Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS) in two groups and to compare the demographic characteristics, the chronic diseases and the polysomnographic data in these two groups. Material and Method: 120 patients were included in the study. They were divided into two groups according to the diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism. The first group consisted of 60 patients with normal thyroid function. The other 60 patients who were newly diagnosed with subclinical hypothyroidism formed the second group. The demographic, the anthropometric and the polysomnographic data with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale(ESS) scores of the patients were recorded and compared. Results: The gender ratios, the mean ages, the distribution of chronic diseases, the body mass indices, the neck circumferences and the Epworth Sleepiness scale scores were found to be similar in both two groups. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of OSAS prevalence and severity. A significant difference was found in the nocturnal desaturation and the oxygen desaturation index in the patients with subclinical hypothyroidism compared to the control group. Conclusion: The nocturnal desaturation is significantly increased in the OSAS patients with subclinical hypothyroidism. Our findings suggest that the diagnosis and the treatment of OSAS in the patients diagnosed with subclinical hypothyroidism might be a key to preventing the cardiovascular complications associated with nocturnal hypoxemia.


This comment reviews the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Gill v. Bucholtz and explores the implications for the allocation of risk in the province's title registration system. The case involved a rogue who forged the transfer of a fee simple and registered that transfer. The person on title, also a party to the fraud, then transferred two mortgages to bona fide purchasers. The purchasers of these charges held title insurance. The question before the court was whether the title registration system's assurance fund would compensate the original holder of the fee simple interest for the mortgages that, because of fraud, had been registered against the fee simple interest, or whether the title insurers would pay out the value of the mortgages to the mortgagees. The answer turned on whether the mortgagees held valid interests because they had dealt in good faith with the person registered on title, or whether they held invalid interests because the person on title was a party to the fraud.In interpreting British Columbia's Land Title Act, the court re-asserted the common law principle of nemo dat quod non habet in respect of charges: title holders can only give that which they validly hold. If they hold because of fraud, then they have nothing to give. As a result, the title insurers had to pay out for the invalid mortgages. More generally, the decision confirms that registering charges, defined in the Act as any interest less than the fee simple, does not cure defects in those interests. After Gill, even when the instrument creating the charge is apparently valid because it has been executed by the person registered as the holder of the fee simple interest, the charge will be invalid if the registered title holder is on title because of fraud. The comment concludes by exploring the implications of this decision for the allocation of risk in British Columbia's title registration system.


We present a four-phase parallel approach for capturing, annotating, and visualizing parallel structures in XML documents. We designed a highlighting strategy that first decomposes XML documents in various data streams, including plain text, formulae, and images. Second, those streams are processed with external algorithms and tools optimized for specific tasks, such as analyzing similarities or differences or differences in the respective formats. Third, we compute comparison metadata such as annotations and highlighting marks. Fourth, the position information is concatenated based on the original XML's computed positions document. Eventually, the resulting comparison can then be visualized or processed further while keeping the reference to the source documents intact. While our algorithm has been developed for visualizing similarities as part of plagiarism detection tasks, we expect that many applications will benefit from a well-designed and integrative method that separates between addressing the match locations and inserting highlight marks. For example, our algorithm can also add comments in XML-unaware plaintext editors. We also treat the edge cases, overlaps as well as multi-match with our approach.


Samples of Asota caricae (larvae, pupae, and adults) and its host plant leaf (Ficus hispida), larvae of Aloa lactinea, and mixed adult moths were collected from an electronic waste (e‐waste) recycling site in south China. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers were found to exhibit concentrations of 420–1300, 100–860, and 7.6–49 ng/g dry weight, respectively. The different chemical compositions among the samples of the three groups indicated that at least two exposure scenarios occurred among the moths in the study area. A complex relationship between bioamplification factors and the octanol–water partition coefficient (log KOW) was observed during metamorphosis, in which a positive relationship was evident for 5 < log KOW < 7, whereas an inverse relationship occurred for log KOW values outside of this range. The biomagnification factors (BMFs) calculated from the larvae of Asota caricae to the host plant were negatively correlated with log KOW for all chemicals, differing completely from those obtained in previous studies. However, after metamorphosis, the correlation between BMF and log KOW was found to coincide with that in previous studies. These results indicate that the biotransformation of pollutants in organisms played a key role in determining whether or not biomagnification occurred in organisms and highlight the potential application of the metabolic rate of chemicals in screening‐level risk assessments of new chemicals. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:2395–2403. © 2022 SETAC


Introduction : In order to improve the oral health, systematic analysis of oral health condition and related factors should be conducted. This study aimed to evaluate dental caries and some related factors in 35-44 years old men & women in five urban areas of Sistan and Baluchestan in 2009-2010. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 550 people were chosen by random stratified clustering in five different urban areas of the province. All participants were examined and the DMFT index was determined. Demographic and social information and their oral health behaviors were registered in a questionnaire which was composed of 11 questions. The data were analyzed by SPSS (version 17) and descriptive statistic methods. Results: Statistical analysis showed that average of DMFT was 10.05 ± 7.186. DMFT in females (11.43 ± 7.5) was more than males (8.68 ± 6.6) significantly (P< 0.001). A significant difference was found between ethnicity and DMFT (P< 0.05) while analysis did not reveal any difference between income, level of education, time and number of daily brushing. (P> 0.05) Conclusion: Results of this study could be used by public health managers to plan and evaluate public health in the future. With an emphasis on improving high risk patients' situation, appropriate interventions can be designed to achieve good results in the short and long term.


The identification and treatment of older alcoholics often are complicated by negative stereotypes and inaccurate information about the aging process. these misconceptions may result from incomplete statistical data, lack of attention to the subjects of alcoholism and aging in medical and gerontological journals, disagreement concerning the disease's origin and treatment, and conflict over whether to differentiate between alcoholism and alcohol abuse. In recent professional literature, however, some of these concerns are being addressed. A wider dissemination of information is essential for health professionals as well as for alcoholics and their families. Both groups must understand the changes associated with aging so that existing programs for alcoholism treatment can be adapted to serve the elderly. Results of an informed, enlightened attitude toward older alcoholics would be: Awareness that alcoholism--at any age--is a treatable disease; Increased attention to the special communication and mobility needs of the elderly; Availability of printed and audiovisual materials about aging and alcoholism in locations where older adults gather; and The training of family members and health care workers in alcoholism identification and intervention.


we have been using sine wave functions from our high school calculus.
Simulation is a integral part of anyone's life now. We will program in simulink to see how can we simulate a sine wave and obtain a optimized wave. Also we will see how can we change the initial conditions of our parameters in simulation on the run. Secondly we will build a finite state machine that will show a tradeoff between position and velocity using sine wave. It is encountered with many usual problems. We will fix those problems using simulation in simulink at small intervals of time.


In this paper, a new distributed joint source-channel code (DJSCC) is proposed for a communication network with multiple correlated information sources. The DJSCC is performed by puncturing the information bits of a linear block code but leaving the parity bits intact, given the fact that the correlation among the parity bits is usually much lower compared to the corresponding information bits. In recognition of the different roles of the information and parity bits in the DJSCC scheme, we propose to allocate unequal amounts of energy per bit to these two different types of bits. The unequal energy allocation leads to significant performance gains over conventional equal energy transmissions. At the receiver, the sources are jointly decoded with the iterative message passing algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve considerable performance gains over conventional schemes.


Background: Necrotizing fasciitis is a rare condition. We report a fatal case arising from an episiotomy in a previously healthy woman. Case: A healthy 23-year-old prima gravida white female underwent vaginal delivery with repair of a proctoepisiotomy. Eighty-four hours postpartum, she developed increasing perineal swelling with severe pain. She presented on the 4th postpartum day with edema, erythema localized to the perineum, and vital signs significant only for tachycardia of 120/min. With a leukocytosis of 45,000/μl (87%) neutrophils, she was admitted to the hospital with an initial diagnosis of perineal cellulitis and empirically started on broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotic therapy. The patient's condition continued to deteriorate and she was then transferred to our facility on postpartum day 9 where a team performed two radical debridements of all necrotic tissue. Despite this and a broadened antibiotic coverage, the patient eventually experienced cardiopulmonary arrest and died on postpartum day 12. Conclusion: Necrotizing fasciitis must be considered in the differential diagnosis of the postpartum patient presenting with severe vulvar pain and erythema. Our patient exemplifies the obscure presentation with seemingly minimal skin changes. Any delay in diagnosis and treatment, which must include expeditious aggressive surgical debridement, will likely result in severe morbidity or mortality.


We propose a new type of optical transistor for a broadband amplification of terahertz radiation. It is made of a graphene-superconductor hybrid, where electrons and Cooper pairs couple by Coulomb forces. The transistor operates via the propagation of surface plasmons in both layers, and the origin of amplification is the quantum capacitance of graphene. It leads to terahertz waves amplification, the negative power absorption, and as a result, the system yields positive gain, and the hybrid acts like an optical transistor, operating with the terahertz light. It can, in principle, amplify even a whole spectrum of chaotic signals (or noise), which is required for numerous biological applications.


The multistep single-path multiplier-free conversion scheme proposed by Fettweis satisfies the requirement of robustness and seems to be attractive for transmultiplexers. This paper describes the implementation of a transmultiplexer based on this method using digital signal processors (DSP's). Since most of the currently available or proposed DSP's have sum-of-products type arithmetic units with fixed coefficient wordlengths and since this is not the most favorable approach for implementing wave digital filters (WDF's), a novel DSP will be proposed which is advantageous for WDF's and other more sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms. This DSP makes the multistep single-path multiplier-free conversion scheme a viable alternative to other schemes, also with respect to hardware efficiency and power consumption. The importance of using various simulation programs (in the frequency and the time domain as well as in real time) for supporting the design of the transmultiplexer will be stressed.


This qualitative study examines the student experience in a chemical engineering program at a large, public research-intensive university during the shift to remote teaching due to COVID-19. Data sources include a free response survey completed by 380 students and focus groups including 35 graduate and undergraduate student instructors. The most common challenge students identified was staying engaged in their studies, especially during class. Several instructional practices emerged that can transfer back to in-person instruction.


At ESORICS 2017, Buldas et al. proposed an efficient (software only) server supported signature scheme, geared to mobile devices, termed Smart–ID. A major component of their design is a clone detection mechanism, which allows a server to detect the existence of clones of a client's private key share. We point out a flaw in this mechanism. We show that, under a realistic race condition, an attacker who holds a password camouflaged private share can launch an online dictionary attack such that (i) if all its password guesses are wrong, it is very likely that the attack will not be detected, and (ii) if one of its guesses is correct, it can generate signatures on messages of its choice, and the attack will not be detected. We propose an improvement of Smart–ID to thwart the attack we present.


The purpose of the research - is to study the state of economic characteristics of the aluminum enterprise on behalf of Azeraluminium LLC. Aluminum market was researched for finding gaps.

The methodology of the research – methods such as synthesis, analysis and comparison were used during the assessment.

The practical importance of the research- analyzes were carried out on a more reliable and transparent reflection of aluminum production.

The results of the research - adjustment of aluminum production norms of "Azeraluminum" LLC to the norms of the companies will lead to a decrease in the cost of products. The lower production costs of other companies make them more resistant to sharp price changes in the market

The originality and scientific novelty of the research – is based on the normative legal acts and scientific-theoretical approaches adopted in Azerbaijan and regarding the disclosure of certain items specified in "Azeraluminum" LLC reports.


The incomplete hypercube with arbitrary nodes provides far better incremental flexibility than the complete hypercube, whose size is restricted to exactly a power of 2. After faults arise in a complete hypercube system, it is desirable to reconfigure the system so as to retain as many healthy nodes as possible, often leading to an incomplete hypercube of arbitrary size. In this paper, the highest traffic density over links in an incomplete hypercube under uniform message distribution is shown to be bounded by 2 (messages per link per cycle), independent of its size and despite its structural nonhomogeneity. As a result, it is easily achievable to construct an incomplete hypercube with sufficient link communication capability where any potential points of congestion are avoided, ensuring high performance. Simulation results for the incomplete hypercube reveal that mean latency for delivering messages is roughly the same in an incomplete hypercube as in a compatible complete hypercube under both packet-switching and wormhole routing. The incomplete hypercube thus appears to be an attractive and practical architecture, since it shares every advantage of complete hypercubes while eliminating the restriction on the system size.


Post-stroke rehabilitation device is very important nowadays, considering the high rate of disability caused by stroke especially arm function. About 50% of stroke survivors experience the unilateral motor deficits which decreased upper extremity function. Therefore, hand and shoulders therapy are generally performed in advance to support patients' daily activities. Electromyograph (EMG) signals from selective muscles were proven to provide additional power for post-stroke rehabilitation device to recover more quickly because the patient participates actively in rehabilitation. This paper describes a preliminary prototype of upper limb exoskeleton for post-stroke therapy devices utilizes automatic control algorithm to control human arm movement with one degree of freedom based on a myoelectric signal of muscle biceps brachii from their unaffected side. This study used low-cost instruments and digital signal processing, such as IIR low pass filter followed by Kalman filter to generate the myoelectric signal that separated from noise as an input for controlling the DC motor which moved the exoskeleton of arm therapy mechanic. The accuracy of system performance  in this study was 95%. Hopefully, this device can help stroke survivors to perform therapy independently without depending on therapists so that rehabilitation will be more effective and efficient.


Background: Since the 1980s, there have been isolated reports of a toxic shock syndrome associated with Clostridium sordellii necrotizing subcutaneous infections during the puerperium. Relatively localized fascial and muscle necrosis is noted at the surgical incision sites. However, circulating toxins produce marked edema, resulting in shock and cardiovascular collapse. Despite aggressive surgical and supportive therapy, all postpartum cases thus far have been fatal. Case: A 24-year-old primipara developed an episiotomy infection which progressed to involve the underlying fascia and muscle. Despite early and adequate debridement of the devitalized tissue, she developed anasarca, marked leukocytosis, refractory hypotension, hypothermia, and a persistent coagulopathy, and expired on postpartum day 5. The cultures from the excised tissue grew C. sordellii All blood cultures were negative. Conclusion: Treatment modalities aimed solely at the eradication of the microbe and removal of necrotic tissue, although essential components of therapy, have proved inadequate. Future efforts should be directed toward neutralization or elimination of the circulating exotoxins responsible for the systemic shock.


'City of Gold', 'Urbs Prima in Indis', 'Maximum City': no Indian metropolis has captivated the public imagination quite like Mumbai. The past decade has seen an explosion of historical writing on the city that was once Bombay. This book, featuring new essays by its finest historians, presents a rich sample of Bombay's palimpsestic pasts. It considers the making of urban communities and spaces, the workings of power and the nationalist makeover of the colonial city.
In addressing these themes, the contributors to this volume engage critically with the scholarship of a distinguished historian of this frenetic metropolis. For over five decades, Jim Masselos has brought to life with skill and empathy Bombay's hidden histories. His books and essays have traversed an extraordinarily diverse range of subjects, from the actions of the city's elites to the struggles of its most humble denizens. His pioneering research has opened up new perspectives and inspired those who have followed in his wake.
Bombay Before Mumbai is a fitting tribute to Masselos' enduring contribution to South Asian urban history


Acute and chronic hormonal responses to resistance training were evaluated in 11 college men who completed 12 weeks (33 sessions) of high volume resistance training. No differences in resting concentrations of growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-I, testosterone, or sex hormone-binding globulin occurred from pre- and posttraining in the trained vs. nontrained control group. However, cortisol (c) decreased 17% for both groups (p < 0.05). There were no differences in exercise-induced responses between Sessions 10 and 20, with all hormone concentrations increasing (p < 0.05) from pre- at mid- and post exercise session. However, after correction for plasma volume decreases, only C and GH showed differences, with C increased from mid- to postsession (48% 10th; 49% 20th), and GH increased from pre- at mid- and postsession for both sessions 10 (0.16 +/- 0.42 pre; 4.77 +/- 6.24 mid; 6.26 +/- 5.19 post; microg x L-1) and 20 (0.33 +/- 0.85 pre; 5.42 +/- 9.08 mid; 8.24 +/- 7.61 post; microg x L-1). Significant correlations (p< 0.05) existed only between absolute mean GH increases from presession and the degree of muscle fiber hypertrophy for type I (r = 0.70 mid, 0.74 post) and type II (r = 0.71 post) fibers. In conclusion, resistance training had no effect on resting serum hormone concentrations, whereas similar acute exercise responses occurred between the 10th and 20th training sessions.


This report shares the findings and lessons learned from an investigation into the economics of disaggregated models for assessing and accrediting informal learners, with particular attention to the OER University (OERu) consortium. It also relies on data from a small-scale survey conducted by two of the authors on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post-secondary institutions (Murphy & Witthaus, 2012). These investigations include the perceptions of stakeholders in post-secondary education towards the OERu concept, combined with a look at economic models for universities to consider in implementing OER assessment and accreditation policies.

The OERu is a global consortium of post-secondary institutions collaborating around the assessment and accreditation of learners studying online and using OER. Taylor (2007) described the aim of the OERu as providing free education to learners worldwide using OER as learning materials, with pathways provided to enable them to gain credible qualifications from government recognised or accredited educational institutions. The OERu concept is based on the notion of community service and outreach, and institutions that are members of the OERu network are committed to developing a 'parallel learning universe' to augment and add value to traditional delivery systems in post-secondary education. The ultimate vision of the OERu is to provide free learning opportunities on a massive scale for learners who lack the financial means to access traditional higher education.

The OERu currently consists of a collaborative partnership among 26 partner institutions. The network includes nationally accredited universities, colleges and polytechnics and publicly-funded organizations (Mackintosh, Taylor & McGreal, 2011). The current geographic spread of institutions includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, England, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, India and the South Pacific. The initiative is coordinated by the OER Foundation, which is an independent, not-for-profit organization that works internationally to support the mainstream adoption of OER in the formal education sector (Mackintosh 2012).


Experimental evidence is presented supporting the development of a system for the isolation and propagation of a Neorickettsia sp. in a continuous canine macrophage cell line (DH82). To isolate a Neorickettsia sp. pathogenic to the canine species, three naive dogs were fed metacercaria-encysted kidneys of salmon caught in a river where infection of metacercariae with Neorickettsia helminthoeca has been circumstantially known for decades. Clinically, the classic course of salmon poisoning disease developed in all of the dogs. Parasitemia began on day 8 to 11 postinfection, when the dogs developed a febrile peak, and continued until euthanasia. At necropsy, characteristic gross and microscopic lesions of the disease were present. A Neorickettsia sp. was also isolated from liver and spleen samples of these animals. The isolates have been continuously propagated and passed in DH82 cells for more than 6 months. Electron microscopic examination confirmed that the rickettsial organisms multiplied in the membrane-bound compartment of DH82 cells and that they morphologically closely resembled rickettsia belonging to the genus Ehrlichia. An indirect fluorescent antibody test using Neorickettsia organisms cultured in DH82 cells showed that all dogs seroconverted 13 to 15 days postinfection. Finally, inoculation of the cell-cultured Neorickettsia organisms into a naive dog reproduced clinically typical salmon poisoning disease which was of greater severity and had a more rapid time course than that in the dogs from which the original isolation was made. On the basis of the clinical and pathologic responses of the dogs in our study, we believe that virulent N. helminthoeca was isolated and cultured in a continuous cell line.


Joanna Frueh has developed her own contemporary ars erotica, in which seduction is both a persistent motif and performance strategy. Frueh has embodied numerous seductive personas, mirroring her own iterative process of self-transformation. The investigation of Frueh's art of seduction uncovers its relevance for her live performances since 1979.


This study provides data concerning the characteristics of internal noise that limits binaural detection at 500 Hz under "pulsed" masking conditions and evaluates whether the parameters of such internal noise depend upon masker/signal duration. A single-interval adaptive procedure was employed to measure NoSpi detection thresholds as a joint function of the level of broadband masking noise and masker/signal duration. Spi detection thresholds were also measured as a joint function of the interaural correlation of the masker and masker/signal duration. Findings include : (1) changes in Spi thresholds taken either as a function of diotic masker level or as a function of masker interaural correlation are independent of masker/signal duration; (2) 500-Hz "quiet" So and Spi thresholds yield a masking-level difference of -2.0; (3) reductions in thresholds with increasing duration are similar regardless of masker level. Analyses indicate: (1) the presence of stimulus-independent, interaurally-negatively-correlated, additive internal noise and stimulus-dependent internal noise having a level proportional to that of the external masker while being independent of masker/signal duration; (2) that NoSpi thresholds taken as a joint function of masker/signal duration and masker spectrum level are, quantitatively, well described by taking into account effects produced by the combination of internal and external noises.


THE life of William Osler by Harvey Cushing, published in 1925, has held its place, and must continue to do so, as one of the greatest of medical biographies. The book under review consists of one volume instead of two, and contains, with unaltered text, only eleven of the forty-seven original illustrations. For these reasons it is less expensive than its forerunner and may well enjoy a wider circulation among medical students, to whose purses it is intended especially to appeal.The Life of Sir William OslerBy Harvey Cushing. Pp. xviii + 1417 + 12 plates. (London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1940.) 21s. net.


Background: Patients with breast cancer (BC) suffer from sleep disorders, pain, fatigue, and nausea after receiving chemotherapy. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the effects of the continuous care model (CCM) on sleep quality, pain, fatigue, and nausea among patients with BC who were receiving chemotherapy. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 78 patients with BC who referred in April–June 2013 to the chemotherapy clinic of Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. Initially, patients were paired with each other respecting their age, type of surgery, and educational level, and then through tossing a coin, one patient in each pair was randomly allocated to the intervention and the other to the control group. The CCM was used for care provision to patients in the intervention group, while care services were provided to patients in the control group through routine methods. Data were collected 4 days after chemotherapy onset and 2 months after the intervention using a demographic questionnaire, a visual analog scale for nausea assessment, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Brief Fatigue Inventory, and a 10-cm ruler for pain assessment. For data analysis, the independent-sample t and the Chi-square tests were used. Results: Before the intervention, the groups did not significantly differ from each other concerning the scores of sleep quality, fatigue, pain, and nausea (P > 0.05). However, after the intervention, between-group differences of the intervention group and the controls were statistically significant for sleep quality (7.81 ± 4.50 vs. 16.80 ± 4.32, P < 0.0001), fatigue (36.23 ± 15.60 vs. 61.00 ± 12.32, P < 0.0001), pain (2.90 ± 2.82 vs. 6.81 ± 2.31, P < 0.0001), and nausea (2.16 ± 2.90 vs. 5.2 ± 2.93, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: This study proves the positive effects of the CCM on sleep quality, pain, fatigue, and nausea among patients with BC. Nurses can use this model to improve the patient outcomes.


The IEEE 802.16 standard is developed to support services with high data rate and high mobility for the next generation broadband wireless access networks. There are existing sleep mode operations specified in the series of IEEE 802.16 standards in order to provide energy conservation for the mobile devices. In this paper, the analytical models for sleep mode operations of both the IEEE 802.16e and IEEE 802.16m standards are proposed, respectively. The effects of both downlink and uplink traffic are properly considered in the proposed models. Simulations are performed in order to validate the effectiveness of proposed system models. However, according to the performance evaluation for IEEE 802.16e/m system, inefficiency is observed which can be resulted from specific mechanisms within the sleep mode operations, such as frequent state transitions, under-utilized listening windows, and the adoption of binary-exponential growth of sleep window size. A POMDP-based sleep window determination (PSWD) approach is proposed in this paper, which stochastically determines the adequate length of each sleep window according to the traffic pattern. Based on the estimated traffic state, an energy cost-based sleep window determination policy is provided within the PSWD approach in consideration of tolerable network delays. Simulation results show that the proposed PSWD approach outperforms conventional IEEE 802.16e/m power-saving mechanisms in terms of energy conservation while the delay constraints are also satisfied corresponding to various traffic demands.


: Higashiyama Park in old Taiza Town in the Tango region of Kyoto Prefecture is a private park built by Genzo Tani in the Taisho-Early Showa period. This study clarifies the establishment process , design and way of use of Higashiyama Park which was when the urban park system was established by landscape architecture. As a result of document analysis, Higashiyama park was made as a contribution to the local community where Tani was born. Parks have been selected as a way of contributing to the public, and were considered as recreational places for increasing public health. The Japanese garden style was adapted to Higashiyama Park, although Tani knew of modern urban parks in other areas of Kyoto and Osaka. The park concept was affected by Maruyama Park (Kyoto) derived from pre-modern scenic places. In his idea, establishment of the park was not a purpose but a mean of contribution to his birthplace. Hence, usage was important requirements for Higashiyama Park and the restaurant of the park were considered as appropriate to urban parks. Tani offered a recreational place, however, Higashiyama park is no longer existence now by the snow disaster on 1963 after Tani was dead.


Abstract Censorship circumvention is often characterized as a cat-and-mouse game between a nation-state censor and the developers of censorship resistance systems. Decoy routing systems offer a solution to censor- ship resistance that has the potential to tilt this race in the favour of the censorship resistor by using real connections to unblocked, overt sites to deliver censored content to users. This is achieved by employing the help of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or Autonomous Systems (ASes) that own routers in the middle of the net- work. However, the deployment of decoy routers has yet to reach fruition. Obstacles to deployment such as the heavy requirements on routers that deploy decoy router relay stations, and the impact on the quality of service for customers that pass through these routers have deterred potential participants from deploying existing systems. Furthermore, connections from clients to overt sites often follow different paths in the upstream and downstream direction, making some existing designs impractical. Although decoy routing systems that lessen the burden on participating routers and accommodate asymmetric flows have been proposed, these arguably more deployable systems suffer from security vulnerabilities that put their users at risk of discovery or make them prone to censorship or denial of service attacks. In this paper, we propose a technique for supporting route asymmetry in previously symmetric decoy routing systems. The resulting asymmetric solution is more secure than previous asymmetric proposals and provides an option for tiered deployment, allowing more cautious ASes to deploy a lightweight, non-blocking relay station that aids in defending against routing-capable adversaries. We also provide an experimental evaluation of relay station performance on off-the-shelf hardware and additional security improvements to recently proposed systems.


Current material science is very limited in its ability to organise matter in detail. We lack the capability to create extended heterogenous nanostructures. Nevertheless, such structures can feasibly be fabricated as is exemplified by living matter and its constituents. To break this long-standing limitation and to extend material science and engineering into the realm for complex heterogenous systems, fundamentally new approaches for the design of materials are required. To implement nano-structured systems at a time scale that does not increase proportional with component count, it will be necessary to endow material building blocks with the competency to self-organise. This implies moving away from external control and towards the embedding of information processes into molecular building blocks. Engineering in this domain faces the challenge of intrinsic context sensitivity---simple rules do not apply. The predictability of design decisions that underlies human creative engineering breaks down in the face of the complex component interactions. Computational science is essential for overcoming this hurdle. On-line modelling and simulation need to resurrect predictability to enable the conception and design of complex organised matter. In addtion, search methods that can explore combinatorial design spaces in a practical time would be desirable.


Abstract Introduction: We hypothesised that the active targeting of αvβ3 integrin overexpressed in neoangiogenic blood vessels and glioblastoma (GBM) cells combined with magnetic targeting of paclitaxel- and SPIO-loaded PLGA-based nanoparticles could improve accumulation of nanoparticles in the tumour and therefore improve the treatment of GBM. Methods: PTX/SPIO PLGA nanoparticles with or without RGD-grafting were characterised. Their in vitro cellular uptake and cytotoxicity was evaluated by fluorospectroscopy and MTT assay. In vivo safety and anti-tumour efficacy of different targeting strategies were evaluated in orthotopic U87MG tumour model over multiple intravenous injections. Results: The nanoparticles of 250 nm were negatively charged. RGD targeted nanoparticles showed a specific and higher cellular uptake than untargeted nanoparticles by activated U87MG and HUVEC cells. In vitro IC50 of PTX after 48 h was ∼1 ng/mL for all the PTX-loaded nanoparticles. The median survival time of the mice treated with magnetic targeted nanoparticles was higher than the control (saline) mice or mice treated with other evaluated strategies. The 6 doses of PTX did not induce any detectable toxic effects on liver, kidney and heart when compared to Taxol. Conclusion: The magnetic targeting strategy resulted in a better therapeutic effect than the other targeting strategies (passive, active).


Background: Hypertension endangering a risk of cardiovascular events and BP reduction will reduce such
complications. the role of aspirin in hypertension is debated, however it is advised in primary prevention in
case of patient with high risk factors assessed by one of the cardiovascular risk calculator, a state in which
the benefit of aspirin outweigh the risk of complications.
Objectives: Estimate the prevalence of aspirin misuse in hypertensive patients ,which population at risk and
estimate the possible source of this misuse habit.
Patients and Methods: A cross sectional study that has been conducted in babil city major hospitals for
the period from the 20th of January to 2nnd of May. our study sample included 353 patients all cases were
between 35 to 75 years old who attend to internal medicine outpatient clinic , emergency departments and
inpatients of the above hospitals . All patient had hypertension being treated with antihypertensive agents
and they did not experience any vascular events like CVA, IHD and PVD.
Results: 30.59% of patient do not use aspirin and 64.31 % of patients use aspirin prescribed by doctors.
Most of aspirin use was according to doctor advice( 92.7%). 5.1 a use aspirin by advice from others. Aspirin
use was more with increased age group (p value 0.003) and in females( p value is 0.04). No significant
differences between educational level, economic status, residency and occupation with the use of aspirin.
Regarding aspirin intake by their doctors and score <10 %: women were more than men ,age 40 – 60 years.
Mostly were urban, higher education of 50% had positive history of CVD. Patient who need aspirin but they
didn't use aspirin, were 66 patients mostly male live in urban area higher education , smoker , most of them
had no family history of cardiovascular diseases.
Conclusion: Aspirin use requires coordinated interaction between patient and physician with encouraging
the importance patient education about aspirin use, side effects and CVD risk and proper evaluation of
patients risk factors and stratification using simplified charts accessible in health centers.


The impact of the abolition of user fees in South Africa, a policy implemented in 1994 for children under the age of six and the elderly, as well as pregnant and nursing mothers, is examined via regression discontinuity. The analysis focuses on provider choice decisions for curative care treatment, but also examines potential externalities that could arise from the policy. As a result of the policy, curative care demand in the public sector is found to increase by approximately 7%; however, the demand for curative care in the private sector is found to decrease by nearly the same amount, suggesting that the policy led to provider choice substitution. The analysis further supports the hypothesis that the health of young children improved marginally.


The process of flow through porous media is of interest a wide range of engineering fields and areas, and the importance of fluid flow with a change in phase arises from the fact that many industrial processes rely on these phenomena for materials process, energy transfer. Especially, the flow phenomena of cryogenic liquid subjected to evaporation is of interest to investigate how the cryogenic liquid behaves in the porous structure. In this study, thermo physical properties, morphological properties of the glass wool with different bulk densities in terms of its temperature-dependence and permeability behaviors under different applying pressure are discussed. Using the experimentally determined properties, characteristics of two main experimental results are investigated. In addition, simulation results are used to realize the cryogenic liquid's flow in porous media, and are compared with experimental results. By using the experimentally determined properties, more reasonable results can be suggested in dealing with porous media flow.


Mobile phones are becoming a new popular platform for business applications. The number of mobile business users increases and so does the need for efficient mobile data exchange and collaboration. However, a traditional business application design approach is not suitable for mobile devices because of the limited memory and connection bandwidth. This paper presents a lightweight mobile SOA-based approach to interaction between business applications running on J2ME enabled devices such as cell phones. The paper includes position statement based on our experience and describes a prototype implementation of the architecture. The important features of our design are: using the knowledge of business processes workflow and XML compression to minimize data transferred; pro-active data push and allowing applications to fully function in a disconnected mode. The above approach results in a lightweight framework which can be used in order to develop a wide spectrum of business-oriented applications.


The source of the origin of the epithelium of the cardiac part stomach mucosa has been repeatedly discussed in the literature and different variants of the transformation of the epithelium as manifestation of normal anatomical peculiarities of a man and as a result of changing the program of stem cell differentiation, migration of bone marrow cells, transdifferentiation of simple columnar epithelium have been proposed. Probably it is related to difficulties of studying insignificant in size epithelium of the cardiac mucosa itself and establishment of connection of the duodenogastroesophageal reflux with the development of metaplasia in the epithelium of the terminal department of the esophagus mucosa, which resembles its structure in the cardiac part of the stomach. The purpose of the research was to study the expression of the transcription factor Sox2 and the distribution of cytokeratins in the epithelium of the gastroesophageal zone during the stages of the embryonic and fetal periods of ontogenesis. According to the purpose of the research, an immunohistochemical analysis of the epithelial differon of the esophageal-gastric junction (GEJ) was used. The current study was carried out on 169 human embryos and fetuses of gestational age from 4-5 till 38 weeks. It was established that the transcription factor Sox2 is expressed in basal epitheliocytes of GEJ in all terms of observation and plays a major role in the development, differentiation and formation of the epithelial cell lineage of GEJ. The peculiarity of expression of cytokeratin 7 was positive marking in the cytoplasm of spinosum epitheliocytes, despite the negative expression in the basal layer. It showed weak expression in the epitheliocytes of the esophageal part of the GEJ in the embryonic period with an increased reaction in the embryo-fetal period and with subsequent disappearance, starting at 14 weeks in the early fetal period. For the cardiac mucous membrane GEJ was characterized by its moderate expression on all terms of observation. Cytokeratin 8/18 is embryo-fetal for the esophageal part of the esophagus, as it is defined in early periods of embryogenesis and disappears in the late period (28-38 weeks). For the cardiac mucous membrane GEJ was characterized by its moderate expression on all terms of observation. Cytokeratin 14, unlike CK7 and CK8/18, was localized in the cytoplasm and membranes of basal epitheliocytes of the esophageal part of the mucosa from the 17 gestational weeks and was absent in the gastrointestinal part of the GEJ throughout the prenatal period. Thus, our data on the expression of the transcription factor Sox2 and cytokeratins in the GEJ epithelial differon in the prenatal period of ontogenesis will improve the diagnostic accuracy in determining tissue or organ belonging and can be widely used in various GEJ diseases.


Abstract Background A parasitoid wasp, Trissolcus solocis Johnson, was recorded parasitising eggs of the invasive stink bug Halyomorpha halys (Stål), in the United States. This is the first record of this species parasitising eggs of H. halys. New information First record of Trissolcus solocis parasitising Halyomorpha halys eggs in the United States and first record of T. solocis in Alabama.


Abstract Key Performance Indicators help an organisation to improve productivity and to evaluate its success. Improved productivity is an essential part of increasing the value-added services that companies can offer to clients and hence their competitiveness. By using Key Performance Indicators, a company can establish baseline figures against a number of important areas. They can be considered like a health check on a company or a diagnosis of where a company can improve its performance. The definition of what they are and how they are measured does not change often, but Key Performance Indicators may change as the organisation's goals change. In this paper we present and discuss the way to establish Key Performance Indicators to evaluate the production effectiveness of garment companies. The KPIs are being tested in several garment companies in Albania and actually implemented in 25 companies.


A 100 μg/L or higher concentration of 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) in blood serum is generally assumed to be associated with regular and/or heavy use of cannabis. At present, determination of the extent of cannabis use by means of the concentration of THC-COOH in hair has not been assessed. Therefore, we aimed at establishing a threshold for THC-COOH concentrations in hair to prove frequent consumption by comparing THC-COOH concentrations in 129 corresponding serum and hair samples, respectively. The concentration of THC-COOH in the serum was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and in the hair by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Data were statistically evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves and contingency tables. Our results suggest that a THC-COOH concentration of ≥4.2 pg/mg in hair was always accompanied by a THC-COOH concentration of at least 100 μg/L in blood serum. Should this be confirmed by further studies of a larger study population, a hair concentration of 4.2 pg/mg THC-COOH can be set as a threshold to predict regular and/or heavy consumption of cannabis even if no corresponding blood sample is available for analysis.


The network theory conceptualizes mental disorders as causally connected symptom systems rather than as effects of a superordinate and unknowable illness, otherwise called latent. Network analysis, a statistical technique designed to identify network structures among psychiatric symptoms from empirical data, has been widely used in eating disorders. Three of these studies have been conducted on patients with anorexia nervosa treated with intensive enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E). The first study found that the network structures in adult and adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa are similar and share overvaluation of shape and weight as the core feature of anorexia nervosa psychopathology, supporting the cognitive behavioral theory. The second study found that intensive CBT-E reduces the psychopathology network connectivity over time in patients with anorexia nervosa, confirming the effectiveness of CBT-E in improving eating-disorder psychopathology. In contrast, the third study, including in the networks not only the clinical features of the eating disorder psychopathology but also those of the general psychopathology, found that the structure of the network of patients with anorexia nervosa remains unchanged mainly after intensive CBT-E. These findings stimulate a rethinking of the current viewing of the eating-disorder psychopathology and the potential reasons for the partial efficacy of actual therapeutic interventions for patients with anorexia nervosa, which seem not effective enough to break the bonds between specific and nonspecific eating disorder features.


Despite their instability, carbon-centered radicals have been involved as intermediates in
many organic transformations that are essential to mankind. Radical polymerization,1-5
for
example, provides a large part of polyacrylates and polystyrenes used as commodities in our
everyday life. On a molecular level, the outcome of radical-mediated reactions is usually very
different from those obtained via classical ionic based organic reactions. This is known since
the 1930's6
and has witnessed extensive developments such as radical cyclization or Atom
Transfer Radical Additions (ATRA)7-9
. Radical processes10 typically begin with an initiation
step in which the first radical species is created. It is eventually followed by one or several
transfer steps which ultimately conduct to the formation of the main radical intermediate
responsible for the reaction. The propagation steps of the radical chain are a succession of
radical based transformations which, combined, outline the expected transformation.


The dynamic behaviour of a keyhole in laser welding is studied theoretically. Starting from the stationary state, where the recoil pressure from ablating particles is in equilibrium with the surface tension at the keyhole wall, the collapse time due to a sudden laser shut-down is calculated. The characteristic time constant (r03 rho / gamma )1/2 of the system (r0 is the initial keyhole radius, rho is the density of the melt, gamma is the gamma coefficient of surface tension) which is approximately 0.1 ms for Al, Fe and Cu turns out to be a lower limit of the keyhole closing time. Linear stability analysis of the stationary state reveals that under conditions relevant in practice, the keyhole is expected to perform oscillations with frequencies of several hundred Hertz. The results of this investigation are particularly important for pulsed laser applications.


Book synopsis: This book responds to the current critical interest in phantoms and haunting. It explores and assesses the twentieth century's fascination with the ghost in relation to notions of identity, authorship and memory, tracing the changing form of the ghost in key twentieth-century French media: film, photography, literature and theory.

However, the ghosts of works present cannot be understood fully without considering the ghosts of works past. Each of the twentieth-century works analyzed considers itself haunted by the past, by memory, be it personal or textual. Consequently, the volume also considers this past and these textual memories by exploring specific ghosts in successive ages (Medieval, Renaissance, Early-Modern and the nineteenth century) and genres key to these epochs (poetry, drama and the novel). Thus, this collection offers an insight into the ghost's past, its evolution across time and genre, before turning to focus on how art in twentieth-century France deals with its textual memories and the ghosts of its past. A substantial introduction explains and pulls together the themes and analytical structure of the volume to provide unity and cohesion among the various chapters.


Hyperbilirubinemia is one of the most common clinical phenomena. It is found in 80% of premature infants and 60% of term infants in the first week of life. Most hyperbilirubinemia does not require special therapy, but because of the potential toxic effects, all neonates should be monitored to detect the possibility of severe hyperbilirubinemia. Based on data from the Directorate of Family Health, in 2019, out of 29,322 under-5 deaths, 69% of deaths occurred in the neonatal period. One of the causes of mortality in neonates is bilirubin encephalopathy/kernicterus. Bilirubin encephalopathy is the most severe complication of neonatal jaundice. In addition to encephalopathy, other risks include sequelae in the form of cerebral palsy, high-pitched deafness, paralysis and dental dysplasia, which greatly affect the quality of life. Several studies have been conducted to find alternative supporting therapies that can be used to effectively reduce bilirubin levels in addition to providing phototherapy, one of which is the provision of field massages. Field massage is thought to increase the excretion of bilirubin in infants during phototherapy. The purpose of this literature review was to determine the effect of field massage on reducing bilirubin levels in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia. This was a traditional narrative literature review which grouped similar extracted data according to the results measured to answer the objectives. According to the results, giving field massages two times a day for three days for 15 minutes each time was able to significantly reduce bilirubin levels.
Keywords: field massage, hyperbilirubinemia, neonates


Abstract Objectives: To identify clinical patterns of impairment affecting the cervical spine and masticatory systems in different subcategories of temporomandibular disorder (TMD) by an explorative data-driven approach. Methods: For this observational study, 144 subjects were subdivided according to Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMDs into: Healthy controls, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) signs without symptoms, TMJ affected, temporomandibular muscles affected, or TMJ and muscles affected. Factor analysis and linear regression were applied to cervical spine and masticatory data to identify and characterize clinical patterns in subgroups. Results: Factor analysis identified five clinical dimensions, which explained 59% of all variance: Mechanosensitivity, cervical movement, cervical and masticatory dysfunction, jaw movement, and upper cervical movement. Regression analysis identified different clinical dimensions in each TMD subgroup. Conclusion: Distinct clinical patterns of cervical spine and masticatory function were found among subgroups of TMD, which has clinical implications for therapeutic management.


We study ultrathin films of 8CB in planar anchoring on a MoS2 inorganic substrate. We evidence an anchoring breakage for 60-nm-thick films, in favor of the homeotropic anchoring at the air interface. This allows one to determine the 8CB-MoS2 smectic anchoring energy. We then demonstrate for films thinner than 60 nm that, under the homeotropic bulk, an intermediate film remains in planar anchoring, associated with a melting of the smectic layers close to the substrate. Such a melting could be general for planar or tilted anchorings and we show that, for strong anchorings, the anchoring energy can be driven by the deformations of this intermediate nematic film.


Caloric/dietary restriction (CR/DR) can promote longevity and protect against age-associated disease across species. The molecular mechanisms coordinating food intake with health-promoting metabolism are thus of significant medical interest. We report that conserved Caenorhabditis elegans microRNA-80 (mir-80) is a major regulator of the DR state. mir-80 deletion confers system-wide healthy aging, including maintained cardiac-like and skeletal muscle-like function at advanced age, reduced accumulation of lipofuscin, and extended lifespan, coincident with induction of physiological features of DR. mir-80 expression is generally high under ad lib feeding and low under food limitation, with most striking food-sensitive expression changes in posterior intestine. The acetyltransferase transcription co-factor cbp-1 and interacting transcription factors daf-16/FOXO and heat shock factor-1 hsf-1 are essential for mir-80(Δ) benefits. Candidate miR-80 target sequences within the cbp-1 transcript may confer food-dependent regulation. Under food limitation, lowered miR-80 levels directly or indirectly increase CBP-1 protein levels to engage metabolic loops that promote DR.


The subject of this essay is the problem of interpersonal communication caused by divergent concepts of face' as held by groups of different ethnic and/or sociocultural origin. The target is to develop a educational strategy of integrative cross-cultural conflict solution through intercultural understanding. A definition of the cultural bond character of 'face' and 'loss of face' with several illustrations is followed by two autobiographical narrations which show how face negotiation ' is perceived in α situative context by children and adolescents. Finally, alternative fictitious conflict solutions are presented reflecting the underlying differences in value concepts as reason for misunderstanding.


Particles moving in a central force move in closed nonprecessing orbits for discrete values of the angular momentum even though the force law is different from the inverse square (Coulomb) or linear (harmonic oscillator) type. We do not present a general survey of all central forces exhibiting such discrete closed orbits because the search is likely to be tedious. We restrict ourselves to the family of central force laws for which it is always possible to find a function of u, the inverse radial distance 1/r, which regarded as a function of the angular coordinate ( is the orbit equation) is a harmonic function for all initial conditions. Surprisingly for all central forces of this family the search of closed orbits is straightforward and the discrete values of the angular momentum J are easily found.


Data imbalance remains one of the open challenges in the contemporary machine learning. It is especially prevalent in case of medical data, such as histopathological images. Traditional data-level approaches for dealing with data imbalance are ill-suited for image data: oversampling methods such as SMOTE and its derivatives lead to creation of unrealistic synthetic observations, whereas undersampling reduces the amount of available data, critical for successful training of convolutional neural networks. To alleviate the problems associated with over- and undersampling we propose a novel two-stage resampling methodology, in which we initially use the oversampling techniques in the image space to leverage a large amount of data for training of a convolutional neural network, and afterwards apply undersampling in the feature space to fine-tune the last layers of the network. Experiments conducted on a colorectal cancer image dataset indicate the usefulness of the proposed approach.


The present paper deals with the kinetics of the adsorption of methylene blue from an industrial
effluent onto activated carbon prepared from a cheap source- fruits of Mimusops elengi. The
rate constants for the adsorption of methylene blue dye were determined using Lagergren rate
equation, Intraparticle diffusion rate equation and Elovich rate equation. Commercially
available activated carbon was used for comparative purpose. The results of the study show that
the adsorption process followed first order kinetics and that the economic adsorbent can be
successfully employed in the removal of dyes from effluents. The applicability of the foresaid rate
equations is also well evident.


Interconnected networks have been shown to be much more vulnerable to random and targeted failures than isolated ones, raising several interesting questions regarding the identification and mitigation of their risk. The paradigm to address these questions is the percolation model, where the resilience of the system is quantified by the dependence of the size of the largest cluster on the number of failures. Numerically, the major challenge is the identification of this cluster and the calculation of its size. Here, we propose an efficient algorithm to tackle this problem. We show that the algorithm scales as O(NlogN), where N is the number of nodes in the network, a significant improvement compared to O(N(2)) for a greedy algorithm, which permits studying much larger networks. Our new strategy can be applied to any network topology and distribution of interdependencies, as well as any sequence of failures.


2. A configuration of 4027 points in the plane is called Colombian if it consists of 2013 red points and 2014 blue points, and no three of the points of the configuration are collinear. By drawing some lines, the plane is divided into several regions. An arrangement of lines is good for a Colombian configuration if the following two conditions are satisfied: • no line passes through any point of the configuration; • no region contains points of both colours.


A survey of CEOs at Fortune 1,000 firms asked about their firms' hurdle rates and time horizons. Survey results suggest that most U.S. firms use hurdle rates that are higher than standard cost-of-capital analyses would suggest. The average discount rate applied to constant-dollar cash flows was 12.2 percent, distinctly higher than equity holders' average rates of return and much higher than the return on debt during the past half-century. At the time of the survey, the fall of 1990, U.S. CEOs believed that their firms had systematically shorter time horizons than their major competitors in Europe and (especially) Asia. U.S. CEOs also thought that government policy is a powerful agent affecting corporate planning horizons. They saw several policy reforms, including a cut in corporate tax rates, a permanent R&D tax credit, a corporate tax deduction for dividend payments, and a credible commitment to a stable tax policy for the next decade, as policies that could lengthen planning horizons.


Reading requires the integration of several central cognitive subsystems from attention and oculomotor control to word identification and language comprehension. When reading, the eyes alternate between long movements and relative stillness, that are called saccadic movements and fixations, respectively. The average fixation lasts for 150 to 250 ms and it is composed by three movements called microsaccades (or microsaccadic movements), tremor and drift. Drift and tremor are slow movements with small amplitude; microsaccades represent a ballistic component of fixational eye movements. Then, microsaccades are characterized as roughly linear movement epochs with durations up to 30ms and a frequency of one to two per second in fixations not related with reading. There are just a few works analyzing microsaccades while subjects are processing complex information and fewer when doing predictions about upcoming events. In all of them there is evidence that microsaccades are sensitive to changes of perceptual inputs as well as modulations of cognitive states. Changes in perceptual inputs are related to the type of sentences (low/high predictability, proverbs) and the characteristics of the words in the sentence (frequency, predictability, length, etc.). Let us recall the definition of maxjump: it is the word with the largest difference between the cloze predictability of two consecutive words. Then, in this work we present a first analysis of the energy of the wavelet coefficients of microsaccades during reading proverbs and low predictability sentences on words before maxjump, during maxjump and words after maxjump. The idea of this approach is to try to characterize its behavior along each one of those set of words in order to have another tool for evaluating microsaccades during reading sentences with different contextual predictability since this might provide information about specific effect of cue attention on complex task.


ABSTRACT: To evaluate the relationship between brain blood flow and ventilatory response to hypoxia, seventeen sedated, spontaneously breathing newborn piglets were studied. Minute ventilation (VE) was measured by pneumotachograph, cardiac output by thermodilution and total brain and brain stem blood flows with radiolabeled microspheres. Measurements were performed while the animals were breathing room air and after 10 min of hypoxia induced by breathing 10% O2. Two patterns of ventilatory response to hypoxia were observed in the study animals. All animals increasedVE during the 1st min of hypoxia, but nine (mean ± SD; age 5 ± 1.3 d; wt 1828 ± 437 g) sustained increased VE after 10 min of hypoxia (↑VE group). The remaining eight animals (age 5 ± 1.2 d; wt 1751 ± 168 g) had decreased VE at 10 min of hypoxia to values less than their room air baseline (↓VE group). The decrease in PaO2 during hypoxia was similar in both groups, however the PaCO2 decreased significantly only in the ↑VE group. Although cardiac output increased significantly during hypoxia in both groups, the values during normoxia and hypoxia were lower in the ↓VE group (p <0.001). Arterial blood pressure increased significantly during hypoxia only in the ↑VE group. The increase in total brain and brain stem blood flows with hypoxia was similar in both groups, despite the two different patterns of ventilatory response to hypoxia. These data suggest that in this animal model the distinct patterns of ventilatory response to hypoxia are not related to the changes in total brain or brain stem blood flows that occur during hypoxia.


Since working memory (WM) has important implications in academics, this study investigates the construct of Baddeley's model of WM in English language learners (ELLs). This secondary analysis of data was taken from two Institute of Educational Science Grants (#R324A090092 & #R324A090002), which included samples of cognitive and academic performance of ELL and non-ELL students in central and southern California schools. Specifically, this study asked: (1) Does the theoretical framework of Baddeleys' multicomponent model of working memory (WM) in English and Spanish fit the data for children who are English language learners (ELLs)?, (2) Are there differences in English working memory structures between ELL and non-ELL groups?, and (3) Does the structure of WM for ELL children remain stable over time in English and Spanish measures? To examine whether the construct of WM memory varies between ELL and non-ELL children and between English and Spanish measure of WM over time, various structural equation models were conducted. This study yielded three important findings: (1) the theoretical framework for WM in English and Spanish fit the data for children who are ELLs, (2) working memory structures measured in English are comparable in ELL and non-ELL groups, and (3) the structure of WM for ELL children does not remain stable over time in English and Spanish measures. Taken together, this research finds that Baddeley's model of WM is an adequate conceptualization for ELLs and that the construct of WM can be measured within both English and Spanish language systems. In addition, there was evidence for the measurement invariance across ELL and non-ELL groups. These finding suggest that the construct of WM is being measured consistently across the two language systems and that results from subsequent studies can be generalized to ELLs whose primary language is Spanish.


Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) aim to efficiently provide the radiologists with all images in a suitable quality for diagnosis. Modern standards for digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) comprise alphanumerical descriptions of study, patient, and technical parameters. Currently, this is the only information used to select relevant images within PACS. Since textual descriptions insufficiently describe the great variety of details in medical images, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is expected to have a strong impact when integrated into PACS. However, existing CBIR approaches usually are limited to a distinct modality, organ, or diagnostic study. In this state-of-the-art report, we present first results implementing a general approach to content-based image retrieval in medical applications (IRMA) and discuss its integration into PACS environments. Usually, a PACS consists of a DICOM image server and several DICOM-compliant workstations, which are used by radiologists for reading the images and reporting the findings. Basic IRMA components are the relational database, the scheduler, and the web server, which all may be installed on the DICOM image server, and the IRMA daemons running on distributed machines, e.g., the radiologists' workstations. These workstations can also host the web-based front-ends of IRMA applications. Integrating CBIR and PACS, a special focus is put on (a) location and access transparency for data, methods, and experiments, (b) replication transparency for methods in development, (c) concurrency transparency for job processing and feature extraction, (d) system transparency at method implementation time, and (e) job distribution transparency when issuing a query. Transparent integration will have a certain impact on diagnostic quality supporting both evidence-based medicine and case-based reasoning.


Most computer network books are described based on a top-down or button-up layer-based perspective – allowing readers to learn about concepts and protocols in one layer as a part of a complex system. At each layer, the books illustrated the mechanisms and protocols provided at this layer to its upper layer. Unlike other computer network books, this book additionally provides protocol-based and architecture-based perspective to study the computer networks, the Internet and Next Generation Networks. The book starts with a short introduction to the computer network and their design – covering the basic reference models, the multimedia networking, Next Generation Networking and Mobile Networking as well as network planning considerations. Fundamental techniques are described – covering mechanisms, protocols, architectures and services to control the traffic and ensure the QoS for data and multimedia applications. For each technique, the author formulates the problem statement and illustrates complete solution – including basic idea, concept, architecture, protocol behaviour, their advantages and disadvantages.


This paper describes a novel approach to scheduling with multiple supply voltages in the high-level synthesis. The proposed approach considers, identifies, and exploits the maximal parallelism available in an initial schedule, and applies a modified stochastic evolution mechanism to iteratively improve, or re-schedule, the previously obtained best-schedule to reduce the maximal power consumption of function-units. Based on simulation and evaluation of the proposed approach (using standard benchmarks), it is observed that a power saving of upto 80% is possible when three supply voltage levels, 5 V, 3.3 V, and 2.4 V are considered. In addition to scheduling for low power, the proposed methodology can serve as a vital guiding tool to a designer for studying the efficacy of different design choices before a final design option is selected.


We examined the usefulness of technetium-99m-phytate (99mTc-phytate) hepatic scintigraphy in the evaluation of hepatic function, and the assessment of prognosis in patients with cirrhosis. Ninety-four patients with biopsy-documented cirrhosis had, at the time of entry into the study, a scintigraphy with 99mTc-phytate complexed with calcium in vivo. Extrahepatic uptake (EHU) of 99mTc-phytate on scintigraphy was graded from 0 (absent EHU) to 5 (important EHU) according to the relative distribution of the radiotracer between the liver, the spleen and the bone marrow. The severity of liver disease was also assessed according to the index of Child and Turcotte as modified by Pugh et al. Mean follow-up was 2 yr. EHU was correlated to the Pugh score (r = 0.73) and to survival. Survival at 2 yr was 97% for an EHU equal or inferior to 2.5, 62% for grades 3-4.5, and 31% for grade 5. In conclusion, hepatic imaging with 99mTc-phytate, in addition to its diagnostic value, also contains valuable prognostic information in patients with cirrhosis.


The field electron emission plays a vital role in the process of vacuum discharge breakdown. The electric field strength at the cathode tip is significant to the generation characteristics of vacuum arc metal plasmas. To increase the field strength at the cathode tip, a coaxial electrode plasma source was employed with an insulator settled between the electrodes. The math expression of the field strength is derived based on the Gauss theory. The impact of the insulator on the electric field and parameters of plasmas were investigated by MAXWELL 3D® simulation software and the Langmuir probe. In addition, a composite insulator was adopted to further strengthen the field strength. A series of experiments were performed to focus on the role of the composite insulator in detail. The experimental and simulation results indicate that, a reasonable layout of the insulator, especially the composite insulator, can effectively increase the field strength at the cathode tip and the plasma density.


A study was done to determine the occurrence of porcine circoviruses in Malaysia. Porcine Circovirus 2 (PCV2) is the causative agent of Porcine Circovirus associated
Diseases (PCVAD), of which Post Weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome (PMWS) is the most important. The virus is of huge economic significance worldwide. Globally, the virus and disease has been reported in Canada, US, several
European countries and in Asia. In Malaysia PCV2 was first identified by the Veterinary Research Institute in 2004 by RFLP methods followed by the first case study of PCVAD in 2007 based on clinical features, histopathology findings and PCR screenings. The objectives were to detect PCV2 from selected pig farms and to genetically characterize them. Understanding the presence of the virus may contribute to better vaccination programs against the virus which may control the disease manifestation. At the time the samples were collected, PCV2 vaccines were not available in Malaysia. Therefore, this study will represent the complete
phylogenetic characterization of PCV2 reported for the first time in Malaysia from samples collected in 2007. To meet the objective of the study, organ samples were
 collected from 42 selected pig farms in Malaysia (Penang, Perak, Selangor, Melaka,Johor and Sarawak). The organ samples were collected from animals that demonstrated typical clinical signs of PCVAD such as wasting, weight loss, stunted in growth, dyspnea, lymph nodes enlargement, diarrhea, pallor and jaundice. A total of five pigs were sampled from each farm. For the end analysis, the organs were pooled and screened by PCR to represent the data in each farm. Among the 42 farms,39 were positive for PCV, while three farms indicate negative result. Subsequently, a
phylogenetic tree was constructed from 13 representative positive PCV2 samples to represent the six states of which samples were collected from. All 13 selected samples fell into the same clade as other PCV2b isolates from other countries. Amino acid sequence analysis of the putative capsid protein (ORF2) of the PCV2 revealed that there are three clusters found in Malaysia, namely cluster 1C and
1A/1B. The hyper variable regions of the ORF2 of PCV2 was analyzed by utilizing a differentiation of wild-type vs. vaccine-type strain (DIVA) assay by real-time PCR which was developed in this study in order to distinguish and differentiate the strains isolated in this study. Analysis by DIVA assay which targeted the hyper variable regions confirmed that all isolates were wild-type PCV2 with no association with vaccine strains. Overall, our study suggests that there may be a link between movements of animals by import of breeders into the country being the route of entry of the virus. However, more investigations are needed to confirm this.


purchase. When the crotchet branch is firmly fixed, then the guard should be passed on the other side of the pelvis, and applied to the opposite sde of the f e t a l body. The locking should then be duly adjusted, and the handles of the instrument firmly bound together by a tape. The first efforts of extraction, I scarcely need observe, should be made in a line with the superior aperture of the pelvis, and in such a firm but cautious manner, as not to fail to bring the fcetal body through ils narrow passage, and yet without permitting any part of the shanks of the instrument to impinge against the parieties of the pelvis." " Elements of Operative Midwifery," p. 302. Palm-rest very broad, handles thick, lined with ebony, flattened antero-posteriorly, slight shoulder, English lock. A massive instrument, heavy for its size, the crotchet is very wide and blunt at its extremity, and bears three prongs, each about 2 in. ( I .95 cm.) long; bent sharply downwards. The guard has the shape ot a shallow, elongated spoon and is longer than the crotchet, capping its blunt end when closed. R o y a l Soc ie ty of Medicine.


tongue in a manner different to persons with natural palates, in his endeavours to overcome the congenital deficiency of structure; and now that the palate is supplied him he cannot at once adapt his tornguie to the new position of structures: for instance, in endeavouring to articulate the letter T, he places his tongue in the position to pronounce E. Never having had a roof to his mouth, the tip of the tongue had nothing to rest against above in his efforts to articulate the T; and consequently itlwas always placed in the position for pronouncing the E, as being the letter nearest in sound to the T. Difficulties of this kind in articulation vary in proportion to the extent of the fissuire; but the marked improvement in this case already, certairnly encourages the surgeon to hope that, with care and great attention, the worst deformity giving rise to great defect in speech may be ultimately benefited by operation, even if the patienit be not ultimately entirely able to overcome the defects in speech which he has acquired in his younger years. A brother of this patient has a cleft of the soft palate, but is at present too young to be operated upon; and it is by no means uncommon to find more than one member of a family the sul)ject of these congenital deficiencies of the mouth.


Low-power continuous wave "cooker" magnetrons driven from industrial-quality switch-mode power supplies have been frequency locked by driving them as current-controlled oscillators in a phase-lock loop (PLL). The noise performance of these frequency-locked oscillators is reported as a function of heater power. The injection of -30- to -40dB signals derived from the reference oscillator of the PLL into the magnetron's output waveguide while the anode current is controlled by the PLL is shown to phase lock the magnetron's output. Results for locking performance are presented.


This study was conducted to investigate the mechanisms of enhanced microfine flake graphite (MFG) flotation by nanobubbles generated based on the principle of hydrodynamic cavitation. The effects of nanobubbles on graphite surface properties were characterized in terms of the flotation kinetics, collector adsorption behavior, Zeta potential, IR spectra, contact angle, etc. The results show that the surface nanobubbles increased the hydrophobic attraction and reduced the electrostatic repulsion between the graphite particles and collector molecules, significantly improving the flotation selectivity and the kinetic flotation rate and promoting the agglomeration of MFG.


Billy Wilder (1906-2002) was American cinema's greatest import. Hailing from Austria, Wilder arrived in Hollywood in 1935 and, with his skilled eye and sharp wit, took the town by storm. Exploring nearly all of the silver screen's genres (slapstick comedy, eerie suspense, film noir, courtroom drama, romantic comedy...) and sometimes creating unheard-of genre cocktails (comedy and war in a Nazi prison camp in Stalag 17) he graced every film he directed with the inimitable and magical "Wilder touch." That films like Sunset Boulevard, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, and Love in the Afternoon all hall from the same director/co-writer is a remarkable thing. With 26 films to his name, Billy Wilder was not only one of the greatest and most prolific filmmakers of all time but also the most versatile.


AbstractNonmelanotic skin cancer is the most common human neoplasia and its incidence is rising. The completeness of resection is the most important quality feature of surgical treatment of nonmelanotic skin cancer, as a complete resection distinctly reduces local recurrence. In this trial, we analyze the incomplete resection rate of nonmelanotic skin cancer (N = 524) through plastic surgery assistant doctors in the first 3 years of surgical training. We find that the incomplete resection rate of nonmelanotic skin cancer decreases significantly (P = 0.026) from mean 12.1% in the first year of training to mean 5.7% in the third year of training, despite a gain in difficulty level concerning tumor localization. Moreover, we identify the following tumor features as a risk factor for incomplete resection: facial tumors (P = 0.034), recurrent lesions (P = 0.032), and the tumor class of the superficial basal cell carcinoma (P = 0.010). We prove that complete excision of nonmelanotic skin cancer distinctly depends on the surgeon's experience level.


Arsenate and arsenite concentrations were determined in estuarine and coastal waters around Goa during the pre-monsoon months (February to April). Arsenate was found to be the dominant form in both the systems. In the estuarine waters, arsenate varied from less than 1 mu g/l to 21.75 mu g/l (av. 5.28 mu g/l) and arsenite from less than 1 mu g/l to 18.75 mu g/l (av. 2.54 mu g/l) while in coastal waters, it ranged from less than 1 mu g/1 to 24.0 mu g/l (av. 5.91 mu g/l) and arsenite from less than 1 mu g/1 to 9.0 (mu g/1 (av. 1.43 mu g/l). A few estimations of the total arsenic in the estuarine and coastal sediments indicate marked accumulation of this element (4 -14 ppm). The observed variations in the waters are attributed to the differential intensities of chemical and biological oxidation in the system, microbial reduction and the mixing processes


The European Commission's (EC) Orphan Medicinal Products Regulation intended to incentivise the research, development and marketing of new treatments for rare and chronically disabling or life-threatening diseases. Marketing authorisation granted to orphan medicinal products (OMPs) is however only the first step; patients have access to medicines once reimbursement or health technology assessment (HTA) decisions are implemented by national health systems. Our analysis found that since the implementation of the OMPs Regulation in 2000, 143 OMPs obtained a marketing authorisation in the EU. These OMPs are most widely accessible in Germany and France. In the other countries between 30% and 60% of OMPs are reimbursed. In England, less than 50% of OMPs are routinely funded by the NHS, with one-third of these recommended by NICE. The remaining products are directly procured and made available to patients by NHS England via commissioning policies or through the Cancer Drugs Fund. In Germany reimbursement is automatically granted to all medicines which receive a marketing authorisation, immediately after it. For the other countries, the shortest time from authorisation to a reimbursement decision is observed in France and Italy which takes on average 19 months.


Despite the large number of women in the healthcare field, healthcare management resembles other industries in its severe lack of women in upper-management positions and in the "glass ceiling" that contributes to this dearth. Although not enough has been specifically written on women healthcare managers, the author reviews what is available, along with some of the general management literature.


Finding pediatric clinical sites for students in advanced health assessment courses can be challenging. By using creative planning, new methods of acquiring additional clinical sites can be developed. Three specific ideas for new site acquisition, as well as potential limitations, are suggested.


Respiratory and metabolic changes were studied in twenty normal children during inhalation of 1.5 per cent methoxyflurane or halothane. Both agents caused a significant reduction in pH, and this acidosis was entirely due to a raised Pco2. It was calculated that after 30 minutes anaesthesia the approximate arterial tension of methoxyflurane was 0.3 per cent and that of halothane 0.8 per cent. Since the presumed blood concentration of methoxyflurane was about one-third that of halothane and since the two agents caused the same degree of respiratory acidosis, it is suggested that the halogenated ether is approximately three times as potent a respiratory depressant. There was no evidence that either anaesthetic produced metabolic acidosis, standard bicarbonate remaining unaltered.


Most commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in fish stocks sourced by overcapacity, and thus, there has been a decline in the economic benefits of fishermen, industries, and regions that rely on fisheries for their support in Samsun. Therefore, the study evaluated productive efficiency measures for large scale modern commercial fishermen in Samsun Province, Turkey. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to calculate productive efficiency measures. 55 trawlers and 65 fishermen who prefer to use trawlers together with seine fishing were interviewed in the 2007–2008 production periods. Research results showed that the mean economic efficiency of trawlers and the fishermen preferring to use trawlers together with seine fishing were 0.535 and 0.667, respectively. In Samsun, the primary source of economic inefficiency for trawlers was allocative inefficiency, while that of mixed fishermen was technical inefficiency. Decomposition of the technical efficiency showed that pure technical efficiency was the primary cause of the technical inefficiency for both trawlers and mixed fishermen. Most fishermen in both fishing types exhibited increasing return to scale. Research findings also revealed that basic source of inefficiency was overcapacity problems sourced by market failures and restrictions on season length in the research area. Policy measures aimed at developing training and extension programs, helping fishermen improve their technical information, eliminating inefficiency sourced by overcapacity, sustainable use of the fish stocks, and encouraging fishermen to obtain higher added value from fish and other sea products via processing, packing and storing fish instead of increasing fish production are recommended to increase productive efficiency in the research area.


The present paper presents an alternative urban design approach that explores the project as an inbetween mechanism. By in-between, we assume that "the project is neither the beginning nor the ending it is just an in-between in places' time, both past and indeterminate future."[1] It is an in-between time process that crosses several scales, actors, and places. We found the in-Between Project by searching through the existing cracks [2] in the contemporary built environment – uncertain and abandoned places/buildings and wastelands – generated by four factors: (a) the increasing of a fragile global economy; (b) the recurrent urban transformation processes (such as the over construction of road infrastructures and the cyclic destruction/construction of the old/new housing planning); (c) the absence of activities/production; and (d) the consequent abandonment of buildings and urban plots. Therefore, it was acknowledged that these cracking processes are creating a catalytic effect in the built environment, causing uncertain cross-scaled consequences between time, space, and society such as: not knowing the future of these places, not expecting positive scenarios for these places, not conveying the relationships of these places, and not engaging socially with these places. When addressing this problematic, fundamental questions arise: how can we articulate the (dis)connections created by the existing cracks in the urban environment? How can we transform the waste inherent to these cracks into a life potential? How can we create a viable metabolism with this waste? How can we generate new activities? How can we attract new inhabitants? How can we transform cracks into magnets? In this research, we realised that these questions cannot be answered through the narrow design solutions formalized by neither the conventional object/programmatic approach, nor by the top-to-bottom/bottom-to-top urban strategies, detached from the indeterminate cross time-scale relationships of these cracked places. An alternative urban design approach was required. The in-Between Project is structured using three interconnected concepts: Cite, Recite. and Incite. Cite is to select the time traces found in the place to trigger and ground the design project. Recite is to transform the cited elements into a simple base structure that stimulates unforeseen appropriations and becomes adaptable to change. Incite is to critically imagine future possible scenarios for the created base structure. These ideas are presented, tested, and developed in one specific design research in Azenha do Mar, a remote fishing village on the southwest coast of Portugal. It is acknowledged that the in-Between Project is a simple practice of in(c)(v)itation: it incites the hidden potentials of cracked places and invites human beings to appropriate them in an imaginative and unforeseeable way.


textabstractThe human body is under constant siege of pathogens - bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. We can only survive because these attackers are continuously fought off by our immune system. Important tasks within the immune system of vertebrates are performed by T lymphocytes, the executors of speci.c, cellular immunity.
The speci.city of T lymphocytes lies in their T-cell receptor (TCR), through which they sense the presence of antigens in their environment. Each T cell expresses a TCR with a unique antigen-recognition site, so all T cells together can respond to an enormous variety of antigens. The highly diverse T-cell repertoire is generated by random recombination of discrete TCR gene segments. Via the TCR, T cells recognize peptide antigens that are displayed by antigen presenting cells (APCs), in the context of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I or class II molecules. Mature T cells carry out their function in cellular immunity as either CD8+ cytotoxic T cells or as CD4+ helper T cells. The humoral part of the speci.c immune system is supplied by B lymphocytes, which can secrete their antigen receptors in the form of antibodies.
T cells develop from multipotent precursors via a highly ordered, but complex differentiation pathway. A number of critical events occur during this T-cell development process. Cells proliferate, adopt a T-cell fate, and produce a TCR molecule via a strictly ordered process of gene rearrangements. Stringent selection processes make sure that the produced TCR molecule is self-MHC restricted but not reactive to self-antigens. Finally, the selected T cells are allowed to mature into functional effector T cells.
To become highly differentiated and thoroughly 'educated' cells, T cells need a specialized microenvironment for their development. The organ which has evolved to ful.ll this task and which also gave T cells their name, is the Thymus. The hematopoietic cells that undergo T-cell development in the thymus are called thymocytes.
The importance of the thymus as essential microenvironment for T-cell development is illustrated by children af.icted by the DiGeorge syndrome, who sometimes completely lack a thymus. These children have severely reduced T cell numbers and suffer from recurrent life-threatening infections. DiGeorge syndrome also illustrates the fact that T cells are the only hematopoietic cell type that absolutely require the thymus for their development.
Although human T-cell development is the main theme of this thesis, most of the published knowledge about T-cell differentiation has been acquired by studies in the mouse.


U.S. agricultural exports dropped $5 billion to $26.3 billion and 16 million tons to 110 million tons in fiscal year (FY) 1986 (October 1985-September 1986). Imports rose 6 percent to $20.9 billion in FY 1986, the third year in which import values Nominal farm prices for U.S. grains and oilseeds have have reached record highs. Exports, principally wheat, fallen to their lowest levels since crop year 1972. feed grains, cotton, and tobacco, to Western Europe continued to fall in FY 1986 but at a slower rate than in previous years.


The authors describe efforts to develop an evidential approach to autonomous locative reasoning that shows promise of overcoming the computational burden of using Cartesian maps, and reduces the need to instrument environments. Perceptual cues were extracted from sonar and structured-light data and they were interpreted to infer the presence or absence of objects found local to the mobile platform. These objects, their spatial relationships, and knowledge of the previously known location were then used to infer the current location. The results of the experiments conducted so far suggest that evidential based locative reasoning techniques can help to bridge the technological gap left by current approaches.<<ETX>>


We studied the distribution of World War I fighter pilots by the number of victories they were credited with, along with casualty reports. Using the maximum entropy method we obtained the underlying distribution of pilots by their skill. We find that the variance of this skill distribution is not very large, and that the top aces achieved their victory scores mostly by luck. For example, the ace of aces, Manfred von Richthofen, most likely had a skill in the top quarter of the active WWI German fighter pilots and was no more special than that. When combined with our recent study (Simkin and Roychowdhury, 2006), showing that fame grows exponentially with victory scores, these results (derived from real data) show that both outstanding achievement records and resulting fame are mostly due to chance.


ZnO nanoroods/poly (MEH-PPV) hybrid solar cells are fabricated and their properties are discussed. In order to improve the absorption of sunlight, a layer of 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride(PTCDA) is inserted between ZnO nanorods and MEH-PPV, and cells with the structure ITO/ZnO nanorods/PTCDA/MEH-PPV/Au are prepared with different thickness values of PTCDA. After introducing PTCDA, the devices show a strong and broad absorption in visible region, which increases the number of photo-induced excitons and thus results in an enlarged photocurrent. When the thickness of PTCDA is 40 nm, we can observe the smooth morphology of thin layer surface, and achieve the best performance of the device.


The quantum mechanical equivalent of parametric resonance is studied. A simple model of a periodically kicked harmonic oscillator is introduced which can be solved exactly. Classically stable and unstable regions in parameter space are shown to correspond to Floquet operators with qualitatively different properties. Their eigenfunctions, which are calculated exactly, exhibit a transition: for parameter values with classically stable solutions the eigenstates are normalizable while they cannot be normalized for parameter values with classically unstable solutions. Similarly, the spectrum of quasi energies undergoes a specific transition. These observations remain valid qualitatively for arbitrary linear systems exhibiting classically parametric resonance such as the paradigm example of a frequency modulated pendulum described by Mathieu's equation.


Positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTCR) ceramics of 0.912(Ba1+xTiO3)–0.088(Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3) (BT–BNT) (x = −0.03 to 0.03) were prepared using the mixed oxide route and sintered at 1340°C for 4 h. Products were predominantly single phase with a tetragonal structure and grains in 2–6 μm size containing 90° ferroelectric domains. Samples with Ti/Ba > 1 contained second-phase Ba6Ti17O40. HRTEM and aberration-corrected Z-contrast high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) suggested that the dopants, Bi and Na, occupy the Ba site of the perovskite lattice, and revealed the presence of dissociated dislocations in x = −0.03 and x = 0.00 materials. The interval between two partial dislocations was 1.9–3.4 nm, yielding stacking fault energies of 363–649 mJ/m2. The PTCR behavior of the ceramics increased with Ti/Ba content, reaching a maximum of six decades change in resistivity for x = −0.03. The anomalous increase in resistivity depends critically on stoichiometry, increasing with the Ti/Ba ratio; this in turn is directly correlated with an increase in the amount of second-phase Ba6Ti17O40, an increase in the stacking fault energy, and an increase in the tilt angle of the grain boundaries.