♦ Background: Information related to the microbiology of peritonitis is critical to the optimal management of patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). The goal was to characterize the microbiological etiology and antimicrobial susceptibilities of PD-related peritonitis (PDRP) from 2005 to 2014, inclusive. ♦ Methods: The distribution of organisms in culture-positive PDRP was described for new episodes and relapse infections, and further detailed for monomicrobial and polymicrobial peritonitis. Annual and overall rates of PDRP were also characterized. Antimicrobial susceptibility rates were calculated for the most common and significant organisms. ♦ Results: We identified 539 episodes of PDRP including 501 new and 38 relapse infections. New episodes of peritonitis were associated with a single organism in 85% of cases, and 44% of those involved staphylococci. Polymicrobial PDRP was more likely to involve gram-negative organisms, observed in 58% versus 24% of monomicrobial infections. Antimicrobial resistance was relatively stable from 2005 to 2014. Methicillin resistance was present in 57% of Staphylococcus epidermidis and 20% of other coagulase-negative staphylococci. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) accounted for only 11% of S. aureus peritonitis compared with 2% in our previous study of PDRP from 1991 to 1998. Ciprofloxacin resistance in Escherichia coli increased from 3% in our previous study to 24% in 2005 – 2014. ♦ Conclusions: This study characterizes important differences in the distribution of organisms in new episodes of PDRP and relapse infections, as well as monomicrobial versus polymicrobial peritonitis. It also shows relatively stable rates of antimicrobial resistance from 2005 to 2014, but some increases compared with our previous study.


Although various colloidal quantum dot (QD) coating and patterning techniques have been developed to meet the demands in optoelectronic applications over the past years, each of the previously demonstrated methods has one or more limitations and trade-offs in forming multicolor, high-resolution, or large-area patterns of QDs. In this study, we present an alternative QD patterning technique using conventional photolithography combined with charge-assisted layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly to solve the trade-offs of the traditional patterning processes. From our demonstrations, we show repeatable QD patterning process that allows multicolor QD patterns in both large-area and microscale. Also, we show that the QD patterns are robust against additional photolithography processes and that the thickness of the QD patterns can be controlled at each position. To validate that this process can be applied to actual device applications as an active material, we have fabricated inverted, differently colored, active QD light-emitting device (QD-LED) on a pixelated substrate, which achieved maximum electroluminescence intensity of 23 770 cd/m2, and discussed the results. From our findings, we believe that our process provides a solution to achieving both high-resolution and large-scale QD pattern applicable to not only display, but also to practical photonic device research and development.


Summary Purpose: To investigate the safety and efficacy of low-dose apatinib combined with chemotherapy in the second-line treatment of advanced gastric cancer. Methods: After retrospectively analyzing the clinical data of 96 patients with advanced gastric cancer admitted to the cancer center of Shanxi Bethune hospital from January 2016 to January 2020, and after progression to first-line chemotherapy, we used low-dose apatinib (250mg and 500mg respectively) combined with chemotherapy as second-line treatment. Compared with simultaneous simple chemotherapy, we analyzed the objective effective rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS) as well as overall survival (OS) of the combination treatment to evaluate the effect and related adverse reactions. Results: Among the 96 patients, the most common adverse reactions were hypertension, hand-foot skin reaction and proteinuria in the targeted combined chemotherapy group. The ORR and DCR values of the targeted combined chemotherapy group were higher. The mPFS of 250 and 500 mg combined chemotherapy group and chemotherapy-alone were 5.8, 6.1 and 4.3 months, mOS were 7.2, 7.5 and 6.7 months, respectively. The results showed that mPFS and mOS of apatinib combined with chemotherapy were significantly better than that of chemotherapy with statistical significance. Conclusion: Second-line chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer, with low dose of apatinib combined with chemotherapy not only offers good survival benefits, but does not increase the drug-related adverse reactions comparing with the simple chemotherapy group.


&NA; Although the advent of endoscopic technology is expanding the fields of reconstructive and aesthetic surgery in adults, there have been few reports of the use of this technology in the pediatric population. Because of their minimally invasive nature, yet wide range of exposure, endoscopic techniques have much appeal for this age group. Here we present our experience with endoscopic pediatric plastic surgery. From February of 1995 to August of 1997, 104 patients underwent 139 procedures utilizing 5‐ and 10‐mm endoscopes. There were 58 male and 46 female patients. The mean age at surgery was 5.6 years (range, 3 weeks to 19 years). The most common type of procedures performed were insertion of tissue expanders (n = 34), excision of benign head and neck masses (n = 27), torticollis release (n = 20), excision of vascular lesions (n = 13), and miscellaneous procedures, (n = 10). There were 26 complications in 139 procedures (19 percent). Seventeen (65 percent) were in the tissue expander group. The rest were scattered among the groups with other diagnoses. Although there did not appear to be a specific type of complication associated with endoscopy, 77 percent occurred in the first 2 months of our study. This suggests a relatively steep technical learning curve. These results demonstrate that endoscopic techniques are eminently applicable in the pediatric population, providing the benefits of small and remote incisional wounds, with complication rates that are comparable with those of conventional open surgical treatment. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 102: 1446, 1998.)


In the face of the contemporary so-called "European refugee crisis,"' the dichotomies of bodies that are naturalized into technology usage and the bodies that remain alienated from it betray the geographic, racial, and gendered discriminations that digital technologies, despite their claims at neutrality and flatness, continue to espouse. This article argues that "young electronic diasporas" (ye-diasporas) (Dona, 2014) present us with an unique view on how Europe is reimagined from below, as people stake out a living across geographies. The main premise is that young connected migrants' cross-border practices shows they 'do family' in a way that does not align with the universal European, normative expectations of European family life. The author draws on three symptomatic accounts of young connected migrants that are variably situated geo-politically: 1) Moroccan-Dutch youth in the Netherlands; 2) stranded Somalis awaiting family reunification in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and, 3) working, middle, and upper-class young people of various ethnic and class backgrounds living in London. Narratives shared by members of all three groups indicate meta-categories of the 'migrant,' 'user,' and 'e-diaspora' urgently need to be de-flattened. To do this de-flattening work, new links between migrant studies, feminist and postcolonial theory and digital cultures are forged. In an era of increasing digital connectivity and mobility, transnational families are far from deterritorialized – boundaries and insurmountable distances are often forcibly and painfully felt.


Obesity is a condition resulting from excess body fat, and is associated with several risk factors for chronic diseases in later life. Hence, the prevention of obesity is a public health priority, with much of the concern focusing on childhood and adolescence. Recently, body mass index, calculated as weight divided by height squared (BMI, kg/m2), has been widely used as a surrogate measure of adiposity for children and adolescents, and international age- and sex-specific cut-off points to define overweight and obesity have been proposed. Various surveys using the international BMI criteria have revealed that the prevalence of child obesity is accelerating throughout the developed world. However, BMI is a measure of excess weight relative to height, rather than excess body fat. The interpretation of BMI among children and adolescents is further complicated by the changes that occur in weight, height, and body composition during growth. There is a now a considerable body of evidence that during the growth stages, weight increase is frequently due to an increase in fat-free mass rather than fat mass. Therefore, application of the BMI norm to define overweight and obesity in children and adolescents should be done with caution. Furthermore, it is necessary to be aware that adopting an international standard for a specific population may introduce error because the relationship between BMI and adiposity is race-specific. For this reason, it is expected that race-specific standards of BMI with additional body composition-related information for children and adolescents will become available in the future to ensure reliable assessment of adiposity levels.


Background Upper limb disability in persons with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) leads to increased dependence on caregivers. To better understand upper limb disability, observer-based or time-based clinical assessments have been applied. However, these only poorly capture the behavioural aspects underlying goal-directed task performance. Objective We aimed to document alterations in goal-directed upper limb movement patterns and hand grip forces in a cohort of pwMS (n = 123) with mild to moderate upper limb impairments. Methods We relied on the Virtual Peg Insertion Test (VPIT), a technology-aided assessment with a goal-directed pick-and-place task providing a set of validated digital health metrics. Results All metrics indicated significant differences to an able-bodied reference sample (p < 0.001), with smoothness, speed, and grip force control during object manipulation being most affected in pwMS. Such abnormalities negatively influenced the time to complete the goal-directed task (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.77), thereby showing their functional relevance. Lastly, abnormalities in movement patterns and grip force control were consistently found even in pwMS with clinically normal gross dexterity and grip strength. Conclusion This work provides a systematic documentation on goal-directed upper limb movement patterns and hand grip forces in pwMS, ultimately paving the way for an early detection of MS sign using digital health metrics.


An optimization-based method is presented for determining the scheduling of reactive equipment (capacitors for example) on an hourly basis for maximum steady-state power system security during normal and post-contingency conditions. The method simultaneously deals with the effects of a number of contingencies, and includes all bus voltages as constraints. The intended application is to schedule existing capacitors during periods of light load to prevent abnormally high voltages from occurring during normal and post-contingency condittons. Results from tests using a Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) model are presented.


The paper presents Cauchy stress tensor computation over parallel grids of message passing interface (MPI) parallel three‐dimensional (3D) discrete element method (DEM) simulations of granular materials, considering spherical and nonspherical particles. The stress tensor computation is studied for quasi‐static and dynamic conditions, and its resulting symmetry or asymmetry is discussed within the context of classical continuum mechanics (CCM), granular materials mechanics (GMM), and micropolar continuum mechanics (MCM). The average Cauchy stress tensor computation follows Bagi's and Nicot's formulations and is verified within MPI parallel 3D DEM simulations involving dynamically adaptive compute grids. These grids allow calculation of temporal and spatial distributions of stress across granular materials under static and dynamic conditions. The vertical stress component in gravitationally deposited particle assemblies exhibits nonuniform spatial distributions under static equilibrium, and its zone of maximum value changes during the process of gravitational pluviation and collapse. These phenomena reveal a microstructural effect on stress distribution within granular materials that is attributed to their discrete particulate nature (particle size, shape, gradation, boundary conditions, etc).


The integrin α6β4 is upregulated in pancreatic carcinoma and signaling from this integrin promotes metastatic properties, including cancer cell invasion. We have previously shown that the integrin α6β4 promotes such properties by dramatically altering the transcriptome toward an invasive phenotype. Furthermore, we have found that transcriptome alterations can be accomplished through targeted DNA demethylation of specific promoters, as we have shown with the pro-metastatic gene S100A4. In this study, we find that signaling from the integrin α6β4 dramatically upregulates expression of amphiregulin (Areg) and epiregulin (Ereg), ligands for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and that these ligands promote pancreatic carcinoma invasion. To determine if Areg and Ereg are regulated by DNA methylation, pancreatic cancer cells with low expression of the integrin α6β4 were treated with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-aza-29-deoxycytidine (DAC), which resulted in stable over expression of Areg and Ereg, as measured by QPCR. Furthermore, expression of a dominant negative form of integrin β4 or blockade of β4 expression by RNAi suppressed induction of Areg and Ereg by DAC. Similarly, treatment of cells with high integrin α6β4 with the methyl donor S-adenosylmethionine inhibited gene expression of Areg and Ereg. In order to confirm these results, genomic DNA from pancreatic cancer cells with either high or low expression of integrin α6β4 was isolated and whole genome bisulfite sequencing was performed. We find that cells with high integrin α6β4 have lower overall methylation levels compared to cells with low integrin α6β4. As expected, we also find lower methylation levels within the first exon of both Areg and Ereg when the integrin α6β4 is high. These regions of hypomethylation correspond to known H3K27 acetylation marks found in ENCODE databases and reported in the USCS genome browser. Thus, these data implicate promoter demethylation as the driver of Areg and Ereg gene expression mediated by integrin α6β4. It is currently accepted that active DNA demethylation can occur via DNA repair. To test our hypothesis that DNA repair is responsible for DNA demethylation of Areg and Ereg in pancreatic cancer cells, we modulated several components of the DNA repair pathway including GADD45A, TDG and Parp-1. The chemotherapeutic agent Gemcitabine has been shown to inhibit multiple components of DNA repair, as well as DNA demethylation mediated by Gadd45A. Treatment of pancreatic cancer cells with Gemcitabine resulted in a marked reduction in Areg and Ereg expression when the integrin α6β4 is high, indicating DNA repair is required for gene expression. To further test the involvement of Gadd45A, we used either RNAi-mediated knockdown or cDNA overexpression to alter Gadd45A levels and examined their effect on Areg and Ereg. In both instances, Areg and Ereg expression positively correlated with Gadd45A, particularly when the integrin α6β4 is high, indicating that Gadd45A is a rate-limiting step in Areg and Ereg overexpression. Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) has likewise been shown to mediate active DNA demethylation. Using stable shRNA, we show that TDG is required for Areg and Ereg expression in integrin α6β4 high cells, and nuclear localization of TDG is much higher in cells with high integrin α6β4. We further used a specific inhibitor for Parp-1 and show that Areg and Ereg expression is dependent on Parp-1. Finally, we determine that integrin α6β4 signaling accelerates DNA repair rates by 2.5-fold. Taken together, these data indicated that DNA repair is required to maintain overexpression of Areg and Ereg in response to signaling from the integrin α6β4 and that integrin α6β4 promotes this overexpression by enhancing DNA repair and DNA repair-mediated DNA demethylation at specific sites within the promoter regions of Areg and Ereg. Citation Format: Brittany L. Carpenter, Jinpeng Liu, Chi Wang, Kathleen O9Connor. The integrin α6β4 promotes pancreatic cancer invasion by altering DNA repair-mediated epigenetics. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Chromatin and Epigenetics in Cancer; Sep 24-27, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A15.


Mozambique is beginning to emerge from a period of elevated macroeconomic volatility two years after hidden debt revelations triggered a significant economic downturn, but with a reduced capacity for growth. Having averaged near 8 percent between 2005 and 2015, GDP growth dropped to 3.7 in 2017 and is projected to fall further to 3.3 percent in 2018 as slower growth in coal production is expected to offset any modest upturn in manufacturing and services. Fiscal consolidation is making progress, but debt levels continue to be a concern. In an analysis of the structure and drivers of Mozambique's growth over the past two decades, the report notes that progress in reducing poverty levels have come as the expense of rising inequality. Therefore, shifting the growth model to broaden the drivers of growth and to raise productivity in sectors with the highest employment potential is a primary challenge facing Mozambique's policy makers today.


In this paper, we propose two neural network{based approaches, namely, One Speaker One Network and One Speaker Multiple Networks, for text-dependent speaker veri(cid:12)cation using suprasegmentalfeatures. The suprasegmental features used for this study are pitch accent and durational features. These features are ex-tracted using properties of intonation patterns and duration. We have proposed an approach to combine evidence present at the segmental and suprasegmental levels to improve the performance of the veri(cid:12)cation system.


Guideline development is improved when diverse stakeholders, including patients, specialists, and experts, share power in the process, from defining the scope of the question to the final stages of review. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) have each released best-practice standards for clinical guidelines that place health care consumers at the forefront of guideline development. The AAO-HNSF has placed a growing emphasis on consumer engagement in its latest guideline development manual and has developed clear, multifaceted infrastructural approaches to identify and utilize consumers in guideline development and guideline review. This article reviews those recommendations and emphasizes that patient-centered guideline development can improve the quality and impact of medical guidelines.


This paper reports on the 2,362 cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) accumulated by the Leukaemia Research Fund Data Collection Survey between January 1, 1984, and June 30, 1988 providing the recent geographical distribution and descriptive epidemiology of the AML group of conditions. Statistical approaches to this data set are described. The study shows sex differences in distribution for those aged under 55 years compared to older age groups, with variable male: female incidence in different age bands and a male excess in those over 55 years. A nonsignificant excess of females was noted in those under 5 years. The rates presented for 1984-1986 are higher than those previously described for England and Wales. Statistically significant variation in incidence was seen both between counties and districts. At electoral ward level regression analyses were suggestive of links between AML and higher social class and living close to estuaries.


We had developed a conditional Laminin α 1 knockout-mouse model (Lama1cko) bypassing embryonic lethality of Lama1 deficient mice to study the role of this crucial laminin chain during late developmental phases and organogenesis. Here, we report a strong defect in the organization of the adult cerebellum of Lama1cko mice. Our study of the postnatal cerebellum of Lama1cko animals revealed a disrupted basement membrane correlated to an unexpected excessive proliferation of granule cell precursors in the external granular layer (EGL). This was counteracted by a massive cell death occurring between the postnatal day 7 (P7) and day 20 (P20) resulting in a net balance of less cells and a smaller cerebellum. Our data show that the absence of Lama1 has an impact on the Bergmann glia scaffold that aberrantly develops. This phenotype is presumably responsible for the observed misplacing of granule cells that may explain the overall perturbation of the layering of the cerebellum and an aberrant folia formation.


T cell tolerance to self antigen is mainly established in the thymus were self-reactive T cells are deleted. Interdigitating dendritic cells and medulary epithelial cells are directly involved in the deletion process. Some self-reactive T cells escape, however this thymic censorship and enter the peripheral pool of naive T cells. Multiple mechanisms are also at play in the periphery to control this potentially armfull T cells, this include deletion and immune deviation.


An aircraft mounted laser communications system is being developed for an air to air communication experiment to be performed over a range of 50 to 500 kilometers at altitudes up to 40,000 feet. The purpose of the experiment is to demonstrate and characterize communication between two aircraft at various ranges, altitudes and atmospheric conditions. Communication data rates are up to 1 GBPS using four on-off keyed 810 nm diode lasers multiplexed into two circularly polarized transmitting apertures. The communication receiver uses a 134 mm diameter Matsutov telescope with APD's for the detectors. Two separate beacon lasers at 852 nm provide sources for tracking. Two T-39 aircraft each will be equipped with a laser communication system and experimental data collection equipment.


Purpose To establish a cut-off value of main pulmonary artery (MPA)/descending aorta (DA) ratio and MPA/ascending aorta (AA) ratio by computed tomography (CT) to identify pulmonary hypertension (PHT) in children. Material and methods A total of 45 children diagnosed with PHT, who underwent both right heart catheterization (RHC) and CT, were enrolled as a case group (PHT), and their CT findings were compared with those from a control group (non-PHT). The widest short-axis diameters of DA at the level of the diaphragmatic outlet, AA, and MPA at its bifurcated level were measured. Results The most common indication to order a CT in the PHT group was congenital heart disease (CHD) (n = 30, 66.7%), and in the non-PHT group it was metastatic workup (n = 31, 68.9%). The median (IQR) diameters of MPA in the PHT and the non-PHT groups were 18.7 mm (15.5, 26.7) and 16.4 mm (13.7, 19.5) (p = 0.005). The MPA/DA ratios were 2.2 and 1.5 in the PHT and non-PHT groups (p < 0.001). The MPA/AA ratios were 1.2 and 1.1 in the PHT and non-PHT groups (p = 0.042). An MPA/DA ratio of 1.8 carried a positive likelihood ratio (LR+) of 7.5 with a sensitivity of 66.67%, specificity of 91%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 88%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 73.21%. Conclusions The MPA/DA ratio > 1.8 suggests PHT in children and may lead to the avoidance of invasive cardiac catheterization particularly in non-CHD patients.


The stability of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plsma that is forced by external noise is explored. The noise is assumed to be of a Gaussian nature and to have both isotropic and anistropic components with a preferential direction ŝ. If the anisotropic part of the noise auto-correlation spectrum is not invariant under reflection (i.e., parity non-conserving, PNC), an antisymmetric component with respect to ŝ, the so-called dynamo α term is found to be induced in the evolution of the magentic field and may cause a magnetic perturbtion to grow. In contrast, if the PNC noise spectrum is symmetric, the noise induces a kinetic response that destabilizes the plasma. If the magnitudes of the kinetic and the magnetic noises are of the same order, the kinetic noise contributes dominantly to the instability when the magnetic Prandtl number is small. We argue that the macroscopic field and flow are more prone to instability and may exist in the steady state where nonlinear effects saturate the noise-induced growth.


While the health sector has attracted significant foreign aid, evidence on the effectiveness of this support is mixed. By combining household panel data with a unique geographically-referenced foreign aid data, this paper uses a Difference-In-Differences approach to investigate the contribution of aid on key health outcomes in Uganda. We find that even though aid was not targeted to localities with the worst health conditions, health aid achieved an overall significant impact in reducing both disease severity and burden. However, the impact is most robust for disease burden compared to severity. In addition, we observe increased aid effectiveness if resources are channeled to locations that are closer to communities in need, given ease of access to health services. From a policy perspective, the results point to the need for development partners to better target aid to sub-national areas with higher disease prevalence. Moreover, aid ought to be channeled as close to intended beneficiaries as possible, thus offering additional advantage of driving the Universal Health Coverage strategy of "close to client" health system.


Today's programmers, especially data science practitioners, make heavy use of data-processing libraries (APIs) such as PyTorch, Tensorflow, NumPy, and the like. Program synthesizers can provide significant coding assistance to this community of users; however program synthesis also can be slow due to enormous search spaces. In this work, we examine ways in which machine learning can be used to accelerate enumerative program synthesis. We present a deep-learning-based model to predict the sequence of API functions that would be needed to go from a given input to a desired output, both being numeric vectors. Our work is based on two insights. First, it is possible to learn, based on a large number of input-output examples, to predict the likely API function needed in a given situation. Second, and importantly, it is also possible to learn to compose API functions into a sequence, given an input and the desired final output, without explicitly knowing the intermediate values. We show that we can speed up an enumerative synthesizer by using predictions from our model variants. These speedups significantly outperform previous ways (e.g. DeepCoder) in which researchers have used ML models in enumerative synthesis.


Figurines of women with obesity or who are pregnant ("Venus figurines") from Upper Paleolithic Europe rank among the earliest art and endured from 38,000 to 14,000 BP (before present), one of the most arduous climatic periods in human history. We propose that the Venus representation relates to human adaptation to climate change. During this period, humans faced advancing glaciers and falling temperatures that led to nutritional stress, regional extinctions, and a reduction in the population. We analyzed Paleolithic figurines of women with obesity to test whether the more obese figurines are from sites during the height of the glacial advance and closer to the glacial fronts. Figurines are less obese as distance from the glaciers increases. Because survival required sufficient nutrition for child‐bearing women, we hypothesize that the overnourished woman became an ideal symbol of survival and beauty during episodes of starvation and climate change in Paleolithic Europe.


Context: Poorer mortality rates and quality of care in hospitals outside of office hours is well documented. The literature on adult social (long-term) care, and in particular, care homes, is much less developed. There are, however, a few studies that suggest that outside of Monday to Friday between 9.00am and 16.30pm, quality of care in care homes might be lower. Objective(s): The objective of this study was to compare the social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL) of residents in older adult care homes during office hours (0900 to 16.30) with outside of office hours (evenings and weekends). Method(s): We conducted a nested, cross-sectional study, collecting SCRQoL data using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit at two time points, office hours (Monday-Friday between 9.00 and 16.30) and outside of office hours. We did not examine nigh times in the homes. Data were collected for 99 older adult care home residents in 13 care homes (5 residential and 8 nursing) and analysed using a combination of non-parametric and parametric techniques. Findings: SCRQoL ratings were lower during the weekends and early evenings than during office hours. The differences were most pronounced in the higher order domains of social participation, occupation and control over daily life. Limitations: The study struggled to explain this variation. This work was both exploratory and small in size. We also did not collect data on levels of staffing. Implications: Further work is required to both confirm our findings and explore the reasons for the difference. Nonetheless, this study challenges the traditional model of care, in which social activities and meaningful pastimes are mostly organised during 'office hours'. We observed evenings that were very short, as residents tended to return to their room shortly after dinner, and quiet weekends, and this was reflected in residents' quality of life. This is contrary to the rhetoric of care homes being people's own homes, where they would be able to choose to remain active and engaged into the evening and on the weekends, as they may have done throughout their lives.


This article describes the problem of rail track flaws for the railroad industry, costing an estimated $109 million for derailment, $70 million for delays, $149 million for maintenance and repair, and $127 million for inspection annually- all of which point to the necessity of improving the technological efficiency of rail flaw detection. Specifically this article addresses the use of ultrasonic waves using transducer "injection" into the rail. Some limitations are also outlined: the system experiences excessive false readings, the inspection speeds remain slow, the necessity of a clean rail head, and imperfect defect estimation are among them. Research is currently being conducted to improve the speed and efficacy of this system, which remains one of the better analysis methods regardless of its limitations.


Access to information plays crucial role in getting best agricultural products with some other factors such as soil, weather, biochemical products and their application. Several types of information are required by farmers of Sri Lanka for agricultural activities. This study focuses on the relationship of information literacy and the enhanced access to agricultural productivity. Therefore, this research aims to determine the information literacy level of paddy farmers of Ampara district in Sri Lanka in accessing agricultural information and explores how much this support the enhanced agricultural productivity. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select sample paddy farmers of Ampara district. 57 farmers were selected as the sample from all nineteen D.S. divisions of Ampara as three from each division. Survey method was used to collect data for this study. Questionnaire and Interview were used as research instruments. District Officer of Agriculture was interviewed and farmers were administered with questionnaires. Result was analyzed mainly quantitatively by using SPSS and Mini Tab. Qualitative analysis is also carried out. This study resulted that majority respondents preferred verbal communication, print sources and the use of computer and internet is reported poor. Communication gap, poor communication services, lack of libraries, lack of information literacy skills, poor infra structure and inadequate extension services might have caused poor access to information. Department of Agriculture under Central government and Agrarian Services Board under provincial ministry serve to these farmers as much as possible to provide information. However the information received by farmers indicated that it is not to the expected level. Therefore, it is concluded that government and local authorities should develop the existing services, information and communication systems to facilitate the farmers to access relevant information on time in order to gain best agricultural productivity. Though the perception of farmers indicates that they are information literate, facts and information related to format, mode and sources they preferred shows that these farmers are not much skilled on information literacy. This study recommends educating the farmers on access to information. Information Literacy should be taught to the farmers from the grass root level.


This book highlights the contributions and careers of Native Americans who have carved impressive careers in Hollywood, from the silent film era of the early 1900s to the present, becoming advocates for their heritage.
 This book explores how the heritage and behind-the-scenes activities of Native American actors and filmmakers helped shape their own movie images. Native artists have impacted movies for more than a century, but until recently their presence had passed largely unrecognized. From the silent era to contemporary movies, this book features leading Native American actors whose voices have reached a broad audience and are part of the larger conversation about the exploitation of underrepresented people in Hollywood.
 Each chapter highlights Native actors in lead or supporting roles as well as filmmakers whose movies were financed and distributed by Hollywood studios. The text further explores how a "pan-Indian heritage" that applies to all tribes in terms of spirituality, historical trauma, and a version of ceremony and storytelling have shaped these performers' movie identities. It will appeal to a wide range of readers, including fans of Westerns, history buffs of American popular cinema, and students and scholars of Native American studies.


Low dose spiral computed tomography is the best tool we have today to detect early lung cancer. The author describes the technique of image intake and the advantages in thoracic oncology.


In this study, we report the simple and sensitive electrochemical detection of dopamine in the presence of excess ascorbic acid. The detection is based on the spontaneous formation of electrocatalytic poly(dopamine) films on bare indiumtin oxide (ITO) electrodes. The poly(dopamine) films are formed by immersing ITO electrodes in a solution of dopamine and ascorbic acid for 10 min. Afterwards, the electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrazine is measured using modified electrodes. The electrooxidation current of hydrazine increases with increasing dopamine concentration. This method allows a detection limit of 1 nM for dopamine in the presence of 100 µM of ascorbic acid.


ABSTRACT A partial isothermal ternary phase diagram of the Cd–Mg–Y system including icosahedral quasicrystal (i-QC) and 1/1 approximant (APP) was obtained at 673 K. The stability of the i-QC and APPs in terms of composition and temperature was studied, as a result of which the 2/1 APP phase was discovered at 773 K. Moreover, the i-QC phase was found to be stable at lower Y concentrations of ∼12–13 at.%, as compared to the 1/1 APP, which showed ∼15–16 at.% Y. Single i-QC, 2/1 and 1/1 APP grains were also synthesized applying centrifuging system. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) characterization of the obtained i-QC and APPs revealed almost the same Kikuchi patterns for the i-QC and 2/1 APP, indicating high resemblance of their structures. However, the Kikuchi pattern acquired from the 1/1 APP was distinguishable from the one obtained from the i-QC as it showed split bands. The occurrence of the split bands was associated with significant deviation from a perfect icosahedral symmetry. This was also confirmed by analysing calculated electron diffraction and Kikuchi patterns along pseudo-five-fold axes of the 2/1 and 1/1 APPs. Finally, orientation relationships between the i-QC, 1/1 APP and α-Mg were investigated by analysing acquired EBSD Kikuchi patterns from the respective domains. Accordingly, three perpendicular two-fold axes of the i-QC and {100} axes of the 1/1 APP occur along three mutually orthogonal {0001}, {10-10} and {11-20} axes of the α-Mg.


Distributed virtual environments are rapidly gaining in popularity for the implementation of intuitive and collaborative workspaces. In distributed virtual environments, geographically dispersed user sites possess considerable capabilities for computing and cooperation with other user sites. Primary challenges that have to be addressed by these systems are compensating network latency jitters, keeping system-wide data consistent, enabling fair resource sharing and interaction between the users. This paper reviews a global time-stamp based approach, which is developed by authors to enhance the fairness and consistency across the distributed virtual environments. The approach is described in combination with three different implementation philosophies, a centralized approach similar to client-server model, a decentralized approach similar to peer-to-peer model, and a combined approach consisting of hierarchical layers of centralized and decentralized approaches. Based on a new object-oriented real-time programming methodology called the time-triggered message-triggered object (TMO) programming scheme, two different implementations were tested and compared.


In this study we have taken Croton tiglium to study the effect of different light conditions on the physiological and morphological appreance of the plant. Croton tigliumis an ornamental plant used for the interior and garden decoration, belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae, is one of the most popular ornamental plants because of vivid foliage colours and varied leaf shapes. When it is allowed to grow under different light conditions and tested by various parameters like Chlorophyll and Carotenoid Content, Leaf Area and Specific Leaf Weight, Light Microscopy, statistical analysis etc the results shows Low light intensities (LLI) increases the concentration of chla and chlb while high light intensities (HLI) on the otherhand reduces the level of chlaand chlbin the leaves of Croton tiglium.


A theoretical investigation is reported of the influence of changes in the refractive indices, which accompany changes in the parameters of the loss modulator and of the active medium, on the amplitude—detuning characteristic of a loss-modulated CO2 laser. The results show that if the frequency sweep is taken into account, the amplitude of the laser response decreases and doubling spikes disappear if the detuning is positive, and the response amplitude increases if the detuning is negative.


We present a comparison of bar strength Qb and circumnuclear dust morphology for 75 galaxies in order to investigate how bars affect the centers of galaxies. We trace the circumnuclear dust morphology and amount of dust structure with structure maps generated from visible-wavelength HST data, finding that tightly wound nuclear dust spirals are primarily found in weakly barred galaxies. While strongly barred galaxies sometimes exhibit grand-design structure within the central 10% of D25, this structure rarely extends to within ~10 pc of the galaxy nucleus. In some galaxies, these spiral arms terminate at a circumnuclear starburst ring. Galaxies with circumnuclear rings are generally more strongly barred than galaxies lacking rings. Within these rings, the dust structure is fairly smooth and usually in the form of a loosely wound spiral. These data demonstrate that multiple nuclear morphologies are possible in the most strongly barred galaxies: chaotic central dust structure inconsistent with a coherent nuclear spiral, a grand-design spiral that loses coherence before reaching the nucleus, or a grand-design spiral that ends in a circumnuclear ring. These observations may indicate that not all strong bars are equally efficient at fueling material to the centers of their host galaxies. Finally, we investigate the long-standing hypothesis that SB(s) galaxies have weak bars and SB(r) galaxies have strong bars, finding the opposite to be the case: namely, SB(r) galaxies are less strongly barred and have less dust structure than SB(s) galaxies. In general, more strongly barred galaxies tend to have higher nuclear dust contrast.


The main issue addressed in this paper is a practical application of sign language in early development support for deaf and hard of hearing children in Poland. This discussion is set in a broad cultural, linguistic, psychological and rehabilitation context. This paper presents the concept of Mary Pat Moeller which includes four approaches to the use of sign language in the programming of language in DHH. The discussion on the possibility of Polish rehabilitation centres adopting these solutions required an explanation of the diff erences between auditory deprivation and language deprivation, which is another important issue addressed in this paper. The main aim of this publication is to propose a fl exible approach to the creation of a model of education for deaf and hard of hearing children, one that will completely fulfi ll the needs of a specifi c child and to substantially argue about the conviction that sign language is a factor potentially detrimental to the development of these children.


Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) is a non-intrusive optical technique that uses fluorescent dyes to measure whole-field fluid scalars such as temperature, concentration, pH, etc. LIF measurements' accuracy is strongly influenced by the fluorescent dye's behavior under different experimental conditions. In particular, ratiometric LIF thermometry accuracy depends on the correct selection of fluorescent dyes mixtures. Therefore, a thorough characterizations of fluorescent dyes is needed to obtain optimal mixtures and suitable optical configurations for given experimental conditions. This work presents the experimental characterization of fluorescein-27 (FL27) and rhodamine-B (RhB) mixtures to determine suitable aqueous solutions for ratiometric LIF thermometry. The mixtures' fluorescence emission intensity was measured with a spectrofluorometer, and the influence of concentration ratio (C(RhB)/C(FL27)), temperature, excitation wavelength (λ(ext)), and pH were analyzed. The results show that the temperature dependence of FL27 emission intensity changed from a negative to a positive value as the excitation wavelength increased. The temperature sensitivity (4.0% per °C) of RhB and FL27 mixture under 532 nm excitation wavelength was found to be higher than that of the commonly used mixture of RhB and Rh110 (2.0% per °C) at the same excitation wavelength. While the emission intensities of the dyes are sensitive to pH value, the temperature dependence is unaffected. The influence of concentration ratio on temperature sensitivity depends on both the detected bands of the emitted spectrum and the temperature; the concentration ratio should be selected based on the measured temperature scope. A new multicolor method or advanced two color method with high temperature sensitivity (6.0% or 10.0% per °C) is presented. This technique was specially developed to improve whole-field temperature measurements.


1- Simulations of star clusters and galactic nuclei: rotation and other challenges (R. Spurzem & C. Einsel)
2- Relaxation of elliptical galaxies (C. Boily)
3- Simulations with an Hybrid Nbody-Scf code (M. Hemsendorf)
These are three two-page contributions to the Rutgers galaxy dynamics held in august, 1998. Each will be included in the proceedings to be published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.


Primary eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders (EGIDs) represent a spectrum of inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders in which eosinophils infiltrate the gut in the absence of known causes for such tissue eosinophilia. EGIDs can be subgrouped as eosinophilic esophagitis (EE), eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG), and eosinophilic colitis (EC). The least frequent manifestation of EGIDs is EC. EC is a heterogeneous entity with a bimodal age distribution, presenting with either an acute self-limited bloody diarrhea in otherwise healthy infants or as a more chronic relapsing colitis in young adults. The pathophysiology of primary EC appears related to altered hypersensitivity, principally as a food allergy in infants and T lymphocyte-mediated (i.e. non-IgE associated) in young adults. In adults, symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weight loss. Endoscopic changes are generally modest, featuring edema and patchy granularity. Although standardized criteria are not yet established, the diagnosis of EC depends on histopathology that identifies an excess of eosinophils. Therapeutic approaches are based on case reports and small case series, as prospective randomized controlled trials are lacking. Eosinophilic colitis in infants is a rather benign, frequently food-related entity and dietary elimination of the aggressor often resolves the disorder within days. Adolescent or older patients require more aggressive medical management including: glucocorticoids, anti-histamines, leukotriene receptors antagonists as well as novel approaches employing biologics that target interleukin-5 (IL-5) and IgE. This review article summarizes the current knowledge of EC, its epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment.


The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of fiber volume fraction on effective diffusivity of composites with impermeable fibers using finite elements. Both hexagonal and square fiber arrangements were studied. It is found that for low to moderate fiber fractions (Vf< 40%)the effective diffusivity was essentially the same for both fiber arrangements and the calculated values agreed very well with Hashin's formula. For high fiber fractions (Vf> 40%)there were significant differences, but the behavior was still quite simple. A very simple closedform formula, which consists of Hashin's formula for part of the range and a straight line for the rest, is proposed for calculating the effective diffusivity as a function of fiber volume fraction. The simple formula predictions matched the finite element predictions extremely well.


This study compared the effects of ad libitum (AL) overfeeding and moderate or marked dietary restriction (DR) on the pathogenesis of aged-related pituitary gland changes in Sprague—Dawley (SD) rats. SD rats were fed Purina Certified Rodent Diet AL (group 1), DR at 72—79% of AL (group 2), DR at 68—72% of AL (group 3) or DR at 47—48% of AL (group 4) for 106 weeks. Interim necropsies were performed at 13, 26, and 53 weeks, after a 7-day 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-filled minipump implantation. Body weights, organ weights and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) serum levels were measured at interim and final necropsies. Serum levels of prolactin (PRL), progesterone, estradiol, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured at 53 and/or 106 weeks. In addition to the routine histopathologic examination, determination of 7 stereologic parameters after pituitary immunohistochemistry of PRL, growth hormone (GH) and BrdU was done in both sexes at 13, 26, and 53 weeks. Body and pituitary weights were proportional to the food intake. In AL-fed rats, hyperplastic and neoplastic changes developed early and progressed with age, affecting almost all animals by 106 weeks. These changes were associated with high PRL serum levels. Pituitary adenomas were the most common cause of death in both sexes. In DR rats, a delayed onset and a decreased incidence of pituitary tumors were observed in association with decreased serum IGF-1, PRL, estradiol, and LH levels. The results of the stereological analysis demonstrated that, compared to AL-fed rats, pituitary glands from DR rats contained lower PRL and GH secreting cell volumes, and a lower epithelial cell BrdU labeling index, which correlated with a lower incidence of pituitary tumors at study termination. Moderate and marked degrees of DR delayed the onset of pituitary tumors in a temporal-and dose-related manner. In contrast to marked DR, which dramatically reduced the incidence of hyperplastic and neoplastic pituitary gland changes, moderate DR delayed the onset but did not prevent the development of pituitary tumors.


The article examines the varying educational proposals implemented in subjects linked to management of culture and heritage, within the degree title of Tourism offered by the University of Oviedo. It takes a historical perspective as its starting point, and considers the importance that public policy has had in the promotion of tourism, linked to the promotion of Spain's rich cultural heritage, since the dawn of the 20th century. It also takes into account the need to offer an education to students within the new degree title that incorporates both the management and interpretation of tourism resources linked to heritage. The study goes on to analyse the different proposals offered by the museums and foremost landmarks of the city of Oviedo for the interpretation of their funds and collections, and the manner of applying these proposals to the educational needs in the Practicum area of the aforementioned subjects.


The ultimate goal of periodontal therapy should not be limited to the establishment and maintenance of periodontal health. The potential for regeneration of the hard and soft periodontal tissues lost to disease should be considered. Of all the bone grafting materials being developed, the demineralized freeze dried bone allograft (DFDBA) has been used as a substitute for bone graft for more than four decades. The basis for the use of any bone grafting material is to induce bone formation. In this article various biomaterials used are reviewed.


This paper seeks to investigate if factors extracted from macroeconomic and financial variables can improve the forecast accuracy of the bull and bear market in the S&P500 stock index. The study extended the models constructed by Nyberg(2012) and Chen (2009) by augmenting their model with factors. Very little, if any research has been done in modelling the bull and bear using this approach. After using the Bry-Boschan method to identify the two regimes in the stock market, eleven models were constructed using a static probit or dynamic probit model framework. The out of sample forecast results indicates that, probit models augmented with factors have a relatively lower Quadratic Probability Score (QPS) than the corresponding models without factors. Among all the models employed, the dynamic probit model outperformed all the models, while the static probit model without factors is the least performing model. The results also showed that returns on assets and money stock are among the key leading indicators of the S&P500 stock index. Thus, there is evidence that factors can improve the forecast accuracy of the bull and bear market in the S&P500 stock index. (Less)


T he purpose of this paper is to review briefly the strengths and weaknesses of the oxidative modification hypothesis of atherogenesis. As with any new hypothesis, there is danger that the supporting evidence, even if limited, will generate enthusiasm that runs too far and too fast. Because the hypothesis has not yet been falsified, it deserves further study. It is hoped that it will stand up to closer inspection and critical evaluation. At this time, however, it remains a hypothesis that rests primarily on in vitro data, a few in vivo rabbit studies and some epidemiological correlational data. Before a clinical trial can be rationally planned, we need to learn more about the mechanisms involved, possibly critical species differences, and the pros and cons of the several potential interventions available to test the oxidative modification hypothesis.1 It would be unfortunate if the first tests of the hypothesis were done prematurely, using inadequate intervention modalities and resulting in a false negative result. Clinical trials are expensive and time consuming; they should only be undertaken when the science base is sufficiently strong.


Plasma application for environment improvement is desirable. In order to improve the efficiency of toxic gas decomposition by plasma, it is worthwhile to clarify the behavior of radicals in non-thermal plasma. Although previous studies have revealed the behavior of radical densities and temperatures in atmospheric discharge, they are not yet connected to apprehension or simulation of practical toxic gas decomposition by atmospheric plasma. In this study, the coaxial dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cylinder reactor is prepared, where the radical behavior and toxic gas decomposition efficiency can be measured all together. The density and temperature of OH radical are directly measured by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and trichloroethylene (TCE) decomposition efficiency is also investigated. OH density measurement indicated that OH density is about 20 ppm at 3 μs after discharge when 28 kV is applied. Besides, the acceleration of OH decay with increasing TCE is observed, which indicates that OH reacts with TCE. On another front, TCE decomposition efficiency by AC DBD is also investigated in the same reactor. With the characteristics and humidity dependence of OH behavior measured above, we can simulate TCE decomposition efficiency dependence on humidity.


Objective: To assess AIDS awareness among the educated community of Lahore and Gujranwala, Pakistan. Design: Cross-sectional qualitative study. Methods: A questionnaire was designed with the study objectives and distributed to the educated community of Lahore and Gujranwala, gathering the information including, demographic details (name, age, sex, and level of education), HIV-related knowledge (modes of transmission, prevention, and treatment), attitudes and risk perception. The reason for selecting the educated community was that they are the pioneer to educate and council illiterate communities. The results were recorded and data were analyzed. Results: 68.78% respondents have knowledge about the basics of AIDS, including, causative agent, and origin, behavior of society towards AIDS patients and incubation period of HIV/AIDS. 69.2% respondents have correct knowledge about modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. 78.75% respondents are aware of prevention and treatment. 81% respondents think that media is playing some role in awareness about AIDS. Conclusion: Although respondents demonstrated a high level of knowledge concerning AIDS and HIV, considerable misconceptions were also noted. A need was felt to enhance awareness programs among educated community members of two different cities. There is an intense need for a mass media campaign against AIDS.


ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common condition that can be treated with a number of different therapies. Treatments such as intranasal antihistamines (INAs) and intranasal steroids (INSs) are widely used by AR patients. For some allergy sufferers, a combination of therapies, specifically an INA and an INS, is required to address their symptoms. A new treatment, the formulation of azelastine hydrochloride and fluticasone propionate used as a single spray (MP-AzeFlu), has become available for AR patients who need both types of treatment. In this regard, the comparison with the alternative concomitant use of INAs and INSs is of interest. The current study examines the health care resource utilization and costs for each cohort. OBJECTIVE: To examine the resource utilization and costs associated with AR for patients treated with MP-AzeFlu or concurrent therapy with single-ingredient INA and INS sprays (free-combination therapy). METHODS: A retrospective administrative claims study for commercially insured patients from a large U.S. health plan was performed. Patients with an AR diagnosis and a prescription claim for MP-AzeFlu or free-combination therapy between September 1, 2012, and September 30, 2013, were identified. Patients were aged at least 12 years at index date (first prescription fill for intranasal therapy) and were required to have 12 months pre-index and 6 months post-index of continuous enrollment. Health care resource utilization and costs were assessed for the post-index period. The cohorts were adjusted on baseline demographic and clinical characteristics using inverse propensity treatment weights. Other covariates, prescriber specialty, product switching during the post-index period, and pre-index total costs were included in the regression models measuring outcomes. One clinical characteristic of interest was the presence of asthma as comorbidity. A subset analysis of AR patients with asthma was also performed. RESULTS: All-cause-related pharmacy fills as well as pharmacy, medical, and total costs were significantly reduced by using MP-AzeFlu (N = 810) instead of the free combination of drugs (N = 726). For AR-related health care resource utilization, the MP-AzeFlu cohort had significantly fewer pharmacy fills than the free-combination cohort (1.01 and 1.17, respectively; P < 0.001) with no significant difference in outpatient services and specialist visits (P = 0.139 and P = 0.117, respectively). Six-month AR-related pharmacy and total costs were significantly lower (P < 0.001 and P = 0.001) for the MP-AzeFlu cohort ($128 and $334, respectively) than the free-combination cohort ($268 and $458, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in AR-related medical costs between the 2 cohorts (P = 0.454). For the subcohort of AR patients with asthma, the MP-AzeFlu cohort had lower 6-month asthma resource utilization and costs than the free-combination cohort. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that, for AR patients needing INAs and INSs, the single-spray formulation MP-AzeFlu had better economic outcomes than for patients who rely on the free combination of these agents. MP-AzeFlu also appears to keep asthma-related utilization and costs down for those AR patients who also suffer from asthma. Potential explanations for these findings are explored.


chains, or zoogloeal m-asses, encapsulated and staining mnore or less well. The plaslma cells often show hyaline degeneration wlhen they contain the specific organism. The histological lesions founld in experinmental animals infected witlh C. grawulontatis are those of a bacillaemia. Tllh clinical stuidy of the disease is illustrated by plhotographs and tlhree admnirable coloured plates. From-i the clinical point of view the autthor describes (1) ulcerating and (2) hypertropllic forms of tle infection, which either hiave or lhave not serpiginous outlines; and (3) a mixed or ulcerolhypertropliic form. The coinplications mlietwith are those dlue to secondary infections, generalized tuberculosis, or uilceration into the abdominal cavity, bladder, vagina, or rectum. Recurrence of the disease may be seen even after the treatment by intrave'nous injections of tartar emetic described belo v; but it is rare after tlhis tieatment, and mliay be due to reinfection ratlher than relapse. The dia"lnosis of tlhe disease should be clinclhed by the miicroscopic examnination of an excised portioii or scrapingt of the dliseased tissue. Of the vario'us methods of treatment that liave been employed, only two lhave proved serviceablenamcly, tlhe x rays, first used by Macleod in 1907, and(l injections of tartar emetic. The autlhorlhas employed the latter for twvo years with very satisfactory results. The lesion's are dtessed twice daily witlh conmpresses soalked iii a 1 per cent. solution of tartar emetic dissolved in normal saline; if this proves too strong-, and provokes local irritation, a solution of tartar emntic only lhalf as, stroncg is to be tried. Suclh dressings are' of uindoubted benefit; btit they sliould be combined with intravenous injections of 5 c.em. of the 1 per cent. soluition in normial saline, given dlaily or on alternate days. The quantity of thle injection can be increased cautiously to 6, 7, or 10 c.cm., or even 12 c.cm. in tolerant individtuals; the inijections are better borne by miienl than by womiiel. Sialorrhoea is comiiuon with tlhis treatment, and too large doses produce painful buit not alarming reactions. Ftull details of the preparation and use of tlhe soltition for these inijections are giveni. An account, illustrated witlh seu'eilteen photograplls, is given of cases treated by the auitlhor and hiis colleagu;es; of hlis own 23 cases of tlhe dlisease 19 had tllc tartai' Cemletic treatmenet, a'nd apparently nione of these hiad ic.lapsed. However, one of the patients lhad been cured of tlhe disease by Aragao and Vianna in 1913, witlh a series of twenty-two of these intravenous injections containina in all 2.03 grains of tartar emetic; two years later relapse (or reinfection) lhad occulrred, and the patient was again cured of tlhe disease by tartar eluetic and x-ray treatments com-l binied in July, 1915. The boook ends witlh a bibliogiraplhv containing 154 references to tllh literature of venereal granuloma. Comiparison of tlhe photographs of tlle lesions in hiis cases witlh tlhose printed by Dr. H. Ttucker in a recent issute of International Clinics (Vol. iv, Series 26, 1916; J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London) leaves the impression that some at any rate of tle latter's eiglht patients may lhave been sufferingr from venereal grantuloina, a diagnosis apparently not considered by Dr. Tucker. The disease is not unknown in the U-nited States of Anierica; in 1913 Grindon (Journ.. Catav. Disease8, New York, 1913, xxxi, 236) described tlhrce cascs of it inet withl at St. Louis.


In this paper we present SWIFTERS, a technology platform for utilising multiple UAVs in disaster management. The platform aims to provide fast situational awareness and improve the effectiveness of disaster management operations by exploiting UAV deployment opportunities. The platform allows flying UAVs in a click-and-go fashion, scanning an area using multiple collaborating UAVs while receiving live video feed from the camera of the UAVs' to detect people, vehicles and carry out visual disaster assessment. This paper provides evidence of the reliability and scalability of the SWIFTERS platform in a real-life experiment with four UAVs.


Natural extracellular matrix-derived biomaterials from decellularized allogenic tissues are of increasing interest for tissue engineering because their structure and composition provide a complexity that is not achievable with current manufacturing techniques. The prerequisite to bring allogenic tissue from bench to bedside as a functional biomaterial is the full removal of cells while preserving most of its native characteristics such as structure and composition. The exceptionally dense structure of articular cartilage, however, poses a special challenge for decellularization, scaffold preparation, and reseeding. Therefore, we tested 24 different protocols aiming to remove cells and glycosaminoglycans (GAG) while preserving the collagen backbone and ultrastructure. The resulting matrices were analyzed for cell removal (DNA quantification, haematoxylin and eosin staining), GAG content (dimethyl methylene blue assay, Alcian blue staining and micro-computed tomography), collagen integrity (immunohistochemistry and ultrastructure), and biomechanics (compression test). Furthermore, seeding tests were conducted to evaluate cell viability and attachment to the scaffolds. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-based protocols yielded satisfactory reduction of DNA content, yet had negative effects on cell viability and attachment. Hydrochloric acid efficiently decellularized the scaffold and pepsin emerged as best option for GAG depletion. Combining these two reagents led to our final protocol, most efficient in DNA and GAG depletion while preserving the collagen architecture. The compressive modulus decreased in the absence of GAG to ∼1/3 of native cartilage, which is significantly higher than that by commercially available scaffolds tested as a reference (ranging from 1/25 to 1/100 of native cartilage). Cytocompatibility tests showed that human adipose-derived stromal cells readily adhered to the scaffold. In this study, we established a protocol combining freeze-thaw cycles, osmotic shock, and treatment with hydrochloric acid followed by a pepsin digestion step, achieving successful decellularization and GAG depletion within 1 week, resulting in a cytocompatible material with intact collagen structure. The protocol provides a basis for the generation of allogeneic scaffolds, potentially substituting manufactured scaffolds currently used in clinical articular cartilage treatment.


Reinforcement learning algorithms are known to be sample inefficient, and often performance on one task can be substantially improved by leveraging information (e.g., via pre-training) on other related tasks. In this work, we propose a technique to achieve such knowledge transfer in cases where agent trajectories contain sensitive or private information, such as in the healthcare domain. Our approach leverages a differentially private policy evaluation algorithm to initialize an actor-critic model and improve the effectiveness of learning in downstream tasks. We empirically show this technique increases sample efficiency in resource-constrained control problems while preserving the privacy of trajectories collected in an upstream task.


Over the past few years, we've all witnessed the hacker community's growing impact on both the IT industry and academia. Host and network exploitation techniques that used to be discussed in "underground" forums are now featured in book series from No Starch Press, Syngress, and other publishers. Furthermore, they've become standard training for security practitioners - see, for example, the SANS Institute's Security 504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling course (http://www.sans.org/training/courses.php). It is now beyond doubt that the hacker community has developed efficient techniques for analyzing, reverse engineering, testing, and modifying software and hardware that challenge their college and graduate-school-educated peers. These techniques have let the community substantially contribute to the state of the art of practical computer security. Many academic researchers recognize that marginalizing the hacker community would be a mistake, and increasing numbers of industry and government security practitioners attend hacker conferences such as DefCon (http://www.defcon.org) and Black Hat (http://www.blackhat.com). In fact, the US Military Academy and the US Naval Academy supported their students' participation in computer-security-related competitions at ShmooCon (http://www.shmoocon.org) and DefCon, respectively.


Recently, there is an emerging trend to apply deep reinforcement learning to solve the vehicle routing problem (VRP), where a learnt policy governs the selection of next node for visiting. However, existing methods could not handle well the pairing and precedence relationships in the pickup and delivery problem (PDP), which is a representative variant of VRP. To address this challenging issue, we leverage a novel neural network integrated with a heterogeneous attention mechanism to empower the policy in deep reinforcement learning to automatically select the nodes. In particular, the heterogeneous attention mechanism specifically prescribes attentions for each role of the nodes while taking into account the precedence constraint, i.e., the pickup node must precede the pairing delivery node. Further integrated with a masking scheme, the learnt policy is expected to find higher-quality solutions for solving PDP. Extensive experimental results show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art heuristic and deep learning model, respectively, and generalizes well to different distributions and problem sizes.


Luohe iron deposit is located in the northwest of Lu-Zong volcanic basin,which is the largest iron deposit in the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Valley Metallogenic Belt. Xiaobaozhuang deposit was found in 2013, which is located 800 ~ 1000m deep beneath
the Luohe deposit. The discovery of Xiaobaozhuang deposit is one of the most significant prospecting progresses in the Middle-Lower
Yangtze River Valley Metallogenic Belt. Based on the former work, we carried out detailed study on the geology characteristic of deposit
through carefully field work, mineralography and EPMA analysis. Although Luohe and Xiaobaozhuang deposits are located in different
depth, they belong to the same metallogenic system. Xiaobaozhuang ore body occurring as lens in the Zhuanqiao Formation,located
800 ~ 1000m below the Luohe orebody, ore structure are dominated by disseminate. The main ore minerals are magnetite and pyrite.
The main gangue minerals are anhydrite,diopside and carbonate. The typical mineral assemblage is magnetite-anhydrite-diopside. The
main ore structures include massive and disseminated structure. The main ore textures include euhedral-subhedral granular texture,
anhedral granular texture and metasomatic pseudomor-phic texture. The main alteration mineral assemblage includes anhydritediopside,
chlorite-epidote,pyrite-anhydrite and carbonate. The mineralization process of the deposit can be divided into four stages
such as alkali feldspar stage,anhydrite-diopside-magnetite stage,chlorite-epidote-carbonate stage and anhydrite-pyrite-carbonate-quartz
stage. Therein, anhydrite-diopside-magnetite stage is the main stage for ore forming. Based on the geological characteristics of the
Xiaobaozhuang iron deposit and compared to Ningwu iron deposits, the article considers the Xiaobaozhuang deposit mineralization
material source and ore-forming fluid is from dioritic magma in the deep,mineralization and alteration ares developed in the volcanic
formation far from intrusive rock. It is obviously different from Ningwu iron deposits,similar to some apatite-magnetite deposits in Andean
metallogenic belt in Chile. It is a special type of porphyry iron deposit in the Middle-Lower Yangtze River Valley Metallogenic Belt.


Following the demonstration by Chambers (1977a,b and c) that simultaneous attachment of macrophages to endocytogenic material in vitro leads to fusion, as analysis of the phagocytic potential of giant cells has provided evidence that the same mechanism is operating in macrophage polykaryon formation in vovo. Unlike previously proposed models for macrophage fusion, fusion by simultaneous attempted endocytosis is associated with the interiorisation of surface membrane during fusion. This has been shown to have occurred during glass coverslip-induced fusion in vivo. Evidence has also been presented that it is the endocytogenic material produced in the granulomatous environment which leads to fusion, not necessarily the simulaneous attempted endocytosis of the implanted foreign material.


Textual in this news is very interesting to study because it intersects with feminism as well as discussing controversy in the representation of victims, the purpose of this study is to find out the audience's meaning to the news "Nalar Pincang UGM atas Kasus Perkosaan". In addition, this study also reveals the motivation of the Balairung newsroom in raising news and analysis of socio-cultural conditions that influence every action and decision making that is created in the Balairung newsroom. The research method used in this study is Critical Discourse Analysis and focuses the research at three stages, namely the micro, meso, and macro levels. At the micro level, the composition of the coverage that includes chronology as a discussion becomes an instrument that leads to the sexual objectification of pornography / eroticism. The use of diction is used to cause news bias because the victim is again positioned as 'victim'. Biased diction that is often used to describe the rape event carried out, namely "touching the chest", "kissing the lips", "touching and inserting his finger". The use of the diction means to equate the victim as an object that is indeed worth exploring what behavior her body receives. The results of research at the meso level using reception analysis include two things, namely the practice of producing and consuming texts. This level of research reveals the transfer of moral ethics and social considerations in addressing cases of sexual violence itself. The reason for determining the sources also contributed to assumptions in the imbalance and credibility of the news. Critics and evaluations from the audience were not used as evaluations by the newsroom itself. In fact, in its editorial, the affirmation of attitude not to require evaluation becomes the controversial closing commentary of the news release. It did not stop there, the reproduction of texts consumed by other mass media such as Tempo and VOA even alienated victims as informants in the news. After that, the results of research at the macro level include violations that have been committed by Pedoman Pemberitaan Siber that serve as a reference in the editorship. In fact, UGM itself has not been able to formulate laws governing the handling of cases of sexual violence in the campus environment, so it is very possible that the practice of journalism that is not victim-friendly is also caused due to the inequality of frames and values believed by the UGM entity itself, both from the Rectorate, victims (in this case students), or even press institutions from UGM. Research implications are manifested in theoretical, practical and social forms. Recommendations from this research are gender awareness in a mass media newsroom institution in order to provide adequate understanding to all workers, both men and women, of the importance of creating symmetrical and fair gender relations in representation by paying attention to the creation of news that understands packaging that actually really defend and protect victims.


Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one of the major infectious agents, which has important role in the public health challenges, which have affected the world's economic and social situation recent decades. During the last decades, millions of people died due to HIV infection worldwide. However, data remain limited on the causes of death among HIV-infected in Iranian population. The aim of the present study was to assess the cause specific death among HIV positive inpatient persons in Iran. M aterials and Methods: This surveillance was conducted on inpatient HIV positive admissions at Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Tehran, Iran during October 2016 and April 2017.All patient's data were collected via abstraction form, which were ascertained, from medical records and from written logbooks that were kept by the nursing staff on the ward. The data of each admission was recorded from the medical reports at the time of admission and upon discharge. All laboratory data were collected and recorded separately. R es ults: Fifty persons were diagnosed as HIV-infected patients, of which 58% of them were classified as AIDS patients. Our findings indicated that the cause of hospitalization were pulmonary 54%, neurological 20%, gastrointestinal 16%, and dermal 10% complications. Overall, 21 patients (42%) were diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, of which one patient died from tuberculosis complications. Four patients died during the study period. C onclusion: In conclusion, early treatment and/or early use of ART can be improved outcomes. Therefore, early HIV testing and early ART use play important role in mortality reduction among eligible persons.


BACKGROUND
Solid tumors may occur in 3% of the patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In this paper, we presented a case of CML following treatment of colon cancer.

CASE PRESENTATION
A 25 year old man was diagnosed of adenocarcinoma of rectosigmoid treated with fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. Following relapse, he received florouracil, oxaliplatin and irinotecan during the next year. Then he developed BCR-ABL positive CML. With Imatinib 400 mg/day, he achieved hematologic response but died because of progressive colon cancer.

CONCLUSION
This article emphasizes that there is a possibility for etiologic correlation between CML and chemotherapeutic agents in solid cancers.


We develop an analytical framework to quantify the effects of the spreading bandwidth (BW) on spread spectrum systems operating in dense multipath environments in terms of the receiver performance, the receiver complexity, and the multipath channel parameters. The focus of the paper is to characterize the symbol error probability (SEP) performance of a RAKE receiver tracking the L strongest multipath components in wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) Gaussian channels with frequency-selective fading. Analytical SEP expressions of the RAKE receiver are derived in terms of the number of combined paths, the spreading BW and the multipath spread of the channel. The proposed problem is made analytically tractable by transforming the physical RAKE paths, which are correlated and ordered, into the domain of a "virtual RAKE" receiver with independent virtual paths. This results in a simple derivation of the SEP for a given spreading BW and an arbitrary number of combined paths.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether Pearson classic near-total laryngectomy is a sensible surgical treatment modality for laryngeal carcinomas with subglottic extension.

DESIGN
Retrospective analysis of patients treated by near-total laryngectomy in a university hospital that is an academic tertiary health care center.

PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTION
Medical and computer records of 135 patients who were treated by near-total laryngectomy for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas between April 1, 1989, and June 30, 2000, were searched thoroughly, and the final outcomes were confirmed by telephone contact.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Survival rates of the patients with laryngeal carcinomas with subglottic extension treated by near-total laryngectomy were compared with those of the patients with malignancies of other laryngeal regions given the same treatment.

RESULTS
Of the 135 patients in the study, 74 were available for determination of 5-year survival. The rate was 65.8% (27/41) for transglottic tumors, 53.8% (7/13) for supraglottic tumors, and 20.0% (4/20) for tumors with subglottic extension. Only 3 of 16 patients with laryngeal carcinomas with supraglottic or transglottic localization died of local recurrence; the rest of the deaths were from regional recurrence or distant metastasis. However, 6 of 13 patients with subglottic extension died of local recurrence, 5 of peristomal recurrence, and only 2 of distant metastasis.

CONCLUSIONS
Success was directly related to adherence to precise indications in cancer surgery. While near-total laryngectomy is an effective and reliable treatment modality in laryngeal cancer surgery, its effectiveness in laryngeal cancers with subglottic extension is debatable. These subglottic lesions should be treated by total laryngectomy, which is a more radical surgery.


Abstract A nondivergent barotropic mode1 and a shallow-water model are presented that exploit a high-order shape-preserving scheme for the advection of vorticity or potential vorticity as well as tracers. The dissipation associated with the advection scheme is found to be due to the spreading of features as they are advected across a finite-resolution grid. The strength and scale selectivity of this dissipation are quantified using some simple tests. The resolved tracer variance and (potential) enstrophy are not conserved by the advection scheme; this can be interpreted as a cascade to unresolved scales. In simulations of turbulent mixing, satisfactory cascade of tracer variance, energy, and (potential) enstrophy are obtained without the need for any special parameterization of the cascade to unresolved scales.


Nanowires have great potential as building blocks for nanoscale electrical and optoelectronic devices. The difficulty in achieving functional and hierarchical nanowire structures poses an obstacle to realization of practical applications. While post-growth techniques such as fluidic alignment might be one solution, selfassembled structures during growth such as branches are promising for functional nanowire junction formation. In this study, we report vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) self-branching of GaN nanowires during AuPdcatalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This is distinct from branches grown by sequential catalyst seeding or vapor-solid (VS) mode. We present evidence for a VLS growth mechanism of GaN nanowires different from the well-established VLS growth of elemental wires. Here, Ga solubility in AuPd catalyst is limitless as suggested by a hypothetical pseudo-binary phase diagram, and the direct reaction between NH3 vapor and Ga in the liquid catalyst induce the nucleation and growth. The self-branching can be explained in the context of the proposed VLS scheme and migration of Ga-enriched AuPd liquid on Ga-stabilized polar surface of mother nanowires. This work is supported by DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER45701.


During the last couple of years leaf-edge-cuts, typical to Otiorhynchus wingless-weevils, have been discovered on ornamental shrubs, especially Syringa vulgaris lilac and Ligustrum vulgare privet. These plant species have not earlier been attacked by wingless-weevils and because of that, the aim of this study is to see if new species of weevils have been established in Sweden or if the domestic weevils have changed their food preferences. This work also includes a literature study of known weevil species in Sweden and their host plants, and of wingless-weevil species in Europe that could be invasive here. Locations, where damage to previously named plants has been reported, have been examined. The extension and appearances of the damages have been documented in order to study if different weevil species make different types of edge-cuts. Weevils have been collected to be defined as species. The results show that we in Sweden have a completely new species of wingless-weevil, Dodecastichus inflatus (former known as Otiorhynchus inflatus), which has not earlier been reported from our country or its immediate surroundings. The most northern location for this weevil in Europe was earlier Gdansk. In this study we have shown that D. inflatus is established in Helsingborg. Further more, the weevil Otiorhynchus smreczynskii has in this study been shown to be established in a much larger geographic area than previously known. This species has occasionally been found in the region of Malmo, but now O. smreczynskii was found all along the west coast of Scania up to Helsingborg. This species was the most common on lilac and privet and caused the majority of the damage. The wingless-weevils are causing extensive damage to plants, the adults attacking the leaves and the larvae attacking the roots, which negatively affects the condition of the plants. If massive attacks occur in a nursery, the economical consequences could be significant. To be able to give qualified advice in the future to both nurseries and private gardens, additional studies of weevils on ornamental shrubs should start immediately. The distribution of these weevil species in Sweden and their ability to establish and reproduce need further investigation.
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Increasing rural electrification is critical to development and gender empowerment in rural communities. Electrification enhances agricultural, industrial, commercial, and other economic and social activities in rural areas. Moreover, it promotes the use of domestic electrical appliances that reduce the burden of household tasks typically allocated to women. This paper uses a gender-aware modelling approach to investigate the potential impacts of the Nigerian government's rural electrification fund on the development of rural communities and specifically assesses the policy's differential impacts on men and women's employment and income. To that end, a 2019 gendered Nigerian Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is used to calibrate a gendered CGE model. The findings show that expanding the supply of electricity through the government program increases market employment for women, factor incomes, and output in the agricultural sector. The study recommends that the government subsidy alone is not sufficient to produce the desired economic outcomes but will need to be complemented with policies that enhances productivity and efficiency. JEL: R11; Q42; H54; C68


QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY/PRINCIPLES
Little is known concerning patients' expectations regarding sexual history taking by doctors: to ascertain expectations and actual experience of talking about sexuality among male patients attending outpatient clinics, and their sexual behaviour.

METHODS
Patients consecutively recruited from two outpatient clinics in Lausanne, Switzerland were provided with an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Survey topics were: patients' expectations concerning sexual history taking, patients' lifetime experience of sexual history taking, and patients' sexual behaviour.

RESULTS
The response rate was 53.0% (N = 1452). Among respondents, 90.9% would like their physician to ask them questions regarding their sexual history in order to receive advice on prevention (60.0% yes, 30.9% rather yes). Fifteen percent would be embarrassed or rather embarrassed if asked such questions. Nevertheless, 76.2% of these individuals would like their physician to do so. Despite these wishes, only 40.5% reported ever having a discussion "on their sexual life in general" with a doctor. Only one patient out of four to five was asked about previous sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the number of sexual partners and their sexual orientation. No feature of their sexual life distinguishes those who had discussed sexual issues with a doctor from those who had not, except a history of previous consultation for health problems related to sexuality. Conversely, being embarrassed about conducting this discussion was significantly associated with lack of discussion regarding sexuality.

CONCLUSIONS
This study highlights the gap existing in the field of STI prevention in terms of doctors' advice and patients' wishes.


This paper aims to determine the usage patterns of smartphones by Utkal University students for their academic pursuits. This study uses a survey method to collect data from students at Utkal University. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed, and 215 duly filled questionnaires were received, with the response rate of 86%. The students expressed that they used smartphones for both general purposes as well as academic purposes. The main aim of this paper is to throw light on how students are using smartphones for their academic purposes without prior training. The study found that 90% of the respondents indicated that smartphones help to store course materials for easy access and to check email inbox often. This study recommends that the University committed itself to promote the use of smartphones in teaching and learning at different levels. To encourage the use of smartphones, it is necessary to periodically develop a standardized training program for better use of smartphones.


The automatic recognition of spontaneous facial micro-expressions becomes prevalent as it reveals the actual emotion of humans. However, handcrafted features employed for recognizing micro-expressions are designed for general applications and thus cannot well capture the subtle facial deformations of micro-expressions. To address this problem, we propose an end-to-end deep learning framework to suit the particular needs of micro-expression recognition (MER). In the deep model, re- current convolutional networks are utilized to learn the representation of subtle changes from image sequences. To guarantee the learning of deep model, we present a temporal jittering procedure to greatly enrich the training samples. Through performing the experiments on three spontaneous micro-expression datasets, i.e., SMIC, CASME, and CASME2, we verify the effectiveness of our proposed MER approach.


The chemical nature of vertebrate pheromones remains largely to be deciphered. Hamster aphrodisin is a rare instance of mammal proteinaceous sexual pheromone. This protein, found in vaginal secretions, facilitates the mounting behaviour of males via activation of a specialized sensory structure named the vomeronasal organ, which activates the accessory olfactory bulb. Since it might carry small pheromonal ligands due to its lipocalin structure, we analysed organic extracts from natural aphrodisin. We identified five predominant compounds specifically bound onto natural aphrodisin as 1-hexadecanol (44.7%), 1-octadecanol (19.5%), Z-9-octadecen-1-ol (18.2%), E-9-octadecen-1-ol (15.4%) and hexadecanoic acid (2.2%). Interestingly, these compounds are also described as part of insect pheromone blends, disclosing the continuing story of amazing coincidences of chemical communication shared by mammals and insects.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Although, tobacco smoking is the dominant etiologic factor responsible for the vast majority of lung cancers, other factors such as asbestos, pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nutritional and dietary factors which can cause pulmonary inflammation can also drive carcinogenesis by altering cellular and molecular targets and pathways that are crucial to normal tissue homeostasis. However, the molecular signaling events specific to the pulmonary inflammation and their effects on pulmonary cells leading to carcinogenesis are poorly understood. Hence, we investigated the role of polyol pathway enzyme aldose reductase (AR), an oxidative stress response protein that catalyzes the reduction of lipid peroxidation -derived lipid aldehydes and their glutathione conjugates, in the mediation of carcinogenic signals leading to lung cancer. We examined the effect of pharmacological and siRNA -mediated inhibition of AR on in vitro human lung carcinoma cell line A549 growth as well as tumor growth in nude mice xenografts. We have also examined the molecular mechanisms by which AR inhibition prevents carcinogenic signaling events that cause lung cancer cell growth. Treatment of A549 cells with AR inhibitors prevented the activation of NF-kB and expression of NF-kB- dependent inflammatory markers such as iNOS and Cox-2. AR inhibition also prevented the proliferation of cultured human lung cancer cells. Further, AR inhibition significantly arrested the tumor growth in nude mice bearing lung adenocarcinoma xenografts. Similar results were observed in AR-siRNA treated nude mice xenografts. Immunohistochemical analysis of nude mice tumor cross sections indicated that AR inhibition prevents activation of iNOS, Cox-2, AR and NF-kB. Our studies thus strongly suggest that AR may be a critical regulator of signaling pathway(s) that cause lung cancer. Hence, disrupting these signals by AR inhibition could be a novel preventive approach in lung cancer progression.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3233.


A major concern of today's and near future mobile communication systems is represented by the need of providing universal seamless connection to the users. Software Deened Radio (SDR) systems lend themselves to handle several different standards and types of service, and this motivates the already large and still increasing interest in this research area. Eur ecom and EPFL have started a joint project whose objective is to study and implement a real-time SDR communication platform to validate advanced algorithms for wireless communications. Due to various practical design issues, the platform implements the essential physical layer features of the time-division duplex (TDD) mode of the UMTS standard proposal (air-interface and signal processing), although frequency-division duplex (FDD) mode and even other standards could also be implemented. The platform is a real-time PC based system that can handle wide-band radio resources. It provides hardware, DSP software, and link level software functionality. In this paper we address the major issues related to the design of a real-time SDR system. We also describe the general architecture, the signal processing techniques adopted to implement the transmitter and receiver SDR front-end, the current platform setup , and we provide DSP performance measurements. Finally, we consider the future perspectives for the platform evolution.


Many strands exist within health information work and during the last century librarians in this field identified themselves through special groups or associations. This paper focuses on the key role of the Library Association Medical Section in the professional development of medical librarians in the United Kingdom up to 1978 when it merged with the Library Association Hospital Libraries and Handicapped Readers Group to create the Medical, Health and Welfare Group. Uniting to form a stronger organization, under the ultimate designation of the Health Libraries Group, was part of an evolutionary process. The invention and promotion of co-operative schemes, networking and educational opportunities for members, the publication of specialized material and the fostering of international relationships during the first three-quarters of the century are illuminated by personal reminiscences from some of the major participants in the field.


We evaluated the adverse effect of asymptomatic Helicobacter pylori infection in children on the response to Fe supplementation. One hundred and sixty-nine children aged 1–10 years from the urban poor community underwent a [13C]urea breath test for H. pylori and haematological tests at admission and after 8 weeks. Both H. pylori-positive and -negative children were randomly assigned to receive ferrous fumarate syrup (20 mg elemental Fe twice daily) or placebo for 8 weeks and a single dose of vitamin A (33,000μg). Admission findings were compared between H. pylori-positive and -negative children. Response to Fe was compared between Fe-supplemented H. pylori-positive and -negative children. Seventy-nine per cent of the children were aged 1–5 years and half of them were boys. In eighty-five H. pylori-positive and eighty-four H. pylori-negative children, the differences in mean Hb (112 (sd 12·6) v. 113 (sd 12·0) g/l), haematocrit (34 (sd 3·5) v. 35 (sd 3·2) %) and ferritin (23·8 v. 21·0 μg/l) were similar. After 8 weeks of Fe supplementation, mean Hb was 5·3 g/l more (95 % CI 1·59, 9·0) and haematocrit was 1·4 % more (95 % CI 0·2, 2·6) in H. pylori-negative (n 44) compared with H. pylori-positive (n 42) children. Mean ferritin was similar at admission and improved in both H. pylori-positive and -negative children. Asymptomatic H. pylori infection was not associated with higher rates of anaemia or Fe deficiency in children, but had a significant adverse effect on response to Fe therapy. However, this result is based on exploratory analysis and needs confirmation.


Summary The trial was designed as an open-label, post-authorisation safety study, aimed to complete the available information on adverse events and drug reactions to a-dihydroergocryptine (CAS 14271-05-7, α-DHEC). The study included 294 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease who received levodopa (CAS 59-92-7, L-DOPA) and started taking α-DHEC (Cripar®). Adverse events were analysed descriptively, Parkinson's disease symptoms were documented using a questionnaire applied by the physicians. Patients were evaluated at study start and three and six months later, respectively. In 31 patients, 32 adverse events were observed, gastrointestinal and nervous system disorders being the most frequent. Dyskinesias, psychoses/hallucinations, sleep disturbances, and cardiovascular disorders were uncommon (≤ 1 %). in total, 21 adverse events were classified as adverse drug reactions. In nearly 80 % of the cases, Parkinson symptoms had improved or completely vanished. Symptoms were unchanged in 16.7 % of patients and had worsened in 3.1 %. The results confirm that the use of α-DHEC in combination therapy with levodopa in patients with Parkinson's disease is a well-tolerated and efficacious treatment option.


Vibrothermography has proven to be a useful technique for the detection of buried defects, which reveal themselves as heat sources when mechanically excited with ultrasounds. In this work we present a method to evaluate the depth of delaminations in opaque samples, from lock-in vibrothermography measurements. It is theoretically demonstrated that the phase and the natural logarithm of the surface temperature above the delamination behaves linearly as a function of the square root frequency. The slope of this linear relation is directly proportional to the delamination depth. Measurements performed on composite plates with calibrated delaminations confirm the validity of the method, provided the width of the delamination is higher than the thermal diffusion length.