ABSTRACT Introduction: The importance of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in migraine pathogenesis is well established. Fremanezumab is a humanized IgG2a monoclonal antibody that binds to CGRP. Areas covered: In this paper, we review the development of fremanezumab, from early development into approval. The authors focus on the efficacy and safety of fremanezumab in both migraine stages. The authors highlight studies conducted in special populations and focus on unique aspects of its development, as well as on clinical pearls supported by the data. Expert opinion: Fremanezumab was shown to be effective in episodic and chronic migraine, with a monthly and quarterly dose of administration, as monotherapy and add-on therapy. As with other monoclonal antibodies, the anti-CGRP onset of action was remarkably quick, and the effect seems to be maintained over time. No overt safety concerns emerged from the clinical studies, although long-term surveillance is necessary.


A new compact wideband bandpass filter consists of one series and one shunt multiconductor transmission-line (MTL) structure with short-circuited alternate lines is proposed. Based on this topology, a three-pole filter with two transmission zeros at the edges of the desired passband, generated by the shunt MTL, and with a wide stopband can be easily designed. Therefore, a comprehensive study of the filter is carried out and useful closed-form design equations are obtained and assessed by means of measurements. A filter is designed, fabricated and measured for validation and excellent agreement between analytical and measured results is obtained.


I. The facts and the administrative proceedings On September 2005, the Portuguese Competition Authority (the "PCA") issued a decision finding 10 milling companies (representing 75% of the market)…


This study provides an empirical study on the relationship between institutional factors and real estate returns. Using data from both developed and emerging market countries, our empirical results show that institutional factors do influence real estate returns and these factors may not be fully priced. We find that when controlling return volatility and level of economic growth, a higher property return is expected in countries where the economy is more efficient and has more economic freedom. Our results support the view that the combination of "lumpiness" of real estate investment and the volatile nature of international capital flows may expose property investors to extra investment risk, which needs to be compensated. Our results also indicate that an improvement in a country's economic efficiency and economic freedom may reduce property variance risk thus enhancing property returns.


G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of proteins involved in transmembrane signal transduction and are actively studied because of their suitability as therapeutic small-molecule drug targets. Agonist activation of GPCRs almost invariably results in the receptor being desensitized. One of the key events in receptor desensitization is the sequestration of the receptor from the cell surface into acidic intracellular endosomes. Therefore, a convenient, generic, and noninvasive monitor of this process is desirable. A novel, pH-sensitive, red-excited fluorescent dye, CypHer 5, was synthesized. This dye is non-fluorescent at neutral pH and is fluorescent at acidic pH. Anti-epitope antibodies labeled with this dye were internalized in an agonist concentration- and time-dependent manner, following binding on live cells to a range of GPCRs that had been modified to incorporate the epitope tags in their extracellular N-terminal domain. This resulted in a large signal increase over background. When protonated, the red fluorescence of CypHer 5 provides a generic reagent suitable for monitoring the internalization of GPCRs into acidic vesicles. This approach should be amenable to the study of many other classes of cell surface receptors that also internalize following stimulation.


The ever-growing data privacy concerns have transformed machine learning (ML) architectures from centralized to distributed, leading to federated learning (FL) and split learning (SL) as the two most popular privacy-preserving ML paradigms. However, implementing either conventional FL or SL alone with diverse network conditions (e.g., device-to-device (D2D) and cellular communications) and heterogeneous clients (e.g., heterogeneous computation/communication/energy capabilities) may face significant challenges, particularly poor architecture scalability and long training time. To this end, this article proposes two novel hybrid distributed ML architectures, namely, hybrid split FL (HSFL) and hybrid federated SL (HFSL), by combining the advantages of both FL and SL in D2D-enabled heterogeneous wireless networks. Specifically, the performance comparison and advantages of HSFL and HFSL are analyzed generally. Promising open research directions are presented to offer commendable reference for future research. Finally, primary simulations are conducted upon considering three datasets under non-independent and identically distributed settings, to verify the feasibility of our proposed architectures, which can significantly reduce communication/computation cost and training time, as compared with conventional FL and SL.


This paper investigates the effect of managerial incentives and corporate governance on capital structure using a large sample of UK firms during the period 1999–2004. The analysis revolves around the view that managerial incentives are important in determining a firm's leverage. However, we argue that the exact impact of these incentives on leverage is likely to be determined by firm-specific governance characteristics. To conduct our investigation, we construct a simple corporate governance measure using detailed ownership and governance information. We present evidence of a significant non-monotonic relationship between executive ownership and leverage. There is also strong evidence suggesting that corporate governance practices have a significant impact on leverage. More importantly, the results reveal that the nature of the relation between executive ownership and leverage depends on the firm's corporate governance structure.


General functional decomposition has been gaining more and more importance in recent years. Though it is mainly perceived as a method of logic synthesis for implementation of Boolean functions into FPGA-based architectures, it has found application in many other fields of modern engineering and science. In this paper, application of logic decomposition to efficient implementation of image and signal processing system in modern FPGA architectures is described. We have adapted an algorithm called Demain that can be used as a preprocessing tool in the FPGA synthesis flow. Wavelet filters are used to test Demain with Altera's Stratix device family and the experimental results are compared with those by Altera's Quartus tool. When Demain is used as a premapping processing, it shows 50% improvement in terms of the covered area by embedded memory blocks.


This paper presents the results on the stability analysis of computer-based control systems with the simplified adaptation procedure implemented through look-up tables and special selection rules. The simplified procedure implies the development of a number of controllers during the system design, representation of the controllers by a look-up table, and implementation of a procedure for the selection of the appropriate entry of a look-up table during the system operation. Systems, implementing the procedure, can be considered as systems with nonlinearity so that some specific stability problems have to be investigated. The paper presents the analysis of the transient processes in the system causes by the controller change, and the selection of the admissible difference between the alternative controllers in the look-up table. The analytical technique employed to the stability problem in the paper is based on Liapwnov's second method. Since the considered nonlinearity type meets Aizerman's conditions, a Liapunov function in so-called "Quadratic Plus Integral" was used. Following the general procedure of Liapunov's method, the absolute stability conditions were formulated for the considered type of control systems.


Conjugated polymers are an important class of soft materials that exhibit a wide range of applications. The excited states of conjugated polymers, often referred to as excitons, can either deactivate to yield the ground state or dissociate in the presence of an electron acceptor to form charge carriers. These interesting properties give rise to their luminescence and the photovoltaic effect. Femtosecond spectroscopy is a crucial tool for studying conjugated polymers. Recently, more elaborate experimental configurations utilizing three optical pulses, namely, pump-push-probe and pump-dump-probe, have been employed to investigate the properties of excitons and charge-transfer states of conjugated polymers. These studies have revealed new insight into femtosecond torsional relaxation and detrapping of bound charge pairs of conjugated polymers. This Perspective highlights (1) the recent achievements by several research groups in using pump-push-probe and pump-dump-probe spectroscopy to study conjugated polymers and (2) future opportunities and potential challenges of these techniques.


The concept of fluid inductance is discussed with reference to ideal and viscous fluids. Experiments are described in which measurements are made of the pressure gradient along rigid cylindrical tubes carrying sinusoidal flows of water, potassium iodide and blood. Analysis of the results is confined to studying inertial effects. Agreement with theoretical expectations is reasonable; possible causes of deviations are discussed.


Whether democracy in America can endure depends in no small measure upon the attitude of the great professional classes in general, and in particular upon the attitude and effectiveness of the engineer in his relation to government, says this well-known engineer and educator, who states further that although there is an enormously complex system of organizations of scientists and engineers in the United States, this mechanism is not utilized to the full in expressing the viewpoints of engineers generally upon important public questions. To meet this need, Doctor Bush suggests that the organization of engineers should be integrated, simplified, and strengthened.


Meal duration (MD) is a biological marker of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) induced temporomandibular joint (TMJ) nociception in rats and mice. In female rats the proestrus rise in 17β‐estradiol (E2) attenuates CFA induced TMJ nociception (Endocrin. 150:3680, 2009). We determined if a proestrus increase in E2 would also attenuate CFA TMJ nociception in intact and castrated (CAST) rats (~240g). A artificial E2 cycle had low E2 (~10 pg/ml via Alzet pumps) during diestrus‐1, ‐2; estrus and metestrus and ~70 pg/ml E2 boost during proestrus. The TMJ CFA (15μg/30μl) groups included: intact or CAST with or without E2 and their respective control groups receiving TMJ saline (SAL) The rats (n=8 per group) in the computerized feeders received three artificial E2 cycles and then were TMJ injected with SAL or CFA. Meal size was similar in all groups prior to and following TMJ injections. CFA increased MD (P<0.01) in all groups compared to SAL controls. MD was (P<0.01) longer in the CAST + no E2 + TMJ CFA compared to all other CFA injected groups. The data demonstrate the lack of gonadal steroids increase CFA induced nociception. Importantly, the data show that giving CAST male rats proestrus levels of E2 decreased (P<0.01) nociception when compared to the CAST + no E2 + CFA TMJ group. Proestrus levels of E2 can attenuate TMJ nociception in both female and male rats. NIDCR DE12657‐01 (LLB) and DE07188 (PRK).


Motivated by the lack of research on land cover and dust activity in the Middle East, this study seeks to increase the understanding of the sensitivity of dust centers to climatic and surface conditions in this specific region. In this regard, we explore vegetation cover and dust emission interactions using 16-day long-term Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data and daily Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and conduct spatiotemporal and statistical analyses. Eight major dust hotspots were identified based on long-term AOD data (2000–2019). Despite the relatively uniform climate conditions prevailing throughout the region during the study period, there is considerable spatial variability in interannual relationships between AOD and NDVI. Three subsets of periods (2000–2006, 2007–2013, 2014–2019) were examined to assess periodic spatiotemporal changes. In the second period (2007–2013), AOD increased significantly (6% to 32%) across the studied hotspots, simultaneously with a decrease in NDVI (−0.9% to −14.3%) except in Yemen−Oman. Interannual changes over 20 years showed a strong relationship between reduced vegetation cover and increased dust intensity. The correlation between NDVI and AOD (−0.63) for the cumulative region confirms the significant effect of vegetation canopy on annual dust fluctuations. According to the results, changes in vegetation cover have an essential role in dust storm fluctuations. Therefore, this factor must be regarded along with wind speed and other climate factors in Middle East dust hotspots related to research and management efforts.


In this report, we applied integrated gradients to explaining a neural network for diabetic retinopathy detection. The integrated gradient is an attribution method which measures the contributions of input to the quantity of interest. We explored some new ways for applying this method such as explaining intermediate layers, filtering out unimportant units by their attribution value and generating contrary samples. Moreover, the visualization results extend the use of diabetic retinopathy detection model from merely predicting to assisting finding potential lesions.


For decades, the territorial dispute between China and Japan over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands has caused diplomatic deteriorations in Sino-Japanese relations. When there is extensive media coverage on news about the dispute, nationalist sentiments in both two countries would be triggered and could be expressed through detrimental behaviors towards transnational corporations (hereinafter TNCs). While TNCs play a significant political function as corporate diplomats for their home countries, they are subject to the risk of crises when their home countries are involved in political and economic conflicts with the foreign countries in which they have operations. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to examine the roles of TNCs with reference to three cases of nationalism-induced crises in China. It proposes relational principles based on which TNCs could implement strategies to mitigate the damage from nationalism-induced crises and contribute to their home countries' diplomatic goals as corporate diplomats.


Education is one sector that tries to be consistent despite facing several changes. Vari- ous factors and emerging trends have affected the sector both positively and negatively. The scope of the digital divide is more pronounced in the developing countries and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the technological struggles in Africa more than before. Technology is an enabler in education but not in all contexts because it also causes other challenges that increase the vulnerability of learners and educators in diverse circumstances. The proliferation of digital devices, especially mobile and smart devices, has brought in new changes and innovative ideas that have impacted the sectors input, output, and outcome. Leaners have demonstrated various degrees of adoption and absorption of new devices, and simultaneously educators have integrated and adapted to new pedagogies that resonate with the situation. As a continent, Africa has experienced an emerging trend with digital and non-digital devices interconnected for educational purposes on demand whenever needed. In developing countries like Kenya, more innovative ways of learning have been harnessed for learning and teach- ing purposes .With the penetration of the World Wide Web, the internet of things, availability of electronic devices, and improvement in information communication and technology infrastructure. Video games, which can be played on many platforms and electronic devices, can easily be leveraged for teaching and learning purposes. This study was conducted among learners and educators in an urban setting in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study investigated the potential of video games in education as used by leaners and teachers. The findings indicated that most leaners targeted had personal mobile devices. This gave them easy access to video games, which led to the popularity of these games. The findings also indicated that the leaners were not allowed to use digital devices like mobile phones in the classroom at school but had limited access to video games through desktops and laptops available in their institutions. The findings also showed that the majority of teachers were not keen on using video games for teaching and learning purposes, and this scenario presented a disparity in and a barrier to using multi-disciplinary approaches and integrating technology in teaching and learning. The study recommended that, with more electronic devices available for leaners and other education stakeholders, it is necessary to harness video games for learning and teaching purposes to allow for innovation, discovery, critical thinking, and experiential learning among learners.


We investigate properties of a classifier applied to the measurements of the CP state of the Higgs boson in $H\rightarrow\tau\tau$ decays. The problem is framed as binary classifier applied to individual instances. Then the prior knowledge that the instances belong to the same class is used to define the multi-instance classifier. Its final score is calculated as multiplication of single instance scores for a given series of instances. In the paper we discuss properties of such classifier, notably its dependence on the number of instances in the series. This classifier exhibits very strong random dependence on the number of epochs used for training and requires careful tuning of the classification threshold. We derive formula for this optimal threshold.


PURPOSE
To assess the pattern of visual development in children aged 1-3 years with stage 1-3 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

METHODS
One hundred forty-four infants weighing <1500 g were divided into three groups according to ROP stage. Randomly chosen preterm infants were the controls. Ophthalmic examinations started 4-7 weeks after birth and were performed until the retina was fully vascularized or until any ROP that had developed resolved. Preferential looking acuity measurements were carried out at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age.

RESULTS
Infants with stage 1-2 or no ROP showed evidence of improving acuity development after 12 months. Infants with stage 3 ROP had significantly lower acuity scores compared to infants with stage 1-2 or no ROP at the 18- and 24-month follow-up examinations (P<.001). At 36 months, the visual acuity of infants with stage 3 ROP showed evidence of improving development but still lagged behind infants with stage 1-2 or no ROP.

CONCLUSION
Although mild ROP does not seem to have a considerable effect on the development of resolution acuity until age 3, severe forms of ROP may be associated with impaired visual development, which strongly suggests the necessity of periodic monitoring of early visual acuity in infants with ROP.


Democracy is originally a Greek word used as political vocabulary worldwide; nonetheless, its essence as a process is not much different from the Islamic concept of consultation (Shura) and the Somali word of "wadatashi". That concept of consultation and consensus building is well rooted in the original Somali culture as epitomized by I. M. Lewis's "Pastoral Democracy'. However, to simplify its meaning, democracy, in its ideal version, is like water that takes the shape and the color of its storage place. Likewise, democracy as a process of governance takes the color and the shape of the society within which it is applied. Hence, Somali democracy has to have the clannish and Islamic colors, both of which are the basics of Somaliness "Somalinimo". The failure of the Somali elite to develop sustainable trans-clan political parties had given an opportunity for the emergence of politics on primordial cleavages.
Therefore, during Somali Reconciliation Conference in Djibouti in 2000, traditional approach of political participation based on "clan blocks" triumphed over modernist approach based on "individual citizens". Thus, Somali politicians espoused political realism and recognized the necessity of the "traditional democracy" as an interim measures in rebuilding state institutions. This new approach is based on that "clan blocks" will be considered as political parties and traditional ways of "diya paying and sharing" within sub-clans will be extended to the politics too. Fortunately, it was accepted to divide Somali people into four equal dominant clans consisting of Darod, Dir, Digil and Mirifle, and Hawiye, and the cluster of all non-dominant clans. This formula is well known as 4.5 power sharing formula on which members of the parliament were selected from their sub-clans by their sub-clan elders. This approach presupposes that sub-clan elders are the legitimate representatives of their sub-clans and thus can represent their aggregate votes.
The remarkable outcome of the traditional democracy is the question of who shall represent Somali women in the political process. For surety, in the traditional culture, elders of the sub-clans will not select women to represent their sub-clans in the parliament. As a result, new political discourse took the center stage that enabled women to be offered a quota of 11% in the Transitional Parliament of 2000. Therefore, women were politically empowered in the midst of the patriarchal clan power sharing. This exceptional event had attracted considerable academic attention being anomalous is a Muslim society characterized by a patriarchal social system that is manifested in its Islamic and clannish structures. Ironically, this empowerment occurred concurrently with the ascendance of political Islam and political clanism, both of which are portrayed as the major obstacles to any lifting of women's public profiles.
This paper is not about traditional democracy as such used in Somalia, which has its merits and flaws. It is an examination of how Somali women achieved political power during the period from 2000 to 2003 within traditional approaches for political participation. The discussions and analyses include historical background, discourses of women's political participation and Islam, and the examination of women's winning strategies that have been successfully achieved. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn.


This study proposes an instantaneous damage localization technique for composite structures using noncontact laser ultrasonics. First, a velocity profile of the target composite structure is obtained by measuring wave velocities on paths with various directions. Second, laser ultrasonic responses from two excitation-sensing pairs, called inspection pairs, are obtained. Then possible damage locations are estimated through time-of-flight triangulation of damage reflected waves. Once possible damage locations are estimated, ultrasonic response collection is repeated near the estimated locations for precise damage localization. The proposed technique has following advantages over existing technique: (1) It does not require any sensor installation, (2) Wave velocity profile, which has been mandatory information for time-of-flight triangulation, can be easily experimentally constructed, and (3) It can localize damage with a high precision with its scanning capability. The feasibility of the proposed technique is examined by localizing a delamination in a real 10 kW wind turbine blade.


The comparison between historical estimates of gene flow, using variance in allelic frequencies, and contemporary estimates of gene flow, using parentage assignment, is expected to provide insights into ecological and evolutionary processes at work within and among populations. Genetic variation at six microsatellite loci was used to quantify genetic structure in the insect‐pollinated, animal‐dispersed, low‐density tree Sorbus torminalis L. Crantz, and to derive historical estimates of gene flow. The neighbourhood size and root‐mean‐squared dispersal distance inferred from seedling genotypes (Nb = 70 individuals, σe = 417 m) were similar to those inferred from adult genotypes (Nb = 114 individuals, σe = 472 m). We also used parentage analyses and a neighbourhood model approach after an evaluation of the statistical properties of this method on simulated data. From our data, we estimated even contributions of seed‐ and pollen‐mediated dispersal to the genetic composition of established seedlings, with both fat‐tailed pollen and seed dispersal kernels, and slightly higher mean distance of pollen dispersal (248 m) as compared to seed dispersal (135 m). The resulting contemporary estimate of gene dispersal distance (σc = 211 m) was ∼twofold smaller than the historical estimates. Besides different assumptions and statistical nuances of both approaches, this discrepancy is likely to reflect a recent restriction in the scale of gene flow which requires manager's attention in a context of increasing forest fragmentation.


The discrete time theory that feedback linearizes and output decouples the coupled nonlinear dynamics of the PUMA 560 robot arm is systematically developed. The effect of sampling on the performance of the arm has been studied and shown through experiments. Certain restrictions that are necessary on the sampling time of the system are shown. The results obtained have been experimentally verified. Since a number of researchers have addressed the problem of loss of feedback linearizability under sampling, it was important to develop theories and obtain results in discrete time that take into consideration the effects due to sampling. This problem is addressed.<<ETX>>


The identification of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells as natural regulators of immunity in the periphery and tissues has stimulated tremendous interest in developing therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases. In this review, the site of origin, antigen specificity, homing markers and cytokine profiles of Treg cells were evaluated in autoimmune colitis and type 1 diabetes, two examples in which Treg cells were effective as therapy. These studies were compared with studies of Treg cells in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis, where successful therapy has not yet been achieved. Antigen‐specific Treg cells appear to have more potent activity than polyclonal Treg cells and therefore hold more promise as therapeutic agents. However, Treg cells specific for the pathogenic T effector cells themselves have largely been overlooked and deserve consideration in future studies.


Adenoviruses are recognized as common human pathogens that are responsible for a wide variety of infectious syndromes. Bone marrow transplant patients are prone to life threatening opportunistic infections like adenoviruses. The nested polymerase chain reaction has provided an alternative, sensitive diagnostic method for detection of Adenoviruses. In this study we developed PCR from hexon genes as rapid diagnostic method of Advs infections on different clinical samples. Adenovirus infections was defined as the presence of DNA in the blood, urine, stool, or respiratory lavage from bone marrow transplant patients. Two sets of primers (Group specific primers and internal primers) were required to optimize the PCR protocol. This highly sensitive method could detect different types of Advs in two separate sets of PCR. Therfore,DNA amplification in BMT patients would be valuable screening way to evaluate bone marrow transplant recipients. Early detection of Advs by PCR assay is important to asymptomatic infections or preventing aggressive antiviral thearapy.


For the nonlinear Norbin ship model, this paper provides a new fuzzy adaptive control algorithm based on the backstepping approach and the approximation capability of the fuzzy system constructed by radial basis function (RBF). Employing the Taylor linearization technique, the algorithm can on-line tune all the parameters of RBF (connection weights, centers and widths), thereby the approximation error can be reduced greatly. Moreover, the robust controller is employed to dispel the effect of the approximation error. The asymptotical stability of the closed-loop control system is proved in the sense of Lyapunov function. At last, the simulating results show that the proposed algorithm has better adaptive ability than traditional PID control algorithm


In this study the effect of planting density on the stem form of Pinus patula trees was investigated. Four different spacing treatments of 403, 1 097, 1 808, and 2 981 stems per hectare (spha), and four stem form properties viz. stem deviation, taper, sinuosity and ovality, were assessed on the lower nine metres of the tree stem. The results showed that spacing treatment had a significant effect on all four stem form characteristics. Over the lower nine metres of the stem, the lower spacing treatments (403 and 1 097 spha) had mean stem deviations of 132.1 mm and 109.3 mm respectively, while the higher planting densities (1 808 and 2 981 spha) had mean stem deviations of 76.4 mm and 82.1 mm respectively. Sinuosity and taper also had a decreasing trend from 403 spha to 2 981 spha. Ovality, on the other hand, increased with increasing planting density and also increased with increasing height along the tree stem.


Background: Greater adherence of Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) or the Mediterranean dietary pattern were reported to be beneficial for blood pressure. However, both were established based on Western populations. Our current study aimed to explore a dietary pattern which might be suitable for hypertension prevention and control among Chinese adults nationwide. Methods: A total of 61,747 Chinese adults aged over 18 years from China Nutrition and Health Surveillance 2015–2017 was included in this study. Using reduced-rank regression (RRR) method, a dietary pattern with higher intakes of those nutrients which are inversely associated with the risk of hypertension was identified. DASH-score was also calculated for each participant for further validate the dietary pattern derived by RRR method. Multi-adjustment logistic regression was applied to examine the association between above two dietary patterns and hypertension prevention and control. Results: Dietary pattern named Beneficial for Blood Pressure (BBP) diet was characterized by higher fresh vegetables and fruits, mushrooms/edible fungi, dairy products, seaweeds, fresh eggs, nuts and seeds, legumes and related products, aquatic products, coarse cereals, and less refined grains and alcohol consumption. After multiple adjustment, protective effects showed on both hypertension prevention and control (for prevention: Q5 vs. Q1, OR = 0.842, 95% CI = 0.791–0.896; for control: Q5 vs. Q1, OR = 0.762, 95% CI = 0.629–0.924). For the DASH-diet, significant results were also observed (for prevention: Q5 vs. Q1, OR = 0.912, 95% CI = 0.854–0.973; for control: Q5 vs. Q1, OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.616–0.938). Conclusions: BBP-diet derived from Chinese adults has high conformity with the DASH-diet, and it might serve as an adjuvant method for both hypertension prevention and control.


Introduction: Intestinal parasitic infections are very common in developing countries and affect mostly children. Day care centers are places where children are more susceptible to acquire intestinal parasites. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites among children who attend to day care centers in Yazd city. One hundred and eighty children under six years old were selected by cluster sampling. Fresh faecal samples were collected from each child and examined by direct wet mount and formalin-ether techniques. Demography data and anthropometric indicators of children were also recorded. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software and the significance was tested using the chi-square test. Results: In total 10 % of children harbored at least one type of intestinal parasite. The rates of infection were as follows: Blastocystis hominis 2.8%, Giardia lamblia 2.8%, Entamoeba coli 1.1%, Chilomastix mesnili 1.7%, Dientamoeba fragilis 1.1.%. Infection rate was 12.9% and 6.9% in males and females respectively. The relationship between sex, age, anthropometric indicators, and parasitic infection was not statistically significant. A statistically significant difference was observed between infection, parents' education and mothers' job (P<0.005). Conclusion: The results of this study, showed a considerable decrease in the rate of intestinal parasitic infections in comparison with other studies. This may be owing to the improvements in personal environment and health which have occurred through public education campaigns, health information raising, sanitation .facilities improvement, proper waste and wastewater disposal, control of drinking-water, and food safety


With the onset of quantum confinement in the inversion layer in nanoscale MOSFETs, behavior of the resonant level inevitably determines all device characteristics. While most classical device simulators take quantization into account in some simplified manner, the important details of electrostatics are missing. Our work addresses this shortcoming and provides: (a) a framework to quantitatively explore device physics issues such as the source-drain and gate leakage currents, DIBL, and threshold voltage shift due to quantization, and b) a means of benchmarking quantum corrections to semiclassical models (such as density-gradient and quantum-corrected MEDICI). We have developed physical approximations and computer code capable of realistically simulating 2-D nanoscale transistors, using the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method. This is the most accurate full quantum model yet applied to 2-D device simulation. Open boundary conditions and oxide tunneling are treated on an equal footing. Electrons in the ellipsoids of the conduction band are treated within the anisotropic effective mass approximation. We present the results of our simulations of MIT 25, 50 and 90 nm "well-tempered" MOSFETs and compare them to those of classical and quantum corrected models. The important feature of quantum model is smaller slope of Id-Vg curve and consequently higher threshold voltage. Surprisingly, the self-consistent potential profile shows lower injection barrier in the channel in quantum case. These results are qualitatively consistent with ID Schroedinger-Poisson calculations. The effect of gate length on gate-oxide leakage and subthreshold current has been studied. The shorter gate length device has an order of magnitude smaller current at zero gate bias than the longer gate length device without a significant trade-off in on-current. This should be a device design consideration.


Silent mating-type information regulation 2 homologue 1 (SIRT1), being the homologous enzyme of silent information regulator-2 gene in yeast, has multifaceted functions. It deacetylates a wide range of histone and nonhistone proteins; hence, it has good therapeutic importance. SIRT1 was believed to be overexpressed in many cancers (prostate, colon) and inflammatory disorders (rheumatoid arthritis). Hence, designing inhibitors against SIRT1 could be considered valuable. Both structure-based and ligand-based drug design strategies were employed to design novel inhibitors utilizing high-throughput virtual screening of chemical databases. An energy-based pharmacophore was generated using the crystal structure of SIRT1 bound with a small molecule inhibitor and compared with a ligand-based pharmacophore model that showed four similar features. A three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model was developed and validated to be employed in the virtual screening protocol. Among the designed compounds, Lead 17 emerged as a promising SIRT1 inhibitor with IC50 of 4.34 μM and, at nanomolar concentration (360 nM), attenuated the proliferation of prostate cancer cells (LnCAP). In addition, Lead 17 significantly reduced production of reactive oxygen species, thereby reducing pro inflammatory cytokines such as IL6 and TNF-α. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory potential of the compound was ascertained using an animal paw inflammation model induced by carrageenan. Thus, the identified SIRT1 inhibitors could be considered as potent leads to treat both cancer and inflammation.


In the distribution system, distributed generation (DG) are getting more important because of the electricity demands, fossil fuel depletion and environment concerns. The placement and sizing of DGs have greatly impact on the voltage stability and losses in the distribution network. In this chapter, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm has been proposed for optimal placement and sizing of DG to improve voltage stability index in the radial distribution system. The two i.e. active power and combination of active and reactive power types of DGs are proposed to realize the effect of DG integration. A specific analysis has been applied on IEEE 33 bus system radial distribution networks using MATLAB 2015a software. Swarm-Intelligence-Based Optimal Placement and Sizing of Distributed Generation in Distribution Network: Swarm-Intelligence-Based Distributed Generation


To what extent has the process of European integration re-drawn the boundaries of national welfare states? What are the effects of such re-drawing? Boundaries count: they are essential in bringing together individuals, groups, and territorial units, and for activating or strengthening shared ties between them. If the profile of boundaries changes over time, we might expect significant consequences on bonding dynamics, i.e. on the way solidarity is structured in a given political community. The book addresses these two questions in a broad historical and comparative perspective. The first chapter sets out a novel theoretical framework which re-conceptualizes the welfare state as a 'bounded space' characterized by a distinct spatial politics. This reconceptualization takes as a starting point the 'state-building tradition' in political science and in particular the work of Stein Rokkan. The second chapter briefly outlines the early emergence and expansion of European welfare states till World War II. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the relationship between domestic welfare state developments and the formation of a supranational European Community between the 1960s and the 2000s, illustrating how the process of European integration has increasingly eroded the social sovereignty of the nation-state. Chapter 5 focuses on new emerging forms of sub-national and trans-national social protection, while Chapter 6 discusses current trends and future perspectives for a re-structuring of social protection at the EU level. While there is no doubt that European integration has significantly altered the boundaries of national welfare, de-stabilizing delicate political and institutional equilibria, the book concludes by offering some suggestions on how a viable system of multi-level social protection could possibly emerge within the new EU wide boundary configuration.


Adaptive optics (AO) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) are powerful imaging modalities that, when combined, can provide high-resolution (3.5 μm isotropic), 3-D images of the retina. The AO-OCT system at UC Davis has demonstrated the utility of this technology for microscopic, volumetric, in vivo retinal imaging. The current system uses an AOptix bimorph deformable mirror (DM) for low-order, high-stroke correction and a 140-actuator Boston Micromachines DM for high-order correction. Developments to improve performance or functionality of the instrument are on-going. Based on previous work in system characterization we have focused on improved AO control. We present preliminary results and remaining challenges for a newly implemented Fourier transform reconstructor (FTR). The previously reported error budget analysis is also reviewed and updated, with consideration of how to improve both the amount of residual error and the robustness of the system. Careful characterization of the AO system will lead to improved performance and inform the design of future systems.


This article is concerned with measure equivalence and uniform measure equivalence of locally compact, second countable groups. We show that two unimodular, locally compact, second countable groups are measure equivalent if and only if they admit free, ergodic, probability measure preserving actions whose cross section equivalence relations are stably orbit equivalent. Using this we prove that in the presence of amenability any two such groups are measure equivalent and that both amenability and property (T) are preserved under measure equivalence, extending results of Connes-Feldman-Weiss and Furman. Furthermore, we introduce a notion of uniform measure equivalence for unimodular, locally compact, second countable groups, and prove that under the additional assumption of amenability this notion coincides with coarse equivalence, generalizing results of Shalom and Sauer. Throughout the article we rigorously treat measure theoretic issues arising in the setting of non-discrete groups.


Ranking options has always been the main issue for managers. There are a lot of qualitative and quantitative approaches for ranking. However most of the approaches for separating and ranking corporations in stock market are less reliable and the results obtained will be invalid. While the evaluation obtained merely through qualitative or quantitative approaches alone, the advantages of integration will be ignored. Thus logically the efficiency of result will be questionable. Thus in this paper the advantages of qualitative and quantitative approaches are integrated which in turn bring about more precision in values of input and output indices. Hence in this paper the approaches, TOPSIS & DEA, have been introduced to rate active companies in cement industry accepted in Tehran stock market. The approach adopted in this paper is applicable and carried out during 2006-2011 and the population of the research includes accepted companies in stock market in cement industry (28 companies) and at the end a precise ranking of the companies is presented by integrattive techniques.


The paper proposes and describes a physical model of thermally induced processes in binary lamellar systems. The model has been developed for the theoretical explanation of an experimentally revealed fact of thermal stabilization of intermetallic phases on the surface of a lamellar sample. Based on the model we developed an algorithm for calculations and a computer code that operates with three one-phase and two two-phase regions in the binary alloy state diagram. The computational model includes as inputs changes in concentration boundaries for existing phases with change in temperature, as well as arbitrary temperature–time regimes for the thermal treatment of the lamellar system under investigation. Good agreement between the theoretical calculations and Mössbauer investigations of binary lamellar Fe–Be systems has been achieved.


In this work, we consider spectrum sensing of Gaussian signals with structured covariance matrices. We show that the optimal detector based on the probability distribution of the sample covariance matrix is equivalent to the optimal detector based on the raw data, if the covariance matrices are known. However, the covariance matrices are unknown in general. Therefore, we propose to estimate the unknown parameters using covariance matching estimation techniques (COMET). We also derive the optimal detector based on a Gaussian approximation of the sample covariance matrix, and show that this is closely connected to COMET.


This study examines the impacts of macroeconomic variables on the inflation in Nepal during 1975-2022. The variables considered for the study is limited to the use of broad money supply, real GDP, Indian prices. The results suggest that all variables considered are significant in long run implying that these variables are the determinants of inflation in Nepal. The results are consistent with monetary theory. The money supply and Indian prices cause inflation in the long-run based on an Ordinary Least Squares regression model. The empirical results show that in the long-run, the major determinants of inflation in Nepal are Indian inflation (0.453), real income (0.347),and exchange rate (0.224). In addition, Indian inflation (0.286), the exchange rate (0.141), and government deficit (0.039) have significant effects in the short-run. Finally, the error correction term is found to be negative and statistically significant suggesting a correction of short-run disequilibrium within two years.


We define a set of requirements and criteria for selection and development of middleware for large distributed systems (system-of-systems or SoS). Middleware technologies are critical to the successful implementation and integration of large distributed systems. Such systems are developed by multiple vendors, and often integrated by a large prime contractor. In any such large system-of-systems, there is a wide variety in application performance and functionality requirements. These requirements place a wide range of requirements on the underlying middleware. Our thesis for this research is that it is futile and counter-productive to define one single middleware for these complex systems. There are two major reasons for this difficulty: a) Any middleware implementation approach always requires design compromise between functionality, flexibility, performance, size-weight-power, and cost. For example, more dynamic systems are harder to verify; higher-integrity systems may require lock-step hardware replication. A single implementation can never meet the needs of all applications; b) Middleware is so critical to the overall system integration that suppliers of individual systems are loath to loosen their own control over this middleware. For a large SoS integration, this problem gets especially complicated as system vendors have product and business strategies often in conflict with the SoS integrator. In this scenario, the middleware quickly becomes the SoS bottleneck not just in schedule and cost, but also a large technical risk. The requirements on the underlying middleware depend not on the middleware technologies used, but on the application context it is used in. This becomes the biggest challenge for designing the SoS middleware. Since a specific (or a small set of) trade-offs must be made, there will always be some applications that will not be able to use the middleware to perform its functions. We explore major categories of requirements: Dependability (such as timeliness, fault-tolerance, availability, and information integrity); Functional complexity and distributed state management; and platform size, weight, power. Unfortunately, there are trade-offs to be made as we characterize the performance of an application within these categories. The enhancements in one category will usually lead in a reduction in other categories.


BACKGROUND
Studies in animal models have shown that the alternative pathway of complement is activated in the kidney after ischemia/reperfusion. In addition, mice deficient in complement factor B, a necessary component of the alternative pathway, are protected from ischemic acute renal failure. The purpose of this study was to determine whether alternative pathway activation also occurs during the development of ischemic acute tubular necrosis in the human kidney.

METHODS
Biopsies were identified from nine patients with morphologically normal kidneys and seven patients with evidence of acute tubular necrosis by light microscopy. Immunofluorescence microscopy was used to quantify and localize the complement activation products C3d and C4d. The results were correlated with available clinical data.

RESULTS
Similar to mice, small amounts of activated C3d were present along the tubular basement membrane in normal kidneys. However, kidneys from patients with acute tubular necrosis had C3d complement deposition along a significantly greater number of tubules, and many of the tubules were completely circumscribed. In contrast, C4d was not detectable, indicating that complement activation occurred primarily via alternative pathway activation.

CONCLUSION
Complement activation occurs in human ischemic acute tubular necrosis. As in rodents, complement activation along the tubular basement membrane after ischemia appears to occur principally via the alternative complement pathway. Because of this, an inhibitor of the alternative pathway might limit complement activation and inflammation after ischemia/reperfusion, thereby protecting the kidney from ischemic acute renal failure.


Present study was conducted through systematic survey of 18 villages in three districts (Kamrup, Nagaon and Darang) of Asom, India, using stratified random sampling technique. Total 52 Khutis (open herds) having 3310 buffaloes of different age and sex under farmers management, were purposively selected for utility and morphometrical studies of the breed and socio-economic status of the breeders in its home tract. The morphometrical traits, viz. Length of forehead ranged 23.81±0.70 to 48.42±0.94cm, neck length (22.91±0.66 to 39.82±1.02 cm), horn length (8.00±0.25 to 67.10±0.64 cm), space between two horns at base (9.14±0.24 to 18.52±0.64 cm) and tips (18.12±0.24 to 43.43±0.75 cm), tail length (44.60±0.45 to 80.60±0.85cm), and length of switch of the tail (8.09±0.20 to 15.89±0.20cm) were observed for the animals of both the sexes belonging to the age groups of up to 6 months, 6-12 m, 1-2 year, 2-3 years, 3-4 years and 4 years & above. The study shows that the animals are being utilized for milk only (82.69%) and milk & meat (17.31%). It was also found that 40.38% breeders are receiving an income ranges from Rs 50,000 to 75,000 and 28.85% breeders getting more in between 75,000 to 1,00,000 per year out of these animals, besides age, education level, land holding, family size and number of paid graziers were also studied. The Assamese buffalo breed is a very good source of livelihood for tribals, nomads and poor farmers, hence immediate steps should be taken to save this valuable breed in its natural habitat.


Background Our understanding of coevolution in a predator–prey system is based mostly on pair-wise interactions. Methodology and Principal Findings Here I analyze a one-predator–two-prey system in which the predator's attack ability and the defense abilities of the prey all evolve. The coevolutionary consequences can differ dramatically depending on the initial trait value and the timing of the alternative prey's invasion into the original system. If the invading prey species has relatively low defense ability when it invades, its defense is likely to evolve to a lower level, stabilizing the population dynamics. In contrast, if when it invades its defense ability is close to that of the resident prey, its defense can evolve to a higher level and that of the resident prey may suddenly cease to evolve, destabilizing the population dynamics. Destabilization due to invasion is likely when the invading prey is adaptively superior (evolution of its defense is less constrained and fast), and it can also occur in a broad condition even when the invading prey is adaptively inferior. In addition, invasion into a resident system far from equilibrium characterized by population oscillations is likely to cause further destabilization. Conclusions and Significance An invading prey species is thus likely to destabilize a resident community.


The state that we inhabit plays a significant role in shaping our lives. For not only do its institutions constrain the kinds of lives we can lead, but it also claims the right to punish us if our choices take us beyond what it deems to be appropriate limits. Political philosophers have traditionally tried to justify the state's power by appealing to their preferred theories of justice, as articulated in complex and wide-ranging moral theories—utilitarianism, Kantianism, and the like. One of John Rawls's greatest contributions to political philosophy has been his recognition that this is the wrong way for this field to approach its task. He points to what he calls "the fact of reasonable pluralism," which is the incontestable fact that in a free society people striving to lead their lives ethically will subscribe to conflicting moral and religious doctrines, many of which will be "reasonable" in the special sense of leaving their adherents willing to cooperate with those with whom they have moral disagreements. And this means that political philosophers can no longer rely on any particular "comprehensive" doctrine in their attempts to justify the state. For doing so would be unfair to those who subscribe to a conflicting reasonable doctrine; it would mean that the coercive power of the state would not be justified to them in terms they can accept, even while they were forced to abide by its terms.


Plastic behavior of soils and shales due to heating and loading under constant elevated temperature is discussed in terms of a thermoplastic version of the critical state model. Rules for dependence of the yield surface on temperature in the elastic states and at yielding are proposed. The elastic domain is assumed to shrink during heating (thermal softening) and to expand during cooling, when the stress state is elastic. In a plastic state thermal softening occurs simultaneously with the plastic strain hardening. At a constant stress state, thermal softening may entirely be compensated by plastic strain hardening leading to thermal consolidation. Loading and unloading criteria are given to determine whether the soil response is thermoelastic or thermoplastic. As opposed to isothermal plasticity, stress rate excursions inside the current yield surface are admissable plastic processes, when temperature grows, even if strain hardening occurs. Also, outside stress rate excursions at the softening side may generate plastic strain, when cooling occurs. Thermally induced plastic strain rate non-associativity is discussed as well. Direct and inverse incremental strain-stress-temperature relationships are formulated. An analysis of the experimental results of thermomechanical testing of saturated clays is given in a companion paper.


A variety of initiatives for developing virtual research environments, research infrastructures, and cyberinfrastructures have been funded in recent years. The systems produced vary considerably, but they all face the issue of sustainability, namely how to ensure the continued existence of a resource once the project that created it has finished. This paper addresses the sustainability issues faced by the TextGrid and TEXTvre virtual research environments for textual scholarship, examining the inter-project collaboration and cross-fertilization that took place, and investigating how the projects benefited from this exchange. It also examines how their sustainability is being facilitated by the more general-purpose DARIAH infrastructure, and conversely how their existing collaboration can serve as a model for future collaborations within the DARIAH community.


Freud's familiarity with the work of the eminent neurologist J. Hughlings Jackson enabled him to make substantial contributions to apha-siology and inspired Freud's earliest insights into the emotional determinants of speech disruptions. However, Jackson's hierarchical model, which came to dominate Freud's topographic system of mental organization, created a number of insoluable difficulties in the early psychoanalytic writings. Despite the contention of some that Jackson's influence lent additional rigor to Freud's cognitive psychology, it is argued that the Jacksonian trend in Freud's thought contributed to a narrow notion of repression based on rather untenable notions of how thoughts attain or do not attain consciousness. It contributed also to certain problems in the dream theory, particularly regarding the role of language in dreaming.


The transfusion of whole blood derived platelets (WBDPs) or apheresis platelets (APs) is standard support for cancer patients. However, disputes remain about which type of platelets are ideal in terms of efficacy, cost, and the risk of adverse reactions. This cross sectional study included 141 cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy or hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation and received platelet transfusions at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center between 2002 and 2003 were retrospectively evaluated. A total of 141 patients who did not differ significantly in terms of age or sex had a reaction to transfusions (WBDPs, n=123; APs, n=18), for a frequency of 0.66% in patients who received WBDPs and 0.45% in patients who received APs, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.13). More WBDP-related reactions occurred in patients transfused with older platelets (>2 days old) than in patients transfused with fresh platelets, but the difference compared with AP-associated reactions was not statistically significant. However, the rate of reactions to WBDP may increase if WBDPs are stored for a prolonged time (>2 days). Until evidence becomes available that clearly refutes this; the more fresh platelets as possible may be used.


In the metropolitan area, traditional SONET/SDH circuit switched rings are likely to be replaced with optical packet/burst switching technologies. In this paper we consider a slotted WDM optical packet ring operating without resource reservation mechanisms. In such rings, optical packets in transit have priority over traffic to be inserted by the node. Packets to be inserted are thus queued according to their destination, in order to avoid head-of-line blocking. We focus on scheduling policies and compare several MaxWeight scheduling policies, including Oldest Packet First (OPF) which emulates FIFO queueing while avoiding head-of-line blocking. We show that there is a trade-off between implementation complexity and fairness, and identify the Largest Virtual Waiting Time First (LVWTF) scheduling policy as presenting both a low complexity and a good fairness performance.


Contaminated site assessment and monitoring requires efficient risk‐management tools including innovative environmental toxicity tests. The first application of microcalorimetry for toxicity testing draw the attention to a possible new tool to increase sensitivity, to eliminate matrix effect and to study effect‐mechanism. A Thermal Activity Monitor (TAM) microcalorimeter was used for measuring the heat production of various test organisms when getting in contact with sterile toxic soils. Well known bacterial (Azomonas agilis), animal (Folsomia candida) and plant test organisms (Sinapis alba) were tested for heat production. The heat response of selected testorganisms was measured in case of metal (Cu and Zn) and organic pollutant (Diesel oil, DBNPA and PCP) contaminated soils. In addition to the quantitative determination of the heat production, the mechanism of the toxic effect can be characterized from the shape of the power‐time curve (slope of the curve, height and time of the maximum). In certain concentration ranges the higher the pollutant concentration of the soil the lower the maximum of the time‐heat curve. At low pollutant concentrations an increased heat production was measured in case of A. agile and 20 and 200 mg Zn kg−1 soil. The microcalorimetric testing was more sensitive in all cases than the traditional test methods. Our results showed that the microcalorimetric test method offers a new and sensitive option in environmental toxicology, both for research and routine testing. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 2010.


SUMMARY In this paper, a new balancing approach called "optimal balancing" is presented for open-chain robot manipulators based on open-loop optimal control. In fact, an optimal trajectory planning problem is outlined in which states, controls and the values of counterweights must be determined simultaneously in order to minimize the given performance index for a predefined point-to-point task. Optimal balancing method can be propounded beside the other methods such as unbalancing, static balancing and adaptive balancing, with this superiority that the objective criterion value obtained of proposed method is very lower than the objective criterion value obtained of other methods. For this purpose, the optimal control problem is extended to the case where the performance index, the differential constraints and the prescribed final conditions contain parameters. Using the fundamental theorem of calculus of variations, the necessary conditions for optimality are derived which lead to the optimality conditions associated with the Pontryagin's minimum principle and an additional condition associated with the constant parameters. By developing the obtained optimality conditions for the two-link manipulator, a two-point boundary value problem is achieved which can be solved with bvp4c command in MATLAB®. The obtained results show that optimal balancing in comparison with the previous methods can reduce the performance index significantly. This method can be easily applied to the more complicated manipulator such as a three degrees of freedom articulated manipulator.


This paper presents an interdisciplinary research project that aims at developing an electronic vocabulary acquisition system for the German and the Italian language called ELDIT (Elektronisches Lern(er)worterbuch Deutsch Italienisch). The approach for studying and practicing the vocabulary. To ensure maximum effectiveness of the learning process, modern psycholinguistic methods are supplied alongside with new media and technologies including adoptive hypermedia. The system is implemented as an adaptive hyperbook and runs on the World Wide Web. The paper is structured as follows. In the second section, the concept of learners' dictionaries is introduced. In section three, the ELDIT dictionary is described in detail. Section four provides an overview of how we intend to enlarge the basic dictionary to an adaptive vocabulary acquisition system. Section five discusses related work. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.


The effect of large deformation in the flow between the bellmouth and centerbody is considered analytically for application to studies of vortex breakdown in a pipe. Basic equations are defined for axisymmetric inviscid swirling flows at the inflow and outflow sections. Axial and circumferential velocity component profiles are presented, and comparisons are made with trials involving vane angles of 42 deg and Re of 2300. Axial components of the prediction matched well in the inner half of the pipe radius and not well with the outer, while circumferential predictions were good only at the axis. A lack of viscosity was concluded to result in the inaccuracies near the wall.


We have studied the phase diagrams of the one-dimensional spin-1 Blume-Capel model with anisotropy constant D, in which equivalent-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions of strength -J are superimposed on nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions of strength K. A rich critical behavior is found due to the competing interactions. At zero temperature two ordered phases exist in the D/J-K/J plane, namely the ferromagnetic (F) and the antiferromagnetic one (AF). For lower values of D/J(D/J<0.25) these two ordered phases are separated by the point K_{c}=0.25J. For 0.25<D/J≤0.50, the paramagnetic phase P emerges in a region separated between the lines determined by D/J=0.5-K/J and D/J=K/J. For D/J>0.5, only phases AF and F exist and are separated by a line given by D/J=K/J. At finite temperatures, we found that the ferromagnetic region of the phase diagram in the k_{B}T/J-D/J plane is enriched by another ferromagnetic phase F^{^{'}} above a first-order line for 0.195<K/J<0.250. This first-order line, which separates phases F and F^{^{'}}, begins at a coexistence point, where phases F,F^{^{'}}, and P coexist, and ends at an ordered critical point. Similarly, we found that the phase F^{^{'}} is present in the phase diagram in the k_{B}T/J-K/J plane for 0.228<D/J<0.286.


I estimate the impacts of secondary school on human capital, occupational choice, and fertility for young adults in Kenya. Probability of admission to government secondary school rises sharply at a score close to the national mean on a standardized eighth grade examination, permitting me to estimate causal effects of schooling in a regression discontinuity framework. I combine administrative test score data with a survey of young adults to estimate these impacts. My results show that secondary schooling increases human capital. For men, I find a drop in low-skill self-employment; for women, I find a reduction in teen pregnancy.


The unifying theme of the present volume on the presidency and science advising is 'experience past and present.' Contributors, who include A. Hunter Dupree, Wolfgang Panofsky, Solomon J. Buchsbaum, William Graham, Norman Hackerman, Alvin Weinberg, and Robert Quarles Marston, examine science advising practices and problems from the times of the Founding Fathers to the Reagan administration. Underpinning this collection of papers is an emphasis on continuity and change. As in the area of political and legal thought, the quality of scientific thinking of the founders stands out. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.


Electronic cigarettes, also known as vape pens, JUULS, and pods use an electric element to heat liquid-based flavorant into an aerosol for inhalation. As technology and science progress, the adverse health effects of nicotine, associated chemicals, and additives continue to be researched and discovered. With the rising popularity of e-cigarettes and vaping, dental and oral health effects have come into question. The 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 3.6 million youth are currently using e-cigarettes, with a concerning uptick in use of disposable products. Vaping affects the oral cavity by receding gingiva by blood vessel shrinkage, masks gum disease by reducing bleeding on probing due to blood flow loss, amplifies bad breath by compromising saliva production, increases bruxism by increased masticatory muscle stimulation, and increases the occurrence of tooth caries.


Posix 1003.1b compliant systems provide two wellspecified scheduling policies, namely sched_rr (RoundRobin like) and sched_fifo (FPP like). Recently, an optimal priority and policy assignment algorithm for Posix 1003.1b has been proposed in the case where the quantum value is a system-wide constant. Here we extend this analysis to the case where quanta can be chosen on a task-per-task basis. The algorithm is shown to be optimal with regards to the power of the feasibility test (i.e. its ability to distinguish feasible and non feasible configurations). Though much less complex than an exhaustive exploration, the exponential complexity of the algorithm limits its applicability to small or medium-size problems. In this context, as shown in the experiments, our proposal allows achieving a significant gain in feasibility over FPP and Posix with system-wide quanta, and therefore using the computational resources at their fullest potential.


In Indonesia, as in other developing countries, one of the main political and educational goals is to obtain a minimum six years education for all children. The basic aim is to achieve universal literacy. Indeed, recent data suggest that most, perhaps 95% or more, children do enroll in some form of primary school, at least in the more populated and accessible areas of Indonesia. Within these areas, however, less than 50% of the children who enroll in grade one actually graduate from grade six (unpublished data of Badan Pengembangan Pendidikan). It may be assumed that any child dropping out of grade one or two will have learned so little of literacy skills that they remain, in effect, illiterate. However for the bulk of children dropping out in grades three to six, the fate is less clear. The assumption generally accepted by UNESCO is that a four year minimum schooling is required for literacy skills to be maintained after the child leaves school (UNESCO, 1949). Before that time, such skills as have been learned are rapidly lost. This assumption indeed concurs with the psychological "loss of retention model" (Kimble, 1961). Such a model would also suggest that the loss follows a curvilinear pattern, with maximum loss occurring immediately after cessation of learning. The Indonesian government has generally accepted that a rapid loss of skills occurs after dropout. The high dropout rate is described in the five year


Transcriptional regulation is a key mechanism that controls the fate and response of cells to diverse signals. Therefore, the identification of the DNA-binding proteins, which mediate these signals, is a crucial step in elucidating how cell fate is regulated. In this report, we applied both bioinformatics and functional genomic approaches to scrutinize the unusually large promoter of the IME1 gene in budding yeast. Using a recently described fluorescent protein-based reporter screen, reporter-synthetic genetic array (R-SGA), we assessed the effect of viable deletion mutants on transcription of various IME1 promoter–reporter genes. We discovered potential transcription factors, many of which have no perfect consensus site within the IME1 promoter. Moreover, most of the cis-regulatory sequences with perfect homology to known transcription factor (TF) consensus were found to be nonfunctional in the R-SGA analysis. In addition, our results suggest that lack of conservation may not discriminate against a TF regulatory role at a specific promoter. We demonstrate that Sum1 and Sok2, which regulate IME1, bind to nonperfect consensuses within nonconserved regions in the sensu stricto Saccharomyces strains. Our analysis supports the view that although comparative analysis can provide a useful guide, functional assays are required for accurate identification of TF-binding site interactions in complex promoters.


In this era of increasingly procedural cardiology, many physicians regard the cognitive exercise of preoperative evaluation for non-cardiac surgery as an onerous task. In reality, the preoperative period affords a window of opportunity for the consulting cardiologist to minimise surgical risk by maximising medical treatment, directing appropriate testing, and communicating effectively with the surgical team. Many physicians are unaware that nearly half of all perioperative deaths are related to cardiac events, and they may greatly underestimate the degree to which heart failure contributes to this cardiac mortality. It is imperative as a consulting cardiologist to develop a consistent approach to heart failure patients in order to avoid unnecessary, and potentially dangerous, preoperative diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

In this article we will briefly review recent data relating to predictors of surgical risks, and propose an approach for integrating the clinical evaluation of cardiac status and surgical risk in order to provide a frame of reference for preoperative consultation. We have no hard evidence, either observational or in the form of prospective, randomised trials, to support many of our current recommendations. The landmark studies of preoperative risk assessment focused primarily on identifying ischemic risk with a lesser emphasis on heart failure.1 2 Our suggestions are based on heart failure data extrapolated from these studies, as well as from broad experience at a high volume cardiac centre.

There are four major determinants of risk for any cardiac patient undergoing non-cardiac surgery: urgency of the surgery; complexity of the procedure; extent of medical comorbidities; and the extent and severity of the underlying heart disease. Shah and associates underscored the importance of these variables in their evaluation …


Cut-off regulators in the effective field theory (EFT) description of a low-energy NN scattering often violates unitarity. To understand the phenomenological consequences of such a violation of unitarity, we have performed a comparative study for the 1S0 np scattering up to next-to-leading order with five different forms of regulators, some of which preserve unitarity while others do not. For this aim, we have considered two different types of EFTs; one is the EFT that consists of only nucleonic degrees of freedom, and the other is the EFT with a dibaryon field. For both types of EFTs, unitarity-preserving regulators turn out generally to produce phase shifts in better agreement with the data than unitarity-violating regulators do.


The relationship between K-ABC simultaneous and sequential scores and achievement in reading and math was investigated. Four of the K-ABC simultaneous tests that are nonverbal and two sequential tests were chosen, in addition to a new verbal simultaneous test. Subjects were 79 Grade 5 students. The relationship to school achievement was as follows: (1) a high simultaneous processing score was associated with reading decoding, comprehension, and math scores as obtained from the school records; (2) a high sequential score also was associated with comprehension and math; (3) multiple regression analyses showed a strong predictability of achievement by the simultaneous tests. By far the strongest predictor for reading was the new verbal simultaneous test. Use of this new test with the K-ABC simultaneous tests was recommended. It also was suggested that the predictability of achievement from processing tests may change as processing demands of achievement tests at higher or lower grades change.


In this paper, we propose a simple linear bottleneck assignment problems (LBAP) algorithm to find the optimal solution. Generally, the LBAP has been solved by threshold or augmenting path algorithm. The primary characteristic of proposed algorithm is derived the optimal solution of LBAP from linear sum assignment problem (LSAP). Firstly, we obtains the solution for LSAP from the selected minimum cost of rows and moves the duplicated costs in row to unselected row with minimum increasing cost in direct and indirect paths. Then, we obtain the optimal solution of LBAP according to the maximum cost of LSAP can be move to less cost. For the 29 balanced and 7 unbalanced problem, this algorithm finds optimal solution as simple.


Bacterial natural products are an immensely valuable source of therapeutics. As modern DNA sequencing efforts provide
increasing numbers of microbial genomes, it is clear that the molecules produced by most natural product biosynthetic gene
clusters (BGCs) remain unknown. Genome mining makes use of bioinformatic techniques to elucidate the natural products
produced by these "orphan" BGCs. Here, we report the use of sequence similarity networks (SSNs) and genome
neighborhood networks (GNNs) to identify an orphan BGC that is responsible for the production of the antitumor
tambjamine BE-18591 in Streptomyces albus NRRL B-2362. Although BE-18591 is a close structural analogue of tambjamine
YP1 produced by Pseudoalteromonas tunicata, the biosynthetic routes to produce these molecules differ significantly.
Notably, the C12-alkylamine tail that is appended onto the bipyrrole core of tambjamine YP1 is derived from fatty acids
siphoned from the primary metabolism of the pseudoalteromonad, whilst the S. albus NRRL B-2362 BGC encodes a dedicated
system for the de novo biosynthesis of the alkylamine portion of tambjamine BE-18591. These remarkably different
biosynthetic strategies represent a striking example of convergent BGC evolution, with selective pressure for the production
of tambjamines seemingly leading to the emergence of separate biosynthetic pathways in pseudoalteromonads and
streptomycetes that ultimately produce closely related compounds


A novel focusing and dispersive component is presented which is based on a phased array of bent optical waveguides. It combines good optical properties with small dimensions and can be realised with (high-quality) optical lithography. Applications are (de)multiplexers, wavelength filters and polarisation splitters.


Thyroglobulin (precursor for thyroid hormone synthesis) is a large secreted glycoprotein comprising contiguous region I (multiple type-1 repeating units engaging the first ∼1,191 residues, followed by a ∼245-residue hinge region), regions II-III (multiple type-2 and 3 repeating units, comprising ∼720 residues), and the C-terminal cholinesterase-like (ChEL) domain (∼570 residues). A signal peptide attached to ChEL makes an independent secretory protein that binds to I-II-III, stabilizing it and rescuing the secretion of I-II-III that would otherwise be trapped in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this study, we found that a signal peptide attached to regions II-III also makes for an efficient secretory protein that neither demonstrably interacts nor has its secretion enhanced by the presence of secretory ChEL. By contrast, region I, either with or without the hinge region, cannot be secreted on its own and remains in the ER where it is bound to ER chaperones BiP and GRP94. Whereas ChEL can rescue secretion of I-II-III, it can rescue I-II only very weakly, and region I not at all. Yet, ChEL begins to rescue region I in cells that also co-express secretory II-III. The data suggest that conformational maturation of region I is a limiting step in the thyroglobulin maturation process, and this step is facilitated by the presence of both regions II-III and ChEL. Mutations causing hypothyroidism might induce solely local/regional misfolding or may interfere more globally by impeding interactions between regions that are required for thyroglobulin secretion.


Minerals of the system ZnS–CdS formed between 400 and 725°C in active fumaroles at the Kudriavy volcano, Iturup Island, Russia, were studied using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersion, X-ray diffraction and with an electron microprobe. The composition of these minerals varies widely: Zn 2.46–57.7, Cd 2.38–69.5, Fe 0.72–13.6 wt.%, and thus covers almost the entire ZnS–CdS series. Two types of solid solutions occur: cubic, from 0 to ∼8 mol.% CdS, and hexagonal, from α17 to 100 mol.% CdS, separated by a two-phase transition zone. Three different mechanisms of substitution account for the range of composition: Zn-for-Fe in sphalerite, Zn-for-Cd in wurtzite–greenockite, and Cd-for-Fe in greenockite. The incorporation of Cu and In, up to 2.92 and 4.75 wt.%, respectively, is noted in sphalerite, and up to 1.27 wt.% Cu and 2.75 wt.% In, respectively, in minerals of the wurtzite–greenockite series. Both elements evidently occur as the roquesite component in solid solution. Zinc-rich species are metal-deficient, whereas Cd-rich species are sulfur-deficient. The range of nonstoichiometry in minerals of the system ZnS–CdS studied is in the order of 2.6 at.%, or 0.05 apfu S. We conclude that there is not a complete solid-solution between wurtzite and greenockite in the temperature range studied owing to a phase transition in ZnS and a change in the structure type. Phase relations for the temperature range studied proved to be identical with those established for synthetic compounds. In a fumarolic environment, crystals of Cd-rich sulfides of the system ZnS–CdS precipitate mainly at lower temperatures (400°C) than those of Zn (up to 725°C).


Purpose Describe the pharmacotherapeutic management of primary-care patients with chronic noncancer pain, assess their satisfaction with pain treatment, and identify the determinants of their satisfaction. Methods A cohort study was conducted in Quebec (Canada). Patients reporting chronic noncancer pain with an average pain intensity of at least 4 on a 0–10 scale (10= worst possible pain) and having an active analgesic prescription from a primary-care physician were recruited. They completed a telephone interview and a self-administered questionnaire to document their pain, emotional well-being, satisfaction with treatment, and barriers/beliefs/attitudes about pain and its treatment. Information on pharmacotherapy was based on an administrative provincial database and pharmacies' charts. Determinants of patients' satisfaction were identified using multivariate linear regression models. Results Four hundred and eighty six patients participated. Their mean age was 58.4 years and they had had pain for a mean of 11.7 years (standard deviation, ±11.1) at an average pain intensity of 6.5 in the past week. Although 90% reported adverse gastrointestinal effects, 36.4% and 54.4% of these patients took no over-the-counter or prescribed medication for constipation or nausea, respectively. On a scale from 0–100, the mean overall satisfaction score was 64.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] =63.5–65.9). Patient satisfaction was low, particularly regarding the "information about pain and its treatment" (mean 50.6; 95% CI =47.6–53.7) and "treatment efficacy" (mean 53.6; 95% CI =51.5–55.6) subscales. The overall treatment satisfaction score decreased with more pain disability, probable depression and anxiety, more barriers to pain treatment, higher incidence of nausea, and use of over-the-counter analgesics. Conclusion In primary care, patients' level of satisfaction with their pain treatment is not optimal. This study underlines how the expanded scope of practice of community pharmacists may allow them to play a pivotal role in providing information, discussing barriers to pain treatment, and monitoring pain disability, and by appropriately managing pharmacotherapy to optimize effectiveness while minimizing adverse effects.


The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations UCAHO) mandates a hospital-wide infection control program.' National, state, and local healthcare guidelines and resources address infection control issues including asepsis, handwashing, isolation precautions, Universal Precautions (UP), and waste disposal. One important aspect of an infection control program is the monitoring of compliance with policies and procedures. We report a system of monitoring compliance with infection control policies and procedures through the use of confidential infection control violation reports.Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital is a 550-bed tertiary care center that has an epidemiology services department consisting of a medical director, associate medical director, and two nurse epidemiologists. Hospital personnel have been encouraged through formal and informal educational sessions to report infection control violations to the service. Prior to 1986, infection control violations usually were noted through special studies such as isolation precautions monitors and surveillance activities. Occasionally, employees told Epidemiology Services about a witnessed violation but were very hesitant to document the incident because of fear of retaliation, harassment, and job loss. Peer pressure appeared to play a role in this hesitation.


It is reported about a field trial of oral vaccination of foxes against rabies, started in some Bavarian districts. The planning stage, the preparation of baits and their distribution, and the subsequent investigations to evaluate the field trial are outlined. The vaccine will be produced by the Federal Research Institute for Animal Diseases at Tübingen. 110,000 vaccine baits were laid out in 4 vaccination campaigns within 2 years. In no instance vaccine virus could be reisolated from animals collected in the vaccination zone. About 50% of the foxes were successfully immunized.


The R-matrix method is used to obtain cross sections for the photoionization of the 2s22p32D degrees , 2P degrees , 2s22p2(3P)3s 4P, 2P; 2s2p44P, and 2s22p2(3P)3p 2S degrees excited states of atomic nitrogen. Excellent accord is found with the calculation of Zeippen et al. (1980) for the 2D degrees and 2P degrees metastable states and the cross sections for these two states are now believed known to a high degree of accuracy. The cross section for the 2S degrees state differs from previous calculations and for this state a calculation is also performed for the asymmetry parameter beta and the results found to differ significantly from earlier work.


The seven papers in this special section are updated and expanded versions of the papers that appeared in the IEEE CPMT-sponsored conferences: Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and Systems (EPEPS) 2011 and 2012, and Workshop on Signal and Power Integrity (SPI) 2011 and 2012.


: The aim of this study was to explore the changes in student's attitudes regarding disability after attending the module 'Disability: theories, nature and experiences' designed around reflective self-awareness exercises. Literature indicates enhanced knowledge does not automatically lead to changes in attitude. Health care professionals are the most significant people to instil hope in their clients to pursue a happy life. As advocates for people with disability, health care professionals need themselves to believe that people with disability can pursue a happy life as abled bodied people do. Researchers aimed to explore the impact of the 'Disability' module using discussion and reflective exercises, on students' way of thinking about and changes in attitude towards disability. Students were asked to write stories at the beginning and after completing the module. A thematic analysis was applied to identify the students' way of communicating their thoughts and feelings about disable bodied /disability before and after the module. Three major themes were identified to represent the differences before and after attending the module: problem /solution oriented approach towards perceived problems, separating/ integrating disable/able bodied, passive/ active role of disable bodied and society.


OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of associated anomalies in babies with Down's syndrome (DS) and their progress throughout the first year of life. PATIENTS AND METHODS All pregnancies of women resident in the Basque Autonomous Community with prenatal or postnatal diagnosis of DS ascertained during the period 1990-1995 were studied. A one year follow-up of all DS babies was carried out. RESULTS One hundred and sixteen live born DS babies were identified. Half of them (58) showed other associated anomalies. Congenital heart disease (CHD) was the most frequent anomaly, present in 45 cases. Atrioventricular canal (AVC) was the most frequent type of CHD, present in 34 out of the 45, the complete from being more prevalent (2/3). A marked association between AVC and female sex was observed. The overall mortality in the first year of life was 18.1%, associated to the presence of CHD. CONCLUSIONS These findings are in keeping with the observations reported in previous similar studies. Consistency of these population-based data over time provides and accurate and reliable basis both for planning the needs of children with DS and to counsel affected parents.


We propose a predictive model for the mechanical behavior of biodegradable polymers of interest for biomedical applications. Starting from a detailed description of the network behavior of the copolymer material, taking care of bonds breaking and recrosslinking effects, folded-unfolded transitions and network topological constraints, we deduce a macroscopic law for the complex mechanical behavior of many biomedical materials with a particular focus on absorbable suture threads and a perspective to new material design. A crucial novelty of the model is the careful description of the observed microscopic anisotropic damage induced by the deformation, here described based on the classical microsphere integration approach. The resulting energy, characterized by a few number of material parameters, with physically clear interpretation, is successfully adopted to predict our cyclic experiments on poliglecaprone sutures with anisotropic damage, permanent stretch and internal hysteresis. By also studying other suture materials behavior we show that the predictivity properties of the model can be extended also to materials with a different mechanical response and thus also possibly applied for the design of new, high-performance biomedical materials.


We presented MR (magnetic resonance) images findings of the brain in nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) from 2 patients of neonatal onset. MR findings in our cases of NKH are compatible with the pathological alterations described in the literature; MR images revealed delayed myelination of the cerebral white matter and hypoplasia of the corps callosum. The latter finding particularly seemed to be relatively characteristic to NKH. MR examination is the imaging modality of choice for this disease because it can demonstrate the degree of myelination, and development of the corpus callosum particularly on sagittal section.


The need of a prisoner's wife is often not an issue of concern for many. Despite financial struggle, the imprisonment of the husband may affect the wife's emotional being and inner needs. Since the repulsion of harm (mafsadah) serves as the objective of Islamic legal rulings, this paper seeks to examine the juristic views of different schools of laws in Islam on the remedy available where the husband has been sentenced for imprisonment. For comparative purpose, the provisions of law related to husband's imprisonment as applied in Malaysia, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are also discussed. Using content analysis method, the findings indicate that where the husband has been imprisoned, dissolution of marriage is allowed based on the ground of protecting the interest of the spouse, as well as an appraisal to the Islamic principle of repulsion of harm.


Hundreds of satellites have been launched to date. Some have operated extremely well and others have not. In order to learn from past operating experiences, a study was conducted to determine the conditions under which space mechanisms (mechanically moving components) have previously worked or failed. The study consisted of: (1) an extensive literature review that included both government contractor reports and technical journals; (2) communication and visits (when necessary) to the various NASA and DOD centers and their designated contractors (this included contact with project managers of current and prior NASA satellite programs as well as their industry counterparts); (3) requests for unpublished information to NASA and industry; and (4) a mail survey designed to acquire specific mechanism experience. The information obtained has been organized into two volumes. Volume 1 provides a summary of the lessons learned, the results of a needs analysis, responses to the mail survey, a listing of experts, a description of some available facilities and a compilation of references. Volume 2 contains a compilation of the literature review synopsis.


corpus were kept at room temperature for 24 hours before culture. After culture, the remainder of the biopsy specimen was crushed on to a glass slide, air dried, and Gram stained. Antral biopsy specimens cultured within three hours produced similar culture positive rates when transported in either complex medium (56%) or saline (50%). As expected, there was a higher bacterial yield from antral compared with corpus specimens as H pyloni is found predominantly in the former. However, the corpus culture positive rate was particularly low when samples were initially kept in saline for 24 hours (28%) (table). Culture rates were compared with findings obtained following Gram staining. At three hours, slightly more of the antral biopsy specimens were culture positive than Gram stain positive but at 24 hours, the reverse was true. Abnormal colony morphology was not seen when specimens were cultured within three hours irrespective of the transport medium. After 24 hours, however, 26% (seven of 27) of isolates transported in complex transport medium demonstrated atypical growth, compared with 85% (17 of 20) of those in saline. Veenendaal et al excluded all patients who had taken antibiotics, omeprazole, or bismuth containing drugs during the three months prior to the study. However, most of our patients (78%) were taking either H2receptor antagonists or proton pump inhibitors. This perhaps is the cause of the low recovery rates from biopsy specimens transported over 24 hours. Our investigations show that culture positive rates are similar when biopsy specimens are transported in either saline or complex transport medium provided they are cultured within three hours. In contrast, however, there is a marked reduction in bacterial viability when samples are transported over 24 hours at room temperature, and more so in saline. Strains which survived generally demonstrated uncharacteristic colony morphology. Our data seem to suggest that, provided biopsy specimens can be rapidly transported for culture, the medium used is irrelevant. However, not all hospitals have culture facilities. In such cases delays in biopsy transport are inevitable. With the increased use of proton pump inhibitors, which suppress but do not eradicate H pylon, the viable bacterial load may well be low. To produce the best bacterial yields, we conclude that where delays in culture cannot be avoided, a complex transport medium is required. D MORTON KD BARDHAN Department of Gastroenterology, Rotherham District General Hospital, Rotherham, South Yorkshire


An interesting alternative for today's high efficiency variable speed drive is the Permanent Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor (PMa-SynRM) drive. Generally, the reluctance torque of this motor is significant compared to the permanent magnet torque. This advantage of increased reluctance torque lends itself well to less use of expensive permanent magnet materials. Therefore, this solution will be cheaper than similar permanent magnet synchronous motor and also holds promise for an extended flux weakening operation. Due to its synchronous operation, speed sensorless control is possible along with higher power factor and better efficiency compared to induction motors. This paper implements vector control strategy for speed control of PMa-SynRM that is applied to a direct drive washing machine. It focuses on the sensorless speed control of the PMa-SynRM. Sliding mode observer technique is used to take advantage of the lower costs as well as increased system reliability which otherwise is not possible using the delicate speed or position sensors. The only requirements of the observer-based speed control system are use of digital signal processor, specialized and optimized to perform complex mathematical calculations. The feasibility and effectiveness of the control techniques are verified experimentally employing Texas Instruments TMS320F2812 eZDSP controller board and the overall PMa-SynRM drive system.


In this paper, wavelet basis functions are investigated for their suitability for processing and analysing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. First, wavelet theory is introduced and explained by means of 1d and 2d examples (Sections 1.1 – 1.3). General thresholding techniques, which serve as regularization concepts for wavelet based models, are presented in Section 1.4. Regularization of DTI data can be performed at two stages, either immediately after acquisition (Wirestam et al., 2006) or after tensor estimation. The latter stage of denoising is outlined in Section 6 together with the incorporation of the positive definiteness constraint using log-Cholesky parametrization. In Section 3, the procedure is examined in a simulation study and compared to standard processing and the space-varying coefficient model (SVCM) based on B-splines (Heim et al., 2007). In addition, a real data example is presented and discussed. Finally, an approach is proposed how a space-varying coefficient model could fairly be adapted to wavelet basis functions. The theoretical parts are based on books of Gençay et al. (2002, Chap. 1, 4-6), Härdle et al. (1998), Ogden (1997) and Jansen (2001) if not stated otherwise. For an introduction to diffusion tensor imaging refer to Heim et al. (2007, Chap. 2).


One in six couples experience difficulties in conceiving. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have dramatically improved the clinical and personal outcome for many of these couples. However, it is only now, after these technologies have been in use in clinical practice for a quarter of a century, that the medium- to long-term safety of these interventions is being called into question. Studies comparing the wellbeing of children conceived using ART have been relatively small, resulting in a wide discrepancy in outcomes. There is a view that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority should seek to change the law regarding confidentiality to allow the short- and long-term health of these children to be monitored. This article reviews the current research on perinatal and early childhood outcomes for children conceived using ART.