Operational liquidity management explicitly demonstrates material influences on the decision making of executives, especially for the emerging markets, which are featured as the financial mechanisms with insufficient and immature capital flows. The study explores the importance and contributions of working capital management in the case of Thailand, which represents one of the typical emerging markets, by employing 104 listed companies in three different sectors covering the period of year 2002 to 2011 on a quarterly basis, through the incorporation of, working capital management ratios, leverage ratios, and profitability ratios. It results that, the inventory and credit management do contribute to the efficiency of working capital management and therefore impact the basic earning power, rather than financial leverage and profitability.


INTRODUCTION: The aim of present study was to identify the risk conditions and features related to medical and surgical treatment, hospital stage, and discharge status of patients presenting with postoperative evisceration. METHODS: An observational and descriptive study was conducted in 30 adult patients underwent evisceration postlaparotomy performed in "Dr. Joalquin Castillo Duany" Teaching Provincial Hospital in Santiago de Cuba province during the fiveyear period 2002-2006. RESULTS: The closure of abdominal wall using non-absorbable, continuous internal subtotal suture supported by total suture becomes option of more favorable therapeutical results. The use of broad spectrum antibiotics was the optimal measure in face of the marked variety of germs present in the series. The long hospital stage was associated with predominance of admissions in intensive care units (ICUs). It was possible to identify the surgical reintervention, the increase of intra-abdominal pressure and the opening of aponeurosis using electroscalapel as the prevailing risk conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Evisceration is a severe postsurgical complication due to its high morbidity and the coexistence of many risk conditions, justifying the individual treatment of each patient. For its prevention it is mandatory strict measures before, during and after surgery where surgeon plays the leading role.


Background: Prescribing generic medicine is still a debatable issue among prescribers and the issues of bioequivalence, quality, and safety remain problem areas. The perception that generic medicines are inferior to brand medicine can be eradicated by educating medical students who are the future prescribers.

Aim and Objective: The correct knowledge of generic medicine among students will enhance the prescribing of low cost and effective medicines. Therefore, this study was conducted to analyze the knowledge and perception of generic medicines among undergraduates (UG), interns, and postgraduate (PG) students in a medical teaching institute.

Materials and Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 230 medical students (145 UG, 50 interns, and 35 PG) in Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, to assess knowledge and attitude of students for generic medicines. Chi-square test was used to analyze results.

Results: About 98% of UG and interns and 100% of PG students were aware of generic medicines. Awareness of Jan Aushadhi Scheme is substantially poor in UG students as compared to interns and PG (P < 0.001). About 86% of student considered generic medicine of low cost, less effective (30%), poor quality (34%), and having more side effects (38%) as compared to branded medicine. Students believe product bonuses (28%) and advertisement (38%) by pharmaceuticals will alter their prescribing patterns in the future. About 71% of students (P < 0.001) consider that it is easier to remember a generic name and 89% of students (P < 0.001) wish to have further information regarding generic medicine in their medical curriculum.

Conclusion: Medical students lack comprehensive knowledge and carry erroneous impressions for generic medicine. There is a need for more emphasis regarding generic medicine in UG medical curriculum. This will augment rational prescribing and cost-effective use of generic medicine in the future.


Purpose: TROP2 is overexpressed in many tumor types and is being actively pursued as a target. Sacituzumab govitecan (SG), a humanized anti-TROP2 antibody conjugated with SN-38, was approved for treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer, with the greatest efficacy in patients with medium or high TROP2 levels. We sought to enhance efficacy of TROP2-targeted therapies by pharmacological regulation of TROP2 expression.
 Methods: TROP2 levels were assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in two sets of breast tumors: a set of surgical samples and a tissue microarray. TROP2 mRNA expression was assessed in surgical samples and breast cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) with RNAseq and assessed in the TCGA. In cell lines, expression of TROP2, E-cadherin (E-cad), and Schlafen family member 11 (SLFN11) were assessed by immunoblotting and qPCR following drug treatment or cell line manipulation. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition was evaluated by cell migration, cell invasion, and anchorage-independent growth assays. Antitumor efficacy of drug combination was assessed by cell survival, cell colony formation, and apoptosis assays.
 Results: By IHC, TROP2 was expressed in only 40% of metaplastic breast cancers (MpBC), but nearly all non-MpBC tumors. TCGA database evaluation further showed higher TROP2 levels in non-MpBC tumors than metaplastic tumors. In breast cancer surgical specimens, breast cancer PDXs, and the TCGA, there was a strong correlation between TROP2 and E-cad expression. In vitro, we demonstrated that downregulating transcriptional factor zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) led to mesenchymal-epithelial transition with upregulation of both E-cad and TROP2 expression in breast cancer cells, leading to increased sensitivity to SG treatment. Screening of epigenetic modulators identified DNA methyltransferase inhibitor decitabine as an enhancer of TROP2 and E-cad expression in PDX cell lines of metaplastic cancer origin and mesenchymal subtype breast cancer cell lines. Decitabine increased TROP2 expression by decreasing TROP2 promoter methylation. Decitabine was significantly synergistic with SG, and enhanced apoptosis. Similarly, overexpression of TROP2 (by plasmid) in cell lines enhanced activity of SG. Furthermore, decitabine increased expression of SLFN11, a putative biomarker of SN38 sensitivity, and was synergistic with SG in TROP2 expressing, SLFN11 low breast cancer cell lines.
 Conclusion: TROP2 is expressed in most breast cancers, but is expressed less frequently in MpBC, an aggressive subtype unresponsive to traditional therapies. Epigenetic modulator decitabine upregulates TROP2 and SLFN11 expression and enhances antitumor efficacy of SG. Combinatorial treatment of TROP2 ADCs with epigenetic modulators of TROP2 represent a novel therapeutic strategy for tumors with low TROP2 or SLFN11 expression.
 Citation Format: Ming Zhao, Timothy P. DiPeri, Gabriela Raso, Yasmeen Q. Rizvi, Xiaofeng Zheng, Kurt Evans, Argun Akcakanat, Fei Yang, Debu Tripathy, Ecaterina Ileana Dumbrava, Senthil Damodaran, Funda Meric-Bernstam. Epigenetically upregulating TROP2 enhances therapeutic efficacy of TROP2 ADC sacitizumab govitecan [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 1791.


ABSTRACT Objectives: Geriatric depression complicates cognitive health in older adults. This study aims to investigate the impact of depressive symptoms on cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults, depending on whether cognitive dysfunction accompanied. Design: A community-based longitudinal cohort study. Setting: This study analyzed data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) from 2006 to 2018. Participants: Among 10,254 individuals who were registered in the KLoSA study, a total of 9119 subjects met the criteria, and 4547 subjects were included in the final analysis. The subjects were grouped into 4 categories based on depressive symptoms and cognitive dysfunction at baseline assessment: "normal control" (NC, n = 3341), "depression only" (Dep-only, n = 652), "cognitive dysfunction only" (CD-only, n = 393), and "depression with cognitive dysfunction" (Dep-CD, n = 161). Measurements: Cognitive impairment 10 years later was defined as K-MMSE scores below two percentile on demographically adjusted norms. Results: Ten-year survival, that is, not experiencing cognitive impairment, was 80 $$ \pm \,$$ 1% in NC group, 72 $$ \pm $$ 2% in Dep-only group, 52 $$ \pm $$ 3% in CD-only group, and 44 $$ \pm $$ 5% in Dep-CD group. The hazard ratio (HR) of the Dep-only group (HR = 1.18, 95% CI, 0.97–1.43, n.s.) did not differ from that of the NC group, but the HR of the Dep-CD group was significantly higher (HR = 2.85, 95% CI, 2.23–3.66, p < 0.001) than the NC group. When the Dep-CD group was compared to the CD-only group, the HR was 1.13 (95% CI, 0.85–1.49, n.s.), which indicates that it did not significantly differ from the CD-only group. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that depressive symptoms with cognitive dysfunction are associated with a higher risk of cognitive impairment. Furthermore, cognitive dysfunction occurring with depressive symptoms is as much a risk for cognitive impairment as is pure cognitive dysfunction. Thus, healthcare providers should pay close attention to the community-dwelling elderly when depressive symptoms occur with cognitive dysfunction.


Diabetes Mellitus and Depression are two increasing pathologies. Several articles indicate that Depression in Diabetes is twice as important as in the general population. Yet, Depression in diabetic patients is underdiagnosed. On the other hand, Alexithymia might be a factor associated to Depression. We therefore carried out a research in order to evaluate the relationship between Depression and Alexithymia in diabetic patients at the Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires. We performed psychiatric interviews, which led to diagnoses based on DSM-IV, and applied the following scales: HAM-D, TAS-26, DBI and M.I.N.I. We evaluated 59 patients who had been diagnosed Type II Diabetes. Crossing variables, we observed a negative correlation between the results of Beck's Depression Inventory and those of Hamilton's Depression Scale. On the contrary, these last results showed a positive correlation with results obtained through TAS-26, which reveals a significant relationship between Depression and the presence of Alexithymia. According to the link between Depression, Diabetes Mellitus II and Alexithymia and considering that Alexithymia has consequences on the illness evolution and the treatment of both pathologies, it seems important to determine when and how to include its evaluation.


Corrosion is a common problem that often occurs in metals. Corrosion is the damage or degradation of metal due to the redox reaction between a metal with various substances in the environment that produce undesirable compounds. In the event of corrosion, the metal will experience oxidation while the air will experience reduction. Corrosion can be regarded as an electrochemical event between the metal and its environment. Simply, corrosion can occur if there are anodes, cathodes, electrolyte solutions, and metallic contacts between the cathode and the anode. In submarine pipelines, corrosion problems occur frequently for a corrosion-control measure. One of them is by using cathodic protection method using sacrificial anode system (sacrificial anode) and system impressed current (tilt current)


The coherent magnon state representation is employed to investigate the quantum-statistical behavior of the nonlinear excitation of magnons in ferromagnets. Both the long-range magnetic dipole–dipole and short-range exchange interactions are included, along with a static longitudinal applied field and a microwave pumping field in the perpendicular orientation. Within a microscopic (or Hamiltonian-based) approach the total Hamiltonian is transformed from spin operators to a normal-mode set of boson creation and annihilation operators. When the three-magnon interactions are included, it is found that the microwave pumping field may be used to control the nonlinear statistical properties of the system. From a study of the time evolution of the system we deduce the average number of magnons, the super-Poissonian statistical behavior, and the occurrence of magnon squeezing. We also compare the results with the case where the microwave pumping field is in the parallel orientation, and it is found that there are important differences in the time dependence.


This paper examines the impact of the erosion in seniority-based wages on lifetime labor income in Japan. Despite the importance of this issue, studies to date have not been able to address it directly because reliable datasets long enough to cover individuals' entire careers were not available. Taking advantage of administrative data records on individuals' careers, which became available with the introduction of Pension Coverage Regular Notices, Takayama et al. (2012) constructed a panel dataset of career records covering a period of more than 30 years. We use the dataset to derive wage profiles throughout individuals' careers. Moreover, using the estimated wage profiles for individuals with different sets of characteristics, we calculate the lifetime labor income (over a 35-year period) for those individuals to examine the impact of the erosion of Japan's seniority wages on lifetime income. We confirm that the wage-age profile of lifetime employees over their working life has been gradually flattening in recent years. The flattening is particularly prominent among middle-aged and elderly white-collar workers with a college background, and it appears to have decreased their lifetime labor income by about 10 to 30 percent.


While the majority of cases of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in developed countries occur among illicit drug users, HCV antiviral treatment uptake is poor in this population. Several studies have shown that patients can successfully be treated for HCV in the context of methadone maintenance programmes, but little evidence exists evaluating HCV treatment models for substance users where methadone maintenance is not indicated. This retrospective cohort study involved 129 persons participating in psycho‐educational support groups and integrated, interprofessional, community‐based health services focused on the treatment for HCV among marginalized populations with high rates of crack cocaine use and mental health comorbidities. We sought to identify the factors associated with antiviral treatment uptake. Group participation improved access to health care. While 19% had previously seen an HCV specialist prior to group initiation, 59% saw an HCV specialist during the group. Half of the participants were nonimmune to hepatitis A or B at baseline, and 80% of these patients received immunization through the programme. The programme treated 24 patients with pegylated interferon and ribavirin and achieved a sustained virologic response (SVR) rate of 91% for genotype 2 or 3 and 54% for genotype 1. Stable housing was independently associated with initiation of treatment, and there was a nonsignificant trend towards lower rates of treatment initiation among women. SVR rates for those who had used crack or injection drugs in the month prior to joining the programme did not differ significantly from those who had abstained.


Background Premature infants with severe chronic lung disease often require prolonged ventilation with exposure to high mean airway pressure. In its most severe form these infants often are exposed to prolonged high-frequency ventilation, which can be uncomfortable for the infants, causing them to "fight the ventilator," leading to progressive respiratory distress. We report our utilization of airway pressure release ventilation (APRV), which is essentially a bilevel CPAP mode of ventilation using a longer time (Thi) at the high pressure (Phi) to allow for alveolar recruitment followed by a release period (Tlo) at low pressure (Plo). Purpose To determine the feasibility and safety of APRV in neonates and infants with severe restrictive lung disease and respiratory failure. Method Approval for this review study was obtained from Children's Hospital of Los Angeles Institutional Review Board. Patients that received APRV over the last 2 years were identified and medical records were reviewed. Results There were 10 patients placed on APRV with AVEA ventilator between 2004 and 2005 at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles Center for Newborn and Infant Critical Care. Nine of the 10 pateints had clinical improvement on APRV. The most common underlying lung disease was severe chronic lung disease in former preterm infants. Mean gestational age was 27 ± 5.1 weeks. On APRV the patients were on significantly higher mean airway pressure then on SIMV/PS, HFOV, or HFJV (27 ± 3 vs 15.1 ± 4.1 cm H2O). Oxygen requirement decreased from 50% prior to APRV to 30% by day 5 of APRV. Mean P/F (paO2 or PcO2/FiO2) significantly increased by 12 hours of APRV (176 ± 96.9 vs 124 ± 58.7, p < .01). Despite the high mean airway pressure, patients remained hemodynamically stable with normal blood pressure and urine output. The patients were subjectively reported as being more comfortable on APRV and received fewer bolus doses of sedation and analgesia. Conclusion These data demonstrate that APRV is well tolerated by our patient population with no adverse effects on the hemodynamic status of the neonates and that the majority of the patients had improved oxygenation on APRV. However, further studies will be needed before we can determine the overall efficacy of this mode of ventilation.


Technology in a broad sense is driven by developments in semiconductor technology, particularly with respect to the computational power of devices and systems, as well as sensor technology. The progress of semiconductor technology has demonstrated an exponential curve since the middle of the previous century, representing Moore's Law. Consequently, it is of utmost importance to bridge the gaps between disciplines in the fields of control, automation, and robotics. Moreover, data-driven approaches need to be combined with model-based design. This will lead to new digital twinning and automated design approaches that provide major opportunities. Furthermore, this necessitates the redefinition of our university system.


The research objectives include a review of international and national organizations in the field of tourism destination management; analyzes of cluster policy and public-private partnerships (PPPs), national tourism agencies and administrations of Kazakhstan; key factors identification of the DMOs effectiveness for the domestic and inbound tourism development in Kazakhstan. The article discusses the industry management system through DMOs, which at various levels play a key role in tourism destinations development. The author considers three levels of DMOs: national, regional and local; their goals, objectives, activities, legal status and budget, possible forms of management, role and authority. Cluster policy and PPPs as a form of management and development of tourism in Kazakhstan are new approaches. The author researched the principles of DMO management in the scientific and business environment. Based on the analysis, the affiliation of Kazakhstani DMOs by the level of destination management were identified, and the relevancy of implementation the DMO management model for sustainable tourism development in Kazakhstan was also justified.


Approximately, 15% of the total textile colorant production is estimated to be lost during dyeing and processing of textile fibres. If left untreated, these wastewaters can represent a serious environmental threat. In the present paper a combination of photocatalytic and biological degradation of prepared textile wastewaters (simulation of real textile effluent) is presented. Samples have been monitored through the course of photocatalytic experiments: change in UV-VIS absorbance spectra and complete decolouration were achieved for all three tested dyed wastewaters; however, only partial COD removal was achieved with photocatalytic oxidation (PCOx) and photocatalytic ozonation (PCOz). Toxicity test (Vibrio fischeri) of untreated and pretreated (constructed wetland, CW) samples showed a decrease in toxicity values only for the red-dyed wastewater. Comparison of efficiency of PCOx and PCOz for decolouration and mineralization of three structurally different dyes (anthraquinone and two azo dyes) has been done. CW pretreatment caused faster decolouration and substantial COD removal in PCOx (up to 45%). Pretreatment also accelerated decolouration during PCOz, but it accelerated COD removal only in the case of red-dyed wastewater due to short irradiation times applied.


Objective The aim of this study was to summarize the perioperative nursing care of patients with recurrent parathyroid carcinoma. Methods A retrospective analysis of 10 patients with recurrent parathyroid carcinoma was performed. The clinical data, diagnosis, treatment process, and nursing process (including clinical nursing intervention of various complications) were analyzed. The nursing experience and methods were discussed, summarized, and analyzed. Results A total of 10 patients were reviewed (male : female 7 : 3; aged 48.6 ± 14.60 years). The mean interval between the initial operation and reoperation was 2.23 ± 1.65 years. The mean number of operations was 4.00 ± 1.41. Invasion of the trachea or esophagus was evident in 7 patients, larynx in 6 patients, recurrent laryngeal nerve in 1 patient, and cyclic cartilage in 2 patients. Serum calcium range was 3.20–4.68 mmol/L, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) range was 860–2830 pg/ml at admission. 6 patients underwent prophylactic tracheostomy, 2 patients underwent partial laryngectomy, and 2 patients underwent total laryngectomy. 1 patient experienced temporary water-electrolyte disorder and hypoproteinemia. The median serum calcium was 2.28 mmol/L (1.66–3.18 mmol/L) and median PTH level was 82.60 pg/ml (63.70–900.00 pg/ml) postoperatively. Serum PTH and calcium were still higher than the upper limit of normal in 2 patients after surgery. 2 of the other 8 patients relapsed within 8–11 months, and 6 patients remained normal for 11–40 months. Conclusion For patients with reoperation of recurrent parathyroid carcinoma, high-quality, reasonable, and careful perioperative nursing ensured a successful operation and optimized outcome.


Ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM) has been applied to determine the barrier height change of contacts in which the GaAs substrate was dry etched by using . The distribution of barrier heights over the contact area could be determined. It was found that dry etching introduced a second Gaussian distribution, with lower mean barrier height, next to the Gaussian distribution already found to be present in wet etched reference samples. This additional distribution occurred over the main part of the contact area. A model is proposed based on a change of the stoichiometry of the surface region produced by the reactive ion etching.


Volcanic ash samples from the May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens eruption were analyzed for major, minor, and trace composition by a variety of analytical techniques. Results indicate that the basic composition of the ash consists of approximately 65% SiO2, 18% Al2O3, 5% FetO3, 2% MgO, 4% CaO, 4% Na2O, and 0.1% S. Thirty seven trace metals are reported including Ba, Cu, Mn, Sr, V, Zn, and Zr. A change in the chemical composition of the ash as a function of distance from the volcano is related to a similar change in physical characteristics of the ash. Water soluble components were also determined after column leaching experiments were performed. Concentration levels of soluble salts were found to be moderately high (1500-2000 µg/g) with molar ratios suggesting the presence of NaCl, KCl, CaSO4, and MgSO4. Heavy metals such as Cu, Co, Mn, and Zn were found at appreciable concentrations (10-1000 µg/g). Unexpectedly high concentration levels of ammonium (45 µg/g) and nitrate (100 µg/g) ions as well as dissolved organic carbon (130 µg/g) were observed in several ash leachates. Results for fluoride and boron show low average levels of ∼5 and ∼ 0.5µg/g, respectively.


Paper aims: This study proposes, applies, and discusses a model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method with the objective of assessing the issue of materiality of sustainability reports in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model of civil construction companies. Originality: The published literature contains few studies that propose quantitative models for the assessment of materiality for sustainability reports. To address this data gap, the present research suggests new paths. Research method: After the hierarchical structure of the model had been developed, specialists were asked to prioritize the criteria and sub-criteria in their orders of preference. Their decisions were collected through a questionnaire and the responses were included in the model using the individual aggregation of priorities method applied to the AHP. Main findings: It was concluded that there is scope for improving the quality of sustainability reports, as there are companies that fail to disclose relevant topics according to the judgment of the specialists consulted in this study. Implications for theory and practice: The AHP method with absolute measurement proved to be an efficient model, mainly because it allows for weighting of criteria and sub-criteria, demonstrating that it is useful for comparing the materiality of company reports.


A high-sensitivity capacitive-coupling receiver is presented for wireless wafer probing systems. The receiver with the optimum logic threshold (OLT) achieves the highest sensitivity of 25 mV at the data rate of 2 Gb/s in 0.18-mum CMOS. The OLT receiver increases the communication distance by more than four times while providing tolerance against distance-voltage-area variations.


Background: To investigate the value of contrast-enhanced transrectal ultrasound (CETRUS) in reducing unnecessary biopsy during prostate cancer screening and predicting biochemical recurrence in patients with localized prostate cancer.
Methods:This was a prospective study of patients suspected of prostate cancer who were evaluated with CETRUS followed by prostate biopsy. Prostate blood flow on CETRUS was graded using a 5-point scale. The relationship between CETRUS score and biopsy outcomes was analyzed; Univariate and multi-variate analyses were used to determine the probable prognostic factors with biochemical recurrence in patients with localized prostate cancer underwent radical prostatectomy.
Results:A total of 347 patients were enrolled. Prostate cancer was found in 164 patients. A significant positive correlation (r = 0.69, p < 0.001) was found between CETRUS scores and prostate cancer. Using CETRUS score ≥ 2 as the threshold for biopsy could have reduced the number of biopsies by 12.1% (42/347) without missing cancer and spared 23.0% (42/183) of patients from unnecessary biopsy. 77 patients with localized prostate cancer underwent radical prostatectomy and followed up. 17 of 77 patients exhibited biochemical recurrence. The 3-year biochemical recurrence-free survival rates were 86% for patients with CETRUS low scores (≤ 3) and 59% for patients with high scores (> 3; p = 0.015). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that CETRUS score was an independent predictor of biochemical recurrence (HR: 7.02; 95% CI: 2.00-24.69; p = 0.002).
Conclusions:CETRUS score may be a useful tool to reduce unnecessary biopsy during prostate cancer screening and predict biochemical recurrence of localized prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy.


In the future, vehicles and other traffic participants will be interconnected and equipped with various types of sensors, allowing for cooperation on different levels, such as situation prediction or intention detection. In this paper, we present a cooperative approach for starting movement detection of cyclists using a boosted stacking ensemble approach realizing feature- and decision-level cooperation. We introduce a novel method based on a three-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect starting motions on image sequences by learning spatio-temporal features. The CNN is complemented by a smart device based starting movement detection originating from smart devices carried by the cyclist. Both model outputs are combined in a stacking ensemble approach using an extreme gradient boosting classifier resulting in a fast and yet robust cooperative starting movement detector. We evaluate our cooperative approach on real-world data originating from experiments with 49 test subjects consisting of 84 starting motions.


Previously reported large autopsy series have indicated that elderly patients who die of cancer are less likely to have metastatic disease than their younger counterparts. This observation could be explained if survival were shorter in the elderly population and patients died with smaller tumor burdens. The authors analyzed Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (MCHV) Tumor Registry data on primary lung cancer with respect to age. As in the reported autopsy series, at the time of diagnosis elderly patients were less likely to have metastatic disease. Further analysis was undertaken of the patients from this series who died and were autopsied at MCHV. Although the total numbers were small, survival was not shorter in the advanced age groups. The authors suggest that elderly patients have slower tumor growth and less metastatic disease, not because of earlier diagnosis and shorter survival, but because of senescent host factors that impede aggressive tumor growth and spread.


Introduction.To solve the indirect measurement problem of the cargo weight lifted by the excavator in crane mode the authors propose the specific method and develop mathematical model according to the indications of hydraulic fluid pressure sensors in the piston and rod cavities of boom lifting cylinders. Moreover, the signals from the angle sensor of the boom and the handle relative to the gravity horizon are used, the roll and pitch sensors of the rotary column of the excavator relative to the gravity horizon are additionally applied.Materials and methods. As initial data of the indirect measurement method of cargo mass, constant design parameters, constant masses of moving links are used, such as booms with handle hydraulic cylinder, handles with bucket hydraulic cylinder and bucket turning mechanism, bucket weight. In addition, constant linear number and angular machine dimensions are included in the investigation. To obtain analytical formulas of the method, the method of homogeneous coordinates is applied, as well as the method of direct analytical inference.Results.The developed design scheme of the method is presented. As a result, the position of the excavator crane is described in the right-hand rectangular coordinate system. Moreover, the technique of indirect measurement of cargo mass according to the indications of hydraulic fluid pressure sensors in the form of formulae linear sequence is presented.Discussion and conclusion. The accuracy of the developed method was estimated by comparison with the results of the full-scale experiment. The relative reduced measurement error in the range of boom angles' measurement and the crane-excavator handle was less than ten percent. Therefore, the technique merits are its simplicity, as well as record of the roll and pitch angles of the crane-excavator turntable element.


Marvelous bending/straightening effects of two-way shape memory alloy (TWSMA) help their employment in design and manufacturing of new medical appliances. Constrained ageing with bending load scheme can induce two-way shape memory effect (TWSME). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, electrical resistivity measurement (ERM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are employed to determine the property change due to flat strip constrained aging. Results show that flat-annealing prior to the aging shifts NiTi transformations temperatures higher. Superelastic behavior of the as-received/flat-annealed/aged samples with more adequate transition temperatures due to biological tissue replacement is studied by three-point flexural tests. Results show that curing changes the transition points of the NiTi strips. These changes affect the shape memory behavior of the NiTi strips embedded within the biocompatible flexible composite segments.


A substance commercially described as 'sugar free,' used as a sweetener for paracetamol suspension, was evaluated on measures of neonatal pain. Sixty infants were randomly allocated to receive one of four solutions before heel stab blood sampling: sterile water (placebo); 25 or 50% sucrose (weight/volume); and the commercial sweet-tasting solution. There was a significant reduction in crying time and pain score 3 minutes after the painful stimulus in all groups compared with the controls. It is concluded that this sweet-tasting solution has analgesic effects as potent as those of concentrated sucrose solutions.


This paper presents numerical models of several different natural convection based heatsink designs for an additively manufactured switched reluctance machine. The proposed heatsink designs incorporate geometries that have improved thermal performance but are difficult to produce with conventional methods, making them ideal options for additive manufacturing. The heatsinks are compared to a traditional longitudinal plate fin heatsink model with a heat transfer coefficient of 0.159 W/K. The highest performing proposed heatsink model achieves a heat transfer coefficient of 0.184 W/K, showing that additively manufactured passive heatsinks can provide significantly improved cooling for totally enclosed non-ventilated machines.


A model of the UK market in electricity combining key factors influencing generator bidding is proposed and a hierarchical multi-objective adaptive agent architecture using case based reasoning and learning classifier systems is described. Experimentation shows that the adaptive agents learn bidding strategies that have been observed in the real world, and that in some market scenarios the agents appear to be learning the benefits of cooperating to receive increased long term rewards. The potential of the adaptive agent model is illustrated by experimentation with an alternative market structure.


Temporal networks have been widely used to model real-world complex systems such as financial systems and e-commerce systems. In a temporal network, the joint neighborhood of a set of nodes often provides crucial structural information useful for predicting whether they may interact at a certain time. However, recent representation learning methods for temporal networks often fail to extract such information or depend on online construction of structural features, which is time-consuming. To address the issue, this work proposes Neighborhood-Aware Temporal network model (NAT). For each node in the network, NAT abandons the commonly-used one-single-vector-based representation while adopting a novel dictionary-type neighborhood representation. Such a dictionary representation records a downsampled set of the neighboring nodes as keys, and allows fast construction of structural features for a joint neighborhood of multiple nodes. We also design a dedicated data structure termed N-cache to support parallel access and update of those dictionary representations on GPUs. NAT gets evaluated over seven real-world large-scale temporal networks. NAT not only outperforms all cutting-edge baselines by averaged 1.2% and 4.2% in transductive and inductive link prediction accuracy, respectively, but also keeps scalable by achieving a speed-up of 4.1-76.7x against the baselines that adopt joint structural features and achieves a speed-up of 1.6-4.0x against the baselines that cannot adopt those features. The link to the code: https: //github.com/Graph-COM/Neighborhood-Aware-Temporal-Network.


In organizing the conference "History and China's Foreign Relations, " John Wills set two difficult tasks for the participants. The first was to consider the role of the academy in U.S. policy-making toward China and surmise whether academics were more influential in John Fairbank's day than today. The second involved a consideration of the models or theoretical constructs used for characterizing China's relations with other countries. Although there is much to say about the relation between area studies and the state, my focus will be on the latter topic, models and theories of foreign relations.


In the context of Multi Instance Learning, we analyze the Single Instance (SI) learning objective. We show that when the data is unbalanced and the family of classifiers is sufficiently rich, the SI method is a useful learning algorithm. In particular, we show that larger data imbalance, a quality that is typically perceived as negative, in fact implies a better resilience of the algorithm to the statistical dependencies of the objects in bags. In addition, our results shed new light on some known issues with the SI method in the setting of linear classifiers, and we show that these issues are significantly less likely to occur in the setting of neural networks. We demonstrate our results on a synthetic dataset, and on the COCO dataset for the problem of patch classification with weak image level labels derived from captions.


Background: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) can provide a non-invasive, functional insight into brain metabolism and alterations may predict long-term neurocognitive impairment. A sexually dimorphic pattern of spectroscopy has been reported in humans but there is a need to investigate this further in rodents.
Methods: Male and female Sprague Dawley rats (n=32, 16) were treated on postnatal days 1-5 with an antiandrogen (flutamide, 50mg/kg) or corn oil SC and scanned at 6wks and 10wks of age using a small animal 7T MRI scanner. Water-suppressed hydrogen MR spectra were acquired from a voxel placed in the frontal cortex using PRESS sequence and metabolites measured using the LC Model software. Serum testosterone (T) was measured by GCMS. Results were analysed with a repeated measures nested general linear model. Full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the water peak was used as a marker of reliability and was within the optimal range (12-18Hz).
Results: Male anogenital distance (AGD) was significantly reduced in the treatment group when compared to controls at both 6 and 10 weeks (p=0.003, p=0.02) and this remained significant when corrected for weight (p=0.001, p=0.02). Phallus length was reduced in the treatment group at both ages (p=0.05, p=0.001). Serum T was higher in the control and treated males at 10 weeks (median 1.9ng/ml, 2.05ng/ml) when compared to the same animals at 6 weeks (0.56ng/ml, 0.61ng/ml, p<0.001). T levels were <0.1ng/ml in all female animals. T levels showed a positive correlation with AGD (p<0.001). On MR spectral analysis, glucose, glutamine, phosphocholine and myo-inositol levels were higher in the treated males compared to control males (p=0.05, p=0.03, p=0.01, p=0.01); these levels were similar to those in age-matched female controls (ns). N-acetylaspartylglutamate(NAAG) levels were lower in older animals from all groups (p=0.05) and glutamine, glutamate and GABA also declined over time (ns). Phosphocholine and myo-inositol increased with age (p=0.05, p=0.01). T levels showed a negative correlation with glutamate (p=0.01) and female animals tended to have higher glutamate levels (ns).
Conclusions: MRS based assessment shows that brain metabolites have an age and sex dependency. In addition to undermasculinisation of the male external genitalia, early postnatal androgen blockade alters the pattern of these metabolites. The functional effects of these alterations need further study.
- See more at: http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/endo-meetings.2014.NP.15.SUN-0680#sthash.KIrgKFSu.dpuf


The integration of the world's financial markets is increasing the pressure of external factors in the determination of domestic monetary policies and interest rates. Though the approaches of Major central banks towards the conduct of monetary policy differ in detail, there is broad agreement on fundamentals: a) Pursuit of price stability b) Stability of financial markets.  For this reason, real long-term interest rates are likely to converge on an international norm, the level of which will be determined by a complex interaction of both monetary and real factors, (New theory) and in particular by the pace of technological advance.


This is the first of four papers to be published in Research Ethics Review in 2009 that address methodological issues of relevance to research ethics committees. These will be practical papers, intended to assist ethics committee members to determine whether a research method is both ethically justified and likely to lead to high quality research. This paper prepares the way for the series through a consideration of the relationship between research ethics and methodology.


Summary form only given. The characterization of microplasmas driven by DC and AC (50~1000 Hz) power supplies with a voltage up to 1000 V at atmospheric pressure is performed. Parallel planar aluminum electrodes with an inter-electrode gap 20~200 mm are patterned on a glass substrate by semiconductor fabrication processes. Pure argon and helium are used as the feedstock. Filamentary-like discharges are mostly observed in argon discharges and highly-nonuniform discharges result in locally high current densities, which lead to a severe damage of the electrode. In helium discharges, a corona-like discharge is observed when the plasma is ignited with the applied voltage slightly higher than the breakdown voltage. Under certain conditions, such discharges occupy the entire inter-electrode space. With the increase in the applied voltage, the transition to filamentary-like discharges is occurred. It is shown that the breakdown voltage increases with the gap, and the voltage is 100-200 V higher than that shown in the right branch of the Paschen curve. Oscillations of current and voltage waveforms at different frequencies are observed after the plasma is ignited. Preliminary studies show that the MHz-high frequency oscillation is associated with the external circuits due to the sudden voltage drop after the breakdown. The low frequency oscillation, few tens of kHz, is a result of the repetitive ignition and extinguishment of the discharge. No stable discharge is obtained. Such a behavior is seen in both DC-and AC-driven discharges. P-spice circuit simulation is performed to study the effects of the external circuitry on the discharge behavior. The I-V characteristics are simulated, and results qualitatively agree with the experimental measurements. The optical emission emanating from the plasma is monitored and the broadening of hydrogen emission lines is used to estimate the plasma characteristics, namely the electron density and neutral gas temperature. Finally, the potential using such a discharge in materials processing will be demonstrated.


During past 10 years 234 central venous access ports (CVAP) were implanted in 225 patients at the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology in Zabrze. Mean exposure time was 745 days and total implantation time reached 173,768 days. Complications were encountered in 17 patients (7.6%). This mainly concerned central venous line infection, which led to removal of 10 CVAP (4.4%). The remaining complications necessitating removal of the CVAP consisted mainly of mechanical problems (catheter fracture, occlusion, and erroneous implantation to artery). In the opinion of the authors, subcutaneously implanted CVAP are a safe and effective option for high-dose chemotherapy deliverance in childhood cancer patients.


INTRODUCTION
Many studies have dealt with the clinical outcome of oral implants, yet none applied a randomized split-mouth design for a long-term follow-up of similar implant systems.

AIM
To evaluate two oral implant systems with different surface characteristics in a randomized split-mouth design and to radiologically analyse peri-implant bone level and density over an up to 16-year period.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study comprised clinical and radiographic records of 18 partially edentulous patients treated with both implant types randomly placed in either left or right jaw sides. Outcome was evaluated over time.

RESULTS
Clinical and radiographic parameters showed no significant differences over time for both systems. Ten years after implant placement, a significantly increasing peri-implant bone density was noted, while Periotest values were found to be significantly decreasing. Fifteen years after implant loading, mean bone loss was 0.02 mm (range -1.15 to 1.51; SD 0.45) for Astra Tech® implants (n=24) and 0.31 mm (range -0.98 to 2.31; SD 0.69) for Brånemark® implants (n=23).

CONCLUSIONS
The study failed to demonstrate significant differences in the outcome of the peri-implant bone for two implant systems with different surface characteristics. The marginal bone level around oral implants changed <0.5 mm after 15 years of loading.


To the Editor. —In discussing their case report, Hricik and Hussain 1 remark, "Our patient's hepatosplenomegaly may have reflected compensatory extramedullary hematopoiesis associated with extensive bone marrow replacement by calcium oxalate crystals." Actually, the cause of the patient's organomegaly is obscure. The term compensatory hematopoiesis describes the reactive state of normal hematopoietic tissue. Evidence indicates that the patient's hematopoiesis was not normal. The leukoerythroblastic blood film and "teardrop" red blood cells (RBCs) are characteristic of the intravascular hematopoiesis that is found in chronic myeloproliferative diseases. Normal human hematopoiesis must be extra-vascular, and normal hematopoiesis requires the specialized microcirculation of the marrow. 2 The suspicion of extramedullary hematopoiesis is somewhat offset by a ferrokinetic study demonstrating "No noteworthy change in the uptake of ferric chloride Fe 59... over the liver and spleen." 1 This is evidence against erythropoiesis in those organs. Uptake of 59 Fe by the marrow is not given


Owing to its wide availability, nontoxicity, and low cost, CO2 working as a trigger to reversibly switch material properties, including polarity, ionic strength, hydrophilicity, viscosity, surface charge, and degree of polymerization or cross-linking, has attracted an increasing attention in recent years. However, a quantitative correlation between basicity of these materials and their CO2 switchability has been less documented though it is of great importance for fabricating switchable system. In this work, the "switch-on" and "switch-off" abilities of melamine and its amino-substituted derivatives by introducing and removing CO2 are studied, and then their quantitative relationship with basicity is established, so that performances of other organobases can be quantitatively predicted. These findings are beneficial for forecasting the CO2 stimuli-responsive behavior of other organobases and the design of CO2-switchable materials.


In this paper, we write Seiberg--Witten-like equations on contact metric manifolds of dimension 5. Since any contact metric manifold has a Spinc-structure, we use the generalized Tanaka--Webster connection on a Spinc spinor bundle of a contact metric manifold to define the Dirac-type operators and write the Dirac equation. The self-duality of 2-forms needed for the curvature equation is defined by using the contact structure. These equations admit a nontrivial solution on 5-dimensional strictly pseudoconvex CR manifolds whose contact distribution has a negative constant scalar curvature.


We study competitive capacity investment for the emergence of a new market. Firms may invest either in capacity leading demand or in capacity lagging demand at different costs. We show how the lead time and other operational factors including volume flexibility, existing capacity, and demand uncertainty impact equilibrium outcomes. Our results indicate that a type of bandwagon behavior is the most likely equilibrium outcome: if both firms are going to invest, then they are most likely to act in unison. Contrary to much received wisdom, we show that leader–follower behavior is very uncommon in equilibrium where firms do not have volume flexibility, and will not occur at all if lead times are sufficiently short. On the other hand, if there is volume flexibility in production, then the likelihood of this sequential investment behavior increases. Our findings underscore the importance of operational characteristics in determining the competitive dynamics of capacity investment timing.


Background: Human papillomaviruses (HPV) has a particular tropism for the epithelium inducing its proliferation. It has been shown that E6 and E7 protein is capable of binding and inactivating the P53 and Retinoblastoma (Rb) tumor suppressor genes. These interactions are responsible for the transforming activity of HPV. Objectives of the study: Estimation of any possible association of HPV low and high risk types with P53 and Rb tumor suppressor genes in surface epithelial ovarian carcinoma compared to benign and control groups. Materials And Methods: This study involved 76 ovarian tissue blocks which prepared for detecting and localization the DNA of high risk HPV (16&18) and low risk HPV (6&11) types in comparison with the presence of wild type P53 and Rb mRNA signals by using in situ hybridization (ISH) technique. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique was used to demonstrate the over-expression state of p53 tumor suppressor protein. Results: onlyHPV6 appeared significant association with P53 mRNA ISH signal in benign group and only HPV18 showed significant association with Rb-ISH mRNA in benign group.On the other hand significant association was found between P53 IHC signal and HPV11 ISH signal also in benign group. Conclusions: Furthermore, a positive correlation between HPV and p53 expressions in ovarian cancer tissue samples was detected. HPV does not seem to be a major component in the development of ovarian carcinoma, nevertheless HPV positivity seems to contribute to the pathogenesis in at least some ovarian carcinoma cases by way of interaction with tumor suppressor p53.


Binary Sn-based metal oxides are potential anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). However, they suffer from large volume expansion during the discharge/charge process, leading to poor cycling performance. In this work, a multicomponent CuxO/SnO2/ZnSnO3 composite with a porous structure was prepared by employing ZnSn(OH)6 microcubes as precursors with the ion exchange method. Under high temperature, Cu2+ can exchange with partial Zn2+ in ZnSn(OH)6 to form CuSn(OH)6 microboxes. Then, through an annealing process, the porous CuxO/SnO2/ZnSnO3 composite was obtained, which also retained the box morphology. The CuxO/SnO2/ZnSnO3 microboxes can deliver an improved capacity of 615 mA h g−1 due to the porous structure, which may enhance the transportation of Li+ and electrons. The ion exchange method for obtaining porous binary metal oxide nanomaterials can be used for fabricating other metal oxide composites in many areas such as LIBs, catalysts, etc.


The structure and optical properties of several polynuclear gold(I) species, namely, diselenophosphate [Au{μ-Se(2)P(OR)(2)}](2) complexes (R = (i)Pr, Et, (n)Pr) respectively numbered 1, 2, and 3 and number 4 [Au{μ-Se(2)P(CH(2))(2)Ph)(2)}](2), exhibiting interesting structural, absorption, and emission properties have been studied. The synthesis, full characterization, and experimental spectroscopic study of 3 and 4 have first been carried out, 1 and 2 being previously studied. In the solid state, 3 gives polymers, like 1 and 2, whereas 4 exists under a dinuclear monomeric form. The absorption and phosphorescence properties of 4 have been rationalized using DFT and TDDFT computations. In particular, Au-Au bonding seems to appear in its first singlet and triplet states, whereas such a bond does not exist in the ground state. Then, the influence of polymerization through aurophilic bonding on the optical properties of 2 is investigated (1 and 3 behave as 2). It is shown using TDDFT computations that its observed UV-visible excitation spectrum in solution is due to high oligomers and not to monomers or low size oligomers. ESI-MS molecular weight measurements confirm the occurrence of such oligomers of 2 in solution. An assignment of the observed bands of 2 is proposed. The transition corresponding to the first excitation band, which is mainly a HOMO to LUMO one, exhibits metal-centered character, i.e., a gold 5d to 6p orbital transition, but concomitantly transfers significant electron density from gold to phosphorus atoms so that it is also a MLCT one.


This paper presents a new technique which makes use of deformation and motion properties between animated meshes for finding their spatial correspondences. Given a pair of animated meshes exhibiting a semantically similar motion, we compute a sparse set of feature points on each mesh and compute spatial correspondences among them so that points with similar motion behavior are put in correspondence. At the core of our technique is our new, dynamic feature descriptor named AnimHOG, which encodes local deformation characteristics. AnimHOG is ob‐tained by computing the gradient of a scalar field inside the spatiotemporal neighborhood of a point of interest, where the scalar values are obtained from the deformation characteristic associated with each vertex and at each frame. The final matching has been formulated as a discreet optimization problem that finds the matching of each feature point on the source mesh so that the descriptor similarity between the corresponding feature pairs as well as compatibility and consistency as measured across the pairs of correspondences are maximized. Consequently, reliable correspondences can be found even among the meshes of very different shape, as long as their motions are similar. We demonstrate the performance of our technique by showing the good quality of matching results we obtained on a number of animated mesh pairs.


Surface topographic (STM) and spectroscopic (STS) studies have been performed on the Si−terminated 6H-SiC(0001)(3 × 3) surface using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in ultrahigh vacuum. High-quality (3 × 3) overstructures have been prepared as observed by LEED and STM. The regular (3 × 3) surface sites revealed much weaker I(V) dependences as compared to the defect sites when measured using the constant tip-surface gap technique. The normalized (dI/dV)/(I/V) vs. V spectra exhibit distinct bands of empty and filled states, which are separated by 1.2 eV for both surface sites, respectively. The results thereby support a Mott-Hubbard-type model as used for the calculation of the density of states. However, the STS spectra become completely featureless in the range of small tip-surface distances and reveal a "metallic"-like Ohmic I-V dependence.


We report the first identification of a circulating peptide from the amino-terminal end of proCNP. A specific radioimmunoassay was established based on antisera to the synthetic peptide proCNP(1-15). Extracts of plasma, drawn from patients with congestive heart failure or from sheep with experimental heart failure, were subjected to size exclusion and reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to radioimmunoassay (RIA). These studies revealed the presence of an immunoreactive peptide with a molecular weight (M(r) approximately 5 kDa) similar to that expected for NT-proCNP(1-50), a potential fragment released during processing of pro(CNP). The same material was isolated from extracts of homogenized ovine pituitary, a tissue known to be a relatively enriched source of CNP. Plasma NT-proCNP levels in 22 patients with congestive heart failure (9.7 +/- 0.5 pmol/L, mean +/- SEM, range 5.4-13.7 pmol/L) were raised (P = 0.003) compared to those in 16 healthy volunteers (7.4 +/- 0.3 pmol/L, range 5.7-10.7 pmol/L) and were higher than levels reported for CNP in similar subjects. This first identification of circulating NT-proCNP opens the possibility of studying the factors regulating CNP production and metabolism in vivo.


The news has been filled with stories of meltdowns in the financial world, with the government, independent agencies, and politicians all devoting significant time and energy to coping with the consequences. As investment banks, hedge funds, and mortgage lenders continue to suffer massive losses, the government and its agents are left to try to pick up the pieces. But what if, in addition to these more transparent problems, additional hidden costs from the financial crisis were being borne by the government in some other way? Even worse, what if the government had implicitly underwritten some of them in the first place? Building on insights from recent finance literature, this Article contends that the government could in fact bear such hidden costs through the interaction of a unique and underappreciated imperfection in the operation of public financial derivatives markets—the pricing of counterparty credit risk—and an income tax on risky investments. Under relatively conservative assumptions, such an approach can produce a surprising result: the imposition of a facially neutral income tax can actually serve to subsidize certain speculators in financial derivatives, both in the model and as extrapolated to the real world. In other words, an income tax in a world with imperfect financial markets can actually provide incentives to speculators to undertake excessively risky behavior, with the government ultimately bearing the cost. These conclusions demonstrate the urgent need for a more comprehensive approach to the taxation of financial derivative markets than has traditionally been undertaken, expanding the analysis beyond particular transactions to incorporate markets, traders, speculators, and investors more broadly. This Article does so by proposing the adoption of a derivatives trading tax, not as a supplement to or replacement for, but rather as an integral part of, the income tax regime. Such a tax would not only offset the costs of imperfect financial markets borne by the government through the income tax, but could also ameliorate the suboptimal excess risk in the financial markets in the first place. By redefining the terms of the debate in this manner, a more efficient overall taxation regime can be crafted, while maintaining the normative goals of an income tax.


This paper focuses on momentum strategies based on recent and intermediate past returns of U.S. industry portfolios. Our empirical analysis shows that strategies based on intermediate past returns yield higher mean returns. Moreover, strategies involving both return specifications exhibit time-varying factor exposures, especially when applying the Fama and French (2015) five-factor model. After risk-adjusting for these dynamic exposures, the profitability of industry momentum strategies diminishes and becomes insignificant for strategies based on recent past returns. However, most strategies built on intermediate past returns remain profitable and highly significant. Further analyses reveal that industry momentum strategies are disrupted by periods of strong negative risk-adjusted returns. These so-called momentum crashes seem to be driven by specific market conditions. We find profits of industry momentum strategies to be related to market states and to the business cycle. However, there is no clear evidence that industry momentum can be linked to market volatility or sentiment.


We calculate the Casimir force between a perfect reflective wall and a semitransparent wall in the laser cavity. Using the Fox—Li quasimode theory to describe the electromagnetic field in the laser cavity, the vacuum energy and the Casimir force are calculated. We compare our results to the force in the ideal situation and find it smaller in the dissipative cavity. We also find that the Casimir force decreases with the increase of the wall-wall distance and the decay rate of the quasimodes in the laser cavity.


The issue of method in Psychology is discussed from the standpoint of the thinking experience. Analysis shows that no independence exists between method, issue and theory. Strictly speaking, there are methodological issues in the act of coping with the knowledge of reality.


Given the energy wastage problem of the laminar cooling system of hot rolling, the dynamic optimization scheduling problem of the system under complex intermittent working conditions was investigated to improve the effective utilization of resources. First, combined with production schedules and rolling rhythm times, an On-line Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OS-ELM) based laminar cooling water consumption prediction model was developed for predicting water demand trends to maintain system supply-demand balance at pump stations. Then, the scheduling instruction optimization model, which considers the system intermittent production conditions and the feedback optimization mechanism, was proposed to reduce the system cooling water overflow and smooth the high cistern level fluctuations. And an adaptive operation scheme optimization model of pumping station based on scheduling instructions was proposed to minimize the total shaft power of pumping station. Finally, the strategies were solved using an improved sparrow search algorithm (ISSA). Experimental simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and supremacy of the proposed method for industrial energy saving in complex intermittent conditions.


A total of 100 clinical samples were collected from different hospitals and microbiology laboratories in Kancheepuram district, Tamilnadu, India that includes Blood (15 samples), Pus swabs (25 samples), Stool (40), Urine (20 samples) for screening the E. faecalis. Among the 100 clinical samples 47 isolates showed Enterococcus faecalis. The bacterial isolates from the clinical specimens for the present study were confirmed as E. faecalis by using conventional tests. The antibiotic resistant of E. faecalis isolates showed a maximum of 53.1 percent to Penicillin-G which was followed by other antibiotics in the following order: kanamycin>Streptomycin> Ciprofloxacin>chloramphenical>amphicillin>Vancomycin. The leaves of three plant species Aegles maromoles, Aristolochia indica and Ocimum canum were collected and subjected to ethanolic extraction. The ethanolic leaves extracts were tested against clinically isolated Multidrug resistance Enterococcus faecalis and Standard strains of E. faecalis. Antibacterial reference standard, Vancomycin had equal effect on Multidrug resistant E. faecalis isolates from clinical isolates and Standard E. faecalis. Zone of inhibition of Vancomycin was compared with plant extracts. The antimicrobial activity of plant extract was higher in Hibiscus Sabdariffa than the other leaves extract tested against test bacteria. Zone of inhibition of the plant leaves extracts from Hibiscus Sabdariffa showed high antimicrobial activity against Multidrug resistant E. faecalis. There is a scope to use ethanolic extract of the leaves of Aristolochia indica against Enterococcal infections caused by Multidrug resistance E. faecalis.


A letter of Matuki Miyazaki, the director of Kyushu Sanatorium to Masao Ota was found in the materials of Masao Ota stored at the library of University of Tokyo. Miyazaki, who was president of 12th annual meeting of Japanese Leprosy Association in Kumamoto in 1938, thanked Ota for the acceptance of a special lecture. Ota lectured on the title of inoculation of leprosy bacteria to animals.


High-dimensional data clustering is an open problem in modern data mining. This paper proposed a new genetic algorithm-based feature selection for high-dimensional data clustering, called GA-FSFclustering. This approach searches effective feature subsets for clustering in all features by genetic algorithm. The candidate features and cluster centers are real number encoded. A new criterion for evaluating feature subsets is employed as the fitness function. The experimental results indicate the feasibility and efficiency of the GA-FSFclustering algorithm.


We extend Büttiker's approach to the quantum Hall effect (Phys. Rev. B, 38 (1988) 9375) to the regime where the applied voltage exceeds the cyclotron energy. Then both edge and bulk states are relevant for the charge transport and we discuss how these states are (de-) populated by the current contacts. For large voltages nonequilibrium effects are induced by the electron-injection contact only. This explains the intrinsic asymmetry observed in experiments on the breakdown of the quantum Hall effect.


Modular reconfigurable robots are touted for their flexibility, as their bodies can assume a wide range of shapes. A particular challenge is to make them move efficiently in 3D without compromising the scalability of the system. This paper proposes decentralized and fully reactive controllers for pose control of 3D modular reconfigurable robots. The robots operate in liquid environments, and move by routing fluid through themselves. Each module uses only two bits of sensory information per face. Additionally, the modules can use up to five bits of information that are exchanged via shared power lines. We prove that robots of convex shape are guaranteed to reach a goal object with a preferred orientation. Using computer simulations of Modular Hydraulic Propulsion robots, all controllers are assessed for different environments, system sizes and noise, and their performances compared against a centralized controller. Given the simplicity of the solutions, modules could be realized at scales below a millimeter-cube, where robots of high spatial resolution could perform accurate movements in 3D liquid environments.


The present paper discusses the concepts of category and dimension in the field of Psychiatry. As the need for a taxonomy is widely accepted, a broad review is offered of the present debate in its historical background, revolving around what mostly appears as a dichotomy between category and dimension. The classical descriptions of psychiatric entities, of categorial linneage, have had and still have unquestionable weight in clinical practice and even in the construction of Psychiatry as a medical speciality. Its limitations, especially since the most recent versions of the DSM appeared, have given lieu both to objections and to new proposals, themselves not extent of conflict and limitations of their own. Lastly, the authors suggest that the problem is wrongly posed when presented in terms of an "either/or" disjunctive.


Drug Use Evaluation of Antibiotics was studied in medical inpatients after regulation of its use. The total quantity of antibiotics consumed were analyzed using Defined Daily Doses(DDDs) technique. Significant differences were observed in DDDs before and after the regulation. The study proved that evaluation of antibiotic utilization improved the appropriate and effective use of antibiotics and is economical to the patient.


Through various types of documentation it is possible to determine the different methods of sale and consumption used in the internal furniture trade in Catalonia during the 18 th century. The author offers information concerning the construction and commerce of pieces —new as well as second-hand ones— from the workshops of carpenters, and their prices. She also studies the major business of rentals offered by carpenters and secondhand dealers.


This paper concerns self-insurance and self-protection that countries may implement at a national level in pursuit of their security. The distinctions self-insurance, self-protection, and market insurance were first made by Ehrlich and Becker (1972). Nevertheless, extension of their models to international security where market insurance for entire countries is usually unavailable is surprisingly sparse. We show that, in the absence of market insurance, self-insurance alone raises important new issues as to the definition of "fair pricing" and as to the relations between pricing, optimization, risk aversion, and inferiority that are significantly different from standard, conventional market analysis. We also discover a hitherto unrecognized tendency for misallocation between selfprotection and self- insurance when both are available and considered together. Because of external effects running from self- protection to self-insurance, governments trying to find the right balance face incentives that encourage extreme, self-inflicted moral hazard, to the detriment of self-protection. Moreover, rather innocuous assumptions concerning countries' preferences lead to pervasive goods inferiority for both insurance and protection. Consequently, unlike the conventional wisdom in the economic theory of alliances with its neat interior Nash-solutions, we show when "defense" or "security" is disaggregated into more realistic categories such as protection and insurance that instabilities and corner solutions will be the conventional standard. The resulting perverse incentives that we discover point to conflicts and other difficulties among agents trying to cooperate in their management insurance and protection must overcome. Moreover the analysis implies that the paradigm Olson-Zeckhauser model (1966) model for alliance allocative behavior was fundamentally insufficient for the problem it was designed to address.


Abstract In this paper, I ask why Aristotle thinks that ethical virtue (rather than mere self-control) is required for practical wisdom. I argue that a satisfactory answer will need to explain why being prone to bad appetites implies a failing of the rational part of the soul. I go on to claim that the self-controlled person does suffer from such a rational failing: a failure to take a specifically rational kind of pleasure in fine action. However, this still leaves a problem: could there not be someone who (unlike the self-controlled person) took the right kind of pleasure in fine action, but who failed to be virtuous on account of bad appetites? If so, would such a person be practically wise but not virtuous? I end with some suggestions about how Aristotle might answer this.


A study was made into the structural-and-functional status of the osseous tissue in patients with neuroendocrinemetabolic form of the hypothealamic syndrome. Noted in the above patients were abnormalities in the calcium-phosphorous balance which are manifested by a drop in the blood level of calcium and by profound hypercalciuria. All examinees have been shown to present with the osteopenic syndrome formation. Possible causes of development of systemic osteopenia in those patients presenting with neuroendocrinemetabolic form of the hypothalamic syndrome are believed to include, in the first place, hypercorticoidism, hyperprolactinemia, reduction in the estrogen secretion, which might be result in imbalance of processes of bone remodelling involving largely resorption of the bone.


The genetic evidence for modern human origins was reviewed recently in Evolutionary Anthropology by Pearson, 1 so our goal is to highlight new developments rather than attempt a comprehensive review. For years, polarized Multiregional and Out‐of‐Africa models for modern human origins were debated vigorously, but today there is substantial agreement among specialists. One area of broad consensus is that Africa or, more accurately, sub‐Saharan Africa, played a predominant role in the origins of modern humans. This view is found even among researchers who argue against complete replacement of nonmodern Eurasians. 2–7 The importance of Africa is clear not only from genetics, but also from the fossil record. 1 , 8 On the other hand, most researchers also agree that, at least in principle, modern humans and nonmodern Eurasians, such as Neandertals, could have interbred with each other. The fossil record suggests that Neandertals and modern humans constituted independent evolutionary lineages, 9 but their recent common ancestry leaves open the possibility of admixture. 10 The open question is whether there is any evidence of admixture. 1


Abstract The pre-montane forest of the northern Andes is considered one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Tools for rapidly assessing biodiversity inventories are currently being developed and may aid conservation efforts. Here, we focus on the use of the Ants of the Leaf Litter (ALL) protocol as such a tool and describe the composition of an Ecuadorian pre-montane leaf litter ant community. Two 200-m transects (i.e. two complete replications of the protocol) with a total of 40 winkler sacs and 39 pitfall traps were analyzed. In total, we collected 4 875 specimens from 103 species, 37 genera and 9 subfamilies. The abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE), an asymptotic estimator of species richness, predicted a total of 109 ant species for the forest fl oor, making this ant community one of the most diverse recorded in tropical mid-altitude forests. Subsets of the community sampled by winkler sacs and pitfall traps differed signifi cantly. Winkler sacs were more effi cient than pitfall traps at capturing individual ants (226% more) and species (129% more). Relative to pitfall traps, an analysis of morphology suggested that winkler sacs collected a subset of the ant community that was smaller, less mobile and with smaller eyes (e.g. more subterranean). Finally, we present the fi rst published records of the ant species Acanthognathus teledectus Brown & Kempf 1969, Hypoponera distinguenda (Emery 1890), Prionopelta amabilis Borgmeier 1949, Pachycondyla chyzeri (Forel 1907) and Procryptocerus mayri Forel 1899 for Ecuador.


The study was carried out to examine the constraints and strategies for improving agricultural intervention programmes in Nigeria with particular reference to the National Fadama Development Project, phase two in Kogi state. A set of interview schedule and questionnaire were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage and mean score were used to present the data. Factor analysis with principal component model on varimax rotation was used to determine major constraints while t-test was used to analyse the differences in perception of two sets of respondents to the constraints of the programme. Poverty was the major constraint perceived by farmers (mean = 3.89), while facilitators perceived both high cost of farm inputs and lack of credit facilities as the most serious constraint (mean = 3.38 each). Both farmers and facilitators shared similar opinion on twenty identified constraints and have significant differences in their perception of seven identified problems (p< 0.05). The result however, showed that several factors constrained the effectiveness of the project. The factors were grouped using factor analysis into technical problems, institutional problems and economic problems. For the farmers, the major strategy suggested was supply of farm machineries (65.2%), while facilitators suggested supply of subsidies and training opportunities for farmers (87.5%). It was recommended that, employment of project staff should be specific to only those with good agricultural background especially in crop science and agricultural extension to allow for effective relationship between the project and farmers.


South African legislation and policies acknowledge street children as a vulnerable group, and make provision for services to them. It, however, seems that this social issue remains a serious challenge to society and social service delivery. This qualitative research study aimed to explore and describe the perceptions of street children, their parents/guardians, as well as community members in the Drakenstein Municipal area in an effort to develop a better understanding of the current state of affairs. The findings resulted in the identification of focus areas for the planning and imple-mentation of social services to street children.


In today's world, where faster development of a new drug is crucial, not just for the patients but also for the pharmaceutical companies that are always in a competition for delivering a "new chemical entity (NCE)" to the market and the public. Bioinformatics, through various databases, web services, software and tools, has made a huge impact on the drug development process.


Application of nanogaps for electron sources is fascinating in surface-conduction electron-emitter display. In contrast to rather complicated fabrication processes of the focused ion beam technique for the extremely narrow fissure, nanogaps fabricated by hydrogen embrittlement (HE) have thus been proposed as novel surface-conduction electron emitters due to their low turn-on voltage, high emission current, high focus capability, and high emission efficiency. In this paper, we theoretically investigate effects of the separation width and the tilted angle of the nanogaps fabricated by HE method on the field emission efficiency using a 3-D finite-difference time-domain particle-in-cell simulation technique. The structure with a large tilted angle may result in a high emitted current, but the collected current on the anode is suppressed due to the strong local field around the tip. A small structure prevents the emitted electrons from spreading out, and thus, no current could be collected by the anode. Also, the structure with a wide (or a narrow) separation of gap weakens (or enhances) the field around the tip and reduces the collected electrons. For better emission efficiency and focus capability, the separation width and the tilted angle of the examined structure could vary from 57 to 117 nm and 30deg to 60deg, respectively.


Background and Aims: Reconstruction with reconstitution of the container function of the abdominal compartment is increasingly being performed in patients with massive ventral hernia previously deemed inoperable. This situation places patients at great risk of severe intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome if organ failure ensues. Intra-abdominal hypertension and especially abdominal compartment syndrome may be devastating systemic complications with systematic and progressive organ failure and death. We thus reviewed the pathophysiology and reported clinical experiences with abnormalities of intra-abdominal pressure in the context of abdominal wall reconstruction. Material and Methods: Bibliographic databases (1950–2015), websites, textbooks, and the bibliographies of previously recovered articles for reports or data relating to intra-abdominal pressure, intra-abdominal hypertension, and the abdominal compartment syndrome in relation to ventral, incisional, or abdominal hernia repair or abdominal wall reconstruction. Results: Surgeons should thus consider and carefully measure intra-abdominal pressure and its resultant effects on respiratory parameters and function during abdominal wall reconstruction. The intra-abdominal pressure post-operatively will be a result of the new intra-peritoneal volume and the abdominal wall compliance. Strategies surgeons may utilize to ameliorate intra-abdominal pressure rise after abdominal wall reconstruction including temporizing paralysis of the musculature either temporarily or semi-permanently, pre-operative progressive pneumoperitoneum, permanently removing visceral contents, or surgically releasing the musculature to increase the abdominal container volume. In patients without complicating shock and inflammation, and in whom the abdominal wall anatomy has been so functionally adapted to maximize compliance, intra-abdominal hypertension may be transient and tolerable. Conclusions: Intra-abdominal hypertension/abdominal compartment syndrome in the specific setting of abdominal wall reconstruction without other complication may be considered as a quaternary situation considering the classification nomenclature of the Abdominal Compartment Society. Greater awareness of intra-abdominal pressure in abdominal wall reconstruction is required and ongoing study of these concerns is required.


Large, solitary air cysts or "balloon cysts" of the lung have been reported by few observers. In 1925, Koontz 1 made an exhaustive review of the literature, and tabulated 108 cases of congenital cystic disease of the lung. The cysts in 7 of this number were large, solitary air sacs, the remainder being small and, usually, multiple. In 1859, Hermann Meyer 2 described a solitary large cyst, and remarked on the rarity of reports of similar cases in the literature at that time. The earliest report was made by Bartholinus. 3 The following report is of interest because the patient was under observation the greater part of her life, and because thorough postmortem studies seem to throw light on the etiology of this disease. REPORT OF CASE History .—B. W., a white girl, aged 17½ months, was the first child of healthy young parents. The mother's pregnancy and labor had


OBJECTIVE
To explore the advantages of minimally invasive expandable in surgery of lumbar discectomy and interbody fusion and internal fixation.

METHODS
The clinical data of 48 patients who underwent lumbar discectomy and interbody fusion and internal fixation from January 2010 to March 2016 was retrospectively analyzed. According to the admission queue, the patients were randomly assigned into channel group (26 cases) or traditional group (22 cases). In channel group, surgical approach of minimally invasive expandable channel was applied, and in traditional group, open posterior operation approach (including posterior lumbar interbody fusion and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, etc.) was applied. In channel group, there were 20 males and 6 females, aged from 43 to 74 years with an average of(56.6±5.1) years; course of disease was ranged from 4 to 22 months with an average of (6.7±1.8) months; 1 case was complicated with diabetes, 6 cases were complicated with hypertensive disease, and 2 cases were complicated with arrhythmia. In traditional group, there were 15 males and 7 females, aged from 43 to 73 years with an average of(55.9±4.6) years; course of disease was ranged from 4 to 26 months with an average of (6.2±2.1) months; 2 cases were complicated with diabetes, 5 cases were complicated with hypertensive disease, and 1 case was complicated with arrhythmia. Operation time, bleeding volume, and hospitalization time were compared between two groups and visual analogue scale(VAS), Oswestry Disability Index(ODI), bone fusion information, and complications correlated with incision were observed in two groups.

RESULTS
All 48 patients were followed up for more than 6 months. Postoperative VAS and ODI were significantly improved (P<0.01), but 3 and 6 months after operation, there was no significant difference in VAS between two groups, and ODI score of channel group was lower than that of traditional group(P<0.01). Operation time, bleeding volume, hospitalization time in channel group respectively were (167.3±30.2) min, (786.8±147.8) ml, (12.3±2.4) d, and in traditional group were (197.5±48.7) min, (786.8±147.8) ml, (16.5±3.8) d, there was significant differences between two groups. There was no significant difference in fusion rate and fusion time between two groups. There were 4 cases and 7 cases developed incision related complications in channel group and traditional group, respectively. The difference between two groups was significant(P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with conventional surgery minimally invasive lumbar discectomy and interbody fusion and internal fixation has advantages of less trauma, shorter operative time and better functional recovery.


In this paper, a multisource multirelay cooperative wireless network with binary modulation and binary network coding is studied. The system model encompasses 1) a Demodulate-and-Forward (DemF) protocol at the relays, where the received packets are forwarded, regardless of their reliability, and 2) a maximum-likelihood optimum demodulator at the destination, which accounts for possible demodulation errors at the relays. An asymptotically tight and closed-form expression of the end-to-end error probability is derived, which showcases the diversity order and coding gain of each source. Unlike other papers available in the literature, the proposed framework has three main distinguishable features: 1) It is useful for general network topologies and arbitrary binary encoding vectors; 2) it shows how network code and two-hop forwarding protocol affect diversity order and coding gain; and 3) it accounts for realistic fading channels and demodulation errors at the relays. The framework provides four main conclusions: 1) Each source achieves a diversity order equal to the separation vector of the network code; 2) the design of diversity-achieving network codes is equivalent to the design of systematic block codes over fully interleaved point-to-point links; 3) the coding gain of each source decreases with the number of mixed packets at the relays; and 4) if the destination cannot take into account demodulation errors at the relays, it loses approximately half of the diversity order. Our theoretical findings are validated through extensive Monte Carlo simulations.


Dengue virus (DENV) infection can result in severe complications. Yet, the understanding of the molecular correlates of severity is limited, partly due to difficulties in defining the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) that are associated with DENV in vivo. Additionally, there are currently no biomarkers predictive of progression to severe dengue (SD). Bulk transcriptomics data are difficult to interpret because blood consists of multiple cell types that may react differently to infection. Here we applied virus-inclusive single cell RNA-seq approach (viscRNA-Seq) to profile transcriptomes of thousands of single PBMCs derived early in the course of disease from six dengue patients and four healthy controls, and to characterize distinct DENV-associated leukocytes. Multiple genes, particularly interferon response genes, were upregulated in a cell-specific manner prior to progression to SD. Expression of MX2 in naive B cells and CD163 in CD14+ CD16+ monocytes was predictive of SD. The majority of DENV-associated cells in the blood of two patients who progressed to SD were naive IgM B cells expressing the CD69 and CXCR4 receptors and antiviral genes, followed by monocytes. Bystander uninfected B cells also demonstrated immune activation, and plasmablasts from two patients exhibited antibody lineages with convergently hypermutated heavy chain sequences. Lastly, assembly of the DENV genome revealed diversity at unexpected genomic sites. This study presents a multi-faceted molecular elucidation of natural dengue infection in humans and proposes biomarkers for prediction of SD, with implications for profiling any tissue and viral infection, and for the development of a dengue prognostic assay. Significance A fraction of the 400 million people infected with dengue annually progresses to severe dengue (SD). Yet, there are currently no biomarkers to effectively predict disease progression. We profiled the landscape of host transcripts and viral RNA in thousands of single blood cells from dengue patients prior to progressing to SD. We discovered cell-type specific immune activation and candidate predictive biomarkers. We also revealed preferential virus association with specific cell populations, particularly naive B cells and monocytes. We then explored immune activation of bystander cells, clonality and somatic evolution of adaptive immune repertoires, and viral genomics. This multi-faceted approach could advance understanding of pathogenesis of any viral infection, map an atlas of infected cells and promote the development of prognostics.


Recent research has examined the early stages of language development in signed and spoken language. In this paper we discuss claims that, in the timing of early language milestones, there is an advantage for the acquisition of signed languages. In particular, we will review the evidence that the emergence of the first signs and of the first twosign combinations is precocious in signing children as compared to the appearance of the first words and of the first two-word strings in speaking children. We conclude that the evidence for early emergence of the first signs deserves continued attention, but that the evidence for early syntax in signing children is not at all compelling. Finally, we discuss the import of a short-lived sign advantage in early language acquisition, in terms of understanding maturational timing mechanisms more generally. Specifically, we address the question of whether or not a single timing mechanism underlies early milestones in the acquisition of both vocabulary and syntax.


Aim: To describe the quality of life six months following on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in people aged 61 to 70. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional survey was conducted on 119 cardiovascular patients who have undergone On Pump CABG procedure. The data was collected from Punjab Institute of Cardiology and Omer Hospital Lahore. 70 patients were taken from Punjab Institute of Cardiology Lahore and 49 from Omer Hospital. Non-probability convenient sampling was used as a sampling approach. From August 2018 until January 2019, the research was conducted. The Medical Outcomes Study short form 36 (SF-36) questionnaires were used to determine the quality of life. Results: The mean age of the 119 patients was 65.23 + 3.35, with a standard deviation of 3.35. Three patients (2.5%) had energy fatigue, three (2.5%) had role limitations due to physical health, fifteen (12.6%) had role limitations due to emotional problems, 96 (80.7%) had physical functioning and two (1.7%) had emotional well-being, four (3.4%) had social functioning, three (2.5%) had pain, and three (2.5%) had general health problems. Conclusion: The quality of life of on-pump CABG patients aged 61-70 years after six months of cardiac rehabilitation was reported to be satisfactory, with improved activities of daily living. Keywords: Quality of life, on pump coronary artery bypasses grafting, cardiac rehabilitation


Changes in society are so quick to have implications for the change of religiosity. These conditions demand achange in managing the activities of proselytizing, to more professional direction. One of the institutions that need to berevised is the women's majelis taklim who have potential and significant role in life. Women's majelis taklim need to bemanaged by using modern management with a way to empower both personal, institutional and social institutions. With theexpected empowerment, majelis taklim activities not only as a medium of learning and teaching community, but can playa role in addressing humanitarian problems that often befall women and also to improve the welfare of members.


Background in music history. Around 1600, there was a shift in compositional style whose
most significant feature was the increasingly free use of unprepared and/or incorrectly resolved
dissonance. It caused controversy at the time (Artusi vs. Monteverdi), and its proponents
argued that it was justifiable as a means of text expression. It can be argued that, in order to be
shocked at the "illegal" treatment of dissonances, a listener would have to be familiar with
"legal" behaviour of dissonances. Modern audiences, when exposed to seconda pratica music,
tend not to react with same degree of alarm. One can argue that this is because later
developments in music, to which the audiences have been exposed, go much farther in their
dissonance treatment than the music of the seconda pratica composers.
Background in psychology. Previous studies have shown that participants can rapidly develop
both knowledge and subjective preference for grammatical structure following only a limited
exposure to unfamiliar musical systems. Familiarity with musical structure has been shown to
play a role in influencing the degree of emotional engagement experienced by participants
while listening to music. The differences among the musical stimuli used in these studies are
often maximised; in some cases, an entirely artificial musical grammar is used.
Aims. Can we, through exposure to a training set, build enough familiarity in modern listeners
of the conventional rules of dissonance treatment, that they experience seconda pratica music
as odd or alarming in some way? Our experiment is a pilot study to test the feasibility of such
an approach to this problem.
Main contribution. We constructed an experiment in which a group of participants, drawn
from among undergraduate students in music and psychology, were asked to rate two different
pieces of Monteverdi (to represent seconda pratica), both before and after being exposed to a
training set composed of either Monteverdi or Palestrina (to represent prima pratica). All
pieces were presented once only without repetition. The training sets were chosen to minimise
the effect of performers' interpretation on the listener, in an attempt to isolate compositional
style as the most salient difference. Our results showed a significant difference in the rating of
the Monteverdi pieces as "familiar" between the different groups. Other variables did not have
a significant impact. This finding implies a degree of internalisation of the differences in
musical grammar, and suggests that this paradigm for study might profitably be extended in the
future.
Implications. Our research has implications for any situation in which a teacher, performer, or
composer is attempting to communicate musical meaning to an audience that is unfamiliar with
the style in question. If a fairly brief training period is sufficient to build an appreciation in a
sample of untrained listeners, for differences that are as relatively subtle as those between
Monteverdi and Palestrina, then a presenter of unfamiliar or new music might use such
knowledge to consciously structure the listening experience.


A logic is a doctrine of the logos, that is, of meaningful discourse; hence the first thing we expect from it is an account of what makes the logos meaningful—of what a meaning is. There is no single such doctrine or account: it is part of the immense richness of meaningful discourse that we can shift back and forth between several logics—several organized ways of reasoning, of providing reasons or grounds for our claims. Building on previous work on Hegel's dialectical logic, the author here identifies three distinct logics simultaneously in play in our conversations. Analytic logic structures its organization of discourse around negation, contraries, and hence arguments forcing a conclusion to follow (under threat of inconsistency) from some premises. Dialectical logic's main tool is the construction of narratives, hence the attempted incorporation of interlocutors within one's own story. The third option, here labeled gradual logic, sees sorites (which are recalcitrant anomalies for the analytic approach) as ideal cases, since the bleeding of a predicate into an alleged contrary points the way to reaching an agreement among initially conflicting parties: to them eventually coming to regard themselves as stressing different aspects of one and the same thing.


BACKGROUND
This study's aim was to assess the efficacy of intestinal decompression with long tube and selective intestinal radiography in the diagnosis and treatment of small bowel obstruction (SBO) in elderly patients.

METHODS
Thirty-two elderly patients with SBO received intestinal decompression with a 300-cm long nasointestinal tube inserted into upper jejunum under radiographic control. The long tube was passed into the proximal part of obstruction or the proximal end of ileum driven by intestinal peristalsis. Selective contrast radiography was done using direct injection of double-contrast medium consisting of 20-100 mL of 76% gastrografin and 50-200 mL of air. The dynamic and multi-position radiographic observation was conducted.

RESULTS
Intubation was successful in all 32 patients. SBO resolution was successful in 29/32 (90.6%) patients. The 3 remaining patients proceeded to undergo surgery. Radiographic findings showed no obvious abnormalities in 25/32 (78.1%) patients, adhesive SBO in 6/32 (18.6%), and metastatic intestinal tumor in 1/32 (3.1%) patient.

CONCLUSIONS
Decompression using long tube can quickly and effectively relieve obstructive symptoms in elderly patients, and help to avoid emergency surgery and to resolve obstruction. Concurrent contrast radiography is helpful to verify the location and degree of obstruction, and to reveal the cause of the obstruction.