benzene (2) or 3,5-bis(bromomethyl)toluene (3) by the anion of (S)-valinol, followed by capping of both amine groups with pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde. Both ligands react with CoCl(2) and NiCl(2) to give [M(2)L(2)Cl(2)](2+) complexes. Remarkably, neither fluoride nor bromide ions can act as bridging ligands. The formation of [Co(2)((S)-3)(2)Cl(2)](2+) is highly diastereoselective, and X-ray crystallography shows that both metal centers in the [Co(2)((S)-3)(2)Cl(2)](CoCl(4)) complex adopt the lambda configuration (crystal data: [Co(2)(C(31)H(40)N(4)O(2))(2)Cl(2)](CoCl(4)).(CH(3)CN)(3), monoclinic, P2(1), a = 11.595(2) A, b = 22.246(4) A, c = 15.350(2) A, V = 3705(1) A(3), beta = 110.643(3) degrees, Z = 2). Structurally, the dinuclear complex can be viewed as a helicate with the helical axis running perpendicular to the [Co(2)Cl(2)] plane. The reaction of racemic 2 with CoCl(2) was shown by (1)H NMR spectroscopy to yield a racemic mixture of Lambda,Lambda-[Co(2)((S)-2)(2)Cl(2)](2+) and delta,delta-[Co(2)((R)-2)(2)Cl(2)](2+) complexes; that is, a homochiral recognition process takes place. Spectrophotometric titrations were performed by titrating (S)-3 with Co(ClO(4))(2) followed by Bu(4)NCl, and the global stability constants of [Co((S)-3)](2+) (log beta(110) = 5.7), [Co((S)-3)(2)](2+) (log beta(120) = 11.6), and [Co(2)((S)-3)(2)Cl(2)](2+) (log beta(110) = 23.8) were calculated. The results revealed a strong positive cooperativity in the formation of [Co(2)((S)-3)(2)Cl(2)](2+). Variable-temperature magnetic susceptibility curves for [Co(2)((S)-2)(2)Cl(2)](BPh(4))(2) and [Co(2)((S)-3)(2)Cl(2)](BPh(4))(2) are very similar and indicate that there are no significant magnetic interactions between the cobalt(II) centers.


The pull-in voltage of one- and two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) structures has been symbolically and numerically analyzed with respect to drive mode dependence and hysteresis. Moreover, the time and temperature stability has been investigated and tested. Modeling results have been applied in the design of both folded-spring-suspended 1-DOF structures and single-side-clamped 2-DOF beams with a nominal pull-in voltage in the 5-10 V range and fabricated in an epi-poly process. Asymmetrically driven structures reveal pull-in close to the value predicted by the model (V/sub pi/ 1-DOF is 4.65 V analytically simulated and 4.56 V measured; V/sub pi/ 2-DOF is 9.24 V analytically simulated, 9.30 V in FEM and 9.34 V measured). Also the hysteresis is in close agreement (release voltage, V/sub r/, 1-DOF is 1.41 V analytically simulated and 1.45 V measured; V/sub r/ 2-DOF is 9.17 V analytically simulated, 9.15 V in FEM and 9.27 V measured). In symmetrically operated devices the differences between the computed and measured V/sub pi/ and V/sub r/ are much larger and are due to process dependencies, which make these devices very suitable for process monitoring. The 2-DOF asymmetrically operated device is the most suitable for MEMS-based voltage reference. The stability in time is limited by charge build-up and calls for a 100-hour initial burn-in. Temperature dependence is -100 /spl mu/V/K at V/sub pi//spl ap/5 V, however, is calculable and thus can be corrected or compensated.


Purpose To report the frequency and clinical features of sterile inflammation after intravitreal aflibercept injection in a Korean population. Methods A single-center, retrospective study was performed in patients who received intravitreal aflibercept from July 2013 through January 2015. Results A total of four cases of post-injection sterile inflammation were identified from 723 aflibercept injections in 233 patients. Patients presented 1 to 13 days after intravitreal aflibercept injection (mean, 5 days). The mean baseline visual acuity was 20 / 60, which decreased to 20 / 112 at diagnosis but ultimately recovered to 20 / 60. Three cases had inflammatory cells in the anterior chamber (mean, 2.25+; range, 0 to 4+), and all cases had vitritis (mean, 3+; range, 2+ to 4+). No patients had pain. Only one patient underwent anterior chamber sampling (culture negative) and injection of antibiotics. Three of four patients were treated with a topical steroid, and all experienced improvement in their symptoms and signs of inflammation. Conclusions The overall incidence of sterile inflammation after intravitreal aflibercept injection in a Korean population was 4 of 723 injections (0.55%), or 4 of 233 patients (1.79%). Sterile inflammation after intravitreal aflibercept injection typically presents without pain, and the visual outcomes are generally favorable.


The estimation or training methods in the neural network literature are usually some simple form of gradient descent algorithm suitable for implementation in hardware using massively parallel computations. For ordinary computers that are not massively parallel, optimization algorithms such as those in several SAS procedures are usually far more efficient. This talk shows how to fit neural networks using SAS/OR R , SAS/ETS R , and SAS/STAT R software.


ABSTRACT Based on a dataset of unparalleled extent containing nearly 1500 books, this article for the first time offers an analysis of the War Books Boom that combines the qualitative and quantitative. The Boom did not simply rise and fall; an early peak in publication in 1928 was followed by a dip in 1929, as huge successes like R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End and Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) dominated the market and were successful in the subsequent two years in a variety of media. The major peak, far exceeding that of 1928, was in 1930, as both publication and commentary trends spiked. The Boom was understood in commentary as such at the time, and the surrounding discourse saw this moment as a battle for the enduring memory of the conflict between the brutal realism of works such as Remarque's, his followers and imitators, and a more conservative focus on courage, fortitude and honour. We enrich the existing scholarly understanding of the cultural history of the War Books Boom, drawing on our dataset and the interwar journalism collected in the British Newspaper Archive, and situating these findings among existing scholarship. Taking as starting points Sherriff's and Remarque's texts, we identify key publication trends, drawing particular attention to the dominance by publication numbers of non-fiction texts, particularly in life-writing, history and regimental history. We conclude by suggesting further lines along which our method might be used to develop the scholarly understanding of this moment.


: The inclusion of representation as a standard component of the process in Principles and Standards for School Mathematics in addition to problem solving, reasoning, communication, and connection skills is reasonable because to think mathematics and communicate mathematical ideas one needs to represent it in various forms of mathematical representation. Besides, it can not be denied that objects in mathematics are all abstract so that to learn and understand abstract ideas that would require a representation. Representation occurs through two stages, namely internal representation and external representation. Examples of external representations include: verbal, drawing and concrete objects. Thinking of a mathematical idea that allows a person's mind to work on the basis of the idea is an internal representation. A mathematical problem posed to the student and the student can solve it, so at least the student understands the problem, so that students can plan the settlement, perform the calculations appropriately, and be able to check or review what has been processed correctly. The smoothness and flexibility of students in constructing representations is largely lacking. This is evident from at least the structured algebraic form, as well as the way in which most representations are found very little. In addition, the quantitative scores of respondents in the representation are still in the low category with a moderate tendency.


The above described changes in the haemostatic system in acute leukemias are well known and underlined by many authors [1, 5, 6, 9]. It should be stressed that the results of particular nonspecific hemostatic tests in some patients may be within the normal range in spite of significant alterations in the activity of some blood coagulation factors and the presence of hemorrhagic symptoms. In the observations of some authors the factor VIII level is distinctly increased in the majority of acute leukemic cases, whereas the vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation factors show a low activity in some patients [6, 9]. It is not easy to interpret the different behaviour of the factor XI and XII level especially before antileukemic treatment. In 3/4 of all studied cases the factor XI activity was low, whereas the factor XII level was high in 1/4 of patients above the normal range. It may be that there is a specific inhibitor against the factor XI that is produced in acute leukemia. It must be stressed that the level of factor XI shows normal values during hematological remission.


Synthetic polymers, typically prepared by addition polymerization or stepwise polymerization, are used constantly in our daily lives. In recent years, polymer scientists have focused on more environmentally friendly synthetic methods such as mild reaction conditions and biodegradable condensation polymers, including polyesters and polyamides. However, challenges remain in finding greener methods for the synthesis of polymers. Although reactions carried out in water are more environmentally friendly than those in organic solvents, aqueous media can lead to the hydrolysis of condensation polymers. Furthermore, bulk polymerizations are difficult to control. In biological systems, enzymes synthesize most polymers (proteins, DNAs, RNAs, and polysaccharides) in aqueous environments or in condensed phases (membranes). Most enzymes, such as DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases, and ribosomes, form doughnutlike shapes, which encircle the growing polymer chain. As biopolymers form, the active sites and the substrate-combining sites are located at the end of the growing polymer chain and carefully control the polymerization. Therefore, a synthetic catalyst that could insert the monomers between the active site and binding site would create an ideal biomimetic polymerization system. In this Account, we describe cyclodextrins (CDs) as catalysts that can polymerize cyclic esters (lactones and lactides). CDs can initiate polymerizations of cyclic esters in bulk without solvents (even water) to give products in high yields. During our studies on the polymerization of lactones by CDs in bulk, we found that CDs function not only as initiators (catalysts) but also as supporting architectures similar to chaperone proteins. CDs encircle a linear polymer chain so that the chain assumes the proper conformation and avoids coagulation. The CDs can mimic the strategy that living systems use to prepare polymers. Thus, we can obtain polyesters tethered to CDs without employing additional solvents or cocatalysts. Although CD has many hydroxyl groups, only one secondary hydroxyl group attaches to the polyester chain. In addition, the polymerization is highly specific for monomer substrates. We believe that this is the first system in which the catalyst includes monomers initially and subsequently activates the included monomers. The catalyst then inserts the monomers between the binding site and the growing chain. Therefore, this system should provide a new environmentally friendly route to produce biodegradable functional polymers.


To evaluate the effects of physiological concentrations of estrogen on plasma concentrations of somatomedin-C (Sm-C) and GH, 16 chronic castrate female baboons were implanted either with blank Silastic capsules (n = 5) or capsules containing crystalline estradiol (E2; n = 11), which remained in place for 7 days. By day 7, serum E2 levels in treated animals rose into the physiological adult female range (mean +/- SEM, 96 +/- 9.2 pg/ml) and were greater (P less than 0.0005) than those in control animals (27.5 +/- 3.4 pg/ml). Sm-C concentrations rose significantly by day 7 in treated animals compared to those in control animals, whether assayed from unprocessed plasma (96% increase; P less than 0.01), plasma pretreated with glycine-HCl (99% increase; P less than 0.01), or plasma extracted with acid-ethanol (72% increase; P less than 0.02). GH concentrations in these animals were low and were not significantly different in E2-treated and control animals. To evaluate the effects of pharmacological doses of E2 on Sm-C and GH concentrations, six intact adult female baboons were treated with six daily injections of 1 mg E2 benzoate in oil. Serum E2 rose to a mean level of 1669 +/- 320 pg/ml on day 7. The plasma Sm-C concentration by day 7 was significantly higher than the pretreatment value whether assayed in untreated plasma (4.3-fold increase; P less than 0.01), plasma pretreated with glycine-HCl (2-fold increase; P less than 0.01), or plasma extracted with acid-ethanol (1.7-fold increase; P less than 0.01). Mean serum GH concentrations rose significantly from 3.3 ng/ml on day 0 to 23.6 ng/ml by day 7 (P less than 0.02). Evaluation of the chromatographic profile of native baboon plasma suggested a marked increase in [125I]Sm-C binding to plasma proteins after in vivo pharmacological E2 treatment; a broad peak of [125I]Sm-C binding over a size range from that of albumin to gamma-globulin was found. These results indicate that estrogen treatment of castrate or intact female baboons with both physiological and pharmacological doses results in an increase in plasma Sm-C concentrations that, at least in pharmacological doses, are mediated through an increase in GH concentrations. Although pharmacological E2 treatment results in a stimulation of plasma proteins that bind Sm-C, the effects on plasma Sm-C concentrations were found after procedures that diminish interference from circulating binding proteins. These data support the concept that estrogen may play a role in the physiological increase in plasma concentrations of Sm-C associated with normal puberty.


In this paper, protection coordination between residual current devices and surge protective devices in low-voltage consumer's distribution systems are presented. In the case that a surge protrctive device(SPD) is located on the load side of an residual current device(RCD), when the surge is injected from the source side of the RCD, most of injected surge currents are split into the RCD and the protection coordination between the SPD and RCD is improper, three of 6 specimens experience unintended operation due to test impulse currents. Also when the surges is injected from the load side, a lot of the surge currents is split into the SPD, but a half of test specimens causes nuisance trip. Coordination between SPD and RCD is not valid. When installing SPD, it is important to select SPD after due consideration of the protection voltage level of metal oxide varistor embedded in RCD. It is expected that the results obtained from this work could be useful to improve the protection effects of SPD in low-voltage distribution systems.


In the problem of multivariate regression, a K-dimensional response vector is regressed upon a common set of p covariates, with a matrix B* isin RopfptimesK of regression coefficients. We study the behavior of the group Lasso using lscr1/lscr2 regularization for the union support problem, meaning that the set of s rows for which B* is non-zero is recovered exactly. Studying this problem under high-dimensional scaling, we show that group Lasso recovers the exact row pattern with high probability over the random design and noise for scalings of (n, p, s) such that the sample complexity parameter given by thetas(n, p, s) := n/[2psi(B*) log(p - s)] exceeds a critical threshold. Here n is the sample size, p is the ambient dimension of the regression model, s is the number of non-zero rows, and psi(B*) is a sparsity-overlap function that measures a combination of the sparsities and overlaps of the K-regression coefficient vectors that constitute the model. This sparsity-overlap function reveals that, if the design is uncorrelated on the active rows, block lscr1/lscr2 regularization for multivariate regression never harms performance relative to an ordinary Lasso approach, and can yield substantial improvements in sample complexity (up to a factor of K) when the regression vectors are suitably orthogonal. For more general designs, it is possible for the ordinary Lasso to outperform the group Lasso.


Redenomination discourse has become a concern, again, in line with the instructions of the Indonesian President to the Finance Minister to re-socialize the program to the society. Socialization is important given the Indonesian society is geographical, demographical, and psychographic heterogeneous. The heterogeneous society is potential to have a low understanding level of what and how redenomination would be applied, while the ignorance would trigger rush and hyperinflation. Hence, a research is needed to acknowledge the people understanding about redenomination. This is a door knocking survey which involved 600 respondents in Semarang, Kudus, and Banjarnegara as representatives of Indonesian society with diverse backgrounds. The data were processed using Cramer's V Test and Crosstab. The results show that Indonesians' understanding of redenomination is low, especially the people living far from the government centers. In addition, educational factors and occupations are the main factors that determine the level of understanding on redenomination. There is an indication that the higher the education, the higher the public understanding of redenomination. Similarly, people with the Teachers/Lecturers profession, working in the formal sector, and have managerial positions, have a better understanding of redenomination, than people who are not working or working in the informal sector.


The incorporation rates of radioactivity into both lipid and acid soluble fractions of mouse tissues such as liver, kidney and small intestine and others were followed up at various time intervals (5min -24hr) after the intraperitoneal administration of ethanolamine-2-14C. The percentages of radioactivity of individual phospholipids were also determined in three tissues. The quantitative isolation of individual radioactive compounds from acid soluble fractions was performed using various chromatographic techniques. The pool sizes and the specific activities of ethanolamine and its metabolites such as phosphoryl-ethanolamine, glycerylphosphoryl-ethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, lysophosphatidyl-ethanolamine and phosphatidyl-choline were determined at various time intervals. From their values the turnover rates of various reactions in phosphatidyl-ethanolamine metabolism in mouse liver, kidney and small intestine were estimated by means of Zilversmit's equation.


Unlike contemporary Soviet and Western accounts which emphasize the involvement of educated women in the revolutionary movement, Christine Johanson investigates the relationship between developments in women's education and domestic politics of the post-Crimean War era. The author shows how the particular nature of autocratic rule under Alexander II facilitated the establishment of university-level courses for women, and demonstrates that Russian women who cooperated with the government in order to increase their educational opportunities far outnumbered the female revolutionists who sought to overthrow it. And, while acknowledging that Russian radicalism gave enormous encouragement to women's pursuit of university study, this book shows that it was the support of progressive statesmen and academics which allowed the creation of higher educational facilities for women. The attitudes, aspirations, and frustrations of women who enrolled in these educational facilities are also examined. Considerable attention is given to the training and practice of female physicians and to the testing of their skills and commitment to social service in tradition-bound peasant villages and the field hospitals of the Russo-Turkish war. The concluding chapter explored the conservative reaction following the assassination of Alexander II and the subsequent closure of women's advanced educational facilities.


This study presents a coupled electric–magnetic–thermal–mechanical analysis of busbar systems under short-circuit currents. The analysis is carried out by making use of the finite-element method, which enables one to closely model two-way interactions among separate continuum physics. In contrast to previous works, which only consider the peak value of the short-circuit current, this method evaluates the magnetic force, the temperature rise, the mechanical displacement and their interactions over the simulation time of interest. The mechanical displacements are obtained by means of a three-dimensional analysis. It is found that the type of busbar support can markedly affect the conductor displacement during the short-circuit current. The temperature rise due to the short-circuit current flows is found to have a slight effect on the displacement of busbar conductors.


In this paper, we propose a time-varying parameter VAR model with stochastic volatility which allows for estimation on data sampled at different frequencies. Our contribution is twofold. First, we extend the methodology developed by Cogley and Sargent (2005), and Primiceri (2005), to a mixed-frequency setting. In particular, our approach allows for the inclusion of two different categories of variables (high-frequency and low-frequency) into the same time varying model. Second, we use this model to study the macroeconomic effects of government spending shocks in Italy over the 1988Q4-2013Q3 period. Italy - as well as most other euro area economies - is characterised by short quarterly time series for fiscal variables, whereas annual data are generally available for a longer sample before 1999. Our results show that the proposed time-varying mixed-frequency model improves on the performance of a simple linear interpolation model in generating the true path of the missing observations. Second, our empirical analysis suggests that government spending shocks tend to have positive effects on output in Italy. The fiscal multiplier, which is maximized at the one year horizon, follows a U-shape over the sample considered: it peaks at around 1.5 at the beginning of the sample, it then stabilizes between 0.8 and 0.9 from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, before rising again to above unity during of the recent crisis. JEL Classification: C32, E62, H30, H50


The 2008 crisis highlighted the importance of using stress tests in banking practice. The role of these stress tests is to identify and precisely estimate the effect of possible future changes in market conditions on capital adequacy and profitability. This paper seeks to show a possible methodology to calculate the stressed point-in-time probability of default (PD) parameter. The presented approach contains a linear autoregressive distributed lag model to determine the connection between the logit of default rates and the relevant macroeconomic factors, and uses migration matrices to calculate PDs from the forecasted default rates. The authors illustrate the applications of this methodology using the Hungarian real credit portfolio data.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by cyclical upper airway collapse, hypoxia, arousal from sleep, and is associated with sympathetic discharge, endothelial dysfunction, and hypercoagulability (1). Severe, untreated OSA is associated with adverse cardiovascular (CV) events, and is under-diagnosed in the community (2). The prevalence of OSA in surgical populations is high, and current anesthetic guidelines recommend preoperative screening for OSA (3). In the postoperative period, the combined effects of anesthesia, sedation and analgesia conspire to exacerbate pre-existing OSA.


Many real datasets have uncertain categorical attribute values that are only approximately measured or imputed. Uncertainty in categorical data is commonplace in many applications, including biological annotation, medial diagnosis and automatic error detection. In such domains, the exact value of an attribute is often unknown, but may be estimated from a number of reasonable alternatives. Current conceptual clustering algorithms do not provide a convenient means for handling this type of uncertainty. In this paper we extend traditional conceptual clustering algorithm to explicitly handle uncertainty in data values. In this paper we propose new total utility (TU) index for measuring the quality of the clustering. And we develop improved algorithms for efficiently clustering uncertain categorical data, based on the COBWEB conceptual clustering algorithm. Experimental results using real datasets demonstrate how these algorithms and new TU measure can effectively improve the performance of clustering through the use of internal probabilistic information.


'Police arrested suspected criminals in a satanic place masquerading as a church … There is no church there, but there is Satanism … Those people are not praying for anything, but they have hypnotised abantu [ people ]'. Informed by a decoloniality lens in relation to motifs such as coloniality of power and knowledge and being, I argue that mafiarised religions in South Africa thrive through psychic capture theology. Some emerging religious movements subject their followers to unthinkable practices, which makes outsiders question the way in which both religious leaders and adherents operate outside the conventionally accepted practice of religion, and, instead, indulge in practices characterised by manipulation, corruption and mental destabilisation. I respond to two questions: What are the trajectories of a religion that zombifies, and how can the social pathologies of psychic capture theology be addressed? I respond to these questions with special reference to the Seven Angels Ministry and Penuel Mnguni. I argue that some emerging ministries strive to destroy the psychic ability of adherents, to achieve strategic distance that dehumanises, removes people from the zone of being, and causes them to question their ontological density. I end the article by arguing that there is a need for religion to be regulated, and reintroduced, to challenge religious mafias that thrive through mental destabilisation. In doing so, religion can be reconfigured and have relevance in a postcolonial state, such as South Africa, especially in contexts where the rationale of religious discourses is questionable. Contribution: The article contributes to knowledge in the sense that it calls for religion to be problematised and reconstructed within education and sociological space when it dehumanise and removes people from the zone of being. Through this approach, the article fits with the scope for the journal that calls for interdisciplinary approach to the study within the international contexts.


The advent of ROS, the Robot Operating System, has nally made it possible to implement and use state-of-the-art navigation and manipulation algorithms on widely-available, inexpensive standard robot platforms. With the addition of the Rosbridge application programming interface, interface designers and applications programmers can create robot interfaces and behaviors without venturing into the specialized world of robotics engineers. This tutorial introduces ROS and Rosbridge, and shows how quickly and easily these tools can be used to design and conduct large-scale online HRI experiments, access algorithms for autonomous robot behavior, and leverage the huge ecosystem of general-purpose web-based and application-oriented software engineering for robotics and HRI research. Tutorial attendees will learn the basics of autonomous and teleoperated navigation and manipulation, as well as interface design for online interaction with robots. During the tutorial they will design and write their own remote presence application, as well as develop strategies for incorporating autonomy and dealing with data collection.


Braess Paradox in Electrical Networks – When more might mean less
J. Rojas, A. Alonso and D. Quesada
School of Science, Technology and Engineering Management, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens FL 33054

Electrical grids are part of the network of connections maintaining a city alive nowadays. Many times we see a limited amount of lines and poles, as well as, supportive local electrical transformer points (LETP). Most of these connections are wired in parallel in order to guarantee a sustainable flow of electricity plus being robust enough against failures. Why are we not making the system redundant and increasing the number of grid points and cabling? How the performance of a power grid network can be assessed from its connectivity pattern? In this presentation the Braess Paradox is investigated for several network configurations. Special interest is dedicated to the Wheatstone bridge and to those networks containing such configurations as part of their structural elements. The flow across the network as well as the overall resistance are computed and expressed in terms of network characteristics. In answering the first question, we hypothesized that despite of the economic cost of such approach there is a counter intuitive fact known as the Braess Paradox, which states that in a congested network, it may happen that adding a new path between destinations can increase the level of congestion. In transportation networks, the phenomenon results from the decisions of network participants who selfishly seek to optimize their own performance metrics. In an electric power distribution network, an analogous increase in congestion can arise as a consequence of Kirchhoff's laws. To address the second question, we also hypothesized that power grid performance might be assessed through a combination of indices characterizing networks and enabling quantify the easiness of connecting two distant points by walking the shortest path. The results obtained from executing these methods included: power grids can be mapped into networks of vertices (hubs) and edges (connecting lines); power grid networks can be studied through the Adjacency Matrix, Geodesic Paths, and Clustering coefficient; electrical networks behave similar to Road networks. In both cases, the addition of extra links (roads, connecting lines) yields to overloads and a detriment in performance. This fact is known as the Braess Paradox; for every network there is a critical value of edges above which, any addition does not introduce any improvement in performance; intelligent Dashboard can be implemented to control the performance of the power grid in parallel to the management windows.


We have studied the photodissociation and recombination dynamics of the diatomic anions X(2)(-) and XY(-) designed to mimic I(2)(-) and ICl(-), respectively, by using a one-electron model in size-selected N(2)O clusters. The one-electron model is composed of two nuclei and an extra electron moving in a two-dimensional plane including the two nuclei. The main purpose of this study is to explain the salient features of various dynamical processes of molecular ions in clusters using a simple theoretical model. For heteronuclear diatomic anions, a mass disparity and asymmetric electron affinity between the X and Y atoms lead to different phenomena from the homonuclear case. The XY(-) anion shows efficient recombination for a smaller cluster size due to the effect of collision-mediated energy transfer and an inherent potential wall on excited state at asymptotic region, while the recombination for the X(2)(-) anion is due to rearrangement of solvent configuration and faster nonadiabatic transitions. The results of the present study illustrate the microscopic details of the electronically nonadiabatic processes which control the photodissociation dynamics of molecular ions in clusters.


In the recent years, the health sector has experienced escalating health care costs which have made the health care service providers seek for ways of continuously staying competitive to provide quality services to its customers. Traditionally, this is a sector that requires high level of professionalism, sophisticated equipments and advanced technology in order to stay ahead of others. Catholic mission hospitals have not been an exception to this experience. Despite the efforts, several draw backs have been noticed in the hospitals. It's against this background that this study specifically aimed to establish the effect of investigate whether establishing whether human resource alignment had any effect on competitiveness of Catholic Mission Hospitals in Nyeri County. The target population for the study was 226 staff and a sample size of 68 was selected. The researcher used descriptive survey research design. Data was collected using questionnaires. The data collected was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis and presented in form of narratives, while quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study were: lack of changes in HR alignment, (β=.313, t=4.363, p<0.004), had a significant negative influence on competitive advantage in catholic mission hospitals in Nyeri County. The study therefore recommends: the Catholic Mission Hospitals management should employ integration organizational structure where staff are involved in decision making as this will harness the staff expert capabilities and improve performance.


Man, aged 57 History: December 1959: knocked down by a lorry and admitted to a surgical ward in another hospital. There he was found to have a fractured left clavicle and fractures of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th ribs in the mid-axillary line on the same side. He remained in hospital one month. After two weeks at home he was readmitted for ten days to a medical ward where brownish fluid was aspirated twice from the left side of his chest. Apart from occasional pain in the left side of his chest he was symptom free until ten months later, when he was admitted to the North Middlesex Hospital with a three-day history of pain in the epigastrium and left shoulder, and nausea, and of having twice vomited a few ounces of blood. Course in hospital: On admission, he showed no evidence of having bled. There was dullness at the left lung base, where breath sounds were absent. Chest X-ray demonstrated an opacity in the lower part of the left chest and what appeared to be a raised diaphragm. A barium meal three days later showed a large pouch of stomach, subsequently shown to be derived from the greater curvature of the fundus, lying above the diaphragm. At operation, by a transthoracic approach, a tear admitting two fingers was found in the dome of the left diaphragm, beginning 4 cmfrom the margin of the cesophageal hiatus and running towards the summit of the dome. The gastric hernia was 13 cm in diameter and there was no peritoneal sac. The hernia was reduced and the diaphragm repaired with catgut.


Objective: Cord blood is widely used as a third possible stem cell source for allogeneic transplantation following bone marrow and peripheral blood. CBT has unique characteristics such as allowing 2 loci mismatch and emergency use or ready to use transplantation. Reduced-intensity transplantation also has been widely accepted to offer opportunities for allogeneic transplant for older and poor overall status patients. We previously showed the feasibility of reduced-intensity cord blood transplantation (RI-CBT) in 30 patients with advanced hematological diseases. Then performed more than 300 time RI-CBT to those whom needed urgent transplantation without suitable HLA matched donors. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of 318 times and 287 cases of RI-CBT from 1/1/2004 to 5/7/2008 in Toranomon Hospital. Disease distribution of 287 studied patients was as follows; acute myeloblastic leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome was 136 cases, malignant lymphoma 58, acute lymphoblastic leukemia 42, adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma 25, severe aplastic anemia 8 and others 18. A mean age was 56 ranging from 19 to 79 years old. The number of high risk and standard status patients were 243 and 44, respectively. High risk disease status is defined as residual uncontrolable tumor cells despite of chemotherapy such as primary refractory and beyond CR1 and standard risk is as in remission in a meaning of tumor control. MDS and SAA patients who need frequent transfusions and intensive care for infection are defined as standard risk. Preparative regimen mainly composed of fludarabine 25 mg/m 2 on days -7 to -3, melphalan 80 mg/m 2 on day -2, and 4 Gy total body irradiation on day -1. Some patients were contiditioned with iv-busulfan without TBI. Graft-versus- host disease prophylaxis was composed of cyclosporine or tacrolimus alone. Results: We analyzed the association of various factors on engraftment in possible 158 patients. Eighty eight % (95% CI, 83%–93%) of patients were engrafted on a median days of 20 (range, 11–55 days) after transplant. Multivariate analysis revealed 5 to 6 antigen match in GVH direction was a significant independent factor for engraftment as well as CD34 dose, while HLA in HVG direction did not significantly influence on engraftment. Three-year estimated overall survival (OS) in total 287 cases was 39.6% (95% CI: 33.5–45.8%). Standard risk patients (n=44) showed 3-year OS of 53.8% (95% CI: 38.3–69.2%) and high risk (n=243) was 26.3% (95% CI:20.2–32.5%). Tacrolimus GVHD prophylaxis group (n=159) had superior 3y-OS of 33.8%(95% CI: 25.9–41.8) to cyclosporine alone with 3yOS of 22.4 % (95% CI: 14.2–30.7). We previously reported pre-engraftment immune reaction characterized by high-grade fever and weight gain and developed on a median of day 9. More intensive immune suppression after RI-CBT using tacrolimus decreased the incidence and severity of PIR and increased OS. Conclusion: RI-CBT is a feasible approach even for relatively aged patient population (Mean age=56) with advanced hematological malignancies.


Author(s): Stangl, Katelyn | Advisor(s): Manville, Michael | Abstract: Parking minimums have been criticized for requiring developers to build more parking than they would without regulation; however, to date, few studies have explored why there might be variation in how much parking is built or why developers might willingly build parking above the minimums. To answer these questions, I assembled a sample of residential and mixed-use developments approved for construction in Los Angeles between 2013 and 2018 and analyzed if any development or neighborhood characteristics predicted parking above the minimum. I also interviewed 11 developers and real-estate professionals about parking minimums. I found that parking minimums are binding except when they are smallest: developments generally provided about as much parking as they were required to do even as the amount of parking they were required to provide decreased. Only developments with the largest parking minimum reductions built significantly more parking than required. Additionally, developments were more likely to provide extra parking when located in denser neighborhoods where people are least likely to drive and most likely to travel by public transit or by foot. These neighborhoods have less preexisting parking, and developers are likely incentivized to capitalize on this shortage to build more parking. Finally, I found that market-rate developers build more parking in response to perceived market demand, pressure from financial lenders, and neighborhood opposition. Affordable housing developers, however, try to minimize the amount of parking built to ensure financial efficiency and build less parking overall.


The design of an asynchronous sample-rate converter for digital audio applications is presented. Input and output sample rates are sensed automatically. The converter can be slaved to both input and output sample clocks that need not be synchronous to the chip's master clock. Sample rate ratio changes of up to 2:1 in either direction can be accommodated. Measured output SNR while driven by a 10 kHz 20-bit sine wave is 102 dB. This 200 K transistor chip is fabricated using a 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. Power dissipation is 150 mW at 16 MHz.


Elephants can cause negative consequences for both themselves and for humans by consuming agricultural crops. It is unclear whether savanna elephant crop consumption is merely opportunistic behaviour or related to insufficient quality of natural forage. We analysed the role of vegetation quality on elephant crop consumption. We focused on the role of micronutrients, as natural elephant diets are thought to be insufficient in elements such as sodium and phosporus, which can influence their foraging decisions. For 12 months across four seasons we collected elephant feeding trail data along with tree, grass and crop samples. We investigated how the quality and availability of these items influenced elephant dietary choices across months and seasons. Subsequently, we compared levels of fibre, digestible energy, dry matter intake, and micronutrients, together with secondary compounds (tannins) across the three vegetation groups. As elephants do not make dietary choices based on one component, we also analysed the nutrient balance of food items with right-angle mixture models. The levels of phosphorus, magnesium and dry matter intake corresponded to foraging preference. Compared to trees and grasses, crops contained significantly higher amounts of digestible energy content, dry matter intake, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. PCA results showed that crops differed in phosphorus and magnesium levels. The right-angle mixture models indicated that except for one tree species, all food items elephants consumed were relatively deficient in phosphorus. The combined results of these analyses suggest a phosphorus deficiency in elephant diet in northern Botswana. Crops, with their high absolute phosphorus levels and dry matter intake, provide an alternative source of phosphorus to reduce the deficiency. This may explain the high intensity of crop consumption in the wet season in our study area. A potential mitigation measure against elephant crop consumption might be to provide supplementary phosphorus sources.


Design of green buildings involves specific processes compared to conventional construction projects that require participation of several disciplines. Having particular activities, functions, and physical aspects, green buildings impose their own difficulties during design. Building Information Modelling systems (BIM) use different software for virtual simulation of characteristics of projects, which promotes early detection of potential problems even before production of the intended design details. Implementing BIM technology in design stage, not only helps to minimize design problems, but also to shorten the stage itself. With this effect of BIM combined with sustainable practices and energy efficient technologies, design stage alone can be considered as a sustainable application of construction activities. Therefore, principles and requirements of green building certification systems can easily be performed for projects with capabilities of BIM technologies and tools. In this study, redesign of Yildiz Technical University, Faculty of Civil Engineering Building based on LEED certification system using BIM tools is presented. The project is prepared as part of a capstone project by senior civil engineering students. Design stages are planned to promote sustainability and qualify the requirements of LEED v3 BD+C (Schools). The main objective is to introduce the students to two major trends in construction industry (green buildings and BIM applications) and to create awareness of sustainable construction, green building certification systems and emerging technologies.


In cognitive radio networks, the first cognitive task preceding any form of dynamic spectrum management is the sensing and identification of spectrum holes in wireless environments. This paper develops a wavelet approach to efficient spectrum sensing of wideband channels. The signal spectrum over a wide frequency band is decomposed into elementary building blocks of subbands that are well characterized by local irregularities in frequency. As a powerful mathematical tool for analyzing singularities and edges, the wavelet transform is employed to detect and estimate the local spectral irregular structure, which carries important information on the frequency locations and power spectral densities of the subbands. Along this line, a couple of wideband spectrum sensing techniques are developed based on the local maxima of the wavelet transform modulus and the multi-scale wavelet products. The proposed sensing techniques provide an effective radio sensing architecture to identify and locate spectrum holes in the signal spectrum


The pressure for the imperfect (mean field) boson gas can be derived in several ways. The aim of the present paper is to provide a new method based on the approximating Hamiltonian argument which is extremely simple and very general.


High-performance concrete has low tensile strength and brittle failure. In order to improve these properties of unreinforced concrete, the effects of adding recycled polypropylene fibers on the mechanical properties of concrete were investigated. The polypropylene fibers used were made from recycled plastic packaging for environmental reasons (long degradation time). The compressive, flexural and split tensile strengths after 1, 7, 14 and 28 days were tested. Moreover, the initial and final binding times were determined. This experimental work has included three different contents (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 wt.% of cement) for two types of recycled polypropylene fibers. The addition of fibers improves the properties of concrete. The highest values of mechanical properties were obtained for concrete with 1.0% of polypropylene fibers for each type of fiber. The obtained effect of an increase in mechanical properties with the addition of recycled fibers compared to unreinforced concrete is unexpected and unparalleled for polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete (69.7% and 39.4% increase in compressive strength for green polypropylene fiber (PPG) and white polypropylene fiber (PPW) respectively, 276.0% and 162.4% increase in flexural strength for PPG and PPW respectively, and 269.4% and 254.2% increase in split tensile strength for PPG and PPW respectively).


Abstract.Growth Textile industry from year to year demands high creativity both design and color. The process production of textile industry especially dyeing can not separated from the use of clean water and high wastewater pollutant produced. With Zero Water Discharge principle, the industry is expected to reduce the amount of waste discharged into the environment. There are many water, and wastewater recycling technology processes. However, in Indonesia conventional wastewater processing is still widely encountered, limited to aerobic and anaerobic active sludge processes, chemical coagulation - flocculation processes, as well as activated carbon - filtration processes. This study examined the process of wastewater recycling in the management of bio-chemical waste and using activated carbon aplication for post treatment. This recycling process could improve process efficiency and saved production costs. Carbon active process decreased COD contamination up to 96%, with contact time 20 minutes. The study and research of potential wastewater recycling on conventional bio-chemical-carbon active processing expected to be an inspiration for industries, and the public to do waste water recycling.


Abstract In Fi al-adab al-sahyuni (On Zionist Literature, 1967) 1 , the Palestinian writer and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani provides an analysis of Zionist literary production from the early nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, situating it in a broader schema of Western imperialism, settler colonialism, and dispossession in Palestine. Through a treatment of the early Zionist texts, Kanafani's study traces the evolution of literary representations of the Jewish subject and explores their utility in repudiating integration and advancing racial supremacist logics. The Zionist works in question venerate different relationships to land—extractive, romantic, fraudulent—in contrast to those of Palestinian literary and oral traditions; the former are connected to the ongoing, material efforts of colonizing Palestine. Kanafani's study was drafted in Beirut and is a reflection of the broader sweep of Arab nationalist and anti-colonial cultural production during the 1960s and 1970s, which was targeted by an anti-communist West. These experiences were formative for Kanafani's intellectual project, which sees literary criticism as a revolutionary tool and a direct extension of armed resistance, whereby a cultural reconstitution can be used in service of liberating both Palestinian land and people. Kanafani's study suggests that the "weapons" of literary production will be most effectively brandished by the Arab youth who lead the struggle against Zionism.


The main objective of this project is to study the employee referral program in "Alloysys Extrusion". Employee Referral is one of the external sources of recruitment and an internal recruitment method employed by organizations to identify potential candidates from their existing employees' social networks. An employee referral scheme encourages a company's existing employees to select and recruit the suitable candidates from their social networks. As a reward, the employer typically pays the referring employee a referral bonus. The purpose of this study is based on encouraging employees to help the recruitment team in recruiting by referring right candidates.


This paper studies the theory of traveling-wave photodetection in superconductive multilayer optical waveguides, as a general platform for ultrafast, ultrasensitive, and ultralow-noise optoelectronics. The kinetic inductance theory of superconductive thin films and the modified transmission line theory are employed to investigate the distributed photodetection and signal generation mechanisms in superconductive traveling-wave devices. A general model for calculation of the optical responsivity of superconductive traveling-wave photodetectors is developed and operation regimes of interest are highlighted. Moreover, the inclusion of a photoconductive layer in the device structure and some important loading schemes are discussed and their effects on the device performance, such as quantum efficiency and electrical bandwidth, are addressed.


Principles of conservation and sustainability are easily married but often at odds for architects under increasing pressure to navigate the energy needs of older buildings. By incorporating UK and international case studies together with more theoretical essays the book seeks to identify overlaps in the interests of energy and building conservation. The varied expertise of the contributors; architects, surveyors, consultants and academics, demonstrate the use of qualitative and quantitative frames of reference. The second part of the book showcases sustainable domestic and non-domestic heritage projects, translating the challenges of the preceding research into varied methods that practitioners can use to question and review their everyday work.


Fast pyrolysis, an ancient technology used by Egyptians in tar production for caulking boats and in making certain embalming agents. Recently, this process is used to convert biomass to liquid fuel and it also attracted a lot of interest from industry and academia due to its high oil yield. Bio-oil can be produced from various biomass feedstock that are regionally appropriate. Small diameter trees removed from forests have verylittle economic value in the current market , and the utilization of underutilized biomass to bio-oil could be a niche market for energy production. Also, United States of America is the largest poultry producing country in the world, and has substantial amount of poultry litter available. The main objective of this work was to produce high pH value bio-oil using cheap and simple methods so that it (bio-oil) can be used at-least used in existing refineries with no or minimum upgrading .


Increases in instruction level parallelism are needed to exploit the potential parallelism available in future wide issue architectures. Predicated execution is an architectural mechanism that increases instruction level parallelism by removing branches and allowing simultaneous execution of multiple paths of control, only committing instructions from the correct path. In order for the compiler to expose such parallelism, traditional compiler data-flow analysis needs to be extended to predicated code. In this paper we present predicated static single assignment (PSSA) to enable aggressive predicated optimization and instruction scheduling. PSSA removes false dependences by exploiting renaming and information about the multiple control paths. We demonstrate the usefulness of PSSA for predicated speculation and control height reduction. These two predicated code optimizations used during instruction scheduling reduce the dependence length of the critical paths through a predicated region. Our results show that using PSSA to enable speculation and control height reduction reduces execution time from 10% to 58%.


The aim of this article is to try to understand if and how the need for relationship has been changing in the digital era. In this article have been examined the reasons of two opposite theories. On the one hand, there is the theory of the supporters of the face-to-face relationship who report that it's necessary to build spaces of concreteness, physical contact and conversation. On the other hand, there is the theory of the supporters of the erasable Internet, who consider relationship as ephemeral reality and define online/offline binary thinking as outdated. Therefore it's necessary a new educative point of view which takes into account the positive contribution and the many implications of each of these two approaches, which are apparently opposed.


As the largest external supplier of natural gas to the EU with reserves sufficient for another 74 years at current production levels, Russia is a strategic energy partner for the EU, and will remain so in the coming decades. The first eight years of the 21st century brought a dramatic rise in European oil and gas prices, and the idea of Russia as an 'energy superpower'. However, such a characterisation of Russia failed to account for the interdependent nature of the Russia-EU gas relationship, and reflected a lack of nuanced Western understandings of the relationship between political and commercial entities in Russia's energy sector.

This thesis contributes to the gap in the literature by employing a social constructivist approach to the examination of Russian state and Gazprom conceptions of natural gas as a strategic resource and Russia's gas exports to the EU. The crux of this research is the analysis of the convergence and divergence of Gazprom and Russian state interests and strategies, on the basis of their conceptualisations of natural gas as a strategic commodity. These interests are then played out in the relationship between Gazprom and the Russian state: where Gazprom and Russian state interests diverge, the degree to which the Russian state is able to impose its interests on Gazprom is highly significant. The extent to which Russia's political leadership conceptualises gas as a political, rather than purely economic, resource not only influences Russian state interests, but also the degree to which those state interests converge with the commercial interests of Gazprom. The identification of Gazprom and Russian state conceptions of, and interests in relation to, natural gas therefore offers the possibility of rationalising Gazprom's actions and strategies in commercial terms, where previously the presence of political interests may have led to the reductionist interpretation of those actions being little more than further evidence of Russia wielding the 'energy weapon'.

In Russia itself, the state conceptualisation of gas as a strategic national resource has led to the government using state-owned Gazprom as a vehicle for state control over Russia's resources. In Russia's relations with Ukraine and Belarus, natural gas is both political and economic – the Russian government views gas exports to Ukraine and Belarus as potentially lucrative, but it is willing to trade economic utility for political concessions, with Gazprom again the vehicle for such deals. It is in relation to Russia's gas exports to the EU that the Russian state sees gas as an overwhelmingly economic resource, where prices are highest and the potential for barter or leverage is lowest. The examination of the Nord Stream gas pipeline highlights the convergence of Gazprom and state interests in strategic gas projects, and further emphasises the economic interests of the Russian state in such projects, thus demonstrating that state interests are not always completely political. Again, this challenges the interpretation of the fusion of energy and foreign policy as evidence of the 'energy weapon', and offers the possibility of rationalising Gazprom's policies. Such a rationalisation increases our ability to understand the dynamics of Russia's gas exports, which in turn offers the possibility of more constructive cooperation between supplier and consumer.

The Medvedev presidency of 2008-2012 is particularly noteworthy, because it was marked by dramatic fluctuations of European gas prices, which exposed Russia's economic vulnerability to commodity price shifts. At the same time, the EU gas market underwent a significant development in terms of increased supply-side competition, increased spot trading, and regulatory development (particularly the Third Energy Package), which rendered that market an increasingly competitive environment for Gazprom. The extent to which Gazprom is able to adapt to these developments, and the extent to which the Russian state will be willing to continue supporting Gazprom if it does not, will be significant factors in Russia's future role as a strategic gas supplier to the EU.


Clinical studies indicate that sex differences exist in susceptibility for developing diabetic kidney disease (DKD), supporting the need to examine both sexes in animal studies of DKD. Streptozotocin (STZ) is commonly used in male mice to induce diabetes and DKD. However, females are not normally included because their sex hormones partially protect them from STZ‐induced islet injury and consequent diabetes. To address this issue, we identified a strategy to induce comparable diabetes in male and female mice using STZ and determined whether both sexes develop equivalent renal injury. Male and female mice lacking the gene for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (Nos3‐/‐) were made diabetic with five or six low‐dose STZ injections, respectively. Groups of male and female mice with equivalent hyperglycemia at week 3 after STZ were assessed for DKD at week 8. STZ‐treated male and female Nos3‐/‐ mice maintained comparable hyperglycemia between weeks 3 and 8 had an equivalent increase in HbA1c levels and comparable hypertension. Urine albumin/creatinine levels were elevated eightfold in mice of both sexes at week 8, accompanied by an equivalent loss of podocytes. In diabetic males and females, plasma cystatin C levels and glomerular collagen deposition were similarly increased. Kidney mRNA levels of proinflammatory and profibrotic markers and kidney injury molecule‐1 (KIM‐1) were equally elevated in males and females, indicating comparable kidney injury. This study shows that equivalent diabetes induces a comparable onset of DKD in male and female Nos3‐/‐ mice, demonstrating that it is possible to include males and females together in studies of DKD.


It is estimated that 2.6 million people in the UK suffer from diabetes, 50% of whom suffer from diabetic neuropathy. Patients with diabetes have low levels of platelet and plasma taurine and in animal models taurine supplementation ameliorates neuropathic symptoms. The mechanisms behind Taurine depletion and taurine supplementation are not well understood. Schwann cells are highly vulnerable to hyperglycaemia-induced stress which plays a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy, however, the mechanisms behind these effects are not well understood. In these studies I have elucidated the effect of hyperglycaemia on taurine transport in isolated human Schwann cells and the mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of taurine supplementation. I demonstrated that high glucose reduces TauT expression in a dose-dependent manner and that high glucose inhibited the pro-oxidant increase in TauT expression and taurine uptake. This high glucose response was ablated by inhibition of aldose reductase, nitric oxide synthase as well as antioxidant treatment. Taurine supplementation reduced glucose-induced increases in oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation nitrosative stress and poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation and these effects were not accompanied by changes in antioxidant defence. Taurine also restored glucose-induced increases in iNOS and nNOS expression along with phospho-p38 MAPK abundance.


Abstract- Audiovisual translation in general and subtitling in particular have been subjects of growing interest among translation researchers in the past decade.  This is as the result of living in a society heavily confined by the images provided by the mass media which are broadcasted on numerous national and international stations that make their journey from one country to another and obliges translating them as they are to be consumed by the speakers of other languages. Although some strategies were proposed in order to facilitate subtitling these products yet none has concerned the very first tendency of a subtitler to favor a strategy over another. Utilizing Berman's (1985) framework this study attempts to find those deforming tendencies which are of the highest frequency in subtitling by analyzing five animations. Although some of these deforming tendencies happened contrarily while some others co-occurred for one item the most frequent tendencies observed are the destruction of expressions and idioms and the destruction of linguistic patterning respectively.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Psychiatric, neuropsychological, and cerebral blood flow differences between patients with ischemic vascular dementia (IVD) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) were examined.

METHODS
A consecutive series of patients who met either the criteria of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association for probable AD or the State of California AD Diagnostic and Treatment Centers criteria for probable IVD were included in the study. Twenty consecutive patients with IVD were matched for age, sex, and Mini-Mental State Examination scores with 40 consecutive patients with probable AD. Patients underwent a psychiatric interview, a neuropsychological assessment, and single-photon emission CT imaging with 99mTc-hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime.

RESULTS
Patients with IVD showed significantly more severe anosognosia (P<.05) and emotional lability (P<.01) than AD patients, but no significant between-group differences were found in the frequency and severity of depression. IVD patients showed significantly more severe deficits in tests of planning, sequencing (P<.05), and verbal fluency (P<.05) as well as significantly more severe cerebral blood flow deficits in the basal ganglia (P<.01) and the frontal lobes (P<.001) than AD patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with IVD showed a relatively more severe dysfunction of the frontal lobes as demonstrated by single-photon emission CT and expressed in specific psychiatric and neuropsychological changes than AD patients matched for age, sex, and severity of dementia.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) of potential populations at risk living in Portugal. To ascertain youth exposure, a questionnaire was distributed to 300 students of a middle secondary school in Sesimbra and to 429 students studying in Caneças, selected as the control population. The average number of fish meals consumed by person was 4.1 and 3 per week in Sesimbra and Caneças, respectively. The subpopulations of high intake (PHI) corresponding to those ingesting 7 or more fish meals per week were also analyzed separately, with 17% of the students belonging to the PHI of Sesimbra versus 6.1% in Caneças. Socioeconomic aspects such as relative's professional involvement with fisheries correlated with the higher intakes in Sesimbra. Fish samples were collected in the dock of Sesimbra and total mercury (Hg) was determined by flow injection cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (FI-CV-AFS). The mean value found for nonpredators was 0.035 μg/g. Dogfish specimens surpassed the legislated limit for predator species and increased the predators mean to 1 μg/g. The cross-sectional data were integrated with the fish analysis results to estimate the population exposure to MeHg. The indices of risk calculated for youth reached values of 4.5, demonstrating the existence of risk to a part of the population exceeding the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) level mandated by WHO (1.6 μg/kg bw). The results indicate that monitoring of Hg levels in fish is mandatory and counseling should be provided to populations at risk, encouraging them to prevent the risk.


Purpose To evaluate the efficacy of preemptive analgesia in surgical repair of retinal detachment (RD) using scleral buckle and cryopexy under general anesthesia. Methods Thirty patients who were scheduled for rhegmatogenous RD surgical repair using scleral buckle and cryopexy and who were American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I, II, or III were included in this study. The patients were randomly divided into two equal groups. The surgery was done under general anesthesia in both groups, but in Group 2, sub-Tenon anesthesia was given as preemptive analgesia after induction anesthesia and before start of surgery. Both groups were statistically comparable as regards patient age and weight and duration of anesthesia and surgery. Results The incidences of intraoperative oculocardiac reflex and postoperative vomiting were significantly lower in Group 2 compared with Group 1 (P < 0.001 and 0.0113, respectively). The time of first postoperative analgesic dose was significantly shorter in Group 1 (46.67 ± 18.84 minutes) compared with Group 2 (162.67 ± 29.391 minutes) (P < 0.001). The total analgesic consumption per 24 hours was significantly higher in Group 1 compared with Group 2 (P < 0.001). The time of discharge from the hospital was significantly shorter in Group 2 (8.8 ± 2.704 hours) compared with Group 1 (12.4 ± 3.481 hours) (P = 0.0018). Conclusion The use of sub-Tenon block as preemptive analgesia after induction of general anesthesia and before the start of rhegmatogenous RD surgical repair was effective in reducing postoperative pain and analgesic requirements compared with an unblocked group. The use of sub-Tenon block was also effective in reducing intraoperative incidence of oculocardiac reflex and postoperative incidence of vomiting.


Novel genes are now identified at a rapid pace for many Mendelian disorders, and increasingly, for genetically complex phenotypes. However, new challenges have also become evident: (1) effectively managing larger exome and/or genome datasets, especially for smaller labs; (2) direct hands‐on analysis and contextual interpretation of variant data in large genomic datasets; and (3) many small and medium‐sized clinical and research‐based investigative teams around the world are generating data that, if combined and shared, will significantly increase the opportunities for the entire community to identify new genes. To address these challenges, we have developed GEnomes Management Application (GEM.app), a software tool to annotate, manage, visualize, and analyze large genomic datasets (https://genomics.med.miami.edu/">https://genomics.med.miami.edu/">https://genomics.med.miami.edu/). GEM.app currently contains ∼1,600 whole exomes from 50 different phenotypes studied by 40 principal investigators from 15 different countries. The focus of GEM.app is on user‐friendly analysis for nonbioinformaticians to make next‐generation sequencing data directly accessible. Yet, GEM.app provides powerful and flexible filter options, including single family filtering, across family/phenotype queries, nested filtering, and evaluation of segregation in families. In addition, the system is fast, obtaining results within 4 sec across ∼1,200 exomes. We believe that this system will further enhance identification of genetic causes of human disease.


Human parsing is for pixel-wise human semantic understanding. As human bodies are underlying hierarchically structured, how to model human structures is the central theme in this task. Focusing on this, we seek to simultaneously exploit the representational capacity of deep graph networks and the hierarchical human structures. In particular, we provide following two contributions. First, three kinds of part relations, i.e., decomposition, composition, and dependency, are, for the first time, completely and precisely described by three distinct relation networks. This is in stark contrast to previous parsers, which only focus on a portion of the relations and adopt a type-agnostic relation modeling strategy. More expressive relation information can be captured by explicitly imposing the parameters in the relation networks to satisfy the specific characteristics of different relations. Second, previous parsers largely ignore the need for an approximation algorithm over the loopy human hierarchy, while we instead address an iterative reasoning process, by assimilating generic message-passing networks with their edge-typed, convolutional counterparts. With these efforts, our parser lays the foundation for more sophisticated and flexible human relation patterns of reasoning. Comprehensive experiments on five datasets demonstrate that our parser sets a new state-of-the-art on each.


Objectives: This study compared the effects of Chinese herbs formulas on the chronic hepatitis in the hospital patients. Previous studies showed that the spleen meridian seems especially important in liver diseases, so we selected "Chia-Wei-Hsiao-Yan-San" (Formula A) in order to add tonic to the spleen meridian and improve the liver meridian while "Xiao-Chia-Hu-Tang" (Formula B) adds tonic to the lung and the liver meridian. Methods: Eighty patients of chronic viral hepatitis (SGOT, SGPT above normal but below 400 IU/L) were included in this study randomly and divided into A and B group. In Group A, 33 patients were treated for three months with Chinese herbs (Formula A). For the same period of time, 29 patients in Group B were treated with Chinese herbs (Formula B). The effects of the treatment were evaluated by blood tests of liver function. Results: The Group A had decreased value of SGOT from before treatment reading of 47.5±31.3 IU/L to after three-month treatment reading of 39. 8±26.7 IU/L and also decreased values of SGPT from before treatment reading of 72.0±52.7 IU/L to after three-month treatment reading of 57.8±42.5 IU/L. Both readings were statistically significant being p<0.01. On the contrary, the Group B had increased values of SGOT and SGPT after three-month treatment. After three-month treatment, the SGOT and SGPT of the Group A were all significantly lower than those of the Group B. Conclusion: Chinese herbs formula "Chia-Wei-Hsiao-Yao-San"was more effective in lowering liver inflammation than "Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang" that is widely used by Japanese as an effective treatment for liver diseases. This result is consistent with our hypothesis, and also matches pulse studies as well as Chinese Medicine's emphasis on maintaining the strength of the spleen in liver disease because these two systems are very closely related.


Many theoretical studies and experimental results rely on the use of numerical analysis for the solution of the Schrodinger equation. Indeed, for
nontrivial quantum systems, a complete solution of the dynamics is difficult to achieve analytically.
We extended the implementation of a highly optimized solver to simulate the evolution of a wave function on a 2D lattice. We also implemented the imaginary time evolution to approximate the ground state. The dynamics of the system is now described by a Hamiltonian that includes an external potential and a contact interaction term. The algorithm is based on the second-order Trotter-Suzuki approximation and it is implemented on CPU and GPU kernels that run efficiently on a cluster.
We proved the accuracy of the code solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation
for a Bose-Einstein condensate and reproducing the experimental results,
obtained at NIST, of the soliton dynamics in a cloud of sodium atoms. The
code is available under an open source license, and it is exposed as an application program interface and a command-line interface. The code is also accessible in Python and MATLAB.
Future development of the code include the extension to a 3D lattice, whereas the actual implementation can already find applications in ultracold atom physics.


Eschew the false dichotomy of coordinates vs monuments; coordinates and monuments (and natural fea tures) are all used to define boundaries. Indeed, there is much discretion as to using coordinates—in legis lation, in policy and standards and in practice. Such discretion is exercised by what is reasonable and socially acceptable (according to both surveyors and those possessing or using the parcel).


For the most part, scholars have failed to incorporate geography into the interdisciplinary canon of ethnohistory. At the same time, geographers writing on native history have not integrated fully the ethnohistorical method into their own work. The essay explains to ethnohistorians and geographers alike what the other has been up to and why it is vital that each group begin to consider ethnogeography as an important category of analysis. A few suggestions are made as to how ethnogeography can illuminate different native societies' understanding of land and their relationship to it and to also help explain the actions they took to defend it from the encroachments of European settlers and colonial expansion.


Background

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) has been defined as a disorder driven by misguided myeloid differentiation, with up to 50% of cases harboring the BRAF-V600E mutation. Salvage treatment with LCH refractory to vinblastine and steroid regimen is intractable. Vemurafenib is safe and effective in children with refractory BRAF-V600E-positive LCH, but the disease always reactivates with the withdrawal of vemurafenib.
Case presentation:

Here, we report the first case of BRAF-V600E positive LCH resistant to vemurafenib therapy but effectively salvaged by cytarabine-based chemotherapy.
Conclusions

Our case report shows that vemurafenib monotherapy might not be effective for every BRAF-V600E-positive refractory LCH, and cytarabine-based chemotherapy might still be a cost-effective therapeutic alternative. Keywords: Langerhans cell histiocytosis, BRAF-V600E mutation, Vemurafenib, Chemotherapy


A collective biography of the Japanese Imperial family, covering five generations from the Meiji Restoration of the nineteenth century. Reveals the true nature of the dynasty that has been shrouded in myth and legend. Includes details of the imperial family's involvement in war crimes and the details of the wartime looting operations.


This paper reports the dry sliding wear behavior & Brinell hardness test of AA 5083 aluminium reinforced with SiC particles fabricated by stir casting technique. Different volume fraction of SiC particles (3, 5 and 7 wt%) were used for synthesis. The wear test has been conducted on pin-on-disc testing machine to examine the wear behaviour of the aluminium alloy and its composites. An attempt has been made to study the influence of wear parameters like applied load, sliding speed, sliding distance and percentage of reinforcement on the dry sliding wear of metal matrix composites (MMCs). A plan of experiments, based on the techniques of Taguchi, was performed to acquire data in controlled way. An orthogonal array of L9 (34) and signal to noise ratios as smaller the better was selected. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to investigate the influence of wear parameter on pin of aluminium MMCs. The correlation was obtained by multiple general regressions model. Finally, conformation tests were done to make a comparison between the experimental results foreseen from the mentioned correlation.


The seismic sequence that in May 2012 struck a large area of the river Po Valley (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy) triggered significant fractures and deformations in a number of riverbanks located close to the earthquake epicenter. Among them, one of the most severely damaged structures turned out to be the banks of an irrigation canal known as Canale Diversivo di Burana, flowing through the small village of Scortichino (Municipality of Bondeno), near the historic town of Ferrara. Large, longitudinally-oriented ground cracks were observed along a 3 km bank stretch, causing in turn severe structural damages to a large part of the approximately one hundred houses and productive activities built on the bank crown. In order to interpret the response of such soil structure during the 2012 earthquake by identifying possible damage causes as well as to suggest relevant remedial measures and seismic risk mitigation actions towards possible future earthquakes, the Emilia-Romagna regional authority launched an in-depth study carried out by a number of research groups from various Italian universities in cooperation with technical experts of the Geological, Seismic and Soil Survey Regional Department. To this purpose, a number of geotechnical investigations were performed (in situ and laboratory tests) and an accurate geotechnical model for the seismic stability analyses was thus defined. Potential liquefaction phenomena of the shallow sandy soils, in the foundation subsoil, were taken into account in the analyses. The paper describes the main features of the extensive study carried out by the working group and summarizes the most significant achievements of the analyses.


Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to report mid- and long-term follow-up on the clinical outcomes of patients undergoing combined MAT and osteochondral allograft procedures for symptomatic knee pain in the setting of meniscal deficiency and focal cartilage damage. We hypothesized that patients undergoing combined MAT and osteochondral allograft will demonstrate improved pain and functional scores following surgery. Methods: This was a prospective case series. Thirty two patients with a minimum two-year follow-up were identified who initially presented with persistent symptoms following meniscectomy and an isolated International Cartilage Repair Society (IRCS) Grade 3 or 4 defect of the femoral condyle underwent combined MAT and fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation. Demographic and intra-operative data, including condylar defect size, was recorded as well as pre- and post-operative International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), Short Form-12 (SF-12), Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and Lysholm scores. Pre- and post-operative data was compared with paired t-tests while the association between functional scores and condylar defect size, age, gender, and involved compartment were analyzed with regression analysis. An alpha value of 0.05 was set as significant with Bonferroni correction utilized in the case of multiple comparisons. Results: Average follow up was 4.2 years (range 2-11). Mean condylar defect size was 4.7 ± 2.0 cm2 at the time of index procedure. Lysholm, IKDC, and all KOOS subdomains showed significant improvement from pre- to post-operatively (p < 0.001). Patients with a condylar defect of less than 4 cm2 had a significantly greater increase in pre- versus post-operative IKDC (p = 0.010), Lysholm (p = 0.018), and KOOS (p = 0.016) versus those with greater than 4 cm2. Femoral condyle defect size was also significantly inversely correlated with post-operative IKDC (p = 0.015), KOOS (p = 0.003), and Lysholm score (p = 0.010). Patient satisfaction with the procedure was 82%. Conclusion: Patients undergoing combined MAT and osteochondral allograft showed improved functional scores following surgery. There was an inverse association between post-operative functional scores and the size of the condylar defect.


The lack of interoperability between mobile cellular access networks has long been a challenging obstacle, which telecommunication engineering is trying to overcome. In second generation networks for example, this problem lies in the fact that there are multiple standards. Each of these standards can operate in the same frequency range. However, each utilizes a different Radio Technology and Modulation Scheme, which are characteristics of the standard. Therefore, the lack of interoperability in 2G occurs because of the lack of standardization. Interoperability within 3G networks is limited to a few operating modes using different Radio Transmission Technologies that are not inter-operable. Thus, interoperability remains an issue for 3G. 4G technology even being successful in its various trials cannot guarantee the interoperability. This is within each network generation; meanwhile between heterogeneous network generations the situation seems to be worst. This approach is first to analyze the structure, inputs, and outputs of three different cellular technologies, performing a domain analysis (of this subset of technologies) and producing a feature model of the domain. Finally, we sought to build an ontology capable of providing a common view of the domain, providing an effective representation of relations between representations of corresponding concepts in different cellular technologies.


We theoretically study the dynamics of transverse-and-longitudinal acoustic waves propagating parallel to an external magnetic field in a crystal containing ion impurities with an effective spin S=1/2. Corresponding evolution equations describing the coherent pulse evolution are derived. These equations are used to study the phonon avalanches arising due to decay of an initially unstable state of the spin systems for different geometries of interaction. It is found that the coherent dynamics of acoustic pulses propagated in one direction is described by a pair of integrable systems of evolution equations. The picosecond acoustic pulses governed by these systems are "a few-cycle" pulses. By using a modified set of equations of the inverse scattering transform, it is found that the strong interaction of three or two components of the acoustic waves with the spin system is asymptotically described by the quasi-self-similar solutions. Physical applications of the obtained results are discussed.


We consider links formed by stable and saddle trajectories on a level surface of an integrable Hamiltonian system. We give a description of these links for an arbitrary three-dimensional manifold.


BACKGROUND
Large intakes of folic acid may delay the diagnosis of vitamin B-12 deficiency, which could lead to irreversible neuropathy.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine whether the proportion of individuals with low serum vitamin B-12 without macrocytosis (undiagnosed vitamin B-12 deficiency) has increased in the post-folic acid fortification period.

DESIGN
Individuals aged >or=19 y with low serum vitamin B-12 (<258 pmol/L) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) measured between 1995 and 2004 were identified from medical records. The proportion and odds ratios of individuals with low serum vitamin B-12 without macrocytosis by sex, race, and age according to prefortification (n = 86), perifortification (n = 138), and postfortification (n = 409) periods were determined.

RESULTS
MCV was significantly lower in the postfortification period (88.6 fL) than in the prefortification (94.4 fL; P < 0.001) and perifortification (90.6 fL; P = 0.007) periods. The proportion of subjects with low serum vitamin B-12 without macrocytosis was significantly higher in the postfortification (approximately 87%) and perifortification (approximately 85%) periods than in the prefortification period (approximately 70%; P < 0.001). In a sex-, race-, and age-adjusted analysis, the odds ratio for having low serum vitamin B-12 without macrocytosis was 3.0 (95% CI: 1.7, 5.2) in the postfortification period relative to the prefortification period.

CONCLUSIONS
Subjects with low serum vitamin B-12 were likely to be without macrocytosis in the postfortification period. MCV should not be used as a marker for vitamin B-12 insufficiency. It is possible that folic acid fortification may have led to a correction of macrocytosis associated with vitamin B-12 insufficiency.


INTRODUCTION
The knowledge and skills acquired in the neurology specialty during post-graduate studies must be developed later as a specialist. Exponential growth of the scientific knowledge and its practical application make lifelong learning essential for optimal development of our professional activity.

REVISION
The most relevant aspects of the learning and continued development of the neurologist have been reviewed. Current models and different proposals made by national and international medical organizations and societies on continuing medical education and the continuing professional development are presented and analyzed.

CONCLUSION
Several aspects regarding the need for continuing medical education and the continuing professional development are discussed. Included among these are whether continuing education should be a voluntary commitment by each professional or an obligation regulated by specialist organizations. We have the opportunity to play a leading role in the changes that will affect us in this field.


A process closely mirroring the process engineering design process was used to design a new foui year degree majoring in food engineering at Massey University. The design process sought to ensure that all papers are tightly integrated and contributing to course objectives. By giving higher priority to the development of competencies with life-long relevance than to the acquisition of knowledge the process is consistent with the aspirations of 'Learning for Life.